Let nothing you dismay.

Up until this week, I wasn't sure Christmas was going to come this year. Sure, there was tinsel everywhere, and you can't swing a dead cat around by its tail this time of year without hitting a fake tree, but it just didn't feel like Christmas.

Part of it has to do with the fact that Thanksgiving was late this year. Usually we have one more week in the holiday season during which to buy gifts and wish we were dead so we wouldn't have to take our finals. This year, we had to cram all the fun and excitement of the semester's end and all the manufactured commercial Christmas spirit into three jam-packed weeks. The horror, the horror.

I knew December 25th was on the calendar, like it is every year, but I didn't know if the day would actually come and be Christmas, and not just another Wednesday. (Law & Order is on Christmas Day on NBC! What the hell is that?) I didn't know. I wasn't sure.

I wasn't sure until last Tuesday night, when I was listening to the radio and what to my wondering ears should appear but Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan singing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Suddenly, it felt like Christmas.

It's been awhile since I've seen a good fight. I haven't seen a fight in two years, and I haven't seen a fight that was a qualified success since 1999. That all changed last week.

I was just walking along, headed for my government class, and this pair of glasses hit the wall in front of me. I thought that was odd, but I kept walking, until I saw these two guys going at it. It was a big, fat guy up against a little, skinny dude. They tussled and threw some bizzarely angled punches and in general contributed to the breakdown of society, which was pretty cool.

The fight and its audience were encouraged by the lack of other people around to break it up. The little old woman who teaches remedial English knew better than to get involved, so she ran off to get someone while I just stood there with the collected crowd, all of us contributing to our own delinquincy.

The English teacher came back with an official school thug, who proceeded to throw the big guy into the wall and tell the little guy to "put it away." I'm still not sure what he meant. And there was something else about the fight that I didn't understand. The fat guy had the advantage anyway, but he still felt the need to bite the little guy's fingers enough to make them bleed. Hmm.

I understood the fight and why it happened so close to the end of the semester. I think we all did. It could have been any two people up there, any two frustrated, tired, short-tempered students who've seen too many movies and have a little too much misdirected adrenaline. It's all been sort of too much, and I can admit that I've lost sight of the season more than once in these past few weeks. I swear, Thanksgiving was yesterday.

It could've been anybody up there, and it was almost me this weekend during a two-day shopping extravaganza...from hell. I actually only had about six total hours (none of them consecutive) to get anything done, so I had to exercise good time management, which may or may not have involved various spontaneous lane changes, dirty looks to other customers, dashes through the aisles and last-minute impulse buys. I came out homicidal, but I got it all done, so I can spend the next two days resting easy.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, but I had my own little mini-holiday last night with my friends. Sometimes -- no, most of the time -- the holidays are best spent with the people you love the most that aren't related to you, the people who know you're crazy but call you every day anyway. It's in that simple fact -- not the fighting, the shopping, or even the cheerful holiday music -- that the true joy of the season is found.

This is going to sound really lame, but last night, as we were opening each other's gifts, I wanted to slice open the moment's belly, crawl inside, and curl up with a pillow. It was only a few hours, but it was everything everyone ever wants from the season. It was my comfort and joy.