15: The Dream Sequence

I'm dumb. At least I spend a lot of time feeling that way.

Christmas 2017 in a memory now and like a lot of Christmases, one of mixed feelings. A lot of Christmas at this age is running around trying hard to please as many people as you can and coming away feeling like you weren't successful.  This is added to the stress of attempting to plan a move and really feeling clueless and helpless about it. We haven't even booked a truck successfully and we wanted to move on the 30th. (It's the 27th in case I don't post this right away.) We have hardly packed anything, feels like there's been no time what with Christmas and all... But we've had the keys since the 15th so the only thing stopping us is us.

I just don't feel good all of a sudden. And I don't know if Mel does either. Yesterday, which was a good opportunity to get ahead and pack some, we just shut down. And I could have pushed harder to avert that but I didn't have it in me.

I'll take the blame, always.

Last week was a blur... The previous weekend began with Mel feeling dizzy and us fearing a recurrence of the vertigo that had hit her badly around this time two years ago. I went in to work and brought her secret Santa gift in because I knew she had fretted over getting it and didn't want to see it wasted. On the bus a woman saw the gift, which was intriguingly presented, and struck up a conversation.

That weekend we did our Christmas shopping - the vast majority of it - at Square One, which was hectic and draining. And we watched Home Alone a whole bunch. Monday we had our ceremonial first dinner together at the new place: subs. This had a reasoning to it, as we had picked up a Subway Gift Card for Mel's dad and there is a promo where you get a free sub when you buy one... We had wanted just the gift card and tried to get it at Square One and maybe a voucher since we had just ordered our food, but they wouldn't allow it so we waited.

The week itself flew by, highlighted by a Wednesday that felt like a Friday, with the pot luck and gift exchange. I got a Boba Fett Bluetooth speaker, and the Etch-A-Sketch I bought was a huge hit - not that it was fought over, but many agreed it was a good gift. (Don, who fittingly helped uscwoth many of the vintage toys questions back in our trivia night stint, picked it.)

That day, Philip pulled me aside to offer me a yearlong contract to keep doing IA work, which I'm excited about. Then on the way home we got stuck on the train -mere minutes from Oakville - because the train in front of us had struck a car. No injuries, the car was unoccupied. We tried to take it in stride but man were we on edge by the time we finally got in the door. (Between house hunting, late hours for Mel and other stuff, it feels like we haven't been getting the 6:00 train very often lately.)

Thursday was marked by coffee with Murray as a congratulations and a floorwide Nerf war instigated by the Retail Ops team but really just fought amongst the staff. I actually did manage to get a bit of work done.

Friday might have made a good last minute shopping or packing day but we pretty much just lazed... Although some wrapping did occur. Saturday was a day trip to Kitchener to see Mel's Dad's side of the family. It wasn't a bad visit at all -less of a to-do, I felt, than the same event two years ago, maybe just because "we" (meaning Mama and Papa H) weren't hosting. We only had to drive 45 minutes and bring ourselves.

Christmas Eve we saw Poppa in the hospital andcapent the day/evening with Nonna, watching the decidedly non-festive Raiders of the Lost Ark, the only thing I could find to watch at all. The snow began to fall and fall and fall in a way in hasn't in many years on Christmas. We broke the news that we were moving, which was met with a typical Nonna angle, "Already you no come see! You say come for coff' you no come!" Oh, Nonz. Love that woman.

It was the first Christmas Eve in years I didn't spend at all with my dad, after trying to honor his Xmas Eve Chinese food tradition dating back to... 2007?  2008 maybe? But we did go over for lunch as usual on Christmas Day, after spending the morning at Mel's fam's. Some anxiety was starting to kick up about all the stuff we had to do... And it wasn't helped when we got to datds, got stuck in snow, and while I went to get a shovel some guy behind was very rude to Mel.

We Skyped with James and Amanda and Alan and Pat & Co. I felt we also somewhat shortchanged them on time. We had to rush though because of a hastily concocted plan to get to Etobicoke with mom, which involved a quick gift exchange (mostly housewares since, you know, all the moves.) They seemed to enjoy all the clothes we got them.

Etobicoke was the usual scene, long catchups in the kitchen, kids downstairs gaming... Cam was very pleased with the Raptors tickets we got him.

The snow started to fall again as we got our Uber home. I was glad Mel didn't have to drive in it.

We made it home in time to spend some time with Umc and Sherlie, which was nice, although we were quite 'zausted at the end of a long Christmas day.

It was only the next day when I snapped back to reality and realized we were intending to move less than a week later, and hadn't started packing or booked a truck. I felt like existential shit as we vegetated and watched hours and hours of Mystery Diners and Beat Bobby Flay instead of taking action... But the truth is, Christmas wrecked us bad and we needed the day.

Now it's been a few days and I have the rest of the story, but its a whole other post. Maybe two. Which is a she because I want to write it now but I am quite tired... So I'll leave off.

Keep on rockin'
  - Scotto