Back From the Dead

Well… Uh… Hello.

First of all, let me apologise. I never got to wishing you all a Merry Christmas, or a Happy New Year. I had planned to. They were going to be scheduled posts so I could both wish you all the best and spend time with family, friends and on the work I meant to do this holidays.

As it turns out, life had other plans. And by life, I mean Covid.

I came down with symptoms the morning of the 23rd. Somewhere shortly after 2:00am, as my memory serves. This was supposed to be the first day of a (forced) holiday at work, and I had so many plans. I was going to get ahead and ready for the new year. I was going to be so organised!

And, well, I wasn’t. I was in bed with fever and chills and utterly unable to do anything at all.

Last time I contracted Covid, I got all the symptoms except for the cough. It didn’t touch my lungs.

This time, there were a few scary moments where I’d cough up a lung, go to breathe in to continue, only to have the entire breath blocked with the lung trapped in my lung. I honestly had a couple of moments where I thought I was going to drown.

It was very unpleasant.

And it took longer to recover from than expected. I only started feeling myself again on Friday.

I missed spending Christmas with the family, and I missed spending New Year’s with anyone at all. I slept, and could do little else. For two weeks.

Just my luck, I’m recovered in time to return to the rat race.

Gross.

As a result, I am not prepared for 2025 at all. My apartment, which I planned to deep clean since I had the time, is an absolute disaster (worse than before because I was sick). The work I had planned to do during this break for the volunteer position I have was supposed to be done. I have only just completed one of the four projects that should have been done by now. The writing task I had intended to finish by the 31st remains incomplete. Same for the art I wanted to get done. The three-month-to-a-page calendar thing I wanted to turn into a yearly freebie for my Ko-Fi subscribers is not done. I didn’t get to write or send out my newsletter.

Nothing is done. I am so beyond frustrated it isn’t funny. This isn’t the way I wanted to start 2025.

Yet here we are.

I haven’t done a retrospective as I usually do. And I won’t. I will be doing a looking-forward, though. Usually I post that at the very beginning of the year, but, well… here we are. That will be a Ko-Fi subscriber exclusive to go up Wednesday… If I can manage.

I do want to take the time to thank Jen & Éric, though, who dropped by with soup and snacks as soon as they found out I was sick. The soup was absolutely delicious. I very much appreciate it.

Also would really like to thank Louise, who delivered a delicious meal for me as well. It was a roast dinner, and it was amazing.

Thanks everyone for all the care. Despite being miserable and alone over the holidays, I wasn’t desperate or abandoned. That means so much to me.

So, a very belated Happy Holidays and I do wish you all the best for the new year, even if I’m late in saying so. Let’s hope 2025 doesn’t remain as rough as its start has been.

Heads up. We can do this.

Slán go foill!