The Last 30 Days

As an incredibly motivated and successful person, I enjoy the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Its my time to reflect on the year I've had and think about everything I want to do in the new year. New Goals, new accomplishments, new strategies.

But I also...almost always...wind up dedicating a few hours to reflecting on the month of December.

Its not to re-review my past strategies or re-evaluate my month.
Truthfully, it's to lament all the time wasted between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The shopping
  Getting boxes of decorations from attic and basement
    The wrapping
      The actual decorating 
          Making lists, checking twice
             RETURNING purchases that Mrs. Defmall made
                 Decorating OUTSIDE?   The Worst....!
                    Going places I don't want to go.
                      Seeing people I only see once a year
                       Buying food and leaving it at whatever party/gathering we attend.
                          HOURS of cleaning up...re-cleaning...cleaning again...



GAH!  I can't stand it.

Before you start using words like "Grinch" or "Scrooge", lets take a minute to be a little reasonable.

1) I don't need a designated day to be charitable or to give gifts. I do it whenever I please.
2) If you think Christmas is about shopping and gift giving, you are sadly mistaken
3) Spending a month decorating for ONE day out of the year is horribly inefficient .. spending another week taking all the decorating DOWN and putting it away is just as bad.
4) If it's a holiday, how come I don't get any sleep, any sex or any satisfaction from my efforts??

Quite frankly, its a terrible waste of my time.
I'm not saying YOU shouldn't celebrate Christmas...but I'm saying I shouldn't be forced to. Or even asked to.  Or get looked at the way I do when I don't want to.

I'm trying to be reasonable and rationale with my day to day efforts. I'm a busy, wealthy guy and I've got Highly Important Big Picture things to think about.  Matching ceramic coffee mugs with a plastic tray isn't one of them.

While dimwits argue "Happy Holidays vs. Merry Xmas", I'm thinking about how to get some quiet time away from flashing white-and-red lights. And the same 15 songs every damn year. Different artists, but the same songs. Over and Over again.

Awful.

As long as we're so concerned with Robots learning to do Human Activities, let's teach them to shop, clean and decorate. That would make my Christmas season 100 times easier on me.

Here's to 2018. At least I get 11 months of sanity...