(Lack of) Christmas Break II

So I can't quite get off of this "woe is me, I have to work on Christmas Break" kick. But indulge me one more time.

Imagine you are a 12-year old boy and your dad is a grass-seed farmer. Times are a bit hard, so he wants you to help him with the harvest this summer. In addition to paying you a minimal wage, he promises that if you work really hard for him, at the end of the summer he'll buy you a brand new bicycle that you've dreamed of for some time.

So you work faithfully. The long hours, the hot days, the lack of playing with your 12-year old friends in the creek, you sacrifice for your dad--and because you know that come September you are going to be wheeling in style.

But September comes, and annual ryegrass prices tank big-time. Since your dad currently raises mostly annual ryegrass (he didn't know about linear programming and a group of IE undergrads that could have helped him out with his crop mix) this is a problem. There's no way he can spare the money to buy your bike. He asks if you understand. You nod, but not really.

That's sort of how I feel about my Christmas break. I was all keyed up, ready to relax, and boom. Work rises up and bites me. It makes it all the worse that I was planning to take it easy. If school would have lasted 3 more weeks, and I would have known that from the beginning, fine. But I had my mind set on something that hasn't happened yet.

Ach, there's always next week though, the week that I truly will take it easy - I hope.

Faithful reader tt (haha) asked me to wrap up the term. Well, it was very successful academically. I am extremely ready for vacation, but at the same time I'm looking forward to next term with all the fun, challenging classes. But I need some relax time to make sure I'm recharged. I think I'll get it though, just not quite as soon as I had previously hoped.