Whoop whoop.

You would not believe how busy I've been.
Or hey, you might.

Anyway, the moral to this story is that I finished my first quarter of med school (and I passed everything, by the way, an incredible victory in and of itself.) and then I was still stuck in Go-Go-Go mode for awhile. I was so burned out, too, that everything besides studying seemed like a terrible waste of time (including Christmas) and so I did what any reasonable person would do to get over the funk.

I made candy- loads of candy, chocolate turtles, caramel, and toffee. I went to holiday parties. I slept for an entire week straight, and then I flew to Denver to party my arse off with a dear friend for three nights, while we saw all of the best attractions of the town in the three days. I made a Christmas countdown calender, which my husband filled with tiny surprises. I bought more mistletoe than one should ever have in the house. I decided to have a New Year's party, which appears to be slowly spiraling out in to merry chaos. I have chestnuts to roast on an open fire, although here in the northwest, jack frost appears to be MIA (what kind of region gets a 0-20% chance of snow on christmas? LAME)

So my funk is gone, but I appear to have contracted whooping cough or a really nasty cold. It's pretty ridiculous. I'm running around in a bathrobe, my hair hasn't been brushed in three days, every thirty seconds I stop for a coughing fit that makes me see stars and whoop for breath, as I'm plugging in the tree and watching old movies and writing out all my holiday cards. This seems to correspond with the only down time I had planned for myself (though I missed two parties yesterday, for the solstice.)
I guess my body's had enough of busy.

That's ok! I'm a med student! I've been taking hot baths and cold rinses, putting ice cold wet socks on before bed (to drain the head congestion) taking vitamin C, eating horseradish and sri racha sauce to drain my sinuses, and practically floating on the volume of water and tea that I've been drinking. It's the best opportunity to practice what I've learned since I've learned it. I'm going to help my body recover so quickly, traditional Christmas Eve pinochle is going to be a win for my team (whoever I end up playing with.)  And really, I'm enjoying the rest, even if it comes with some hacking and a giant sinus headache.

To all a great fever, and a hacking rest ; )

Scrooge

I'm having trouble justifying some of the Christmas Spirit these days. With consumerism more rampant than goodwill, I feel like my favorite holiday is getting a bit...tainted.

It killed my soul a little to see Christmas goods on the same shelves as Halloween decorations.  The music starts too early, and it's just not special anymore. Anyone can tell you that when you start doing something every day, it ceases to be a treat and becomes a routine. I love routines, don't get me wrong, routines shove me through the day. Treats, on the other hand, are breaks from the routine. They are the whimsy that allows us to go off track for a while, knowing that eventually routine will get us back on track.

So now it's December 1st, the day I traditionally give myself the treat of putting up all manner of decoration and turning on that holiday music station for the first time, and I'm totally apathetic towards the whole production. I've been seeing the decorations and hearing the music for months now, outside of my home. My nativity scene is still in its zip lock baggie, in the bottom cabinet. The ornaments are beside the dryer, with the exception of the one ball that my cats managed to play with all year. I'm still listening to radiohead, mudvayne, disturbed, rhianna, three days grace, debussy, a perfect circle and all of the other artists that are on my every day play lists.

Then there's the whole issue of a tree. Do I, as a human, have a right to go kill a tree, just to have it die slowly in my house for no practical purpose? There's no symbiosis there. Not to mention, heating the house is expensive enough. I don't need to add 30 more strands of light to my electric bill (which would metaphorically kill more salmon, since the electricity is from the dam). On the other side, I know the trees are raised without the space to grow into the forest that they'd like to be, and a lot of great charitable groups really depend on the sales for their fundraisers...I just can't justify killing a tree right now. I can't justify the whole ritual of getting into the holidays right now.

I'm feeling pretty scrooge-y, now that the snow's gone and finals are upon me.
How do you get into the holiday spirit?