This one speaks for itself.

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Surviving the holidays: What does that even mean?

This holiday season I noticed an abundance of articles dedicated to “surviving” the holidays. How have you survived the holiday season? What thing or situation did you feel you needed to survive?

Bonus: What are your plans for New Year’s Eve? New Year’s Day?

Jack’s Answers

Surviving the holiday season isn’t really an issue for me. I genuinely enjoy this time of year despite the added traffic and crowds, greater expenditures, and forced socializing. Additionally since I usually make a handful of gifts for family members, I find myself short on sleep the closer we get to Christmas, and this year was no exception. For me, though, it’s generally worth it as I enjoy seeing smiles on the faces of my loved ones. Make no mistake, the holidays are usually stressful for me. But it’s usually not negative stress. There is little adversity for me. I don’t have to deal with toxic relatives or politically-charged arguments at the dinner table, and in fact I opted out of visiting Trump-supporting relatives on Christmas Eve. I don’t spend money to the point that I’m buried in debt until July. I don’t experience depression or anxiety specifically related to the holidays. I know these are just a few of the issues that make some people dread this time of year.

All that said, I did make time for fun this month. A several-day trip to Ohio to visit Rye started the month off in suitably sexy fashion, and beyond that I had a couple opportunities to go drinking with friends. While Jill was out of town visiting a friend, I enjoyed some one-on-one time with my daughter which involved playing at home, driving around looking at Christmas lights, and going out to dinner. With the exception of the first item, these are things that rarely happen when it’s just the two of us. I even had fun at Jill’s family’s annual Christmas party despite the absence of my wife (and my inability to flirt with anyone given the fact it was a family event) and the lack of alcohol owing to the policy of the venue. I would have loved to have been invited out to socialize with friends more than I actually did, but three such instances in eight days may be a record for yours truly.

As for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, we rarely do much. New Year’s Eve usually sees us eating junk food and watching TV. Our daughter may fall asleep at her usual bedtime, but if not we probably won’t put her to bed before the ball drops at midnight. Jill and I will drink champagne to toast the end of a lousy year and ring in a year that might actually be worse, and then we’ll probably fuck on the couch. That’s what we did last year, anyway.

Jill’s Answers

The holiday season is usually pretty stressful for me. I am usually unable to put my needs first, as everyone – my husband and my daughter, my students, my friends, and my entire extended family – needs more from me this time of year than I can easily give. By Christmas Day, and usually well before, I usually feel totally drained and it makes for a less relaxing winter vacation than I need it to be. However, this year I survived Christmas by focusing on my needs for once. I got a massage, and spent an few sexy days in a hotel far from Jack and our daughter. I was truly spoiled. I also made a conscious effort to focus on the positive things in my life. While I was away I found myself missing Jack and the little one, which ensured I’d want to spend time with them when we were reunited a few days before Christmas.

December is always very busy for us. I was invited to four Christmas parties this month, and I was unable to attend three of them because my daughter was ill. I missed the fourth party because it coincided with my sexy hotel stay. I was looking forward to all four of them, and although I was disappointed to have to miss them I made the most of it. I guess you could say I survived the disappointment. But I feel like I barely survived the last week of school with my students. This year’s class is difficult and uncooperative during a normal week, and the last week of school before winter vacation almost broke me. Still, I’m glad to have some time to relax, and I hope to make the most of it before school starts again in January.

As of right now we have no plans for either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Maybe we’ll be invited somewhere exciting! [Editor’s note: I doubt it.]

How to play TMI Tuesday: Copy the above TMI Tuesday questions to your webspace (i.e., a blog). Answer the questions there, then leave a comment below, on this blog post, so we’ll all know where to read your responses. Please don’t forget to link to tmituesdayblog from your website!

 

We wish all of you who celebrate holidays this time of year much joy, and health and happiness in 2017.

See who else is being sinful at Molly’s Daily Kiss!

 

Happy TMI Tuesday. You know what to do…

LIFE AND BEING

[Editor’s Note: Jack here. I’m flying solo this week, as Jill is holed up in a love nest of sorts on the opposite side of the country. I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to answer this week’s questions and take her away from her fun. Though, to be fair, the last several weeks when I have sent her the questions she hasn’t given me her answers until Tuesday morning, by which point I usually can’t be bothered. Which explains our absence of late.]

