Holiday Craziness

Hola Amigos,

It was an interesting Christmas weekend for me. I ended up doing much more volunteering than I ever intended to do. I showed up for my 3 hour adoption center shift at noon on Sunday. Parking stunk, but the adoption center (which is in a mall) was relatively slow, thankfully, because we're on a slower wing (we're essentially all their is in the section we're in). So, it wasn't all that bad. We had the usual number of buttheads who think that regardless of our policies THEY actually know what's best for the animals in our care. Then there are the folks who try and convince us that declawing a cat is the absolute BEST thing you can do for them. We usually have a couple of those a day (do not get me started on declawing, it gets my Irish up). Through a series of conversations I realized that no one was on deck to relieve me at 3:00. My entire plan for the weekend and Christmas started to crumble before my eyes at the thought that I'd have to cover the 3:00 to 6:00 shift. I almost cried. Those 3 hours were precious. So I called my friend Therese, who as it turns out, had forgotten that she was supposed to cover that shift anyway. As luck would have it she hadn't planned anything so she came in. However, the person who was supposed to volunteer with her bagged on us (thanks a million and merry effing Christmas you fricking tool) and it's next to impossible for a person to staff the center alone, so I stayed with her (she's my best friend and she needed me). The nice thing is she took it easy on me, let me leave for a little while to shop and get something to eat, and in general it wasn't a horrible 3 hours. Though honestly I'd rather not spend more of my time with John Q. Public than is absolutely necessary. There's a REASON I got out of retail, people.

Then, I was scheduled to cover gift wrapping at Borders on Monday (Christmas eve) from 2:30 to 5:00 (they supply the paper, we get to keep any tips we get for wrapping, and Christmas eve is usually pretty lucrative). So over the course of 2 days I volunteered for about 9+ hours (all things considered) and I still had to do all my normal Christmas preparations. I have to admit I enjoy the wrapping, though. I like the act of wrapping gifts, and people tend to be so sweet on Christmas eve, honestly. Sweet and generous. And another good thing was that Therese came to volunteer with me (as sort of a return favor for helping her out the day before). I was supposed to be alone that whole time! She was late, but I was glad to have her!

After that I had to high tail it over to my mother's. What a feast we had. My sister in law brought colossal shrimp with her own home made shrimp sauce, and home made baklava. My other sister in law made sushi (that was superb and as pretty as I've ever seen in a restaurant). My sister Stephanie made our Aunt Beulah's jello (I'm not normally a fan but this is SO delicious) and ham spread, mom made turkey spread, we had home made candies and cookies, and it was just so much fun. My nephew was showered with gifts (he's only 4...we can't help ourselves) and I got some really great stuff (including the Simpsons movie and a USB power adaptor for my iPod, which I really needed). It was good to see my brothers and my sisters in law too, just a fun time. Then yesterday my mom and sis and I went to see Sweeney Todd (it was great). Our normal tradition is to then go to our favorite Indian restaurant, but we had SO much food left over that we decided to eat at my mom's. And we played cards.

It was a very busy holiday, but fun.

Hey, by the way, what kind of credit card makes their due dates on Christmas??? I had 2 credit cards due on Christmas day. WTF?