AHH… DECEMBER

Well, it’s December, which means that I lived through
another November and survived NaNoWriMo yet again.

I finished again this year, though just like last year, I had
my doubts right up until the end. Because the work load from my job shifted around, I knew that I would have a block of several days at the end of the month with no work where I would be free to write. Though I did some writing prior to this, I was mostly working and didn’t really worry since those beautiful, empty days were sitting there like a reward at the end of the month.

Then… wouldn’t you know it? I got sick, right at the end of the month when I had planned to write. For the first few days, I couldn’t even bring myself to prop my poor body up in front of the computer – I just felt too horrible.

However, as the illness wore on, it became so unbearable that sleep was impossible. Since I was able to sleep no more than two hours every night, I figured that I may as well get some work done.

So, I made some tea and turned on the computer where I sat for the next several days surrounded by a growing sea of used and crumpled kleenex. Though I felt terrible, I did manage to finish my 50,000 words on time again this year.

I’d also like to congratulate my friend Myo for finishing this year, too. Way to go!

Frankly, I’m still sick – this cold is just not going away. I’m not sure if it is actually the worst cold I’ve ever had, or if it is just a regular cold that feels so much worse because I’m not allowed to take anything for it.

This is the state which I have dreaded for quite some time and in which I now find myself… When pregnant and/or breastfeeding, there is a whole huge list of chemicals which one is not supposed to ingest, including most kinds of cold medication.

Sure, I could take pseudo-ephedrine, but that was more of a menace than a medicine. It did nothing to relieve my symptoms, but it did make it all that more difficult for me to sleep. I am highly sensitive to stimulants – one cup of coffee will keep me awake for days. So, though I tried it in desperation, I quickly realized that the very small relief it provided did not justify its other effects.

Tylenol was Ok too, but I didn’t have a fever, nor any kind of headache. I considered taking it just because I was allowed to, but then reconsidered.

Even most of the herbal remedies I would normally take were right out – no zinc, no high doses of vitamin C, no slippery elm for my throat, no menthol, no eucalyptus. Echinacea by itself was Ok, so I drank cup after cup of hot tea in an attempt to boost my poor, exhausted, wrung out immune system.

Of course, I realized that perhaps the biggest drain on my system was my total inability to sleep. What I needed was twelve hours of rest, but what I was getting instead was never more than three. I would fall into bed exhausted, only to awaken a few hours later. Noticing that it was still dark outside, I would roll over silently reciting my mantra…

Please, please let it be six-thirty in the morning…

The clock never failed to disappoint me with its announcement that it was only one-thirty in the morning and that I had been asleep slightly less than two hours.

NyQuil, NyQuil … My kingdom for some NyQuil!!!

But alas…

One late night in desperation, I sent an email to a group of friends of mine asking if anyone had any non-chemical non-herbal suggestions for how to relieve the intense congestion I was experiencing. My friend, Hacksaw, was still up at that late / early hour, and gave me some information about using a neti pot.

Unfortunately, he must have retired before I could write back asking if I needed an actual neti pot, or if I could just shove some other receptacle up my nose and start pouring – the watering can on the front porch was the first thing that came to mind.

Under normal circumstance, I don’t know whether or not I would have been able to bring myself to pour a bunch of warm salt water into my nose, but these were desperate times. Not receiving a response, I took matters into my own hands and remembered a small tea pot downstairs in the cabinet which seemed to be about the right size.

Not really stopping to think, I filled it with warm water, added a little sea salt, tilted my head at an angle and poured. For a moment, it felt like I was drowning in a very small, warm ocean, but then the water miraculously started to run out of my other nostril.

It was clear! If the water could go through, then ostensibly so could air.

For the first time in days, I could breathe. I dove into bed before the effect wore off and actually managed to sleep for a while.

Of course, eventually both my daughter and partner caught the cold, so now all three of us are sniffling around the house. Up until this autumn, I hadn’t had a cold in about four years and my partner hadn’t had one in nearly seven years.

