Monthly Maunder: October-December 2022

When I pictured my winter break of 2022, COVID-19 was not a part of it, and yet…

…yep, it was COVID Christmas for me. Guess it was just a matter of time, but after nearly three years of avoiding the goddamn plague, it struck, goddammit. That’s why it was quiet here last week; I just didn’t have the energy. God, the fatigue. It was, well…it was absolutely exhausting.

As of writing, it’s been about ten days since I got back that awesome “welcome to COVID!” test, and it was no surprise. My husband tested positive about a week before me. He’s done with the worst of his symptoms but is still dealing with a lingering cough. My symptoms were somewhere between mild and severe — low-grade fever, bad cough and congestion, lost smell/taste, and oh…and I passed out at some point. That was fun. Now I’m feeling better but have a terrible, lingering cough, so that’s fuckin’ cool. Because of other health concerns, my doctor put me on Paxlovid. It worked, but it came with its own set of issues, like developing an “aftertaste” that, while temporary, evoked the sense of hot garbage sitting on my tongue.

Did I mention how ALL this was so fuckin’ cool?

Sigh.

Ah well. Things could be worse. That’s what I’ll keep telling myself. Good news is that it is we survived COVID and the holidays; and, thanks to being sick, we got to spend our winter vacation being the adultiest of adults by watching Christmas shows and playing games, just as nature intended.

Speaking of which, if any game dominated my last couple months of 2022, it was Final Fantasy XIV. You probably already know this, but what a great game it is! I haven’t played an FF game in while, let alone a JRPG, and it was easy and welcome to get swept up in its expansive world. I was having a great time until I made the mild mistake around Thanksgiving of picking up the full game. Yes, the one with the subscription. I really should have opted to stick with the free trial, but the heart wanted what it wanted then, and well…I can’t say I made much use of its 30 free days. I was just too busy, and…

…I got sucked right back into Mass Effect no thanks to Pentiment. I already documented the whole thing here, and Pentiment is still waiting in my Game Pass library. Considering that I just started Mass Effect 2, it’ll probably be waiting awhile. Another suicide run awaits!

I’ve also been thinking that I should get back into Cyberpunk 2077, but I have a feeling that a return to Red Dead Redemption 2 may happen first. I don’t know why that is, especially since there is a possibility we’ll see Starfield sometime next year (and I’m taking my sweet ass time with Mass Effect), but if I hit a lull, don’t feel like resubbing to FFXIV, and feel so inclined, going a new round with Arthur Morgan might be the thing to do. Or maybe I should play The Outer Worlds again, what with all its new content. …choices, choices…

If there was one thing to do this past fall, it was watch Andor. Well, what a darling if a show it turned out to be, yes? At least according to the Internet. I really wouldn’t know because I admittedly zoned out during the first three quarters of its run and only got sucked in at its final two episodes. That’s why I’ve not yet dashed off a few words about Andor here. I’ll need to give it another watch, which maybe or may not happen before the next season of The Mandolorian goes live.

I’ve not set any New Years resolutions, thanks for asking. Since 2022 was filled with various health concerns of both mine and my husband, I’ve thinking that the universe is telling me that I need to start taking better care of myself. I never considered myself terrible at self-care, but I’ve probably not been as mindful lately as I should be. The last couple months at work were extremely stressful, mostly due to my inability to say “no.” And it’s not even like my job is all that stressful to begin with, but extenuating circumstances turned up my daily stress intake far more than I probably realized. Yknow, hindsight being 20/20 and all.

In what I promise will be the final bad segue here…speaking of hindsight, I’ll soon be sharing my PlayStation 2022 Year in Review. Along these same lines, hilariously, I received a similar yearly wrap-up from Steam. It’s new thing they’ve done — Steam Replay — apparently, and mine made me LOL. A couple months ago, on an utter whim, we pulled out our old Alienware Steam Machine to see if the thing still booted. Miraculously, it did, and after a very hearty set of updates, we tested it out on a couple games: Dungeons & Dragon Online, Oblivion, Bully, and RuneScape (which I don’t even remember). We dicked around a little in each (according to the stats, we spent a whopping two hours in RuneScape, which explains why it is nowhere in memory) and that was it. Haven’t logged back in since…until the Replay notification popped up. It’s too silly to post here, but it did make me think that maybe I ought to use Steam more.

Yeah, and monkeys might fly outta my butt!

Well. That’s as nice enough of a way to end one year and start another as any other, I guess.