The word of the week is longevity.
Dec 22 – Longer Days
Summer’s coming.
That is to say, the days
are now getting longer and soon Spring will be here and we will see warm
weather once again. I found the dark days a little hard to take on occasion,
but I haven't had to resort to any light treatment or other means to pick up my
mood; having a solid day job really helps. The weekly routine sets a nice
rhythm to one's life, at least that I have found so far.
With those longer days,
one has to do something.
I intend to be productive
this spring, in more ways than one. Finding time… No, scratch that: making time
is going to be the order of the day. Relaxation will become a privilege this
coming year, even a reward, given to myself when I have the luxury of knowing
I've completed one or more of the tasks I've set my mind to for the near
future. Working smarter as well is harder on my own projects while retaining
the luxury of a well-paying full-time day job( which is also a privilege )will be the backbone of the coming year,
where productivity is secondary to enjoyment and lazy procrastination will
become something completely unknown.
Who knows? Maybe my blog
entries will even get shorter, though there's no guarantee of that.
Dec 23 – Evangeline Lily is what?
Whoa, I didn’t see this
coming..
Who knew that Evangeline
Lily is a writer first and an actor
second?
Not me, that’s for
certain. Fascinating, all the same: to think that someone so well-known, lovely
to look at, skilled in the ways of Hollywood and a Canadian to boot, is most
happy when writing.
Yep. That sent a chill up
my spine right there.
The article over at
Buzzfeed.com goes into some interesting detail about how Ms. Lily got into the
world of acting, of how things seemed to just fall into place for her numerous
times to get her to where she is now.
Funny thing is, she’d
rather be writing than in front of the camera, or enjoying fame’s fickle
attention. Mind you, sometimes things work out, as was the case when Peter
Jackson offered her a role in The Hobbit,
which coincidentally is one of her favourite books( mine too! )… and she accepted. Again: things working out for her.
Here’s what she had to say about writing:
“There are so many reasons why, for me, writing is superior to acting,” she says. “One of them is anonymity. Writers can live relatively normal lives. Most [working] actors can’t. Writers can work from home and be near their family most of the time. Actors usually can’t. Writers expend a lot of intellectual energy, but not so much emotional energy. And I have intellectual energy coming out of my yin-yang, but emotional energy — I am so lazy. I just don’t have a lot of emotional energy to give. I don’t like drama in my life, and I don’t like having to pretend [to have drama].”
I’ll admit, I never
watched Lost past the first season. Heck, the only reason I watched the show in
the first place was because of Ms. Lily: there was something about her that
appealed to me, on several levels… and now I know why.
Writers: they know their
own, just like g33ks… and Ms. Lily is both. Huzzah for us!
Dec 24 - Relax, it's Christmas Eve
I can't recall ever having
more relaxed day at work than I did today.
There was simply nothing
stressful going on.
A few phone calls came in,
a fair amount of paperwork was done but overall, the mood in the office( I feel weird saying that, even now that I
work in one ) was one of relaxed merriment. Quite a few people had taken
vacation days today to coincide with having Christmas and Boxing Day off,
meaning they had a five day weekend without loss of pay - quite a sweet deal
overall, I think.
It was really lovely to be
able to just get work done without any sort of pressured feeling for once. I
did what I had to do without being lazy, talk to some coworkers here and there,
enjoying my brakes and my lunch and generally just watched the day get about
its business without hurry.
 |
| My workspace today. Not seen: Christmas music, or stress. |
Some of us were allowed to
leave work a little early. Finding myself among this select group, I made good
use of it by heading down to cook Street village while the sun was still up for
a brief time and seating myself on the patio to simply enjoy the decent weather.
While it was cold, the sun was out and shining brightly, so I settled back with
a pot of tea for about an hour until the not-so-warm fiery orb vanished behind
a row of houses and the chill came back full force.
My sister and I spent
Christmas Eve relaxed in our apartment, watching a few Christmas specials
before we started in on Love Actually…
But didn't end up finishing it as we both started to nod off. I'm afraid it was
an early turn-in for myself and her, so neither of us saw if Santa drop by.
Good thing though: I
forgot to leave out any cookies or milk!
Dec 25 – Family Time
Merry Christmas!
December 25th is always
been a day I've( almost always )been able to count on having off, which has at
times been a luxurious feeling. While I don’t mind working holidays more often
than not, Christmas is the one day of the year( not even counting my birthday
)that I just want to do zilch.
Understandably, it's also most
often been a busy day with family obligations.
