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Monday, November 20, 2006
PhasesMaybe this is only a societally conditioned woman thing, but: You know how you'll go through little phases throughout the year? Like, there's the gathering phase, where you feel like buying a bunch of stuff, and then the nesting phase, in which you feel like fixing up your house, and then the inspiration phase, when you feel like tearing a bunch of pictures out of magazines or right-clicking a bunch of images online? And then I guess there's a creative phase, when you make stuff, and a sort of purging phase, when you give stuff to the Goodwill or sell it on eBay. And maybe there's an organizing phase, too.
Right now I'm not in any of those phases. And it feels pretty good. Except that I think this is just the eye before the storm that is Christmas, and I'll have to go through several phases, in rapid succession, very soon.
Christmas is special. It has its own phases.
The Generosity Phase - you want to buy tons of stuff for everyone you've ever liked or appreciated.
The Socially Conscious Miser Phase - you want to stop buying things and only give people gifts of your time or whatever.
The PTSD Phase - you remember sad/mad/bad Christmasses past and cower on your couch in several minor panic attacks.
The Weather Phase - you live in a semi-tropical region and feel bittersweet that there's no snow. (Or else you have a snowball fight and wallow in nostalgia. Woo hoo for you.)
The Angst Phase - nothing you picked out for gifts is good enough.
The Greed Phase - you make big lists, mentally or on paper, of things you want, whether you give the lists to anyone or not. Sometimes you flip out and buy yourself a bunch of expensive luxuries, reasoning that no one's going to get you what you really want, anyway, so you might as well buy yourself a gift or three.
The Starch Phase - you want to eat a bunch of orange and brown foods.
The Decorating Phase - you want to put lights and garlands and crap all over your house.
The Over It Phase - you want to fly away to another country and come back in the middle of January.
It's very sunny and warm here lately, in Houston, so, like I said, I'm resting myself until Christmas draws nearer. If it were a little colder, I'd probably be panicking about gifts right about now.
Oh, and I don't get my kids for Christmas this year - their dad gets them. So, really, I kind of feel like I have nothing to be excited about. No... really, it just means a whole other set of phases to go through, some involving loneliness and alcohol, some involving exhilarating freedom and glee.
What are your phases? Which one are you in right now? Why? Or did I just make all this up?
Labels: Christmas, psychobabble
10:40 AM #Comments:
hey gwen - did you get my blog invite? jes checkin!# posted by
pinky pinkerson : 12:48 PM
hey gwen - did you get my blog invite? i never know if they're going to go to spam or not.
# posted by
pinky pinkerson : 12:48 PM
I wallow in The Weather Phase from November-January, but if I happen to travel to a place where snow actually exists, it only takes me about 10 minutes to snap out of it.
The Greed Phase is a year-round challenge. I think it may be my favorite Deadly Sin.
# posted by
Lisa : 3:30 PM
Greed is a pretty awesome one. Shoot, most of them are fun.
Pinky: I got it. I was just too lazy to look up my gmail name. (Until now. :))
# posted by
Gwen : 3:56 PM
The Overly Ambitious Socially Concious Miser Phase: You plan to go caroling at the nursing home; to make cards from cereal boxes, wax paper and melted crayons; to locate forgotten personal treasures of family members (say, your big brother's Matchbox car) and incorporate them into meaningful gifts; to write and perform a Christmas song for your family; to work in a soup kitchen on Christmas Eve. The phase is executed by doing none of the above--because you're lazy.
# posted by
Marigoldie : 9:03 PM
Marigoldie: Yes! That one, too!
I always think I'm going to pick a kid's name off a charity tree and then change that kid's life with my gifts... But I never can. I always pick the kid who wants something inexpensive to begin with.
# posted by
Gwen : 2:22 PM
I am in the "I thought my gift choices rocked at the time but now I am panicking over how much money was spent and want to take them all back" phase.
It sucks. And yet I continue to buy stuff.
# posted by
Nancy : 9:26 AM
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