Over Already?!

Well, that went by too quickly! Was it only a week ago that I was packing?

No matter how much I work during vacation, inevitably I come back to a rush of urgent emails and cell phone messages requesting my assistance before I even set foot in the office. I AM NOT READY. More vacation, please.

I am very sad that the last day of 2012 is a Monday - ugh - and the first day back after vacation - always depressing. Doubly depressing that I have two deadlines tomorrow so there will be no easing back into work... plus it's finally time to confront those projects that I mostly ignored to deal with everyone else's demands this fall.

But here's to 2013--may it bring as much love and fun as 2012, preferably with more sleep, less stress, more sunshine, and more time visiting family, friends, and the world's cutest/sweetest puppy dog.

Holiday Pops... and other updates

Time is flying by so fast; I have to hurry to write about the Holiday Pops before I jet off to Georgia for Christmas!

And yet, I'm so tired... Two months of working nights and weekends has really taken a toll. I've been slowly checking things off my list, but there are others that I'm about two months behind on addressing. Worst of all, the busier I get, the harder I have to try to produce the same quality work. I can normally dash off a well-written report fairly quickly, but now it feels like it takes me hours to write a comprehensible paragraph. Maybe it just feels that way because of all the demands on my time?? I really hope so...

It's also been tough because - guess what? - everyone plans social events around the holidays. This week alone, I went to one party to celebrate the promotion of another IEc associate and one gift swap during lunch. Both were fun, don't get me wrong! (Particularly the associates party, because the host had a dog and a 16-month-old, both of which were adorable and entertaining.) I also had a friend from college come over to hang out with my roommate and I. Unfortunately, I was the scrooge who went to bed early because I had stayed up late working the night before.

What a depressing post this is turning out to be! I'm doing fine, I swear! And really, it's a bit ironic that although I've been busier than ever the last two months, I've actually been loving my job more than ever, too. I feel like I know what I'm doing now, to the point of managing projects and teaching newcomers. I'm definitely happiest when I can take some leadership and when I am confident that I'm doing things correctly. Also, I have to put things in perspective: I spoke with one of my good friends a couple days ago, and she was completely worn out from a month of 60-80 hour workweeks. I have never worked 80 hours in a week in my life! She was also sending out Christmas cards, in all her free time.

So... what I actually meant to write about... the Holiday Pops was awesome!

Colin came up from New Haven on Tuesday afternoon, and I left work early so we could get dinner before the show. We met a couple work friends downtown at a Vietnamese and Thai restaurant, which proved to be extremely popular and delicious. Check out the straw on my Thai iced tea:

Do they have a dedicated straw-wrapper employee?! That's beautiful!

The restaurant also served HUGE portions that were extremely inexpensive, so Colin and I had to smuggle our leftovers into Symphony Hall in my purse.

Symphony Hall was a beautifully ornate building. Unfortunately, they put these rows of LED lights along the edge of the balconies that were, I imagine, supposed to introduce a little "atmosphere" and bring the symphony into the digital age.

Yes, that's a projector screen, and those white bars on the edge of the second balcony are LED lights.

Luckily, that was my only complaint! Otherwise, the show was fantastic. The first half was mostly traditional music, including the Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker--one of my all-time favorites. The second half was more upbeat, with a reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas accompanied by the orchestra and an illustrated slideshow and a visit from Santa Claus. The orchestra was joined by the all-volunteer Tanglewood Festival Chorus for many songs, and the best of these was a rousing mash-up of popular songs with The 12 Days of Christmas. I, of course, can't remember any of the tunes they integrated, but I do remember that at one point, to represent three French hens, the orchestra triumphantly held up three French horns. The Pops also played Sleigh Ride, while the chorus bobbed and swayed to perfectly mimic the movements of the sleigh (think: crack! goes the whip; lurch! goes the chorus).

There was a soloist (not part of the volunteer chorus) who sang one song in that austere operatic style that makes me want to groan and make funny faces until the performer cracks. Thank goodness it was only one song! I'm sure he's very talented, but gosh I just enjoy music so much more when the performer shows some emotion. I thought he did a much better job with his second song, Mary Did You Know, which also happens to be a favorite of mine. I always get the shivers listening to that song because, really, how hard would it be to raise a child that would never truly be yours? It makes me wonder, how do you raise a child to be humble and compassionate when, from birth, he has been declared the savior of humanity? Did Mary ever wish that her life were easier, or more "normal" perhaps?

Finally, at the end of the concert, the Pops played a selection of carols for a sing-along. As the conductor put it, "Christmas is a time of miracles, and one of the greatest miracles of all is that people who would otherwise never open their mouths to sing, do so aloud and in public." Absolutely true. I can't carry a tune for a second, but if enough other people are singing, I'll happily belt out a Christmas carol.

Merry early Christmas, all! (And to all a good night.)

Holiday Happenings

This is the post I was trying to post last week when I found out I couldn't upload any more photos. I've cleared some space online, so here is the now-outdated post--

Work is still crazy. The crushing period of deadlines is not over. But this last week marked the end of our annual review period, and I got positive remarks all around! Hooray for little pats-on-the-back. Part of the reason the last week was so tough, though, was because I decided I'd had enough of NOT having fun, and I became a little social butterfly. Late nights ensued. I slept in until 9:30 every weekend day, which is late for me, and I snoozed my 7:30 weekday alarm about a bazillion times.

