I'll be in Jersey for Christmas....

So in a few hours, I need to throw my luggage, macbook and Christmas presents in the back of the Ranger and head up to Central NJ to spend a week with the folks. I'm leaving today, I'll be back next Sunday.

The last couple years I've had a dilemna - how much of my Christmas break should I spend with my family? One of the perks of working for a college is that I get the time between Christmas and New Year's Day off. Nothing like a week-plus of getting paid for not having to go to work. Traditionally, I've spent the entire time visiting my parents in NJ. A few years ago, when I lived in a small rented room, it was pretty much a no-brainer. But now, while my social life is not what I would like it to be, I have a certain amount of roots in Maryland - a house, a cat, a handful of friends. In Jersey, I've got family, but all my stuff is in Maryland. Plus, this is the third time that I've had to dump cat-sitting duty on bsom and t. The other thing is that, while I love my parents, I get pretty bored after a few days. They are old enough that they don't have a whole lot of interest in doing stuff. They don't have a working TV, let alone cable (luckily, they do have broadband). But I don't get a lot of time to spend with them - usually just Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and 4th of July. Plus, they won't be around forever, and I'd hate to feel guilty about not spending enough time with them when it's too late.

But there is one other thing I wanted to do during break - take the Apple Service Support Essentials exam. I passed the desktop and portable exams during training in NY earlier this month, but need the OS exam to actually be certified in those areas (plus I'll be a certified Apple helpdesk specialist if I pass). The exam is slated to change from 10.4 to 10.5 in February, and since I'm way more familiar with 10.4, I want to take it before it changes over. So bsom and I are taking it New Year's eve morning.

This means I'm going to have to spend a chunk of my Christmas vacation studying for the test. I've already read through the book once, but there is still a bunch of areas I'm not comfortable with, because they aren't things I commonly encounter in my job (like shared services, kerberos, fax modems, keychain, and other security stuff).

It's funny - when I was an undergrad, one of the things I disliked most about Thanksgiving and Easter break was I would usually be studying or writing papers while mom was cooking stuffing. Christmas break was the one break I wouldn't have to do anything during, since it was between semesters. Now I'm done with my undergrad and grad education (at least for the time being) and I'm going to be spending my Christmas break studying.

I'm hoping the slightly shortened schedule is a good compromise, both for my parents and the cat. The one thing I'm not thrilled with is that I'm going to be spending New Year's in Maryland, and don't really have any plans yet. Then again, when it comes down to it, it's really just another day, and I will have a DVR full of TV shows to watch,