EY's Rants and Raves

I'm over halfway through with Season One of House and I feel myself becoming more sarcastic and acerbic. What on earth will I be like when I've finished the whole season? Funny thing is, I'm not sure anyone will notice. I mean, when you're sarcastic a good deal of the time, does anyone notice a 10% bump up?

Christmas was very nice this year. Apparently, I've been far better than I'd thought this year. Santa brought a MUCH larger TV than I asked for, a DVD player AND the first season of House, which was a total surprise. I've watched all the special features already and I'm almost done with the episodes on Disc 1. House--yum, yum.
In addition to the loot, the traveling to each side of the state was OK, on balance. The "on balance" is key here. My family was overly concerned about how a large nearby metropolitan area is being destroyed by "the blacks". Yep, it's the 21st century alright....see how we've evolved? The other major pain-inflicting topic was "you know, your mother and I would be so happy if you'd have a little kid". "Umm, well, I'm not interested in having kids" "but who will take care of you when you're old?" "Having a kid doesn't guarantee that--lots of kids don't take care of their parents" "Oh YOURS would". Yeah. I just can't have that conversation too many times.
The other side of the state, however was "How are you? We're so glad you're here! Oh good, you brought the dog...she can play with the other 4 that are around (2 theirs, 2 of the neighbors')" No racial strife, no pushing for kids, just truly enjoying each other's company. Good dinner, walk afterward with all the dogs, saw other relatives. No strict schedule to keep, no "when you get a minute I need to TALK to you" in the hushed tones to let you know you've f'ed something up like on my side, no thinking up schemes to avoid topics you'd rather not address. A nice visit, in other words.
I do have to call M today...I need to know if I can sub some things on a recipe of hers, but what we'll really talk about is "did I write a Thank You note to my godmother for a fur she gave M to give to me" that she left me a message about last week. Well, the answer is "no". I wasn't comfortable lying about it and then forgot that I was going to send a bland "thanks for thinking of me" note that didn't specifically mention the fur. My godmother is a wonderful woman. She really is. I appreciate the gesture, but I don't do fur. For any reason. Yes, I eat meat because I don't think about it too much, but there's just no way for me to justify fur. Just can't. Would my godmother understand? Probably not. But M, knowing how I feel about fur, takes the offered gift anyway and expects me to just "get over it". Sorry, not buying it.

OK, I've written a decently long post, it's 11:30 am, I need to get in the shower and start my day (I love being off work). Hope you had a wonderful holiday, Gentle Reader!

It's vacay time for EY, no work until January 06. Not that I won't be reading email (an addiction I wish I'd get over), but I won't HAVE to. Umm, I guess that's better. Cookies to bake, presents to wrap, the Hen Party tonight (woo!), cleaning and laundry (bleah). Busy, busy. My brain is ready to be in a "busy, busy" state, but the rest of me just isn't. Yes, I've had my coffee already. I've surfed my fav spots, had my moment of outrage that our President FINALLY has decided that we shouldn't torture anyone (yeah, it worked so well for the guys in Salem trying to find witches), BUT that it's OK to spy on presumably innocent Americans with no warrant. What won't he do. Doesn't matter if your intent is right G, you harmed some innocent folks and rung a bell that you can't unring. But Merry Christmas anyway.

So Gentle Reader, I'm off to holiday prep

I've done some online shopping, had tea and since those fascists at Fox aren't airing an episode of Fox, I guess I'll have to wrap a few presents. I'm really not much of a wrapper (or rapper, for that matter), but I need to get my Angel Tree gift (at the very least) done.....sigh. What I really want is more tea and a long winter's nap.

I'm afraid it's been a rather boring week, Gentle Reader. Got back into the swing of things at Big Faceless Corp, although morale there is bad and this close to the holidays, there seems little purpose in "doing those things that need to be done". I've tried pep talks, but they don't usually end well. Other folks around me are (mostly) doing their stuff just fine. I haven't had to go tell the gamers on the row next to me to pipe down, although an outing to the movies did consume them this week. (It was one afternoon. They pondered the movie choices like they were on the Oscar voting panel.)
DH and I went to a Candlelight Choir service at a local college, my alma mater, in fact. It was lovely as usual and helped get me in a Christmas-y kind of mook. It's even been decently cool this week, although I will feel better once the tree is up. It's still the first few days of Dec, so I have some time to "holiday up".

Off to make more cookies for a party tomorrow night!