my. Traveling Lens

On my tippy toes, I reached for it. Stacked on the top shelf in my cluttered garage, I slowly brought it down, balancing with my two steady hands. With one abrupt move, I ran the risk of waking them up with a loud sneeze. I was careful not to disturb the little particles of dust on top of the box, but then ….. achooo! Steady hands or not, they were determined to awake from their year-long hibernation. Those little suckers flew in my face and up my nose. Achooo! Achooo! Bless me.

It was the day after Thanksgiving. You know, the day everyone is determined to either sleep off their turkey-induced food coma or tackle the mall for Black Friday deals. And it’s also a day for the overachievers — the ones who put up their Christmas decorations and lights the day after Thanksgiving. (Yes, dear neighbor five houses down, I’m talking about you!)

To make up for not putting up Christmas decorations the previous year, I decided that overachieving was my only redemption. So on the day after Thanksgiving, I stood in my garage achoooing away as I brought down boxes of decorations one by one. And then I got distracted. And then I got hungry. And then I ate some leftover tofu. And the next thing I knew, a few days had passed, and I was on the internet booking a flight to New York. And then I was blaming New York City’s cold winter for ripping my skinny jeans. And then Christmas came. And then Christmas left.

And now, here we are. It’s been over a month since that day I stood in my garage contemplating what it would be like to be the envy of the neighborhood. Ohhh, look at her. Her decorations and lights are already up! I quickly proved myself to be an underachiever because ….. ummm, those decorations and lights never even made it out of the boxes. Ooops! I’ll try it again next year. I promise. With my fingers crossed.

At least the dust bunnies got to come out and play, I justified to myself. And although I didn’t have my own Christmas lights and decorations to admire, my distraction got me to New York City to see its own season of lights. Good luck taking the lights out of that big ol’ Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, you overachieving New York City.