It's That Time of Year

It’s the holiday season. Christmas usually trumps Thanksgiving in most households but we host Thanksgiving so the pressure’s on (for my mom at least). A thousand lists litter the kitchen. Lists for groceries, lists for cleaning, lists I can’t even decipher because they were written in such a frantic hurry. I’m not really much of a help because I’ve been banned from washing dishes and touching food. This year I have an eye infection. I woke up Sunday morning with my eye bloodshot. As the day progressed it got worse. Looking at light gave me shooting pain behind my eye (my left eye). Tears kept pouring down my face. It was sticky and swollen shut. Yesterday the pain was so bad I smothered my face in a pillow because any light was agony. Went to the doctor. Confirmed eye infection and was given drops. The drops (and Tylenol) have been sustaining me the past few days. 

But I’m not going to let that get me down. Here are five things I am looking forward to:

1. I can eat as much as I want on Thanksgiving. My mom gave me  permission. My therapist says the holidays are hard on those with eating disorders but Thanksgiving happens once a year. Stuffing and gravy and mac and cheese….I’m not missing out of any of that. My saving grace is that I don’t really have a sweet tooth so I probably won’t eat much pie.

2. I will get to see my cousins. I have always had a bond with my cousins even when they were traveling for school or stationed overseas in the military. I don’t have too many first cousins but I have strong relationships with all of them. My oldest cousin is now married with a child of his own. I love entertaining Lucas, making him smile. This year his mother sent me a touching video of Lucas singing happy birthday to me. He is 2 and half and he’s being raised bilingual. 

3. I have so many books I’m looking forward to reading. At night my mom and I sit on the couch with Scout (my cat). We read together (I read aloud to  her) and then we do "parallel" reading. I’m currently reading a book about Taylor Swift’s songs which is very interesting even though I only know select songs but the book has done its job and piqued my interest in the rest of her albums as it walks me through her musical evolution. I’m reading an Elizabeth Gilbert book (the author of Eat, Pray, Love) as well as several others.

4. Black Friday! Lol just kidding. I did Black Friday once when I was fourteen. I think I got a shirt and a pair of fingerless gloves and a bad case of sleep deprivation (I was at a sleepover so I went to bed at three and woke up at four). When I was depressed at being in the hospital for Thanksgiving a very sweet woman encouraged me to watch the news to watch all the people riot and get hysterical over TVs. We knew there were bigger problems.

1. After Thanksgiving it becomes socially acceptable to start listening to Christmas music. It’s literally something I’ve been looking forward to since July. Sometimes I’ll “cheat” and turn it on but usually I  wait for Thanksgiving morning. Anyway I gotta go put drops in my eye. Chat tomorrow!