seasonal fatigue
December 22, 2016

I've pretty much finished with Christmas. All the holiday stuff I do, I've done already, and Christmas is still 3 days away. That's been a problem for me for years; I can only take a Christmas season of three weeks or so. And because I have to start so early to get the baking done and the cards done (mailing deadlines being what they are), I'm all tapped out by about the 15th.

And Spouse is having a pretty grinchy year, this year--I don't know why, but he is just not game for anything Christmassy at all. He isn't into shopping, or decorating, and I even had to push him to think about Christmas dinner. When he did finally decide what he wanted to do, he picked Char Siu--Cantonese Barbecued Pork!! Not exactly a traditional Christmas feast.

I really am concerned, even though I feel like I shouldn't say anything because I prefer not to do a lot of celebrating and gift-giving myself. But just because it is like me, doesn't mean it's like him. I hope he isn't having a depressive episode, but the early signs are pointing that way.

Last weekend was supposed to be a lot more snowy than it was, so we purposely planned to have a "hunker in the bunker" weekend. Which is a great idea--just stay home and do stuff around the house. Except A) we didn't get anywhere near as much snow as had been forecast, and B) he spent pretty much the whole weekend lying in bed.

Don't get me wrong. It snowed a pretty fair amount, and I did my share of napping too. But on Friday after work, I did all the grocery shopping, came home and made a big pot of homemade vegetable soup and a pan of fresh, hot cornbread, AND did the first round of shoveling sidewalks and driveway, and cleared off/pulled up my car so he could pull in behind & get his car off of the street. (Effing snow emergencies are nothing but an excuse to give out tickets.) On Saturday, I did all the laundry (please to remember, this included at least a dozen trips up and down the stairs--it's work.). On Sunday, I vacuumed, swept, dusted, scrubbed and did dishes. He...well, he did some cooking on Sunday. Made a half-assed breakfast, and a pot of chop-suey for dinner. He cleaned off the cars and shoveled once, after all the snow had stopped. And, as I mentioned, stayed in bed a lot.

And he stayed home Monday, as well. He fed me some bull about not being able to start his car (we had progressed from snow to bitter cold by Monday morning), but I am not really buying that. Not the way he takes care of cars. And even if he needed to jump it, it wouldn't have taken two and a half hours on the charger to get it back up and running, as he wants me to believe. (I have considerable knowledge of cars, even though I've always found it prudent to keep it to myself)

So anyway. Short week this week for me, as I have Friday (and Monday!) off for the holiday. Not as short as it is for some, though--one of my team members is off for two weeks, and another only worked TWO days this week, so I have had to cover their stuff, in addition to my own rather large load. It will be interesting to see what shitty excuse for a raise I get next week--if the boss gets around to giving it out, anyway. Technically she has till the day before we actually get paid to give us the info; I wouldn't be surprised if she did wait that long. Spouse got his this week, and it was a pretty nice one--3.5%. I doubt if I'll be that lucky.