Time Flies When You're Avoiding the Things You Should Be Doing

I had the week between Christmas and New Year's off, as well as some added days before and after, and it was a break I was looking forward to almost as much as Christmas morning. Of course, I had all kinds of notions about all the stuff I would get done with my time off, like cleaning out closets and bringing stuff to Goodwill and the dump, (is there even a publicly accessible "dump" anymore?), and going on long walks exploring the city. Yeah. None of that happened. Maybe I'll do it all tomorrow, my last day of vacation, but I seriously doubt it, especially if I keep up my vacation sleep routine, which is to fall asleep around 3am and wake up at noon.

But in an attempt to convince myself I did SOMETHING with all my free time, I'm going to go through the days and write down what I did.

This could be embarrassing.

Saturday December 26th
Put away my Christmas presents, and watched the first half of "Dexter" season 4.

Sunday December 27th
Went to see "The Road" and ate Korean barbecue.

Monday December 28th
Tried to teach myself how to use my new sewing machine, and after an hour trying to figure out how to get the bobbin thread to rise up, called my seamstress aunt, who came over and proceeded to show me I had forgotten to thread the needle. It's a sewing machine! I thought such archaic things as "threading needles" would be taken care of by the machine! Alas, not my machine. But after that, I was sewing away. Which is to say, just sewing a bunch of scrap material together to get a feel for the machine.

Also, watched more of "Dexter."

Tuesday December 29th
Went to see "Avatar" with two cousins and an aunt. Aimed to go to a 2:30pm showing, but it was sold out by the time we got there (I guess a lot of people ARE out of work), so we had to wait until 4pm to see it. In between we ate lunch and played video games in the arcade. The movie? Meh. The story was nothing I hadn't seen before, and the visuals were not enough to make up for the predictability of the plot. Also, it cost me 45 bucks to see it, since I was treating my cousins to the show, and we missed the bargain matinee prices. And I can think of very few movies that are worth 45 dollars to see.

Wednesday December 30th
Went to the library and got some books about sewing, and also bought some spools of thread so I don't have to use blue thread to sew everything.

Sewed all the holes in all my coat and jacket pockets with my new machine. Sloppy, but a hell of a lost faster than doing it by hand; also: more fun!

Watched "Extract," which I got from Netflix (it wasn't very good), and finished watching "Dexter" season four. Realized I had been spoiled about the ending, which was annoying, but ultimately, didn't really care.

Thursday December 31st
Watched a Netflix DVD, a horror movie called "Carriers," as well as the first "Thin Man" on TCM, and some of the sequel, "After the Thin Man," before going out to the Summer Place with Dan and Michele to celebrate New Year's. Once there, ate way too many chicken wings, and salami and cheese, and mini quiches, which were given out gratis by the bar. Love that place!

Came home around 1:30am and watched an episode of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" before falling asleep. (Actually, I've been doing that every night, thanks to the glory of TiVo, and the lack of new episodes of anything else on TV over the break.)

Friday January 1st
Got up very late, and spent the day watching the special edition of "Watchmen" that's almost three-and-a-half-hours long. The main difference is it incorporates the animated "Tales of the Black Freighter" into the movie, and includes more scenes centered around the newstand. I think the movie works fine without the "Black Freighter" stuff, but it was nice seeing this version as well. It certainly made the entire movie feel more episodic and like a series of comic books.

I also went to my parents' place for my mom's fabulous blackeyed peas, and then came home and de-decorated my house and my tree, but held off on the actual tree removal...

Saturday January 2nd
Didn't leave the apartment all day. It was great. Watched "The Age of Innocence," which I got for Christmas, and "Angels and Demons," which I got from Netflix. One was really good, and one was really bad. You guess which.

Sunday January 3rd
Finally kicked my tree to the curb, which was a massive pain in the ass. The "tree removal bag" that came with it was a little too small, so it didn't prevent the tree from dropping needles all over my apartment, and my apartment building stairwell. Which meant a lot of sweeping. But after much cleaning and rearranging, I finally have my apartment back. I think that's the only good thing about the holidays ending: getting back some much-needed space.

Helped Dan and Michele take some photos for their next Christmas cards, but won't tell you what the photos are of, lest I spoil the surprise.

I also did some grocery shopping and ate a turkey Reuben at Max's Opera Cafe. And then came home, cleaned some more, and did some stuff for work I put off until the last minute.

So, certainly not the most exciting of vacations, but I can say I really, really appreciated the break from work and worry, and am really, really dreading its return.