A Shot Gun Start

This librarian is ready for a serious nap.

Much like this past summer, I somehow went way off track with my sleep patterns over the winter break. In retrospect, sleeping till noon probably didn't help make my life any easier when I then had to return to waking up pre-sunlight. And keeping late night hours all last week kept me from falling asleep until around midnight, despite my best efforts to wear myself out and my stubborn refusal to nap. The result? One cranky lady.

So rather than sit around dreaming about my bed and imagining how comfortable I'll be when I succumb to nap time this afternoon, I'll give you a little overview of my fantastic week of non-work. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were predictably lovely, filled with family and loved ones and presents. By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was very ready for some alone time and spent all of Tuesday (and Wednesday) in seclusion, watching Netflix movies and hanging around in my pajamas. Thursday I broke my vow of solitude when we left for a weekend getaway to the great state of New York. The drive seemed especially long, probably due to our brilliant idea to try to stop at the Saranac Brewery in Utica. And by brilliant, I mean foolish.

At the beginning of our adventure I came up with the slogan "Utica is Beautica" because I figured hey, if Ithaca is Gorges then Utica deserved some love too. I am going on the record here to inform you that Utica is, in fact, anything but Beautica. We ended up lost in U-Turnica for an hour, driving around some highway through a downtown area that looked suspiciously like a war-torn Flint, Michigan. When we finally, finally arrived, we were told that Saranac only provides tours on Fridays and Saturdays, at 1 and 3. Since it was neither Friday, Saturday, 1, nor 3, we were pretty much S.O.L. We bought a case of beer for our trouble and hightailed it out of there, exclaiming with pleasure over how pretty the dark, empty Thruway looked after being in downtown Utica for 60 minutes.

That lost hour did nothing to diminish the fun we had in Rochester, though. We caught up with people I hadn't seen since the summer, ate some delicious meals, and had a generally relaxing and pleasurable time. We even threw a little New Year's Eve soiree at which a good time was had by all. (Except for Fran, who was bored to tears by our competitive Mario Kart races on the numerous DS devices. But even she had to admit to some fun-having as the countdown neared and Dick Clark mumbled incoherently about balls!)

And then, abruptly, the fun was over. We drove back to Boston without incident, in the gloomy rain, unpacked as much stuff as we could muster the energy for, and fell asleep to start the working days all over again. Is it wrong that I'm already counting the days until February break?