Once upon a time, seasonal events were seasonal and holidays kept to their own holiday turf. Other than a bit of Christmas in July, Halloween kept to late October, Thanksgiving plans happened around Thanksgiving, and the end of the year finale that is Hanukkah/Christmas/Kwanzaa allowed us to wrap up the year party-style so we could head into January with aplomb.

But with all of the things and stuff and crap and erg that was 2020, someone decided to make soup from the orderly casserole of 2021’s fall and winter holidays. 

By which I mean, everything got all mixed up.

Before trick or treating even happened, the Halloween candy at Target had been packed up and returned to the vendor to make space for Christmas decor. Starbucks is rolling out its holiday peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes tomorrow, and it just got cold enough for me to enjoy pumpkin spice. And 2022’s planner launch has been in full swing since August since most 2022 annual (not academic) planners start in November of 2021.

No.

My kids are in Chicago Public Schools, and CPS has renamed our 11th month No-school-November. With inservice days, Veteran’s Day, end-of-semester parent-teacher conferences, and the 3-day Thanksgiving holiday, my kids are out of school seven of the possible 21 school days. That’s ⅓ of the school month, people! 

No. 

With all of the stuff and things and shit and ugh that is 2021, my life’s casserole has gone to soup as well.

Tomorrow is a new moon and, as you know, new moons are about new starts, new beginnings. As I look out over the piles of ungraded papers, stacks of dated notebooks with unused pages, cups of undrunk and unwarm black coffee, and mountains of unopened books, I think to myself:

No.

It might be too clever by half, or perhaps just ⅓, but on this new moon, I’m putting the No in my No-vember. The vember part is another blog.