Crawling towards Christmas

I was so tired last night when I went to bed that it never crossed my mind that I would have a problem sleeping, but lo and behold I was up at 4:30am. I got up, ate something, and chatted a bit online, fully intending to go back to bed. When I next looked at the clock, though, it was 5:37. I decided to give it a shot anyway, but no dice. I just got up and resignedly started the day.

I drug into the office feeling, and pretty much looking, like roadkill. The morning at work was pretty brisk, but by the afternoon things had started to quiet down fortunately. The girls in the office are staging a rebellion for tomorrow and wearing jeans despite the fact that it's only going to be Wednesday (gasp!) But seriously, some HR stuff is just so dildonic. Power to the people!

I left work, profoundly grateful that I could go HOME tonight! Well almost directly anyway. I had to wrap gifts tonight for at least Dad and Eve for tomorrow night. Knowing my penchant for seizing upon any excuse not to, I went ahead and stopped at CVS on the way in and got boxes, tape, tissue, etc. I also picked up BB's little Claxton fruit cake. She was put out with Eve for forgetting to take her one. I can't imagine anyone using them for anything but a doorstop or maybe a large paperweight, but hey, if that makes her happy its a small enough thing.

When I got home Lance was outside on his front porch, so I went ahead and ordered some more 5x7s from him, since there is this one picture that seems to be the one everyone wants. He showed me some paintings he is working on. He can paint as well. He and Frankie are both so amazingly talented it makes me feel like a slug. I did get the decor arts of my people, and I can cook, but I'm not terribly creative just from scratch.

I ate, changed the sheets, switched out a load of laundry, then made myself start wrapping gifts. I'm trying to use ribbon and stuff too. Part of getting a gift is the presentation, and showing that you cared enough to make a good effort. So I'm following my own advice and Acting Like Somebody. If I'm going to give a gift, I'm going to try to make it half-way attractive. I ended up getting into a groove and wrapping for about an hour and a half. I'm really looking forward to giving Russ and dana their gifts this year - I think I got them both pretty good. I have five more to wrap, but one of them is just going in a bag, so no sweat there.

A Moment of Silence is in order.

By that time it was nine, and I decided to chat online a bit as I got ready for bed. So I'm going through my night-time routine when it happened. My faithful Emerson DVD player, my bedtime companion for lo these many years, started making strange chugging and scrubbing noises, and breathed its last. I tried to resurrect it for a bit, trying different discs and plugging and unplugging it, but finally had to accept the fact that it is dead. Couldn't happen at a worse time either. Not only will I have to brave the Christmas craziness tomorrow if I want to get a new one, I'll have to deal with wiring electronics on Christmas! Blick.

Sadly, I dug out an old VHS tape and turned in.