Its time for the perinial Ordeal of the Dead Bird! Yay!

Ah yes.  It's that time of year again.  The Holiday Season.

Bah.

Humbug.

Piffle and Balderdash and Rubbish!

If you can't tell from the above, this isn't exactly my favorite time of the year.  In fact, with the exception of Hallmark's favorite - Valentine's Day - I can't think of any holidays that I loath quite so much as Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Now don't get me wrong.  As a small child, I loved Christmas.  The lights, the brightly wrapped presents, the tree, and all the decorations and trimmings - they were Important to me in a way that such superficial nonsense can only be Important to the very young, or the very ignorant.

Something to keep in mind though, is that when I was a small child, stores didn't start putting up Christmas decorations, or playing incessant Christmas music, until December 1st or later.  The family didn't even start pulling down the Christmas tree and decorations until at least a couple of days after Thanksgiving.

It certainly wasn't already on prominent display in the stores before Halloween was even finished, and the left over candy had gone on sale.  There were Turkeys everywhere for the entire month of November, to remind us that Thanksgiving was at the end of the month - but you didn't see a fat guy in a poorly tailored red suit, with ZZTop-esqe beard until after December had officially begun.

Now as an adult, I've had to admit that even as a child, I dreaded Thanksgiving.  My grandmother, The Bat, always made that particular holiday more of a trial by fire than a relaxing family get-together.  I've ranted about it at length in prior posts.

Thankfully, The Bat is not a concern this year, as she has rather conveniently absented herself from my life again since mid-March.  The peace of not having to deal with her has been truly blessed.

I can't say that I enjoy the holiday to any greater extent though.  Mostly because I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of years studying holiday origins for some of the more uniquely American holidays that I grew up celebrating as a matter of course.

Thanksgiving has its roots in the late 16th and early 17 century, while the upper North Eastern US was still budding colonies of northern European origin.  The colonials were almost exclusively Christians of some stripe (there weren't as many stripes to that particular zebra back then - only Catholic and Protestant, not 17 gazilllion protestant offshoots of various names.) 


I haven't been big on most of the Abrahamic holidays - or the various enforced, Commercialized, Abrahamic Christian versions fed up to Americans  - for a long time.   Frankly, I'm a huge proponent of the concept that Freedom Of Religion - also means (or at least implies) Freedom FROM Religion.

Thanksgiving is an inherently American Christian holiday.  While I'm very much an American by birth and blood, I'm not a Christian and haven't been since I was old enough and educated enough to actually make a conscious Choice rather than simply going with what I'd been told I should  believe, growing up. This being such an inherently Christian holiday, what incentive do I have to even Acknowledge it, much less Celebrate it? 

Oh wait - I Don't. 

I did my harvest celebrating at Samhain (that's Halloween for all you conventional Christian types) and Yule won't happen until the Winter Solstice - and bears little resemblance to Christmas.  As far as I'm concerned, Thanksgiving is simply another of those stupid days when I can't get anything done outside the house, because the rest of you lot wanted an excuse to take a couple extra days off.

It's the most wonderful time... eh, who am I kidding?

That's right boys and girls, it's that time of the year again.  It's the holiday season, the end of the year and nearly time to turn the calendars to a new number.  It's currently the day after Christmas (Yule, technically was the Friday prior - which is what I personally celebrate.)  And yes, it's time for that annual review of how things have gone, what I hope to change in the coming 12 months, etc ad nauseum that most folks refer to as New Year's Resolutions.

Personally, the only resolution I've ever managed to keep with any sort of strength or staying power was the resolution that I made several years ago not to make any more New Year's Resolutions.  I think I'll continue to make that one last - I'm not Making any Resolutions.

So, what about the year in review?  Let's face it, 2012 SUCKED.  It stank with the rankness of Limburger paired with old gym socks and toxic diapers from a toddler.  I've spent the better portion of 2012 sick as a dog, with my Lupus flaring to the point that I've frequently wished I could simply go to sleep and not wake up again.  This year has given me fresh insight into why my mother spent the last 3 to 5 years of her life praying daily for death to come take her, so that she could quit being in constant pain.  While things have nominally improved since my appointment with the Rheumatologist during the beginning of this  month, they are no where near the point that they should be, and don't look likely to improve sufficiently for me to declare myself "well" again any time in the near future.

This past 12 months has seen some major stressers happen in my life.  I lost the family home to property tax crap.  Ah property taxes - that legal extortion from the government which says "Yes, we know you've already bought and paid for this, and that you own it - but you'll pay us each year for the privilege of Using what you own or we'll steal it from you!"  And so the nightmare began on finding a new place to live, which culminated in me moving in with my boyfriend and his two room mates. 

Yeah... about Room mates... there's a Reason that I much prefer to live Alone when I can.  Frankly, I've come to the conclusion that much of the continued stress which caused my major flare back in late August/ early September was due to the stress of putting up with those room mates.  Don't get me wrong.  She's nice enough, and even tolerable a good 85% of the time (at least before she quit work due to maternity leave, which she never went back to prior to them moving.)  Her other half, whom I still refer to as TweedleDum the greatest part of the time, was a different story.  I'm not going to go into it further than that, because I don't want my blood pressure spiking and going through the roof - let's simply suffice it to say that he was a PITA, and not of the pleasant variety.  Of course, them moving out to leave state and live with her family hasn't really put a Stop to the stress that they were part of.  She owned the house that J and I still live in - only it's been in foreclosure for the majority of the time I've known them - and the foreclosure finalized within days of her and her S.O. moving. 

Which means...........

That's right, I'm back in house hunting mode, and have been since the beginning of this month.  Currently it looks like J and I will have until about this time next month to find a place, get utilities set up, and get moved.  Assuming Fannie Mae (the current owner of the property, since they bought it back at the foreclosure auction) doesn't decide to kick us out right after New Year.

So twice in 6 months I find myself effectively homeless and wondering where I'm going to find a roof to keep over my head.  We aren't completely out of options just yet, but that point is rapidly approaching, and I'd rather not find myself living out of my car.  (Yeah, the one truly Good thing that happened this year - I managed to get my driver's license reinstated and get a car.  Which means that the fiasco of having dealt with Matthew the Loser is finally completely over and done with.)

A few other "good" things have happened this year.  After all, even the worst  year generally has Something good to be remembered.  On that side of the scale is my car, getting my license back, being able to go to one of the major SCA events of this kingdom and spend time with my Thunder Family, and a couple of specific friends who have helped maintain my sometimes tenuous grip on sanity. 

That's something for the rest of you to stop and contemplate:  despite everything I've been through in my life, I still smile - not because I'm strong, but because I'm utterly batshit crazy.  That should scare you.

Ah well, in only a few days, the calendar will change to a new set of months, and we'll see what sort of lemonaid I end up making with next year's batch of problems.