Looking Back on 2023

This has been a horrible decade for me thus far and this year proved to be the most challenging and difficult. Lots of anxiety attacks and feeling a depression darker than anything I've ever dealt with before. That said, I was able to cobble together a list of 12 good things from 2023; the best moments of each month that made this year bearable.

January: Spending time with Lucy! - Especially taking her to Night Forms on the 7th and seeing her a total of seven times all in one month!

February: FaceTime with Natalia - She introduced me to the Good Reads app and we spend two hours catching one another up and discussing our fave topic - books!

March: Marlee book is signed! - I ordered a copy of Marlee Matlin's memoir, I'll Scream Later, for $6.39 and when it arrived I was blown away to see that it was a signed copy. Score!!

April: Wed nights with Emily!!! - After work I would drive down to Emily's place to hang out, just us two, and we'd watch movies together. In April we watched Long Shot, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, and the third episode of The Last of Us.

May: Seeing Autumn and Maureen!!

June: Snap Pizza with Jackson - On one of our visits Jax took an instant liking to Dan, a gregarious and fun fella who worked there. Jax always looks forward to going to Snap Pizza in the hopes that Dan will be working. The bonus was getting to MOM's across the way and mistaking a bag of garbage for the world's largest potato. Ha!!

July: Orchard House with Natalia!

August: Losing 15 pounds! - All due to limiting junk food plus loads of anxiety knowing that Henry Rollins Day was approaching.

September: Jax's gig! - I was absolutely blown away by this kid's skill. He was incredible.

October: Time with Lucy! - I was lucky enough to spend six days taking care of our favourite little lady while her mother was away on a girls' weekend. We played tons of games, did homework, crafted, talked, watched Hart to Hart (which Lucy really liked!!!) and went with Jackson up to Amy's farm to meet the toddler chickies. It was a blast!

November: Roomie Louise! - Most of this month was spent with me laid up with tooth pain at Mama Rosie's while fab family friend Louise, who was recovering from shoulder surgery, crashed on the couch. It was so nice just having her around because even in pain, she brought a new dynamic into the house and was great to be around. 

December: Lucy’s surgery was a success! - Our wee lassie needed her tonsils out and I was very nervous and worried. Thankfully everything went swimmingly and she recovered in record time!

December 2023 Books

* The Christmas Train ¹ by David Baldacci

♥ A Christmas Carol ¹ by Charles Dickens

* The Christmas Box ¹ by Richard Paul Evans - This was one of those holiday books I'd heard about but never read. In leading up to December I went to the Libby app to search for Christmas related reads that weren't crazy long. This one fit the bill and turned out to be a nice new read.

♥ Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh by Mo Willems - Mo Willems can do no wrong! His books are so fun and adorable and the Pigeon series is one of the best. I was over-the-moon when I saw that there was a Christmas book featuring this little cutie.

♥♥ Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert E. Barry - I think of all the Christmas books I've read in recent years, this one might very well be my favourite. It's all about Mr. Willowby's giant tree that turns out to be just a bit too big and they have to snip off the tip. But what to do with the top? It goes to the maid but it's too big for the space she has so she clips off the tip and this happens again and again until at the very end the little family of mice that lives in Mr. Willowby's wall has a lovely Christmas tree, just the right size for their humble home. I cannot recommend it enough!

♥ SantaLand Diaries ¹ by David Sedaris

♥ A Christmas Story ¹ by Jean Shepherd

♥ The Great Christmas Kidnaping Caper by Jean Van Leeuwen - With charming illustrations by Steven Kellogg, this was the perfect book to read while soaking in the tub. Three mice hang out at Macy's New York City in 1975 and catch the eye of Santa, who lovingly leaves little treats for them each night inside the dollhouse they call home. One day he goes missing and the mice team up to find him and bring him back to Macy's for the children of New York. Fun story and a great ending. I'm definitely hanging on to this book for future Christmases. 

♥ The Crayons' Christmas by Drew Daywalt - Lucy got me into the Crayons earlier this year and they are really fun books, this one was particularly groovy as it had little pockets with bonus stuff.

* The Christmas Shoes ¹ by Donna VanLiere - My mother had liked the TV movie version of this, mostly because of her crush on Rob Lowe, and so I checked it out from Libby. It was good, a bit heavy on the god-stuff for my liking, but in the end, it was a good story.

