omnia_mutantur | "Throw a little light out in the dark"

So many things to say, and all of them feeling so unpolished. Future omnia should definitely make a point of talking about what she read this year and how her reading habits waxed and waned, her new glasses, a summary of this mindfuck of a year, and the things Julie is trying to explain to me about optimism, especially in how to handle ideas of what might and might happen in the coming calendar year. Oh, and how to keep track of what I cook next year.

But I don't have any of those things polished enough to say yet, so instead I'll tell you all the random things we cooked up around the house in an attempt to celebrate without me having managed to make any plans. We cooked up some garlic bread and some pizza (using prebaked crusts) I cooked a brie in puff pastry with apple chutney and my first skillet cookie. (joy the baker's deliberately undercooked chocolate chip cookie), and abundance made some traditional russian olivier salad. Now we're watching Forged in Fire on the couch with the dogs and just generally being peaceable, which is pretty much everything I want, now and for the coming year. Hopefully we'll see Hands and Hips tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow we'll also start a puzzle or play another epic round of Mansions of Madness.

I'm writing a newsletter these days, and using a very specific voice, and I'm working a chat hotline and it's a very specific voice and they're all bleeding in to each other when I talk/write.

Iterations: I've lost a lot of traditions this year; we've all lost a lot of traditions this year; it makes sense that I'd feel like I've lost a lot of traditions.

Whatever language I choose, there's been loss. And they can't really be measured against each other, but I'm struggling with not being able to start 2021 in my preferred way, dropping a lot of money at a local bookstore's sale, surrounded by a whole lot of people all doing the same thing. (it feels like some sort of patchwork agnostic optimism). So, instead, I'm going to buy a bunch of books online and hunting through best-of-lists tonight has been pretty soothing. We tried to watch the/a ball drop, youtube failed us and we wished each other happy new years anyway. The sentiment that's resonated most is something along the lines of "here's to 2021, I hope it has more hugs" with the implication being people outside of various bubbles. (I think Light, Abundance, Hips and Hands and I are nowhere near maxed out on hugging each other.) In past years, I've tried to tell myself things about making new mistakes each year, rather than repeating old ones and maybe I'll get there soon, or on my birthday, or some time later. For now, however, we continue to overwinter and if you're reading this, I probably miss you.