December

I spent too much time reading the news this afternoon.

It's definitely the winter season- my skin is unbelievably dry.

I forgot to mention the details of my conversation with Jay yesterday. He knew that I was going to be in Maryland around Christmas, and when I asked if he'd have time to get together, he said he'd be working the whole time. Gee, really? Twenty-four hours a day for over a week? I let that go and told him I'd call when I was in town. Then I mentioned that I'd be there through Abby's birthday. He said he had better go to Abby's birthday party this year since he'll get in trouble if he doesn't. I wanted to say, you know, if it's that much trouble to spend a few hours with your niece one day out of the year, don't worry about it, we all know Sherry's family comes first. But instead I just agreed that he should go to the party.

Later that afternoon, I called Neil & Maxine to see how their trip home went, and Neil called me that evening. The trip had taken 7 and a half hours. Abby was sick and didn't want to take her medicine and they contemplated staying at a motel in Delaware but they finally made it home. Hopefully she'll be feeling better soon.

I did some more research last night but then was bad and watched a movie ("Philadelphia Story"). After the movie, I took care of a few more little things and then went to bed.

Today I started watching the video for the music paper. I'm about half way through and so far, I don't have the slightest idea of how to compare the information on the video to the information in the book. Though the video, so far, is ridiculous. I haven't learned anything. All the statements are obvious. Examples: Every producer brings something different to the table. Every producer has a different style. Singing in a studio is different from singing in a concert. An engineer should know how to operate all the equipment in the studio. Hopefully the second part of the video will go into more detail on how to make a recording. That's what the title of the next section says it will discuss, but if it's anything like the other sections, it won't tell me much. At least this paper doesn't have to be too long.

I'll get back to it this evening. First, I will do the theatre journal. I think I've talked about doing it at least 5 different times. This afternoon, I will finally get it done. And tonight I might read my theatre books. I haven't looked at them in ages, and I haven't been following what we've been learning. We go off topic so much, that when we get back to the original topic, I'm lost. And the information on armour we flew through, so I really need to go over that. At least that part fascinates me. And it reminds me that The Met has an armour exhibit that I want to check out.

If all the work stuff I'll have in a few weeks works out, I should be finished up by Dec. 16th and will be able to head down to Maryland on the 17th, which would be nice since there will probably be a lot of work to do down there and I don't think I'll be able to finish it all on the 23rd. So, hopefully I'll be able to get down there earlier and have the 18th & 19th to work.

I'm really looking forward to the work. I feel like all I've been doing lately is schoolwork (which is mostly true). I'm so burnt out from the school work, that real work will feel like a vacation.

Okay, I paged him and hopefully he'll call back soon.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I need to clean, run errands, call customer service people, write my music paper, and work more on my Amsterdam paper.

I made a reservation for the Julie Reyburn holiday show at Judy's Chelsea which Robyn is doing. It's this Friday. I made the reservation for 2, and hopefully someone will be able to join me. I know I probably shouldn't take the time for it, but I doubt I'd be able to get myself to work on a paper Friday night anyway, so I might as well go have fun. I'm really burnt out from school stuff.

Woke up singing "Romeo & Juliet" from "Reefer Madness".

I have another cold. I was afraid that might happen. I have a little fever, which it made it slightly exhausting cleaning the apartment, but it's done. And the blanket is at the dry cleaners, after some effort in getting it there. I brought it there in a box and my arms are just too short to carry a medium-sized box, so I carried it awkwardly over to the dry cleaners.

I also bought Christmas cards today. The selection was pretty poor, but I found 1 box that has 4 different designs. Three of them are nice, but one of them has an American flag on it. While I do like my country, I don't want to send a card with the flag. It goes against separation of church and state. But then again, I also bought the box because 2 of them have text which doesn't even mention Christmas- they are just generic winter holiday cards, so it doesn't have government mixing with religion. So maybe part of me just wants to not have patriotism (which right now is linked with a potential war on Iraq, which I oppose) mix with my holiday season.

Virgin Atlantic customer service is quick and efficient. AT&T customer service is not. Fortunately, when I got the mail today, I had a revised AT&T letter stating the correct information, so I no longer need to spend hours on hold with them.

So now I feel worse than I did during the day, and I think I'm going to try to go to bed early (like really soon). I was hoping to write my music paper, but hopefully I can do it either Wednesday or Thursday night. And my Amsterdam paper? Who knows.

I got in bed around 9:00 last night and got out of bed an hour and a half later. I just couldn't fall asleep. But I couldn't be productive either, so I just cleaned up some of my recent photos that I will one day put up on the site, sent email back and forth to Jeff, and did a couple of other things I don't remember now. I got back in bed around midnight, and it still took me forever to fall asleep. I don't think I fell asleep before 4:00.

About peer-to-peer music file sharing: Now maybe this is too simple or someone would have brought it up already, but it seems to me that if the sites providing the P2P software paid for a license and a mechanical rights agency tracked the songs downloaded, then it should be legal for people to download all the songs they want. Now the site providing this service might want to charge users a monthly fee so they can pay for the license, but perhaps they could make all their revenue from advertising, like radio stations. Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this idea?

Today my throat is killing me, I've been exhausted all day, and I just took my temperature and it's 100� (which is more like 101� since my normal temperature is about 1 degree lower than normal). My procrastinating LES group finally decided that we should get this presentation together. Uh, what was wrong with Thanksgiving weekend, guys? I know you were all still writing your papers, but we could have met anyway to at least talk about what we were planning to do. But obviously, that was too much to ask. So, we're meeting down at Des Moines (where we first met when starting this project). Jordan has this idea that we'll talk for a bit and then walk around the neighbourhood again, but I don't see why we would need to do another walk. We're meeting at 8:00 PM Thursday night (when there is supposed to be accumulation of snow, but I'll believe it when I see it), and I really don't feel like walking around in the practically sub-zero weather when I have a cold/flu. If he really thinks the walk is important, perhaps I'll let the rest of them walk and tell me what it accomplished. They might think I'm lazy, but I really don't want to get worse. I already feel horrible. The Robitussin I took this morning didn't do anything. 99% of the time, medicine doesn't effect me. That really scared me sometimes. What if I ever get a serious illness, and I don't respond to the medication? No, I am not thinking about this now.

So the music instructor proves again that he should not be teaching any kind of class. I reminded him today that he said I could take the final on the last day of class, and he said I couldn't take it during class but would have to take it during his other class at 3:45. I told him that I had another class then, and he said that I really needed to be in class the last day since we'll need to wrap everything up and hear more presentations. He does not know how to stick to a schedule, he does not remember things from day to day, and he changes his story every time you talk to him. So, I asked him if I could take it one day during the week of finals, and he said to discuss it with him later. Guess I'll find out more on Friday.

