I have all my holiday shopping finished, in the sense that everything is ordered. God only knows when it'll arrive. (I have a few things actually in hand, but not many.) And even though I impulse-bought wrapping paper at Aldi that's Charlie Brown Christmas themed, I'll probably put it all in gift bags again this year.

My onerous tasks for Thursday are my annual OB/GYN checkup and a Covid booster. My reward (other than immunity and, I assume, continued healthy ladyparts) will be a trip to Trader Joe's in the middle of the morning, when it should be less crowded.

I am sure she knew that the 12 Days START on 12/25!

Exactly!

I have two presents procured. I think I'm going to a craft fair or possibly Shepherdstown, WV next weekend to do more. I don't have a ton to do, though. Oh. Crap. I should order some stuff for delivery though. Wasn't really thinking about that last part for those people I won't see in person. Again, not that many.

Boo to me on taking so long to get caught up, yay to everyone on the various good newses--a new nanny! No new mets! Brendon getting serious about his health! Silver tree! Narrowly avoiding public NAFTA/NAFDA confusion embarrassment! Being an official New Yorker again! And hugs to askye, and I'm so, so glad you went in to see the doctor and your brain is being properly tended to and you are okayed for at least limited screen time again.

Not a lot to report from Chez Zmayhem, except that I may have had a run-in with a ghost: We've been storing as much excess stuff as we can manage in a spare room in my friend Maggie's apartment (mother of my late high school best friend G, still living in the same apartment she and G and their whole family lived in way back in the 80s). Including, as of January, all our Christmas decorations. Which I thought I'd brought back in their entirety a week ago when Emmett came down to help us get our tree. Except... no lights, and David's, Matilda's and my stockings were all missing.

So I went back to Maggie's and, after carefully auditing every single item in the closet where the ornaments had been and then ransacking the rest of the storage room, I found the box with the lights and assumed the stockings were there too. Except... when I got the box back to the apartment and emptied it, no stockings.

Upon which, a whole lot of undelightful stress and self-recriminations and self-loathing for having lost these precious items and subsequent insomnia and nausea ensued, relieved only slightly by my remembering I hadn't brought back the tree topper either--not that there was anything remotely resembling a tree topper anywhere in the closet with the ornaments or in the corner where the boxful of lights had been. I couldn't have inadvertently thrown out an 18" ceramic angel, so it *had* to be in there somewhere, but where?

I got to Maggie's for our weekly visit this afternoon, and mentioned that I'd have to take some time to do a careful audit of the spare room to find the stockings and the tree topper. She said, "Were they in brown boxes with labels on them? They're in the hallway, next to the chair at the top of the stairs. They've been there since last week. I thought you left them there."

And, verily, there they were.

DUDE. I did NOT leave those boxes there. I did NOT see them in the closet. I did NOT see them anywhere near the box with the lights. I had not set eyes on them since January. And Maggie, who has a bum hip and two bum knees and who never touches anything in the spare room that I haven't given her explicit permission to touch, DEFINITELY didn't put them there.

And when I asked her what the actual fuck, she said, "Oh, yes, G and Dragon [G's sister, my other close friend] and I always thought there was a ghost here. Stuff is always going missing and then when we complain about it and ask for it back it turns up on my pillow or on the stove or someplace random like that. Been going on for years. I'm so glad you got your stockings back. That ghost, so sneaky!"

Rationally, I know a ghost or other non-in-our-visible-spectrum mischief-maker isn't likely, but, equally rationally, I'm at a complete and utter loss to think what else it could have been.

Anyhow, we have our stockings. Which will NOT be going back to Maggie's apartment after the end of the season, thank you.

Also? Matilda seems to have acquired some sort of a boyfriend. Other than that, same old same old around here.

It was very courteous and helpful for the ghost to put the items you forgot out in the hallway for you. Yo, JZ, you forgot these!!

My sister called me to ask what "Let's go Brandon" meant because my brother had a sign that said that hanging at his house, and she is clever enough to know that asking him would likely be something she didn't want to do.

Oliver had to explain this to a teacher. sigh.

I ve seen people who post and use let's go Brandon who talk about doing it to own the libs and watch them get their feelings hurt and they wish they'd thought of something like that

I want to reply "most of us know what it means and it's not that clever . We wonder why you don't just say Fuck Joe Biden...unless you are too scared to say it so plainly. Most of us had no trouble saying Fuck Trump ."

But I know what thr reaction to that will be so I don't.

JZ I'm glad you had a helpful ghost with the holidays.

I did skim the previous posts but I'll be honest I'm fuzzy on what everyone said so sending out lots of love and health ~ma to everyone.

I heard from workers comp. I have a new case manager, which is fine since I barely heard from the other. Because I didn't get permission to go to the ER Thanksgiving night it might not be approved. I stressed that 1) it was Thanksgiving night 2) I didn't have thr number for Corvel and 3) I hadn't heard from workers comp until over a week after my accident after I had initiated the first call.

Still haven't heard from work about going back. I think my manager got busy.

I think I stressed the point that I had a concussion that meant I wasn't thinking clearly and the guidance from the ER initially was not helpful and not hearing from workers comp and never filing a claim before meant I didn't know exactly what do do and to figure it out while I had a concussion.

Skyped with E. We played a tiny bit of Minecraft although I didn't do much because things moving too fast on the screen makes me dizzy/nauseous. And my eyes don't focus or my right eye doesn't focus right so things look funny/off.

But he was happy and I was happy to play with him so that worked out. He looks much more like a teenager than even a few weeks ago.

so I don't.

"Do not feed the negative energy creatures" is a good policy both online and off.

Boyfriend, you say? Slipped that in quietly at the end. People who weren't born when I started on this board have boyfriends now. What the what?

I love a helpful ghost! And am glad you got your stockings back, phew.

I need to eat now. This morning was wonky, and I am hungry, hungry.

I'm glad to have the stockings back, but I have to say it would have been more helpful if the ghost had just left the clearly labeled boxes in the closet next to the rest of the Christmas stuff instead of giving me days of stress over it!

And, yes, boyfriend. I have met him. He is very cute and very, very tall. They're in the weightlifting club together, they spend a lot of time walking around Irving Street and puttering in shops with their friends Carlin and Joshua, who conveniently are also dating, and they went on a midweek date to see Dune last night.