Calm, Kool, Collected and the Gang

Here's the thing about Christmas, especially for a guy who doesn't have any firmly held religious beliefs (unless you count the firmly held belief that most religions are bullshit) -- there's still a ton of stress.

Some of it is the usual family stress, like holding my tongue without outright lying to my deeply religious parents, which is amplified around time periods in which Jesus was supposed to be born/died/resurrected/invented the light bulb.

Then there's the problem with making time. If friends come to town, which I love, I want to see them as much as they would like to be seen. Some have their own family commitments (and time issues, etc.) and some don't, but balancing my fairly normal schedule and Dr. Wife's ever-changing roller coaster schedule and making sure we're around for friends isn't always easy.

And stress has an odd effect on me. I think, though I'm sure Dr. Wife could dispute this, that I get kind of calm during these events. And I do that because, in my experience, getting worked up almost never gets shit done. Sitting down, making a list and going through it methodically, however, turns up results.

So I'm trying to be calm right now. I'm trying not to worry too much about my ailing grandmother or my parents' new found inability to make any plans on their own or my sneaking suspicion that I'm not buying the right gifts for my lady or my family or my friends or that I'm going to be dead broke by the time Dec. 15 comes around.

Oh, yeah, and I'm going on a diet. For work. Which will be the subject of a video. (If you want to read more about that, go to my work blog. If you want to know where that is, tell me, and I'll tell you.)