1. Why do you live where you live?
The easy answer is, I was born here. I grew up here. It’s essentially all I’ve ever known. My friends are here. Most of my family as well. And my wife’s family too. Jill isn’t likely to pull up stakes and move far away from her parents and her siblings. However, we’ve discussed doing exactly that; our real estate dollar would go so much farther in almost any other part of the country than it would where we are currently living. For what we are currently paying to live in a small condominium, we could have a castle in another state. However, that would require actually living in another state. I’d love to be able to afford a house with a full basement that I could convert into a home theater complete with attached bar and game room, but if doing so requires me to move to a red state, it’s never going to happen.

2. Do you want to have your sins forgiven?
I don’t really believe in sin. Not in the classic definition as is taught to children on Sunday mornings, anyway. I try to live my life in a way that makes sense to me and I always endeavor to do no harm, but I am not religious at all. With that in mind I find much of what is considered a sin in the eyes of the Catholic church (in which I was raised) completely irrelevant to me as a forty-year-old man. If God exists and is all-powerful, He probably isn’t threatened by someone preferring another deity, taking his name in vain, or the whole “graven images” thing. I understand the gravity of murder, theft, and bearing false witness, so I don’t do those things. But coveting one’s neighbor’s wife, or his house, or his mule? Who gives a shit? How does that piss off the Lord? Why does he care if I want what my neighbor has as long as I don’t kill him to get it? Also, keeping holy the Sabbath? Come on. If I want to wake up at noon on a Sunday and jerk off in bed before waking up and getting plastered, who am I hurting? I take particular exception to the adultery commandment as I happen to enjoy sex that is, per Wikipedia, “objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds”. Anyway, I don’t care if my sins are forgiven by a hypothetical god or God, or by some out-of-touch religious figurehead. I would, however, like it if my transgressions were forgiven by those whom I actually wronged.

3. Do you believe in heaven and hell?
I could make a joke along the lines of “Hell is Trump’s America”, but instead I’ll just say no.

4. After life, where do you think you will end up?
Don’t know, don’t care. An urn on somebody’s mantel? An unmarked grave in a potter’s field? The belly of a hungry lion? Doesn’t matter. If you were expecting me to get more philosophical than that, you’re barking up the wrong blog.

5. If you have children, would they say you are the favorite parent? Why do you think this?
I have one child. I hope she would not say I am the favorite parent, because (a) I’m sure it would hurt Jill’s feelings and because (b) hello, I’m obviously phoning it in.

6. Has anything ever happened to you that was dramatic, personal or spectacular enough to cause you to believe in a God?
The only thing that ever caused me to believe in God, or in a god, was the intense religious indoctrination I experienced as a child. Everyone in my family was Catholic. I attended catechism after school once a week. There was at least one Bible in my house (though as far as I know nobody ever read it) and a crucifix hanging above my bed (ostensibly to ward off vampires). While my parents and I didn’t go to church every week we did go sometimes. My mother was a firm believer in the power of prayer (and I believe still is). My cousins went to Catholic school. While the majority of my day-to-day existence was secular – I consumed entertainment that was generally not religious in nature – I was still Catholic, and kind of believed in the existence of God by default. It seemed ridiculous to me, but I couldn’t imagine the church existed to swindle its congregation by trading promises and lies for tithing. Surely the government would have stepped in were that the case.

Bonus: What is something you consider to be a great personal success? Why was it so significant?
Completing this week’s TMI Tuesday on minimal sleep.

How to play TMI Tuesday: Copy the above TMI Tuesday questions to your webspace (i.e., a blog). Answer the questions there, then leave a comment below, on this blog post, so we’ll all know where to read your responses. Please don’t forget to link to tmituesdayblog from your website!

It was very difficult to hold my phone sufficiently steady to capture this moment.  See more of Rye at Chasing Me Chasing You.

See who else is being sinful at Molly’s Daily Kiss!

 

Porn playing on my laptop, pillows forgotten on the floor, and Rye lying wantonly on her back.  It’s been a fun weekend.

See who else is being sinful at Molly’s Daily Kiss!

 

When you’re in the shower, no one can see your tears.

See who else is being sinful at Molly’s Daily Kiss!

 

See who else is being sinful at Molly’s Daily Kiss!

New month, new questions…get to writing that new blog post by playing TMI Tuesday.

Jack’s Answers

1. What makes you cry?
The thought of harm befalling those I care about. Genuine expressions of emotion, or better still, of love. A perfectly-cooked steak.

