Just that.
I’ve personally been hit by some unexpected shit, this week, particularly financially, but hearing the neighbours up the street party it away, all day and all night, yesterday (and yes, I really, really considered trying to crash it. Just ended up feeling more alone, though, lol), reminded me, perhaps it did in the same way as one of you the other day, that this is a time that really brings people together, and is about far more than spending money and decorative seasonal tat. Today, in Aus, so happens to be the solstice.
I don’t know “where” I’m going with things, and I don’t know what my Christmas will be like (thrifty, if nothing else, lol), but I sincerely hope you all have good, relatively smooth and unstressful Christmases (or whatever you celebrate) and New Years. Remember what the holiday was supposed to be truly about.
That’s all. Keep it real.
This is rather personal, I realize, but being told by a Government Service that “Christmas is expensive, maybe you’ll just have to go without, this year”, over the phone, followed later by a very insistent “Merry Christmas” before I hung up is just…
Well it didn’t exactly give me “the warm fuzzies”, but it that way…
The cold arm of bureaucracy doesn’t give a shit about “individual needs”, or indeed even what week it is, except to, of course, give themselves the entirety of next week off, as public holidays…
Wish I had that luxury, lol.
Also, Australia is expensive as fuck, man… I know that we have some good shit, like “public healthcare”, but I cannot tell you how expensive it is to survive here, right now… It’s fucking insane.
Any time you think things are too expensive, just remember, in the states, you'd need to pay almost $1400/year to have health insurance that results in near-zero wait times and practically instant treatment.
Sure, they might have half your tax rate, but they cost $1,400 for healthcare, while you only pay an additional $14,000 in taxes!