December 26, 2023

I wish everybody Happy Holidays, and those who celebrate it, Merry Christmas!

I celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents' with some delicious roast beef and with opening our gifts.

I got my dad two books with lectures by Richard Feynman. This summer, we saw Oppenheimer together in theatre, and he was rather disappointed by it. Some weeks later I found a reddit thread by another guy who disliked the movie for the same reasons as my dad, and people recommended Feynman's works in the comments. Funny enough, dad already thought about getting some audio books by him, but was too stingy.

Gifts for my mom are way harder! We are actually closer and spend much more time together, but she's a very frugal and practical person. She doesn't read, and trying to find good horror or fantasy movies she doesn't know yet, is probably impossible. We share several hobbies, but gifts concerning those are impossible to get? Thus, I got her a nice blouse and a black and white niffler baby!

My parents got me hiking shoes for work (water-proof, so neither urine nor blood will go through), all seasons of The Office, Atom Heart Mother on vinyl, and a new wallet, because my old one was falling apart. Great gifts!!!

My brother, SIL and younger niece visited my parents and me today on Christmas Day. My brother previously expressed himself weirdly, so my parents thought his family has gone vegetarian, so my parents made a 3 course vegetarian menu. Bruschetta as starter (damn good!), cauliflower curry as entree and vanilla ice cream with warm berries as dessert. :")

My younger niece talked about listening to K-Pop, so we talked about it quite a lot! I don't really listen to it, but Knödel and Neit do, hence I hear a lot about it. It was somewhat funny, because none of the others knew about this kind of music.

At one point, we were in a video conference with my older niece, who is spending a year abroad. It was nice to see and talk to her, but we all sure miss her! She'll return next Fall or so, but that's still far away.

Tomorrow will be rather normal again. I'll spend Boxing Day at my parents' and enjoy the feast. The day after that I'll unfortunately have to work again. Ugh. On New Year's Eve, Andras will visit me after work, though. So that's something I'm already looking forward to!

---

December 13, 2023

Seems like I handled the discourse with my car insurance and the only problem was, that this insurance's and my current insurance's policies overlapped. My new insurance cancelled my former insurance, as they'd stated in a letter to me.

I still have to handle problems concerning my energy service, but it's a maddening mess. I still don't know how to even describe it. I know I'm not in the wrong and I have the evidence to show it, but I hope, that they'll accept it. I don't really believe that they can't or wouldn't accept it, but you never know.

I currently have some days off, again. I hope, this time it will suffice to eliminate my persistent cold. At least, I don't cough as much anymore.

I still need to draw a door sign for Andras and me. I have two months to go, but so far I'm just procrastinating it. At least, I finally sorted all my documents from 2020 (or up to now from 2017, as some of them were dated). My office looks somewhat cleaner now.

For whatever reason unknown to me, I also didn't take a hike in a long time. I'm beginning to miss it a lot, but only on the days when it isn't raining or snowing a lot!

I felt like I wanted to write something, but most of it is boring. So, how about some dog tax?

---

December 10, 2023

I got a mail by the travel agency, that my payment was approved. So. Oof. It all worked out in the end, and I'm very looking forward to go there! I'm still annoyed, that I was left to booking it this time, because all the time other people rely on me to book something for us. I'm a very reclusive and private person and actually I'd let other people do the bookings. I don't know why I always need to do this stuff for us, but I really don't like it.

... At the end of last month, I switched my car insurance with my new insurance's promise, that they would cancel my current insurance.

My dad terrorized me for several weeks to change insurances, because an online insurance is cheaper, overall. My old and new insurance actually belong to the same company; my old insurance being a "traditional" insurance, the new one being an "online" insurance. Yet, some days ago, my new insurance made me verify my identitty, because my old insurance was done in "another name".

I only omitted my _second_ forename in my older insurance. Sigh. So although all details were the same, my original insurance was pedantic enough to think that I needed two insurances for the same car?

My new insurance fixed this mess, but my old insurance didn't, and sent me a new (increasingly expensive!) insurance policy for next year. Absolute clowns. I hope I can still fix this crap. I think so, because I'm pretty sure, because I think else would be illegal, but I've never encountered a situation like this before, so I'm very annoyed and cranky at it.

I even have more problems than that, but they wouldn't turn out as expensive. They're rubbing me the wrong way, because they simply are wrong, but at least they wouldn't turn out as expensive.

I _still_ have said persistent cold which I mentioned some blog entries prior. My thorax hurts from the persistant coughing, and I still wake up with a throat ache and a running nose. It's awful. I won't have to work until next Thursday and I _pray_, that I'll get better by then.

