Holiday fun time

[Lord Ebo the Pantless]

Oh, the holidays. What joyous litle buggers they are. Traditionally, my mom's side of the family has a big ol' dinner on Christmas Eve and the family gift exchange takes place. Then my brother and I spend the night at Mom's and in the morning we have the immediate family gift exchange and breakfast. Then my brother and I go to our dad's for the afternoon and dinner and good times there.

Naturally this schedule has suffered, at least in my case, since I started working for the post office. Working at night puts a crimp in things as I need to get my sleep during the day, and there's always the chance I could get drafted to work on Christmas Eve itself, as it is my scheduled holiday.

This year, things really got a wrench thrown in the works. My cousin, a Boston College student, has been in Argentina on an exchange program. Originally, he was supposed to be down there for a year, but something changed and he was going to be coming back this January. Then he got that date changed and was able to come in on Christmas. My aunt, his mother, flew down to hang out the full week before he was due home and they arranged to fly home together.

Because of this, the family Christmas Eve dinner was pushed back to December 27th, a Thursday, and the first night of my weekend. This was done specifically so I could attend. Starting work at 8 PM really puts a damper on most evening gatherings.

I thought the plan would then be meet my aunt and cousin at the airport midnight Christmas Eve, and then go to Mom's house, sleep, and do the usual morning routine and go to my dad's in the afternoon, and then go on to work. Of course, I had concerns about sleeping enough for work that night. Talking it over with Dad the week before, I expressed those concerns. He was planning on buying a roast and wanted to know if I was coming, so he'd know how big a roast to buy. He said he'd rather I get enough sleep for work ad if that meant skipping dinner with him, so be it. Since I was still expecting to spend the morning with Mom, I told him I would not be coming.

Sunday before Christmas, I get an IM from my brother which stated that he and Mom will be meeting me for breakfast after work Monday morning at a diner I frequent with totally kickass awesome country-fried steak. So on Monday, Christmas Eve, I meet my brother at the diner. Mom calls to say she won't be making it. And then I find out Mom's cancelling her deal Christmas morning so I can get enough sleep to go to Dad's. Great. Have the opportunity to go to Dad's now, but no point since he bought food assuming I wasn't going to be there, and ther's no use going to dinner if there's going to be nothing for you to eat.

So after eating with my brother Christmas Eve morning, I went home, slept, woke up at night, played computer games all night, went back to bed in the morning and woke up in time to go to work Christmas night. Had a message from Dad on the cell phone about 3 and a half hours after I'd gone to sleep. Apparently my brother had told im what had, or rather, hadn't gone on for Christmas, and so he was inviting me to come over. Oh well.

Finished out my work week, got home Thursday morning, and fiddled on the computer a bit as normal. Went to bed and slept hard. So hard in fact, I woke up over 12 hours later. Like at 10:30 at night. All kinds of calls on my phone wondering where I was. Call Mom back, "Yes, I'm alive." What the crap, man? Why does everytime I miss something, people think I died or something? Better yet, why don't we starts having these parties and stuff at 2 AM in the morning on Fridays? Or Saturdays? I can make those, I'm awake then. Meh, whatever.

Manage to set up with Mom that I'll go over the next evening, Friday to hang out for a bit. Fire off an e-mail to Dad asking if he and Joann are free for lunch Friday as a makeup for Christmas. With nothing else to do at midnight, I start up the games. Get a reply back from Dad in the morning, so I go over for lunch, and help on their jigsaw puzzle afterwards. Stop by Mom's for snacks and pick up my presents. She's all feeling bad because I didn't get a Christmas, but really, I fell out of the holiday spirit about a week-and-a-half prior. Just something about the post office. It drains your enthusiam and replaces it with apathy.

So it's New Year's this week. I volunteered to work. I'm not a party type of guy, and the last time I had the night off, I had gone to a party with my Mom at one of her friend's house, and I got sent home about 10:30 because I was yawning my head off. Made it home and I was asleep by 11:30. Might as well work it, get paid, and not disrupt my schedule.

But the Fates are not kind to me. Lost power sometime today, so my alarm did not go off at 6:30 like it's supposed to, and I ended up waking up at 10:30 (again) after over 12 hours sleep (again) when the neighborhood bozos started lighting off fireworks. Jump in the shower and rush off down to work, watching out for cops on the way. Get in just after 11, 3 hours late.

Guess it's not all bad, because I am staffing the tour office, and relief won't get here until 6:30 or so. As such, they're changing my schedule so I work until 7:30. I get my full 8 hours, but I have a short off time and have to come back at 8 tonight. No one to blame but myself, I guess, unless some lawyer can blame the power company.

So, yeah. The holidays are not being nice to Ebo. I need to win Powerball or something, so I can skip the whole "work" deal. In the meantime, I will be getting, at my option, 3-day weekends for Christmas and New Year's for the next three years, unless my current days off change. Which, having said that, they probably will. Come on, lucky numbers!