Merry Christmas (or happy holidays, if you prefer). I hope you had a decent set of holidays so far.
I started my holiday season rather badly, though it seems to be improving by now, fortunately...
The "started badly" refers to just before Christmas #1. We have three Christmases this year, the first of which was on the 22nd. That morning, my support tablet broke. Not because I dropped it, but because something fell on it. I'd brought it to the gym, where I exercise with my parents, and someone had balanced a weight somewhat precariously on a machine. I hadn't noticed it, so I set my tablet down to use the machine... and then the weight fell, smashing the screen right through the protective screen cover.
I've written, in the past, about what losing my tablet does to me. Longtime readers will recall these entries, where I talk about how much of my life and sanity balances on having it around, so I don't get lost while driving, can remember my appointments, relax with music or silly phone games, or simply check my email or update my blog on the fly. Without those things, my quality-of-life degrades significantly.
This incident was particularly upsetting to me because the last thing we need right now is another expense. House-hunting, closing costs, inspections, and even putting down an offer, are all expensive propositions. So having yet another cost added on top of this, after all the effort we'd gone through to protect this tablet, was intensely frustrating. Never mind that this tablet was supposed to be a back up tablet, just acting as the primary tablet until we could afford to buy a better one. For this one to break, and so soon... was just adding insult to injury. So I basically just kind of sat there and cried for a few minutes, which is generally the last thing I would want to do in public.
That pretty much ended the exercise session, and after considering the situation, I moved the offending weight away from the machine, where it wasn't doing any good anyway, and into a corner, where it couldn't drop on any toes or electronics. Chris and I then left to mull matters over. Or, I guess, for me to mull matters over, because his very first spoken thought was, "we need to replace that, it's very important to you and your quality of life." It took me longer to come around, because this is the fourth tablet in 6 years, which is a lot of money even if the breakages haven't been my fault most of the time.
I wasn't even close to fully recovered from that incident when Christmas part 1 ensued. My uncle and aunt were in town, having traveled from Boston, and my grandmother got a ride to my parents' place, where we all gathered together. Mostly the afternoon and evening was spent chatting. Very much a neurotypical event. I was able to hold together well enough to manage a conversation, particularly since no one gave me grief about trying to put my life back together. (I spent a large portion of the time there desperately trying to configure my replacement tablet as quickly as possible. Getting the settings right, then finding and downloading all the apps, then telling each app who I was, then setting up the location of the apps on the tablet... it all takes time. And looks very antisocial.)
Anyway, dinner ensued afterwards, which was tasty. I assume the event was a success, as everyone except me seemed reasonably happy at the end of it. I pled a brutal headache, which was quite true, and apologized for being out of sorts, and people didn't seem to mind, so that basically ended Christmas part 1.
Between Christmas part 1 and Christmas part 2 was a very long road trip. Chris and I rotate driving these days, with breaks to get out, stretch, and walk around a bit. It was still a really long trip, but at least we made it. No thanks to the winter storm that followed us all the way to the outskirts of our destination. That was the most interesting thing about the trip, though, thankfully.
Christmas part 2 was just yesterday, with Chris' immediate family. Both of his brothers were in attendance, and while it wasn't nearly as organized as my family tends to be, it was no less cheerful for that. Chris' mother has made lots of efforts to make me comfortable, which is very thoughtful of her considering the strain of the travel and the loss of my tablet. I'm currently hiding in the bedroom set aside for us, which has three of those silly Himalayan salt lamps that are supposed to clean the air, plus an actual machine that cleans the air. The room itself is kept quite warm, too, which is a kindness as the rest of house is almost invariably freezing.
The usual outpouring of presents ensued, which included generous portions of candy, cookies, and snacks. I'm trying very hard not to eat myself into another 10 pounds of fat on my thighs, but it's really difficult. And of course there's been plenty of food, pretty much all of it delicious. I got to walk people through how to make some modular origami stars, as well, which resulted in some pretty decorations.
I started my holiday season rather badly, though it seems to be improving by now, fortunately...
