Holiday Frenzy

Oh how I wish that my title pertained to parties, shopping, cooking and visiting friends and family.

No, rather it is about work. I love the holidays, or should say that I used to love the holidays when I was a child. But then, why wouldn't I love it then. My only responsibilities were to help decorate the tree, watch my mother prepare Christmas Dinner, pick out gifts for others to pay for and write letters to Santa. Pure bliss.

Since 1999 the Holidays have not been the same for me. I still love giving and receiving gifts, but loosing my mother; finally being in the financial place where I could indulge my self without having to resort to meatless weeks for a lack of money resulting in me being one of those people who are very hard to shop for; having to work the day after Thanksgiving, and having the office be closed only on Christmas Day, the holidays became less special.

This year is the first year that I went out of my way to decorate (2 trees, light outside, cookies) and it is fun, but it is hard to enjoy when exhausted from work. What happens is that several vendors run their business such that they have contract renewals at the end of the year, then you have to face those who plan to take the last 2 years of the year off. So I find my self scrambling to get things done to meet others needs and schedules instead of doing things on my own schedule. To top it off, I have had a nasty sinus infection that has had me dizzy and sleepy for over 10 days.

Next year I am going to be smarter. I am going to save enough vacation to be able to take more than 3 days off at the end of the year, and I am going to plan to take a winter vacation in early January!