Back to Work Mode

I had a perfectly lovely reading afternoon on Monday. Well, reading two hours, since my phone kept ringing. But I got a couple hundred more pages into the book in the perfect environment, and I found myself liking that fifth Harry Potter book more than I previously have. I do think there has to be some kind of time warping spell in those books. I remember on release weekend trying to stretch it out more to savor it, and I still ended up finishing it in a day and a half. Now it may take me a whole week to read.

I think I also got more work done than usual because I was very efficient about it in the morning, and then while I was watching Texas play in the Fiesta Bowl (which turned into watching an NCIS marathon on ION while checking on the game during commercials because the game was just too stressful to watch) I got all the planning/brainstorming I'd planned for the day done. I remember back when I had a "real" job that I could fit a whole day's work into half a day when I had the chance of leaving early (which then made me wonder why I had to work a whole day when I could easily get everything done in half a day). But today it's bright and sunny, so I suppose normal terms apply today. I feel like a bit of an oddball in getting excited about a cold, dreary January day. I suspect more people would decide to break their schedules for a warm, sunny January day.

Today is Epiphany, which means the Christmas season is officially coming to a close, according to the liturgical calendar, so I've run out of excuses for operating in holiday mode. I think my Christmas cactus follows the liturgical calendar, since it doesn't start blooming until Christmas day and then stays in full bloom until Epiphany. But it's still in bloom, hasn't started dropping blooms and is still putting on new blooms, so it's entirely possible that I have the rare Eastern Orthodox Christmas cactus. I'm ready for it to stop blooming so I can repot it.

From looking at my calendar, I suspect that I will have to get over my usual January agoraphobia. My weekends are already all booked with business-related or social engagements and then there's choir practice once a week and my dance class. It will be hard to get into the hibernating habit when I have to keep leaving the house like that. I suppose there's always February ...