holiday roundup

To those people that wished for a White Christmas: hope you're happy. I blame you for this mess.

I'm supposed to be working today, but with the storm drain three feet from my door, all melted snow/water on the west side of the building pouring into said-storm drain and the lower elevation of my door jam, I'm at home watching that my apartment doesn't flood. What a fricking hassle. I know I am being overly cautious, that it will probably be fine and I won't have to do anything to keep the water out. But I just don't want to risk it, especially after the pipe incident. I also don't really have any boots that I can wear in snow and water: it's either one or the other.

My parents left this morning as well, so I can't even enlist them to watch the door for me. They barely got away, even though they have winter tires and a weighted car. Can't imagine how anyone here can get around. When my friend drove me home last week and wouldn't drive down my street, I thought he was being too cautious, but I get it now. I wouldn't want to drive down any of these streets, either.

The holidays were quite nice and less stressful than I worried they might be. It probably also helped that I didn't put much effort into preparations and didn't let my mom work me into a frenzy like she usually does. We decided not to go to mass on Christmas Eve because the roads and sidewalks looked terrible. I fixed my mom two gin & tonics, so she was pretty calm. The family went through half my whisky, two bottles of wine and 5 fingers of a 26er of rum. Actually, I drank a lot on Christmas Eve, too, and answered a lot of questions about why there is so much alcohol in my liquor cupboard. I didn't think there was. We had perogies and pokounsel, which was awesome (I still have some poppy seed ones and cheese perogies in the fridge), and watched "It's a wonderful life" forever. My brother stayed at my sister/bro-in-law's, so it was a lot easier to be in the house with one less person around.

My parents and I wandered down to church in the morning, a later service because we all slept in. It was sort of weird being in a new church and I tried to explain to my dad why I stopped going to church again. My mom doesn't really get that it's offensive to me to be judged by a priest about things that shouldn't be any of the church's business. We went to my sister's for a while, then out to New West to her in-laws' house. Dinner was fantastic: we had brined turkey from a Nigella Lawson recipe and it was one of the best turkeys I've ever tasted. So good! (I wonder if the same can be done to a chicken. Anyone ever brine a chicken before?) I had to drive home and got lectured at the end of the evening by my dad for driving too close to the right side of the lane. I kept saying, "Dad, I never drive and I never drive in snow," and he would say, "Yes, but you shouldn't drive so close to the right." This conversation circled over and over throughout the following day.

Yesterday my mom and I ventured downtown to get a couple of things. She got sale shoes and some books for 30% off; I bought a china place setting (yes, china. That's how I roll) with the bonus rim bowl even though I wasn't supposed to and some ecobags from the Art Gallery that are so awesome. (I finally got a new membership last Tuesday, partly for the discount on gifts from the shop, partly to see the Jeff Wall exhibit before it closes.) We tried to take the bus to my sister's for dinner, but the bus took forever and then wouldn't pick us up, so my dad agreed to drive if I would direct him (I usually do all the driving when my parents visit, which is often fun, but not when the weather is so crap and I haven't driven in snow in 6 years). My sister is kind of clueless because she didn't really get that we would have to pay $2/hr to park at her house; she wanted my parents to stay at her house, which would have been at least $100 for three days. We watched the junior hockey game (holy crap, what a blowout) and then headed home to watch the Canucks/Oilers game. I thought it would have been a good day to try for scalped tickets, but couldn't check under the circumstances. My brother stayed over here as well last night and looked pissed off having to sleep on a foamy after having his own room with a double bed and TV the previous nights.

Wow, it really does sound like a boring holiday, doesn't it?

Now I just need to figure out how to get through New Year's.