Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

Being busy in the first half of December is something of a tradition for me. In law school (and college before that), this was final exam time. Law school exams are harrowing, primarily because the final is most likely the only graded event in the entire course. If you screw the pooch on the final exam, kiss your grade point average goodbye. And as anyone who's been through law school (and law firm interviews) knows, it's all about the friggin' GPA.

Perversely, I kind of liked studying for finals. I got to hole up at home in ripe sweats and a ponytail, listen to A Charlie Brown Christmas, and outline my Contracts course. Outlining appealed to the compulsive in me; six different colors of highlighter and three different colors of ink for the various elements of the outline. And if the test I was studying for was open book, cue five different colors of Post-it notes arrayed carefully on the outline situated in a three-ring binder. And Linus and Lucy playing chirpily in the background.

Soon this will all be over, I'd think, and I can enjoy Christmas -- and enjoy the great gobs of time that were my own, to do with whatever I wanted. No place to be but maybe back in Indiana or Mr. T's parents' house in Georgia. Nothing to do but read for pleasure, watch a few movies or sit around with Mr. T and our dogs. On the evening of the last final, Mr. T and I would go out to dinner so we could remind ourselves what the other looked like and talk about Christmas shopping.

These days, it's not exams. But strangely, it seems I always get a rush of work the first half of December. So today I found myself at the kitchen table, pecking away at my laptop keyboard, Schroeder playing Fur Elise in the background.

Soon, I'll be enjoying the Christmas season.