Today, I did something that I am pretty sure I’ve never done.
I listened to Christmas music way early.
I know, I know. Some people do this all the time and some people are chipper and some people can bite me.
It’s not that I don’t like Christmas music – I do! It’s just that I love Halloween more, and I respect doing holidays in order, and I don’t want to make Christmas music feel less special by overplaying it. You know?
At any rate, today I was daring to feel thiiiiiis much more hopeful about the outcome of the election (I kid you not, I’ve literally been breathing more easily today. I’ve felt lighter.) and I started working on Christmas lists for myself and my kids. I asked my daughter what she wanted for Christmas and, without hesitating, said “a car.” She’s three.
From there, I got “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” stuck in my head and so then I needed to hear it, and after that YouTube took it from there. I was dancing and singing and shaking my butt and it felt so wrong and yet so right.
As an afterthought, I’ve also begun to realize that I’ve been doing things early (for me) and speeding things up in an attempt to try and make time pass faster because, in my mind, if time passes faster, the sooner this pandemic will be over and I can hug my friends and family again.
Usually, I’m the type of person who lingers. I like to savor moments and try to stretch things, wringing out all possible enjoyment. But this year, the day after Halloween was a Sunday and I…just found myself cleaning up the decorations. I never do that. But I had decorated early in the first place, and it was a weekend day so I had the time and I just…felt…done. Like it was time to move on.
Just like now, where I’m so done. We’re heading into winter and dear lord I need some cheer in my life. So if that means extending the Christmas holiday, so be it.
Also, a hippo would either trample you or eat you alive. Zero stars, do not recommend.
Day 6
Psychobabble 
There are some Christmas tunes I would happily listen to year-round. There’s nothing at all; wrong with enjoying it.
Also, you sent me down a google-hole about hippos eating meat, and I found this sentence that surprised me very much: “Dudley lists instances where wild hippos have fed on impalas, elephants, kudus, wildebeest, zebras, and other hippos that they either killed themselves or were killed by other predators.”
ELEPHANTS? Hippos can eat elephants? What *can’t* they do? That’s wild.
Fact: hippos are fucking NUTS. Don’t ever mess with one.