Perfect Vision, Shedding and What I Learned Over the Holidays

My new supply of contact lenses for my left eye came in yesterday, and I cannot express adequately how much better it feels to have both eyes corrected appropriately.  It literally makes me see 2013 differently.  That might be a bit of hyperbole based on my euphoria at not having to squint or hold my head a certain way to avoid eye strain, but I almost did cartwheels down the hallway at work this morning after I put in the new left contact.  I’m fairly certain that doing so would have ended up badly, especially since our hallways are narrow and I haven’t done a cartwheel in years.  Feel free to picture me doing cartwheels though.  Beautiful, straight-legged cartwheels much better than anything I ever did in reality.

While our 17 days off were hellacious, they weren’t doom and gloom every minute.  Since we declared our independence from the scourge known as Time-Warner cable, we have been taking advantage of the free shows on Amazon Streaming and watched a ton of great programs over the holidays.  And bonus, they were primarily educational!  We got in some learnin’.   It’s funny because I used to scorn Nova on PBS when we had cable, but now the 8 seasons available are our go-to viewing.  I was also excited to find out that several seasons of Deadly Women as well as Infested were available for free as well.   Here are a few things I learned over the holidays:

• All of our heavy metals came from space
• If you start to detect iron from a dying star, get out of the way because it’s about to collapse and may go supernova on you.
• Humans have only 23,000 genes.  Ears of corn have more genes.
• It is possible to injure the brain in such a way that you no longer dream
• It’s possible our brain cases expanded, allowing our brains to grow larger because in humans, the gene for a strong jaw was deactivated unlike in primates
• If you live in an apartment complex infested with cockroaches and only one apartment refuses treatment, that’s enough to allow the infestation to grow no matter how much the complex is treated
• Saturn’s rings are made up of the remnants of an early moon ripped apart by the planet’s gravity
• Time does slow down slightly if you are moving
• If you discover multiple life insurance policies on you of which you were unaware or your spouse has been married several times and is vague about their whereabouts, you might want to check into it
• Pluto will always be a planet in our house, damn it

In all seriousness, I highly recommend Nova’s 2-hour episode “What Darwin Never Knew.”  It is fascinating and mind blowing.

***

I didn’t come up with resolutions for 2013.  I have some specific ideas of what I want to accomplish and/or change, but I don’t want to codify them.  Some friends have come up with a word or theme to describe their focus for 2013 and after thinking about it, I decided my theme is “to shed”:

• Shed weight
• Shed negativity
• Shed doubt
• Shed baggage
• Shed distractions

Usually I dislike January because it is such a come-down after the holidays but this year, I like it.  I appreciate how squeaky clean and new it is.  It makes be believe I can bathe myself in it and wash 2012 away.  It makes me think I can have a better year than last.  It makes me think of snow and how pristine and cleansing snow is.

Three days into the new year, and I already feel better.

 

 

The Second Day of the Year…

Dress pants & no bedroom slippers

Found me back at work.  While my employer is generous with holiday leave, they decided that we needed to return to work on Jan. 2.  As in the day after New Year’s.  As in Monday.  No extra day to ease us into 2012 and the return to work alas.  Since our response to a new year tends to be draconian resolutions and vows to whip ourselves into shape/cut out destructive behavior of choice/ruthlessly tamp down personality traits we don’t like, perhaps throwing us back into the cruel world of work was the right thing to do.

Get to work, slacker!  You need to exercise that brain before it turns to mush from all that crappy tv viewing, celebrity gossip blog reading and Twitter surfing you did over the last two weeks!

This morning I hauled myself out of bed and put on makeup.  I brushed my hair (no joke – I think I finger-combed my hair most of vacation) and stared dumbfoundedly at the clothes in my closet, wondering if it were possible to have lost the ability to coordinate an outfit in such a short period of time.

Daniel had become used to being able to play with his trains immediately upon waking and seemed a little subdued by the return to routine, though he was pleased to be going to see Ama (MIL).

We dashed out the door and encountered no traffic. I briefly wondered if the Rapture had occurred and I had not been one of the chosen (very likely), but then I remembered that more likely, everyone else was at home.  I think I made it to work in 15 minutes.  Clearly, we are the only poor fools who had to work today.

It has been a quiet first day back.  Several coworkers are still on vacation until tomorrow and the rest of us remained in our caves, er offices.  My office is on the second floor of our suite, and we are an introverted group on this floor, so we kept to ourselves.  We must be eased back gently into the company of others lest our heads explode.  I suspect several sports-minded coworkers were watching football games online but I name no names.

I deleted emails.  I did not check voice mails.  I filed a travel reimbursement.  I tried to remember on what I was working before the holidays.  Did some work.

At least the first day back is over.  2011 was a busy year at work, and I have no doubts that 2012 will be any different.  Sometimes it seems like there is so much to do that I don’t know where to begin. I suppose I’ll tackle it one bite at a time.

How many days until Christmas?

If you had to work today, how was your day back?