2013 Goes Out Like a Lion...and 2014 Comes in Like a Bitch

To say that the last few weeks have been draining would be best described as a horrible understatement. I had such good intentions, but, as usual, life had other plans for me.

I am fortunate enough to have a job that gives me time off at Christmas. This year, I was looking forward to a blissful 12 days off. In keeping with my list items, I was planning to Take Time to Actually Enjoy Christmas and Sell Some Handmade Items. I've started a little side business on Facebook called Blue Box Creations, and thanks to the fabulous girls I work with I was able to do almost all of my Christmas shopping with proceeds from selling my items. In order to fill all my requests, however, I needed to spend the week leading up to and the first 3 days of my vacation crafting my little butt off. Not that I minded girls, I appreciate the orders! More on that later. 

Then, having finally finished all my orders (with a bit of help from my mom) and gotten ALL my shopping done, I looked upon December 23rd as the day I could relax and really focus on the joy of the holidays. And then the power went out. In the entire town and large parts of the surrounding areas. And it stayed off until 2:25 am on December 28th. And all my plans went swiftly down the drain. In a later post I will describe how my Christmas in the dark ended up very differently from what I expected.

The point of this post is to explain how I'm feeling as I embark on the journey that will be 2014. I'm automatically a bit nervous every time an even numbered year pops up on the calendar. Maybe it's psychological, but I do NOT have a good track record in even numbered years. In 2000 my grandmother died. In 2002 I ended a close friendship I'd had all through high school. 2004 seems to have been fairly uneventful. 2006 my ex broke up with me for the first time. 2008 I ended friendships with TWO best friends; one of 10 years and one of 24. 2010 was a doozy. My cousin died in April, my 15 year old cat died in June, my uncle died in July and my ex broke up with me in August. For the second time. 2012 was the year that began this whole Valancy Stirling journey, the year that my ex broke up with me for the third and final time. So yeah, I hate even numbered years. But I'm trying to think about how those years helped me grow and to be positive about the year to come.

So I am nervous as the year begins. And the lack of rest and relaxation over my "vacation" has left me feeling exhausted at the thought of going back to work tomorrow. And I've gained just enough weight that my clothes aren't comfortable. And my face is rebelling with huge breakouts AND dry patches. And I have a cold. And I've been eating crap so my stomach hurts. And I'm basically just miserable. But I'm determined to snap out of it. Soon. I promise.