Me: "O I'm just gonna be all cozy and hygge getting introvert recharge time from now til Spring planting/gardening season, la-dee-da-de-da!"

Also me (looking at my calendar tonight realizing how (relatively) limited my introvert recharge time ACTUALLY is) : "HOW is my calendar this full?! What happened to hygge cozy time at home just me and the books and the music and fur babies?!  How is Aquarius season the new Leo season for me socializing? How did this happen?! Dayumn!"

My actual schedule for definitely not being at home over the next (checks calendar) until early/mid March:

~1/27: Emma Langford @ ICHC (Milwaukee) 

~1/31: Flying Lovers of Vitebsk @ Overture Hall; Promenade Theatre I think (in Madison; there's like 5 or 6theatre spaces inside Overture Hall; Forward Theatre Company; two person show, one of them is Marcus Truchinski and he is so phenomenally great that he sells the show himself imho)

~2/2: Madison Opera presents The Anonymous Lover @ Overture Hall (don't know much about this one other than it's a famous black composer in the 18th century whose works were lost, it's in French, the music sounds like Mozart compositions when I listened to Minneapolis Opera's production from last year; we are waiting to purchase tickets on finding out from friends who play in orchestra/chamber and thus take on playing with opera if the soloists are pitchy or not since we don't know these soloists; but we likely will pick up the tickets)

~2/4: Cirque FLIP Fantastique @ Overture hall (Madison)

~2/7: Nickel Creek @ Overture Hall (Madison)

~2/9: Stardust Contemporary Dance @ Overture hall (Madison; in the Capitol Theatre)

~2/14: Les Misérables @ Overture hall (Madison)

~2/16: Talisk @ Celtic MKE (Wauwautosa, a suburb of Milwaukee)

~2/17: Drowsy Lads @ ICHC (Milwaukee; also accidentally double booked for first row to see Talisk at Stoughton Opera House that night; but Denis and/or Karissa want the tickets once offered so no worries)

~2/19-2/28: My parents will be in Panama (I will have both dogs and the cat at home; Sophie isn't supposed to come visit my condo and I don't know she and the cat would get along so I balance time house sitting with dogs at the house where I grew up, time at home at my condo with cat and maybe Waffles joining us while Sophie is at work during the day and me getting hours in at work with both dogs at work with me, lol)

~2/24: Madison Symphony at the movies: Pixar Scores @ Overture Hall

~3/2: Aoife Scott @ IAHC (Chicago; don't currently have tickets, waiting to see how Crissy's work schedules looks before money level commitment because of all the other shows)

~3/3: Aoife Scott @ ICHC (Milwaukee)

~3/5: The Coronas @ Empty Bottle (Chicago)

~3/6: The Coronas @Shank Hall (Milwaukee)

~3/9: The Simon & Garfunkel Story @ Overture Hall (Madison)

~3/17: Symphony @ Overture Hall (Madison)

And then I have nothing after that in my calendar right now for shows except April/May symphony dates. 

I still need to figure out if I'm going to see Fraser/Haas in Madison or Milwaukee or both in April. (Scottish fiddle and cello; gorgeous instrumental playing! Crissy can't make it due to both shows being during state DI and so I need to pick up my tickets and figure out if Sarah/Mikaela or Karissa or Denis or anyone wants to come.)  Also haven't picked up or added in either the Madison or Milwaukee Gaelic Storm tickets (I think one of the shows is with High Kings, the MKE show maybe, and the other just them?) but they're in the middle of the Aoife Scott and Coronas shows I believe so I need to talk to Crissy and Maddie and Amy about that and then let Karissa know what we decide in case she wants to join us.... And I don't have tickets yet for the rescheduled date for Bailen at Majestic, I think maybe that's in late March? But they're gen ad so it's not urgent I buy immediately.  O and I haven't even broached with Crissy or anyone else which dates we are maybe considering that aren't conflicts for Skerryvore dates in the area in like March-ish...

None of those are yet moved mentally from potential/probable to likely or beyond that to tickets purchased mental categories, lol. Most of my mid or late March/April shows are mentally tentative not tickets purchased level commitment. That said, once we're past mid-March though, I ACTUALLY don't have anything in my calendar but appointments for my grandma to take her to and the couple of symphony dates. At least not yet. But somewhere in the Spring is when I'll be figuring out the summer/fall APT season tickets with people, lol.

So anyway. Yeah. I know I genuinely believed so I said I'm going to be such a stay at home hermit, but I'm having a hard time seeing that become reality with that many shows and plans already in the calendar between now and the equinox... Ooft. How did this happen?! I better prioritize introvert time when I can this week, lol.

How am I THIS bad at introvert recharge time when outside of music/dance/theatre/musicals/sports and travel related to those all I tend to do outside of working is read and garden and hike and write and dance/martial arts and sketch/paint.... Like, I don't go out to bars unless there's a show I'm there to see and I don't have any dating apps (never have) because I don't have enough time for casual dating -- you need to actually matter to me for me to set aside time to spend with you make me believe you're not just a waste of my time.

