Last Winter Break Day

I am designating this the last official day of Winter Break, 2012 - tomorrow, I plan to be up at my usual un-Godly early morning time and head in for a day of fun and merriment.  It will be easier to 'ease in' without making a Monday the first day of transition.  No one is expecting me back and while I won't be exactly able to 'hide', I will have a full day of no meetings - time to dig in and get stuff ready for my assistant - next week will kick off one of the busiest couple months in my history there.  Crazy busy with more projects in process than ever.  My juggling skills are really going to be tested.  I feel ready!

In exchange, I am leaving today as a non-work day - spending the morning tidying things.  We cleaned out the refrigerator as much as we can.  We have items purchased for creating two meals that will likely end up in the freezer - but feel proud that we actually have room in the freezer for those meals to be stored.  Back to planning meals; freezing leftovers for another night; living off the land as much as possible.  We have 10 more months of severance and then it's

The cleaning crew arrives sometime today but we are not exactly sure when - they're usual day was New Years Day so they are catching up for us and others.  They'll be here when they get here.

I have been watching B.'s flight cross over to Texas and they are now officially in their descent to DFW.  We aren't sure which Atlanta flight he's on - so we will track the two that we think he's on.  He will have a very long day because it's a 3 hour drive from the airport to Ft. Benning and his flight doesn't get to Atlanta until 6PM (earliest) or 8PM (latest).  Welcome to the Army! where you will be perpetually exhausted for the next few weeks.  For sure!

I found my old poetry file in the file drawers near my desk and decided it was time to let it go - so I shredded much of it.  It wasn't that it was bad poetry - but it was written in my late teens, early 20's - and no one needs that much evidence of that much angst lying around in perpetuity.  It's been stored in the file cabinet to the right of my desk and since I am now dutifully filing monthly bills, correspondence, etc. (it's the new me!), I need the space in that drawer.  Reliving those tumultuous, emotional times felt somehow familiar - sort of like the past week or so, I guess.  Only thankfully with three decades of life experience to buoy me up a bit more easily than when I was 20.  Time is a wonderful gift - to learn how to work through all the crap life throws our way....and to learn to cherish and appreciate all the joy thrown our way, too.  Those skills didn't exist much in that poetry...and it was a good reminder for me of considering the inability to process a lot is typical in young adults...I need to remember that.  I stopped myself from reading it all - just piled it in the shredder and watched it be chopped to bits.  Liberating!

Not sure what I will do to fill the afternoon hours - possibly a movie?  Maybe a trek to the 'big mall' in Pleasanton?  Not that there's anything truly urgent to shop for - though wandering through Sephora is always fun and I did get a sample of a new makeup that I truly LOVE.  I am scraping the leavings out of the sample tube and would love to have a new bottle to start with tomorrow.

It's going to take some pretty amazing makeup artistry to fake joy at returning to work.  It's been a great not quite three week break....and it's time to get 2013 moving!

Plane just landed @ DFW....and thankfully, the next flight is only 4 gates away in the same terminal.  Thankful that B. and his 'team' won't have to navigate DFW 'cuz it can be pretty darn complicated.