I already ordered most of my Christmas gifts, but I hope, that I'll be able to draw the stuff I want to draw by then.

---

December 05, 2023

I'm finally done with my night shifts! I forgot that I'd get a Christmas bonus from my ward, too, so this month's spendings will be a little less harsh.

I finally transcribed the money for my parents' and I's vacational apartment. I accidentally transferred it one day too late, but I paid in total, so I hope it won't give us a disadvantage.

I'm a little bit frustrated, that my father left this year's booking to me. I try my best, but somehow he can manage bookings better, after all.

I'll be so devastated if it doesn't work out.

Apart from that, life isn't interesting. My colleagues got me a huge present for completing my training! I got a plant, a pair of socks, a small bottle of wine, a small pack of chips, tea, and several sweets. I'm somewhat astonished, that everything is spot on, apart from the sweets, maybe. I still need to get a flowerpot for my new plant. Lol.

Tomorrow, my parents will have my mom's friend and her husband over. I've contemplated whether I should go or not, but I like her friend and have some things to talk about with her, because she'd worked in a similar field than mine before retirement. And I've never met her husband yet. So.. I'm looking forwards to tomorrow. :]

---

December 02, 2023

Oh boy, I can't believe that I only wrote one blog entry last month. I didn't have as much time, which you'll see in this entry.

I actually had much free time after I got my certificate. But I caught a persistent cold that is still bugging me today. My throat hurts, I constantly cough and my nose runs. Still, I'm stubborn enough to get stuff done, just not my website lol.

Last week I got a tattoo by my favorite tattoo artist!

To be honest, I like tattoos, but I wouldn't like most of them on my skin. Nensi is one of my favorite tatoo artists and I completely trusted her with my idea. She designed and tatooed something amazing on me.

Afterwards, I got some amazing ramen at a good place in the tattoo studio's neighborhood. Most of my friends (apart from Knödel and Neit) don't like ramen, so I used this opportunity and went there by myself. I've never been to a restaurant on my own, but I can't say anything bad about it. I got a small table by myself, quickly got my drink and my meal and was able to pay quickly.

It was a hassle to get home, though, because several lines just didn't go to the central station. Eventually, I made it back home, though.

The following weekend, Andras and I met up in my hometown, because we wanted to hit up the fair! We had a good time and went in some cool thrill rides, but all in all, the place was overcrowded and a perculiar ride that we normally like to go on, has the rule that, whoever "comes first", rides first. Out of sheer misfortune we couldn't get on it at all. I paid far too much money for this ride, just for a ton of other people to occupy our seats... Five times in a row. To top it all, one of the showmen even yelled at me, because we were prepared to hunt for a seat before the ride has come to a stop. While standing _outside_ the red area, which indicates that it's dangerous to stand there. I think, we'll spend our chips the next time we're there, and then take our precious money to other rides, where we don't have to gamble for a seat. :") We're both too old for that nonsense.

After that awful experience, we calmed our minds with some cocktails. I still laugh, because I ordered martinis instead of margaritas for us. It wasn't a pleasant experience.

Andras eventually ordered us margarits which were absolutely great. I especially love the salt on the rim (like the undernourished goat that I am). Unfortunately, these cocktails had a very bad effect on us, because they were way too sour... Andras stayed at my apartment and we couldn't stop vomiting in the morning... I usually only drink beer or wine and don't feel sick at all, but cocktails, especially cocktails this sour, don't do me good.

I didn't have to work at my hospital for about a month, because of my training, vacation and some days I called in sick due to having a cold, but I hustled some late shifts since Monday. It was hard, because (apart from one day out of four) we were only three nurses on our ward. With maaany admissions and needing to move patients to different rooms. Today, I have a day off, that's why I'm using the opportunity to write this journal!

I'm frustrated, that I most likely have to replace my car battery soon, because it won't charge as much as it should. But my mom and I've watched a bad horror movie and have begun to watch the Dungeons and Dragons movie today. Funny enough, she probably enjoys it more than me, because she likes anything fantasy or fairytale. I enjoy it, too, but I'm mostly happy, that my mom likes it!

I'm also frustrated, that this month will be extremely costly for me. The aforementioned things, my dentist appointment, having my car repaired (once, maybe twice soon), booking our apartment by the sea, having to pay more for electricity, getting gifts for Christmas... I don't buy anything for myself anymore, and all these spendings are taking their toll on me. :")