Christmas

Equals "Everything is closed", which is how I've looked at the actual day for the last 15 years or so.

Another holiday to be endured and to have it be done with quickly.

One christmas day a few years ago, I walked out of the TheStreet.com's old Rector Street offices to find that EVERYTHING was closed. Every single, solitary thing. Places that were literally 24/7 places, George's Restaurant, Mike's.. everything was shuttered. No traffic, few people, no business being transacted.

Just the rumble of the subways to tell you the heart of the city was still beating. But barely.

I had nothing to do or nowhere to go that Christmas morning. Wandering felt lonely in a city that never sleeps that had the shutters down everywhere.

New York on a Christmas morn was a fucking ghost town. Weird.

Oddly, that's about the absolute loneliest Ive ever felt.

Another Christmas morn found me walking out into an empty AT&T parking lot after a marathon two-day session of recovering a bunch of workstations from virii, which had munched on a lot of valuable data.

I remember the quiet, the weariness as I trudged to the car and the "Oh, is it Christmas already?" feeling.

So, I treat the day like any other holiday to be looked past. It eventually goes by. Time always flies if you know how.

So, its odd. This is prolly the first Christmas in a very very long time that Im planning for. Part of me flinches at the prospect of having it be a day to be endured.

Still, this time of being in Berkeley, in a weird, corny way.. everyday has been a sort of Christmas.

So, why should Christmas Day be any different?