2020 Christmas Lists
Sander’s 2020 Christmas/Birthday List
Well, it’s that time of year again- the time when the Donaldson clan begins revving up for the big Christmas shindig. Of course, this year being the apocalypse, things will be different. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m really sitting here and thinking about how insanely fortunate I am. Here we are in the midst of an economic depression, a pandemic, a time of accelerated anti-intellectualism and conspiracy-theory fearmongering like I’ve never seen before, and I’m still going to work every day like nothing has changed. I mean, I have to wear a mask when I’m in the office, but I’m generally only in the office a couple of hours a day. The rest of the time I’m out making a nuisance of myself in local restaurants. I’ve gone on more rockhounding expeditions in 2020 than in any years previous- I’m sitting here writing this the day after getting home from a camping trip to the Hauser Geode Beds, where we filled up a couple of five-gallon buckets with beautiful bacon jasper, fire agate, and freshly-dug geodes that I’m chomping at the bit to start cutting. I still have a bunch of fire opal that I want to try and make something with, and I’ve got slabs and slabs of both wonderstone and green rhyolite sitting in the garage awaiting transformation into cabochons.
I don’t really need or want much- especially this year, when so many people are hurting and so much is wrong. Donations to local food banks or other organizations focused on helping people who need it sound like an excellent gift.
I love hand-made stuff.
One thing I really could use is a new laptop. I have my dad’s old machine from ten or fifteen years ago, and it barely works. I’m looking for something I can edit GoPro videos on, which means it needs some decent processing power (Intel i5 or i7 and plenty of RAM) and a big hard drive. I’ve got my eye on one at Costco, and donations toward that would be greatly appreciated. You can click here to see what I’m looking at.
I love fun socks.
Two books I’m interested in are:
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
Good Clean Fun by Nick Offerman
I have an iPhone XS Max that I’m always dropping and cracking the screen protector on. Replacements are always good to have on hand.
I like to make my own bitters and I could use some cinchona bark, black cardamom pods, and mace blades. Especially the cinchona bark.
This set of stickers. Because they crack me up.
I can always use rock tumbling grit as well as cerium oxide polishing grit. Kingsleynorth.com is where I get a lot of my lapidary stuff.
Really what I’d like more than anything else is for there to be a Covid-19 vaccine widely available and to be able to see my loved ones.