I get no time off for Xmas -- taking my laptop with me.

Whereas I can take off all the time I want, I just don't get paid. Which was fine when I was 23 with no pets and dirt cheap rent, but sucks now. #missingtheofficejob

Wow, I am all Marvin all the time. But hey, my p-doc approved me increasing my Zoloft, so yay.

I've got this pain in the diodes all down my left side...

I'm having problems with seasonal spirit. all I have is ennui. I'm even thinking about bailing on my friend's and family parties this weekend.

I blame my cold.

M is getting here tonight, which YAY!

I, however, have to pick him and his mom up at the airport at 11:45 pm. BOO! I am WIPED.

But her flight leaves at 6:35 am tomorrow, so D gets to take her, since he's up at the buttcrack of dawn anyway. So I imagine D will get up for a few moments to say hello, and then we will all crash like crashing things.

On the good side, my housecleaning as a good start for New Year's!

11 pm, get here soooooon please...

The walking company had a holiday party today. Normally, I'm not much into such things, and I'm having some struggles emotionally at the mo, but it was actually quite nice.

My friend G and I had the greatest time finding the perfect gifts for each other.

She got me my favorite 'butter' olive oil. It is the absolutely bomb. BUT, she added some crazy salt...one called "amazing unicorn". Can't wait to try that one.

She thought to buy me special salt because I mentioned a long time ago that I sometimes grind salt and just eat it straight.

In turn, I remembered her saying that her big once a year treat to herself is a bag of Moose Munch that she eats all by herself.

I found a Harry and David scented candle in Moose Munch flavor. She can have a sensory hit all year long, with no calories. It's huge, and in a thick glass container she can reuse.

She was _thrilled_.

So nice.

Those sound like fantabulous gifts!

Some of you may remember me mentioning my SiL? The one who hasn't seen any of our family for almost a year? The deeply religious Catholic one who hasn't even managed to come with my brother an hour away to visit my mom, who just had, oh, half a lung removed due to cancer? Yeah, that one. She just sent my Jewish husband and atheist self a Christmas card which wished us "more Jesus in your life." Really? REALLY?

But the office has a mandatory shut down for the entire week and all employees have to take the rest of those days as PTO, whether you want to or not

OK, wow, that is definitely not cool at all.

I am shocked at being able to carry that much PTO! Wow. My last company we could only carry 40 hours. At this one it's something like 120 hours? But it works for me, because I"m going to take some time in January and will still have time left. But like Sail, working from home helps--I'm rarely taking time off unless it's actual vacation.

Scrappy, was that just her stock Xmas card she sent to everyone? I would prefer that to thinking she was proselytizing.

They cap our leave at 200 hours (25 days), but that includes just vacation/personal days, since sick days aren't really counted.

We can only carry over 40 hours each year, although we are allowed to "buy" an extra week of vacation, which is nice. If you don't use it, you can sell it back to the company and get your money back. A lot of people use that as their Christmas money.

Matchmaking update: First dinner party is set. Jan 4th. About 10 min drive from work. Alas, it's 8pm, so, work late? Eh. We shall see.

Sister update: She leaves in the morning. It's been great seeing her. Will miss her. But happy to see her go. It's little things. Like, my fridge full of styrofoam left overs from restaurants. And me asking when she wants to do left overs, only to learn this afternoon, she doesn't eat left overs. Um. So why did you keep getting boxes from the restaurants?? Whatev. I'll have a full trash tomorrow. It's family. Whatcha going to do.