Urgh, Xmas isn't about reciprocity

Today was very much a "chicken w/ its head cut off" day. I forgot my Xmas cards @ home, so I had to run back in the middle of my shift to get them. And then I forgot to bring T's present to H back w/ me. And I forgot T's card @ home b/c I was up until 5am working on it, and didn't put it w/ my stack of cards. And it was superwarm in the afternoon, so I didn't need both my jackets, so I could have brought one home when I headed back. On the other hand, it was really windy and cold when my shift was over, so maybe that wasn't so bad. And then when I was fussing over people being on vacation so I couldn't give them their cards, JR says, "well just put them in their folder." So instead of thinking of the folders that we drop off our timecard changes into, I thought of the private folders and was all confused. Yup, JR and John laughed @ me. But I've only gotten 1 card and that was from JR. X( Although b/c I did calligraphy (w/ the real metal nib and pot of ink), Tanya kept the envelope too, and Kristen remembered my card from last year b/c I use calligraphy.

And waited waaaay too long to pick up tickets for Videogames Live, so the seats aren't so great according to the online Ticketmaster site. I'm going to have to go to an outlet to see if there's something better. And I have to talk to my bank so they don't "re-invest" my GIC. Only earned $22 bucks on $1000. That's not even prime!!

And have been trying to check out the flyers for the Boxing Day sales. No one's put anything up so far, so I'll probably have to buy the next few days paper to get the flyers and stuff. Argh! I want to get a Nintendo DS Lite. I don't need it. But I want it. I wanna play my Pokemon and try out Nintedogs. They recently had Pokemon Ranger vs. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon on Review on the Run, and they complained about the graphics, sound...well pretty much everything. And yeah, the graphics and sound could've been updated, but there's still a nostalgia factor. Not to mention since the DS is multi-regional, the Pokemon have different names in other languages. But I wouldn't mind seeing my Bulbasaur(Fushigidane)in 3D. Heh, we had a Secret Santa for the SLR potluck, and the girl who got me asked Kristen what I liked, and Kristen's like..."uh, Pokemon, stuff from Warp". She must've thought I was totally wierd. ^_^

A pretty good day

Was changing my beta fish Akao's water, and usually what I do is pour as much as I can of the old water in to the margarine container and the retrieve him w/ the net. However when I poured this time, he actually jumped from the jar into the container!!! I was so shocked and happy. He can now jump just over 1 cm out from the water surface to graze my finger. What a good boy!

Anyways, my bud H came back from Hicksville, and we had a really good time. H can tell stories like only H can. Ah do declare that H is trying to set me up w/ anyone. Even mentioned that I should go out w/ D's brother b/c I like videogames and anime like he does. After we had welcome back party (which unfortunately lots of people didn't show), H said I should go out w/ either or both TT and S and do them both. Anyways H has a much higher libido than I do (her partners go into double digits, and that's after she was married), so I don't take it too seriously.

However the bummer of the day was that H told me and T about something and it was something bad. And it made us really disappointed in her b/c she knows better but she still did it anyways.

But onto nicer things. I was telling H and D that I didn't care about working Xmas eve or Xmas day b/c my family does nothing, even when I was living w/ them. So they invited me to their families' Xmas celebrations. However I've done that before, and it feels kinda awkward. Sorta like charity. Which is of course what Xmas is about. Well I have yet to see if I work that day. But I am definitely getting Boxing Day off. No ifs ands or buts. Must have it off!

And when I was @ Warp1 I successfully read a Japanese title using kanji and hiragana. It turned out to be Hana Yori Dango. Which means that I'm almost finished Gr. 1 for Japanese kanji. Yep, I'm almost ready to graduate from Gr. 1. Which isn't too bad I suppose, since I've been learning it in between calls at work, and it's been about...3 months. Still have to learn grammar, which I guess means I still don't know the language according to linguistics. Kinda hard to learn grammar when I listen to mostly songs...and that's poetry. Need a script of some anime. And I guess to actually go over all those language books I've photocopied and language CDs. Heh.

It was fun up until the end....

Got to see my neices today. Yaaaaahhhh! I guess that blue moon has come by again. It was my brother's office party, so we went as guests. Got to colour w/ the twins, and I saved the colouring b/c we all did it. Got them to sign it too.

Then they came over to the house to decorate the tree. We haven't had new ornaments since...well I made the paper ones out of the wrapping paper samples so since they complained about the lack of ornaments, compared to the other tree they got to decorate, my bro went to pick some more up. And in the meantime we developed a new game. My brother has one of those balls that's covered w/ suction cups, so we were kicking it around on the linoleum floor. Definitely helps w/ foot coordination. Jada called it "stoccer". And then we had a few rounds of leprachaun. I had to help my brother plug in all the tree lights (wasn't very observant). And the twins wanted to play Monopoly but when I made them do the math for change (I was banker of course!), they wouldn't buy property unless they had the exact amount and didn't have to do any subtraction. So sad.

Anyways, I'd brought a huge whack of bags of presents (yeah for gift bags!), and I'd also bought them Disney's Robin Hood b/c we loved it when we were kids. Well I don't know who's idea it was to open it right away when they got home, but we got a call shortly after that they wanted Disney's Little Mermaid instead. And then my sister-in-law came on too, and said that they didn't want some other DVD (which I'd gotten them ages ago, but b/c they sometimes don't come over when they're supposed to, there's serious delay on giving them the presents). Yeah, so I got the DVD back. So the debate is, to cave in and get them what they want and spoil them and set the expectation that they can ask for whatever they want? Or to just take it back (or just keep it b/c it does have an alternate ending) and not give them anything. Not like they'd probably remember anyways. Or as my bro suggested and burn a copy of Little Mermaid for them, maybe the Chinese version b/c I saw it at my Gran's place when I was there. But seriously I think that sis-in-law encourages them to misbehave towards us. Probably spits on whatever we give her. And whenever she wants the kids to go home (usually like 2 hrs after they arrive), she'll talk to the older one and harangue her into coming home. She talks loud enough I can hear her tone. Yeah, and I got her another f*ing HBC $40 gift card. I'm tempted to give her the $5 minimum, but gotta keep it civil.

Anyways, got a new 17" monitor from the trip. Well not really new. It was made in 2000, and was my brother's old monitor that he doesn't use much anymore b/c he has a laptop. But it's still newer than my old 14" one(which was also a hand-me-down) which was made in...*runs to look* 1996. And worked pretty good still too! Too bad my roommate also has a monitor for his 2ndary computer. Which may never be used b/c he still hasn't fixed his computer and is still using his sister's laptop.

Anyways b/c the monitor is so much bigger (and is much harder to carry when you're stuffed full), I have to rearrange my figures on my monitor, and my danglies from the shelf above where my monitor sits. Yep, really getting to it.