upcoming itinerary, grublets, voyeurism of the mundane

OK, the date's are set: This Thursday, after a half-day of classes, I will, perhaps directly from school, drive to my parent's house. Thence, Friday, I will drive with my parents to Maryland, outside of DC, to my sister's house, wherein her wee grublets dwell, hungry for avuncular holiday fun™ in the same way that zombies are hungry for brains or pirana are hungry for whole cows.

After two days of the poignant mixture of heartwarming moments, physical exhaustion, and the larger than normal pallet of smells that come with newish human beings, I will be flying out Monday from there unto the land of corn, soy, and CAFO's, yea, even unto the farthest reaches, to the island of art walks, yoga studios, and cool people, named Fairfield. Hopefully, there will be someone at the airport to pick me up. Almost certainly there will be someone. Hopefully, it's a friend and not a $100 driver service.

Then, it's as much friend time as I can pack into the next six days. There's even a high school reunion, not for a particular year, which I'm excited to attend. It is fascinating seeing what has happened to people I know from school. I think the one I've gotten the most of a kick from, is a fellow student who really was not a fan of school, and who I think many people might have dismissed, but who actually ended up being a pretty successful entrepreneur, in addition to taking over a successful family business. We all love the underdog story, and I'm no different. I think we like to believe that we can surpass the expectations the world has for us. When we see someone else doing that, we think, "maybe I can too." Or we get jealous and despise them. So I'm told. I'm pretty good at celebrating other people's successes; I don't generally go into the whole jealousy/envy thing. It's basically poisoning yourself to spite someone else, so if I can avoid it altogether, which I can, that seems like a strong play. We all have our weak areas, but that's not one of mine.

Oh, that's a fun question to ask at parties: what's your "favorite" sin (as in "the seven deadly sins")? Good conversation starter.

Anyhoo, I think it's about time I wrapped up this post. People keep congratulating each other and me on "finishing" but if you want a realistic time frame on when I'm going to finish, it will likely be no earlier than January 15th. I'm not going to have any time to do my various papers etc. this week, since I'm still in my internship and will just barely be scraping by keeping up with the assignments that absolutely need to be done now, to be done well. Then I'll be busy with family and friends until New Years (which is when I fly back.) Then I'll have one more week of internship (I got sick, so I need to make it up.) Then I will have a chance to focus on the papers etc. that need to get done. And that should take about a week of focused work. Perhaps a little longer.

I'm sure I will make a jubilant announcement when I am well and truly done.

Anyhoo, if you're a Fairfield friend, I look forward to seeing you. If not... I hope you've enjoyed this unostentatious, slice-of-life voyeuristic experience.

Happy holidays  ^_^