19.12.2001
feeling kinda
it's not that i'm a party pooper. i just dislike obligatory celebrations. this is why i've refused to let the HR people include me in the monthly birthday fests. and it's why i was cranky about having to go out with my 'team' last night.
oh, it wasn't all bad. it was free food and drinks, courtesy of my boss, as an end of the year/end of project thanks. that part was nice.
but this enforced 'hang out with your teammates' bit? eh. i prefer to pick and choose my own company, thankyouverymuch. and let's just say that my teammates are a collection of highly diverse personalities. putting us all in one place with beer is sort of akin to the proverbial fuel to the fire.
so i went, i socialized, i looked at my watch every 5 minutes, i smoked, i chatted some more, i watched people coming and going, and as soon as socially acceptable, i ducked out. one can only take so many fart jokes and discursions on the intricacies of some obsure part of ESA/370 before going a little batshit. (then again, perhaps not as diverse as i first thought.)
fortunately, i had a good reason. i was out of there shortly after 7, and finished up a little more holiday shopping. this was the fun stuff - little gifties to mail off to unsuspecting friends. :) i get a little carried away with it, because it's so much fun! i could entertain myself for hours doing stocking shopping (as in, shopping for stuff to go in stockings - the man who invented nylons should be strung up and shot. and trust me: it was a guy.).
the stores were all open late, til 11, so there was no real hurry. started with Newbury Comics and found a passel of toys, such as a blue Devil Duck. comes with his own theme song. i mosied thru Urbane Outfitters (no, that's not a typo) and found some more treats, like a few scented candles (one for me, one for you). i debated buying a book for a friend, and then decided against it. i wandered over to WordsWorth Books and picked up a small art book and one or two more. i was going to go home then, but decided to stop in to The Body Shop, where much to my delight i found a gift box for my sister in law. it's a wooden frame with fabric panels inset so you can see into the box, and it has lovely body scrubs and soaps. just her sort of thing (i think).
all in all, a reasonably productive evening. combined with last night's haul, wherein i knocked off four other gifts, i'm pretty well on my way. and i have an idea of what i want to get the rest of the people on the list.
damn! except for my exboyfriend. feh. i keep forgetting him. see, i hadn't meant to get him anything for Christmas. we're friends, but i don't want to wade into that emotional swamp of picking out meaningful gifts. so i was going to give it a pass. then he says in passing on the phone the other day, 'oh, your gift arrived today!'. hrmph. the way i was brought up, if you know someone is giving you a present, you return the kindness. you can't not give a gift of some sort (the double negative is, i think, quite appropriate in this case). *twiddles thumbs* so now i have to put him on the list.
well, that will take some pondering. i'm not going to lose any sleep over it, but still.
anyway, the gift list is almost taken care of, and the cards all went out in the mail the other day. one or two of them will be late (that being the nature of par avion), but as long as they get there before 12th Night, i figure i'm covered.
i wrapped up the little gifties and got them off in the mail, and cross my fingers that *those* show up in time. and we're almost there. hard to believe it's almost Christmas, isn't it? seems like the year just flew past.
