I touch the fire and it freezes me

House is actually warm again, after a week without heating. Can now actually move away from the fire and do things without risking frostbite. And there is ~so~ much to do before we head over to my parents', but all I want to do is curl up and sleep. Cough is behaving better, but still slightly lurgified.

Slightly strange Christmas this year. My brother isn't going to be home for Christmas, for the first time ever. (He's planning on a trip over later in the year, when it won't be too cold for Alice, who is more used to Californian temperatures.) Kris won't be going home to his parents' for the first time ever (looks like East Anglia could be in for some heavy snow, and he's not 100% either so not sure he's up to the drive) so he'll be coming home with me instead. What makes it all the stranger is we'll almost certainly be living in different cities this time next year.

Good changes, all in all, but a little sad and quite scary in some ways, and time slipping past regardless...

Will be a shorter visit than usual anyway, as I've promised myself I'll have my portfolio finished and available to send out (in three different formats) by the end of the year, which will probably involve locking myself in my office all day Monday and Tuesday with all the coffee in the world, and no Facebook/Livejournal/other distractions.

It's funny, it still doesn't quite feel like Christmas... not sure why.

When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun...

I am an idiot.

Last few weeks have been feeling wiped and completely unmotivated, in spite of having hugely important stuff to get on with. Thought it was a mixture of ongoing grumbling lurgy and, recently, freezing cold house. But I just realised:

I haven't switched my SAD lamp on at all this Autumn/Winter.

And that mix of slight tearfulness, slight fearfulness, paranoia and not-quite-able to get into anything are the usual winter slump symptoms.

It's quite a positive thing in a way. I've been doing so well and achieving so much this year that it never even occurred to me that I ought to SAD-proof my brain. But I obviously still need my dose of midwinter sunshine.

Will sort that out as soon as I'm back home. Bright and shiny engery will be mine!