A Rebuttal

I read Lori's post with my first cup of coffee this morning and I'm considering it. I'll cop to the blogging slump and the Christmas-hating, but not to the post-Thanksgiving depression.

Mostly I'm mentally bogged down with work stuff. I've got a huge CAP (that's College of American Pathologists to you acronym-challenged folks) proficiency survey due Friday, and several other end-of-the-year things to do, and I've been so freaking busy lately that I can't figure out when I'm going to get them done. So every night I leave work more and more anxious about how I'll get it all done in a holiday-foreshortened month.

The only bright side to that dilemma is that I have Friday off this week so come hell or high water, I'll have to finish the survey by Thursday night, and Friday it'll be out of my hands.

You know those people who thrive on stress? I'm not one of them.

So the leftover turkey is turning into soup as we speak, the chainsaw will be back from the shop Friday and new firewood will be forthcoming. The pies are gone, but I'm too fat anyway. Maybe having the pies go bad will help me stave off my heart attack for a few extra months.

But let's not forget, Gentle Internet, that winter is a time of senescence. The universe clearly wants us to do less, since it provides us with less daytime to do things. Outside it's cold and muddy and dark; it's much more fun to be sitting in a recliner in front of the fireplace with a book and a cat.

But yes, it's true that I also dread Christmas and all it's obligatory merriment. I like food and I love my family, but I hate decorating and I LOATHE pressure. And Christmas, with it's mandatory shopping requirements and suicide-generating faux-cheer, is the worst of all holidays for me. Give me a Memorial Day picnic or a Labor Day barbecue any day. Those are holidays I can get behind. Christmas makes me anxious about time and money and schedules...and being pushed into a state of anxiety by societal responsibility makes me angry.

I don't begrudge Lori her decorating and planning, I just don't have any desire to participate. I like going to pick out a tree at the tree farm, and I don't mind bringing it home and wrestling it into the tree stand. At that point my decorating needs are met and I'll be spending the rest of the month hiding from the calender.

But I'll blog more after Friday, scout's honor.