Today was no exception,
though it was a much smaller scale than what I was a kid. My Family and I went
to the Empress Hotel for brunch, all dressed up and anticipating a lovely time
- we weren't disappointed. I was surprised that the room was not as crowded as
I thought it might have been, given the nature of the holiday but perhaps the
full-on Christmas Dinner was more booked up - I wouldn't know, as we weren't
enamored of the exorbitant price or likely to need even half of the foods
listed on the large dinner menu list. All the same, we enjoyed our time
together in the luxurious surroundings, with great food( no turkey though:
dinner only ):
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| I really do love this place, all the more because I don't visit often. |
After brunch, we toured
the display of Christmas trees that the Empress puts on every year. Dozens of
trees lined the major hallways of the hotel and I took a fair number of photos,
each tree impressive and unique in their own right. My favourite was one tucked
away in a corner of a lower hall, whose ornaments were exquisitely detailed;
have a look:
 |
| Stunning! |
Family time continued at
my parent’s place, where we watched a lovely film that I’ve never heard of
before entitled Midnight In Paris. It’s about a writer visiting modern Paris
who inexplicably finds she can travel back in time, meeting notable figures from
the past who had me Paris their home for a time. I thoroughly enjoyed it and
hope to watch it again soon; it was a nice end to the day.
Dec 26 - Boxing Day Bah
Consumerism didn't affect me
this year, not one little bit.
Bombarded with the usual
Boxing Day ads on all sides, I found my attention wandering to other things, to
my surprise. Browsing through the ads idly, I was astonished to discover that
when I've gone through every one of them as is my habit this time of year,
there was not a single thing I was remotely interested in purchasing, electronic
or otherwise. That's how change from last few years really, which have borne witness
to my growing disinterest in Boxing Day in general as I've noted in this blog for the last few years.
That realization startled
me a bit, as upon further examination in terms of wants and needs there's
nothing I really wanted and definitely nothing I really needed. I have a new
phone, a nice TV, a computer that works just fine along with a nice light laptop
suited for writing… and that’s about all I use. I don't really game any more, so
there were no Xbox or Playstation games I was interested in nor was I looking
to pick up any PC games for that matter.
 |
| If I had minions, I'd send them out today instead of me... |
I certainly didn't need to
anything for the household; as I've said in previous posts, a reduction of
material goods and possessions has been going on for some years now, whittling
things down to where the only purchases necessary are replacements for items
that have worn out. I'm rather pleased that I have no need of any outdoor gear
for gardening or lawn care or house maintenance, nor tools for crafty hobbies I
don't have or any other sundry thousand things that people tend to pick up for
themselves or their family this time of year.
It's rather liberating to
simply dump all of the ads into the recycling and be done with them. I may do
the very same thing next year and the year after that, enjoying the feeling of
not having spent money unnecessarily and most certainly enjoying not getting up
at 5 AM to line up for a sale.
Dec 27 - Reflection
How’s everyone been doing
this year?
One thing about writing a
blog is that it’s rather one-sided; you hear about me, but I don’t( for the
most part )hear back from you folks following along, week to week.
Take a moment and leave a
Comment below – it’s easy and I’d love to hear from you.
While I do get an idea
from my visitor stats as to how many people visit each post( and Facebook tells
me who links in from the Beginnings group )it's still a one-sided equation.
 |
| I have a lot of friends, but I don't keep up with enough of them. |
Having been told several
times that I observe rather than interact with folks more often than not, I'm
looking to reverse the trend and train the habit into myself of asking about
others first. While that may sound like a seasonal affectation, I'm quite
honest when I say that it's something I'd like to change about myself for the
better. I've always been extremely interested in everyone around me, even when
I don't express it, but if it's not obvious to others, then I'm failing at the
task.
Leave me a Comment, please
- it'll help me to know you better, even a little.
Dec 28 - Wearing Thin
I'm a little tired.
Being the holiday season,
there has been a lot of opportunity to pick up shifts at both of my jobs and
I've made the most of it this month. Except for Christmas and two other days, I
worked every day this month and I really felt that by the end of this weekend.
Which is not a bad thing, as I'm not exhausted, just feeling the effect of
working every day without a major break.
 |
| Trucks get tired too... |
The Staples job was
actually rather pleasant these last three days, including Boxing Day. With only
one or two exceptions, almost everyone I’ve dealt with was in a great mood this
year and that's really made the back-to-back shifts easier to deal with. Despite
being somewhat out of sync( and not
caring much about that fact )with the details of the job at Staples, it's
been a nice month at my second job, with so little stress that I can hardly
believe that I'm working at the same place. Given that my position is one of my
choosing, in that I could leave at any time, the shoe is on the other foot. A actually
feel appreciated as I know the management knows I don't have to be there to
help as an experienced employee; I could just have left them hanging this
holiday season.
All the same, the feeling
that I have to leave Staples sooner rather than later has been growing in me
and depending on how my benefits workout, I may just end up leaving regardless.
It would be nice to have my uninterrupted weekends back to relax and get some
work done on my creative projects. I could even take a day trip somewhere,
which I haven't done in… well, ever.
We’ll see what the new
year brings.
Things should settle down from this point on, with regular 9-5 weekdays interspersed with the occasional weekend Staples shift. Apart from those two mainstays, it's the usual juggling act of social life and creative output... always a challenge!