2. The world is ending (or you are on death row), what would be your last meal?
A Mission-style burrito from any good San Francisco taqueria. Chips and salsa, preferably something with some heat. A couple craft beers, ideally including some sort of stout or porter. Belching Beaver Brewing Company’s Peanut Butter Milk Stout would be ideal. And for dessert, some of my wife’s homemade chocolate. Oh, and my wife. I’d like to eat her one last time.

3. You must join a gang/crew, of the choices below, which gang would you join and why?
a. Rue Bella and the Annie Depressants – a crew of drag queens
b. Aryan Brotherhood of white supremacist
c. Secret Society of The Order of Chaeronea – fostering an understanding and acceptance of gay community and lifestyle
d. Free Hugs club – monthly membership requirement of hugging 10 strangers a month
e. Quidditch Club – Mandatory game every Sunday. (Not a Harry Potter fan, read this for more info ).
I’d probably go with (d). While the thought of hugging ten strangers each month seems daunting given the social anxiety with which I sometimes deal, but the thought of spreading happiness to consenting strangers ten at a time seems more my speed than any others. For example, I am a Harry Potter fan, but I don’t see myself playing Quidditch. I’d probably watch though.

4. Who makes the best leader of a country–your mom or dad? Why?
My mother is far more diplomatic, and in a leadership role would be sensitive to the needs of her constituents. My father is far less so, and without intending to besmirch him, I don’t see him making a suitable world leader. However, perhaps these faults would endear him to a certain segment of the population who don’t want a calm, rational leader who takes seriously the will of the people.

5. If you could abolish one piece of modern technology, what would it be and why?
Self-balancing scooters, the type commonly known as hoverboards. You know the ones I’m talking about; they’re narrow pieces of plastic with two wheels, and people ride them while trying not to fall off. I’d like to see these inexplicably popular things disappear not because they’re dangerous or annoying, or because everyone who rides them looks like a dipshit. No, I’d like to see them gone because we spent almost twenty years anticipating the arrival of actual hoverboards – that’s right, boards that legitimately hover – as seen in Back to the Future Part II, and this is what we got instead. Fuck that. Get these things out of here and give us what we were promised.

Bonus: Will you (or have you) celebrate Halloween this year? What did you do?
Watched horror movies. Took my kid trick-or-treating with her cousins. Got rained on. Took my contractual 20% from my daughter’s haul and ate a few pieces of it.

Jill’s Answers

1. What makes you cry?
Lots of things make me cry. A certain song that affects me emotionally might make me cry. Knowing I’ve hurt someone else or been hurt by someone might do the trick as well. Likewise, losing someone I love makes me cry. And once in awhile I cry for no reason at all.

2. The world is ending (or you are on death row), what would be your last meal?
I’d opt for Red Vines, peanut M&Ms, and cheddar and sour cream potato chips as an appetizer or snack, and then a filet mignon, medium rare, with a loaded baked potato on the side. For dessert, I’d like Rocky Road ice cream and a chocolate chip cookie, please.

3. You must join a gang/crew, of the choices below, which gang would you join and why?
a. Rue Bella and the Annie Depressants – a crew of drag queens
b. Aryan Brotherhood of white supremacist
c. Secret Society of The Order of Chaeronea – fostering an understanding and acceptance of gay community and lifestyle
d. Free Hugs club – monthly membership requirement of hugging 10 strangers a month
e. Quidditch Club – Mandatory game every Sunday. (Not a Harry Potter fan, read this for more info ).
I would probably go with (e). I really love hugs, so I was tempted to go with (d), but hugs with strangers not so much. But I’m a big Harry Potter fan, I love Quidditch, and I’ve always wanted to fly.

4. Who makes the best leader of a country–your mom or dad? Why?
My Dad. He’s honest and trustworthy. He genuinely cares about people and makes a point to remember everyone he’s ever met. He’s also great at negotiations, gives back to his community, and practices what he preaches.

5. If you could abolish one piece of modern technology, what would it be and why?
Nothing! I like technology.

Bonus: Will you (or have you) celebrate Halloween this year? What did you do?
I did celebrate Halloween this year! At work, we did Halloween activities with our students, and there was a parade and a party. After work, Jack and I went trick-or-treating with our daughter. I even dressed up!

How to play TMI Tuesday: Copy the above TMI Tuesday questions to your webspace (i.e., a blog). Answer the questions there, then leave a comment below, on this blog post, so we’ll all know where to read your responses. Please don’t forget to link to tmituesdayblog from your website!

Who wants to help me get clean?

See who else is being sinful at Molly’s Daily Kiss!