Sleepless in December

Even in my dreams, I was giftwrapping. No wonder I woke up tired, with wrists hurting. (Or at least, that’s my hypothesis. But then again, maybe a more telling reason could be that I barely had four hours of sleep before rushing to work today after burning the past-midnight oil with scissors and tape in my hands).

But no whining here, I promise. This giftwrapping gal is too sluggish to snarl and too weak to whine (but bitten by the alliterating bug bigtime!).

With the same passion as Albert Einstein’s while he was working on his Theory of Relativity, I am driven by my superb mathematical skills (or so, I wish)—divide the number of gifts by the number of remaining workdays, factor in the attire for the day and the size of bag needed (laptop bag or shoulder bag? Handbag?). My goal this morning: Bring as many boxes as I could carry to the office without looking like an undernourished female Santa. (Not much of a challenge, really, as no reindeer-drawn carriage was waiting for me outside our gate.)

And so I made it to the office, in one piece, with all my giftwrapped boxes all accounted for. My reward for my indefatigable spirit came in the form of a wide smile of a treasured author who dropped by unexpectedly. When I saw her, I suddenly forgot how sleepy I was and remembered to snatch the gift with her name under my table.

There should be a study made on how much sleep people get on the average per month—with December probably getting the lowest average. What with the countless parties to attend, reunions to enjoy and, of course, the giftwrapping duties to fulfill. “Sleepless in December” sounds like a good title for a documentary on it, don’t you think?

No, Virginia, there’s no Santa Claus who stays awake at night delivering gifts. But yes, Virginia, there are people out there who stays awake at night wrapping them.