ho ho ho

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
happy hannahah, kwanza, or whatever you celebrate.
hooray for the holidays! i am checking out now - turning off the computer and not turning it back on for at least a week. or that's my goal anyway. so if it's slow on the blog front, apologies. it's because i'm eating, sleeping, or otherwise engaged in a some sort of lazy activity. tomorrow i'm off to toledo to spend christmas with the basilius', and then over to north carolina to spend new years with alex and his family. my poor family here feel somewhat abandoned ... but we're having our 'christmas' day here today. in fact, i need to wake my sister so we can sit a the top of the stairs and hollar and mom and dad to wake up so we can come down! we're really hoping santa came early this year.

happy christmas to all!

a few pics

as promised ... a few pics from the santa stumble.

i'm thinking of going back to my natural color ... that is to say, a dirty blonde. what do you think? any votes based on the pic? ha ha. speak now, my appointment is this week if they'll squeeze me in!

stumbling santas

well, we certainly did a bit of stumbling over the weekend. pictures to follow once i get them from my mother. everyone met at 4pm on saturday afternoon in the tenderloin and we walked up to our first pub in santa hats and festive gear (dad in a red hawaian shirt, chuck in his white beard, our very own LIVE santa). after a huge indian lunch in 'naan and curry' - the 24-hour indian restaurant up the street from my house - my stomach was a little queasy - so i was looking forward to a beer to calm it down. (ha!) it really took 3 beers to settle the saag paneer, but after that, i was good to go.

we stumbled across polk street to the smallest bar in san francisco via big foot's tavern. and then moved to the haight where we dined at cha cha cha's, then listened to some gypsy jazz (v.cool) and then tumbled to the tornado for a nightcap and a gigantic pizza. we got home around midnight, which seems relatively early, but we'd been drinking for 8 hours.

you can imagine my christmas shopping on sunday was somewhat difficult and mostly unproductive. i'll get back out again tonight at some point. and likely tomorrow, and the next day and the next. why i don't start earlier is beyond me. next year...

i've got 3 solid days of work here in the city, and then i'm heading down to SC. i'll still work from SC, but mostly in the mornings and mostly on email. next week, i plan to stay off my computer altogether and really try to break from work. i hope i can do this!

and now, i must start my day!

see me make an elf of myself

tottenham 5, charlton 1

anna took me for my FIRST EVER football game! and premiership league too! (that's soccer to us americans) - it was brilliant! a christmas surprise - she told me to dress up warm because we'd be outside all day. i had no idea what she was up to. (i wondered if it was a decoy and she was secretly taking me to a luxurious spa for the day) but we ended up in north london surrounded by 40,000 fanatical spurs fans singing songs and chants and shouting for their team. a much different experience than watching on the telly - and i found myself making all sorts of gutteral noises i didn't think possible coming from a lady. (i don't think the men in front of us did either!) her dad has been a spurs fan all his life and he met us at liverpool street and took us to the game - a brilliant day out!

and the rest of the week has gone very well - if a bit manic.

wednesday and thursday were spent in interviews for 2 positions we have going in london ... and also a meeting with the estate agents to show them my house and get a new valuation ... the idea of selling is becoming more and more appealing ... but we shall see, i have some serious thinking to do.

and friday night we all went out to the pub in brixton so got a nice chance to catch up with everyone. everyone changes but ultimately, stays the same. nice to see!

and for those curious - the tornado here was in north london ... i've been in south and west london - so untouched.

anyway, i leave tomorrow (monday) and will be back in time for dinner. i'll be back on the old 617 number by then, so change your phones! love to all!

in london ... exhausted!

just a quick post to say i am alive and well, if exhausted, and in london! i've JUST finished my two days of database training - the project that my colleague and i have been working on since MAY. it was the revealing and unveiling of what we have been living and breathing for the last six months ... and fortunately, everything went very well, everyone was very impressed and very appreciative.

but now i am exhausted. i've not slept well because of the 8 hour time difference (i forget how FAR california is!) so i have no plans tonight except to sleep and watch tv in the luxurious bed in my hotel room with feather pillows plush blankets. a terrible waste of a precious night in this city, but i cannot find the energy for everything else.

it's been so nice to see the gang. anna had a party on saturday night and no one apart from she and tom and cat knew i was coming - so it was fun to surprise everyone, answering the door with a 'ho ho ho.' they bought a christmas tree and everyone chipped in to decorate, bringing ornaments and home-made tokens of christmas for the branches. we played the 'thanks' game - though after several glasses of mulled wine - and got sappy as we do about our friendships and how wonderful and more importantly, how lucky we all are. we really are so lucky.

anyhow, my brain is not functioning properly, so i must end this and will continue when i my eyelids are not sagging below my knees.