Daily Archives: December 1, 2020

🎮 Video Games 🎮, Other Games

New Switch Case 🏝️🍃

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Last week before leaving for Sebastian I got a new Switch case:

I got it for a couple of reasons: for one, it was on sale. But most importantly, I wanted a case with a stand, to play on my desk. This has turned out to work amazingly well:

I spilled the wine after taking this photo. 🙃

So much so, that I added a pro controller to my Christmas wish list to use with this little setup. It’s not the same one as we got my sis in law for Christmas but it’s AC themed too and matches my case much better. So if I don’t get it for Christmas I’ll definitely buy it eventually (next year):

I mean, if it’s still around. I know that with Christmas, it may sell out completely, but I’m not going to be stupid and buy it now.

Even though I spent so much today, and my January and February allowances will all go to cover it… I am so relieved, I was able to buy nice things for everyone. I hope everything arrives in time. I feel less stressed, I think that this, more than my bills, was a heavy weight on my heart. Now that it’s done, I can give my all to working towards the bills. ✊

Also… for all my sadness and grumbling about… stuff, I am so sorry that the Thanksgiving visit ended so fast. I miss my family, no matter what. I want us all to be together. At least my mom and sis in law are coming once in December.

Before we left last Saturday, we played Jack Five, and then Trivia Murder Party on the TV.

Pan was so tired from all the activity around her:

I won one of the games (but just barely).

What I really need is to make a little spare time, for all of us to play Animal Crossing as a family. But on a regular basis, Christopher’s jobs barely leave him enough time for us to have dinner together.

I can’t wait until we can have afternoons together again… laying on the couch together, having a snack and not just dinner, calmly discussing our day, watching him relax afterwards while I do the evening housework. Well… maybe someday.

🐿️ My Life 🐿️, Holidays

Our Elves Are Here! 🎄

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Our elves have shown up! I was afraid they wouldn’t, with the pandemic and all… but maybe all the early Christmas spirit I spread around the house confused them and caused them to leave sooner than normal, and so, COVID delays didn’t get to them. I gave them each a piece of chocolate to enjoy during the night.

They weren’t doing anything special this morning, just chilling and looking at the tree, as if waiting for it to be turned on. I was so happy to see them. They’re truly like old friends. Buddy has been visiting us since December 2017, joined by Sarah in 2019. I named Buddy after Buddy from the movie Elf, of course. It’s probably the most picked elf name there is, but it’s hard to resist such a namesake.

Elf, along with It’s a Wonderful Life, is one of the few Christmas (or Christmas-adjacent) movies that I have to watch every year, absolutely, without fail, and even though it is such a goofy movie I always cry at the part where Santa’s sleigh finally gains power and flies over everyone’s heads. I watch the whole movie for that single emotional moment more than any other reason. But of course, I love the whole movie. Buddy as a character is just so pure and sincere:

I didn’t come up with Sarah’s name. One time, Santa replied to one of my letters, and mentioned a naughty elf named Sarah. Eventually, Sarah came to join us (she’s Buddy’s girlfriend.)

I thought I might share a compilation of their escapades over the past few years. I will say our elves sometimes show questionable behavior:

Er, sometimes very questionable.

Can’t forget the best thing Buddy has ever done, though. He plotted with my other toys to do this. It was amazing, I’ll never forget coming down the stairs in the morning to this:

Here’s a few more pics. I have more, but the ones I’ve shared are the best ones.

I’m really looking forward to whatever they will get up to this year. My friend Nate has a Buddy of his own, but instead of getting high on cinnamon, his elf leaves him presents. What! I’m kinda jealous… 😩

🐿️ My Life 🐿️

Things Are Stressful, But I Can Do It!

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Last night I slept much better. I did end up having a coffee yesterday anyway. After how I slept the night prior, I just could not make it through the day without one. But I am going back to a single can of coffee a day. Thankfully, in spite of having some, last night was not a repeat of the constant waking up for hours. I slept really well.

Christopher has been so sweet, and so solicitous; I think that made a huge difference in my mood and stress levels for the evening. I’m also making a big effort to talk less, and complain less about things that aren’t worth whining about, though it’s not like I’ve felt much like whining about anything the past twenty four hours.

I also made a list of everything that is stressing me out right now, in order of urgency, and yesterday tackled the first thing and part of the second (the overdue ODU design, which I hope to get close to finishing today.) Today I took care of even more –I remembered I had my Amazon card, and with that, I was able to buy almost all of the family’s presents, since I can defer that payment, just a little.

With that done, finishing my ODU designs, along with my allowance, will give me just barely enough money to cover my bills for December. Just having all my stress sources laid out helps. It’s a stressful month, as ever, but I can do it.

As soon as some of my most urgent stuff is finished commission-wise, I’ll open a few more slots. Right now, I’ve taken enough that I want to avoid taking more as much as possible until I finish and post a few more pieces. I’ve done decently well at not overwhelming myself too much, and would like to keep it that way, as well as out of respect to all commissioners who are waiting so patiently.

Finally –you may have noticed that this year, I didn’t post an Amazon wishlist anywhere. I have one, and I meant to have it always displayed on my blog, but I decided to wait until after Christmas. It’s because this year, I don’t feel right asking for or expecting anything for Christmas: I don’t have time to send any cards and I don’t have money to send anyone presents. Likewise, I do not have enough free time to make art presents for anyone. I am so sorry. As you may know from previous years it is something I really like to do.

I am so tired and stressed, and I have to cover a lot of bills that Christopher used to cover for me, which was very unfair to him, and he continued to do for years. I have to take care of them myself or let hosting and domain names lapse. And even though he seemed to hint at the other day that he would very reluctantly cover them if he absolutely had to, that would feel like such a defeat to me, and such an embarrassment. I can’t continue to let someone else deal with the consequences of my poor money management habits. I don’t want to! But I’m not going to let my stuff lapse. I can do this! I just want everyone to know that if you send me a card or buy me a gift I simply cannot return the favor this year. That makes me very sad, and I am deeply sorry for any disappointment.

I’ll have new art posted this week. Thank you to all who are waiting so patiently.