Truth Hits Everybody - Pt. 8...

8) Christmas Keeps Me Busy. Reeeeaallllyyyy Gorammed Busy...



*****EXTREMELY UPPER-CASED WARNING*****

Don't let your kids read this. I don't want certain things in life spoiled for them. I also am ranting about the holiday season in general and I do not want to be your buzzkill. Heh.

Read further at your own discretion.

*****/Warning*******



My last update was on the 6th, so I posted two updates today. Not that this makes up for my absence, mind you, but it does provide a starting place for Holiday Season 2007 - eXtreme Edition!

This month, no, this entire quarter has been a busy one. I've had twice the amount of work to do over last year so I've been spending a lot of time in my editing cave, more so than last year. It'll make my bank account happy to actually have some savable cash in there for a change, but lords did it take a lot of effort to get there.

Remember when you were a kid and December was filled with wonder, excitement and visions of that skateboard or Barbie Dream House that you JUST HAD TO HAVE? What the fuck happened to that, if may I ask in so blunt a fashion?

Truth is, you grew up. You became an adult, worried about finding this and that, dealing with deadlines, uninspiring corporate Christmas parties, putting up with relatives who drive you fecking insane (yet you thought they were the loveliest people when you were a kid), dealing with lines, traffic and the in-rush of unidentifiable fruitcakes and NON-STOP ADS, JINGLES, CAROLS AND OBNOXIOUS ATTEMPTS TO TOUCH YOUR HEARTSTRINGS WITH ONE HAND WHILE THEY SNEAK THEIR OTHER HAND INTO YOUR PURSESTRINGS.

Am I shouting in a slightly hypocritical fashion? Perhaps so. I've worked around retail environments in one form or another for half my life now, so I know the score. This holiday hullabaloo keeps me in a job and without it, I'd be slinging pizza again while looking for another job. That's the truth of the matter.

"Make money. Make more money. Make other people make money.”

-L. Ron Hubbard

Heh. You noticed who the quote was from, eh? Fear not, I haven't started ph34r1ng Xenu's return yet or anything. I will say this for LRH; sick little bastard that he was, he didn't hold back much on his own deranged outlook on life.

I tend to get a little cynical this time of year and that quote from one man's deranged mind seems to sum up for me the unspoken First Law of Retail. Make money at all costs.

It's the reality of it that strikes in my heart. When we were kids, we were told of the jolly fat man who'd carpet bomb the world with peace and joy...

...and loot. We didn't know where it came from, nor did we care. The elves made it, man! Don't question the universal truth of Santa and his benevolent nature.

We'd spend time with the family, play with our toys, get hugs and cookies from grandma. Then we'd spend the day immersed in the awesomeness that was Christmas.

How do you feel about it now? Do you still have that same excitement? Do you count down the days in anticipation of the joy of the day, or do you count down the days until you don't have to hear "Frosty the Snowman" for the umpteenth time?

Kinda digs at you, doesn't it?

Breaks my heart, to be honest. I look at how this month passed and I can't say I feel... Anything besides "thank Deus, THAT'S over."

Perhaps extremely tired, perhaps a little over-negative. I tell myself that today was the finish line, V-Day, The End, but what's left beyond that?

I'm spending time with the family tomorrow and that makes me happy. Not joyful Christmas Spirit happy, mind you, but earnestly goddamned glad to see you kind of happy. Some of my assembled family I haven't seen in 1.65 years since they moved across the continent and I cannot wait to see them. Some others I saw just a month ago, others six months ago.

I know not who in the family is coming, but I hope everyone in reasonable driving distance will stop in at some point. Just to check in, if nothing else. Let me know that they're alive and that they are doing well. I miss the hell out of all of them.

And, selfish as it may sound, I hope to regain a sense of what the Holidays are supposed to be about.

I need that most of all.