I despise Thanksgiving and Christmas. There — I said it.
Why?
1. I resent being expected to be jolly on cue.
2. I have nobody to be jolly with, anyway, so screw it.
3. Because I am such a high roller, in my career I've always had to work holidays, or work right up to them, or work extra beforehand to avoid being swamped afterwards. This effectively negates the time-off factor.
4. I have to travel vast distances to be with family — either 300 miles round trip for one meal, or 600 miles round trip for one week, which turns out to be five days.
5. At any gathering (even the ones for the sad sack crowd, sponsored by AA or churches) I am the odd man out — the only single male, the only person under 70, the only person over 35.
And that's why I hate this time of year, and keep my participation to the bare minimum.
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6 comments:
Excellent post. The Christmas music, the neighbors game of oneupmanship on decorations, the barrage of sales notices. Give me summer anytime.
Well said. You beat me to it. I'm planning a holiday post, saying much the same thing.
I can't even bring myself to watch the Jean Shepherd Christmas movie, which is truly funny. But TBS shows the frigging thing non-stop. Enough!
It's taken me a while to figure it out and allow the warm memories of magical Christmases past to transcend the utter shitstorm that we call the holiday season. Yes, it is disgusting and commercial and fleeting. But I found a way to avoid it. One way is to ...
Hey, find a cheap flight out to Portland. You would truly be merry, albeit for only four or five days. It'd be worth it, and we have a guest room now with your name on it. Very serious here. Screw common sense. (That's the first rule.)
Thank you for the offer. The paper shuts down Xmas week so I go to NoVa and hang with the parents. As these things go its relatively painless.
Plus there's just no spare money for things like plane tickets right now. These days my idea of a big treat is throwing in five bucks for Chinese food on production day, or buying a fried egg sandwich on Friday mornings at my friend's deli.
Could be worse, but it's only by degree I suppose. I am a Christian liberal married into a family of well-heeled conservative agnostics who love to berate and bait me every chance they get after asking me to say grace over the turkey. And I live in Texas. I am thinking of becoming a Hindu just to piss them off, but it's much easier to remain Episcopalian and just take it ;)
BTW-great posts lately. Enjoy reading.
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