Yip yip! I'm off for the next 12 days. After the low-key, cozy Christmas thing at my parent's house but before the glorious New Year's fuckedupedness wherever, I hope to go on a day trip somewhere cool and start a fairly big project. Details on that later, if it works. If not, I won't bring it up again and you will never know of my shameful failure.
For the last day before vacation, it was really good. I went in early to have coffee with Joel, with whom I share an office but hardly ever see now that we're on different shifts. We had a brief but pleasant time, and he delivered the goodie bag his girlfriend gave me. (Thanks, Angela!)
After I checked in, Melinda gave me some quiche. I ate that. Then I did some work for a while. Toward the end of the night, a bunch of us were talking when Brant mentioned that he wanted to get back into reading some classics but found a lot of them, like Ulysses and The Sound and the Fury, impenetrable and not much fun to read. We agreed that enjoyment trumps worthiness when it comes to that sort of thing and decided to start an informal book club dedicated to the more delightful classics. The first book is The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, due by the end of next month. And this might not be book-club material, but the conversation also reminded me that I've been wanting to try another translation of The Brothers Karamazov, which a former coworker assured me was excellent and far more accessible than the version I've started a few times but never finished.
Afterwards, some people from work and a few significant others met at LaLa's, where it's Christmas year-round. I drank Bloody Marys and talked to some people I haven't gotten to hang out with in a while, mostly about strip clubs and printing kits. Then I got home and opened a really cool holiday card that Lynell, yet another coworker, made and sent to my house.
You know, I work with some really nice people.