Merry Belated Christmas, everyone! Seriously belated, I know. ^^;

I hope the holidays went well for everyone and you made out like a bandit. (Including not too much family drama!)

Mine went surprisingly well this year. No drama from my step-great-grandmother, though for the past several years she’s had to constantly lament her Celiac and that she can’t eat anything and everything tastes like crap. There was actually an even exchange of normal, Celiac-, and diabetic- friendly foods on the table this year. This is a huge improvement over last year where I ended up eating sea-food salad for my Christmas dinner and having a lime yogurt for dessert.

Nothing significant to report for gifts for us. I guess the rest of our family is just as stumped on what to get everyone as we are. I got a gift certificate to Express, a couple checks, and a mini food processor. (Which I plan to use, because fine-mincing herbs and vegetables for some of my recipes is a pain.) The rest of the family got gift certificates too. (Not that I’m complaining.)

I think next year I’m going to put together some jewelry like I’ve been wanting to do for a while or I’ll find one of those universal or multi-store gift cards. I keep threatening to make jewelry for everyone, but I’ve never done it because of the cost involved. Good beads and findings that don’t look flimsy or cheap are really expensive. However, now that all of us are employed, I think I can do it.

Anyway, aside from the snow, Christmas went really well this year. We’re still working on getting the leftovers out of the house, but we’re making progress. Though if I ever make my own low-carb cranberry sauce again, I’m either going to have to use more sweetener or else use a little orange juice instead. That was just a bit too tart. Maybe using the orange rind as a garnish instead of cooking it with the cranberries would be better too. (I’ll have to post it once I have more time to experiment.)

I’m also getting over a slight sore throat, but nothing major beyond a little cough and a bit of a runny nose. My Aunt Karla took mom and I out on a “Girl’s Day Out” at Woodland Mall on the 21st and found out Jass and I like clothes from Express. I went and tried on jeans, but between not wearing the right underwear for trying on low-rise jeans, being exhausted from work, and sticker shock at the $70 price-tag, I didn’t have the right mind-set to buy anything. Actually, I didn’t buy much at the mall total, but I did find a new purse, some new underwear from Victoria’s Secret, and had my first Starbucks cappuccino.

I told my Aunt she was going to have to kidnap me again sometime, probably a Saturday so I could be more awake to hit the mall. OH, and I had the best Japanese-style lunch at the mall too. They have this food court with different, little restaurants. They have everything from pizza to different ethnic foods all set up in little booths. I hit up the Japanese one and got myself some teriyaki chicken, steamed rice, and then some steamed vegetables. It wasn’t the sushi I’ve been craving, but it was still really good. Mom went next-door to the Chinese booth and got some great sesame chicken. I don’t remember what my aunt got, I think she hit the Thai or the other Japanese booth.

With the way Christmas was situated this year, I had to go back to work for Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday night. Friday night, I got to work with Ryan over in the rework area and let me tell you he had me geeking out. He actually knew what anime was! That part of the conversation didn’t last long, since those are the only two he’s seen, but it was nice being able to talk with someone with interests more like mine for a change. He’s a Cowboy Bebop fan and likes what little he’s seen of Full Metal Alchemist, though he hasn’t seen much. I didn’t care. Someone actually knew about anime! I had so much fun! It was great!

Anyway, I guess I’ve rambled enough. Much love, everyone!

I had to train a new guy at work today and while it was fun actually working with someone for a change, it very quickly went over to creepy when it became clear he had misinterpreted me being nice as being sexually interested in him.

I was nice to him his first day, mostly because I remember how tough it was. I asked him how things were going. Today, I had to work with him and train him to use the machine. Since the first time they run a machine, you’re apparently not really supposed to leave them alone for long. Well, that meant finding conversation topics.

No, I don’t speak Spanish. Only a few words here and there.
Yes, I happen to like classic rock. So we spent most of the night talking about different bands and singers.
What do I do for fun? Umm, almost nothing since I’m trying to finish college?

Very gradually, he wanted to know more about me including my dog’s name. He was shocked when I knew “Luna” meant moon. Yes, Luna is Spanish (and Latin) for moon. But how about Luna, the Roman moon goddess? Lunar? *sigh*

I probably should have known what was coming when he asked if I was single or had kids earlier in the night. The guy has a daughter my age, but he wanted to take me out to dinner sometime.

