cappyhead

Well, I made some quince jam. It smells like flowers. Joel says it tastes like flowers too. If he doesn't like it, I'll give it away. Probably, someone will like flower-tasting jam.

I managed to _finally_ finish up the podcast, and since I'm so late in getting it done, I needed to start on the next one. However, I don't have permissions for any songs for that one yet, since I wanted it to be winter solstice songs, so I also sent out requests to the musicians for permission. My plan is to just send out requests every day until I have permission for enough songs. Hopefully, it will go quickly.

The standard story structure that we use in the West is something similar to the three act structure, which basically has an inciting incident (what begins the story), the rising action (tension increases as the story unfolds with difficulties along the way that keep the hero from reaching the goal), and the climax (where all that tension peaks and starts to be resolved).

I've been thinking about holidays and how to make them fun. I've been thinking about this for quite a while, so probably you've read about this here before. I've known it is about doing some holiday-related activities and that kind of thing to get you in the spirit, but that isn't all of it. Yesterday, I started wondering how much of the difficulty was that we already get whatever we want from an online store as soon as we want it and that we eat all the luxurious food we want, so feast-day food is no longer a big deal. Today, I started with that idea and worked on it until I came out with the following:

Holidays are good if they follow the three act structure.

They start with your realization that it is approaching the holiday season. Perhaps, in the case of Christmas, it is that Thanksgiving is over, or that people start putting up lights. Next, your anticipation begins to build, but you also face some challenges. One is that you need to wait for the holiday (which is already super hard if you are a kid), but others might be travel, buying presents, or preparing food. However, after all the little events that build tension - holiday parties, Christmas music, seeing Christmas decorations everywhere - you get the climactic event: opening presents with a big tree covered in lights.

If the buildup goes on too long, the anticipation wears off. If there is no buildup, it feels a lot less like a holiday, and if the climax is sub-par, it is disappointing.

This is really helpful for me, as now I can see that all the events in the world during the build-up phase don't work to create a satisfying holiday if there is no climax at the end. Likewise, if the climax is too stressful, like Thanksgiving was this year, even though there wasn't actually all that much that I did, it isn't satisfying.

So, now, I'm thinking of organizing holidays/really exciting events around these three factors:
* buildup appropriate to the event (edit: with a sense of joy and wonder, as a friend points out)
* a climax that is fun/exciting/enjoyable enough to justify all the buildup
* the day of the event should be low enough stress that the participants have the energy to enjoy it

To that end, we'll do some more in terms of decorations, but I won't do tons and tons more Christmas stuff around town. Then, we'll have friends who have no family in town over on Christmas Day (or something else if everyone changes their minds) to make gingerbread houses (I'll make the gingerbread in advance to lower the stress), string popcorn on thread to make garlands, and maybe do something that is festive in their countries. Probably, we'll feed them, but it will be something simple like sandwiches or a maybe a spicy ground turkey casserole that Joel really likes. If they all flake, maybe Joel and I will go and walk along the bike path by the river together, since I love Joel time. We're also considering hiring one of the professional Game Masters to run a holiday-themed roleplaying game for us, since that would also be super fun and much less stress than having to run it ourselves.

Today, I went to get the ultrasound of the lump in my mouth. However, after about an hour and 20 minutes of waiting, the waiting room was nearly empty, so I asked a nurse what was going on, and it turns out that the lady at the check-in desk had not correctly checked me in. So, then I sat around for another half hour until they could get to me. * sigh * At least, that is done.

Then, I went to the pharmacy and got my shingles vaccination. So far, so good on that one.