Like, I said back in July that once I was past mid-October life was slowing down so I should have fall/winter going to be my re-charge time and yet that still hasn't happened much and here I am looking at all those plans during my "introvert recharge time" that doesn't look very introverted to me.... How as an introvert, one of the most introverted introverts I've ever met because I don't get lonely if I don't see anyone for days/weeks/months, am I THIS bad at introverting?! What the what?! 

And actually, for me, this is pretty light for concerts/shows travel plans in March... March tends to be my Irish/Scottish/Celtic season because St. Patrick's Day month is when they can make bank touring the states.  Fucking ridiculous....I'm really going to have to rethink about calling myself a sociable introvert at this rate. Because that is NOT the schedule of an introvert.... 

That said, we have ice glaze followed by wet slushy snow coming in late tonight/tomorrow morning -- so depending on how well the roads get cleared my plan for tomorrow DAY is introvert recharge time cozy at home and if the roads are bad in the evening I may not head to work until some point on Weds and just give myself a cozy at home day. I'd rather have well below freezing and snow then right around freezing sloppy ice mix as far as driving goes because other drivers don't know how/when to react to swerves/fish tails/under or over correcting on slush stuck in their tire grooves reducing traction and ice slides coming at you fast...  Like, it's all weather that's cold enough you bundle up regardless and whatever the hard pack black ice traction situation IS, it ain't changing when it's under about 18F. But slushy/icy mix/wet sloppy gets in your tires and the road conditions vary rapidly between sun and shade and salt or no salt and the roads are just a fucking mess before you add in the hazard of unpredictable other drivers.... I prefer snow/ice hard pack with sand at under 15F over a sloppy mixed precipitation hovering in the 5 degrees either side of 30F.... So I may just stay at home cozy with a fire all day/night tomorrow if the roads/drivers are slippery-stupid. On verra. 

Also, today Waffles had SUCH Spring Fever full speed on the snow/ice zoomies because it was 30F instead of -3F (or lower) like it's been the last week since the 2ft of snow arrived. She still has minor chillblains/frostbite on her belly and inner thighs (she has standard dachshund bare belly/inner legs... I'm going to look into getting her a belly bib and/or the full leg length suspender style booties for next winter as well as her sweater/puffer coats.... Because anywhere her bare skin touches snow for her to squat to pee, she's got painful red rash like patches where her bare skin touched the snow. She's just, as a standard dachshund-beagle-Jack Russel terrier mix born in Texas raised in Seattle area, she's NOT physically designed for the super cold with snow touching her naked mole rat level of fur bare skinned tummy/chest/inner thighs.... So for now I'm putting paw guard wax/lotion on the areas at risk and before next winter I will buy her more layers than her winter coats to better protect her belly/legs/paws.)

But also. How can an introvert bookworm who doesn't go out to bars/clubs unless there's a concert I want to see and without internet except on my phone at home (social media is like junk food to me, I mindlessly consume if I have it around but if I don't have it at home I never miss it) or any dating app distractions be THIS bad at introverting?! Like this is some sort of weird gift to be this over committed when you're an introvert bibliophile writer not currently involved in any productions or classes, even if you're a sociable introvert not a misanthropic introvert, who generally prefers spending her time with trees and flowers and the stars and snow and water and wild animals than humans.... I mean HOW have I managed this many "tickets purchased level of commitment" shows in my calendar during me "not very busy" winter hygge months?! How did that even happen though?!

P. S. This is completely unrelated to the above. But it's a bright happy with me tonight so I thought I would share.

There's a really beautiful melody in my head tonight and I don't recognize it as being any song I can place.... It's definitely a song of love that's gentle but clear strong and something that's not quite a waltz rhythm or a Brahms lullaby but has that FEEL without the rhythmic signature. And something that is reminiscent of All I Ask of You from Phantom of the Opera -- but not musically like that song because it isn't the same progressions or melody or rhythm at all at all, it just FEELS a similar sense to the lyrics/flow/meaning of that song. But the main feeling that comes through it is light and love and brightness and clarity. But just via the music of the melody in it. Annoyingly, it feels like the melody I'm hearing is the melody for the words in it not the instrumental parts and that there ARE words that go with this flow of music I keep hearing/humming but the words themselves are just out of my reach to hear/know so right now I only have the melodic line of  what the words are singing playing through my head. It's really gorgeous! I just feel like I'm missing the message/meaning and much of the beauty of this song playing inside me by hearing only the music part of it and not (yet) knowing the words to it. But it's absolutely gorgeous!  And I can't place it as anything I've ever heard with my ears before. Just heard echoing inside me tonight. I've been humming/singing it out loud to myself while working and playing with the dog and while making dinner/cleaning up the dishes after eating some dinner at work. It's very stubbornly playing inside me and wants to be sung not just heard.

But whatever the song is stuck on repeat inside me tonight, this melody is so beautiful!!!! It deserves a form to be remembered rather than just me singing it while it's echoing so loudly inside me.