i’m sitting in the living room curled up on my couch with a candle blazing determinedly on the table and a cup of instant decaf coffee cooling next to my compputer as i type type type away – and these are all the little comforts i throw in the face of the biting cold i know to be outside.
i’ve somehow lost my neck gaiter, which i bought only last week, so i ordered another one and it’s supposed to come in tomorrow. no way am i going to run outside without it, with my face frozen raw in the cold. today i had to settle for a simple abs workout.
i gues that’s one of my goals for this year: to be more active than i’ve been, and to take my fitness more seriously. i feel the need to provide a counterpoint to the sedentiary lifestly this work from home situation (and my job in general) has allowed me to fall into. no need to get stagnant and waste away.
one of my friends recommended this app called fitbod, and i did one of its workouts and felt the burn, so that was a good sign. maybe i’ll become one of those people who takes progress pictures in the mirror every three months. maybe my true calling is to be a fitness influencer, and to become obsessed with counting calories and measuring body fat percentages.
or maybe 100% definitely not.
i took two weeks off work at the end of december for the holidays and that entire time i thought to myself “you know what, this is the time to treat myself, to spend hours on end playing video games, watching movies with my family, and guiltlessly eating all manner of chocolate and takeout, extravagent feasts courtesy of consecutive holidays, and my dad’s homecooked meals.”
needless to say, i overate probably every day of my vacation, and i justified it by promising to be more committed to my fitness in the new year.
december was a good month for me. i got to spend lots of time with my family, which is always nice, and since we were all being cautious because of the pandemic, they’re basically the only people i saw the whole time. my brothers were all home for the holidays, and we spent most of our days playing video games in the playroom.
they were all playing a co-op game called division 2 together while i made my way through all four seasons of the walking dead game, a plague tale, and, after my brother miraculously managed to successfully buy a ps5, returnal.
by the end of my vacation, i was playing returnal at any given opportunity. who knew i’d be so into a rogue-like game? but the gameplay was addictive and the visuals were impressive, and i guess as frustrating as it was, the challenge of it compelled me.
we all went to bed at around 5-7am every night, and before i fell asleep, i’d see the ghostly after image of my character fighting any number of alien enemies in my head. i’d conjure the laser lights and colours, and i would rebuild the ruins of the environment, playing the game in my head.
sleep wasn’t made any easier by my brother’s dog, who would often lumber into my room and hop on my bed, settling himself into a ball or laying down on his side. he’s a big dog, so he took up most of the bed, and i typically found myself cast to the side, trying not to move lest i disturb the beast and he leave. because even if it wasn’t the easiest to fall asleep next to the big dog, there was a comfort to having him there – a steady and unconditional warmth.
so that’s how december went. but it wasn’t totally spent cooped up in our house. we’d go out for bubble tea or to grab food, or to take a trip all around toronto, visiting incredible christmas lights displays some houses had put up. and we also went to the distillery districty, where we witnessed a proposal and ate some more.
christmas was as nice as always. our living room floor was drowning with presents, and the tree was as big as i’d ever seen it. after all the eating and present-opening, we settled in the playroom to watch don’t look up on netflix, and all of us enjoyed it.
also, my work gala took place in mid-december, and that was a great time (even though there was later some concern it had been a superspreader event).
i finally got promoted to a program ambassador position, and i just found out i was my company’s associate of the month, so all in all, the year ended on a high note for me.
now here we are, starting the year back in lockdown, but i haven’t been too upset by it. i was yearning for quiet nights anyway, and this gives me the time and space to focus on drawing and writing more, which are more goals i have for 2022.
i hope i can remain consistent and disciplined enough to continue this trajectory of healthy habits and creativity. i know that all crafts take practice, and i want to get good.
here’s to hoping i can keep it all up. lots of things to look forward to and be excited about in the new year. i hope that if i end up reading this sometime next winter, i’ll be able to look back and see it’d been a good year after all.