Gifts for Rob, Who Is Impossible To Buy for But I Continue To Try

I impulse(/gin)-ordered Rob a tiny real tree yesterday evening:

(image from Amazon.com)

You know, I have TRIED to scale back on Amazon, for philosophical reasons, and I have succeeded to some extent. But when I look up my options for sending someone a tiny live tree, and I get results that include a $120-plus-shipping option, a $75-plus-delivery option, a $150-plus-shipping option, and a $24-with-free-shipping option, I am going to use Amazon, because the other three options mean I am not going to impulse-order my far-away child a small live Christmas tree, and I DO want to order him a small live Christmas tree.

One thing I am pretty sure I have discussed with Rob, but I need to make a point of discussing it again, is the concept of re-gifting. You may remember Rob is the one who doesn’t want anything, though he does understand me when I explain that I cannot give him literally nothing for Christmas. But I think it really, really helps, when receiving gifts one doesn’t want, to remember that one person’s oppressive unwanted gift is another person’s delightful holiday surprise. If Rob doesn’t want the little tree, and feels oppressed by it, then he could give it to his landlord, or he could leave it anonymously outside a neighbor’s door with a little note, or he could drop it off at his library, or he could give it to his bike-repair shop; he could give it to the friend he had a picnic with, which is all he told us and he wouldn’t tell us anything else about either the friend or the picnic; he could drop it off at a local charity or business. Giving away the gift could end up being the fun part of the gift for him, and I want to make sure he knows about that.

Along similar lines, one of my only gift suggestions he responded positively to was the idea of a stack of $5 bills for him to hand out when he sees someone asking. I might expand that into a gift of $5 bills, soft breakfast bars, hand/toe warmers, and ziploc baggies, so that he can make little bags to hand out. (Or he can choose to hand out just the bills, and donate/use the other things.)

We are also giving him money for him to donate to his favorite charity. I wanted to make the donation myself, in his name, but then he doesn’t get the tax credit, and also it means we’re the ones who get all the emails begging for more money, so I send him the money and he makes the donation.

Last year we got him symphony tickets (he likes classical music), which I’d hoped would be so successful we could just do it again year after year, a ticket to one concert for Christmas and a ticket to another concert for his birthday, done and done!—but no. He liked trying it, but doesn’t have any particular interest in going again.

He has turned down experience gifts. He has turned down gift cards to local restaurants, furniture stores, clothing stores, online stores, the bike/repair store, various services. He has turned down computer equipment and exercise/sports equipment. He has turned down wall art (except for a large city-map poster, which we gave him last year), subscription boxes of all kinds, upgrades to things he has (such as a better frying pan or a better pillow), a compact printer, a personal blender, a savings bond, a suitcase (he has the GIANT ones he moved with, but I thought he might want a smaller more practical size for normal trips—and it could fit inside one of the big suitcases), the new Zelda game, replacements of favorite-but-now-ratty t-shirts. If you are thinking you have an idea, you might as well say it because WHO KNOWS?—but the most likely thing is that he already turned it down and I just didn’t want to make this paragraph any longer.

I am getting him a pair of sturdy but comfortable casual work pants: apparently he was a bit stuck when his company wanted him to appear in person for a (casual) work conference. Paul got him a bicycle basket (Rob doesn’t have a car, and he rides his bike everywhere) that snaps easily on and off the front of the bike to turn into a handled shopping basket. I am sending the usual practical stocking stuffers: new underwear, new socks, new toothbrush, new razors; but with much much less candy than I’m giving his siblings, because he has mentioned not wanting much candy. I’ll send him the usual filled plastic candy cane; the overpriced cylinder of mini M&Ms that accidentally turned out to be a CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT part of stockings for the kids; a few chocolate coins; maybe some small special/expensive chocolate thing. I’m sending a wee can of cranberry sauce I was charmed by at the grocery store. I’m sending one of those teensy metal-wire strings of teensy LED lights for his live tree, maybe a few teensy ornaments too but Paul said “He won’t want to have to store those.” And I’m sending him new flannel pajama pants, because he said that’s mostly what he wears day in and day out now (he works remotely). None of this sounds good to me. I am trying not to worry.

