Coldplay is playing a little louder than it should be for this time of night in the background as I bring WordPress up to speed with what has been up since New Year's Eve 2015.  One of the tenants here in the building are pulling a "Midnight Move" I believe.  In short things have rather sucked the big one.  I ate something at work last Wednesday (which would have been the 30th) and spend the entire evening upon arriving home from work until the following morning throwing up and shitting myself.  Obviously there was some sort of anaphylaxis going on, but I can't quite put my finger on it.  The two primary suspects are a chocolate covered pecan (one of them) or something off a random plate of sushi that Karly had picked up from Sendik's.  I'm not sure what it exactly was, but I sure the fuck remember seeing pecans come up at some point in the night. I threw up so much during the night, and literally shit so god-damn much that I lost over ten pounds of weight overnight.  The following night (after the ball dropped for 2016) I weighed in at 147.5.  I just weighed myself about an hour ago and I clocked it at 164.5.  That is not healthy by any means.  So we are going to outright avoid any sort of nuts moving forward, despite how good they might be for a person - they are fucking lethal in my book, and will be avoided at all costs. I don't really remember what made me stumble again upon this idea of Minimalism but I have found these extraordinary people named The Minimalists.  They write _essays_ on their website about minimalism and they both had six-figure jobs for large corporations back in the day and quite those after reducing what they felt in life wasn't making them happy.  Too much for me to into at this point, but suffice it to say that I have really been enjoying one of their books that I swooped on Google Play Books (the new default way I'm going to be buying books moving forward as well, based on the highlighting alone) because it was nearly two thirds cheaper than it would have been to haul ass down to Barnes & Noble to buy the shit in a brick and mortar store. I have been burning thru the book rather quickly for a slow-ass reader such as myself, and I'm happy to report that I'm delighted to be reading the words that I am.  The only downside (and I suppose this is obvious) is you cannot "copy and paste" out of an eBook. There is a shit-ton of highlighted entries in my copy of this book so far and there are surely more to come.  Hooked their site up on Feedly and added a few familiar names from back in the day when I was first getting into the Getting Things Done system. There is a lot of talk about food and health in the book.  In fact Health is one of the 5 Principales for implementing the whole minimalism idea.  And they prove a good point as to why Health is the first and top priority of these values.  They propse this simple proposition, you win the lottery tomorrow and everything the world can be yours and you find out the next day that some organ is fucked.  Without your health you have nothing. I sort of gave up on all that food stuff back when I had my initial allergic reaction to the hemp-seed granola bar from Outpost in Wauwatosa, but I really think I'm going to start cranking hard on that shit once again.  Because the kids need to up their game on food as well and I had done a pretty good job at doing that when I first moved here, but that sort of fell along the way because it's one of the things I relate to drinking (all the fucking time) and that stirs up harsh sort of memories and emotions that I'm truly not ready to deal with yet. Once I choke through this book I'm going to start trying to pound on this shit hard.  Not expecting immediate results or anything like that, not setting the fucking sights too high because I'm about over that shit of setting oneself up for disappointment.  I would always outwardly pretend like I didn't care how things would turn out, but inside I was always torn apart.  I'm all about getting to the bottom of things at the moment they happen and not letting up until something gets resolved. Need to focus on so many things at the moment.  Cara is dealing with Grade A, Top Shelf problems at the moment.  Her Grandmother on her Father's side is on the bad side of health and the family is painting a picture that isn't going to far into the future.  Cara is starting to turn into the person she was when the shit popped off with her Brother.  I have empathy, and I feel that I have empathy more than the average person.  But my empathy is internal, I think about shit hard and can cry when I am by myself thinking about things, feeling for someone else as if it where my situation.  It can be about random stranger or just even pictures with a story.  Cara is a Creature of Empathy like none I have ever seen before.  Her empathy is hardcore external and it displayed hard and long.  She can nearly become paralyzed with her pain and suffering.  It takes on hardcore physical form that makes her unable to function as a human.  I of course do not mean to say any of this in any sort of mean way, I am trying to just truly illustrate how hurt she is.  She doesn't seem to be as closely attached to her Grandmother as I was with Grandma Parker, but that isn't to say that she isn't attached.  Family is family, and simply being around someone a little bit growing up and then later on in life, you will have hardcore problems letting go.  I am absolutely not trying to undermine the seriousness of the connection Cara has with her Grandmother.  If things truly go dark, I'm going to be there for her.  I'll let her do however she wants to with her children.  It's not my place. Dad walked out of his job last week.  He made it very clear he wants to meet face-to-face very soon and he really fucking means it.  Part of me is in fear he's going to pack it all up and move to Colorado.  I don't know why but it's really all I have been thinking about since I have been told about what happened.  And what happened I am not truly clear on yet, and I'm not sure he knows either.  I just know they (that company of his) would be foolish to let Dad truly walk away.  He's provided a lot for that company, he's a hardcore working many unlike the rest of the white population and his honor speaks for itself.  I just don't understand what would have happened.  I understand walking out of your job, but of course I've been in a kitchen my entire life so I have no real grasp of a proper working environment. **SOV - State of Vaping**.  Well fuck me I have been sick just before the semi-serious allergic reaction to whatever the fuck last week so I was weak on the vape for a hot-minute there.  Now my ass still don't feel 100%, so I've been slacking on vape recently too.  And by slacking I mean smoking more than I vape.  Had the issue with the vaporizers lately too, and that sort of irked me a little bit but the great news there is the eLeaf that was giving me shit came back online.  The only one that is still fucked now is the one with the center post issue.  The O.B. might be one of the most favored flavors in a LONG time.  Right up there with Sucker Punch and Slamberry.  I might have to give that Black & Blue one I've been sitting on for a while a go, as the last Wonhka one I had that was old did not go over so hot.  Also I swear I have burned my current coil out in four days.  Tastes burnt, and I just filled the tank with Boosted.  Just my luck.  It's still vape on tho, no doubt about that.  Still rocking the iPV 4 full-time.  Debating on perhaps another set of 18650's, not sure on all that though. \[gallery link="file" columns="2" size="medium" ids="9619,9625"\] Work?  Fuck work.  I did end up pulling the trigger on work boots.  CAT.  First pair of steel toes.  Merry fucking Christmas.  I would be lying if I said I didn't love working with Cole.  We have something of a good flow between us.  It reminds me of when Richard Applin and I would rock a shift together back in the day at the Truckstop.  Like Richard always said, _"a well-oiled machine"_.  Cole is also a beast on saute.  You wonder when I'm going to try and have my go at it.  Probably never.  I think I like it that way.  I don't want the spotlight.  I'm not even sure I even belong in a kitchen.  Or perhaps I do.  I do know this much tho, I don't want to fucking live to work.  FUCK THAT SHIT in all capital letters.  Proper. \[gallery columns="2" link="file" size="medium" ids="9620,9622"\] Other than that, Christmas and the Fat Man have pretty much been eliminated from the apartment.  No trace of Christmas aside from the dishes that need to go back properly from where they came from.  All in all one of the best Christmas' I've had in recent memory.  Seeing the children open gifts on Christmas morning was something I'll probably never forget. \[gallery columns="2" link="file" size="medium" ids="9624,9621"\] Stars are supposed to sway in Libra's favor this year.  Let's try and make it work even if the world flips upside down, shall we?