I've been on 'vacation' at my parent's house for the last several days. I was looking forward to some relaxation ... sleeping in, eating out of my parents' fridge, catching up on deluxe cable tv programming, and I've done some of that, but overall it's been a weird lead up to christmas, and I hate to say it, but I'm pretty ready for the holiday season to be done and to be back to everyday life in chicago. 

Nothing has gone to plan this holiday break. I definitely did not plan to get drunk from 3 glasses of shiraz and get into a quasi-politcal debate/pissing contest with my parents' neighbor at a christmas party. I planned to finish up season 2 and maybe tackle season 3 of Lost, but instead I caught up on Hollyoaks and feel my IQ dropping by the hour (but Amy's new haircut is ace, yeah?). I wanted to be festive and bake cookies, maybe watch some xmas movies. My linzer cookies taste like molded flour dipped in jelly and I can't stand the xmas music station my mom leaves on in her bedroom whether she is in there or not. 

On a brighter note, I didn't plan to get my side mirror fixed, but my dad set that up, so for the first time in about 2 years, I'm driving a car with two working side mirrors and a rearview mirror -- look out world! 

The weirdest part about being here has got to be running into people at bars. I used to get a kick out of the people I recognized from high school in bars around here, but last night I realized that my friends' younger siblings are now of age and are likely going to frequent the same bars I would. Nothing made me feel older than seeing 3 of my friend's younger brothers and sisters in a bar last night along with a kid I used to babysit for.