Checklist for Having College Kids Home for Thanksgiving Break

• Put up and decorate the Christmas tree, maybe even if you’re a die-hard “NOT UNTIL DECEMBER!!” person—because the college kid(s) won’t be back until mid-December, and that might be kind of late by even a die-hard’s standards.

• Have them make a list of the holiday movies/shows they want you to wait to watch until they’re home for Christmas break, so that you can watch the other ones on the nights between now and then. Before they go back, have them pick one they want to watch to kick off the season. Get weepy about it.

• Annual flu/Covid shots. Or maybe your kids will manage to take advantage of the much more convenient campus clinics! My kids so far have not managed that, despite subtle coaching. And, one time, in one case, I tried to manage it for them, and all the appointments were full 15 minutes after the email went out, so perhaps it is not all that convenient after all.

• Woo them with a sentimental meal, in addition to all the scheduled Thanksgiving-food wooing.

• Maybe also a sentimental cookie/bar/cake/pie. Or maybe there is already too much leftover dessert in the house.

• Take a family photo for the Christmas card, if you send out cards.

• Do they need deodorant? shampoo? conditioner? granola bars? Kraft Easy Mac? It is cheaper to buy it here than on campus! THOSE SHYSTERS

• Winter coats? winter boots? gloves? hat? scarf? WHAT HAVE THEY FORGOTTEN? MUST PROTECT BABY FROM FROSTBITE!!

• Send them back with advent/countdown calendars, if applicable! We don’t usually buy the chocolate countdown calendars for the household, but I DO buy them for college kids.

• Send them back with Christmas lights for their dorm rooms, if applicable! Maybe some snowflake lights, if you don’t do Christmas lights!

Filling Our Own Christmas Stockings; No Calendar Post; Older Kids and What a Delight They Can Be

As soon as the Thanksgiving meal is over, I crack out the pine-scented hand soap. CHRISTMAS SEASON, BITCHES. Well, that is just me trying to sound cool.

Here is the little thing I keep saying to myself as I am doing my Christmas shopping and seeing things I want for myself: “I don’t need that.” Alternative phrases, also in use: “I have enough of that”/”I don’t want to have to find a place for that.”

If, however, I find I DO need that, DON’T have enough of that, or DON’T MIND AT ALL finding a place for that, then I go ahead and buy it. I know I have mentioned on other occasions that after a couple of decades of I don’t know what to call it, I now fill my own stocking. There is a big-picture way in which this sucks, but I have found several silver linings to it, one of which is that when I see things throughout the year that might be difficult to justify buying (face lotion/wash that costs more than I would usually spend but it’s on a good sale; Hello Kitty lip balms; stickers I absolutely do not need), I can buy them, For My Stocking. I have an opaque bag in the gift cupboard where I put those things, so that many of them end up being actual surprises. Thank you, Earlier-in-the-Year Swistle! How sweet of you to think of me! I feel so loved!

This would be an excellent moment for you to suggest some little indulgences any of us might wish to purchase for our own stockings. I will be taking INTENSE NOTES.

Abrupt segue. I am not planning to do the annual calendar post this year. I hesitate even to mention this, because sometimes when I see someone bracing other people for something they’re not going to do, as if they think it is something other people need to brace for, my reaction is not positive. Sometimes I think uncharitable thoughts. But also I know how I feel about certain regular, predictable events. So anyway I am saying it, super casually, just in case you would like to know ahead of time. I am not sure which wall calendar I will buy for the kitchen this year (though, based on current mood, probably a comforting repeat from a previous year), but I have already bought the Pusheen day-to-day calendar for my desk.

Four kids are here for Thanksgiving, and it is wonderful. If right now you are in the pits of little-kid busyness and exhaustion, let me just say that older kids can be a delight I didn’t know to anticipate.

Good Friend-Group Christmas Gift Ideas

You know those undereye masks you can buy, the little patches that look like big commas? Do you have some you’ve used and liked, or some you’ve heard of as being cool/trendy? I want to get some for William’s stocking. He thinks he has undereye circles. They’re genetic, I’m sorry to say, but that doesn’t mean I don’t empathize with his motivation to feel as if he’s Doing Something About It, and little luxury items are great for stockings.

Also. And this is tricky, because several members of the group read here. But I am looking for good friend-group Christmas gift ideas. I am in a group of eight women, and we used to do a Yankee Swap for Christmas, but now we each bring seven matched (or BASICALLY matched, like everyone might get a different windchime but they’re all windchimes) gifts to hand out to each other. This means finding something that works for seven fairly different people. Some of us are better at it than others.

