Thursday, December 24, 2009

Still Blue

It's christmas eve, a time when everyone should be feeling merry and excited about what's in store for them the next day. Meanwhile I'm still bluer that ever.

I can smell the turkey that's been cooked a day early. At first it made me feel christmassy but then I remember it's not christmas yet and I won't wake up to the smell of fresh turkey tomorrow instead it will be cold. They've also bought tinned carrots. I don't want to appear snobbish or ungrateful it just doesn't feel like a real christmas dinner to me. Everything my family have is fresh. I won't get to see my family in person tomorrow either, only via webcam and I doubt they'll be missing me too much. Probably far too caught up in spoiling my sister rotten as always.

I can't get off my mind how much money i've not got left in my bank account and the feeling it'll take me a long time to recover if I ever do. Slowly i'm loosing all of my savings. I say mine but really it's just money i've been gifted by people. I'm somehow incapable of saving money. It just drains out of my account like it's a sieve. It's not that I don't try to stop it or that i'm frivelous with it, it's just that finances aren't my strong point. I've never been good at maths and this kind of thing scares the shit out of me.

OH and I are supposed to be looking for a new abode, something i'd dearly love but I just know that it will be my finances that put a spanner in the works. He has loads saved I don't even have a 3 digit sum to my name at the moment.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas Blues

I just checked my bank balance. I'm -£300 on my current account and my credit card lots equally grey. What's worse is my saving wouldn't even make a dint on it. It's not as if i'm in debt as such. Just more a lack of money at this moment in time. I've not been paid yet this month. I thought I would have been paid early given it being christmas but there's no sign of it yet.

It's not just the money that's getting me down though (although it's kind of the icing on the cake) it's just the season in itself. You can see by my previous post i've not been very cheery at the moment. I'd hoped it would have cleared a little by now given the festive season but then i'd forgotten how morose the holidays make me feel. Usually it doesn't kick in until Christmas is actually underway and almost over owing to the cramped surroundings I find myself in with family having taking over my room and me sleeping on a floor somewhere with nowhere to go and be alone and recollect myself. That's been a real problem in the last few years.

My Gran was involved in an RTA in 2001 and ever since then she's been declining in health her memory and mobility in particular. I've watched gradually as every little piece of the 'old' Gran has disappeared. The one that told me stories of her in the war, sang in choirs, visited people and knew everything there was to know about them, baked cakes, remembered where I was and what I was doing. Every Christmas since then it's gotten harder and harder for me to be around her. I feel like I can't even have a conversation with her anymore. I have to talk slower and louder because she can't hear (I know that's a common thing with older people), every 5 minutes she asks me questions which i've already told her the answer to 3 or 4 times and she doesn't remember i've told her the answer. She can't remember where i'm living, she thinks that i'm just visiting my OH and not living with him (one small blessing is she remembers who he is). She also can't remember that i'm no longer on my PGCE and training to be a teacher which breaks my heart as she used to be a teacher and was so pleased that I was going to be one. It also makes me low because I have to explain the agonising truth (that I got stressed/depressed) as to why I left every single time she asks.

My Gran went into a home about a month ago now. She wasn't feeding or washing herself properly and got sick and had two stints in hospital so this year Christmas will be very different for her and for us. My parents are having her over for Christmas dinner. I think they're picking her up Christmas eve and she's going home boxing day with my uncle, not that he's happy about it. Sometimes I think he just wants to get rid of her that he thinks she's a burden or maybe he expects more of her I don't know but it hurts when he says or does things that are negative.


My Christmas is going to be even more different than that this year. It will be my first Christmas not spent with my family. Instead OH and I are going to spend it with his family. I'm sure it will be nice but it won't be the same as mine. There won't be hot freshly cooked turkey for lunch (they cook it the day before); they give their presents out over christmas day, boxing day and new years day instead of just on christmas day which my family do (which is sort of nice as you spread the christmas out a bit). I probably won't go to church like I would do with my family and i'll have to wait till the 27th or possibly 28th to give out my gifts to my family.

All this has left me feeling lonely and out of sorts. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all. I'm not sure i'll even enjoy it. I just get the feeling that this year i'll just melt into the background with no one noticing i'm even here. My parents are supposed to be linking up the webcam on Christmas day so we can have a video chat but they'll probably forget. These days I feel like i'm not even on their list of priorities. I phone up and I can't even get a conversation out off them they're too busy talking to people in the room with them, usually my sister who is obviously their favourite. I find out that they've been places or done things that I would have loved to have done had they thought to invite me but they don't.

I think i'm just going to have to grit my teeth, put on my false smile and pretend as usual that everything is o.k with me and hopefully no one will notice that my world is slowly falling apart again and that barring some miracle i'll have committed suicide by next Christmas.