We went over some of the stuff we'll need to know for the theatre test on Friday. I REALLY need to study for this one. I hardly know anything. Guess what I'll be doing on Thursday? Hey, I just had a pleasant idea. I'll go down to Des Moines early and do some studying there.

And I hope that next Tuesday, Duane will talk more about our final. All he's said is that it will be essay questions and we'll have to use the terms we've learned this semester. I'm not too worried about it since he's an easy grader, but it would still be nice to know a little more heading into the final.

VERY cold today!!! Time to find my scarf.

Even though I have a ton to do tomorrow, I'm going to sleep in. I probably shouldn't afford that time, but if sleeping in makes this cold/flu go away more quickly, I'm going to sleep in.

I went to sleep around 2:00 and woke up at 8:30. I decided I could sleep a little more and went back to sleep until 9:30 and had this dream during that time.
I was at a cheap Disney World (this part came from Kris' email the other day about his job at Disney World). Outside there were carnival rides and inside were other activities. One thing they had was a circular pool with tall glass around it. I saw a snapping turtle swimming around, but no one believed me since I think it was supposed to be a swimming pool for people. Then everyone saw the turtle. I tried to take a picture of it, but it was moving very quickly. I saw it coming around again, and just as I snapped the picture, a person came around instead. The turtle was right behind the person, so I missed it. I apologised to the person for taking a picture of him, explaining that I was trying to take a picture of the snapping turtle. Then I went outside and tried to take pictures of the carnival stuff. I saw a colourful roller coaster and tried to take a picture of that, but Pzemeck (from my theatre class, but in my dream I was calling him Brian) got in my way as he was trying to take a picture of someone on the jungle gym (this part of the dream came from my trying to take a picture of the skyline facing south on Lex with interesting sky light, but I wasn't sure if the picture would come out). Then I think I was at Paula and Harvey's house briefly. Then I realised I hadn't eaten all day, and I still wasn't hungry but decided I should eat something. I knew we were about to go out to dinner as a group, but I thought it would take forever to get the group together, and I should just get a little snack first (this part came from thinking about eating something yesterday afternoon even though I wasn't hungry- I didn't wind up eating until I got home, and even then, I didn't eat much). I found a diner and realised I was in Atlantic City (this part came from talking about Atlantic City in urban structures class yesterday). I was talking with a woman in my group (in the dream I knew her but don't know her in real life) as we were sitting at the counter. Several people at the diner were reading the New York Post (this part came from seeing several people reading the Post yesterday).

Got a school email last night anouncing the athletic homecoming. First of all, I was not aware that Hunter even had a homecoming. Secondly, I'm not extremely knowledgeable about collegiate life, but I thought that homecoming was supposed to be in the fall.

And in other email-related news: I got an email from Kris the other day and learned that Xan is pregnant. Congratulations guys!

I still feel awful, but the Robitussin might be working a bit better this morning than it did yesterday since my throat doesn't hurt quite as much as it did when I woke up. Currently, I'm in the sneezing phase.

My to-do list of the day:
- fix up LES paper
- deal with email
- write music paper
- study for theatre test
- try to start organising Amsterdam paper

But for right now, since I finished my music paper so quickly, I'm going to take a little break. Perhaps I'll study for my theatre test for a few minutes and then watch GH and study during the commercials. I'll work on the Amsterdam paper tonight.

I need to remember to do the Christmas card thing tomorrow.

I just found out that Honda no longer makes the Prelude. I liked that car.

Okay, I decided to turn on South Park. Stan's future self shows up- haven't seen this one. Guess I'll watch this for a bit before bed. Hope this show is still as good as it used to be...

Yep, it's still pretty funny.

It finally snowed! I've been looking forward to snow. It wasn't as much as I would have liked, but I'll take what I can get. It's better than the 5 flakes we had last year. Of course now we have to walk around the huge puddles at every corner, but it was worth seeing the snow covered rooftops and see it falling from the sky.

So I went to Fauchon to study for my theatre test (I still need to study some more, but I'll do that during my music class and during my break). I really don't like that place too much, but it's quiet and close and they have a huge selection of tea, which was nice on this cold day. Plus, it's near Kinkos, and I needed to go there to print out some of my papers. I also dropped off a roll of film, so soon I will have the 2 pictures back that I took during Thanksgiving. Wanted to take more pictures, but I didn't think 10 pictures of Abby holding tissues would be too interesting.

And I guess I convinced my group that we really didn't need to walk around the LES, especially in the snow. Instead we met up at Jordan's apartment to work on our Power Point presentation. We didn't get very far, since 2 hours after we got there, he said he needed to leave. Why couldn't he tell us that earlier? So they're going to meet again on Sunday afternoon, and I'm going to send a few captions with pictures to him via email and they can figure out where my parts fit into the presentation. Hopefully, they'll figure something out that makes sense. I'm also going to call them that afternoon to see what's going on. It would be nice if Daniel (the baby I'm watching) is sleeping at that point. Then I just need to find a time to go over it before the presentation. Maybe he can meet me early Tuesday morning at school, and I can see it then. He probably won't want to meet that early though. So maybe I can go over to his apartment sometime on Monday to go over the presentation.

At least I got to get home at a decent hour tonight. I still have a few little things to do, and I want to get a little more than 4 hours of sleep tonight. I'm still not feeling 100%, but I am feeling much better than I thought I'd feel. I'm a bit congested, but that's the only problem- no longer is my throat killing me and I don't have a fever. Now I just need to figure out a way to stay healthy while still getting everything accomplished.

I did not go to sleep last night. Unfortunately, I went to lie down for a few minutes around 7:00 AM, and I fell asleep. Just in case I fell asleep, I set the alarm for 9:30. Somehow, I turned off the alarm at 9:30. I was semi-aware that I did this and made sure not to fall asleep again. Didn't work. An emergency vehicle woke me up at 11:30. Bad! So I missed my first class. Not a big deal. I just hope the people who were there from my group managed to make sure we go first. I just want to get it over with.

The music instructor now decided I could take the final on Tuesday afternoon, the 17th. That's fine. That gives me more time to study. I found out that there will be a lot to do in Maryland and I should get there as early as possible, but I just can't make it down until the 18th. But I can work crazy hours on the few days I have, and hopefully I can meet the deadline. I'll have to.

