downtown vs. downton

My life from January to mid-April is pretty much confined to downtown Minneapolis, where I live and where I work.  And work.  And work.

My busy season, which includes insane office hours at times, brings out love/hate emotions in me, and each year I find ways to mentally escape.

Last year, for instance, I went home after long work days and over the months re-watched all the James Bond movies.

This year, expecting a more-stressful-than usual season, I've had several escape mechanisms.  I put the blog on hiatus -- and maybe you thought it was on life support -- but it will rise again.  And Jerry and I found a couple TV shows to distract us those late winter nights.  We got through three seasons of the addictive PBS series, Downton Abbey, in about a month.  We are almost through the second season of the HBO show, Girls, which is sort of the direct opposite of Downton Abbey.  I continued to try to master that Chopin piece (see my January 30 post, "It Might Drive Me Mad") and am near admitting defeat, but at least it was a distraction that kept my fingers pounding on something other than a computer keyboard.

And April arrives tomorrow and I will try to flip back into a normal routine in two weeks.  Meanwhile, the office is humming  this Sunday morning.  Somebody told me that this is Easter.... whatever that means.