It's that time of year again, where if I have nothing especially pressing to do, I will seriously spend the better part of two days asleep, rather than shuffle around contemplating my life. I did manage to get up once, when I rolled over and saw all three rats cantilevered out over the front of their cage, stepping on each other and nose-staring at me, sincerely concerned over whether I was well enough to come re-fill their food bowl.

Being alone during the holidays is rather easier in Boston than it was in Arizona. Out there, there was pretty much nothing to do but sit at home and stare at a wall, or whatever dreck was on TV. Here, I can decide to go out for dinner and a movie -- everything's open, on account of 400,000 Jewish people had the same bright idea I did, and another 400,000 immigrants from non-Christian parts of the world see no reason to close up shop. (In some sort of karmic compensation scheme, half of the city shuts down for the 4th of July instead.) And of course the internet is always open.

I'm the only person I know who routinely loses weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a combination of losing my appetite under stress, and the fact that I walk long distances when I can't think of anything else to do. The city is lighting the Christmas tree out on the Common on Thursday, and I'm seriously contemplating hoofing down there from here, just because it'll kill an additional two hours of my evening. I can only bother the rats so much before they huddle in their nest box in an undifferentiated wad of black-and-white fur and ignore me.

In order to spare the lot of you my continual bitching and moaning, December will generally be taken up with an advent calendar of shiny holiday media things I've found online. I might post other stuff in addition; I'll try not to whine. A few years ago, I was left entirely alone in the apartment over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and I resorted to decorating the rat cage, up to and including wrapping dates and other treats in tissue and letting them gnaw their way into their own presents. The rodents were happy, but the rodents are happy when I give them stale bread ends, so it's not like I was meeting a particularly high standard there.

The knitting proceeds apace. I've had a few inquiries about where to send the yarn; if anyone else wants to know, all the information is in this here post. I bought a few skeins myself, so my little guys are getting some new hammocks, too. Cheap acrylic has a tendency to wear all the ridges off my left thumb and forefinger, but who needs fingerprints, anyway?

There are a bunch of things in the queue that I'm going to try to finish since I'm awake anyway.

Comments

  1. I look forward to the advent calendar. Will one of the days be a picture of the decorated rat cage?

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    Replies
    1. That depends on whether I decorate it. I did it that year mostly because we still had masses of scrap wrapping and tissue paper, and I was left all by my lonesome with several rats, a lot of liquor, and the Netflix subscription. I did eventually run out of A Bit of Fry & Laure.

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