• Last Friday, I went to a small games night with a friend from SNRE and two of her friends. We made nachos for dinner, and I contributed cookies for dessert (thank goodness I had baked and frozen some a while back, because I was way too exhausted to bake during the week). I won our first game gloriously! I lost the next one miserably. Can't win 'em all.
• Last Saturday, I went to an Ugly Sweater party with other SNRE friends. Alas, I had no ugly holiday sweater to wear. (As one friend pointed out, "why would I own something I consider ugly??" I replied that he was obviously behind the times, because ugly sweaters are now trendy, provided that they are nicely fitted, worn with leggings or a cute skirt, and bought at a fashionably overpriced store.) Although there were craft materials to make your own ugly t-shirt, my friends and I didn't participate--all kidding aside, why would I want something I consider ugly? So my fellow SNREds and I made ourselves at home near the gingerbread house-making table and snacked on construction materials. And eggnog. I love eggnog. 
• On Wednesday, I went to a Celtics basketball game with IEc. Although I have never followed basketball and couldn't name a single Celtics player, this was something I figured should be on every Bostonian's bucket list. Before I bought my ticket, though, I verified that other work friends who aren't avid fans would be there, too... The Celtics are apparently not doing very well this season, but they won this game! It was close until the 4th quarter, when the Minnesota Timberwolves seemed to get tired and the Celtics pulled ahead. The final score was 104-94.
• On Saturday (last night), I went to yet another holiday party, a "S’möresgåsbord." That's right--a s'mores party. If you have a functional fireplace in your apartment, why wouldn't you throw such a party? It was great, and I am definitely going to use the idea one day when I have my own fireplace. We had a vast array of chocolate: in addition to standard milk and dark, we had Rolos, which work remarkably well when skewered and surrounded by marshmallow, and mint Ghirardelli squares. There was hot spiced cider to drink. Because Saturday also happened to be the first night of Hanukkah, we of course played dreidel and ate latkes. This party is a new annual tradition, and I'm already looking forward to the 2013 event. 
• The most exciting thing on my calendar, though, is happening this Tuesday--the Boston Pops Holiday Concert! Check back later for a review of that one. :)

Celtics vs. Timberwolves

Blog Uncertainty

Well, I was just drafting a post about my latest adventures, and I got a seriously unfortunate message. Blogger, it seems, has a limit on the amount of photo storage space you can use, and I've reached it. No more photo uploads for me unless I pay.

I don't know what this means for my blog. I don't want to move to a new site, which would change my blog address and would ultimately have similar storage limits--switching would just buy me time and inconvenience my *vast* readership. I don't want to pay a small fee for the rest of my life to store photos online. I don't want to blog without photos. For now, I can remove some other old albums from my online Picasa gallery, which will buy me time to decide. But now I'm regretting posting so many unnecessary photos--who knew this would happen? Why did Blogger not tell me there was a limit until I hit it?

I had imagined myself blogging for years to come, but that seems unlikely. You, dear readers, will just have to call me and ask what's going on in my life. You, dear Blogger, just lost one devoted fan.

Will this be goodbye?? I don't know. I'll clean out my Picasa web albums and continue posting as long as I can (maybe for years, actually, since I have hundreds of photos from Botswana and Madagascar online), but the end is approaching. And any Picasa albums that I linked to in previous posts will be nonexistent soon. Sorry, guys.

Wouldn't it be funny if one day everyone got frustrated with all this ever-changing, ephemeral technology and just went back to snail mail and telephones? Take my smartphone and my wifi! Bring back paper and penmanship!

I'm still here...

My devoted readership (hi, Grandmother and Grandaddy!) has pointed out that I've been slow to update my blog. In fact, I've had multiple phone conversations lately that went something like this:

Reader: Hi! How are you? Wait, don't tell me... you've been busy at work.
Me: Yes, very busy.
Reader: I could tell because you haven't written anything on your blog in a while.
Me: Oops.

So, yes, I have been very busy lately. The last five weeks have been a nonstop frenzy of deadlines and deliverables. I finally got around to counting how many projects I'm working on the other day, and the answer is ELEVEN. Only two of those have not required anything of me in the last five weeks, and seven have had major deadlines.

I saw a facebook status update a couple days ago that made me want to laugh and cry because it is so true. I paraphrase: have you ever gone to remove the mascara from under your eyes, only to find that there's no makeup--that's just how you look these days?

Anyway, I finally made it through what I think (and hope!) is the worst of the crush. I still have several more deadlines during the next month, but several other projects are now on hold. (I think I only have five that actively demand my time now.) I also have a few *fun* things planned between now and Christmas, so hopefully there will be more blog entries soon!

In the meantime, though, here are the fun, non-work things I've done lately:

• Going home for Thanksgiving--always one of my favorite things! And bringing Colin with me, which was very fun.
• Playing with Maizie, who is still the cutest dog in the world.
• Hanging out with good friends from high school, some of whom I hadn't seen in more than two years.
• Going to see the last Twilight movie. It was just as terrible as you'd expect.
• Talking to four friends about their respective upcoming weddings. FOUR. Am I getting old, or what?
• Sleeping in until after 9:00 this morning, eating breakfast in bed, and planning to wear pajamas all day.