2009 Holidays
Dec. 3rd, 2009 07:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayfurrIn a nutshell, there will be no holidays for yers truly this year. Boo hoo, poor me.
But seriously, I've got to be in Boston all week every week between now and December 23. There are NO flights between Burlington, Vermont and Boston any more, and if I wanted to avoid driving I'd be flying to New York, Philadelphia, or Washington and then flying back north again to Boston. Flying through New York is just a recipe for disaster -- I've sat in LaGuardia waiting for air traffic control to release my flight home for six or seven hours at times and I'm not doing that any more.
And no, taking the train isn't an option.
Driving wouldn't be so bad except that when I started getting older I started experiencing paradoxical fatigue behind the wheel on multi-hour drives unless someone's with me to keep me awake and entertained, and even then (as Carole can attest) it doesn't always help.
And in any case, since I have to be here VERY early each Monday and may be here until rather late each Friday, I'd be getting home close to midnight each Friday, just fried from driving... and then would spend Saturday doing laundry and household chores, and then on Sunday I'd turn around and drive back again. And be tired all week from the experience.
So I decided to just check into a Homewood Suites right on the border of Arlington and Cambridge, the kind of place with a kitchen in each room, and I'm just staying down here right on through December 23. On the weekend I'll go out for a walk or something -- I've been to Boston six thousand times and I've seen pretty much everything there is to see here. Carole will cope -- I made tons of food for the freezer over Thanksgiving; she won't starve.
But then, here's the rub: Carole will be spending the week of Christmas with her parents in Ohio so she can see a close friend from high school who's been overseas for years and who's coming home for her brother's wedding... and she'll actually be leaving on December 18, five days before I get home. She gets back the day after Christmas, very late. I won't lay eyes on her, in all, for four consecutive weeks.
So that's my holiday season: I drive home on December 23, trade in my rental car at the airport for the car Carole will be leaving there. I spend Christmas Eve and Christmas completely by myself (well, okay, the cats will be there), and on December 26, I go get Carole from the airport. Yay holidays!
We won't even be putting up the Christmas tree this year and we won't be exchanging gifts as such. I've got the week off between Christmas and New Year's and then it's back to the routine in Boston again for more training. Fa la la la la, la la la la.
But seriously, I've got to be in Boston all week every week between now and December 23. There are NO flights between Burlington, Vermont and Boston any more, and if I wanted to avoid driving I'd be flying to New York, Philadelphia, or Washington and then flying back north again to Boston. Flying through New York is just a recipe for disaster -- I've sat in LaGuardia waiting for air traffic control to release my flight home for six or seven hours at times and I'm not doing that any more.
And no, taking the train isn't an option.
Driving wouldn't be so bad except that when I started getting older I started experiencing paradoxical fatigue behind the wheel on multi-hour drives unless someone's with me to keep me awake and entertained, and even then (as Carole can attest) it doesn't always help.
And in any case, since I have to be here VERY early each Monday and may be here until rather late each Friday, I'd be getting home close to midnight each Friday, just fried from driving... and then would spend Saturday doing laundry and household chores, and then on Sunday I'd turn around and drive back again. And be tired all week from the experience.
So I decided to just check into a Homewood Suites right on the border of Arlington and Cambridge, the kind of place with a kitchen in each room, and I'm just staying down here right on through December 23. On the weekend I'll go out for a walk or something -- I've been to Boston six thousand times and I've seen pretty much everything there is to see here. Carole will cope -- I made tons of food for the freezer over Thanksgiving; she won't starve.
But then, here's the rub: Carole will be spending the week of Christmas with her parents in Ohio so she can see a close friend from high school who's been overseas for years and who's coming home for her brother's wedding... and she'll actually be leaving on December 18, five days before I get home. She gets back the day after Christmas, very late. I won't lay eyes on her, in all, for four consecutive weeks.
So that's my holiday season: I drive home on December 23, trade in my rental car at the airport for the car Carole will be leaving there. I spend Christmas Eve and Christmas completely by myself (well, okay, the cats will be there), and on December 26, I go get Carole from the airport. Yay holidays!
We won't even be putting up the Christmas tree this year and we won't be exchanging gifts as such. I've got the week off between Christmas and New Year's and then it's back to the routine in Boston again for more training. Fa la la la la, la la la la.
