1/7/01

did you miss me?

i guess december just wasn’t a good month for me to write. or something. motivation was nowhere to be found. you missed a lot, too. oh, well.

thanksgiving break was miserable. i got sick the moment i entered the city and progressively worsened the whole time i was there. i threw a party on thanksgiving day that everyone seemed to enjoy immensely except for me, and then i ended up in the hospital later on that night. then break was finally over and the closer i rode towards school and away from danville, the better i felt.

there was an entirely too short span of about two weeks of school following that. at first i was ecstatic to be in school again, but the closer i came to xmas break and danville, the more i fell into a slump. the only thing that sticks out in my recollection of those hazy fourteen days was saint nikolaus day. i painted the names of my roommate, suitemate, super suitemates and another friend downstairs on velour red stockings, chocked them full of hersheys and yoyos and paddleballs, stuck a slip of green construction paper with the tale of saint nikolaus day on one side and a picture of the saint himself on the other in each one and went creeping about in the early hours of the morning, hanging them on doors. i kept feeling as if i should have been dressed in elf shoes with bells on the toes. the stockings were well received and i was happy to have helped spread some commercialized holiday cheer.

i haphazardly stumbled through exams (and miraculously ended up with all a’s) and in two shakes of a lamb’s tail was back in danville again. xmas break was considerably better than thanksgiving due to three main factors: 1) i didn’t get sick. 2) i stayed wasted the entire time. 3) my brother, his wife and their 1.2 children were there. oh, did i forget to mention that i’m an aunt now? i am.

xmas eve (when we celebrate our holiday) was spent on “the mountain”. my dad’s whole family lives on this mountain about twenty-five minutes outside of danville. they’re all neighbors and gossipy and way too into each other’s business. it’s pretty sickening, and i’m ever so thankful to my father for having sold his spot of land up there and moving the hell away. i saw my estranged oldest brother and his wife along with the rest of my extended family that i have less than nothing to do with. and there were little kids everywhere. they must’ve multiplied in water, like gremlins. it was insane.

then that evening my family gathered around the white xmas tree and handed out shimmering packages to one another over laughs and drinks and giddiness. my brother played santa with a poison shirt on that i had given him as his present and my best friend showed up with hand made bondage bracelets for everyone and i received lots of gifts adorned with penguins and zebra patterns. xmas day was a slight hangover nursed by two overly filling meals but not helped by the sound of new toy electronic cars’ engines as they chased my cats throughout the house.

new years found me out at a party divided between two neighboring houses in the county amongst some good friends i hadn’t seen in a long, long time. we started celebrated early and by the time nine o’clock came i was smashed. the actual switch over into ‘01 was uneventful, but the evening as a whole was good, even if i did end up passing out by two thirty.

the rest of the break was just more sex and drugs and rock’n’roll. you know, the usual.