I made a hundred bucks today.

Not trying to be all sassy re not spending Christmas with family, as you're supposed to do, but... I spent Christmas at the office putting in 4 hours toward a freelance project, a book about African women's naked protests against the hierarchy. Made a hundred dollars.

Did I miss my family on Christmas? Actually, no.

My mother has always provided a great Christmas since I was a kid. Warm and nice. I miss that.

Lately, though... Christmas has been trying to coordinate with my brother's wife's family. They're nice enough. But I don't care about coordinating with them. They don't mean "Christmas" to me at all.

I haven't spent Christmas with my mother and brother/family for the past 3 years. 2016 was the first year apart, when I arrived at my mother's house with my bag o' presents and she immediately went on: "Where's your car? Where's your car? Where's your car?" (My new as-of-July 2016 car was parked down the street; when I said, "It's parked down the street," my mother still couldn't figure that out: "Where's your car? Where's your car? Where's your car?" I couldn't stand it for a second longer and left.)

2017 and 2018? Apart because my mother made the mistake last year of telling me that I wasn't going to be left 50% of her will (only 25%), which flashed me back to every shitty thing she'd ever done to me.

Truth is, though, my mother and brother haven't been very caring toward me... EVER. I don't miss them during the holidays at all. I do miss the nice Christmas atmosphere that my mother created all during my childhood, though.

Oh well. I made a hundred bucks today. And the lack of traffic in Austin on Christmas was very nice to drive around in. I appreciate "different sensations." And since I'm going nowhere, Austin during Christmas and Spring Break and Summer Break are apparently what I now have to look forward to each year. Oh, and new TVs.