Sorry but Bah Humbug

I love the idea of Christmas, the reason for it and all that.  I do not however like everything that comes with it, specifically the end of semester stress/exams (WOOT me last class EVER at my undergrad institution tomorrow - beyond excited about that), the decorating the office (was in at 7am today to do that before patients came), the cards - 200+ form cards to be stuffed, labeled, sealed and mailed along with 40+ hand written cards to all the offices in our similar line of work (all of these are signed by ALL our staff), add to that the buying and delivering of dozens of gifts to the support workers and related businesses, building Christmas party and gift exchange (a nice one so you actually have to shop for it),* our office staff lunch, scheduling of holiday hours, the changing of the voicemail (THE WORST) and the list goes on.  Most years I'm so freaking exhausted that I do my personal shopping last minute or while I'm on hold at work...

So if you come into my office and I'm covered in metallic labels and glitter and cursing  (like I was today), just turn around - don't you dare wish me a Merry Christmas until December 23 at 4pm - then you are free to do so - we and more importantly I am not on call, my phone is off and Christmas is over and the real celebrations have just begun.

*Goodness - the whole dress, shoes, hair business so I can stand next to free booze and not drink because I'm in a position where I cannot be intoxicated - bat shit craziness I tell you - and on top of that I get to hear for the whole night about what I'm doing wrong because I'm still single - if we're going to have that discussion I need 2 martinis stat - one for me and one for the front of your dress - REALLY?  Yes I've heard this theory on more than one party occasion.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-kay/4171283748/sizes/m/in/photostream/