The Holiday Spirit Appears Early

  I used to insist on waiting until Thanksgiving was over before I even started thinking about Christmas. I even skipped Christmas one year (i.e. did not buy presents or ask for any or put up a tree or anything--though not everyone listened when I said I didn't want anything) to protest the level of commercialism it had attained.
    However, sometimes after you go without something for long enough, the next time it comes around makes you appreciate it even more. (One case in point, the NHL lockout a few years ago made me realize how much I enjoyed watching hockey, even though I had not watched too much of it in the previous couple of seasons.) Case in point two: I really missed Christmas after I skipped it that year.
    I enjoy shopping for Christmas presents and making cookies and putting up the tree and singing Christmas music. Even the people who are hard to shop for, I don't mind as much because I enjoy the season. The lights and the colors and especially the movies. I know there aren't too many people who get to have a happy ending Hollywood version of Christmas anymore, and it has become overly commercialized over the past few decades, but it's still a lovely thought. Thinking about children believing in Santa, families coming together, forgetting all your misanthropy and cynicism and giving in to the holiday spirit, and spreading good cheer and good will towards men (PC term=humanity).
    I already started searching for Christmas presents, as I plan to do a lot of my shopping online this year. I'm hoping that 1) this will save me a little bit of money, 2) I can find things for the hard-to-shop-for people a little easier, 3) this will help me get most of my shopping done earlier rather than last minute, and 4) this will allow me to find a few things that you just can't find at a Target or a JC Penney's.
    I blame this recent surfacing of Christmas spirit on the huge snowstorm we had in my neck of the woods this week. I woke up on Thursday and said, wow, it looks just like Christmas! While most of it's melted already, as the temperatures shot back up into the fifties again, it doesn't change the fact that I'm already dreaming of a white Christmas (despite that we maybe get one every ten years here because it refuses to snow ON Christmas--it always snows too early or too late and it's all melted by the Christmas day arrives).

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

What are your thoughts on this (somewhat) impending holiday? 

Love it? Hate it? (FYI: If you say you hate it, you will henceforth be known as the Grinch.) 

What's your favorite, or least favorite, part about it?
Share in the comments.

Grow Up! Or Keep What Childishness Is Left...

  That's directed at me, not you. Speaking profanity loudly while strangers are in the next room at your office is generally frowned upon. Technically we got away with it (I did not act alone this time), but it's not "professional". While we do work with some less than "family friendly" sites where I work, and profanity is a veritable part of working with those sites, censoring or at least talking a little more quietly, is probably something I should do being in the position I'm in.
    However, I suck at censoring when I'm around people I usually don't have to censor myself with, i.e. boys. Swearing like a sailor is something I've done for a really long time because I spend so much time around guys who swear like sailors. I will censor around children--no problems with that whatsoever. But around adults, it seems silly to me. If you have delicate sensibilities, you're probably in the wrong place, hanging out with the wrong crowd. I swear, and while I probably overdo it a lot of the time (and occasionally in inappropriate places and/or at inappropriate times), I think they're just expressive words, however vulgar some people deem them to be.
    There are a lot of words I don't like but I don't get upset when people say them (e.g. Michelle Bachman, tuna salad, bacon-wrapped anything, anything related to bowel movements, etc.). These are all things some people talk about that I really don't care for, but I'm not going to throw a fit and demand people omit stuff they think is important just because I would rather talk about something else. I'll just see if I can change the subject to something less disgusting, or if all else fails, I'll go talk to someone else.
    We're human beings. We're not perfect. I certainly am not. And when in Rome, I will probably do as the Romans do, unless it involves dangerous or illegal acts or substances. So, around a bunch of testosterone-laden dudes all day, I will swear, and the normal social etiquette that I exert in social situations among other types of people--people like my mom, my boss, or my niece--will stay in the background, and the dirty-mouthed 15-year-old kid I still am on occasion resurfaces. Unfortunately, Orbit gum does not literally remove profane vocabulary from your mouth. Only some bacteria. Unlike the commercials. I've tried it.
    So, I'm not really sure how to evaluate what happened. Profanity in the workplace is unprofessional, but, due to the profanity-involving work-related topic that was being discussed, it seems that maybe there's no need to apologize. On the other hand, maybe this is what you get for putting a 15-year-old in the body of a 23-year-old in a slightly higher responsibility level job. Maturity and professionalism are not something I can really put on for 9 hours a day. Eventually, my silly, uncensored, inappropriate sense of humor and mindset pops back out and makes an ass out of me. Opinions welcome. But no, I will not share any further details about this incident.

I don't think saying 'bullshit' is any less expressive 

than saying something phony like 'Charmed, I'm sure'.

OK, OK, I Surrender!!

Got quite a lot of responsibility laid on me today. It's a little terrifying. On the one hand, I'm fairly confident that I can handle it. I'm responsible to a fault, if there is such a thing, and I feel like I am constantly taking it upon myself to memorize other people's schedules and remind them to do the stuff they need to do too. This is somewhat ironic as I seem to have a horrible memory sometimes. I have a thought and twenty seconds later, it's gone. Sometimes it comes back, and sometimes it doesn't. And yet, scheduling, time management, keeping track of other people, these things make sense to me and stick in my head. I'll remember your dentist appointment on Tuesday, but I can't remember what I wanted to ask you five seconds ago. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.
    However, I have been thinking a lot about these new responsibilities, and the prospect of acting like a productive member of society, being a grown-up, and it's starting to scare me again. I enjoy paying my bills (gasp!), and taking care of myself, even if I'm still not that great at it, but I am still 22 for another week, and some of these adult things and responsibilities seem beyond me. It's not because I am incapable of handling them at my tender age, but because I simply don't want them.
    I enjoy having a little bit of freedom, and I enjoy having a little more say over what I will and will not do. I know I can manage these new things that will soon be a part of my life and what I do, but I wish I could delay them for a while. I still feel like a kid in many ways, and while part of me wants the grown-up stuff so people will quit treating me like a kid, the other part of me wants to keep some of that childlike innocence and enthusiasm. You're only young once, and I don't feel like I've taken complete advantage of that ideal. Yet. I'm working on it.
    Maybe the fear of having to take on these new responsibilities is just a fear of change. I think everyone has a fear of change in some respect; probably because the familiar is already programmed into our brains and having to learn something new--a new routine, a new process, a new person--means more effort and more screw-ups while that learning gets programmed in.
    Yes, I am comparing us to machines by saying our brains require programming, but that is not to say that choice no longer exists. I made the choice to accept these responsibilities, so, for better or worse, I will dive into them head on. If they prove to be beyond my physical and mental capacity, or if they turn out be ill-fitting for the direction I see myself headed in, then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But in the meantime, it's Friday, the playoffs are on, and I get to sleep in tomorrow. I think a little congratulations are in order for surviving yet another week and coming out on the other side with my poor addled brain still intact and functional.

Cheers, na zdrowie, bottoms up, and salud.

Happy Weekend to One and All.