Saturday, November 29, 2008

Work Party!

I'm currently at the Panera on Walnut Street, listening to the Killers and working on my Trollope paper. It was a pain to get started, but it's better now - though I am realizing now why I always start early: because it BLOWS to start late and spend the last two weeks in abject panic. Sigh. Oh well...worst case is an incomplete, and that's not the end of the world. I will survive.

Ben and Andy are here too, working as well. Ben's doing book reviews for his class on semiotics, and Andy's reading DeLillo for his dissertation. It's nice...I'm enjoying it. We've been here awhile, though I don't feel like I've done enough to show for it, but with them here I feel like I can hack out a few more hours. And then shopping and home! So nice to be going back to something really fun.

Thanksgiving itself was great. Tasty food, low stress levels, adorable cousins, general enjoyment. After dinner and cleanup, Andy and I went to pick up my college friend James, whose family also moved to Cary four years ago, and he had dessert and cocktails with the family. And then it was off to Flex for the drag show, a Tarsa (18+) children holiday tradition. It was a slightly rocky start, but we all ended up having a good time. I myself had a *blast*; it's been a long time since I went out with a group to something as fun as that, and I loved it. My brother and his boyfriend, one of my favorite college people, and my own boyfriend, together, mostly drunk, and giving dollars to drag queens and cheering our lungs out. It could only have been better if it had been a karaoke night.

Friday we got a late start, but then went shopping. It wasn't too crazy, since we went later, and so it was a pretty nice day out and about. I finally bought a new camera, which I'm ecstatic about. It's a Panasonic point-and-shoot, and since I actually spent about 25 minutes reading the manual, I already know more about how to use it than I ever learned about my old one. I'm sure I'll never use 75% of its features, but it's nice to know that, should I need it, it has a special mode for taking pictures of pets. I also bought Christmas gifts for my counsins, a small one for my sister, and a few odds and ends for myself. Black Friday is the last day I'll buy myself anything til after Christmas, so I always indulge a little. Andy bought a bunch of clothes and some cute things for his niece, and we made it home in time for Melissa's birthday cake. A good day.

Today I spent the morning playing with Gabriella (and, to a lesser extent, Juliette) and watching classic Looney Toons. Around 12:30 Andy went running, and then we came here. And...that's my vacation so far.

It's pretty awesome.

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