Decisiontober

October used to be one of my favorite months of the year, even when I lived up North. The temperature was getting cooler, but there were still mild days and it was so beautiful with all the leaves changing. When my kids were young, I loved Halloween as much as they did since we lived in an area with tons of kids whose costumes were amazing and the spirit of it all so magical.

Fast forward a few decades and I find that October is now one of my least favorite months of the year and it’s all because of decisions.

It’s now open enrollment for us elderly (ugh, I hate that word) people and this stresses me out. You’re supposed to re-evaluate your supplemental health insurances and that is so time-consuming and confusing. The rates keep climbing every year for those of us not lucky enough to have our supplemental insurance paid for by our former employers. The drug plan, for instance, is ridiculous. You put in all the medicines you take in the app or online and then it returns some plans you can choose from. The problem with that is how the hell am I supposed to predict what the coming year has in store for me? What if I end up on a medicine that the plan I have chosen classifies in like the 100th tier? I’ll tell you what happens. SOL is what happens.

Then there’s the election. Making decisions on who to vote for and learning about all the amendments and the consequences thereof, on top of the fact that all the candidates lie their asses off, makes election time super stressful.

And then there are the stores already promoting their Christmas items when we haven’t even gotten past Halloween yet. I try to plan my gift buying early so I’m not stressed at the last minute, but it takes a great deal of creativity and thought to come up with new gift ideas that you can afford for all your recipients every single year. This is why I advocate for gift-buying every other year. For example, one year Christmas is celebrated strictly in a religious manner and the following year you can add gifts. The same for Hanukkah and Easter. Let’s put back the true purpose and meaning of these holidays and give ourselves a break at least every other year.

Also, if you’re the host of Thanksgiving and the Christmas/Hanukkah/Etc. holidays, then you need to be thinking about your menu for these events, finding a way to pay for all this food, and then cooking it on top of wrapping all the gifts you procured, if you can even find them since you bought them so early and had to hide them. Don’t get me wrong, though. I love hosting the holidays and seeing people enjoy the food and just being together. But it is exhausting and when it’s all done a bit anticlimactic since right afterwards, you find yourself alone again and with a lot of time on your hands.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again . . . and again.

It’s not easy being me. 😊