The theatre test was another joke. At 20 of the words I'd never seen before. Some of them I could make up answers, but many I just had to leave blank. It doesn't matter. I'll get an A on the test and I'll get an A in the class. At least I have 1 easy class this semester. Of course I had to put in a zillion hours on the production for it...

This evening I did a short project for work. It was almost fun. Work really feels like a vacation compared to school.

I haven't been hungry for the past week and have barely been eating anything. I really need to try to eat regularly whether I'm hungry or not. But it's so hard to eat when I'm not hungry.

So this afternoon I found another occasion where, if I had the time, I could sue Hunter. This summer I had a wire coming out of the ceiling swing down and hit me in the face. This afternoon, I had a huge block of ice fall off an air conditioner hit me in the back. It would have hit me in the head if I didn't hear it break off from 4 stories up. I looked up, saw it coming at me at an incredible speed, and I jumped out of the way. They really need to remove the ice from the air conditioners- it's dangerous!

I got an invitation to Steven's 1st birthday party in the mail today. It's on Sunday the 22nd; the day after Daniel's wedding. I'll probably be tired, but I'll go. I'm hoping Eytan will be there. He's the only one with whom I can make fun of the other people there.

I really need to make a list of things I need to accomplish before I leave for Maryland and things I need to accomplish in Maryland. I'm afraid I'm going to forget something.

For the past couple of days, I've been wishing for passion in my life.

Oh, I didn't go to the holiday show that Robyn was in tonight. Jennifer couldn't go, Chris never got back to me, and I didn't feel like going alone. It was the right decision. It would have been nice to see it, but I have a lot to do, could use the rest, and I love staying home on Friday nights.

Last night/early this morning, I got a lot of little things accomplished. I still have several other little things, plus 1 big thing (Amsterdam paper) to do today. The problem is that I didn't get to sleep until 5:00 this morning. Once again, I just wasn't tired. Not hungry, not tired, how do I live like this?

I had very odd dreams this morning. I woke up a few times, looked at the clock, saw I only slept about an hour or two (depending on the time at which I woke), and went back to sleep. I think I had a different dream each time, but they were the same theme, or something like that. I don't really remember them now. I remember being in Amsterdam and Paula and Harvey were there. Paula showed me the pot she bought. It was the strongest kind there is, and I warned her to not smoke a lot of it. I remember going clothes shopping there, wearing only a long slip. I remember running into people from elementary school while I was out and about. They asked me if I got the invitation to the party, and I told them that I probably through it out since I threw out all mail with that school address (in real life, I've never received any mail from that school). When I woke up, my right arm and shoulder were hurting. In fact, that's what finally got me out of bed this morning- I felt the need to stretch out my arm and back. And I'm still stretching.

I still need to make schedules for before the 17th and after the 17th. I think I'll watch a bit of the Tech/Miami game while I'm making schedules. Maybe I'll wait a little while so I can watch the end of the game. But first I'll check in on it from time to time to make sure it will be worth watching the end. I'm not going to want to watch the end if Miami is leading by 40 points or something. It would be so exciting if Miami lost. Of course, that would throw the whole BCS bowl games into chaos, but it would be cool if Tech caused that chaos.

And in other sports news, I could actually watch the Maryland game this afternoon since it's on the YES network. But I won't. Don't have time for that.

I just got a ticket to "Tell Me on a Sunday" with Alice Ripley at the Kennedy Center. I'm not going to have a minute to myself when I'm down in Maryland, but that's okay. I decided the show was worth it since I was able to get 3rd row centre seat. So far, my end of December looks like this:
Dec. 18- drive down to MD, work, stay at a hotel
Dec. 19- work, wrap presents, stay at hotel
Dec. 20- work, Daniel's wedding dinner thing, stay at Jon's? stay at Rebecca's?
Dec. 21- Daniel's wedding, stay at Jon's? stay at Rebecca's?
Dec. 22- Steven's birthday party, "Tell Me on a Sunday", stay in College Park
Dec. 23- work, stay in College Park
Dec. 24- church, stay in College Park
Dec. 25- Christmas at Neil & Maxine's, party at Molly's
Dec. 26- drive down to Blacksburg?
Dec. 27- Blacksburg?
Dec. 28- Blacksburg?
Dec. 29- drive back to Maryland, stay in College Park
Dec. 30- work, stay in College Park
Dec. 31- ?
Jan. 1- ?, stay in College Park
Jan. 2- Abby's birthday, stay in College Park
Jan. 3- drive home

Now I'm going to clean up the apartment, get something to eat (even though I'm still not hungry), and then start on my paper.

I am still not getting anywhere with the Amsterdam paper. All I have done is about 2 pages of introduction. This is terrible. I really hope I am able to get the majority of it done tomorrow morning. That would require me to go to bed at a decent hour though. Maybe I should get in bed before midnight, and maybe then I'll fall asleep before 4:00. I really do need to wake up early to finish cleaning up the apartment and get a big jump on my paper before Daniel gets dropped off in the afternoon. Then soon after he gets here, I'll need to call my LES group.

And one more sad sports note of the day: Notre Dame beat Maryland this afternoon. I just hope that even if they don't have another spectacular season like last year, they are able to have a respectable season and are still taken seriously come March.

Learned a new word today: triskaidekaphobia- fear of the number thirteen.

I will be going to Mailboxes Etc instead of the post office tomorrow after all. I got a coupon from them in the mail for $3. Guess they don't want people to stop using them since they added the $3 service charge. Well, I will go there this time, but unless they keep sending coupons, I think I'll be going to the more inconvenient post office.

The apartment is clean, but my paper is no further along than it was when I went to sleep last night. At least I got some sleep last night. Finally. It wasn't much (don't know how long I slept exactly), but it was more than I had been getting and I do feel more rested today.

It's interesting that LaBute changed the Smashing Pumpkins music used in "The Shape of Things" when it was off-Broadway to Elvis Costello for the movie version. I thought the Pumpkins music worked. What was jarring to me was the curtain coming down and the lights coming up in between each scene. That wouldn't happen in the movie. But Elvis Costello might work well too. I trust his decision. And until I can see the movie, I'll just look forward to seeing his "Mercy Seat" in a few weeks.

Ilene and Gerald should be arriving with Daniel around 2:00. So technically I could use this time for my paper, but I won't since there are other things I should do as well and I'd rather have a large chunk of time for the paper. So instead, I will make some travel reservations- a hotel for Baltimore and flight and hotel arrangements for Toronto in January and maybe I'll do a few other little things.

