It's been a lovely four months...

... but my time at the Cheesecake Factory is drawing to a close. I have decided to leave the exciting world of white uniforms and bitchy north shore people to pursue an illustrious career as a substitute teacher. Substituting may be lame, but I really want to be back in the classroom, and I am really sick of working nights and weekends. Part of the point of this "year off" was to have fun, and all I do is work. So after January 10th, I fully intend to be drunk and disorderly at least once each weekend (Laura McClain, take note, as you will no doubt be joining me). I am also going to attempt to start a little mini-business doing games and activities for children's birthday parties (no joke, I am a seasoned indoor and outdoor games enthusiast, many years as a camp counselor). So many uncertain ventures. And sometime in the next couple months I need to get somebody to hire me full time and I need to find a home. Speaking of which, Nate and I have decided to find a place together in the spring, yay! We had a lovely day Tuesday celebrating three years (yes, it's been that long since Sally and Linus), found a great sushi place, got tipsy there, and then went to see Blue Man Group, which I highly recommend viewing while intoxicated- adds a whole new level, and makes the reading parts really interesting/dizzying.

And my most pressing concern right now is- what to do for New Year's? I just found out I actually have the night off from work, which is amazing, but now I need to figure out what to do with myself. Because I will feel really stupid if I end up doing nothing and I think "I might as well be working right now." I know it's an overrated night, but it's been handed to me, and I must make something of it.

Random updates

I saw King Kong the other night, and I admit it, it choked me up. However, I attribute this to being all emotional in general (see Laura's blog entry on how the early 20s suck). Good movie.

My community theatre director left the production because of (seriously) artistic differences. Way to go. She took the costume designer with her. The result is that we now have a much better director and costume designer. The new director, a fabulous gay man from Louisiana, exclaimed "you ladies make my job so easy!" after our read-through, and during rehearsals randomly pauses and says "oh, you have no idea how excited I am to be directing this show!" He also explained that he was "raised by steel magnolias." Love it.

My dog is old. She poops all over the house all the time now. I stepped in dog shit in my own house the other night. Gross. That is not something anyone should have to worry about inside the house.

Christmas at mommy's store

I have wrapped 25 presents today. 9 of them were for one person's purchase. Maybe we're taking this free gift-wrapping thing a little too far. Everyone I give presents to this year is going to get the "close your eyes and hold out your hands" method of gift giving, forget the wrapping. Ah, only one more Wednesday before Christmas (which is weird in and of itself).

I am a snow goddess

I spent last weekend in Vail with my parents. Way fun. They had the most snow in December that they've had in 15 years or so, which meant that my dad and I spent several days wading through knee-waist deep powder. My little legs burned, but the skiing was a lot easier with my new ski boots (first pair of my very own boots!). My dad and I cut the last day short when we couldn't see five feet in front of us and my nose almost froze off. At night we went to restaurants that I would never go to if the bill wasn't on my parents, love bein a mooch. And one night we all got massages and I may have been slightly violated by my masseuse. I feel like you should never as a masseuse say either "As much as I love working on you, it's time to go" or "good times" referring to the massage. Eek. Felt good though. Yay long weekends. Then it was right back to the Cheesecake, that's getting old.