Holding down the fort

So it’s almost 5 o’clock, two days before Christmas, and I’m still at work holding down the fort…which is ok because I’ve had a good bit of time off lately and am going to have a wonderful week off with the fam ahead.    ÂÂ

After I emptied my inbox into neatly-organized folders and threw away the little remaining Christmas junk food that my coworkers and our vendors bestowed upon me, I naturally decided to spend the rest of my holding-down-the-fort time goofing off, surfing the web. I found an interesting story about hurricane evacuees living on cruise ships and don’t know quite what to think of it.

Tonight the fam and I are headed to scope out the Christmas lights in Highland Park, one of the more hoity-toity neighborhoods in Dallas. It should be a good way to get in the Christmas spirit, although the last time Chelsea and I were in Highland Park was rather unsettling. We went to see Syriana at the little movie theater there and were blown away by both the movie and the crowd’s reaction to it.

“I don’t think I’m in Highland Park anymore.”

The movie interweaves several different plots to show how lives big and small are affected by the merger of two oil companies and the political battles for Middle Eastern drilling rights. I think the point in the end is that all the political battles, all the fights for money and power are useless, because in the end we’re all off to another place (i.e. heaven) anyhoo. It was clear leaving the theater that most of the Highland Parkies didn’t interpret it that way. A good number of them thought that the movie was endorsing terrorism and how dare they portray big oil execs as bad people. I don’t think there were really good people or bad people in the movie, just conflicted people, misguided people, all struggling for meaningless power.

So it’s back to Highland Park tonight, as soon as I get done holding down the fort. Merry Christmas Eve Eve.