2004-11-30 - 1:36 a.m.

Ah, Thanksgiving.

Several, really, really needed days off.

The family stuff was great. The weather was nice, and my brother and I played two of our cousins at wiffleball. I drove in the game winning run, and pitched the game winning strikeout. I'm the oldest youngster in the family, but the fact that I'm the oldest is now against me when it comes to athletics, so that was pretty cool.

The Roommate was there, and she really enjoyed the family tradition of beer, smokes, and scratch cards in the basement.

We also went to a Thanksgiving party at Marty's in Jamaica Plain after I got out of work on Saturday. That was fun--there were some pretty hi-tech video games (like, with a camera that locks into where your face and hands are so you can play the game), and I figured out how to play (actual, not video game) poker, kinda. I met a few people, which was my goal, and the Roommate and I were really glad we went, even though (and we knew we were getting into this when we decided to go) it took us like two hours to get home, and that included a cab from Harvard.

We also did other random things, and the whole time I was just psyched I wasn't at work. I got some good cables for my recording equipment in Porter. The cracked Guild guitar I so, so, so covet is still there. We went to Huron Village to see a really awesome store, we had a beer at Charlie's, I spent a Sunday getting stickie ploabs at Pluto and then scrubbing the tub gleaming white in time (kinda) for the Pats game, and I picked out and took home my Christmas gift from my parents (a nice coffee maker).

There are boxes and there is other random crap, and all of it is strewn about the apartment, so we did a good job cleaning this weekend. Wait. No. We did a good job being productive, and we did a good job feeling like we were getting stuff ready, but we had a plan the whole time.

Bring it together at the end.

Right now, I have another wisdom tooth coming in. It's never good timing to have something like this happen, but, yet again, this is horrible, horrible timing. (The last time this happened was right before the trip to NYC the Roommate got me.) I have an office Christmas Party, my own Christmas Party, an actual Christmas, and a show I'm playing at O'Brien's on New Years, all staggered throughout the month, and I'm in shocking pain opening my mouth wide enough to put a fork full of food in it. And I take dainty bites.

I can't have major dental surgery before any of these events, so I'm going to have to just get used to it and get through the month so I can do the surgery afterwards. That's gonna be fun.

On the bright side, there is NOTHING that can ruin Christmas for me. It's friggin' Christmas.

It's Christmas.