I had what I thought was The Greatest Idea of All Time, but it turns out I am not temperamentally or skillsically suited for it. Long ago, not long after we formed our group, we had a local artist paint us matching wine glasses: same overall design for everyone, but then each person’s own name on the base of the glass. More than half of us have broken our glasses by now, and the local artist is no longer local. I thought I could watch some YouTube videos and paint us new ones! I started saving shoe boxes in dreamy anticipation of this idea. I would hand out a box to everyone, and make them open them all at the same time! Everyone would be so surprised/amazed!

Then I watched YouTube videos. Number one and number eight brushes, plus a cone brush. Enamel paints in many colors/formulas. Gloves. Patterns. Brushstrokes away from center. Setting the paint. Etc. It’s not that it looks UNDOABLE, but it definitely does not look as if it overlaps with any of my own personal strengths and/or supplies. And then: surely we would all just start breaking the glasses again. And what if some of us were actually a little RELIEVED to have our glass broken, and now here I am replacing it?? I myself have stopped bringing my unbroken glass to get-togethers, because I don’t want to break it, and I am more than content with my replacement glass, which is a large plastic wine glass one of the group members handed out as an earlier group gift. So perhaps I should leave well enough alone.

But that means it is November 15th and I am just now abandoning the plan I came up with last December. I have wasted 11 months of thinking time. And we generally try to have our party early/mid-December, before the real holiday busyness begins.

I think I should say that I am not in any way trying to COMPETE with the kinds of gifts some of the women in this group come up with. They have had insulated tumblers and candy jars and wine bottles custom-printed, with our names and/or with photos of our group. There have been group t-shirts, group hats. One of them made a group birthstone bracelet. Another ordered us all matching bracelets with secretly coded swear words. So there is no trying to EXCEED the current showstoppers, but I would like to be IN RANGE of the MOOD of the gifts, which ranges from funny to sentimental to club-reinforcing. Last year, after handing out bags of travel wine glasses, canned cocktails, and assorted chocolates, I thought to myself “I think I need to step up my sentiment game a little here. Or else be funnier.”

But, as I say: several members are HERE IN OUR MIDST. So please WHISPER your ideas for good friend-group gifts if you have any, because I plan to take credit for them. And I will trust my friends NOT TO READ THE COMMENTS!

(And if you read this and think, “Well, I have a GREAT friend-group gift idea, but it sounds like my group spends a lot less/more than yours,” please mention it ANYWAY, because these posts are NEVER just for me, and are ALWAYS meant to ALSO be for anyone else who has a similar need for ideas!)

Dental Woe Update: Dental Relief!

I have a happy/relieved update on the back molar dental woe situation.

Back when I first told you of the woe, several of you mentioned having had a back molar pulled and no implant put in, with no ill effects despite threats of ill effects. Another local friend mentioned the same thing: could not afford implant so threats were scary but moot; had back molar pulled, didn’t get implant; nothing happened.

I went to see my beloved and trusted oral surgeon prepared with a compromise: what if she pulled the tooth and did the first step of the implant, the one that needs to be done right after the tooth is pulled, which is to put in the bone graft; and then we just didn’t do anything else? Then, if my teeth started shifting or if I had trouble chewing or WHATEVER, the bone graft would already be in place and we could proceed with the implant; but if there were no ill effects, I would only be out the cost of the bone graft.

She counter-offered: she said we should just pull the tooth and not waste money on the implant OR on the bone graft. She said:

• after the initial adjustment period, I was not going to notice the loss of chewing surface

• teeth shift forward, not back, so my teeth were not going to shift

• the bone graft would cost $750 and my body would dissolve/absorb it after a couple of years if we didn’t use it for an implant, and she didn’t think we WOULD end up using it for an implant, so it would be a waste of money and bone

• she hardly ever does an implant replacement for the back molar, because there’s not much bone back there and not much room back there and there’s a pretty strong chance of the implant failing anyway

So she’s going to pull the tooth, it’s going to cost approximately $250 (something like $40 more if I want nitrous oxide) (I am going to want a little nitrous oxide, as a treat), and there is no huge looming implant expense to deal with.