Mayor Bloomberg is a funny man. I was watching a few minutes of conference on the MTA strike threat and was impressed with his casual, confident comments. I've read about things he's said and done, but I've never heard him speak before. He was talking about how he would ride a bike to work if the strike happens, and when someone asked how he would do that with a police escort he said, "I don't know. I'm much faster than most of those guys, so I guess they will just have to keep up."

So yesterday with Daniel was fine. He was a little unhappy when he woke up from a brief nap and didn't know where he was and didn't know who I was and probably wondered where Mommy and Daddy were, but he soon got over it. Ilene and Jerald enjoyed "Hairspray". And Ilene asked when I'd be down in Baltimore since she wants to get together. When I told her that I thought I was staying at Jon's one night but he hasn't replied to my emails and phone calls about that, she said that she's sure it will be fine, but if I ever need a place to stay, her mother loves having company. Something to keep in mind.

Today I packed and shipped a box of clothes and some Christmas presents to Maryland. Glad I got that out of the way, but it was difficult to pack everything I'll need but still have enough clothes to wear until I leave. I really need more clothes. In fact, if I have time on Saturday or Sunday (don't really want to go on a weekend, but I don't have a choice), I'll go to Ann Taylor Loft and Barami to see if I can find anything. I'm also going to try to get to Ellicott City after Steven's birthday party. The party is in Columbia, so it's convenient. I doubt I'll find any clothes there, but it's worth a shot. There used to be a store with some interesting stuff. Hopefully it's still there. But even if I don't find any clothes, it will still be nice to walk along Main Street during the Christmas season. It's sort of a little tradition of mine, although I think I've only done it twice, but I went last year, so it feels like a tradition.

So tomorrow is the LES presentation. I talked to the group yesterday, but it was difficult to really hear what was going on since they had me on speakerphone and Daniel was taking up my attention (he only slept for about 30 minutes). I told them the titles I wanted for the few pictures I had, and that was it. They got together this afternoon, but I was too busy to join them. We're meeting tomorrow morning at 9:00, so hopefully that will be enough time for me to see what's going on and figure out what I'm going to say. I have a basic idea, but nothing is planned out. Hopefully winging it will work. At least there are 6 of us presenting this thing, so all the attention won't be on me.

I've been doing a fair amount of consulting for a long term client recently. It's been nice to get my mind back on something besides school (even though I really should be fully concentrating on school, but the job was important, so there was nothing I could do). And in the process of this job, I've been learning a bit about servers. I really didn't know that much before, so any little thing I can learn will be a good thing.

I was so tired last night, so I got in bed early. I don't think there has been one time where I got in bed early and fallen asleep early. Last night I got back out of bed around 1:30 and stayed up for about an hour. Then I got back in bed and don't think I fell asleep before 5:00. And of course then I had to get up early since I had a lot to do today. I really want to get more sleep tonight and I absolutely cannot oversleep since I need to leave early to go over the presentation. So I want to get in bed early, but I'm scared that if I do, it will take me forever to fall asleep. Here's a night where it would be great to be able to smoke a bowl. Pot is the only thing I've ever found that helps me get to sleep. If I'm not asleep by 3:00, I'm just going to stay up, go somewhere for breakfast and drink lots of coffee, and then head up to school.

I decided to pass on the screening of "The Jimmy Show". I just have too much to do and, like I just said, want to get some sleep tonight. It would have been fun though, especially watching the movie with Liev Schreiber and Robert Sean Leonard (among other celebrities, all of whom I won't recognise). At least I can see each of them in an upcoming show (Mr. Schreiber a week from tonight in "Mercy Seat" and Mr. Leonard in 2 shows early next year). But it would have been fun to see the reactions to this movie of actors I respect.

I'm having second thoughts on the Vancouver January trip. While it would be convenient to take non-stops from Toronto, January is the worth month to visit and I could take the month to accomplish more of the things that have been piling up plus I could get some rest. So now that Toronto is only 1 day of work, maybe I'll just make it a quick weekend trip for work and do Vancouver some other time. This will be about the 3rd or 4th time I've postponed Vancouver. Oh well, I'll get there one day.

I got so lucky this morning! I was afraid I would oversleep, so I called Harvey last night and asked if he would call me this morning to make sure I was awake. Well, I wound up waking up after the 3rd time he called me. The reason I didn't wake up before that? I stupidly set my alarm for 6:30 PM instead of 6:30 AM. Then I didn't hear the phone the first 2 times because my phone battery died completely. I heard the third call because I eventually heard the corded phone quietly ringing in the other room with the doors closed. LUCKY! I'm so lucky I actually heard the other phone and so lucky that Harvey kept calling me and didn't give up. Thank you Harvey!

I almost didn't go to sleep last night. I got in bed around midnight and by 2:00, I wasn't asleep. I was getting nervous and decided if I saw the clock say 3:00, I would just get up and start my day, but I did eventually fall asleep. I think it was before 3:00 but don't remember.

I had Tull's "Waking Edge" in my head after I got off the phone with Harvey. Didn't catch the waking edge though. Wish I remembered last night's dream.

So I made it to school on time. We didn't need the full 2 hours to go over the presentation, but better safe than sorry. I'm glad Jordan (the one with the printed out slides) showed up on time. The presentation went really well! I was quite impressed. I wasn't even nervous, I'm assuming because I had 5 other people up there with me. But I think having the Power Point visual references also contributed to the comfort level- it helped me remember each thing I wanted to mention. We took too long and had to wrap up the last part in about 2 minutes, but even doing that went well. I sort of wish he was more strict in his grading so our A on this presentation (I'm 99% sure we'll get an A) would mean more.

I started feeling really tired right before the presentation. After the presentation, I was super tired. It's hot in the classroom since it's right next to the boiler room, so that certainly didn't help. By the beginning of the music class, I felt really awful. I felt like I had taken a hit of acid the night before and I hadn't had any sleep or food since then. And this feeling was with a few hours of sleep last night. Who knows how I would have felt if I didn't sleep at all? I had a power bar in between the 2 classes, and I'm wondering if the ingredients in that thing was partially responisble for my feelings. Maybe I shouldn't eat those on an empty stomach. But then what's the point of them if you eat them when you aren't hungry? Maybe eating them when barely eating anything for about a week is not a good idea. I probably needed a real meal. So what did I do this evening? I ate half of a real meal. I'm still just not hungry. But I do plan on getting sleep tonight, so hopefully that will make me feel more human again. Maybe I'll even be hungry tomorrow.

