For me, there are several dozen points to take note of in the switch to the last month of the year:
1. The end of the semester is suddenly there. This week in fact. Students whom I have come to accept as being part of my everyday will mostly disappear and go on to live happy and productive lives, only I’ll never know where, how and under what circumstances.
2. The eleventh month (November) seems too long. It takes forever to get to Thanksgiving and there’s not much else to distinguish one day from the next.
3. The twelfth month (December) seems too short. It takes no time to get to the end of the semester, to leave town, to return and plan out the entire Christmas hoopla, and finally, to reach the end of the year.
4. If you think of bright holiday lights as opposed to long dark winter nights, December will seem a lot less of a drain on your psyche.
5. I had a short night. I finished work close to 2 a.m. and got up around 5 to get the condo ready for a showing, prepare for class and switch cars with daughters who needed my old Ford wreck more than I did. Even as the evening approaches, I am spent. So you only get five points here. No matter – add your own. One can tell it’s no longer November when... music: how about that one? How do you feel about December holiday music? (Emotions run high on that one; mine are, perhaps predictably, of the thumbs up kind.)
Here is the first in a series of photos of Christmas tree selling places – the ones that make no promises about the splendidness of the trees or of the buying experience (cramped, with a limited selection, yet uniquely beautiful). By Knoche's, on Old Middleton Road:
The eleventh month (November) seems too long.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, but when November started I wondered what had happened to the month of October; it seemed to have flown by (with too little progress on work, even though I know I was working hard). The semester seems to have vanished in a blink.
Thanksgiving weekend seemed to be delightfully drawn out. Catching up with family and spending some time walking around Central Park snapping photos; a good break.
If you think of bright holiday lights as opposed to long dark winter nights
Hanukkah lights now for me :) December nights can be so cozy - warm indoor lights, old movies, hot cocoa... (but even from the outside, it feels good to breathe in cold air but stop at warm doorways or know you're fortunate enough to be headed for the cozy indoors).