What a great start to a day. 8AM meetings aren't always the first thing I want to do in the morning, but at this one someone happened to mention that we have January 2 off and don't have to come back til the 3rd. Yay! A whole extra day off and a short first week back.
It would have been really strange to come back on Monday and find a totally empty and dark building. Except it probably wouldn't have really been dark.... I wonder how long it would have taken me to figure it out?
I totally finished my holiday cards last night, except for of course the odd one I might send if someone whose address I didn't have sends me one. That means that I have 17 days off, and hardly anything I have to do in that time. I need to pay a few bills, plan and cook Xmas dinner, wrap Rudder's gifts, make a few additions to one for my mom as soon as it arrives and send it to her, and that's really about it. Oh, and erg another 37 km. There are some things I ought to do - a little more decorating on the house, maybe some straightening up, rigging my boat - but nothing else that has to be done. That's not a lot of stuff, so I have 17 blissful days in which my time is almost entirely my own. I'm so excited.
All that said, it's ironic how scheduled tomorrow is: wake up, erg a half marathon, prepare and send my mom's gift, return some shampoo an idiot stylist said would be good for me (Aveda Blue Malva - I looked at the label and it said it brightens gray hair or tones down brassy shades in dyed hair - not what you want on dark brown hair with red highlights), buy some tights, and go to two parties. Except for the erging, though, all of that is either a quick task or is fun. Then I think SUnday or Monday we'll go see the Narnia movie, and later in the week we're going to spend a couple of days in Vegas, for the first time since about 1996 when I had a work trip there and Rudder joined me. And sometime in the next few days, I'll wrap up the poetry series by posting a list of the links I've used to research the poets and poems I've written about.
I'm excited to get the time to read and knit, cook or bake, and see Rudder when we're both awake. I'm excited not to be at work! And I'm looking forward to what 2006 might bring us.
On the down side, we got a Christmas card from Rudder's grandfather yesterday, and it was one of the saddest things I've seen. He wrote that Rudder's grandmother has been able to eat and to say a few words, a few of which could be understood, but that "It is unclear yet whether this improvement is enough to give us any hope." Ouch.
WOW! You're the only non-academic type I know who gets a winter break that long. You and the college professors, baby. I haven't been to LV yet. Wanting to though, sounds like my kind of town. Heh, could you imagine a JournalCon in Sin City? Holy moly. Hooray for long vacations! 17 days, that's just super. It will refresh your soul to have so much 'me' time. Shoo! Go have fun. ~LA (Why is this post bouncing over the name of that Nevada town?)
Posted by: LA at December 16, 2005 01:59 PMOh, have a good time and enjoy your vacation!
Posted by: l-empress at December 17, 2005 08:27 AM