28 shopping days 'til Christmas

Only in retrospect have I realized that Thanksgiving was probably a milestone (or perhaps more accurately, a deadline) in my job search. After a weekend of big family meals and evenings spent with friends who were in town for the holiday, it has become obvious to me that the last week of November and the first 23 days of December are really just a time out between the two major family holiday weeks of the year.

This was certainly the case when I was a college student. Thanksgiving break was a distant beacon of light when classes began at the end of August. After twelve unbroken weeks of lectures, papers, tests (and I suppose problem sets), the week off was a practical necessity. On the opposite side of the break, there'd be one final week of regular classes, one full week off to prepare for exams, and about two weeks for the exams themselves. Very little new learning actually took place. These few weeks were really about biding time until the semester was over. Studying for and taking exams were things we did to distract ourselves.

I can't imagine what sort of job opportunities will come my way during this four-week holiday wasteland. I'll be as diligent as ever in checking the web boards and sending out electronic applications (and following up, and following up again). But I find it hard to imagine anything new happening in December. It's getting on to winter. It's cold, plants are dying. Up in the Northeast we're getting into bad weather mode. And December is about spending money, not making it. I hope that I'm wrong. I'd be willing to start work on Christmas Day (especially if it were a job as an editorial assistant at NPR [my latest pie-in-the-sky application]). Maybe this will be my month. The alternative is (forgive me) a long December.