Ho ho ho and a Merry Christmas Plus One, also known as the Day After Xmas or, as it’s known here in Canada and a number of former British colonies, Boxing Day.

First off, let me apologize for not writing anything yesterday. Believe me, I am as upset about that as you are, maybe even more. But events conspired to leave me absolutely no time in which to write anything, and I had to make some executive decisions.

Mostly, the issue was sleep. I slept for a lot of Xmas day, and by the time I was even faintly competent for consciousness, it was time to leave for supper at Joe’s parents’ place.

And it was quite a pleasant evening, as per usual. I was not doing all that hot at first, to be honest. We had another overflow incident with my toilet on Xmas day, complete with the fellow from the apartment below us, apartment 109, knocking on the door all agitated and clearly pissed off and freaking out, but too polite or shy to really let me have it.

Which of course only makes me feel worse. Sigh.

Well, that and knowing I ruined his Xmas, assuming he celebrates it. (Around here, you can’t be sure. This is a highly ethnically diverse area. And I cannot for sure place his ethnicity. He might be Asian, he might be Latino, not sure. So who knows?)

I am trying not to take too much guilt on board this time. I mean, I feel bad that this happened but accidents happen and I don’t need to go into the whole detonation of my entire self-worth like has happened in the past when this sort of thing went down.

I might not be able to help it, granted, but I am not going down without a fight. Plus, I see my therapist tomorrow and I can tell him about it and maybe get some support.

What the hell, it’s worth a try.

So anyhoo, I was sleepy, dehydrated, my blood sugar was low (undereating again, tsk tsk) and I was feeling pretty depressed when we headed for Joe’s parent’s place.

And so I was not feeling wonderful when I got there, but I did my best to be a pleasant and interesting guest. I was probably a little quieter than usual, because it is sort of hard to be quick with the banter when you are feeling all dragged out and fucked up.

But eventually, when I had enough food in me and my chemical state stabilized a little, I was feeling fine and quite enjoying myself, and glad that when I had been very down and sleepy, I had not given in to the temptation to ask Joe to drive me home so I could sleep.

(It’s a short drive, so it would not have been that big a deal. )

But instead, I stuck it out, and I am glad, because it was a very nice evening. We ended up playing a rather fun game called Quiddler. It’s kind of a cross between Scrabble and gin rummy or other trick-taking card games.

You are dealt cards with letters and point values on them, just like Scrabble tiles, and the idea is to use up all your cards to make words of at least two cards. When you can do that. you can go “out” like in gin rummy, and everyone else gets one last turn to make up as many words as they can.

That is the basic idea, anyhow. It is a lot of fun for a word nerd like me. I came in second-last, alas, but I don’t feel too bad about it, because I figure that, assuming all players are at a certain minimum ability, the game really boils down to luck. Who gets what juicy point-laden cards.

Which is a little disappointing, really. It seems like a game of skill, but it’s not. Oh well.

And because fate is a perverse bitch, even though historically when I do this Xmas thing with Joe’s parents, I am very sleepy afterward, this time I was wide awake and perky.

This is largely due to running out of my sleeping pills. I miscalculated when I told my therapist that I had enough pills for the week and I am all out. And the main symptom of withdrawal for quetiapine is just plain not sleeping.

Which is very annoying. I could not sleep a wink. I tried to sleep at around 1 am, but I got nowhere. Laid there wide awake for a long time, then said to heck with it and got up, and just messed around online between 2:30 and 6 am.

Then I went and had some breakfast, and after that, I was able to finally, eventually, after two rounds of light exercise, get to sleep.

Oh, right, gifts! Gotta trawl my haul for y’all.

From my mother, I got new undies, some very nice black socks, and some comfy fuzzy slippers. I am wearing the slippers right now, as well as a pair of the socks. They make for a very cozy combo! My feet feel all toasty warm now.

And given my diabetes, that is a distinctly good thing.

From my sister Anne, I got a $75 gift certificate from L. L. Bean. I am going to spend it on some sleep pants (AKA pajama bottoms) and a pair of gloves, once I get an issue with the web site resolved.

From my sister Catherine, I got a very nice pair of sneakers. The kind I like, the kind that are sort of like boots but comfy like sneakers. Best of both worlds.

Although I will have to get used to tying my laces again. My last pair of sneakers, soon to be lain to rest, were Velcro tabbed.

From my brother Dave, I got an amazon.ca gift certificate which I have already spent on a game for the Wii. Super Mario Galaxy 2. It has a Metacritic rating of 97 percent. Who am I to argue with that?

Plus Xenoblade Chronicles is crazy expensive.

That’s my Xmas, more or less. How was yours?