When I got back from Europe two weeks ago, New York had suddenly turned into a Christmas wonderland. The Rockefeller tree lit up with a ceremony that prompted thousands of people to mob the streets in Santa hats; a 10-story high electric snowflake display pulses to a techno version of Carol of the Bells on 6th Ave.; shopping traffic in Soho, Chinatown, Times Square and everywhere else is maddening enough to make me want to gouge out my eyes with a credit card. But last week’s weather, with temps near or hitting 70, made the Christmas cheer a bit surreal, like Frosty in Fiji. Eric and I went to the Rockefeller Center on Friday night, and the ice skating rink was actually melting. Kids were skating through puddles. No joke.

The weather has finally caught up with the calendar, though, and it’s flipping freezing here. Of course, I’m not really allowed to complain because Amy has frozen boogers in Spokane, Bill got stuck in a snowstorm on I-5 for 16 hours, and Beth… she’s scuba diving in Thailand and sunning in Singapore. Damn.

Only 2 ½ weeks until Christmas Christmas! I can’t wait to go home to be with the fam, although I’ll have to come back before I’ve gotten my fix of kitchen dancing, home-cooked meal eating and ToeJam and Earl playing. But hopefully I’ll be coming back to a new job, perhaps a real one complete with paid vacation days and a 401(k)! Egads!

Until then, I’ll continue to sing carols in my head and forward Times articles like this one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/us/06cleveland.html?em&ex=1165554000&en=eb130c9484366e3c&ei=5087%0A

Farararara, ra ra ra ra!