♥♥ Dragon's Merry Christmas by Dav Pilkey

♥ The Gingerbears' First Christmas by Nancy P. McConnell

♥ The Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John Updike - I picked this up online for super cheap and it was wonderful to read Updike's jaded take on the holidays and see the gorgeous Edward Gorey illustrations.

¹ - audiobook
² - abridged version
* - liked
♥ - loved
Any unmarked titles were, in my opinion, so-so.

POST SCRIPT:

The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis - I bought this book in March of 2021 and decided to start off December with this tale of a group of people that spend Christmas at an inn located in Scotland. I struggled to really get into this book and actually like any of the characters. I also really despise that there are no, NO chapter breaks. Infuriating. So I sat down and wrote up the cast. That always helps and I could begin to visualise things, until...about a quarter of the way in and suddenly (unless I missed a description) it was revealed that one of the characters was old enough to have had a seventeen year old that had passed away a while back. UGH!!! Now I had to god damn re-cast half the characters because I made them too young for it to make sense. Originally I pictured innkeeper Eric as Alan Cumming, Harry was played by Richard Madden, Holliday Grainger as Jessica, Ray Winstone as Ronald, Phyllis Logan as Anita, and Billy Boyd was Jon. Coming up with a new, older Harry was easy and I switched him over to Peter Mullan, who I've liked for decades. Eventually I thought Jane Seymour would make a good Jessica, but who would play Jon?? How about Peter Capaldi? Done! With the main cast complete, I was able to keep on keepin' on, but in the end, none of the characters were particularly interesting and I could care less what they got up to, so I threw in the towel about halfway through.

November 2023 Books

Significant Others ¹ by Armistead Maupin

♥ Once Upon a Time by Gloria Vanderbilt - A brilliantly written book about the early years of Ms. Vanderbilt's life, full of detail so clear you can follow along with her every step. One of the year's best reads.

* You Don't Belong Here ¹ by Elizabeth Becker - This was one of the books that Henry Rollins recommended to me and it was really good! These women were definitely inspirational and I'm glad I bought the audiobook version because I know I'll need to listen to it again.

¹ - audiobook
² - abridged version
* - liked
♥ - loved
Any unmarked titles were, in my opinion, so-so.

Bestie's Bestest Traits

What objects, symbols, words, and pictures would you use to express your favorite traits about your best friend?

sunshine

disco ball

crying from laughing emoji

Santa Bush

Andy Warhol's Rolling Stone tongue

Super Mario 3

the Picasso at Daley Plaza

red

lil' cartoon farm with chickens

Phila. Eagles logo

crown (loyalty)

lil' eraser of a brain

tree

hiker icon

Woody

Krispy Kreme donut 

black mascara

23 July 2019

Question of the Day

I'm re-watching Happy Endings, one of the bestest shows of all time, and at the end it has a Shark vs. Bear logo thing. So I texted all the people I could think of that would be into answering a pointless question, cause I'm really torn on who would win. Here are the answers.

Dave:

Me: After much consideration I kinda think that the polar bear would win. Sharks have sensitive nosies and I imagine that the shark goes in for that first bite and the polar bear would grab the shark and start clawing it's gill-area and bite it's face. But then again the shark could just CHOMP! and decapitate the polar bear. I guess it boils down to the situation but if bets were being placed, I'd go polie, primarily because they have paws with claws and fangy jaws. However, I checked and polar bears can only hold their breath for a couple minutes... So, I'm seeing it go down to the polie biting the sharks nose while clawing like mad and the shark spinning away in pain. But that Great White would definitely eff that bear up.

Ethan at work: 12/27/2023 6:13 PM • the shark could attack and bite the polar bear faster then the polar bear can react

also a shark can knock the polar bear off the ice like the killer whales do to seals

Melissa: 12/27/2023 6:28 PM • oh Great White if it can reach the Polar Bear

Bishop: Great white?

Xavier:

Jaeden:

Bella:

Kay:

Wayne:

Amy:

FINAL VOTE: 

Great White Shark: 9

Polar Bear: 2 

Christmas Cards Received in 2023