“I Think Christmas was a Long Red Glare”*

I am back from my blog hiatus otherwise known as Christmas. I took the week between Christmas and the New Year off, and haven’t been into the office since the 23rd.

I haven’t been to work in something like 12 days. Twelve whole days of not having to rush out of the house, late, and speed at 80 miles per hour for the 11 miles I am on Route 95. Twelve whole days of not having to beg the dogs to hurry the hell up and do their business because their incessant sniffing of our entire 2 acre lawn is making the clock move faster and me later. (Let me tell you, an 8 AM start time at the office is one big bummer, for more reasons than I can list right now.) Twelve whole days of doing whatever the hell I want whenever the hell I want to.

Let me tell you what the whatever the hell I want and whenever the hell I want to has consisted of.

On the 23rd I barreled out of the office, nearly laying rubber in the parking lot as bits of pavement flew out from under my tires nearly pegging my employers square in the face. I hooted, hollered, and nearly called out “So long suckers! See you next year!” out the window of my car. I went home and wrapped the insane pile of presents.

On the 24th we woke up at 7, and wrapped presents until, something like, a million o’clock. Then we drove to my brother Kaz’s house for Christmas Eve, which was entirely lovely.

Christmas morning found us driving to Vermont, an uneventful 3 hour ride which involved grumbling stomachs and scratch lottery tickets on which we didn’t win anything. We arrived at my in-laws house, unloaded all the presents from the back of the truck, and chilled out as we waited for family to arrive for Christmas dinner and presents.

The next few days were a blur. I slept, I read, I played with kids, I hung out, I didn’t use the Internet. Then Sunday found us back in the car driving back to Rhode Island, me in the passenger seat with a whole week without work stretched out in front of me.

I cooked my man some meals. I exercised. I took my time showering and getting dressed every day. I read. I burned an obscene volume of firewood. I cleaned out a room in the basement that I will convert into a home gym, because I always wanted one. I worked on my book, doing endless round of edits.

And now, back to reality. Tell me, what’d I miss?

*Dar Williams, "February."