It Only Gets Brighter from Here

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year, and it both did and didn't feel like it. It definitely seemed like something strange was up. I had to go into work very early and stay late to get a bunch of high priority, super rush jobs done. That, combined with the stress I've maybe been denying a little of this annual annoyance called Christmas, meant that when I got home my head was reeling. It felt like I'd been wearing a hat that was too small all day and when I took it off there was a throbbing ring of dizzy pain left over.

I went to bed early. Alison had to wait because she was colouring her hair with henna, and couldn't sleep with a plastic bag on her head. That was fine with me, but then every time I started to drift off, the phone would ring. Like, four or five times, and no one was answering it. And each time, I would bolt awake, wondering where I was and what that noise meant, and cursing loudly. Finally, the fifth time it happened, I jumped out of bed, threw some things around angrily, stomped down the stairs naked, and kicked the bedroom door open to see what was going on. Alison was nowhere to be seen, but I found all her clothes, including underwear, hanging up on the back of the bathroom door.

Completely freaked out, the only thing I could think of to do was start making a weird keening noise that I wasn't even sure was coming from me. Luckily, the phone interrupted me by ringing again. This time I answered it, and it was my mom, as it had been all along, just wanting to talk about the awesome Christmas present my dad gave us all by being in much better health than we'd thought for awhile. Describing my ridiculous situation semi-incoherently to her made me see the humour in it, and after getting off the phone I found out that Ali was just upstairs visiting the K's in her pyjamas. Today I feel much better: I'm ready to raise a glass of soy nog and belt out some carols. (Hmm... has anyone ever considered the possibility that Scrooge was just overtired, and that the real redemption of the story came when his nightmares finally allowed him some much needed sleep?) So happy Christmas, and god bless us, every one.

- Andrew