Disjointed Recollection of the "Hols"

The assortment of presents that Steven gave to me for Christmas included one (1) Giant Microbe of the Bookworm variety, actually intended for one of the cats. In the sunlight, it's only mildly revolting. It's a sickly sort of yellow with ginormous brown eyes as blank and guileless as Elijah Wood's and little white felt "legs" that look more like horrifying teeth. But Kiska seems to find it either adorable or disturbing, I can't decide which. She carries it around and deposits it in various locations because she thinks it's her baby, or maybe because she's so distressed by it that she finds it necessary to move it far enough away from her that she feels comfortable being in the same room with it.

The week of Christmas consisted of a whole lot of nothing - the dojo and the gym were both closed, thus the only thing left to do was party, visit various people, kick ass at Scrabble and read. Natty's birthday at Napper Tandy's was a complete success, except for the resultant hangover - we had wanted to go to a club in the warehouse district called 5 Star, but we discovered when we arrived that it was booked for a private party that looked dull and rife with reeling, nametag-sporting middle-aged white collar employees of some local firm.

I had turducken for the first time at Steven's parents' on Christmas Day - I did not find it particularly wonderiffic, and was in fact a bit nauseated after dinner. It might have been that I was already full from a lunch of waffles at my parents', since S and I spent Christmas Eve and morning at my parents' place. Before heading to my parents', I went to church with S's family and watched him conduct the choir for the Christmas service. It's almost a transcendental experience to watch him conduct; I'm not sure if I could be so coordinated without some serious training (which he's had). They follow even the tiniest motions of his hand.

I think I can turn anything into a transcendental experience. ;)

My Christmas acquisition was a lovely ASUS Eee. I'm trading my laptop for it.

On the 26th, my parents threw a No-Name Wine Tasting party; each person brough a bottle of the most unusual unknown wine they could find. Steven and I brought Goats Do Roam in Villages, out of South Africa, which turned out to be a favorite. The gathering morphed into a dance party with Lovely and Natty as the moste excellente DJs. My mom was absolutely hilarious and probably drank an entire bottle of wine herself.

I read the first three books of Twilight.

Unfortunately, I had to "work" this week. There is nobody in my office. I stayed out late every night though and ironically had the week's best night's sleep on New Year's Eve, when I collapsed on Natty and Pepper's living room floor in a drunken pile and didn't wake till noon!

S and I drove up to Roanoke on Wednesday evening. It was a beautiful evening for a drive. It was bitterly cold, windy and perfectly clear. Driving into the mountains while the sun set to my left and Steven beside me was one of the highlights of the past month. The leafless trees were purple and mauve and deep brown under a radiant orange and yellow sky. I amused myself pretending that the mountains in the distance were desert peaks and I was looking across an arid twilit valley.

We arrived at the Humble Duplex and pre-gamed a little bit with Natty, Pepper, Lovely and Roony before heading out to Metro! to partay, where Natty's favorite DJ, Stylus Chris, was playing. All six of us were packed like sardines into Pepper's little black Jetta! We were quite unsure whether we'd be allowed in, as we were at the tail end of a long waiting list for reservations, but it was fine and didn't get slammed till a couple of hours later. I hadn't eaten much all day and was utterly reeling after a vodka tonic and one shot... I am an extreme lightweight and would have landed on my ass at several points if I hadn't gripped Steven's hand the entire time. I don't remember many details about the rest of the evening, except that it involved lots of dancing, champagne and plenty of shouting, hugging and kissing. We came home not unreasonably late, and I somehow found my way into pajamas and into a sleeping bag nest on the living room floor... And then I had quite a sober, intricate dream about Jack Black having super powers and using them to help me escape military school. He could turn into a little puff of dust and skirl through cracks in windows and doors.

An excellent holiday. Absolutely superb. Plenty of adventures.