X-Mas Brake

Now that I'm a working stiff days off of work are few and far between. Where is the justice in getting only 10 days to play with during a 360 day business year? This fact alone scores a point for changing gears towards a career in education. However, that is another post for another day. Anywho, in the past seven days the holiday called Christmas came and went. Four weeks of commercial saturation culminate in a day where people exchange boxes of things in hopes of getting what they want. The Catholic in me says that's not the point of the holiday. For some reason the Buddhist in me agrees. Oh well, I see the holiday as a way to spend time with folks who have made life fun so far; namely family. After consuming a lot of meat, unwrapping my new clothes for the year, I find myself back home with not a whole lot to do for the next week...this will be sweet. Anywho, it's nice to see different people every day for a change..even if it is my parents. A few observations:

- In the past seven days, the Packers have given Wisconsin folk a reason to care less about their jobs and misery for a few days. It almost seems though, that every thing is falling in their favor in a cosmic way. The bad stuff that normally would happen on the field doesn't happen. Do you believe in ghosts?

- This week features only one day of work. Hopefully it will be a cruise and I can spend the rest of the week on the yearly personal vacation. It's the only time of the year I can be anti-social for an extended period and sit in isolation with my daily distractions. The trick here is for me to be productive....yeah, right.

- The Last Samurai was okay. The more I think about it, the worse I think of the movie. I liked most of it...up until the star power ruined the ending. Then I realize that the Asian in me should be bitter that the director and writer are both Caucasian and just hacked the work of actual Japanese directors. Still, the movie was better than I expected. I suggest you rent it in a few months if you have nothing to do.

- Four hours of my life this week was spent watching Lord the Rings: Return of the King. I definitely want to spend four more hours watching it again. It was tough to enjoy when my dad continually asked me questions about everything that was going on. The pinnacle of the questioning was when he asked me why Frodo and Sam were at the mountain. Uh, dude....that's the point of the movie.

- It's warmer in my apartment. I notice that someone came into my apartment and did something to the windows. That's the drawback of living here. Maintenance can come in anytime reasonable without notice. I'm glad they did something to fix the drafts, but it creeps me out that they can come in here anytime. I'd hate for them to enter my apartment in an awkward situation.

- Niece Ruby didn't stop looking at me the whole time was in the room with her. Either she's like all ladies and is fascinated with my Moustache, or thinks I'm a living cartoon because of my facial hair. I'll vote for the latter of the two...I should adopt a funny voice whenever I see the baby...that way, she'll confuse reality with cartoons. Okay, I'm starting to talk out of my ass right now...I should end this post soon.

- I did my X-mas shopping in about 45 minutes on Tuesday. I just went to Best Buy and walked around, found myself in the DVD aisle and picked stuff out. The place was a zoo and I was ready to leave the place as soon as I got there. Fortunately, I picked correctly on all of my gift choices. I've always been good at that...I think that's why I enjoy giving more than receiving around these times.

- Congrats to Jacob and Wendizzle on their engagement. That makes three out of four of my former roommates engaged and/or married. Outside of that, three of my homies from high school are engaged/married. I guess we're at that age...I'd ask myself "what's wrong with me?"...but then I realize that nothing is wrong with me...based on the advice I get, I'm going to avoid the aisle for a few years.

That is the week in a nutshell. We're at the end of the year, so stay tuned to nothing but top whatever lists until the new year. I'm sure all seven of you have been waiting for those with anticipation...

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .