The hol­i­days have finally begun. I got off work yes­ter­day after work­ing 12 hours, when I had to close the lab after doing the year-end archiv­ing (a rather nerve-wracking respon­si­bil­ity). Everything went well though, and it felt as though a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

After trav­el­ing 12 hours here by car, John’s in town to spend a few days with Julia and her fam­ily, but I have him booked for today. Even before Harold and Kumar came out in the the­atres we made a vow not to see it unless it was with each other and we were blitzed out of our skulls. The oppor­tu­nity has never pre­sented itself until now, so one can eas­ily imag­ine my excitement.

Tonight he’s drop­ping me off at Shirley’s, who’s offered to take me in for Christmas since the sum­mer, since she knew I’d most likely be alone oth­er­wise. I’ll be stay­ing the night so I can wake up early with Braden, Julia, and Nicole, who are seven, nine, and eleven respec­tively, for the nor­mal Christmas mirth asso­ci­ated with the open­ing of presents. John’s pick­ing me up in the early after­noon for the five hour trip home. When I arrive, I’m off to the other tra­di­tional Boxing Day party at Chris and Clarman’s house.

After that it’s Boxing Day shop­ping with my mom, the only sort of bond­ing expe­ri­ence we have, fol­lowed by a few days of quiet at home, before com­ing back here for Aaron’s end-of-year bash. All the social inter­ac­tion isn’t exactly relax­ation, but more of a hol­i­day dis­trac­tion before get­ting back to the grind for ’06.

Pat will be look­ing after the kitties.