Posted in Blogmas

A Winter Book

I was trying so hard not to buy a book this month since I’m 1000% positive most of not all of my friends got me books for Christmas.

But I couldn’t help myself. Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun seemed too good to pass up.

An LGBTQ+ holiday rom-com is all that I want from a new contemporary romance. I still wish all the tropes like give me a meet-cute but also mix it up.

Synopsis:

The author of the “swoon-worthy debut” (Harper’s BazaarThe Charm Offensive returns with a festive romantic comedy about a woman who fakes an engagement with her landlord…only to fall for his sister.

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.

Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

Perfect for fans of Written in the Stars and One Day in DecemberKiss Her Once for Me is the queer holiday rom-com that you’ll want to cozy up with next to the fire. 

Tell me that doesn’t sound adorable. I would love nothing more than to curl up with a peppermint hot cocoa, and Santa cookies to spend the next few hours devouring this book. But I have to wait till tomorrow cuz I ordered the book to late. I’m crying cuz I’m so impatient and this book seems so cute. It’s giving the Sandra bullock movie, While You Were Sleeping vibes.

Speaking of that movie is that a Christmas movie? Cuz I kinda feel like watching it. I’ve decided it’s a Christmas movie. I’m watching it. If you need me for in the next hour and 43 minutes, don’t.

Posted in Blogmas

A not so special holiday special

I love the tv movies that CBS and ABC made in the 60s and 70s. I know they made the cartoons to get more people to watch tv on Christmas, but they put a lot of work into it. All hand drawn or stop motion, with some even having big celebrities of the times like Fred Astaire in Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. The original How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a classic. The animated Rudolph, the red-nose reindeer, still plays every year. And even though I own it on DVD, I still like to watch it on TV; it feels so nostalgic.

Nowadays you have some things that are pure cash grabs. They use the hype of whatever show or movie hoping that will be enough. Some things should never have been made- A Medea Christmas, A Christmas Story 2, the third Santa Clause movie. And then the most hated of them all, the 1978 Star Wars holiday special.

It’s hilarious how divided Star Wars fans are about the movies. You’ll hear things like, “The prequels are so terrible!” or “The sequels are so terrible!” Yet they come together to bash the holiday special.

This thing only ever aired once—November 17, 1978, and never again. It’s funny because that’s my mom’s birthday, so I like to say she cursed Star Wars.

I’m genuinely thankful to those smart enough to record their TVs back then because that made it available online and on YouTube for poor people like me who weren’t born yet.

I watched this a year or two ago because Disney+ made a Lego Star Wars holiday special inspired by the 1978 special. So, of course, I had to see the original.

The basic plot is that Chewbacca wants to go to his home planet to celebrate a Wookiee holiday; if I remember, it’s Christmas mixed with the day of the dead. Chewbacca’s primary goal is to spend the holiday with his wife and his son, lumpy.

This is my sleep paralysis demon

It’s an hour and a half long; it wasn’t bad or good; it just was what it was. The plot is inconsistent and there’s a bunch of random cameos.

I watched it, and I only remember one scene. It’s Bea Arthur (Dorothy from Golden Girls) singing. It happens in the cantina, and the song has a cheerful yet melancholy tone. I love this song. I downloaded it, and every time it plays on my phone, I have to remind myself what it’s from because I always forget about the special.

I think tonight I will try to rewatch the special and see if I like it this time.

Also my very first time ever hearing about the special was actually a song that mocks the entire thing.

Are you a even a true Star Wars fan if you haven’t seen the special?

If you have seen it what are your thoughts on it??

Posted in Uncategorized

I’m already ruining Christmas

My poor spending habits have finally caught up to me. Not surprising.

Now I know you’re like, Eryn, what happened to the budget you made yourself? What happened to all the money you set aside and planned to spend for Christmas?

To that, I say, remember when I didn’t have a job for almost two months? I was depressed and stressed. And people act differently when they are depressed. So I used my emergency money for all my September and October bills and everything else I’ve spent.

When I’m stressed, I shop a lot. I am always ending spending more than I have. I used to buy clothes, but because I’m sensitive about my weight I don’t buy clothes anymore; I buy books and coffee, and I keep having to go to the doctor- why is a copay a $30-$40?!?! And is it so bad to feel good buying things for myself?

So now I have a list of bills that need to be paid and rent. That’s going to eat my current check, and I won’t be able to buy things until next week. It sucks that everything probably won’t arrive until after Christmas.

And I know that late gifts aren’t bad or wrong. It’s just I know I’m going to be sitting there, and people will give me gifts, but I will have nothing to give back.

It makes me feel guilty. It always make me stop and question; Am I selfish? It’s the season of giving and it feels like I have only been thinking of myself.

Does shopping last minute make me a bad person?

Posted in Blogmas

Ya Like Jazz?

There’s something about rain that makes me so happy.

It’s not raining exactly, just a slight drizzle, but it gives me hope. Hope that the holiday season will feel like winter.

California doesn’t get all the seasons. It’s sunny and hot, then windy, and then around Halloween, the weather gets bipolar. And this year is no different.

Something is soothing about the rain. I want a good book and a cup of tea and to lay on a bed or a comfy couch. I should have done that today, but I spent most of the day listening to jazzy Christmas music and stressing over nothing as I rewrote my story for the millionth time before giving up.

I always love listening to Christmas music because I forget about it, and it feels like I find music all over again. It’s very relaxing. The song Warm in December by Julie London is very easy listening. I’ve heard it a million times, but It always feels new to me when I rediscover it.

And I also found a song, not jazz but it’s new to me. Leslie Odom Jr.’s version of Winter Song. I’ve only ever heard the original version.

I really like the lyrics:

“December never felt so wrong,
'Cause you're not where you belong;
Inside my arms.”

I wish it were cold enough for me to keep someone warm in December. I’d love to live somewhere where it snows. I don’t particularly do well in cold weather, but I think it must be nice. I’d love to take a sleigh ride or a horse-drawn carriage.

Is it raining near you? Are you being harassed by the snowfalls I’m dreaming of?

Posted in Uncategorized

It’s the Holiday Season

December is here!!!!

I cant believe its time for Blogmas. 31 days of Christmas has begun already.

I can’t believe it’s December. I feel like this year has passed by so fast once it was august. And my stress from this past week (my partner getting Covid and me having to go to the doctor; it’s been rough) has made me not realize how soon December came.

But we have to keep moving forward.

I’m usually all over Christmas, but this year I don’t even know how to get into the Christmas spirit when I tried so hard to keep the fall vibes for so long.

I have an entire month to get in the mood. I’m sure I’ll watch one Christmas movie and be like you guys I don’t know why I ever doubted my love for this joyous season. But

I’m a little stressed about everything I want to do this season and I still have to buy Christmas gifts. I don’t think I have ever been this late to buy gifts. Usually, by now, I have a list and have checked it twice. But right now, I don’t even know what I’m getting, some people. The worst part is I don’t even know what i want for Christmas.

Are you in the holiday spirit already?