The Day After

Christmas Day came and quietly went, feeling more like a normal day rather than a holiday, especially since today is Monday and business as usual.

Trainer is not taking today off, so it's a workout this morning.

The Elf has gone back to the North Pole — not to be seen until next December, but before he left, I was able to hunt him down one last time.

The Security Guard was in conversation with a customer. So, though he saw me, I hurried past his post before he could interrupt his conversation, tell me where the Elf was hidden.

The plan for Christmas Day was to get caught up on sleep.

Sleep last two weeks has been tossing, turning, waking up anywhere between 1 and 3 a.m., meditating, browsing TikTok until I felt sleepy again, then arising at my regular time feeling unrested, bags under my eyes.

Sleep did not come Christmas Day.

Instead, to keep my mind off things I did not want to think about — like family relationships and my anger/frustrations with the new dental office, I stayed busy. Worked on that needlepoint, made more tamales — as I'm down to the last two of those made three weeks ago and, while the rest of you were probably watching Holiday movies, I was watching/listening to the Snapped Marathon.

The day before (Christmas Eve), I binge watched Homicide for the Holidays — featuring family annihilators.

The upset with the dental office began on Thursday, when I went in for a cleaning and learned the dentist I was becoming comfortable with was no longer with the office, and my first interaction with his replacement was his pulling the same padding the bill crap that caused me to leave the last office.

One would think he'd at least get to know me before trying to screw me, but nooooo.

Not only was he coming up with work that, at my age, I feel doesn't need to be done, but he missed the one thing that does need attention — a tooth that is vertically broken, in need of a crown. It was the hygienist who detected it, not Mr. DDS.

It's just so frustrating that, ever since Dr. McDreamy's practice was taken over by crooks with quotas to meet, that I can't find a dentist that is not a crook trying to bring in as much money as he can.

I don't imagine it will do me any good to look for yet another dentist, as I now feel this new breed are all crooks. I'll just have to learn how to manage this particular crook — let him do the crown, dig in my heels and not allow him to talk or scare me into anything else.

At any rate, this frustration with the dental office, having occurred just before the Holiday began, sent me on a downward spiral of filling my head with mayhem and murder, rather than heartwarming Holiday movies/baking competitions and added to my restless sleep.

One of those mornings when I’d tossed/turned myself awake at an ungodly hour, I entertained myself on TikTok and ran across an interesting story about a kid named Jeremy who had a beef with Santa.

Jeremy’s letter to santa started off "Deer Santa. i am riting this on the day after x-mas and i am very sad. i only received 1 of the 2 presents i asked for. Sense you ate my cookys i will asoom that my missing gift wuz a miss take. i will give you 1 week too fix this."

Santa (actually his parents) replied, "Dear Jeremy, I’m sorry you are disappointed with your presents. You asked for two very expensive presents and Santa can only do so much. You need learn to be grateful for what you have, not upset about what you don’t. If you continue to complain I will have no choice but to add you to the naughty list next year."

That reply seems to have enraged Jeremy, who then wrote, "Deer Fahy (fatty), your threats don’t scare me i played your game and you did not deliver. This is nOt Oke. i will give you 1 week and then you will pay. P.S. i don’t know why you care that it is expensive when you have Elf Slaves to make thingS for you. i think you are naughty for having slaves."

Santa replied, "Dear Jeremy, You are being a very bad little boy. Because you cannot be happy with what you have, I have talked to your parents and told them to take away your Wii U. Now you have nothing. Once you learn to be grateful, perhaps you can have it back. I am very disappointed in you, Jeremy. You will need to be an extra good boy this year if you want to make it back on the nice list."

It was at this point Jeremy went completely off the rails, replying, "Deer Santa, i do not like that stunt you pulled with my parents. You are on my naughty list now. Be afraid. You look slow and easy to kill. Enjoy your cookys next year because they will be pOisOn."

I don’t know if Jeremy is a real little boy or if this is a joke but, if Jeremy is real, then the Tooth Fairy had better not cross him.