My family has a reputation for having stuff happen during the holidays. Nothing major. My dad died two weeks before Christmas. Money issues. Breakups. Marriage proposals. Family estrangement. The usual dysfunction of every American family.

This year is no different, but a new wrinkle has been added to the mix: my car died this morning! Yep, the poor baby won’t start. It won’t even light up, save for the oil and brake indicator lights. B. suspects it’s the alternator not charging up the battery — he couldn’t get it started for a while last night as he was leaving work either, but after one last putsch, it came to life with I guess enough electricity to take him home. As I don’t want to spend the money for a tow truck — mostly because I don’t want any ol’ tow mechanic to potentially damage her (and yes, I consider my car to be a beloved, animate object) — I have to wait until Monday, when I can get a rental car, to take it to the garage. Sigh. Always somethin’.

On a happy note, though, I’m healthy, no one’s dying (…that I know of…), and I get presents! Wa-Hey! Presents can line any tragic moment with shiny silver. B. (whom a co-worker took to work this morning) and I are going to stay in tonight, hope for more snow, and watch some old movies before Christmas slips away again. We had planned to pick up some fried chicken at the store (our new holiday tradition!), but it may have to be take-out pizza tonight, assuming that the delivery folks are open.

I should write about the year and all that’s happened, but I’m not feeling especially motivated at the moment. Right now my desk is somewhat clean-ish, and although I have a massive to-do list, all I want to really do is have a cup of cafe au lait at the local coffee shop and relax. It’s awfully gloomy outside, the weatherman’s predicting more snow, and, well, I can’t bring myself to be productive. I’m just glad I got most of my errands and all of my Christmas shopping done.

Something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile is revamp my other blogs and start over again in the New Year. That little to-do item (which involves tons of sub-to-do lists) has been on my plate for weeks, but a major project I hope will be completed by the end of January has been taking up most of my mental bandwidth. Plus, of course, my novel.

Ah yes, my novel. It’s still here, waiting for its final pages. I have loads more research to do, which I hope to accomplish by the end of January as well. I just got another major writing assignment that I had been hoping to land and which will probably represent a nice little check in February, so I have to prioritize that. I can’t take any much more freelancing, though, until I get these major projects out of my way, as they’ll pretty much take up all my free time through the beginning of spring. It’s a good problem to have, being busy with useful things, but sometimes I wonder how the hell I got anything done when I had a full-time job and still juggling most of these things.