Back to the Grind

The holidays are over, and it's time to get back to the same ol' grind. Well, almost. I still have today to laze around. Eric had to go in today, though. He decided to torch some turkey for his breakfast, which set off the smoke alarm, which in turn woke me up. The burning smokey smell permeating the closed bedroom door helped with that too... My break was most definitely refreshing (if stressful at times, but that's life), so I'm not as despondent as I might be to return to work. In fact, I'm feeling pretty re-energized, which is a good reminder that time off isn't always a luxury, but a necessity. Everyone needs a break, particularly if you frequently work with the public and are discouraged from committing violent and/or homicidal acts while on the job. I also feel good knowing that I accomplished all of the items on my to-do list before I had to go back to work. For instance, the alternator recently went bad on the Saturn, and I got that fixed. It's no fun driving an if-y car in L.A. traffic, so it's a major relief to have the car running normally again. As necessary as breaks are, though, eventually there comes a point when you have the mildly disturbing experience of looking forward to returning to the day-to-day routine.

For Eric, this quarter is going to be particularly busy and stressful (like every quarter, really), so I'm bracing myself for that roller coaster ride. With the new year I'm also getting a new schedule at work, which hopefully will help reduce burnout. On the new schedule, every other week I'll have three days off instead of just two. This may sound like a novel concept, but actually everyone else in my department and most of the Getty has been on some variation of such a schedule for a long time. Now we teachers will be on the same kind of schedule, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out. Just before I left for my holiday break I learned that all positions are frozen, meaning the promotion I was to receive isn't going to happen--not for a long time, at any rate. That news was a bitter pill to swallow, but ultimately I realize I'm fortunate just to have a job. So, this new schedule is the only bright note for the moment.

Below are a few pictures from the past month. I haven't been as good about posting them chronologically as I should have been, but here they are.

Eric's sister Kellie had her pinning ceremony last month and is now a nurse. Eric and I are with her here along with his niece, Genna.

On Christmas morning--and Erin is still acting up.

On New Year's Eve we went to see rescued seals near Los Angeles Harbor.

Holiday Break

I hope you all had a great holiday. As planned, Eric and I spent Christmas in Illinois with my family. The weather didn't cause us any travel difficulties, but it did bounce around from bad to worse to okay every ten minutes or so. It was so nice to have a chance to see family and friends that I don't get to see very often. Per tradition I overindulged in calorie-packed foods and sweets...and just as soon as New Year's Eve has come and gone I'll stop eating like an unsupervised six year old.

We'll be spending the last day of the year with his parents--thank goodness that involves no air travel! We didn't encounter any weather-related travel delays, but on the way back we were delayed waiting on connecting passengers who were trying to make the last flight of the day to L.A. Once we finally landed, LAX was packed and the taxi line was monumental. Even though we live only fifteen minutes from the airport, with the taxi line wait we didn't get home until over an hour and a half after we landed. I know it wasn't the same degree of trouble experienced by some holiday travelers, but it was frustrating nonetheless.

I wasn't surprised today to discover we didn't have a scrap of food in the place. After an extensive grocery trip, we're back in business. Now that we have food and are unpacked, I think we're pretty well settled in again. Even though I'd mentioned it to him at least two or three times before, Eric was "bummed" to learn I still have another week off. It's not my company he objects to so much as my presence--when I'm home he knows he's not going to get to sit around and play Xbox all day. We've gotten pretty good at compromising about it, though. I have some new books I want to read, so I can get into those while he works on his hand-eye coordination.

My only real plan for the week is to enjoy the rest of my time off, allowing myself to be lazy and do as little as possible. That being the case, I'm going to wrap this up and get to it!