The "started badly" refers to just before Christmas #1. We have three Christmases this year, the first of which was on the 22nd. That morning, my support tablet broke. Not because I dropped it, but because something fell on it. I'd brought it to the gym, where I exercise with my parents, and someone had balanced a weight somewhat precariously on a machine. I hadn't noticed it, so I set my tablet down to use the machine... and then the weight fell, smashing the screen right through the protective screen cover.
I've written, in the past, about what losing my tablet does to me. Longtime readers will recall these entries, where I talk about how much of my life and sanity balances on having it around, so I don't get lost while driving, can remember my appointments, relax with music or silly phone games, or simply check my email or update my blog on the fly. Without those things, my quality-of-life degrades significantly.
This incident was particularly upsetting to me because the last thing we need right now is another expense. House-hunting, closing costs, inspections, and even putting down an offer, are all expensive propositions. So having yet another cost added on top of this, after all the effort we'd gone through to protect this tablet, was intensely frustrating. Never mind that this tablet was supposed to be a back up tablet, just acting as the primary tablet until we could afford to buy a better one. For this one to break, and so soon... was just adding insult to injury. So I basically just kind of sat there and cried for a few minutes, which is generally the last thing I would want to do in public.
That pretty much ended the exercise session, and after considering the situation, I moved the offending weight away from the machine, where it wasn't doing any good anyway, and into a corner, where it couldn't drop on any toes or electronics. Chris and I then left to mull matters over. Or, I guess, for me to mull matters over, because his very first spoken thought was, "we need to replace that, it's very important to you and your quality of life." It took me longer to come around, because this is the fourth tablet in 6 years, which is a lot of money even if the breakages haven't been my fault most of the time.
I wasn't even close to fully recovered from that incident when Christmas part 1 ensued. My uncle and aunt were in town, having traveled from Boston, and my grandmother got a ride to my parents' place, where we all gathered together. Mostly the afternoon and evening was spent chatting. Very much a neurotypical event. I was able to hold together well enough to manage a conversation, particularly since no one gave me grief about trying to put my life back together. (I spent a large portion of the time there desperately trying to configure my replacement tablet as quickly as possible. Getting the settings right, then finding and downloading all the apps, then telling each app who I was, then setting up the location of the apps on the tablet... it all takes time. And looks very antisocial.)
Anyway, dinner ensued afterwards, which was tasty. I assume the event was a success, as everyone except me seemed reasonably happy at the end of it. I pled a brutal headache, which was quite true, and apologized for being out of sorts, and people didn't seem to mind, so that basically ended Christmas part 1.
Between Christmas part 1 and Christmas part 2 was a very long road trip. Chris and I rotate driving these days, with breaks to get out, stretch, and walk around a bit. It was still a really long trip, but at least we made it. No thanks to the winter storm that followed us all the way to the outskirts of our destination. That was the most interesting thing about the trip, though, thankfully.
Christmas part 2 was just yesterday, with Chris' immediate family. Both of his brothers were in attendance, and while it wasn't nearly as organized as my family tends to be, it was no less cheerful for that. Chris' mother has made lots of efforts to make me comfortable, which is very thoughtful of her considering the strain of the travel and the loss of my tablet. I'm currently hiding in the bedroom set aside for us, which has three of those silly Himalayan salt lamps that are supposed to clean the air, plus an actual machine that cleans the air. The room itself is kept quite warm, too, which is a kindness as the rest of house is almost invariably freezing.
The usual outpouring of presents ensued, which included generous portions of candy, cookies, and snacks. I'm trying very hard not to eat myself into another 10 pounds of fat on my thighs, but it's really difficult. And of course there's been plenty of food, pretty much all of it delicious. I got to walk people through how to make some modular origami stars, as well, which resulted in some pretty decorations.
Christmas part 3 is an extended family gathering for Chris' side of the family, and should ensue in a few days. There are also plans to see the new Star Wars movie, and of course the drive home near New Year's. Should be interesting.
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