December--it's not just for holidays

So, have we all recovered from Thanksgiving? After a few days of sloth-like behavior, I've managed to get myself up at 6:30 everyday this week to hit the gym. December is definitely a month where my energy can feel low but the demands on my time are high, leading to potential physical, mental, and emotional stress. To avoid this, I've been working out, limiting my wine intake in the evenings, and popping some Vitamin D every morning. But I'm still really missing that early morning sunlight of the spring and summer.

In my mind, I always look forward to December because I love holiday music, treats, and cheer. But when December actually rolls around, I recall that it's also a really stressful time of year, and I don't just mean dealing with family and gift buying (though those are definitely stress-inducing for me). I mean end of the year craziness at work and of course, SCL's finals.

Up until this point, it hasn't really felt like our schedules have conflicted too much. Since SCL's not teaching, he's got time during the day to do reading and other work, so usually it doesn't really feel like he's in this big scary PhD program. But now, I'm like, "Holy crap! You have finals. Are we going to get to spend time together? Are you going to be stressed 24/7?" and other freak outs like that. Like other painful parts of life, I have forgotten how rough the end of semester crunch can be. I'm wondering how we'll need to negotiate things like time and apartment space.

Stay tuned.