Like A Prayer (Bigod 20, not Madonna, thank you very much)

I don't know if I had mentioned that I was moving – not out of my fabulous apartment but at work. I wasn't happy about it, so I was ignoring the fact that it was going to happen as long as possible, but it happened last week. I spent last Monday through Wednesday packing up all my crap and the department crap in preparation for the Thursday move to a different building. And this building is not a walkable distance from my house which makes me very cranky. I took Thursday and Friday last week as vacation days because I had two left and, unlike at the University where I could save them, here "it's use 'em, or lose 'em." I don't donate to multinational corporations, so I used 'em. Monday was Jury Duty which went exceedingly well, as we were there only long enough to watch the ten minute video on how important it is to do our duty. Then the judge came in to tell us that the defense attorney's mother had died the night before, so obviously they couldn't hold the trial. So, I've done my civic duty for the next couple of years (I hope). And since I was out of there by 9:00 a.m. I got everything I needed to get done for Christmas and even ran basic errands. I even went to the mall but at 10:00 a.m. on Monday it wasn't even remotely busy. It was perfect. I went to three of my favorite (four) stores: The Body Shop, Yankee Candle and DSW (the 4th is MAC, but I didn't need a new lipstick). DSW totally rocked because I had a $20 off coupon/reward certificate and they had a pair of Chucks I had been wanting but hadn't bought. Chucks for $22 works for me.

Tuesday was my first official day of driving to work and it did not make me happy. Damn frost. The thing I hate most about driving to work is the scraping of frost (or clearing of snow) off the car. Today I was happy because it was raining, so no frost. Yippee!!! Yeah, I'm excited about rain. Of course, when it's December I'm always happy when it's raining because the alternative is unthinkable (white shit falling from the sky makes me even crankier than have to scrape frost off my car windows). The only good thing about driving to the new building is that (at least this week), I'm damn near the first person so I get a primo parking spot. And when I get my act together, I will bring my gym stuff and go straight to the gym (I remembered yesterday, but forgot today) since I'm nearly there now.

Saturday was the annual Cookie Day where I have to go the Older Sister's (OS) house and pretend that I care about making cookies. Okay, there was no pretense. They all know that I hate Cookie Day and that I only show up because if I didn't I'd get talked about. This year there was apparently a plea for money to help buy the baking goods, but nobody said a word to me about it. I think they knew if they did that the chances of me wasting my entire Saturday making cookies and then having to pay for the torture were slim to none, especially since when OS brings the cookies to various family holiday functions, she gets all the credit. "Oh, it was so nice of OS to bring the cookies." Whatever.

Sunday was brunch at Grandma's country club and was yummy as always. It's probably my favorite of the family holiday get togethers, as we all (or most) go back to Grandma's afterwards and hang out. I love my extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins' babies, etc.) and it's so much more relaxing than dealing with just my immediate family which has a tendency to be a tad judgemental. Ah, my favorite time of year! NOT!

I am looking forward to having next week off and getting plenty of sleep. I have no great plans for my week off, other than dancing on Tuesday night and a party on Saturday night after Christmas with the Older Brother (OB) and the Terror Children. OOOOHHHHH!!! Dammit, I still have to put the Little Brother's (LB) Christmas present in the mail. He said I don't have to get him anything because I bought the Terror Children's gifts (two of them) and he went in on them with me and it was close to the limit of our gift exchange, but I have a little something for him to open. I will have to do that today after work and keep my fingers crossed that it gets there by Saturday. Probably no chance, eh?

If I don't write again soon, I hope everybody has a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah (yeah, I know it started last Friday night), Joyous Kwanzaa, etc. And just in case I never get on line next week (always a possibility), Happy New Year!!!

P.S. Oh, and to continue the computer POS story - yesterday it spent 2 hours and 35 minutes getting uploads of some sort. 2 hours and 35 minutes wasted because I could do NOTHING until it finished. Talk about productive use of my time.