It's almost beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We've got the CD player with five Christmas discs in shuffle mode, and Jean is going to do a smidgen of decorating tonight. I keep my distance from the Christmas decorations until the tree is in place. This year we're so pushed for time we may not get a tree.
Hmmph. Just saying that makes me want to run out and get one right now. It's our last Christmas as just we two, and no matter how nuts things will be with company coming and baby preparations becoming more frantic, it would be nice to have a tree. Maybe we could get a little one (we've had 'em thirteen feet tall in the past) and do a minimalist decoration. The trick this year isn't the set up, it's the take down. I know it's just a matter of three weeks or so, but we'll be taking down the Christmas decorations in week 35, and Jean's the only one who knows what to do with the ornaments.
My sister Colette wrote today to ask about the earthquake. I think she meant the one in Richmond, CA near San Francisco. I don't know how many Richmonds there are out there, but I know it caught my ear when I heard about it on NPR. Today some construction folks cut the power to San Francisco at 8 AM. It took six hours to turn the city back on. I wonder what it's like to get caught in the middle of the morning rush hour with no power. The whole day must have been a wash out.
Tonight I'm breaking out the company credit card (I still can't believe they gave me one of those). I've got a conference in March and I need to book my flight now while the tickets are still cheap. I'm also going to join ASTD, a professional organization for trainers. I'd explored their web site when applying for my job as the administrative systems trainer, but only recently have I confirmed with another trainer on campus that membership is worth the money. Since we're into the holidays I don't want to charge any of this on my account, so I'll use the University card instead.
My pals from the Registrar's Office are off at a conference I used to attend. VACRAO is meeting in Charlottesville this week, and it's the first time in five years that I haven't gone. I made some good friends while I was in the organization. I even managed to contribute some, putting together a higher education news and web site reviews page that's now defunct (I guess nobody wanted to put the time in to keep it alive). I received more than I thought I would from both the organization and its members. I hope our paths cross again in the future.
But tonight, while my friends are most likely all out to dinner with one another (cheers to them all!), I guess it's time for me to invest once again in another organization, in the hope that I will make new contacts, and perhaps even friends, in my new profession.
Finally the rain has arrived. We've got a cold front coming into
Richmond right now. The low is expected to be in the forties tonight,
and highs are expected to be in the fifties as far as our local
forecast can see. The timing couldn't be better, as I have Thursday
and Friday off this week. Jean and I are going to get a little
shopping in down in Carytown, and now the weather will at least hint
at the most wonderful time of the year.
reading: Web Techniques (January issue); The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
listening: A Winter's Solstice II (Windham Hill); Christmas in Vienna - The Vienna Boys' Choir (Musical Heritage); Christmas with the Cambridge Singers (Collegium Records); A Winter's Solstice IV (Windham Hill); A Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guraldi Trio (Fantasy)
visiting: ASTD; Expedia
© 1998 Kevin J.T. Creamer