i want to say it was maybe 2012 or so. i hadn't been out of school for that long and had started a new job in late october, after a spate of bad experiences; true to capitalism form, as nice as my new employer was, i had no PTO going into the winter holidays and had to work with some time carved out around christmas and a weekend. i made sure to buy plane tickets on a tuesday when prices were usually lowest, and tried to get everything in a carry-on.
then the weather went bad.
every single fucking plane was grounded due to heavy snow. i couldn't get a reschedule for love or money and no one knew when planes would be going again anyway. i managed not to lose my entire shit and went home from work and started looking at greyhound schedules.
i'd already been cutting it kind of short on the holiday—my return flight was for the evening of the 25th. i got a greyhound ticket and had to take a train across the city the next day to get home for the holiday for... i think it was late on the 23rd? so, about 36 hours at home. and at the time, even though i had a comfortable apartment with nice roommates in my college town, home still wasn't where i spent most of my time; it was the house i'd grown up in.
i thought it was going to be okay. i took a flight home on christmas day, the shuttle dropped me off at my apartment, and i cried inconsolably. adulthood!
this year, we'd made plans to have my mom come down to visit our house (!!) that we own (!!) for christmas; my dad wouldn't be able to make it because of work and my mom wouldn't be there exactly on christmas, but it'd be fun!! it'd be nice!!! and then, of course
the fucking weather
it's different this time. i was feeling bad since my dad wasn't able to make it, but it's not like we would have been able to drive up, either; this time, too—this is my home, where i am, with my wife and our cat and everything. our friends are here. and two years ago, during year one of the longest year in existence, we didn't see anyone for christmas and made a nice time of it.
i keep thinking back to 2012, though. i don't know what it is, exactly—maybe i'm happy that i'm in a place where home is where i live, maybe it's because of how absurd in retrospect it is that they wouldn't give a young employee any extra time off for the holidays under those circumstances? (everyone with PTO, which was everyone but me and like one other guy, was off the week after christmas anyway??? i was basically being paid to spin around in my chair on company time)
how did i live before remote work, tbh
