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Making New Traditions

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Ava Jarvis

MyPTSD Pro
So people tell me that I need to make new traditions around all the holidays that trigger me. Which is all of them. Including my birthday.

For 11 years this was damn impossible at Amazon, which for all its high-tech glory is still a retail job with all the dinosaur crap that entails. I just get a pager and the store never ever closes.

But now, I'm gonna do a thing. I'm gonna schedule a thing that absorbs my attention and does not celebrate the holiday and suchlike. Whatever it is, it needs to engage as many of my senses as possible...

Then I realized. I am a geek. I am a nerd. And one thing that's great about being a geek/nerd is that there's a lot of media geared towards my tastes that are engrossing and go on for long periods of time, often featuring storylines that thread through entire seasons. Heck, some of them even treat marginalized folks and mental illnesses with respect *and* representation! (That's rarer, of course.)

What to do, what to do.

So I think I'm going to schedule marathons of specific shows. They gotta be shows I've seen before, I think? So they also gotta be shows that reveal more about themselves when you watch them a second time. A bit of humor, and not too triggery material.

Of course, a lot of shows aren't mini-series, so I can pick out specific smaller arcs or choice episodes.

So possible stuff includes

- Young Justice (either season 1 or season 2)
- Flash (Netflix)
- Supergirl (Netflix)
- Green Arrow (... Heck, is that Netflix too??)
- Lord of the Rings (Newline) - this is likely a Christmas effort, in that it's going to eat multiple of the worst Christmas days, because I personally cannot survive the extended edition of Return of the King in one sitting alone
- Star Wars: Rebels (individual seasons, but more likely season 2)
- The Dominion arc of Star Trek: Deep Space 9
- Choice episodes of Batman: the Animated Series and Superman
- Disney movies (Beauty and the Beast, Lilo and Stitch, Frozen, Lion King, Princess and the Frog, Mulan)
- Batman Beyond (individual seasons)

So that's hearing and sight taken care of. Touch? Blankie so and Melly my plush elephant. Maybe other stuff. Taste?

Marathon food! Easily microwaveable if needed, chips and dips are nice too. Cookies. Maybe cake. Gotta pace myself, of course.

Couch Potato days, I'm sure, but people do this for sports and traumatizing binges of Game of Thrones, so I think this is OK.
 
Good on. :)

I remember the very first time I took a painful day and made it what *I* wanted it to be. Down to my fingertips. There's power in that.

Did it go off perfectly? Hell no.
Can I pull of that particular hat trick whenever I want? Snort. Goes double.

Still rock solid bliss. To take something & make it my own.:sneaky:
Better than okay. It's world building.

To new memories. Kanpai. 乾杯
 
Yeah... 'cause Oliver Queen and his PTSD are totally lighthearted. :rolleyes:

I jest. I think Marvel movies have kicked the shit out of DC movies, but The CW (WB) has done amazing things with DC on television. I keep saying they really need to just let CW make their movies. Or Joss Whedon. You know. One of those. Because for real, guys. Step it up! ;)
 
Cheers. :D

If by chance redoing traditions on those days doesn't work, there's that option of celebrating things in a different manner and on an entirely different day, too.

So whatever you do: Have fun at it, and good for you. :)
 
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