Mid-November Blahs

We're halfway through November. I don't know where October went yet. This is a bit alarming.

Somehow I missed the earliest stirrings of the Christmas retail season, with the result that when I went to the mall this weekend it hit me full in the face like a glittery, red-and-green sledgehammer. Usually I'm ready for it. Usually, I moan and groan in a socially-appropriate way at how early malls start playing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and hanging ornaments, but deep down I can't suppress a thrill of excitement. This time, though, I really am troubled. I don't feel up for it; I feel like there's a lot more settling in and getting used to things that I have to do before I can start dreamily humming carols and shopping for stocking stuffers. Seeing Christmas in the stores just makes me feel behind, harried and inadequate. I think this means that I'm getting old, since this is how early Christmas signs make my mother feel, and I could never understand that before.

November. What is good about you, November? Aside from the occasional birthday, you're 30 dreary, cold, dark days filled with stress and tears. Something should be invented to perk November up, here in Canada where Thanksgiving shares a calendar page with Halloween. Kyasuriin plunged in and is doing NaNoWriMo, and I wish her well...despite my insane jealousy at her creativity and sheer nerve. I guess that would perk November up, if I ever worked up the guts to participate. But still. A nice ease-ourselves-into-Christmas holiday would be nice.

Ah well. I'm not going to invent one at the moment. May as well get on with the minutae of the week.

~isolde