Bah-humbugging into the New Year

First of all, to all of my future subscribers, Merry Christmas!

I‘ve put together a Spotify list of Christmas themed songs that reflect my mood this current season. I may be adding to it as the day goes on. Suggestions welcome. Hope you enjoy.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2XZH0M26PPNgSUeLi8MJ9k?si=JoaoR5suS_CmPJj81f-dMQ&pi=e-hIjG-KKdSqG-

With that out of the way…

I have not been in the holiday spirit this year. I did not go to any Christmas markets, nor did I go to any Christmas parties, corporate thrown or otherwise.

I don’t really have a lot of friends who would invite me to one and the family who did throw these have moved far away.

I had such a horrible time at my last corporate party that I conveniently scheduled a weekend out of town, starting on a Friday night, that clashed with date and time of the company holiday shindig. Oh well..

My SO‘s company party fell on my birthday.

My 60th birthday.

Any other day would have been fine. But I was not about to share my special day, my milestone, with someone else’s corporate sloshing. Even if I would normally not have a problem with it.

So I booked a table at an Italian restaurant 14km from my house. I got there to find out that the establishment was in the process of changing restaurant types, and were reopening on Monday as a Mongolian restaurant. I was offered two menus. I went with the stirfry. No complaints.

But none of the above, absolutely none of the above, had any bearing on on my feelings about Christmas this year.

The world events of the last year has completely exhausted me as a news junkie. The heartbreak of Ukraine and Gaza, the dumbass antics of the US government and the wheelspinning ones of the country where I live, the general rise of right wing parties and fascism here in Europe, even though this supposedly is supposed to have learned from its past…

My problem is all the doomscrolling I have done over the past couple of months, and the effect it has had on my psyche. I did vote for Kamala Harris. I admit to not thoroughly studying her policies, but what I did skim through seemed a far sight better than what Orange Turd and his handlers at the Heritage Foundation dreamed up.

Are grocery prices in the US so bad that half the American public would throw away all concern and decency? Are they that afraid of having a woman president, especially one with a plan to salvage the personal economies of many? Or was it all about „the gays“ or the drag queens, or the „trans“, or whatever obfuscation your local diddling youth pastor or congressman came up that day to deflect on the drag queens?

I personally also saw this election as a referendum by the half of the US public that got their way on the Biden administration, but that is a discussion for another time.

I‘m over here, on the other side of the pond, with my head in my hands, wondering how and why.

I could imagine how and why but, as someone who has lived outside of the US for 13 and a half years, I have not had the economic experiences of the average American during this time. Given how I have curated my social media friends and feeds, I have not been subjected to balls-out theories about how Covid was spread and how the developed vaccines were going to disintegrate one’s liver and such nonsense.

No, I am just looking at how my vote overseas, and the enthusiasm that came with my preferred candidate for president in the folks I follow on social media and other places, made no difference. I am looking at the clownshow that is the upcoming administration being highlighted by US mainstream media while the current one isn’t even out yet. I am looking at my fellow democrats looking incredulously at the leaders of their party and screaming DO SOMETHING, only to see Nancy Pelosi give the chair of the Oversight Committee to an old guy with cancer, both because he was next in line, and also is not down with the Squad.

This pall over my general demeanor as a result of my viewing of current events is starting to pass, though. I keep a 5 minute journal (both physical and digital) that I update every few days or so, so I don’t have to wait until the end of the year to „reflect“.

All things considered, I had a pretty decent year.

I saw some friends have good things happen in their lives, which is always great to see.

I bought a van to convert into a camper, which i will discuss in future updates.

My SO bought some land with a fixerupper, which I will also discuss in future updates.

I made a truly semi-awesome Christmas dinner last night, though it is only semi-awesome in that everything was sooooo heavy.

I was happy not to put up any decorations this year. Although, looking back, some Christmas lights would have been nice.

I don’t know how to approach things coming in the new year. I do have two major projects, one is my own and another I am assisting on. I did take a break from all of my music challenges this year and would like to jump back into maybe two or three of them next year. I would like to get this blog running in terms of putting together posts and publishing them in a consistent manner. Same with the YouTube channel I am relaunching. Promotion is an uphill battle, but what modern endeavor isn't?

Someone over at Substack posted a new year new me is bullshit-type article, and I am inclined to agree with it. All the restarts I tried every January 1 never seemed to stick.

Maybe I will just go with New Year, Same Me, just doing some things differently.

I hope.

Anyway, I will update you all on my progress, try to entertain you with some thought and (kind of) enlighten you with some content down the road.

In the meantime, take care of yourselves and have a safe and prosperous new year.