"Life's Just a Cocktail Party on the Street.."

My poor little LJ is in dire need of an update! So here it is:

My weekend
It was great! The traffic and the weather were very good to us on the four-hour drive down and back from Punta Gorda, FL, where my parents live. Jory was with us and my sister and her husband were also there. We had a really great visit, some really good eats, a lot of fun gabbing and playing games, and OF COURSE... one cannot forget the whole gift exchange thing! I might be 32 years old, but I still like opening my Christmas presents, dammit! ;)

I got lots of great new books that I cannot wait to read... A super cool Led Zeppelin "song remains the same" shirt... A very, very neat hand-beaded (orange, blue and silver beads) keychain with a little silver gator dangling from the end of it (GO GATORS!)... A gift card to bath & bodyworks (woot!)... Some clothes and a new "office sweater" (it's always so damned COLD in here!)... some other miscellaneous stuff.... and my favorite prezzie of all which was a portable mp3 player and a wireless audio adapter so I can beam the stuff onto the home/car stereo, etc. Wheeeee! It's so teeny tiny and I LOVE it! (Sometimes good things really DO come in small packages!).

Jory got some cool things like a remote control airplane, a digital camera of his own (he's always been REALLY into picture taking and is already creating some really hilarious photos and movie shorts with it. I'll have to post some of them here.), an electronic battleship game (remember those?! haha! I LOVED mine as a kid), some of the fancy schmancy spandex cycling shorts and shirt, and other assorted things. Basically, he made out like a bandit. As usual. That's what happens when you're the only grandchild for BOTH sets of your grandparents. *snicker*

This Week
Just finalizing things at work and then TWO WEEKS vacation! w00t! I am REALLY looking forward to it. Things are wrapping up pretty nicely here at work and I should have things pretty well in order and organized to leave in wait for my sorrowful return on January 5th. *snicker*

Vacation
I'll be on vacation as soon as I can leave this coming Friday, until 8am on Monday, January 5th. Jory will be with his father (and that side of the family) the entire time as Nolan and I trade off every other year on who gets him for the holidays (hence, why MY family celebrated our xmas so damned early this time). Most of my first week off will be spent simply RELAXING and very likely doing the daily "wake and bake" accompanied by Bloody Mary. hahaha!

Then we'll be heading off into the wild blue yonder to go camping for the next 8 days. Two nights on the beach in Destin, FL followed by five nights in New Orleans, followed by another stop-over night in Chipley, FL on our drive back to Gainesville. I can't wait! New Years in New Orleans. I have sooooooooo many things I want to see and do and have been hitting all my N.O. friends up for suggestions on specific restaurants and points of interest. As long as I've lived in Gville (only 10hrs from N.O.), I've never done more than drive through the city and that's it. This is going to be a real treat for me and something I've been wanting to do for a very long time. YAY!

a THOUSAND DOLLAR CHRISTMAS BONUS!!

"Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know..."

-Mitch Albom, the five people you meet in heaven

AND!!!

I had THE worst fucking nightmare last night. OMG! It was just horrible, horrible, horrible. I would even wake up during it and make a big production of rolling to my other side, fluffing my pillow and adjusting my blankets and then would fall back asleep and the damned thing would pick right up where it left off! VILE, VILE, EVIL THING!

I dreamed that Mike and I had taken Jory and a friend camping and there was a pond nearby that had alligators in it (not uncommon at all here in Florida) and we'd had a very stern talk with the boys not to go anywhere near it. (Can you see where this is going? sigh.)

We began unloading everything and setting up our camp.. the boys take off on their bikes... the next thing I know I'm looking down this hill from our campsite and there's Jory swimming IN THE POND completely oblivious to the five or six 6-7ft long alligators swarming around him in the water. Apparently there was a tree down across the pond at the far end and Jory had seen something on it or near it that he wanted to check out and he was swimming over to it to have a look. I'm standing there a good 40 yards away looking down on the whole thing and I have never felt so absolutely horrified in my entire life.

I scream Jory's name at the top of my lungs and he turns to look, sees the alligators and then starts to swim back to the near side of the pond and one clamps its mouth down on his lower leg and I am absolutely hysterical at this point screaming at Mike to DO SOMETHING and fumbling in my purse for my cell phone to call 911 (of course grabbing everything out of my purse BUT my damned phone...)

omg.. the whole thing was just horrible. I'd wake... try to shake it off.. and then just fall asleep to move on to the next chapter of it. UGH

Needless to say, I didn't have any problem getting outta bed this morning when my alarm went off. In fact, right now, I don't care if I *ever* sleep again.

(This is something they had on the tables at the departmental holiday luncheon I went to today and I thought it was cute. Yes... I got them all right! *teehee* Can you?)

The following words are alternate titles for several well-known Christmas Carols:

Quadruped with crimson proboscis
5PM to 6AM without noise
Miniscule hamlet in the far east
Ancient benevolent despot
Adorn the vestibule
Exuberance directed to the planet
Listen, aerial spirits harmonizing
Monarchial trio
Yonder in the haystack
Assemble, everyone who believes
Hallowed post meridian
Fantasies of a colorless December 25th
Tin tintinnabulums
A dozen 24-hour yule periods
Befell during the transparent witching hour
Homo sapien of crystallized vapor
I merely desire a pair of incisors
I spied my maternal parent osculating a fat man in red
Perambulating through December solistice fantasy
Aloft on the acme of the abode

Children...
go run and jump and play

You'll be...
men and women someday

Then you'll have to leave
your world of make-believe
now children

Children...
who call each other names

Children...
playing grown-up games

We cheer you when you're sad
and spank you when you're bad
now children

Pride goes before destruction
A haughty spirit goes before a fall
Don't you know that we're all children
And it's all for one and one for all? Hmm?

Children...
who think that they are grown

Children...
with children of their own

From the cradle to the grave
why must we all behave

Like children?

--Joe South

rofl jory just said "i don't say bad words because i know my momma wouldn't want me to say 'em... and besides... i never feel like saying them... and besides... i wouldn't even know what kinda sentence to put them in."