I felt that today's horoscope was a bit harsh, but I guess the truth hurts:

Cancer
It feels early for the bills to be coming in, but they're piling up anyway. Self-worth gets expensive when you have to go out and buy it. Consider an early New Year's resolution about reining in certain impulses.

Crap.

So, so long since I've posted.

So I hope everyone had a merry Christmas or happy whatever holiday applies to you.

I finally finished all my shopping on Tuesday. I rock. I could have been done much earlier, but I really love shopping and I have no money to shop for myself so I prolonged the whole shopping for everyone else thing because it enabled me to still shop. Yeah.

So I think all the gifts (so far) went over well. I got my sister a sweater from Express that was very cute and she seemed to like it a lot and a copy of The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want because that book is just so hella cool. I got my older-little-brother a compact DVD player for his room that I got a great deal on at Sam's Club. I got the 10 year old brother a network adaptor for the PS2 so that he can play online and beat people around the world and I got the 8 year old brother SSX Tricky because he's so much better than me on SSX and I think that's hella cool. I went in on gifts for the Wham and my dad with my brother and sister. We got Dad a DVD-RW drive so that he can put his home movies on DVDs, and we got the Wham a new digital camera because the other one that she had sucked. They were both really happy with their gifts, so that rocked.

Beck, Dodi, and I exchanged gifts last Friday night. I cooked us dinner: Penne alla Vodka with chicken, crusty Italian bread, a salad (with croutons for Dodi), and cosmopolitan (which, at first I made too strong, because I have this issue with making drinks to strong, but then I added more cranberry juice and they were excellent). Dinner was pretty good, if I do say so myself, and we had a great time sitting around, sipping on our cosmos and watching Sex and the City. Beck and I gave Dodi a pair of sun and moon wall sciences and a new duvet cover for her recently acquired down comforter. I gave Beck the 5th season of Sex and the City (well, I preordered it for her, so I gave her a DVD case with a cover that I made that said that it was coming to her soon) and a set from Bath and Body works that had salt "flavored" lotions in it. I got a very cool wall calendar from Dodi that has vintage advertising posters in it (matches perfectly in my kitchen/dining area) and a set of coasters from the Pottery Barn that are glass with vintage liquor advertising art on them. Very cool. I got a pair of Chinese silk slippers from Beck, along with a "Dancing Diva" for my car, some maple syrup and maple sugar candies (seriously, my favorite thing in the world), a pooping reindeer that "poops" brown jelly beans, and this awesome book called The S Factor that has workouts in it based on stripper moves. I'd totally like to take a class, but I don't think there are any around here, so the book is awesome.

I haven't yet exchanged gifts with Alex. We were going to on Christmas Eve, but we didn't have time. He had to come over to the apartment after he got out of work at 6 to pick up the TV that he and Beck bought for their parents. He wanted to exchange gifts then, but my family always exchanges our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve (and then we open our gifts from "Santa" the next day) and so I had to get home by like 7:30 or so or else my little brothers would go crazy. So we wouldn't have time to do a Christmas thing for the two of us then. As it was, Alex got out of work late and didn't get to my apartment until almost 7, so I didn't get to my house until 8 and my brothers pretty much attacked when I got in the door and started asking to open gifts. And then Alex and I couldn't get together on Christmas. He and I both did the family thing with our respective families during the day, and he wasn't able to drive down to the apartment that night because his taillights aren't working on his car so it's not safe for him to drive at night. We both had to work the next morning, and so my going to pick him up wouldn't have made sense either, so we're going to do Christmas tonight.

I had a very nice Christmas with my family. My sibling bought me some nice gifts: my sister bought me a fleece sweater, which at first I wasn't sure that I liked, but I tried it on and it looks very nice and it's the perfect in between jacket and I didn't have anything besides hoodies that fit that bill, so it's really an excellent gift. My brother bought me a new controller for my PS2, which is awesome because I only had one controller before and now I'll be able to play with other people, so it's not just "playsterbation" as Eric referred to it. My 10 year old brother got me the Sims Vacation expansion pack, which I didn't' have. He's so observant... I didn't even mention that I wanted that, but he knows from watching commercials with me that I like the Sims and he wanted to get Bustin' Out for me but they couldn't find it, so he got me that expansion pack instead. He's a sweetie. My youngest brother gave me a shiny red compact mirror with an "A" in rhinestones on the front which is exactly my taste and very sweet.

