Thursday, December 22, 2005

happy holidays to you

day four of the pointless week:

on last Friday, upon receiving emails from the Madrid and Paris offices regarding their closure from Mon, Dec 19th through Tues, Jan 3rd, I thought....humph. Not only do the Europeans get better work hours and longer lunches, they are generally more relaxed about this whole..lets work right through Christmas thing. The AMERICAN office, however...of which there are many many, but I work at the HQ, is closed only on Monday 12/26 and Monday 1/2, and I think there was some resistance for that plan, too.
But lets face it. Monday was really the last functional day this week. Everybody is sort of collectively shrugging their shoulders at this point. Ain't nothin happenin between today (maybe yesterday) and January 3rd. Why am I here? Why did I do laundry to get dressed to come here? If I lived in NY, and I did not have access to public transportation today, I sure as hell would say...you know what? Its December 22nd people, I aint doin it. I will work from home.
Americans celebrate Christmas as we do any other holiday...by working until the last possible second, taking a concession that gosh, I guess we have to not work on the 25th, all the while scrambling about in their search to spend spend spend and ultimately, stress stress stress. I work across the street from something like Americas 3rd busiest mall. Kinda makes me want to rip my hair out when it takes 45 minutes to move 2 miles, as it has every evening for the last 1.5 weeks.

Why why why do we torture ourselves? You can't enjoy Christmas like this. That is why, although I have no plans tomorrow and have finished my shopping, I ain't comin to work tomorrow. I aint doin it. So there, corporate america, I'm taking back 8 hours hahaha freakin ha.

I sound bitter, I know, and I'm actually not. But really. I need a day to decompress before I can enjoy Christmas, and you probably do too. I know I will never regain the wonder that Christmas once provided..Christmas from the eyes of a child is one of life's most amazing things. Although possibly greed driven. But even greed driven wonder can be sweet. I still get teary eyed at midnight christmas eve services when I go, and Im not religious..its more of a re-connecting to my childhood thing. Go to church, Dad reads the Night Before Christmas, leave cookies and milk for Santa.

Of course, Santa is now lactose intolerant and on Atkins, but things do change. For the last two years I woke up alone on Christmas morning at my house...and then drove to my parents. Which lacks the pad downstairs in my pajamas feel, but is also quite nice. When Christmas is over now I feel not necessarily full of joy but certainly more joyful.

So Merry Christmas, internet, and all of your denizens. Happy Hanukkah too. Try not to be jaded and try not to stress and just sit and listen to the world on Christmas morning with a warm cup of tea and your mom and sister...its quite lovely

Just wait til you hear what I think about New Years ;)

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