Solely for the sake of updating

Hello, my people.

I know I have fallen pray to the deadly sin of sloth when it comes to bloging. Usually, when I’m looking through blogs and someone hasn’t posted for over two weeks, I look up at Sarah and give a ranting commentary on how marriage, children, courtship, and other such nonsense is no excuse for people to let their blogs go idle. I have done just that, but none of the aforementioned reasons played a role, so I am even worse and have failed in the task of bringing new material to the frequent blog-reading masses (read: Sarah. We actually all blog solely for her entertainment, just so you know - at least according to her).

Actually, I’ve been in California the vast majority of the time of my Internet abence. I had a lovely time at home and must confess my usual second thoughts about returning (where else can you get a tan on Christmas day, eat so incredibly well, watch “The Simpsons” and “Sam the Cooking Guy,” and actually get 10 plus hours of sleep every night?). But there will be battles to be fought here in just over a week – new ones, defensive ones – and I am ready (at least as much as I’ll ever be) to get in the thick of things.

I’ve had lots of random revelations today. Lacking both roommates has forced me into productivity for the prevention of boredom, and one of the activities I engaged in today was mall shopping. Usually, mall runs are reserved for special occasions of some sort – either a really good sale or need of a very specific item that can only be found there. Today’s reason/excuse was spending of some of the gift cards Santa brought me for Christmas, and I had fun spending other peoples’ money on me. I went on a Bath & Body Works spree and went to the Loft to get some earrings I had my eye on in San Diego. I’m wearing them for New Years’ Eve along with the awesome Loft blouse I also purchased with a gift card back home. Anyway, all that to say, for all the grief they get for being impersonal, gift cards really ain’t that bad of a gift.

Next thought: the fact that there is already a smooth jazz (Kenny G to be precise) version of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” is flat-out wrong.

Furthermore, dying or dead Christmas trees are very depressing. I am toying with the idea of starting to put some of the Christmas decorations away on my own, but I don’t think I can do it without the emotional support of my roommates. Pathetic, I know. But I am looking back on the Christmas season this year and it feels like it was a six-week steamroll – a flurry of activity and little real Christmas cheer – that has already passed by, and now I have to wait another eleven months for another chance to redeem it. It’s weird to not be listening to Christmas music – it went from permeating the atmosphere everywhere you went to zip, nada, nonexistent. Except on AccuRadio, where the “normal” stations still have pop holiday stuff mixed in with the New Magic Sunny Light Mix. (I know this because I was blasting it at work yesterday. I love working when there’s no one else in the leg pit.)

Speaking of work, work is very interesting. I can’t really say more about it, partially because nothing is completely finalized or announced yet, but work is simply fascinating. Sometimes I sit back and wonder if some of this stuff happens in the private sector. I know it does, to some extent, because a lot of it is simply part of the human condition (ie the petty fights and cliquishness of middle school). But man, when it comes to melodramatic mystique, random ways of announcing things, and senseless secrecy, no one is second to certain government officials.

That’s about all the creative energy I have to offer at the moment. I’m still pretty jetlagged and tired from today’s errands and tasks. I think I’ll turn on 24 and start putting the Christmas houses away.

Just another crazy night here in Alexandria-town…