I got some nice things from Santa as well. Santa gave me a new set of knifes, which I really needed because the knifes I bought myself when I first moved out suck immensely. My new knifes are very sharp and I know that because I've already cut myself. I also got a large wood cutting board from Santa, which I didn't even think of asking for, but my other cutting board was very small, and this is excellent. It has a gripper thing that pokes into the back of what your cutting and holds it still, which is awesome because I'm retarded at cutting and can use all the help I can get. Santa also brought me the Pirates of the Caribbean DVD, which is excellent because I love that movie and really wanted that DVD. I got a couple of very cute jeweled frames and some Bath and Body Works lotion/shower gel in Mango Mandarin "flavor" which is excellent from Santa. Santa really equipped me for entertaining: he gave me a bar set, a wine set (corkscrew, collar, pourer, and bottle stopper), and a chip and dip set. I guess I'll have to have a party now... :) Santa also gave me a $75 gift certificate to Best Buy... and I'm not sure what I'm going to buy with it yet, but I'm very excited... I'm thinking I might get a new entertainment center or perhaps a whole fleet of new DVDs...

So yes. It was a very nice Christmas. We did the gift thing from Santa in the morning and then we went to Church. We had Father Lanice, which was sucky because he's kind of long-winded. But his homily was broken up by the fire alarm going off in the middle of his homily. It was so loud and annoying and it took five minutes to get it turned off, but the congregation waited patiently and applauded when it stopped and luckily it was only a local alarm so we didn't have the fire department showing up. Father Lanice said that he'd lost his train of thought and the congregation spontaneously broke out in applause again... Father took the hint and cut the rest of his homily short. After church we hung out around the house. My brother got Ghettopoly for Christmas and he and my sister and I played it for a few hours. I got beat hardcore. And it was going so well for so long. Ah well. We had dinner around 5 (ham, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, and non-burnt-for-a-change rolls) and I headed back to the apartment around 6:30. I realized when I got back to my place that I left way too early because I had nothing to do for the rest of the night and my plans for baking were foiled because I had no butter. I got depressed and was saved by Eric calling. He's home for a bit and he came up to hang out with me. We both realized on his way up that I have two cats and he has severe allergies, so after he came in and viewed the tree, we went to a bar that's pretty much down the street and hung out and had a drink. Eric bought me a Christmas pint, and it's been so long since I had a Guinness and it was so, so good.

I'm at work now. The day after Christmas, a Friday, and they didn't close our office. And I couldn't get the day off because other people had already requested the day. So that sucks. A lot. It's almost noon and I've been here since 8 (ok, well, 8:15) and I haven't had any phone calls today. This is pointless. I'm so irritated that we're open. I was so angry when I first got here that I really couldn't talk to anyone. But I've calmed down. Carrie's here this morning and she's leaving at noon to drive to Newark and catch a plane to Scotland. I'm so happy for her that today is finally here and she gets to go to Scotland and be with John. And she'll come back officially engaged. :) She's been rushing around and being a model employee getting stuff done (while I've been sitting here pretty much not getting much done at all and typing this post) and she stapled her finger. She's so funny, because she only really got a small little puncture wound, but she stuck her finger right up above her head, like she was going to bleed out if she didn't keep her finger above her heart. I went into the kitchen to find a band-aide, but we apparently ran out of them. I brought back some disinfectant wipes and triple antibiotic ointment and opened them up for her to apply and then went to Mary Ellen's desk and found her small first aide kit and grabbed a band-aide out of it. I opened it up and stuck it on her finger for her. Andy made fun of me... he was like, "woah, way to take charge, I didn't know you had paramedic training." And I was thinking, I don't know about paramedic training, but I think I've had "mom training" from watching the Wham all these years. So that was my excitement for the morning. Now I've got 5 hours left today and no motivation to do anything. I guess I should try and keep busy so the day seems to go quicker. So yeah. I'll get to work.

Probably won't update again until next week... I'm going to PA this weekend to see my Mom and her family as she's down there from MI for Christmas. Alex is able to go with me, so that should make the trip more bearable. The road-trip part of it should be fun, at least. :) We come back up Sunday then it's back to work for Mon/Tue/Wed. I'm not sure what I'm doing New Year's Eve. Alex has to work a 24 that day, so that blows. Beck said she might be going with Kevin to Boston, and Dodi may or may not end up staying in with Tristan. I'd love if we could all go out to like the Big House or something dancing. That'd rock. I hope I just don't end up sitting alone in my apartment... or at home with my parents... I guess if nothing ends up happening for New Year's, maybe I'll try and have a little get together at my apartment the following Friday and I can use my new entertaining stuff... :)

Anywho. Yeah. So. Happy Holidays. I gotta get back to work...