Holiday schedule hangover

As I begin to ease back into our regular schedule, I find that I'm facing "normal" life with great reluctance. Ada is off to school for most of the day, which leaves the house feeling somewhat empty and far more quiet than normal. Dance classes for all three kids will soon return Tuesday to it's "least favorite day of the week" position. Classes begin for me again January 10th (Ethics, the last of the required courses in the Communication degree program) and I'm less than enthusiastic. I love the topic and enjoy the instructor, but will miss the freedom of not having constant deadlines looming and even less free time to read. During the two weeks between when my last Winter class ended and the beginning of Spring classes, I'll have read five books. My brain has been thrilled with the opportunity to read for pleasure and I've managed to make a tiny dent in my "to read" pile. No extra space on my bookshelves yet, but I'll keep plugging away at it. (Also, I'm proud to report that, as of this writing, I have yet to purchase any new books this year.)

One of the reasons I've increased the amount of free time I seem to have is a concentrated effort to stay the hell off Facebook. I've done fairly well, but end up feeling like I'm missing out on what everyone else is up to. I also feel like I've been using Facebook (and the dreaded Timeline) as a record of what I've done during the year. Did you know I sprained my wrist Christmas Eve? Probably not since I didn't post it to Facebook and it kind of felt weird not to. (It's healing, no big. I fell while putting on a boot in too much of a hurry.) Since Facebook ends up being a gigantic time sink when I do venture out there, I'm going to try to use this space as a way to record the things I would normally post there. This way, it's actually blogged with detail instead of just a microblog entry with little elaboration.  I'll also be forced to actually get together with people or compose emails to *GASP* communicate with people. Four of the five weeks of Ethics are online so I can't complain I don't have the time to get out of the house. Running the Polar Dash 5k January 1st makes it so I can no longer complain about going out in the cold either, not that I usually need much motivation to be around other adults.

It was a whopping ONE degree Farenheit outside.

 I do have to say that I'm already regretting the decision to go an entire month without soda. I didn't have any yesterday or today so I'm just going to go ahead and try to get that out of the way in January. It occurred to me that it might make sense to choose the shortest month of the year as opposed to one of the longer ones, but I just want it done. To make up for the missing caffeine I managed a cup of green tea. It wasn't the same, or what I wanted at the time, but it was enough to make it through the afternoon conscious. I'm still interested in trying to learn to drink coffee so any suggestions or recommendations are welcome.