Happy New Year!
I checked my journal the other day and realised, to my chagrin, that if I don't remember to write journal entries, little journal-fairies do not crawl out from under my keyboard and write them for me while I sleep. I suppose there is some kind of labour dispute or something, because I swear they used to, but I guess in the meantime I'm on my own.
Christmas occurred this year on the 25th which I suppose is as good a day as any other although in terms of scheduling, it might have been more convenient if it had occurred over, say, a week. Amy and I decided to quit putting off the inevitable and actually attempt to juggle our various christmasii together instead of individually juggling only those for which we had direct invitations. Basically it all worked out fine and I found myself, this year more than some, thinking a fair bit about how fortunate we are to be caught in this situation, of having too many family events to fit. The only hangup was Nightingale christmas. It's the christmas with my Dad and his brother's and sister's families, and is generally a delightfully low-maintenance affair: no gifts, take-out chinese, and just sit around and talk. I enjoy it immensely, except that this year santa brought all of them Norwalk or at least something involving enough forceful release of smelly juices that it might easily be mistaken for Norwalk. Whatever it was, Nightingale Christmas has been temporally rezoned and will be known this year as Nightingale Mid-January Gathering.
From the standpoint of crass bourgeois materialism, it was a splendid holiday. Thinkgeek gear is a quick way into my heart, so I think now I have to ask Amy's sister to marry me too. Books too, oh glorious glorious books - it's sooo good to have to choose which unread book to read next. Seriously. I've gone through several in the past week and I have more to go! I mentioned that I had decided to read a Tom Clancy novel, just to see what all the fuss was about and now for better or for worse, I have 6. Well, now I'll know. Other big hits were Crichton's new book (about nanotech!), what looks to be a sweet electronics reference, and a very very pretty version of Clausewitz' _On War_. Oh, and a straight razor (actually an open razor, but you probably don't care) -- a Henckels open razor in fact. So much bleeding to be done. And other things that I am very pleased with, but will not enumerate, because if I start I have to list them ALL or the ones I don't list will feel sad and alone. Hooray for being a corrupt capitalist pig!
New year's was fun - got to see people I haven't in ages, though of course as luck would have it I spent virtually no time speaking to any of them. But monopoly was won and risk was lost and lo, when we awoke a new age was laid out before us and we had Denny's. I had the farmer slam. Their "country gravy" is like... I dunno... maybe like god's semen, only less wriggly.
I'm at work now and while I rarely write entries from work, there is no one here today so I find myself with a surplus of free time. I've also noticed, the last couple times I've come to work, that the building entrance closest to my office smells like cookies. Like peanut butter cookies. Only I don't think it actually does, because the smell follows me all the way out to the parking lot. So maybe I smell like peanut butter cookies.
Upon further inspection I have determined that I do not smell like peanut butter cookies.