Also, it may be the least interesting page on your site, but the basement is still way cool! Now if you just add a few beanbags and an old TV …
Luke´s last post … Ighalsk and Motivation

Thanks for hugs and bunnies. Right back at you. Do you have bunnies at Hoppy House? :)

Ohhh Havi.
I’m so sparkly right now you could plonk me ontop of a Christmas tree and I’d be happy. Thank yoooo! xx

Well spotted: Nina/Nenah/Leila. He hee. Figuring out one’s internet identity/name must take time. Even here amongst all you chickens.

Hugsss.

@Nina-Nenah – you are awesome.

@claire – oh, not at all! I write ridiculously long posts, so it’s only reasonable that this place attracts especially verbal commenters. People totally write novels in the comments sometimes, and no one minds a bit. Promise!

And thanks for the Neil Gaiman assistant bit.

@Jane – sounds rough. Yuck. Sorry. I wonder if you can just present your client with a bill, saying that your policy is to have everything paid up front and you’re sure it was just a misunderstanding.

Either way, hugs. And bunnies.

The hard
Two days of work next week which won’t even cover half my bills. So managing ongoing anxiety.
Uncertainty.
The good
In spite of ongoing work/money drama I feel sooo full of beans, creativity, libido for life.
Trust and Hope for things to improve – I have truck loads of that at the moment.
Good feelings that keep washing over me. Like magic.
I know I’m not alone in the financial hard.I know this won’t last forever.
Huge feelings of warmth and gratitude to my many and varied helpers.
Watching things change. Wrote my first three pieces and put them on FB this week. I didn’t plan it, it just kind of happened.
Gratitude for being able to grapple with and begin to practise and make my own nvc in relation to my love.

Some days are just a string of fragments, aren’t they?
Lean Ni Chuilleanain (@leannich)´s last post … Dispatches from the Gender Ghetto

Good: Last year, we had Thanksgiving at a restaurant. (Minority sentiment, but TG is a happy friends and family day for me.) Being in a restaurant for it felt… weird. Sterile. The delicate pumpkin tart in a glass tasted good. But I missed the big whacks of homemade pie and the lounging around a living room. This year we got invited to three separate dinners, all cozy with lots of pie and lounging. So, good.

Hard: Anxiety leading up to these events – I was dreading one of them. It’s good to reflect on this, because it turned out to be such a nice time that I’d almost forgotten already how much I was not looking forward to it and the counterproductive avoidance maneuvers that brought on.
Sandra´s last post … That would explain the corn

Wrote this before but on the wrong post – TYPICALLL. So cheeky bugger I’ve copy and pasted.

Plus I wanted to add that I ‘Obsessively go through the Archives’ Outed again! Damn it! I know I’m not alone though – anyone out there?!

Yes yes of course I loved the post. ALWAYS DO.
Lots of smiling this end and laughter of recognition. Sounds so hard peeps. Just like Christmas can be for so many of us. The Therapist normally starts to remind me that she’s available via email or voicemail if I feel desperate. He hee. Darn right.

So HUGSSSSSS for all. Lovely to hear some wonderful and wacky ways to meet ourselves right where we are in the urghhh grim! Very inventive. We’ve only got Christmas and New Years to get through now – goodness! More tips pleeeeese we’ll need ‘em.

I have no clue how to get through the damn thing, Christmas that is. Not whilst in the company of family 24/7.

I try a new ‘technique’ every year. Nothing profound. Generally plastering over the cracks will do.

Like this one:
Every time Auntie says something offensive I chant to myself: ‘I agree with everything you say, I agree with everything you say’. Gooood huh?! Dalai Lama? Watch and learn.
It’s a seriously useful trick to stop myself from unwittingly challenging any statements of the troublesome kind. Which is most of the little buggers. Difficult to sustain though a whole two days of Christmas though. Especially since we are stuck in one room together – sound familiar?!

What this means: Lots of fear and watchful eyes on me in case I inevitably make Aunty’s whiter than white table cloth messy with food, or place toilet roll the wrong way round, yes I did say I also have FEAR OF PLACING TOILET ROLL THE WRONG WAY ROUND CHICKENSsss (did I mention Aunty’s clearly undiagnosed OCD), or better yet, forgetting to use the WINDOW WIPER THINGY that she places inside the shower so that there are NO DRIPS LEFT after you’ve showered. Waaaaaaaa!
Me: Weeping and rocking to sleep soon to follow.

Really it seems smarter to just keep shtum till I figure out a way to practise nvc. Even though I doubt I’ll ever manage it around Christmas time though – too many triggers!

Family – who spent time thinking up that little joke.
Well done to everyone making the best of a sometimes challenging time. Woop woop wooop!

Kisses and winks!

the hard:
Finding what I’d just ordered online & rec’d today for my bro for xmas for 1/2 off this weekend. And there are tons of them at the store. Grr. Amazon doesn’t price match- additional grr.

Submitting yet more revisions via beta site for this freebie photo book. Feel certain they hate me by now. Today I actually flashed on that apartment that fell through after I’d started moving in because I was too specific about all its flaws and what I’d like fixed. I didn’t want to get hit with fees when I moved out, y’know? And what’s the harm in asking? They changed their minds about me is what. Um, yeah, so that’d be triggery stuff about asking.

Anyway, almost stopped myself from asking for a couple changes to the photo book but damn if I’m gonna let typos get by. This will ultimately be either a colossal waste of my time if they bail on me or one of the coolest xmas gifts ever.

the good:
Having the sense not to go back to the store to buy my bro’s gift so I can return the other version of it tonight because it’s raining on the edge of sleet/snow and there’s wind gusts. Reminded self that my windshield getting hit by a branch or some such would seriously piss me off as the result of a pursuit for a few bucks.

I will do it tomorrow.

Today’s motto while out: Nothing but good attitude. Became a little song in my head and people were over all quite pleasant.

Scored a nice hard drive for cheap at 3:30 PM even though it rang up incorrectly. So glad I’d brought the flyer with me. Sure my gracious patience as they struggled with the security lock didn’t hurt either.

I swear nobody wants the stuff I want which is great because I’m not getting up early for nobody.

I saw nuns at the mall! And an Indian woman in a sari. Black Friday’s a lot of artificial hype by and large but there’s no better opportunity to see many different types of people out where I live.

Also scored 3 cool songs from Amazon with their free $3 credit for mp3 downloads. Still available if anyone’s interested:

“For a limited time, use code MP34FREE to get a $3 credit good towards songs or albums at Amazon MP3. Details: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=dm_tw_3forfree?ie=UTF8&docId=1000455181
You must redeem the code by November 30, 2009 11:59 PM PST”
claire´s last post … Thanksgiving haiku: Back to the Future