Friday, December 24, 2021
'Twas the Night Before
There's nothing like a new wave of pandemic-induced panic to make your holidays merry and bright. Three weeks ago no one really looked askance at me flying to Philly for basically no reason (although I would argue that cheesesteaks always present a compelling case); last weekend my sister told me that she wants us to do home tests before getting together for actual Christmas. Don't get me wrong, as I am always happy to have an excuse to shove something up my nose. But I can't keep up with our constant national vacillation between flippant disregard of even the most modest safety protocols and terrified bunker stocking. Of course, we do seem to be all over the place with everything these days; just ask the people creating thousands of hot takes on Big's fatal peloton ride. At least we can all agree that Dear Evan Hansen was creepy as fuck.
Anyway, I'm enjoying the heck out of my Christmas Eve Day, first and foremost because it's the first real day off I've had in ages. After our Portugal trip, I had a race to do as much as possible of my actual job before the end of my billable year, then Thanksgiving, then a hundred plus holiday cards, then a minor yet still terrifying tax situation, then more work, and now today finally a full stop. Like, a "I just read through my stack of aging New Yorkers" full stop. Of course, I'm terrible at actually relaxing, so I also went for a run and did four loads of laundry. But for me, that's about as close to mindful meditation as I get. And aren't the holidays all about exacerbating our neuroses, anyway? It truly is a wonderful life.
