Tonight, I Read

I've been moving through the evening here at a stately pace.  I got home from work about 4:00 PM, cooked myself a nice and simple dinner of baked cod and green beans, and then settled in and took my Christmas decorations down.  I'm pretty compact when it comes to Christmas - a simple tree, a simple decoration, a wreath on the door, some lights outside on the balcony, a creche and a few other odds and ends.  Packing it all away is as easy as setting it up.

I enjoyed Christmas this year.  I did feel some residual guilt for not going back to the ranch in South Dakota, but when I made the decision not to go back this year I knew it was the right decision as soon as it was made.  There was just too  much going on to make it a relaxing trip.  It would have been hurried and stressful. Staying here in California was the right thing to do.

It was fairly quiet at work today, for the first day back after the holiday, largely because I suspect a lot of people are still out and won't be back until the seventh. The parking lots at the plant were about half full. Normally what happens at work is there is a hard ramp up into the second full week, then we hit our stride. I spent most of the day simply playing catch up from all the incidental things that happened while I was out on vacation. I'd say that, by the end of the day, I was fairly caught up.

Tomorrow I want to dedicate some time to getting organized for the coming year.  I have to figure out methods and processes to keep from getting overwhelmed and stumbling into that particular form of paralysis that comes about when you have so many things going in so many directions at once you don't know where to start.

Normally, when I get into December, things slow down enough to allow me to reflect on the year that has just passed, but I didn't have that option this year.  We sprinted right up to the Christmas holiday - and then we didn't so much stop sprinting as we simply collapsed from exhaustion.  So, that self-review process, which takes place in both the work environment and the personal environment, is going to have to take place here, in the beginning of January. 

I will certainly share the process and outcome of that analysis here - for your amusement and bemusement.  Tonight though, I think I am going to spend the rest of the evening reading. I bought a magazine, on writing, a few months ago and I've been carrying it around with me ever since.  I want to sit down and leisurely read it, to see what information I can glean from it, to see what tips and tricks I can learn - but it seems that I have never had the opportunity to truly focus on the magazine for the last couple of months.  I've looked at, I've set it by the chair, I've set it by the bed, I've carried it back and forth from work, but I've simply never had the window to read it.  Well, tonight, I read.