After not sleeping the night before last due to jet lag and such, why did I think it was wise to stay up until 2:30AM chatting last night. When I had to be at work today. Though I am starting to wonder about that. I was the first one here at 9:15AM and I'm still waiting for a couple of folks to show up about half an hour later. Maybe I didn't even have to come in. Hmmmmm.... I do have thank you notes to write though.

Having houseguests has made me forget somewhat about the evils of not being in Hawai'i. One houseguest was recently in Miami and the other in Belize so we can all whine together about the cold and lack of beach. WHINE. And we can also drink margaritas and eat cheesy Mexican food and feel better because we're together in the cold and having fun celebrating the Old & New years. Though I do not know how I'm supposed to stay awake until midnight tonight as my nap time is being taken up with pedicures with the girls (and maybe S). Hmmmmm... Yeah, pedicure is way more important. Because I'm wearing the cute open toed shoes that go with the jacket I got in Chinatown last week.

I hate being home. New York was nice enough to be sunny and in the low 50s yesterday to ease my transition, but I still would rather be in Hawai'i with the family right now, eating breakfast and deciding what to do with the day. It's grey here and raining off and on. I'm in the office. I'm paying bills and balancing my checkbook and writing thank you notes and actually doing work and it all sucks when I was just laying on the beach a couple of days ago. ARGH. Post holiday/vacation blues I guess. I'm also a little tired and jet lagged. Things really aren't so bad. I'm leaving here early today and tomorrow and coming in late as well. And I'm sure I'll perk up once my houseguests arrive and inform me that my apartment is not that messy. And maybe I'll even get home in enough time to vacuum and change the shower curtain. Oh a girl can dream.


Actually I'm sure I'll perk up this evening. I have three fun houseguests arriving and New Year's Eve plans with 12 people I like a lot. And then a weekend of people I like. So it'll be fun doing some NYC sightseeing and brunches and drinks and just hanging with friends. We might do some baking and Charlie's Angels watching and good times like that. And I can distribute more of my Christmas gifts and so on and so forth. And really, there's nothing I have to do at work but hang out and BE here. It's not like I have to do all the things on my to do list. It's just good to do that. Having all my Thank Yous written before January 1st would be excellent.

Mele Kalikimaka & Aloha!!!!

Can't sleep. Jet lag of doom. ARGH

But I have been having really strangely awesome half dreams of John Stamos and Jason Batemen and that kind of scares me.

Ah the holidays. Jet lag, cramped quarters, too many people wanting to do too many things... Having Christmas in Hawai'i is a little hard. North Carolina was easier. I was there just to see my family for the holidays. Here I want to sightsee and visit old haunts and try and see old friends. But I'm also supposed to be hanging with my family and relaxing and enjoying the holidays. And I'm having a hard time doing both. At least in my mind. Some of the group wants to shop tomorrow morning and some of them want to sleep in and I really hate the idea that I'm going to be in Honolulu and may be forced to just hang around the house and be a bum when there are a million sights to see. I just have to work it out. It's not like it should be hard to be grateful for having a wonderful family who loves each other and wants to spend time together and that we all get to do it in a house in Hawai'i with a lovely view and gorgeous weather and all that. I think I'm partially just jet lagged and feeling a bit of the contagious holiday/family visit stress coming from everyone else. Maybe another good night's sleep and I'll be good to go.

One amazing thing... I actually had fun in LA. I'm not a New Yorker born and raised, but I've been there seven and a half years now and love it. In terms of Yankees vs. Red Sox, I'm firmly Yankees. In terms of East Coast vs. West Coast I'm firmly East Coast. I mock LA. Because I can. And because I should. But K and I went out and had a nice time. We went to a pub (without the 'pretty people'), drank some. Drove around and mocked the club kids and the skanky boys and girls wandering around at 2AM. We drove by the famous people's homes like the Playboy Mansion (well, the service gate at least), Gene Simmons's place, Aaron Spelling's place. We drove, we mocked, we giggled. We had fun. I was informed I need to come back in daylight hours. And I think I will. And I think I'm looking forward to it. Even the spa day, which looks way different from a New York spa day. I fear the future mud fight...

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly, Tra la la la la la la la la. Is though how you spell boughs? I don't know. Sorry for all the holiday stuff but that's just the way it's going to be between now and New Year's. Fact of life. Well, fact of my life...