This is one of the many reasons I love this doctor: she is philosophically opposed to unnecessary/expensive procedures, even if it would be to her own personal benefit to perform them. (I do not think my dentist is similarly philosophically opposed.) She did not argue against putting in an implant when one of my upper two front teeth perished: she felt that was a good value, and so did I. But an upper back molar? Pull it and be done with it.

How To Battle Together with Your Buddy in Pokemon Go and Earn a Heart

This is a bit of a niche post. But I have started playing Pokémon Go again after a lengthy break, and I am doing a lot more things with it than I used to do, and I was getting so frustrated trying to figure out how to earn the “Battle together” heart with my buddy. I kept searching online and being incredulous that I couldn’t find an answer, only other people asking the same question. Sometimes people would respond, “Oh, just make sure you give your buddy a treat so they’re walking with you, and then go fight in a battle!”—and that didn’t work at all. Now that I have figured it out, I am posting it in the hopes that other frustrated people will be able to find it.

Here’s what the buddy screen looks like, where it shows you all the hearts you can earn each day:

 

And HERE IS WHAT YOU DO TO EARN THAT BATTLE TOGETHER HEART. When you are in THIS OTHER SCREEN, the one where you have entered a battle in a gym but are waiting for the battle to begin, don’t hit READY like Paul did, because you are going to need the time:

Click on ANY OF THE SIX Pokémon it automatically sets up for you. (If I’d been thinking clearly, I would have selected the SIXTH slot, since my buddy is more of a floofer than a fighter. But I was not thinking clearly, I was EXHILARATED BY A SUDDEN INSIGHT. So you can see him in that first square, because I took this screen shot in the glow of triumph when the idea worked.)

Clicking on one of the six selected Pokémon will take you to all your Pokémon. Scroll through your Pokemon until you find YOUR BUDDY. Then CLICK ON your buddy. Your buddy will be put in as one of your six fighters. AND IT WILL EARN A HEART!

It was so relatively obvious once I figured it out, but I was honestly stumped for like a YEAR.

Christmas Gifts for Children I Don’t Know, Chosen from an Insufficiently-Clear Wish List

This year we’re “adopting” two kids from our local Christmas-supplementation organization, which is something I did for the first time last year. There are ways in which it was so hectic and stressful (I don’t remember if I talked about it last year, but it was things like the perfect gift I had in mind sold out unexpectedly early, and then I ordered something else and FORGET TO ACTUALLY CLICK THE ORDER BUTTON SO I GOT TO THE DAY I WAS BUNDLING UP THE ITEMS AND REALIZED I WAS SHORT THE MAIN GIFT AND HAD TO RUN TO THE PHYSICAL STORE IN A SMALL SNOWSTORM *PANT PANT*), but overall it ended up being one of my top favorite parts of Christmas. I LOVE thinking about gifts and deciding about gifts, and I also LOVE being The Good Student and diligently checking off every single part of the organization’s instruction sheet. I imagine the people in charge making little notes next to my name about what a good job I did.

And in general, I find it fairly easy to get over the “But I don’t KNOW!!” hurdle in situations like this: everyone involved knows I don’t know; there is no way for me to know; no one else in my position knows either; this is why the organization asks us to send gift receipts. I will do the best I can, and I will buy nice-quality things, and I will trust the Christmas Fairies to guide my choices.

Each child in the program makes a little wish list. I would like to solicit suggestions/opinions from those who know more than I do on some of these wish list gift ideas. Last year we got an older teenager who wanted a hoodie, so I had five resident experts to consult; we also had a younger child who wanted Minecraft and Lego things, and again I had multiple in-house experts. This year I have a 14-year-old boy who wants slippers, a terrarium kit, and fidget toys; and a 10-year-old boy who wants slime, art supplies, and frog-related things.

Feel free to comment anything at all on any of those things. But also I have some more specific questions/concerns:

• Where do cool teenagers shop for their cool clothes? I would like to start there for the slippers. I am finding a lot of stodgy adult options online.

• I am interested in suggestions for good-quality, enduringly-fidgetworthy fidget toys. I would like to spend more money on fewer/better fidget toys, rather than getting a big set of cheaper ones.