However, everyone says that once you have a child, you get sick a lot more often. As my partner pointed out, it is probably due to increased exposure – you are not terribly likely to swap a whole lot of spit with your partner when one or both of you are sick, but babies will drool all over you, stick their spit-filled fingers into your mouth or suck on the end of your nose regardless of how they’re feeling.

More or less we all seem to be getting over it, and luckily I seem to have gotten WAY more sick than either my daughter or partner, probably because I was only sleeping two or three hours every night. Eventually, I'm sure, we’ll all be healthy again.

I love December…

Not just because it means that I’ve lived through another November, either. December has always been one of my favorite months – it is the beginning of what is a sort of personal festival season which lasts through the holidays up until sometime in the middle of February.

Thanksgiving is a sort of kick-off for this season, the big feast that indicates the celebration has begun. After that, there is the Feast of Female Sagittarian Saints, where I celebrate the births of three very important women in my family – my grandmother, her mother, and now my daughter.

All of them were born within a week of one another in the month of December, though of course not in the same year. My grandmother was one of the very most important and positive people in my life as a child, and I always do something to honor her birthday.

Her mother, though I never met her, was reputed in our family to be somewhat of a saint – she actually died in church. My grandmother, who I regard as one of the most pious people I have ever met (and I mean that in a very positive way) looked upon her mother as the representation of spiritual devotion to which she hoped to aspire.

Then, there is my daughter. Her first name is a Sanskrit word meaning compassion or compassionate one, and her middle name is the Cherokee word for the universe, everything, The All One Big Thing. She is saintly and perfect in her own pre-verbal, always happy and exploring the world kind of way.

After that, there is Winter Solstice, followed by Christmas and New Year’s Day. Our friend Hacksaw always comes to stay with us through the holidays, so he is usually here for all three occasions.

On Solstice, we drum and make enough musical noise to make sure that the sun is woken up and comes back the next day. On Christmas Eve, I have my annual party, now in its fourteenth consecutive year. Christmas Day is spent traveling from my partner’s family to mine with dinner and presents at both.

New Year’s Eve, for years one of my least favorite holidays, is now the occasion for a lovely party thrown by a good friend of ours. It is a costume party with a theme (black tie for those who don’t want to wear a costume) with hors d’houvers, dinner, a champagne toast at midnight and drumming afterward for those who care to stay late.

Our friend lives in an absolutely gorgeous house in the middle of nowhere with one of those beautiful wrought iron gates which opens by remote at the end of the long drive. The house sits on about forty acres at the top of a huge hill overlooking a beautiful valley of trees with a black sky full of stars above. The house is large enough to comfortably have a dinner party for forty with enough room for everyone to sit, and the great room is big enough to afford dancing and drumming for everyone. Now that I have something really fun to do, I no longer dislike New Year’s Eve.

The next day, we often have brunch with the above mentioned friend, and more or less lounge around all day. Sometimes we have other friends over to the house for visiting later in the evening and eat lots of good food leftover from all of the festivities.

After that, comes the series of New Year’s from many cultures – we like to celebrate as many new beginnings as possible.

I really do like December in particular, and winter in general. I love the dark at this time of year, and do my best to spend at least one week never seeing the sun. That just feels very natural to me – winter should be cold and dark.

I’ve always wanted to take a vacation in the winter to somewhere in the Arctic Circle so that I could experience the continuous blackness for a while. Though that would drive some people crazy, to me it would be a dream. I try as best as I can to recreate that in my own life every year, but I would prefer to just have that be How It Is during at least a part of the winter.

Maybe someday I’ll make it to Baffin Island or Svalbard… hotel rates at this time of year really can’t be that expensive. I mean, this is definitely not the tourist season.

Ahh, December. Now that I can breathe through my nose again, I’m beginning to enjoy the season. To me, this part of the year is like the part of the fun down hill coast from one year into the next, the respite after many months of activity.

I, for one, intend to enjoy the ride.