So the music instructor talked to us about the 48 pages of outlines as the study guide for the final. He said that obviously the outlines have too much information, and he really just wants us to have the general concepts for each chapter. The trouble is, how do you make multiple choice questions based on general concepts unless they're really obvious? I mean, is he going to ask something like, "What is musak?" A. a pop band B. an early form of technology C. music played in businesses D. none of the above? I'm really not too worried though. I think I did well on my presentation and paper and did a good enough job on my other paper and my other tests average a B+. So even if I get a C on the final, I should still get an A- and if I really bomb the final, I'll get a B+ or a B, and that's just fine.

We got our theatre tests back today, and Duane is just a ridiculous grader. I got a 97%. As long as you write down something, you get full credit. Hey, I'm not complaining. And he verified our production hours, and I actually wound up with 2 more than necessary. I asked him for 2 hours of my life back. He told us more about our final, which is on Friday. It will be 5 short essay questions on all aspects of technical theatre. He gave us the general questions, so now I just need to look over all the terms and try to figure out how he will word the essays so I can just go in there on Friday and quickly answer write the essays so I can get home as quickly as possible and relax. I plan on watching a movie Friday night and sleeping in on Saturday. I have plenty of time to study for the music final. And the Amsterdam paper? Well, the group presentations are taking longer than he expected so he said we'll have to come in during the scheduled final time on Tuesday the 17th to finish them and we could turn in the city paper on that day as well. So I can work on that over the weekend while I'm studying for the music final. Not a bad deal. Of course Paula and Harvey will be here, which makes doing everything more difficult (partially because I'll want to hang out with them and partially because when Harvey is working in my apartment, he's extremely distracting), but I'll at least have the time after they go to bed and I will try to get a lot of it done tomorrow and Thursday. How's that for a rambling paragraph?

Why do I always have more job opportunities in December? It's the busiest month with school plus there's the getting-ready-for-the-holidays thing. I suppose I could turn away the work, but I don't want to do that. So I took a job tonight. It was worth it- quick and interesting. And also about servers. I'm going to be an expert soon.

I got another picture put up on The Mirror Project. The lighting and the way I'm standing (with my jacket open and no definition between my shirt and the open jacket) makes me look huge, but that's okay. This site has made me notice all kinds of reflective surfaces. When I'm in Maryland, I want to try to find a pond or other body of water and see if I can see my reflection in that well enough to take a picture.

Speaking of pictures, I got my pictures back from Thanksgiving. Some are really cute. There's a great one of Neil, Maxine, and Abby at Marion's. I know I've been waiting until I have some free time to put up a huge amount of pictures, but I really like this one and I'm sure Maxine (and Neil if he still reads this) will appreciate it, so here it is (does this look like a sick child?).

And another picture related comment: Why are you not allowed to take pictures in stores? I've been looking at random pictures on The Mirror Project and have read 3 comments where someone mentioned that they got in trouble for taking the picture in a store. I once took a picture in a store and also got in trouble. Want to try on some clothes and take a picture to send to someone so you can get a second opinion on the outfit? Forget it- that's illegal.

I was entering my picks for the ESPN College Bowl Pick'em Game and noticed a lot of groups on the site for pot smokers. People are pretty clever with their team names (Pack the Bowl, Toke a bowl), but I thought of a better one- Smokia Big Bowl (a combination of Nokia Sugar Bowl and smoke your big bowl). People's picks for the Orange Bowl (Iowa and USC) are split exactly 50/50. That is a tough decision. Personally, I picked Iowa, though I don't really have a good reason as to why I did.

Brian and Rebecca are having a party December 28th. If I'm not able to make it down to Blacksburg, at least I can add another fun activity to my last 2 weeks of December.

In part of my dream last night, I was telling someone from Baltimore who was a Ravens fan and was upset that they aren't doing too well, that they had a young team and would probably do better next year.

So far, I've only received Christmas cards from businesses. It's still early though. I only sent mine on Monday.

Today feels like a Friday.

More consulting work today! Now I feel better about the amount I spent on Christmas gifts this year.

I'm still loving Lane Davies on GH, though I still can't believe I'm really watching this show. It's addicting.

I got sleep last night, I had a small lunch today, and I'm feeling much more human.

Not much else to say today. Time to go work on the Amsterdam paper.

Now it is 10:30 PM and don't know if I'll be going back to sleep tonight or not. I'm still slightly groggy but not able to fall back to sleep yet.

I don't do well with these nap things. But it was pouring outside and I thought it would be cozy to go get under the covers. I was pretty tired as I usually am in the late afternoon/early evening, but I didn't think I'd actually be able to fall asleep. It took about an hour, but I eventually did. Now I just feel kind of peaceful. Hopefully this didn't screw up my already screwed up circadian rhythm too much.

Okay, I am thoroughly confused. I took my 2 naps, got out of bed, got back in bed for about 2 hours but didn't fall asleep, got back out of bed and started my day. Now I feel like it's either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. How I had 2 brief sleeps plus got in and out of bed a few times and I feel like it's 1 or 2 days earlier than it actually is, is beyond me. Maybe I just slept for so much of Wednesday, I don't feel like the day happened?

And I had a strange experience after my shower. I got up too quickly after bending down and saw stars. The stars were reflected in the mirror, so I saw a double amount of stars. Then I noticed water dripping down the shower door. And I saw the droplets reflected in the mirror as well. If I had a bit more confusion from the strange sleep situation or was still suffering from lack of sleep, I would have thought I was halucinating.

So now I'm feeling just about normal (aside from the confusion of day and time) and have a full day ahead of me. I'm thinking about going to Norma's for breakfast and going over theatre stuff there. And I think I'll have some caffeine while I'm there so I can feel 100% human. Then I'll come home and work on my Amsterdam paper some more. This is the slowest I've ever written a paper. I just can't seem to get anywhere with it. I started to do some yesterday, but I didn't get very far. I think that was when I decided to get in bed for my naps.

Yes, I'm still really confused about yesterday. I feel like yesterday was Tuesday and I came home from classes and went to bed early and got up early. No, that is not what happened. But I just can't remember anything about yesterday before I had my naps. And since I got in bed around the time I normally get home from classes, it naturally feels like yesterday was Tuesday. According to my journal entry from yesterday, I had lunch, worked, and watched GH. I'm sure I did other things as well, but I can't remember them at all.

I think I'll go get ready, call Harvey to see what he wanted last night and see when they're coming up here so I can be my usual procrastinating self and wait until the last minute to straighten up this place, and then go to breakfast.

I went to Norma's this morning, looked over the theatre material, picked up a few things at the grocery store, came home, got in bed around 9:30 and was asleep by 10:00. Woke up at noon. And I didn't feel really awake until about 4:00 (the time I usually get tired on most days). Now I still feel awake and am worried that I won't get tired until early this morning and I'll fall asleep and then oversleep. Not a good thing.