• If you saw “slime” on someone’s list, would you assume slime or would you assume slime-making supplies? I guess I am assuming finished slime, but I am not sure: my kids missed the slime trend, so I have NO IDEA where to start. I might assume that someone who likes slime already has the basic slime? It appeals to me to get the Hot New Slime This Season or whatever; it also appeals to get the BEST slime. I just KNOW some of you know what the best slime is. Tell me what the best slime is, and I will buy it.

• The trouble with “frog-related things” is that someone who likes frogs probably already has an assortment of frog things, and duplication would be unhappy. Also, I know from my own children that, for example, a child who likes dinosaurs might have VERY STRONG OPINIONS about the SORT of dinosaurs (in our case: REAL dinosaurs, no cartoony/cute dinosaurs). Well. These are the limitations of this assignment. I wish I could ask follow-up questions, but I cannot. Maybe a frog Squishmallow? Is there a “best” frog squishmallow? A NEW frog Squishmallow the child wouldn’t have yet? What other frog things might a 10-year-old enjoy? A frog t-shirt? A frog throw pillow? A frog book? A frog Christmas tree ornament? A frog towel? Frog stickers? Why does this form not include the child’s favorite color(s)?

(image from Amazon.com)

 

• Art supplies is similarly difficult. What art supplies does the child already have? Is this a new interest or an old one? Why are these forms so limited? Well. I suppose the best would be things that someone who likes art could always use more of, and/or things that are rather expensive so they are unlikely to already own them. Maybe a really good set of colored pencils and a sketch pad? Or maybe a small basic starter set of the Chameleon pens Elizabeth gradually acquired many sets of? Or the micron pens Elizabeth says every art student has? Is a 10-year-old ready for those? Or should I be thinking construction paper, glitter glue, and stickers? THERE IS NO WAY TO KNOW

(image from Amazon.com)

(image from Amazon.com)

 

You may wonder why I am starting on this SO EARLY, but (1) the organization collects the items fairly early, so that they can make sure they have everything, and (2) I learned last year that when I find The Right Thing, I should buy it RIGHT AWAY, because the good stuff SELLS OUT.

John Derian; Wine Gifts; Getting Rid of Just One Thing

It’s basically too late for me to mention this (many items are already out of stock), but Target is doing a collaboration with John Derian again, for Thanksgiving. I bought two things:

This lil serving tray, which does not look exactly like my house but has the vibe of my house:

(image from Target.com)

and this wine tote:

(image from Target.com)

I find as I get older that I have more and more need of cute wine totes to give with wine gifts. A friend of mine had a birthday party this past month, and everyone was teasing her for the number of bottles of wine/liquor she was receiving (“Oh, they sure know you I guess har har!!”)—but it’s more that when someone is My Age, there are fewer and fewer toasters and throw blankets you can buy them, and the focus turns to consumable treats. And wine/liquor KEEP well if you don’t want to use them right away, and it’s not a problem if you get DUPLICATES, and they are easy to REGIFT and/or serve to guests.

 

I do not need any more Christmas tree ornaments, I DO NOT need any, I already have them divided into two bins to use on alternating years. But:

(image from Target.com)

A PASSPORT ORNAMENT! So perfect to commemorate our first trip out of the country!

 

I am trying a new thing, by which I mean something I do from time to time and then forget about and then start doing again: I am trying the concept of Getting Rid of Things, Even if it Is Just One Thing and Doesn’t Seem Worth it. Tossing one single worn hair towel, even though I still have too many and should really go through them more thoroughly so that I can close that drawer, is still worth doing. Putting one single necklace in the Goodwill bag, even though I still have too many and should really go through my entire jewelry box, is still worth doing. Taking one window fan we never use out of the barn, even though really I should go through the entire barn and get rid of everything we moved five years ago and haven’t unpacked/used yet, is still worth doing.

The main thing I notice with this method is that it inspires me to do more of it. YES, it would be more efficient to thoroughly tackle an entire cluttered/disorganized drawer, but it’s not more efficient if I NEVER DO IT. If I notice and throw away one item from that drawer while I have it open for other reasons, that is something that doesn’t have to be a Big Involved Project. And then maybe the next time I open that drawer, I see another item I can throw away. And maybe now I can see to the back of the drawer and I say “WHY do we still have twenty packets of assorted orthodontic elastics when no one at our house wears braces anymore??” and I throw out a nice big handful. This is the kind of small success I find encouraging, and sometimes it’s so motivating it TURNS INTO thoroughly tackling the entire drawer.

