Happy Festivus!

And Merry Christmas and all that.

It's pretty clear that the holidays make people (ok, mostly adults) insane. A friend says that the whole point of the holidays is that they're for the kids, and that more or less the grown-ups have to deal. But my family, aside from a couple cousins, doesn't have kids involved. Yet we still drive ourselves and each other CRAZY.

We procrastinate buying gifts, we spend WAAAAY more than we have/than we intended, we stress over the perfect decorations, we willfully battle gridlocked mall parking lots, and we volunteer/bring upon ourselves to cook or prepare far too many dishes.

I fall into almost all of those categories, most notably the last (except for the malls, I'm an online shopaholic). Every holiday I offer to cook or bring some sort of dish and I turn it into far more complicated of an affair than it ever should have been. Additionally, I greatly dislike cooking, and nor am I particularly good at it. Are we all just masochists around the holidays?

I hope that maybe deep within our mildly demented hearts and minds that the real reason for driving ourselves and families nuts is not just "for the kids" but really for each other. To show the people in our lives that we actually do care even though we've been screaming at them for the past week, or biting their heads off, or were just plain crabby since the day after thanksgiving.

And I hope that everyone can see that in spite of all the mass commercialized glut, the 80 million tins of cookies, the late night gift wrapping, the stress of the family parties, et al, that we are all pretty damn lucky to have so many people in our lives who DO care about us and who just want to make us feel happy and loved. We should let them, and we should make sure they know we want them to be happy and loved, too. Because everyone, not just the kids, needs to know that.

I love you all! And happy holidays :)

Yippee!!!

I finally graduated, on Sunday, and then yesterday was my last day at Target. It was a great feeling walking away from the store, knowing that I never have to go back and listen to all the annoying crap that goes on there, or work late nights or weekends or anything like that.

I am probably going to miss classes, just for the fact that I am a total nerd. BUT I am excited to start my new job. Pam (my new boss) had to go out of town unexpectedly so I get a nice little vacation out of the deal before starting (which is good because I REALLY need to shop for some new clothes...all I have is red and khaki and t-shirts and jeans, and I just don't think that will cut it at the office!).

The only downer is that I have been attacked by the pesky cold sore virus again (no doubt due to the stress of last week, and possibly me losing my chapstick for over 15 hours on Friday). I do hope I am healed before Christmas, because there are going to be at least two darling babies that I will want to see and play with, but also because I look like Ronald McDonald when I don't smother my face in concealer.

Alright, off to go reapply a good layer of aquaphor on my mouth. Gross, right? Sorry!

I don't believe it.

But I am finished with school. The last 6 and a half years of studying and dealing with scheduling work and school and my almost non-existent social life have finally come to an end, and I actually did pretty well. Looks like I'll end up with 3 A's and a B, although that's not quite for sure. But I don't believe I am in any danger of failing, so on Sunday I will FINALLY get to walk across the stage, get my empty diploma folder, and get a flipping life.

In job related news, I have accepted the position at Sterling Financial Advisers in Chesterfield. I was playing phone tag with the lady for days, but we finally got ahold of each other (she had to go out of town, deal with her parents, someone was sick or something). But we are meeting next week to work out the details of the position (she is now hiring two people, not just one), and my start date (she wants me to be able to "enjoy my Christmas"). Enjoy it I will, because for the first time in my adult life (since I was 16) I do NOT have to work the week before Christmas (Monday is my last shift), and I might not have to work the day after, either.

I'll need the time to clean my room, catch up on months of laundry, buy new work clothes, burn some red and khaki, and recycle all my old notebooks and folders. And chill out. I can't wait to do that. Plus all the out of towners are coming in, and I can't WAIT to see them. The holidays actually might be enjoyable this year. I'm still broke, but at least I'll have some time to enjoy it all.

FINALLY, for anyone Target related, or whoever just wants to have a drink with me, we will be having a happy hour to celebrate my escape from the big red T this coming Monday at Mike Duffy's in K-wood from 5-8ish. Good times will be had, but I'm saying it now, just for the record, I am NOT doing any shots. Thankyouverymuch.

:)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yeah

There was a bird in Target today, all day. I named him Flakey cause he kept sitting on top of this snowflake decoration hanging from the ceiling in my department and a bird has to be pretty damn flakey to fly into a flipping Target. I hope he got out, it started to make me sad seeing him fly in swooping circles from the checkouts, around Food Ave, and across the front doors, but never quite figuring out how or when to get through the doors. Maybe he made it to the stockroom and he got out that way.

Life

It's starting to get interesting....

I got an offer from the job in Chesterfield today. It is decent, but by no means amazing given that the entire pay raise will pretty much cover my student loan payments and that's it.

But...I have an appointment on Wednesday to discuss an offer with the job in Clayton. I'm crossing my fingers that its more money, or at least includes health benefits (Chesterfield doesn't).

Either way, I am putting in my two weeks at Target tomorrow. It's unreal, so I haven't started freaking out just yet, but that's just a matter of time. This means I don't have to work there after the 19th. Amazing.

Graduation is coming up quickly, too, and I can't really think about what life will be like come January and I have no classes to go to. Probably pretty wonderful.

In other news, I learned how to play poker yesterday. Yes, I was a brat about some of the weird rules but in the end, I enjoyed myself. Maybe cause I won. I think Andrew let me, though. He likes to fold, and I like to live on the edge AKA bet on my pair of 3's.

Maybe not

Both my front doors on my car are iced completely shut. I have been going all around the edges clearing the ice away, but the seals are frozen, and I don't want to snap off the door handle by pulling too hard. All the advice I have read online says to use a hairdryer. Um, right. My car is across the street and do you think I own an extension cord that long? Not sure if it will get easier to open because it is not going to warm up past 29 today.

Luckily I have power. The folks across the street totally do not. No one else in my building has tried to leave yet, but if they do, I don't think they'll get too far.

When I called work again to update them, I said I would take a cab if they paid for it. The manager who answered was like, "eh, um, no, no one is really going to shop today." I hope she's right. But people are crazy and they love to do shit like that. I told her I'd keep trying to come in, but honestly, what can I do? Not much.

One more thing. As much as I made fun of all those people who were "stocking up" on Wednesday well, looks like my foot is in my mouth now. I have very little in the way of appetizing food. No good soups or meat or veggies or butter. Some bread, pb and j, tuna, tomato soup, frozen peas and bocas. I'm not starving, but I sure will be bored after lunch!

Winter

I made it throught the night with my power...though I set a battery alarm just in case. Brendan's area of Dogtown wasn't so lucky. I checked the news and Kirkwood reportedly has major outages. That includes my happy little Target BUT we have a generator which is running the registers, some lights, and our scanning guns. The boss said 18 people actually made it in for the overnight shift, which is impressive for their often-sketchy attendance. So I'm off to scrape my car for the next twenty minutes and then creep my way to work, on Manchester to Lindbergh most likely. Big Bend is too hilly. I hate driving in this crap!

I hope everyone else (non Targeteers) get to enjoy a snow day, or perhaps at least a late start! Be safe on the roads. And when you think about how it was just like 70 degrees on Wednesday, well, perhaps maybe this is a result of that global warming thing people like to talk about!