Gee, I'm a bad diarist. I haven't really been updating much lately. Partly due to being so busy with work and then with getting together with family.

My Christmas is officially over now. Yesterday was the big present giving with my sisters. I'm telling you, I raked in this year with presents. It was incredible. I have two gift cards to use, too. One for clothes and the other for coffee. Woo!

My sisters and I went, as planned, to the super WallyWorld. I spent some money on a couple of half-priced gift sets (a Kellogg's cereal bowl set and a manicure set). And I also bought two Johnny Cash cds, "At Folsom Prison" and "The Essential Johnny Cash" which is a 2 disc set. Very nice and exactly what I was looking for.

We had a good time shopping and went to a diner place nearby for a shake and onion rings. Because, nothing says togetherness like some good greasy food. Yum. We got back to the house after midnight and I dropped my sisters off and went home myself. I slept like the dead. I was so damn tired.

This morning, the plan was to go to the Reed Gold Mine (the site of the first official discovery of gold in North America) which is only about 10 miles from my parents' house. Mandy calls and lets us know that my niece's boyfriend had been held up at gunpoint and had his wallet taken. The poor guy. I was glad he was ok. He's a good guy. My niece has been with him for a couple years and he really fits in well with our family. Anyway, Mandy was not feeling too hot since her allergies or whatever have been making her cough a lot. This morning she felt something pop, like she'd hurt a rib from coughing. Her doctor said that it sounded like she'd torn a ligament. My poor sis. So she needed to rest and didn't go with us to the mine.

My dad, who acts like he can barely walk sometimes, and Christy and her husband, Kevin, and I went to the mine which was really a neat place to visit. But there is a lot of walking so my dad was verrry slow. I know that after breaking a hip it is hard to get back to normal but you have to know that my dad is somebody who'd rather milk sympathy and not try to strengthen his muscles. It's ridiculous but true. But, anyway, I'm glad we went since the only other two times I've been have been at night for the haunted mine thing at Halloween.

Tonight, we watched the special features on two dvds that Christy received, "Wizard of Oz" and "Titanic". I covet both of them. Hmph. I'll have to catch a good sale for them, I guess.

I go into work at 1pm tomorrow so I went ahead and hugged Christy and Kev goodbye and told her I'd be in touch about my next visit. As long as I don't get canned next week or whatever, I plan on taking my first vacation of the year around my birthday at the end of January. But I might do a 4 day weekend in February and go down there then.

I didn't tell her about the deal with my job. I just didn't want to get into it. Mandy knows and I don't think she's told her. It's just something that once I start talking about it, then I get emotional. And I just wasn't in the mood for that.

I got an unexpected email today from a guy that is a big Afghan Whigs fan. He and I used to talk on the phone when he would be djing for this public radio up in West Virginia. I met him through another Whigs fan but I've never met him. We used to talk a lot and send packages to each other. Anyway, I haven't spoke to him in quite a while but I did send him a Christmas card. So his email was to thank me for it and to relate a story about somebody coming into his record store and recognizing him from a dvd of a concert video of the Whigs. Apparantly, you could see him several times in the audience during the show. Cool, eh?

Ok, I'm trying to gear myself up for the New Year's Eve party on Saturday. I'm hoping it will be fun and I won't be looking around at midnight feeling lonely. That wouldn't be fun.

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