A Big Involved Project I think really has to be done in one swoop is my make-up. I don’t even WEAR make-up anymore, but I have a large box of it, and I DO want to keep SOME of it for those few occasions I DO want to wear make-up. But the other night, Paul and I were going out to dinner and I put on some make-up, and it looked ridiculous and I wiped most of it off. So maybe I should just throw out the whole box and be done with it. Well, but then I know someday I will REALLY WANT my perfect brown-red lipstick or whatever, and then I will feel sad. (I have heard the “THROW OUT MAKE-UP AFTER SIX MONTHS, IT IS CONTAMINATED!!” thing, and I do not believe or comply. I will reconsider my stance if I ever experience one single ill effect from using old make-up.)

Dear Auntie Swistle: Coping with a Significant Break-up / Divorce

Dear Swistle,

This is not a baby name question but it is a Life Advice that I think you in your Auntie Swistle shoes might have some ideas on (I’m only a little older than Rob), as well as your readers.

SO. Technically I am not getting divorced because I was not married. However, I was in a relationship for a decade, cohabitating for most of that, baby names were chosen, parenting techniques planned, I was proposed to, a wedding was planned and booked and announced…. and now, leaving out some details and personal specifics, safe to say, that wedding is cancelled. So while no marriage certificate was signed, this definitely does not feel like your average 20-something-year-old-break up. “Love of my life”, “future seems bleak now”, etcetera etcetera.

As far as I’m aware you haven’t written about guiding your kids through big breakups, but you got divorced in your twenties, right Swistle? And you’re very much a planner + list-maker like me. I know you were quite happy to get away from your ex-husband, while I am very very broken and wish things were different, but I assume you still had a certain level of “AAH MY PLANS, MY FUTURE, EVERYTHING IS RUINED”, right?

How did you cope with that? The loss of the image you had for your future, and the “falling behind” on the schedule you thought you were on, after suddenly being further away from having kids than you ever expected to be, suddenly being “back at square one”, namely: single?

If you (and Auntie Readers) have the time I would appreciate any level of concrete suggestions on how to cope, practically and emotionally (as well vaguer notions of telling me I’m gonna be okay).

Lots of love,

Heartbroken Reader

 

Oh dear, yes, this seems like a moment for the aunties to gather around. Imagine us starting by fussing you into a nest consisting of comfy recliner, throw blanket, cup of something hot, plate of something sweet. Then all of us settle into comfy chairs around you with our own cups and plates.

Yes, I got a divorce in my early twenties, and you’re absolutely right: even though I was GLAD to get out of the marriage in that case, it was still a gigantic ordeal with enormous life-rethinking/replanning aspects. The word “derailed” comes to mind. Like I’d popped out of reality and was now floating in the void. And then with SO MUCH TO DO and SO MUCH TO FIGURE OUT: paperwork! new place to live! packing! Telling People! dealing with other people’s reactions!

I don’t know if this is good advice OR if it will work for you and your temperament, but I did a lot of “waiting for it to be over.” Like, as much as possible, not thinking about it, not ruminating on it, not asking myself WHAT I was going to do NOW, not trying to make any plans beyond the immediate needs for housing and work and groceries—but instead resting my confidence in the idea that there WOULD be a time when this WOULD be in my past and I WOULD NOT feel so awful all the time, and there WOULD be a time when everyone else would adjust too. And so I would wait to be automatically transported to that time by time itself, rather than putting in huge amounts of effort to magic my way there.

In the meantime, I focused on the practical things that needed to happen: the paperwork, the bank accounts. I tried to make My Plans for the Future on a much, much smaller scale: what did I need to do today? this week? Let the longer-term deal with itself for awhile. I know for other people it might be totally different: they might find it most helpful to get out a notebook and start thinking big-picture about what they wanted in their new life so they could start steering a course. But I found that too overwhelming, too unknown. I needed to coast for awhile, tread water.

When I had a more personally devastating break-up (first love, high school, two years), where I felt as if I could die from the pain and might wish to, I remember it helped me to think about all the people I knew who had gone through something similar or worse (friends’ mothers and mother’s friends who had gone through betrayal and divorce, for example), and who were now, years later, able to talk about it casually, even with a little eye-roll, or even as something LUCKY AND GOOD that led to better things. It didn’t seem possible that that could happen in my case, but it did seem statistically possible that the suffering might someday fade to some degree.

