Friday 5: I want the fairy tale

Happy Friday, which is also You’re Welcomegiving Day (truly the silliest one I’ve seen while compiling this list each week), National Native American Heritage Day, and Buy Nothing Day.

Which, sigh. If you want to stay home today, stay home. If you want to go out and shop, go shop.

Today Mom and I went shopping. Black Friday looks very different now than it did in the past when we’d hit the stores at six am. Starting sales two weeks in advance will do that. We hit Kohl’s, Target, and Ulta. Had lunch and called it a day.

And here is the Friday 5 – this week’s theme is I Want the Fairy Tale.

1. Where have you lately found satisfaction?
   It sounds trite, but in my cozy home. I am safe, loved, and warm and in the end that’s really all one can hope for, right?
   
2. When have you let someone off the hook, or when have you been let off the hook?
   (laughs redactedly)
   
3. When were you recently in a social situation where finding something to talk about was a challenge?
   I’m a doofus who has the compulsion to fill silence with my own banter, so that doesn’t much happen. But I’ll give you a situation that I’m awkward about and don’t know how to deal with. I have fingernails now and I haven’t had a manicure since my acrylic nails for wedding #1 back in 1997. I kind of want to get a real manicure, but 1) I don’t know what to ask for (just a mani with regular polish? I don’t want gel because I don’t want to have to go back to have it removed.) OR what to do while the nail technician is working on my nails. I’ve had a pedicure before, but the tech is further away.
   
4. To what (or to whom) are you getting closer?
   I am getting closer to losing my religion at my credit union because after 5 points of contact, I still don’t have a reissued debit card. The bank switched debit card vendors. WM received his in August. Mine expired on November 7. The new one was supposed to be sent in 7-10 business days. Today is business day 12 and a lot of my autopay transactions have been failing left and right . If I don’t receive it in the mail tomorrow I guess I’ll go back to the branch on Monday.
   
5. What in your life these days might you call a money monster?
   Probably Murphy, with the big medical problems he has every 12-18 months. There’s a mystery canine respiratory illness going around, and since our dude had his IMHA scare in November ’22, our vet advised us to ease back on all vaccinations except rabies and I think bordetella/distemper. So he’s currently an immunocompromised dog. Our vet asked me to keep Murphy away from other dogs for a while. Luckily he’s not a dog park or doggy daycare dog. But I do need to cancel Murphy’s next grooming appointment.
   
   He’s a money monster but we love him so much.

I can’t parse out the F5 theme this week. I want the fairytale is from Pretty Woman. But they’re not Roy Orbison songs. It’ll come to me 3 minutes after I post this. Tomorrow we put up the Christmas tree! Welcome Christmas come this way!

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