seven things on a sunday - in which i don't actually write about my dogs

1. I have realized that I am not fan of travelling. I hate flying - scared of it, and I hate being confined to one tiny seat for long periods of time. I don't like the bus - I get motion sick, and again, stuck in one seat for long periods of time. The train isn't too bad because you can sort of get up and move around, and I don't get motion sick. But any trip over about 3 hours, and I start to get antsy and claustrophobic. Same goes for car trips - motion sickness if I try to read anything, or look at anything in the car. But at least it's our own space, and we can stop and get out of the car whenever we want to. We just did a pretty epic one, and by the end I was ready to never see the inside of my car ever again. Even before we left, I was dreading the trip HOME. Thankfully the worst of my aches and pains and anxiety didn't hit until the last leg of the trip and for that one we had about 4 hours to go. So travelling, coupled with having to sleep in beds that aren't my own, and take showers in showers that aren't my own, and having to live out of a suitcase... not my thing. The longest flight I have taken (that I can recall, so I am not including the flight to Alberta when I was 4), was just over three hours long - to Orlando, Florida. For Disney World. If I am going to fly, you can bet your bippy it will be for a freaking magical reason. I felt like I was trapped and wanted OFF that plane. Even when I do go places, it's to visit someone and not to sight see. I am not a sight seeing person. Nor is Shawn. Sure, I'd like to see some places (Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Nordic countries) but until someone invents teleportation, I think I'll pass on those trips for a while.2. Back in early November, I got a Wake-Up Light. It's an awesome alarm clock that wakes you up gently by simulating sunrise!I have been meaning to blog about this for a while, and kept forgetting. A friend on Facebook mentioned having a magical, whimsical alarm clock, that has sunrise and chirping birds. I looked into this and thought that it might work well for me - because aside from not travelling well, I also don't wake up well. The shock to my system from our alarm sound every morning always upset my stomach. It's awful. So I mentioned to Shawn I might like to try this, and I thought it would make a great Christmas gift, but he gave it to me early because, well, November is dark and gloomy and triggers my PTSD. So this clock starts to get bright about 20 minutes before you want to get up (I have it set for 7am, so it starts to lighten at 6:40), then at 7 I have a soft, piano sound start to play, but honestly, I am generally awake way before then. It even had a sunSET setting, so you can set it to turn off after x- minutes and it will gradually darken the room. This is also cool for settling down to sleep after reading or something. I love this light to pieces.3. We decorated our front yard Dalek for Christmas.So far it has held up pretty well, even with all the snow we got a few weeks ago. The point of this monstrosity in our front yard is to try and protect the tiny twig of a tree we planted in the spring. Honestly I started doing this as a joke, but I think I'll keep it up for a while. I kind of like the bow on top. heh.4. I failed big time with Christmas cards. I didn't get many done at al, so aside from a few close friends, I didn't give or send any out this year. I had high hopes though. I started working on them towards the end of November. I got about 6 made. Oops.The problem was with all the Big Things sort of dragging me down, it was difficult to find the motivation AND time to get them done. I just wasn't inspired this year. I already knew I wasn't going to mail as many cards this year due to the insane increase in the price of stamps, but I'd wanted to send out a few. Oh, well. I hope my friends and family forgive me. If they don't, well, Christmas cards are a pretty petty thing to give up a friendship over. =P5. On the topic of holidays, I never did post about what my Halloween costume was this year! Well, I was my own version of Madeline Hatter from Ever After High (the Mad Hatter's daughter!)Turns out there were no adult-sized costumes for this character (drat!) and she's my all-time favourite one from that series. So I found some similar-type items at a costume shop, made it a little less slutty by covering up the cleavage drop and had fun with this in the office all day on Halloween! I even took minutes at a meeting like this. I might get frustrated being in a job that I don't particularly feel is the right fit for me, but by golly am I lucky where I work that everyone there puts up with me and enjoys my shenanigans.6. I love watching my husband play video games. I know this is odd, but it's sort of like watching a television program. I don't play many games myself (LEGO Harry Potter notwithstanding), but watching Shawn play games on his new PS4 has been very fun. He did have this one zombie-like game that I couldn't watch too much of because it gave me nightmares (the sounds. Gah!) but even years ago, when Shawn would play other games I'd like watching, and commenting. It's a silly way to spend time together, but I am sure other gaming households will understand. ;)7. I made Shawn a Sophspirational Quote calendar for Christmas. This started out as a joke to cheer him up over a couple of bad days, but after I'd send them to him, I'd post them online and everyone seemed to want more. So I made about 2 weeks worth of quotes. It almost broke my brain. But now Shawn has a nice monthly desk calendar to help cheer him up when he's having a bad day at work. After all, #NoSophie is a great motivator!