Yeah, nice enough and I did enjoy being able to talk for a change — but hell no!

I suppose I’m probably closer to being bi; most guys are way more trouble than they’re worth and most girls are way too weird. So, that pretty much sums up everyone.

I really wish the people at work didn’t know so much about me. I’d buy a cheap engagement ring and wear it as defensive camouflage.

It worked when I was over at Meijer so many years ago. I popped on my handmade amethyst ring just because. (Actually, I was hoping that the gem lore was true and the amethyst would help me keep my temper.) The usual types of creeps took one look at my hand and backed off. Unfortunately, I won’t wear my ring to Kalfact (last time I wore any rings, I nearly lost them) and it would be really… troublesome… if my coworkers thought I’d gotten engaged in the “overnight.”

I’ve been spending a lot of time trolling LiveJournals icon and graphics journals and I’ve come up with a new pet peeve: People keep posting icons to a public journal, but making the actual post friends-only.

My response? …eh, why? You gotta have some really good icons for me to waste my time friending a journal I might not come back to.

It’s not like it actually stops anyone from stealing the icons. I frequently steal icons from other people’s profiles, especially if they have credit to the original artist up. (That’s where and how I got the Hello Kitty icon on the LiveJournal version of this post.)

I know Jass has said that before, but I guess I’m saying it again.

Ah, whatever.

Anyway, got my profile looking spiffy, now I get to read through a bunch of resource journals to figure out how to make my layout a reality.

Ook tagged me for this one. ^^; “Rules are easy, just post 10 things that recently made you happy! Tag 10 people and force them to post this meme on their LJs.”

1. Getting a postcard from Ookami. (Squee! I luff postcards!)
2. Coming up with a layout for my LJ and having it work for once.
3. Finding Pocky at the local supermarket! (Squee²!!)
4. Finding my favorite Jpop artists on (USA) iTunes.
5. Finally becoming eligible for health insurance.
6. Receiving a phonecall regarding my portfolio.
7. Shino, Kiba, and Hinata finally showing up in Naruto Shippuden anime/manga.
8. Sai and Yamato making their appearances in Naruto Shippuden.
9. Talking about current video games with Jorge at work.
10. Finding a few fun, quirky gifts for Christmas.

I have no idea who to tag for this one, since I have most of the same friends as ook. ^^;

Last week was a real (insert favorite adjective here) at and 1^st shift, as usual, had to end things on a particularly “high” note.

To begin with, I hadn’t had that good a week anyway. Seems every day someone was finding cause to yell at me. First there was the missing tails on the “4″ in the lettering on top of about 20 of the 3600 screwdrivers I’d made. (1^st shift made it sound like it was everything I’d made.) Then, I refused to go over to the machine called “Cell 1″ and I’m in trouble. Because I’m was not going to clean up Sarah’s mess over at “Cell 1″, I’m in trouble. Then, I hadn’t made out some labels correctly and I’m in trouble yet again. Finally, I was assigned to sort through nut driver blades to search for rusty ones.

And 1^st shift comes in to replace us and throws a royal tantrum. They don’t have time to sort through blades. I hadn’t sorted them correctly. There was nothing wrong with the ones I’d sorted. I don’t know what the problem was.

Oh, and we had snow. Lots and lots of snow. So it took about 45 minutes to get home, when it only usually takes about 15. (Maybe that’s why they had to be so awful.)

Anyroad, I’m sick to death of being yelled at.

Spent most of yesterday sleeping. Actually, I pretty much slept from 10am Friday until 8am Saturday minus an hour or two here and there for biological functions. I also hit iTunes pretty hard and downloaded some more Gackt, mucc, and Miyavi. During one of my awake periods, I downloaded the latest Naruto Shippuden episode and had a good laugh at Cap. Flashlight Face and Mr. Penis.

If I can ever get to the bank (nope, I still haven’t! XD) I’m placing an order with ThinkGeek and getting Kevin’s X-mas present (I hope he isn’t reading this!) and then finally getting my paid LiveJournal account.

In the meantime, I need to do a little yoga and see if I can lose the stiffness from sleeping almost 24 hours. Oops, and gotta get some groceries before the next snow storm arrives. ETA is in about 3 hours and counting.