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All is not as it seems

Hello, Friday Fools!

Tis the season for sappy (as well as an extreme range of palatable) holiday shows. The pattern in our house is something like this:

Chief sits down to relax and watch a show. I come into the kitchen to reheat tea.

Me: What're ya watchin'?

Chief: Names a sappy Christmas movie

Me: Ah. (waits a beat) What's it about?

Chief: Provides super abbreviated nugget, hoping it'll silence the question machine. He's hoping I'll just sit down and figure it out for myself.

In all fairness, I have a horrible habit of doing this. I interrupt a viewing in progress, ask a ton of questions, and leave only to return and ask more questions. I also have a horrible habit of guessing at the action and (occasionally) making commentary. Wait for it--

Me: Makes some sort of commentary.

At this point, I may or may not leave the kitchen. Either way, dear reader, I will eventually make my way to the couch...I may or may not roll my eye a time or two before the closing credits.

AND THEN I CRY.

Put this process on repeat--except for the time we watched the A Storm for Christmas. It was a festivus miracle that I sat and watched in silence. I did not roll my eyes, but found myself irritated with some the character's actions, because they were supposed to be irritating--which was a nice change of pace. The story and the characters had me invested, despite being ready to be depressed (it was a Norwegian mini series, after all). The surprise was, I wasn't. I'll have to say that for the Norwegians, it was darn near a Hallmark special, but one I could get behind. (on the down-low, it was good--trying to maintain Grinch status)

Captain Obvious, you know what's coming...

AND THEN I CRIED.

Last night, we watched A Christmas Story Christmas. I did not watch the original nor do I plan to (remember--Grinch status). Spare yourself because your time is precious. But what part of this process repeated itself? I sat down from the beginning to participate. I did not roll my eyes. I refrained from making commentary. Yup. You would be correct if you guessed...

I 🤬 CRIED, AGAIN!

I thought I had escaped this crying travesty because this story...😶 I was feeling so smug that I hadn't even become a little bit misty-eyed. Ugh, until I didn't. I will say that had more to do with me than the movie, but still. Sheesh.

I couldn't even say I was misty because of the elephants like in some stupid safari Christmas movie we watched. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Nope.

This is the perfect segue ("story" if you saw the movie) to say Jimmy's story (The Lawman) has been completed for a while and went through a round of professional edits. It's not quite the story I want it to be and I think it has a lot to do with all the changes I've been through in the last couple of years. I'm going another round with it and giving it more love, hopefully with some fresh eyes and without the three ring mental circus that's been plaguing me.

I'll keep you posted. I didn't quit but there are times when it sounded like a good idea. What I really needed was a break that I wasn't really giving myself. That's why I've taken to doing things such as this:

Two skeletons sitting on a green bench. The skeletons are wearing Santa hats and Christmas light necklaces. There are two larger mixed breed dogs wearing holiday