I'm very cranky at my boss today because he won't leave early, thereby allowing me to work on Christmas Cards for the afternoon. I'm such the slacker at times. It is slow going right now at work so I'm not that much of a slacker. And I'll be busting my butt tomorrow with the Friday report of doom. Sooo...

Last night I was up until 1:30AM baking and all that good stuff. And lugging all the gifts and treats in today was lovely. My Lord & Taylor bag busted its straps the first block and I got to carry the damn thing in my hands. Than an evil woman on the subway was pushing me into the bar on the end of my seat causing me to lose circulation in my leg from the hip down. But nothing can dampen my Holiday insanity. I have gifts for friends and my secret santa. I have egg nog cookies, fudge and bourbon balls for our Econ Pod holiday party, everyone else is getting excited. There will be Santa Hat wearing. There will be photos of santa hat wearing. There might even be Christmas music.

I'm also FINALLY getting Christmas Cards. I think I like getting Christmas Cards as much as I do gifts. It's fun to hear from folks I haven't heard from in a while and to just catch up. Plus I like sticking the cards all over my wall or, as I currently do, all over my bed frame. Now if I could just finish the remaining 60 or so cards that I have to send... I could do that if my boss would just leave early today though. Just so you know.

Back a million years ago I experienced two women I referred to as Touching Temp and Touching Temp Two. They worked near me and ALWAYS had to touch me. Drove me batty. Whenever they had to talk to me for any reason, they'd come over and touch me while they were talking to me. One time Touching Temp came up right behind me when I wasn't paying attention and put her hand on my bare (I like a good tank top from time to time) shoulder and leaned right into my ear. So creepy. I jumped a foot. Ugh.

I'm a very touchy feely person, but I just hate people touching me when I don't know them. You have to earn my love and respect (or at least lust) before you've earned the right to put your hands all over me. Hate that unearned touching.

Anyway, today we have a Talking Temp in the area. No matter what's going on, she wants to chat. I put my headphones on (usually a sign that you don't want to talk and just want to deal with your work) and she still tried chatting with me. At one point when I was ignoring her, she threw a paper clip at me. She. Threw. A Paperclip. At Me. Because she's five apparently. I just don't care for her chatter right now. I want to do my work, get my Christmas Cards done and be on my way to Hawai'i. She seems very nice and interesting and all, but hush up, woman.

I'm such a hateful person. Y'all should stop being my friends.

Last night a friend of mine said, "I enjoyed your blog." My first thought was, "huh?" Yeah, this regular blog update thing is going well. I really do want to write regularly and I've tried to find ways to do that (paper journals, daily five-year journal, online journal, story journal, dirty journal, setting schedules, this blog) and I just don't seem to be able to stick to it. For someone with a touch of the OCD and a love of spreadsheets and schedules I don't seem to be sticking to a writing schedule really well. But I did only start this a few weeks ago so maybe we can give it time. And maybe it will inspire the other writing. Hmmmmm...

On other topics I drank a carafe of raspberry frozen margarita last night. Awesome. You are a bad, bad influence, K. And way more fun than an office party. From which only one person has shown up in the office after. Crazy Economists.

I love the Holidays. I am a total Christmas Dork. But I sometimes get so caught up in the stress of it all that I forget that it's not a neccessary thing, and I actually do all of this stuff because I love it and not because I have to do it. Though a friend of mine and I are in a debate as to whether or not plagues will be visited upon the world if I do not bake 20 dozen Christmas cookies by December 15th. I haven't baked any yet and we did just have a 'blizzard' this past weekend in NYC...

But I do love it. I love Christmas shopping in 'blizzard' conditions. I love doing 100+ Christmas cards and listening to Christmas CDs and spending way too much money on way too many Christmas gifts and baking all kinds of holiday cookies that I hardly eat myself and so on and so forth. It's fun. I love wearing santa hats and geeky jingle bell earrings. But then I start making to do lists and consulting my Christmas03.xls spreadsheet and start thinking of all the things I want to do as things I have to do and then I get stressed and want to go sit on my couch and eat Cheetos while watching hours of Charlie's Angels episodes. It's silly.

So, I'm typing this to remind myself that I like doing this and if I stop liking it, I can stop doing it. Yes. Okay. Doing better now.

Back to the Christmas Cards.

I hate being sick. I hate that I cannot do a thing about it. I hate that I just have to take medicine and drink fluids and WAIT. It's not something that can be fixed or solved or whatever. You just WAIT. Sucks ass.

If even Kathleen has one, I think it's time for me to have one. Because the world needs just one more Blog, don'cha think?