Solstice

A merry Yule. Last night we lit our solstice candle and let it carry the light through the longest night of the year. I like celebrating the solstice because it reminds me that, in fact, from here on through the long cold winter, the days are getting just a little longer and the nights a little shorter with each passing day. No matter how cold and dark it seems, Spring is coming.

And it is cold and dark today. Yesterday it was 60 degrees. Today... Brrrrrr. Cold, gray and windy. We're expecting snow, though I don't expect it to stick.

The city is in recovery from the ice storms. Huge piles of cut-up branches line the streets. I saw a picture in the paper of a stack of limbs with a sign on it that said "Free Trees: some assembly required." The power is at last back on to almost everybody, though I understand there are a few people whose wires are down still.

One of the curators at the museum just got power on Tuesday. That made it ten days for him. Yikes. We were really remarkably lucky.

This week I mailed off all the gifts that required mailing. I got gifts for all the cousins and kids of friends we'll be seeing over the holidays. I have all the presents for Grayson and Gray. I'm nearly done.

We have not sent cards out, but Gray and I agreed that we would just admit to ourselves that we're not good at getting Christmas cards out in a timely fashion, so we'll call them New Years cards and get them out next week.

Friday was a day of dancing in the halls at the museum. My part-time student assistant, Krysten, who graduated last Saturday, agreed to become my full-time colleague, which means that I am now no longer a department of one, but part of a two-person team. She will do the marketing and I will do the public relations and all will be right with the world. She's thrilled to get to stay at the museum. I'm thrilled to have a full-time "assistant," (though really she won't be my assistant so much as the other half of the department) and the museum staff is thrilled to keep her on for her various skills and cheerful attitude. So we were all doing the "Krysten Dance."

When she came on board as my half-time assistant, I hardly knew what to give her to do. It took me months to be able to let go of things enough to let her actually be a help to me. Now I don't know what I'd do without her. I suspect that we'll now go through a similar transition, with me figuring out how to A) let go of another 20 hours worth of work a week and B) Embark on new PR projects to fill the gap left by doing so. It is certain that the new year will bring about some interesting changes and challenges that I look forward to.

So Merry Yule. Celebrate the return of the sun, and remember that Spring is always just ahead.