Bitching and Moaning

We are in the run-up to my least favorite time of the year.

I hate cold weather. I know that it doesn't get as cold in Florida as it does in other parts of the country, but it feels cold to me. And I hate being cold.

Worse than the coldness of winter is the darkness. It is dark in the morning when I go to work, dark at night when I come home. Too dark to take a walk in the evening.

I need light and heat and outdoor exercise in order to be happy. Wintertime is clearly a problem for me. It is better in Florida than it was in Ohio, because I can at least get outside some on the weekends and the sun shines in the daytime (as opposed to Ohio where in the wintertime the sun can hide for days and days on end). Even so, winter is a huge problem for me! I think the name for the condition is appropriate: SADD.

So, usually from about mid-November until the middle of March, I am depressed. Sad. Grumpy. Miserable to be around (for myself and anyone who is unlucky enough to have to deal with me).

Worst of all, my "SADD" period coincides with the season cheerfully referred to by many as "The Holidays." Over the years, the period made up by "The Holidays" has changed. It used to run from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. That was bad enough. Now it appears to start with Halloween and end with the Super Bowl. It seems as though everybody I know is excited about "The Holidays." There is endless chatter about meals, parties, gifts and (shudder, cringe, tremble) decorations. Yikes!

The next time somebody asks me if I have started my Christmas shopping, I'm gonna deck them. I refuse to even think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. And I don't mean the day after Thanksgiving. I mean sometime in the middle of December!

In almost every other aspect of my life, in particular my professional life, I work far ahead and plan, plan, plan. In my personal life, I take each day as it comes and try not to think ahead. That goes double at this time of the year when it is all I can do to get through the day at hand. If I think too much about the upcoming string of Thanksgiving, Football playoffs, Birthdays, Anniversary, Christmas, New Years, Football playoffs, etc., it makes me want to run away and hide until it is all over and all that cheerfulness dissipates.

So, I am in denial. I'm pretending that The Holidays are far away and I don't have to worry about any of it.

In the meantime, I am off today for a four day continuing education seminar. Yuck. I have to leave in three hours and I haven't even pulled my suitcase down from the closet. I guess I've sorta been in denial about going to this seminar, too.

I'll be back to bitch some more next week.