Random bullets of preparing for the holidays

• The nice thing about this time of year is that you can give in to your impulses to do the most soothing activity on earth: baking.
  
• I know that administrators and support staff are still in the office, but grades are in (hooray!) and I am not. Do you really think I'm going to work on task force/committee/other service things this week? No? Then why do you keep sending me things? I'm guessing it's the "tennis ball school of time management": you lob it to my desk so it's off your desk.
  
• After all these years, I actually associate listening to holiday music with working on papers for MLA. How sick is that?
  
• The "buy local" thing is going pretty well, but I would like to give retailers once piece of advice: if you are any store that does not cater to children, playing Alvin and the Chipmunks as holiday music is a surefire way to send adults scurrying for the exits whether they've bought their virtuous local goods or not.
• About buying local: yes, some things cost more than on Amazon. I just bought fewer things this year. It's not about things.
  
• Technology brings us many gifts this time of year, including this one: If you are going to MLA and are not yet anxious about it, just check out anything on Twitter with an MLA hashtag. I guarantee you will start to fret and hyperventilate--or is that just me and is everyone else excited about it?
  
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