The GeekHiker

Halloween has now come and gone, and with the fun out of the way the stress and labor of the holiday season can begin. Yes, the sales, travel, family strife (if there is any in yours) and general strain on the psyche that is the holiday season can truly begin in earnest now.

Unless, of course, you happen to be my local chain hardware store, which somehow managed to have all of the Christmas stuff on display when I stopped there on October 7^th. Yes, that’s right, a full three weeks before Halloween I found myself staring at an aisle of fully assembled and lit Christmas trees.

I couldn’t help myself: I laughed at the sheer absurdity of it all. Soon enough, I’m sure, they’ll stop bothering to empty the shelves come January and just sell Christmas all year long.

I am, I’ll admit, a bit nervous entering this holiday season. Well, maybe nervousness isn’t quite the right term for it, but for the life of me, I don’t know what is.

Thing is, it’s going to be my first holiday season single in four years. I think that gives me a bit of trepidation as I really don’t know how my mind is going to react to that fact over the next couple of months.

I’m not particularly depressed about it, mind you. Well, not yet, anyways. It is what it is, but I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t miss having someone close in my life as I approach the beginning of the season. Like a lot of things (or so it seems at least once you’ve become single after being in a relationship for a while), the holidays just seem a lot more fun when you have someone to share them with.

Actually, it doesn’t just seem like it: I was single for most of my twenties, and sharing the holidays with someone while in a relationship is a hell of a lot more enjoyable. Doesn’t mean that not having someone around is a horrible, horrible thing; it’s just not preferable, that’s all. At least it is for me.

The Ex Girlfriend and I never spent Thanksgiving together; she would usually be visiting with relatives out of town. A couple of years, during my young-and-poor twenties (and before I owned a barbeque), I’ve spent Thanksgiving alone: roasting up a turkey breast in the oven, making stuffing out of a box, baking a potato or two, store-bought rolls, and finishing it up with a pumpkin pie from Trader Joe’s.

Then, of course, I would spend the next three days (with everyone blessedly out of town) hiking the deserted trails.

The last few years, The Parentage have come down to visit me, the three of us squeezing into my tiny apartment. And I’ll be dammed if Dad doesn’t disassemble the entire Weber barbeque and cart it down with them.

Plans haven’t been set for this year: I’ve already told them that if they don’t want to make the drive (which can be hellacious), they don’t have to. Of course, they’re parents, so they’ll probably be more than willing.

Christmas for the last few years has involved the Ex and I driving up to Sacramento, which made for a nice experience. I would hang out with Dad, the Ex would spend time in the kitchen with Mom. Grandma would come over and the whole thing made for a nice little family experience.

Given the unlikelihood that I’m going to meet the love of my life in the next six weeks (I mean, it’s not impossible, but c’mon), I won’t be having that familial experience this year.

Yeah, it makes me a little sad, but what’re ya gonna do?

There is one tradition that The Ex and I had that I will kinda miss: the annual holiday trip to Disneyland.

It was kind of a mini-vacation from all of the rest of the holiday nuttiness. Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas we would head down to Anaheim for the weekend and just escape from reality. The first year we did it as a day trip; by the end we simply got a hotel room close to the park and walked over Saturday morning and not returning ’til after the park closed at midnight. It was a great breather, and since neither of us was the “we’ve got to hit every ride in existence today” type of person, we just kinda wandered around the park for a day doing what we liked and not pushing the pace.

Of course, those trips are regulated to history now, and I’m not particularly interested in recreating the memories. It was fun, and now it’s time for new things, right?

But, dammit, I find myself wanting to go to Disneyland again this year. Not out of any desire to have the same experience I had with The Ex. No, I just want to go, leave my cares and worries outside of the berm for a day, be a kid for a while.

Anybody wanna go to Disneyland?