While I waited to see if the suffering would ever end, I read horror/thriller novels: I found those were one of the few things that could distract me enough to give me a little peace from my cycling/painful thoughts. I also did weepy, angry, sweaty dance workouts to very loud music (Flashdance soundtrack, if you must know), to try to physically process all the stress and adrenaline.

Now, here, from a distance of decades, I keep the memory of that experience filed away to help me with future terrible feelings: because the terrible feelings DID pass, and in fact they passed so completely that at this point I feel RELIEF that the relationship ended. I feel like I was SPARED. I don’t know if that will happen in your case, where it’s an adult relationship and not a high school one, and a much longer relationship as well—but looking around at other people who have gone through the endings of lengthy adult relationships, my feeling is that there is SIGNIFICANT HOPE for it. I find it so unhelpful when people confidently assure me/others of things they can’t possibly know (“You’ll get through this!” “Everything will be okay!”), but I think it is statistically likely that you will emerge from this, and that you may have scars but you WILL be okay.

I am hoping others can tell anecdotes about heartbreaks that seemed at the time like they would never stop hurting but DID stop hurting; about lives that seemed like they were derailed but then got onto a different, maybe even better tracks; about break-ups that seemed terrible at the time but turned out for the best, or even just turned out for the new normal. But also, I am hoping others can share their own coping methods for getting through those times: different techniques work for different temperaments, and it would be nice to assemble a grab-bag of ideas. Some of us eat doughnuts, some of us learn to bake doughnuts from scratch, some of us work our way up to running a half-marathon; some of us create a vision board, some of us buy a new notebook, some of us read Stephen King novels; etc.

Halloween Care Packages for College Students

The main thing on my mind, because I just sent the last of them off this morning, is the Halloween care packages I sent to my own three college kids plus several of their college-freshmen friends. The sending-to-their-friends thing is new to me, and came about because Elizabeth has several friends who have become dear to us, and because there were several things I wanted to buy that came in larger packs than I needed. For examples:

 

(image from Amazon.com)

A four-pack of maple-leaf string lights. You may be thinking “But Swistle: you were sending to three children, and means only one leftover set, and you could surely find a use for that extra set yourself!” Well, TRUE, except: I sent a set of these to William several years ago, so he already has some; but also I found out about these string lights when my friend Surely sent me, by accident, twice as many as she meant to, which was exactly as many as I needed. Still a problem I could cope with, but then there was:

 

(image from Amazon.com)

A 24-pack of flameless candles, which seemed like they would be fun for dorm rooms that don’t allow flames of any kind. But most importantly, there was:

 

(image from Amazon.com)

A six-pack of Squishmallow-like small black cat backpack charms. Well, I mean! This was the moment when I (1) decided on approximately six care packages; (2) purchased the six-pack of cats; (3) purchased the candles and the leaf lights; and (4) basically lost control of the situation, because I ALSO bought six bottles of clear nail polish (after trying the nail stickers myself, I would next time go with white nail polish) and:

 

(image from Amazon.com)

12 sheets of assorted autumnal nail stickers, AND:

 

(image from Amazon.com)

a 20-piece eye-mask set, AND:

 

(image from Target.com)

glow necklaces and glow bracelets, AND:

 

(image from Target.com)

pumpkin balloons (uninflated), AND:

 

(image from Target.com)

pumpkin spice hot chocolate, AND:

 

(image from Target.com)

cute little baggies to put things into if they seemed likely to spill in a care package (e.g., nail polish, hot cocoa packets).

 

And of course a bunch of Halloween trick-or-treat candy, which I used to fill in the gaps.

It was a fun and surprisingly time-consuming project. And you might think, reading through the list of things, that the resulting packages would be ENORMOUS and OVERWHELMING, but they were not. However, the pile of things waiting to go into care packages was enormous and overwhelming. I ended up first assembling/sending the packages to my own kids, and then waiting to see if I had the oomph to send out more. Which I did. But I’d say this was a one-time fun thing, and not something I would keep doing again and again for a whole batch of kids. Perfect for a couple of months into freshmen year.