jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

I am about to take my first vacation (excepting one day for Sarah’s graduation) since I began working at AOL a year and a half ago. I’m leaving in the morning for Florida to see my Mom’s new house, celebrate Christmas, meet up with Damon and otherwise not work. I haven’t seen my Mom in a year, which raises HUGE issues for me. We’re so close, and that’s just not accetable. I can’t even contemplate it, because when I do I just get upset. So I’ll just make sure next year is better, even if I have to twist her arm right off to come to New York.

And before that fun happens, this fun will happen: My old roommate Andrew should be here any minute. He’s spending the night with me here before heading south to see his family and visit Atlanta for Christmas. He’s been living in Germany for almost two years, so it’s been forever since I’ve seen him. Considering that we’re such good friends, this is a real shame. I can’t wait for him to get here. I’m sure he’ll be jet lagged and exhausted but I know we’ll have a wonderful conversation anyway.

My big question is whether I should order some Chinese food so it’s here when he arrives. But I have no idea what he’ll be up for when I see him, and no solid idea when he’s getting here. His plane was supposed to land at Kennedy at 9:10, but could easily be late. So… who knows? The Chinese restaurant delivers until 1:30am, so I’ll just hold tight for now.

I’m just about ready to tuck myself into bed. I’ve spent a lovely day clad in pajamas watching movies. I’ve made a bunch of phone calls and send many catchup emails. I love that feeling of getting stuff done, even if it is primarily attacking the pile of dvds that’s stacking up around the house. I don’t even miss tv shows. But I guess I would like to have Food TV and Animal Planet… oh, and TLC. Then I’d be totally set.

Damon rode off into the sunset today. Or rode south in the early afternoon, really. I was sad to see him go. And to make it even better I walked him out to his car and carried back a bunch of miscellany, pretty much in my pajamas at the time. And I was locked out of the building. So I had to appeal to neighbors I hardly know while sporting stripey flannel pants and crazy lady hair.

Now I’m camped out on the couch watching season one of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. There’s so much brilliant about this show that I had forgotten, I’m having a ball. How many women do I know who say ‘I AM Mary.’ I know I’ve done it a million times. 30 and single??? The horror! And I’d kill for her clothes.

I’m hoping to spend the rest of the weekend low profile. Since Damon was leaving today I gave him the kind of week he wanted — out every night. We had lots of fun for sure. We saw Oceans 12 last night. We saw a free performance by Duran Duran on Thursday (my junior high self was over the moon). It starts to get a little fuzzy before that, but I know we were out.

I can’t believe that in just one week I leave for Florida to see my Mom for Christmas. It makes Damon’s departure easier, since I’ll see him there. Then I’ll go to DC for New Year’s Eve. My Dad is coming the weekend of January 10th and then I get another weekend free. After that I head down to DC again to see Damon’s show and celebrate his birthday. The time he’s gone will fly by. Once all the traveling is over it will be less than one month until he’s home. Suddenly I’m exhausted. At least Christmas shopping isn’t so brutal this year. I didn’t do any of it pre-layoffs, just in case. And I’ve set expectations across the board that this is going to be a lean year. Even if it weren’t for the expenses of life in NYC I think I’d like to keep it smaller anyway. There’s so much pressure, it just sucks a lot of the fun out of things. I don’t mind getting fewer gifts if it means we can all relax. Looks like that’s the way it’s going, so I think that will be a win for everyone. So at some point this weekend I’m going to jump online and order up what I need and call it a holiday.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

My allergies have been jerking me around for days, so I’ve spent most of my post-Thanksgiving time on the couch. The upside of this is that I’m just watching movie after movie after movie.

This morning Damon and I watched Dawn of the Dead. Early in the morning, all the lights on… that’s the way I like to watch scary movies. When I like to watch them, which is almost never. It was okay. Since then I’ve watched Eight Men Out and Monster. I feel like there was something else in there, but it’s escaping me.

We’re cat sitting our friends’ cat Cleo. And those friends have about a zillion dvds. Except that now half of them are at our apartment. I might never be heard from again.