Whew! The last month has been busy for me! That sort of busy that leaves you sleep-deprived and hysterical and ready to snap, but not in debt at the end of the holidays. Well, that is, IF you can manage time to get to the bank to make deposits before you owe the bank a big thanks and a lot of money for their overdraft protection services.

The holiday season used to be like this every year — the open spots would start filling up just before Halloween and by New Year's Eve it was a bad idea to even answer the phone. In fact, I learned that the first New Year's Eve I ever worked back in 1993. I was planning on working till about 8:00 or so, but I ended up celebrating the new year in my car while driving home after working till 11:30 p.m.! I swore from that day on that I would never answer the phone again on New Year's Eve.

It's been several years since the holidays kept me this busy. I typically work four 10's — or rather, three-and-a-half 12's — but I've been at the salon, covered with dust, glitter, and paint close to 60 hours a week since just before Thanksgiving. And yeah, it could easily have been 80 hours a week, but I learned how to say "no" a long time ago! At least there's a point at which I can say "no."

It's good to hear from the message forums that I'm not the only one. I've seen messages from colleagues all over the country that agree with me — the holiday season hasn't been this busy since '06 or '07.

I'm glad to see that several of us are seeing a healthy holiday season and signs of an economic recovery ... but I'm also sad to hear that it's not quite universal. I guess there will always be some of us who are doing well and some who aren't.

Once I get the dust and the glitter cleaned up, the holiday decorations packed away, and maybe have a few empty spaces in my day again so I can catch up and find my routine (well, I guess then I get to fret about taxes again), I'm looking forward to rearranging some furniture in the salon, hopefully finding a good cabinet maker to build me a new desk and a proper pedicure platform.

And naturally I'm looking forward to sharing more rants with everyone in the new year. It seems like I never run out of ideas for this blog! What is everyone else planning for in 2011?