Christmas

And once again, I am going to hate the holidays. I am working at Marv's again this year. And I think I'm going to kill myself. The thought of spending one more break up to my elbows in bloody steaks and sticky boxes of ham makes me want to find the nearest bridge. Practically the minute exams are over, I try to cram in a birthday celebration with friends, see "A Christmas Carol" at Meadowbrook Hall for something like the 20th time in my life and then I work. I don't sleep well the week before Christmas, I don't have time to enjoy the tree, or listen to Christmas carols, or leisurely finish making handmade presents. I work. Twelve hour days in a freezing store with under-educated white trash who can't DO any better. I get out of work at 4pm on Christmas Eve, and this year, I'll run home, shower, drive almost 4 hours to Grand Junction to spend time with Anthony and his family, turn around and drive back to Hartland. Getting maybe 4 hours of sleep somewhere in there and opening presents with my parents and Anthony and then going to my grandmother's house to do the same and have dinner. After which I will sleep. But the fun isn't over yet. The 26th will be a "pretend" Christmas Eve because my mother can't bear the thought of not celebrating it with me. Then, the rest of the week until New Years Eve I will work AGAIN. Freezing my ass off while bitchy people complain because THEY ordered the wrong damn crown roast. And this year I don't even have a hilarious middle aged Italian man to get into water fights with and to feed me shrimp. (cries) I'll miss you Vince. New Years Eve I'll get out at six, run home and shower and go to Ann Arbor for Chris's shindig. I will have a drink and then most likely pass out unconscious because I am tired and bitter that I didn't get to enjoy the holidays.

I suppose the logical question is "Well, why the hell do you work then?" Because I feel like I owe it to my parents. Because it's taking me forever to get through my damn degree and they have paid for my housing and living expenses for five years. Because they don't make me work during the year to help, they just ask that I work at Christmas. Is it too much to ask? It shouldn't be, but yes, it definitely is. There are homeless people freezing in the streets, drug addicts fighting to break their addictions, people dying from every conceivable disease out there. And I complain about my job. And I don't feel guilty about it.

Merry Fucking Christmas everyone.