Chronic Rants

Sometimes we all need a break, and today has been the first part of mine.

When I was kid, Christmas was the most boring day of the year. Sometimes we’d go to the movies or out to dinner at a local Chinese food restaurant, but mostly it was a day when my Christian friends were celebrating a holiday I didn’t celebrate, and my Jewish friends were out of town, so I had no one to play with.

When I got older, I spent several Christmases with boyfriends’ families, since I had (and still have) a habit of dating Christian guys. Then there were many years that I worked at a small company that didn’t give Christmas as a holiday. (Small companies are exempt from the federal holiday requirements.)  The rest of the staff took the day off but I wanted to save my vacation days, so I went in. It was great! I was the only person in the office Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and most of the week. I cleaned out my email, emptied my inbox, sorted my files, and was incredibly productive. I listened to music and kicked my shoes off. It was actually really nice. It was probably my most productive week of each year.

Now Christmas is back to being boring. Most of my friends are out of town and the ones who are here are busy with holiday celebrations. But I decided to embrace the quiet instead of letting myself be bored.

I’ve been busy lately. Not busy by a healthy person’s standards, of course, but busy for me. By last night I was completely exhausted. I slept late this morning, something I always aim for but can rarely accomplish. I spent hours cleaning out my inbox, reading articles I’ve wanted to read, watching tv, and just relaxing. A friend posted on Facebook inviting everyone to her place for dinner, but I just didn’t feel like schlepping all the way downtown. Another friend invited me to join him and his wife for caroling. I didn’t want to schlep downtown and I especially didn’t want to carol, so that was easy to turn down. Then a friend invited me to her place to play a board game that we love with her and her husband. Now that one was tempting. I’d LOVE to do that! But not tonight. No, today is my day to rest, and I’m not going to leave the house unnecessarily. Besides, I know us. I know we’d be up late. And I need to rest. So I’ll be staying in.

Tomorrow Christmas and I figure it will be just like today. I’ll read and catch up and maybe doing some more cleaning up around my apartment. I’m being productive in my own way, keeping it small and simple, and I love it. Yes, I have a long list of things to do, but I’m ignoring most of them to read things I enjoy instead.

Boredom will come. A lot of my friends will be away through the weekend. I have a doctor appointment one day, and will spend some time with my mom one day, but by that’s it. By next week I’ll be anxious for friends to spend time with. But that’s ok. It’s temporary.

So for now I’m determined to make the most of these boring days. The first day has been great, and my only regret is that now I have to go cook dinner. For all of you not celebrating Christmas with family today and tomorrow, I hope your boring days are just as pleasant and relaxing as mine has been so far.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 24th, 2013 at 6:18 pm and is filed under Expectations, Isolation, Limitations, Raves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.