home for the holiday (plus a winter solstice service report)

I staffed the rental office from about 9:45am to 2:15pm (so, got in a bit early, left a bit late). It was very slow, though I did retrieve a lost passport for a tenant and get it mailed off with the shipping label they bought and emailed to me. After I closed the office, I bought gas, tidied my apartment, watered my houseplants, packed the car, and drove down to New Jersey. The drive went smoothly, though I wound up playing leapfrog with two separate SUVs whose drivers could not maintain a consistent speed to save their lives. I also had to stop briefly on NY 96-B between Ithaca and Owego to let four deer cross the road.

I am most of the way through doing my laundry, and should be able to get to bed by 12:30ish. Which is later than I really wanted to stay up, but eh, stuff happens.

Tomorrow my general plan is to write stuff -- fix up my Yuletide assignment, maybe write a treat or two, maybe write a couple three-sentence ficlets. We'll see how it goes. :)

I may also help my dad wrap some presents, and I need to text Cat and Susan to see about arranging visits and the annual family cookie exchanges. Beyond that, I'm playing things by ear.

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On Friday, I closed the office at 6:15pm instead of 7pm (it was totally dead; this was not a problem) and went to my congregation's annual winter solstice service. I always like to get to that when possible. It felt a little weird to being doing a "dark and cold of the year" sort of thing in the middle of a thunderstorm, but I guess that's climate change for you. *sigh*

Also we finished by singing "Deck the Halls," and our pianist for the night insisted on playing it nearly at the tempo of a dirge. It's supposed to be fast! Bright! Joyful! An invocation of life in the face of gloom, not giving in to the gloom! So that was frustrating. But my feelings on holiday carols aside, it was a good service and I'm glad I went. :)

things and stuff

A report on today thus far:

1. Vicky arrived around 12:30pm, having taken an extra day to make the drive on account of insomnia. But she's here now so all is well. :)

2. I brought my laundry upstairs to fold, but haven't folded it yet.

3. I made some progress on expanding my Yuletide fic.

4. I took a walk.

5. I arranged a visit with Susan, during which we plan to also drop by Cat's mother's house to chat and drop off gifts for Cat. (Cat is tragically in Massachusetts over the holidays.)

6. I wrote my to-do lists for the coming week.

7. I served as a sounding board for Mom's holiday meal plans.

8. I wrapped a gift for Vicky, and agreed to help wrap some gifts with Dad once he has them ready.

9. I socialized with my family like a functional adult human.

And now I am going to head downstairs to do more adult human socializing, since the brie bites should be out of the oven shortly. Mmmm, brie and pastry... :DDD