The joys of Christmas

I discovered a new benefit of the Christmas season: happier driving.  Never mind that this is a hazardous time of year, particularly as all the new students learn to drive in winter conditions right now, in Ithaca, during a snowstorm.  Never mind that this is a crazy town to drive in, with idiots and jerks littering the road and hugging your bumper for ten straight miles, despite the snow gathering at the rate of an inch an hour.  This is the time of year when I sing Christmas songs in the car to myself (nice and loud).  When preparing to climb up to the highest notes of “O Holy Night,” you can’t choke off to exclaim something about the guy who just cut you off and moved across three lanes in the space of a block.  Oh no, you need to sing, and sing with full breath support.  So you sing and by the time you’re done you’ve forgotten all about that idiot and the next three or four that have come along since him.  It’s wonderful!  I need to apply this technique all year long.  Only one caution: when driving on campus, where students swarm all around the cars, assuming that they are protected from harm by their constant cell-phone use, they may actually look up if they hear you singing in your car (yes, I’m loud), so perhaps it’s best to sing to “Silent Night” right about then.  But don’t stop singing!
Erin