At least I have the energy to clean the apartment now. Harvey and Paula are indeed coming up after all. They'll be arriving tomorrow evening and leaving Saturday evening. I'm glad they take the train on these short trips. Don't want Harvey driving so much when he's worn out. Was upset about his 3 and a half hour trip each way the other day. He left in the morning, had a long day of work, and didn't get back until late at night. I wish he would just stay overnight in those cases, but he hates being away from Paula for more than a few hours- sweet, but I don't like it when he puts himself at risk just to spend the night at home. The part that really bothers me is that for that particular trip, the deal isn't even finished. He has to go back there soon and do it all again. Anyway, so they're coming up tomorrow evening and we have dinner plans.

That nap I had this morning feels like ages ago. And last night's nap, I don't know when that feels like it was. And I don't know what day it feels like anymore. If I get to sleep tonight sometime before 5:00 AM, I think I'll feel back to normal.

More work! Unfortunately they want me to come into their downtown office Monday evening and Tuesday morning and I can't do that. Monday evening I have a show and Tuesday morning I have the last urban class. Oh well. They paid well too. Hopefully they'll keep me in mind for other projects.

I overslept yesterday. I woke up when my alarm went off at 7:45 and then hit the snooze button twice. Next thing I know, it's 11:30. I was confused about the snooze button not working after the first 2 times. When I finally woke up at 11:30, I thought it was Sunday. So, I missed the urban class, not a big deal. I got to school in time for music.

And what a wonderful music class it was. He was telling us that if there is an MTA strike, he would email us the final and we would email it back to him. Someone jokingly asked him if we could do that anyway, even if there wasn't a strike, and he agreed. I couldn't believe it. He's going to email us a multiple choice exam on Tuesday and we're to email it back by Thursday. So now (if there isn't a strike) I'll leave here Tuesday morning instead of Wednesday. I'll have an extra day of work, which is a really good thing (maybe I can even work really quickly and take the 23rd off and be able to go to Ellicott City).

But if there is indeed a strike that continues on Tuesday, I'll have to work out another way to get out of the city since cars will have to have 4 people in them going in and out of the city 24 hours a day. I talked to Rebecca the other day and her father is in the city right now. If he's ready to leave on Tuesday morning, I offered to give him a ride. If I could find 2 more people (extremely doubtful) to join us heading out of Manhattan, we could leave from here. More likely, I'll take the train to Newark Airport and rent a car from there. Hopefully the reservation I made with Avis will be able to be changed easily. But since other people might be renting cars if there's a strike, there may be some problems for me. Hopefully there won't be a strike or if there is, it won't last past Monday. And if there is a strike on Monday, I can walk to the PF for work, continue walking west and grab a bite to eat at the new pasta place on 42nd, and then continue walking west to the Acorn Theatre for "Mercy Seat". Then I'll just need to wait with the other million people for a taxi after the show. Maybe I can hook up with some other people in the audience heading east. Now hopefully it won't be pouring on Monday like it was last night. Oh, and if the PF isn't open because of the strike, I'll just take a taxi right to the theatre and leave myself plenty of time to find one.

The theatre final yesterday was fine, I think. I rushed through it, just including basic information (he said he wanted concise, not a book), and was the 2nd one to leave. It took me less than an hour.

Last night Paula and Harvey met me at Jimmy's Downtown. I've been wanting to check this scene out for a while. And it was a scene! The bar was packed with see-and-be-seen people. The restaurant was a mix of people (families, couples, groups of friends...). The food was okay, but it was almost too loud to have a conversation. I don't think I'll go back, but I'm glad I went once.

This morning, I found out that my sooze button only works twice now and then it stops. Why did it start doing this? I think I'll try a new battery and then if that doesn't help, guess it's time for a new alarm clock.

I had Too Much Joy's "Good Kill" in my head this morning.

About a month ago, I heard 5 notes that reminded me of a movie but couldn't remember the name of it. It didn't take long to remember the title, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), but while trying to remember it, I came up with a great porn title- "Three Encounters of the Close Kind".

Today is work-on-the-Amsterdam paper day and after Paula and Harvey leave, I'm going to watch a movie and sleep in tomorrow!

Still haven't done anything more with the Amsterdam paper. I just have a huge block with this one. I really need to get on it though, especially if there is a strike, since I'll need tons of extra time to get everywhere. I think I'll pack most of my stuff Sunday night so there will be one less thing to do on Monday.

And one more thing I will need to find time to do in Baltimore? Get little Christmas gifts (probably candles, unless I can think of some other small, Christmas-y gift) for several people I'll be seeing on or around Christmas and get a birthday present for Steven (who is one year old today- happy birthday Steven).

I finished my Amsterdam paper (sort of). It's not as long as it is supposed to be, nor did I cover everything that is supposed to be covered, but I don't care. It's something. It's done. I'm not thinking about it anymore. Now I just have to take the multiple choice email final on Wednesday and then I'll be finished with this semester from hell.

And for next semester, I'm going to sign up for 1 theatre class (hopefully the 2nd World Theatre, or if that's not available then the 3rd one- if neither are available, I'm in trouble) and 3 electives. I don't need that many electives, but I'll sign up for 3 and drop the worst one. I'm really hoping the Dance, Dancer, and Audience class isn't full since that one sounds like the least amount of work (plus could be interesting). The other 2 electives for which I'll sign up are: Human Development and History of the English Language. Hopefully both of those will be available. At least they are at different times so I can sign up for both and drop the one that has more work. And I'm not going to sign up for it, but I'm going to sit in on the first Psychoanalytic Theory class Monday evening (so glad it's offered at night), and if it doesn't look too bad and if it's not full, I'll sign up for that one and drop one of the afternoon ones. I really only need about 4-5 more electives and I was hoping some of those could be theatre classes since that is my major after all, but if the theatre department always has such a small selection of classes available each semester and too many people trying to sign up for all of them, I guess I'll have to just take the bare minimum requirements for theatre and then take some electives. And at the beginning of the spring semester, I'll go talk to the advisor to see how to go about working on the production.

I got my work for the PF. It's a ton of stuff and I know I won't be able to finish it all since Monday is the only day I have, but they said that was okay- someone else would finish it after Christmas. And they said that if there is a strike, I don't have to go, but I might as well since I have to be in that area later that evening.

I watched the last half of Saturday Night Live last night. Is this show funny at all anymore or do I just keep tuning into particularly unfunny shows? Though I have to admit, I did like the Charlie Brown/Phish Christmas episode.

