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Dec. 4th, 2019 04:39 amWhere I work, there are about 13 working days left in the year. Of which, I have to work only about 7 of them, because I have a small pile of vacation time left that I have to use up otherwise I'll lose it and that ain't happening on my watch. What I'll end up doing is making a bunch of extended weekends of it. To be honest, it's something of a waste to not use it until this late in the year; it would have been more useful during the summmer. But then again I was also kind of holding some of it back for another mid-autumn Japan trip that ultimately didn't happen.
When I first started my current job, I kind of resented having all that time off around Christmas and New Years, thinking all those holidays and vacation days would serve me better through the rest of the year, or piled up in the summer. Road trips are a lot better when it's warm outside. Eventually I got used to it, and learned to appreciate it.
As one of my nieces pointed out, winter is supposed to be a time of hibernation. While us humans don't sleep for months at a time (although it feels like we do), we go into something of a social hibernation, where we use the winter months to withdraw from the outside world to focus on within, spending time with only the closest of friends and relatives. The seasonal depression associated with this time of year isn't caused by this withdrawal, it's caused by forcefully denying it. The whole "CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS OR ELSE PSYCHOSANTATRON WILL SHOVE A CHRISTMAS TREE UP YOUR ASS" frogmarch doesn't help, not one bit. During this time, we're forced to continue socializing and be reminded of all the things we don't have and never will, and that gets to us. It gets to us on a deep level.
Now, I'm sure there are extremophile extroverts out there who thrive on constant socializing, and they're probably wondering where everyone else has gone. I don't know what makes them tick.
And so, when the end of the year rolls around, and I have over a week to myself, that's when I do my annual cleanup. Or at least part of it. Or at least attempt it. Or something, because it's the best time for that. It forces me to stay home more, and focus on my surroundings. True, I've only been living here for 2 years now, but I still have boxes to go through, to sort, and decide what can stay and what should go.
And going through my stuff for that purpose is highly introspective.
When I first started my current job, I kind of resented having all that time off around Christmas and New Years, thinking all those holidays and vacation days would serve me better through the rest of the year, or piled up in the summer. Road trips are a lot better when it's warm outside. Eventually I got used to it, and learned to appreciate it.
As one of my nieces pointed out, winter is supposed to be a time of hibernation. While us humans don't sleep for months at a time (although it feels like we do), we go into something of a social hibernation, where we use the winter months to withdraw from the outside world to focus on within, spending time with only the closest of friends and relatives. The seasonal depression associated with this time of year isn't caused by this withdrawal, it's caused by forcefully denying it. The whole "CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS OR ELSE PSYCHOSANTATRON WILL SHOVE A CHRISTMAS TREE UP YOUR ASS" frogmarch doesn't help, not one bit. During this time, we're forced to continue socializing and be reminded of all the things we don't have and never will, and that gets to us. It gets to us on a deep level.
Now, I'm sure there are extremophile extroverts out there who thrive on constant socializing, and they're probably wondering where everyone else has gone. I don't know what makes them tick.
And so, when the end of the year rolls around, and I have over a week to myself, that's when I do my annual cleanup. Or at least part of it. Or at least attempt it. Or something, because it's the best time for that. It forces me to stay home more, and focus on my surroundings. True, I've only been living here for 2 years now, but I still have boxes to go through, to sort, and decide what can stay and what should go.
And going through my stuff for that purpose is highly introspective.
