Thought I was gonna do a bit of first-day job recapping, but that'll come, I promise. Maybe after tomorrow, once I've gotten my feet a little wetter and my plate a little fuller. But for now, nothing really journalism-y took place today, just a lot of HR. Interesting stuff there, so stay tuned...

But instead....I need to mini-rant about that most hallowed of consumer holidays, Christmas. I complain only b/c as you grow older, each year brings the realization that Christmas lasts not one day, but rather at least an entire month. A month full of commercials, and jingles and relatives - God love them - asking what you want for Christmas. A lot. And starting in October.

Here's the thing: I'm not really sure when or why it happened, but at least a few years ago, I started rapidly losing the holiday spirit. I no longer got the instant ho-ho-ho charge or cheer from looking at our family tree lit up, and I no longer looked forward to coming up with creative gift ideas. And it all makes me a little sad to admit that yet again, I'm not really in the spirit. (Yet, hopefully.) Much of that, I'm sure, is due to the preoccupation with getting, well, an occupation, and from this year's weddings, graduation, etc. So I'm hoping in a week or two I'll be a bit more settled into the new job and will re-greet this season.

But for now, I can only ask: shouldn't Christmas lists just be for kids and not, say, a 26-year-old with a master's? It seems to me they only really make sense when you're 9 and you really want, like, a gillion gifts and it's a true thrill/surprise when you get 30 of them off your giant list. There's really not much thrill or shock when you tell relatives, ya know, I think I'd like "Anchorman" and the DVD magically appears come Christmas morning. I'm just sayin'....