New Year, New Attitude?
So, yeah, you guys know my motto, "no good news, no posts", which is why I haven't posted anything since October. Short version: I haven't really stitched since September, which I think I posted my last picture (my ORTs are SHAMEFUL, but I will post them, as well as the very demeaning parade of TUSALs if you want to see them); my mental health has declined despite numerous attempts to make to better by visiting numerous professionals (which is just making it worse); my physical health is also declining (despite visiting numerous professionals who also keep making it worse); I am now truly alone because my family situation has changed (it was explained to me by the right person where I stand in the hierarchy, so I removed myself from the entire bunch, it was just easier than being a constant burden). I know that some of that is cryptic, but there is a reason for that. It's basically irrelevant. Point is, I'm still standing (for now), and I'm still here.
What I can say is that I have half of one credit card left to pay off. All the rest are done. Then, I can put my entire paycheck into savings for whatever. But even that has a caveat...my job may not be stable for much longer. Again, cryptic, but business ain't so hot right now. I need to make a decision about my future, but I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, so, for now, I'm just working on paying the last card off and then...saving, saving, saving. And, on top of that, the trailer is falling apart, but again, another problem for another day.
I did, finally, clean up my duck room so I could get inside. It had gotten so bad that I couldn't get in the door! I bought two new shelf units over a year ago, but all the new Disney purchases had just got piled on top of them (still in their boxes) in the doorway to the point where you couldn't get in the door and had started spilling out into the hallway. The stuff from my Disney trip in 2021 was still on the kitchen table (I haven't been able to look at it since I got home, let alone work on the pictures). I also had hanging shelves in the closet from a long time ago that I knew I could use. On New Years Eve, 2022, I started in and, at one point, my living room looked like this:
It got worse, but I did keep the TV clear for when Duran Duran came on:
Call me prejudice, but seriously, they were the best act all night (and one of the few who sung live and didn't lip sync or use auto-tune...I didn't know people still did that)! And how cool can you be when you pull out fuzzy coats in the pouring rain? Anyhoo, I finished on New Years Day by 6 pm (yep, I did not sleep all night. But I can now walk 360 around the room and have a middle section (if I turn sideways and suck in my gut, I am still fat afterall). Since then, I have added a ton more stuff, but I'm still getting in, so yea me (p.s. this was before I vacuumed or cleaned up the tools, so forgive).
And I have a Marvel wall with the hanging shelves (I should have been better at taking pics, there is a ton of stuff all the way to the floor). I need to get longer shelves, but it's OK for now. Cap Funkos are getting more sparse and there won't be many more Hawkeye's either. I figure Rocket will die in the next Guardians (just a guess), so I only have Bucky left of the characters I collect (for now). My Eternals (Ikaris, Druig, and Dane Whitman (they didn't release a Black Knight yet), are in my living room with the TV Marvel stuff...Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones...I'm not sure why I put them there). And so far, other than the Marvel Moments I have liked, I haven't collected any other characters (thank goodness!).
Sorry, hands in the way here, I had been up over 36+ hours! Oh, and Jamie is only in there because it's a pup-free zone and he's safe there.
As some of you remember, those bins are all my Disney trip mementos...the bag is this past trip. I bought myself a birthday cake and the cake box was too cool (and too big) for a box, so I just kept it all in the bag with the cake box.
And I didn't get that last picture out, but obviously I got out, or I wouldn't have made it to work for the past two weeks (ooh, there's a thought!). I do need to add the same hanging shelves in my bedroom (I don't know why I call it that, I still sleep on the couch), but I haven't done it yet. Some of those medical issues are keeping that from happening right now. It also kind of looks like a Funko fest, but that couldn't be further from the truth. At last check, I literally have barely over 400, which, as collectors go, ain't many. It's just, I tend to put the Funkos on top of other stuff. At the bottom of all the Funkos are tons of books and other things holding the Funkos up. They are just lighter and tend to sit on top of things better!
Our weather is also all over the place. We've had tornado warnings, ice and snow (and no, I wasn't driving and taking a picture at that point, the light was red), and back to tornados (we had bad storms last night):
I've also started a new collection, whisky! I didn't start keeping the boxes until about halfway through (and I'm kicking myself for that), but now I'm displaying them above my kitchen cabinets (forgive the trailer park look, I do live in a trailer...one day I've have a "real" house and they will be displayed properly, and yes, there is one tequila box up there, but it is Sassanach Tequila, so it's excusable, right?). I live in a dry county, which means we don't have liquor stores here. I can go a county over, but they only sell Glenfiddich or Glenlivet, usually a 12 or a 14 year (usually WAY cheaper than what I pay online, but still). It's just easier to order it online. Actually, I just ordered four more yesterday, so I should have them next week! I'm learning what I like and what I don't like (bit smoky, heavy on the peat, sherry or brandy casked). Sometimes I splurge on a more expensive one (although I can't afford, nor would I spend more than $200 on a single beverage...especially when I picture all the Disney things I can buy with that money, although I did splurge on an 18 year-old Loch Lomond for my birthday), but I'm just having fun for now. I try not to get anything under 12 years old, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm willing to try (anything but blended or American or Japanese...I do have my standards, and yes, I'm aware Sassanach is blended, and it was more about who made it rather than the taste...I used most of it in cooking). I'm thinking about branching out into Irish, but I don't even know where to begin there. My father's father always drank single malt Scotch, but he died when I was 11. It was cheap stuff and super strong, but I remember the smell of it like it was yesterday!
Oh, pups are doing OK. Bam is almost fully blind now, but he's still getting around fine (as long as I don't move anything in the main space. I have to put his treats in his mouth (because he can't find them if I drop them). But he's still a happy little guy. And Bug is, well, just Bug. They just got haircuts not long ago, so I have a fairly recent pic:
I'm well over a year straight on Duolingo (and BBC) with my Scots Gaelic lessons, and I feel pretty certain that I can say I'm fairly fluent in Scots Gaelic. I've gotten where I use it more and more at work, to say things I don't want people to hear (or understand). I also started to renew my French and started Polish, Latin, Esperanto, and Greek, but I figured out pretty quickly it was too hard doing more than one language at a time. I also got a book on learning to speak and read Old English, and then I really started to get confused! The French and Gaelic at the same time wasn't so hard (probably because French is just a refresher from high school and early college), I just tend to focus more on Gaelic. Maybe some day, I'll start a new one when I completely finish the Gaelic course.
And I think that's about it with the updates for 2022, nothing more really to see here. I haven't gone anywhere in over a year, so no new pics, but again, if anyone wants to see, I'd be happy to show what little I did on my WIPs from last year...sad though it may be. I'm going to try (once again) to keep up with everyone's blog, but seeing all your stitching progress makes me feel horrible! I just spend my time watching movie and TV reaction videos on YouTube! I can't even watch FlossTube anymore, it just makes me feel useless! I probably really should stitch now, while my hands still work. I'm gonna regret not doing it while I still can and I know this, but the motivation for just about everything is gone, at least for now. But I'm still working on getting it back. I will always have hope that I will someday get it back. That's my inner Disney girl, ever hopeful!