And I'm still catching up on sleep. I slept from about 4:00-8:30, then fell back to sleep around 9:30 and woke up at 11:30. I checked my email and then got back in bed. I slept this time from around noon-2:00. Now what? I don't want to fall asleep around 4:00 tomorrow morning since I'll have to get up at 8:00 to see about going to do research (depending on the strike). But I'll be able to check to see if the strike is happening at midnight. If there is a strike, I'll try to stay up all night and call the PF in the morning to see if they're open. If they are, I'll walk over there. If they're not, I'll go to sleep and then just (try to) take a cab to the theatre. If there isn't a strike, I'll try to go to sleep around midnight, but if I'm not asleep by 3:00, I'll get up and start my day. If I can stay up all night, I should be tired enough when I get home from the theatre to go to fall asleep somewhat quickly. Then I can get a decent amount of sleep before my drive on Tuesday.

I still need to pack. I'll do that as soon as I finish this entry.

Eytan called this afternoon. That was nice, hearing from him. We made plans for the afternoon of the 29th, so that will be one more social activity for this month. I still need to figure out when I can go visit Carol and when I can visit Sylvia. I'm hoping I can go after work, but there might be so much work that I'll be in the office until 9:00 and will be way too tired to go visit after that.

Okay, time to go pack.

No strike yet! Now I can take the bus over to the PF this afternoon and take it home after the show tonight. I just have to hope that they don't strike tomorrow. Then I'll have to figure out how I'm getting down to Maryland (I'd probably take the Super Shuttle to Newark airport and call Avis to change my reservation to pick up at the airport).

I got some sleep last night (early this morning). I slept from about 4:00 to 10:00. Now I just have to manage to get to sleep at a decent hour tonight, so I can wake up early so I can get to Maryland in the early afternoon so I can start working (the more I get done tomorrow, the less I'll have to do later on as my days get busier).

I just registered for classes for the spring semester. I registered for 4 classes and would keep all of them if I wasn't going to work on the show, but working on shows takes up so much time, it's impossible to work, take classes, and work on a show, unfortunately. So I registered for:
World Theatre- Mon, Wed, Thurs 11:10-12:00
Problems in Urban History- Mon, Thurs 1:10-2:25
Human Development- Mon, Thurs 2:45-4:00
Dance, Dancer, and Audience- Wed 4:10-6:40
Then I'll drop the one that seems like it will be the most amount of work (probably the urban history class).

So now I'm not going to Toronto. The dates have changed once again, and they've changed to the first day of classes for the spring semester. Sad, I was looking forward to being back there.

But now I'll have more of January to get things on track. I plan on working, organising a ton of paperwork that has been piling up for over a year, upgrading my computer and fixing my CD burner, doing resume and cover letters for casting agencies, updating the pictures on my website, and some random things around the city (armour exhibit at The Met, clothes shopping, go to the Performing Arts Library, check out some bars and restaurants...).

Okay, time to get ready for work.

Okay, so I have either been too busy to write in my journal or haven't had a computer to use (and I didn't feel like handwriting entries and then having to type them all- don't know why).

So let's see... Can I remember everything that's happened in the past week or so?

I remember working at the PF not taking as long as I expected and since I had to be in the area later that evening, I decided to use 2 of my 3 free hours to go see "Adaptation". I really enjoyed the movie, although I could have lived without the aligator scene at the end.

I remember that evening being absolutely freezing. The wind was beyond belief (that area is always so windy, I guess because of the river).

"Mercy Seat" was great, although not as shocking as I was expecting.

The MTA strike was averted at 11:00 that night (the negotiations were on the 14th floor of the Hyatt, which is really the 13th floor, so once again, 13 was a lucky number), so I was able to rent a car and drive out of the city. The ride down was uneventful.

One night in Maryland, I had a dream about the new employee, Jeffrey Schneider. In my dream he looked and acted like George. Fortunately, in real life he is nothing like George. I did not appreciate that dream though. Even with not seeing George too often anymore, he's still appearing in my dreams.

I worked some long days in Maryland. Not much to say about it besides liking the new software.

Staying at the Radisson was fine. Nothing else to say about that.

One night I went to visit Carol. It was great seeing her again.

I got an email from Doug (the urban structures teacher) telling me that my paper came out as random characters and will give me an incomplete until I re-send him the paper. Too bad he can't just tell me not to worry about it since I got A's on all my other assignments. I really think that last paper was too much, especially for a 100-level class. So now I have to work on that paper when I get home. Ick.

Staying at Jon and Michelle's was fine. Nothing else to say about that.

Daniel and Naomi's rehearsal dinner was fun. Jason was there with his wife (no idea he got married), I met some of Naomi's friends (Rebecca knew them from Brown, so she introduced me), and I got to catch up with Daniel's parents.

After the dinner, since I was giving Rebecca a ride back to her father's house, we stopped by Jeff's mother's house (she lives a few blocks from Rebecca's father). Rebecca occasionally brings up the fact that she's never met any of my friends, so I thought this was a good opportunity for her to meet some. Brian was over there as well. We didn't stay long. Debbie (Jeff's mother) re-decorated her entire house. Not my taste, but it looks nice.

The wedding was wonderful. Maryvale castle is gorgeous, and we got to eat in the library, so we were surrounded by great literature (very appropriate for both Daniel and Naomi). I got to see Anthony (who is extremely happy and in love) which was nice. I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures though. I always have my camera with me and never remember to use it. I only took 2-3 pictures at the wedding. Hopefully Rebecca will give me copies of some of hers.

Sunday, the 22nd, was Steven's birthday party. There were about 10-15 kids there, so it was LOUD! It was fun hanging out with Jeff, Eytan, and Rachel. As the party was winding down, the 4 of us took a walk on the cute Columbia neighbourhood paths and found a playground. We had fun playing on the swings and stuff.

That afternoon I went to Neil and Maxine's (this would be my 3rd place to stay) and hung out with them and Abby for a bit before heading down to the Kennedy Center.

Getting to the Kennedy Center was not exactly smooth, and I was nervous that I would be late. First I got lost getting to the Metro station (the signs aren't very clear). Then I had trouble getting a ticket since you can only get them at machines and the machine only takes $1, $5, or $10 (I only had a $20). I got 2 $10's from someone, selected the $4.20 amount needed for a round trip to and from Foggy Bottom, and then got my change in quarters (very heavy, carrying around all those quarters). Then it took forever for the train to leave the station. By this point, I was really nervous. Fortunately, the Kennedy Center shuttle was waiting at the Metro station when I got there, so I got to the Kennedy Center with 20 minutes to spare.

