My 34th birthday…

Not doing too much in the lines of birthday celebration today, as it’s also Thanksgiving.  I think we’re going to focus on the turkey and stuff today.  Maybe do something special this weekend for my birthday.

Terri got me a copy of Skyrim, which I’ve been playing almost non-stop.

And I’ve got a good chunk of cash from my folks, but I’m not sure what I’ll be spending that on.

The turkey is in the oven…  We’ve got an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and some kind of low-carb pumpkin custard…  I’ll be putting together some mashed potatoes and stuffing and mashed turnip a little bit later…  And Christopher should be visiting us around noon.

It’s shaping up to be a fairly festive holiday.

Yesterday was kind of a non-event.

I took the day off from work.  Stayed home with Terri.  We slept in late and spent most of the day playing video games.  It was certainly a nice day.

Then we went out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, had a very good meal.

Later, we watched a couple hours of the Ghost Hunters live Halloween investigation.

But that’s it.  Not just for yesterday, but for the whole holiday.  We didn’t go on any hay rides this year…  Didn’t carve any pumpkins…  Didn’t go to any haunted houses…  Didn’t do the zombie walk this year…  Didn’t dress up or go out pretty much anywhere…

And that’s very unusual.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  Sure, I can find redeeming qualities in pretty much all of them…  I’ll take any excuse to spend time with my family, exchange gifts, dress goofy, gather ’round and tell stories or sing or whatever.  It almost doesn’t matter what the holiday is actually for.

But Halloween has always had a special place in my heart.  I love the horror genre.  I love seeing all the older horror movies on TV, and new horror movies in the theater.  I like seeing stores decorated with spiders and skeletons and creepy stuff.  I like seeing normal things like cupcakes and candies get turned into spiders and monsters.  I like seeing people dressed up, parading around as their favorite hero or villain or whatever.  The whole holiday is a ton of fun.  I mean – there’s a reason we picked October 31st as our wedding day.

But this year it just didn’t happen.

I’ve been insanely busy at work.  Putting in lots of long days, poking my head into the office on the weekend, getting calls even when I’m not carrying the pager, mulling work-related things over while I’m at home and trying to relax…

Terri has been busy at school.  And worrying about our kids.  And going through some stressful stuff with her counselor.  And worrying about me.  And feeling bummed about the lack of family this year.

The end result of all this, is that neither one of us was in any mood to deal with other human beings this year.

In the abstract, theoretical sense, going on a zombie walk (or going to a haunted house, or a party, or whatever) sounds like fun.  But in the real, practical sense, it would mean dealing with a bunch of other human beings for a couple hours.  And that was simply more than either of us could take.

We both just really wanted to spend some quiet time at home with each-other.

And that’s exactly what we did.

And it was a very enjoyable day.

But it feels like we forgot something…

Today is Columbus Day.  I don’t normally note the holiday…  Or, even, really think of it as a holiday.  Banks and government offices might close.  Maybe you get a day off from school.  But that’s generally the extent of it.

I certainly wouldn’t expect to have the day off from work.

Nor would I expect many of my co-workers to take the day off.

But now I’m here at work, and I’m feeling kind of like an idiot for showing up.

The parking lot was only about half-full this morning.  Lots of empty spaces.  I had hardly any email this morning – usually there’s at least a dozen messages waiting for me.  I had a couple missed calls, a couple voicemails, but they were all from the weekend.  Nothing new this morning yet.  Several people have voiced surprise at seeing me here today.  And it looks like just about everyone in administration is out today.

I guess I should have taken the opportunity for a three-day weekend.  Would have been very nice.

Labor Day.  Which means I’m home from work.  Always seems kind of odd…  Sitting at home on a Monday morning, when I should be at work.  Feels nice to have an extra day off, but it feels like there’s something slightly wrong with the world.