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November 28, 2000
Back to work... sigh...
Man, it sucks coming back after a short break. Holidays are never long enough -- they're just long enough for me to get used to being lazy, but not long enough for me to get bored. I love going to my mom's -- no worries, no obligations, just good food and company and plenty of animals to pet and play with. I'm a bit unhappy that I won't really be able to go back for Christmas; this place is open December 26, which means I'd have to travel back here on Christmas Day -- which I'll do right around the same time that monkey's fly out my... never mind. It's not happening. I can't think of any other way to do it, short of delaying Christmas until my birthday (which, for those of you keeping track and planning to send me much love and adoration, is January 3). Since this is my first Christmas since the divorce, I don't really want to take that option. Sure, it's only nine days, but... it's the principle of the thing. Hmmm. Well, I'll figure something out. Maybe my mom can come to Boston. Don't know how well that would work either, but hey, it's worth a try...
Vermont was fun. Lots of eating, loafing, movie-watching.... we saw Charlie's Angels, which I loved (it was fun, and silly, and never took itself seriously for a minute) and Chicken Run, which I also loved. I love Nick Park in general -- the man can do no wrong. I tried to think of ways to smuggle my brother's dog (a lovely, sweet Border Collie named Queenie) back to Boston with me, but I don't think she would have enjoyed riding in my luggage. Plus, you know, my mom would have noticed.
The trip back was no fun at all. It was raining buckets -- cold, icky, icy rain that just soaked you, regardless of what you were wearing. The bus driver chose to drive about 40 miles an hour all the way to Boston -- I know the weather was icky, but it really was just rain, and those buses are heavy, they can handle it. The driver also felt the need to stop and chat with people at every single stop, which was nice on one hand because I could hop off and have a quick cigarette here and there, but still... I just wanted to get home. Still, I wasn't really annoyed at him until he got lost. Lost. Yeah. He took the wrong exit, and then drove around a residential area with little teeny winding street for about half an hour before stopping and asking if any of the passengers knew the area at all. Um, no, you're supposed to know the route, remember? He finally got back to the turnpike (after driving the wrong way down a one-way street at least once) and we continued on our not-so-merry way, arriving in Boston an hour and a half late. I dragged my bags home on the T, took a shower, and went to bed... where I laid awake all night. Must have been all those hours sitting on a bus, twiddling my thumbs and listening to Kid A for the eight hundredth time. Oh, but my homecoming was made considerably brighter by the surprise waiting for me in the amazon.com box I almost ignored -- Joanne had peeked at my wish list (yeah, I'm pimping it! And my birthday! Why not? And no, that doesn't mean send me presents... unless you really really really want to... kidding. I'm kidding. Mostly) and sent me Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Yay! Joanne just rocks.
All bitching aside, though, it was a good Thanksgiving. And I shall now wax emotional for a moment, 'cause I really do have a lot to be grateful for. I'm grateful that I have a small but close-knit family group, with whom I am utterly comfortable. They're always good to see (and speak to by phone, in the case of the family members who live far away) and they always make me feel very loved. And, even better, they always let me know that they like me, too -- which is important. Your family is obligated to love you, after all, but they certainly don't have to like you. I'm also very grateful to have really good friends -- friends that didn't disappear or get all weird when I was a big emotional train wreck, prone to welling up with tears at odd moments, or ranting for hours on end about He-Whose-Name-Shall-No-Longer-Be-Written-Here, (and doing a good job of not showing boredom, either) and making sure that I ate and slept and was distracted by movies and TV and fun in general. You all know who you are. Thank you. And I'm grateful that I have a comfortable apartment, with a very cool roommate -- I lucked out big-time, and I know it. And I'm glad I have a stupid little cat, who was so glad to see me come home she pestered me all night. And she let me pet her when she was trying to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, when I was awake. After all the crap hit the fan, things could have ended up much worse than they did... and I'm grateful that the whole sordid mess is over, and it worked out so well. *sniffle.*
Posted by Mary Ellen at November 28, 2000 04:30 PM