"Tell Me on a Sunday" was great. I don't love all of the music, but Alice Ripley is incredible! She definitely has the presence to pull off a one-woman show. And I love being able to sit close (3rd row, centre). It really helps to enjoy a show when you can actually see the performers. I had a great seat for "Mercy Seat" as well.

Monday I went to Bowie with Neil and Abby to do a little Christmas shopping. Abby can't say my name, so she calls me Casa- so cute. We had lunch at Jasper's, so I was able to have my favourite tangerine margarita- yum. Then I went by myself to Ellicott City. I got some stocking stuffers, a ring for myself (don't know why I bought a ring, I don't like jewelry since I hate things on my fingers, wrists, and neck,but the ring was pretty an inexpensive), and then had a drink at the Phoenix. Ellicott City always puts me in the Christmas spirit.

That evening, Jon, Brian, Seth (Michelle's brother), and Neil (Jon's roommate in college) were going to the Maryland basketball game and went to Santa Fe first, so I met them there for a quick dinner. I contemplated going to the game as well, but I decided I should rest and get to bed early since I had to get up early to go work in Baltimore. They were only playing UMBC, so the game wouldn't have been too exciting. But it was fun hanging out at Santa Fe. At some point we were talking about people who called themselves heterosexual and then later in life called themsevles homosexual. Brian didn't understand why they didn't just say they were bisexual. I said that everyone has a different situation and that no one was really 100% anything anyway. Neil liked that comment for some reason and kept bringing it throughout the evening.

I worked on Christmas Eve during the day, and when I got back to College Park, it was snowing! We went to church in the snow- very beautiful! The church service was extremely intimate; there were about 10 people besides us (I guess because of the weather). During the sermon, they asked the children to come sit up front for the story. Maxine took Abby up there. She sat quietly for a few minutes, and then I guess decided she had enough. She got up and walked quietly back to where we were sitting. Very funny! She's so cute.

Christmas was nice. We had a delicious breakfast and then opened presents. Paula and Harvey came by in the afternoon to give me a ride to Molly's, but their car was a mess so I just followed them in my car. Molly and Judah had a nice dinner, and I got to meet Molly's family.

The next day I drove down to Blacksburg. People still don't know how to drive up the mountainous part of I-81. I had lunch at Macado's (still like that place) and then hung out with Kendra that evening.

Yesterday I drove around, checking out how the new roads work. I still don't understand it. You are on 460 and can take about 4 exits all leading to 460, or something like that. Christiansburg now has a Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, and a Target. This area has grown so much!

I spent a lot of time with the Trice's yesterday. It was nice seeing them all again.

This morning I took a long drive (could have been longer, but I wanted to get back and finally write a journal entry). These roads are still my favourite in the country- 603, 723, 76... all so much fun!

Soon I'm going to meet Andy at Mill Mountain.

Tomorrow it's time to leave. I really don't want to leave yet. I love this area so much and feel like I haven't had enough time here. But that's okay. At least I had a little time. And it's been so relaxing. And I've been so happy.

I'm going to give Kendra a ride tomorrow to Northern VA since she's going to visit her boyfriend who is there right now and I'm meeting Eytan in Arlington.

I have New Years plans. I'm doing the same thing I did last year- hang out at Jon and Michelle's. But this year we get to watch Maryland in the Peach bowl. Maybe we can watch a little bit of Tech in the Toilet, oops, I mean San Francisco Bowl as well.

If there's still a ton of work to do, I may extend my stay by a day. I'll figure that out on the 31st.

I doubt I'll be able to write again before I leave, but I might force myself to do paper entries and type them up when I get home.

I forgot to mention the other day, when I was playing trivia games at Macado's, I won a few games. The name I put in the winner's list? Casa. Thanks Abby, I love my new nickname.

The morning of the 28th, I drove around on the fun roads and then went to the library to write a journal entry. Then I met Andy at Mill Mountain. After too much caffeine, we went driving (different roads than I did that morning). Perfect afternoon.

The caffeine on an empty stomach was not such a good idea. After the caffeine wore off, I was exhausted. I had dinner with the Trice's, I watched "Riding in Cars with Boys" (I didn't mean to watch the whole thing, but I got caught up in it), and then went to bed. I fell asleep around midnight, woke up at 3:30, went back to sleep, woke up at 5:30, and then woke up at exact 15 minute intervals until 7:00. Not a very restful sleep, but it was good enough.

Yesterday Kendra and I drove up to Northern VA and met Eytan at his apartment. His friend, Chris who lives in Minneapolis, was visiting. The four of us had dinner at Lebanese Taverna, and then I drove Kendra to Alexandria. And of course I can't have a trip to DC/Montgomery County, MD/Northern VA without something happening. This time the adventure was following Route 1. I don't understand why anyone bothers using maps of the DC area. The map shows Route 1 going straight from Arlington to Alexandria. Not so. We made several turns to follow Route 1. And the arrows are not very clear. Glad Kendra was there as a witness to show that it was not just me that has all this confusion in that area. Then we found the next road we needed before it was supposed to be there. Of course it didn't go where it was supposed to, so we stopped at a gas station and the guy working there actually spoke English AND knew where we needed to go. So I got here there eventually. Getting back to the Beltway was easy but the signs weren't very clear. Every Beltway sign I've ever seen had the direction plus the city toward which it heads. This one just said 495 East and 495 West. Not helpful. Fortunately, there was a little electronic sign that said there was congestion on 95 North and the sign was slightly closer to the 495 East sign. So I went that way. That was the correct way to go. Why couldn't they have said 495 East- Silver Spring?

This entire trip I've been getting in bed early and falling asleep quickly. How odd. Last night I fell asleep around midnight, woke up at 2:00, went back to sleep, and woke up at 6:30.

Today I'm having lunch with Jon and his cousin, Ilene. Tomorrow I'll try one more time to get Jeff to go see "The Two Towers" with me, but it probably won't work. I also might have to work a bit tomorrow. I'm trying to get a lot of work done today, but there's always more than you expect. I'll probably have to work New Years Day as well. Tomorrow evening I'm hanging out at Jon and Michelle's. Eytan might actually join us this year if he doesn't get a better offer. I was supposed to go see Sylvia tonight, but I might see if Wednesday morning works for her. I'd like to work late tonight and don't want to drive back super late to College Park and then have to get up super early the next morning to drive to Baltimore for work. So I'll call her soon to figure things out.

And now back to work.

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