Happy Holidays!

During the holidays, many companies shut down their offices completely, giving everyone the time off. To do this, they trade off other holidays throughout the year (MLK day, Presidents Day, Flag Day, whatever) but they get major time off at Christmas.

My office doesn't do this. For which I'm grateful. I like having a random Monday off in February. And because we have a pretty fabulous vacation day policy, we have the ability to take days off at Christmas. So I took the week off before Christmas and headed to the east coast to see the fam. Taking the week off before Christmas is my usual practice and my favorite. I get home in time to do Christmas shopping (so I dont have to schlep gifts across the country) and I get to enjoy all the decorations and cooking and stuff. And my family does Christmas before Dec. 25 every year anyway.

For example, this year, on Dec. 20 was Christmas dinner with my parents' friends. Dec. 21 was Christmas dinner with my long-time friends. Dec. 22 was shopping, Dec. 23 was Christmas with The Family (all of 'em) and Dec. 24 was Xmas Eve at church, then dinner/party at mom & dad's with neighbors and church friends (and Chick-fil-A). So by Dec. 25 all that was left to do was to see what Santa brought and play with it!

I'm out of the office the week before Christmas....the rest of my team is out the week after....there's always someone here in case something needs to get done....it works out well.

But back to those companies that close for the holidays.....my clients belong to that group. Which means that there's not a lot going on in the office this week. Which is AWESOME. I've been able to catch up on all kinds of things: expense reports, invoices, old emails, etc.

Today I was cleaning off my PC desktop and "My Documents" folder, deleting old files, archiving files to our shared server and generally reorganizing things. I'm applying a very scientific process to evaluating the files I'm dealing with. Below are the questions I'm asking myself in deciding the fate of these documents:
- Do I need to keep the online dating profile of a guy I met on Match.com 5 years ago?
Answer: No
- Do I need to keep the IM conversation from when I "broke up" with my crazy bitch ex-roommate?
Answer: Yes
- What should I do with the mail merge email I wrote 3 years ago on behalf of a client, who is no longer a client and the mail merge source file is no longer able to be located by my PC?
Answer: Delete
- What about the Photoshopped picture of my former team eating french fries?
Answer: make computer wallpaper and put on Facebook
- The picture of a former co-worker's cat with a cast on his leg (because he broke it jumping off the counter)?
Answer: Keep
- An Excel grid titled "People The Tad Likes"?
Answer: Open to see WTH this is, then keep

- Graph on Rick Astley's planned activity frequency?
Answer: Keep and post on my blog

But then there's the stuff I don't know what to do about. Like the Yoda Dog picture, the three wolves shirt and a file titled "Bad Ass".

Sigh. Another tough day at the office.