kyburg | Sometimes, everyone works on Christmas....

It is so quiet here today.

And cold. I'm sitting on my hands intermittently to keep from shivering. The sky is a perfect blue, dry as a bone and so cold it makes your teeth ache.

I could be home watching anime until my eyes bleed. Oh, well.

What did I get Jim for Christmas?

Trigun. ALL of it.
Cowboy Bebop. ALL of it.
Fushigi Yugi (He likes it, shush). ALL of it.
Rayearth (I'm curious...sue me). ALL of it.

I got him Faulty Towers (ALL of it). I got him the Tom Hanks/Spielberg Space series.

I could be home. But no, I'm at work.

And cold.

I'm also feeling the need to get huffy about this common thread of "nobody should be made to work on Christmas Day."

*clears throat*

I've spent my entire life with a parent who worked in hospitals and home care. It is not a sin to work Christmas Day and not spend it with your loving family. It is not the end of the world if you do not have a loving family, and you work Christmas Day.

Good grief. With a friends list as long as mine, I've got plenty of reason to hate families who MAKE people spend the holidays with them.

It's also not against the rules for me to assume that somebody will be working Christmas Day when I'm not. Or late Christmas Eve.

I may not like the idea that folks will be working the drive-through on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but as the widow of a Type I diabetic, I was damn grateful they did!

I also have something against the idea of making people brown-bag their meals when they work this holiday. That's so wrong. But a lot of hospitals do just that - they close the cafeteria, even with a full house.

Some people get downright upset to be lumped into observing the wrong faith by assumption. And nothing the bleep is open. I can relate.

When I was on the college newspaper, I worked a Christmas Day or two covering the folks who did work - and there were plenty of them. The local 7-11 was one of the best places to find them.

Think about it a moment. Hospitals, firehouses, squad rooms...utility offices, power companies, service providers...people driving trucks, airport shuttles and taxi cabs. They're out there. Nothing shuts down completely. Not even on Christmas.

Matter of fact, where Jim works, it's a coveted shift - they paid triple time.

I think the worst part would be if had been a surprise job - two days before, they spring it on you - "Hey, we need coverage on Christmas and you're IT." But that would follow for anytime of year where you had made plans, right?

Mom worked nights when we were kids. She worked Christmases and Thanksgivings and New Years. Somehow, that was okay. The patients weren't happy about being in the hospital either. We would go caroling in the halls and cheer them up.

Some of my favorite memories of growing up involved my older brother and a frozen-solid turkey he tried to get cooked for us one year...not to mention the rock-hard golf balls masquerading as a clover-leaf rolls.

You make the best of it. Tie so tightly to one kind of "this is it," and it will ruin you. Making the best of it rarely involves the Norman Rockwell ideal. Or making the only acceptable holiday, one where you HAVE to be somewhere with THESE people or ELSE.

Honest. People were asking me last night what I was getting my brother's kids this year. I looked at them blankly. You've got to be kidding me. They have not so much as spoken a word to me all year. I wouldn't have a single clue in life WHAT to get them if I wanted to.

My brother, he can have whatever he wants. His kids? His wife?

Somebody had better start talking to me first. Nicely.

Oh, the shame. Bite me. I'm not ever going to be "normal" in these matters. As that same brother once said of me - "she always manages to think outside the box." And he was proud of me for it. Now you know why he gets whatever he wants. He, of all the people I know, loves me unconditionally. No, I don't have to be, do or say on Christmas for him to be happy with me. Whatever I do in life, if I'm happy - so is he.

Lucky me to have learned that lesson early. Relax a bit. I never even got the candles lit Christmas Eve. I tried to start the DVD player a couple of times, thinking folks wanted to be entertained. Ha! They just talked over it...and kept talking. To each other, complete strangers until that night. BEST Christmas Eve in the world.

No, some folks didn't show. S'okay - will catch up with them later. Some had to work Christmas Eve. Some Christmas Day.

Hey, do what works. There's no shame in that...yet.

I will be better prepared next year. Some people should fear. Interrupt? No. Compliment the existing situation, yes. I'll have more than 48 hours next year.

As for today, I could have phoned it in. I'm going to go dust some shelves and catch up on combing the cat.