Back to the salt mines

I’ve been on vacation for the last eleven days, and I’m not going to lie to you – it was fabulous. I need to invent something and make my fortune or win the lottery right quick, because I think I could come to like a life of leisure.

I packed a lot into those 11 days too. I celebrated Christmas and New Year’s with my friends and family. I helped cater a holiday party and while I had fun, I also discovered that it takes a ridiculous amount of work to cater a party. There’s one more career I can safely cross off my list. I got up the morning of the party, went to the grocery store to get fresh baguettes, and cooked all day until it was time to shower and head to the party. Then I stood for five more hours, heating food in a cluttered and unfamiliar kitchen, weaving my way through the crowds of people to make sure the table stayed stocked, all the while making pleasant chit chat. I’m glad I did it, but never again.

I saw movies. Slumdog Millionaire was wonderful. Sad and funny and perfectly paced, and I think you should go see it. It deserves to win all sorts of awards.

Deathrace was exactly what I expected it to be. Lots of fast driving, ass kicking and blowing shit up. If that’s what you’re looking for in a movie, Deathrace will deliver. If you want a believable plot, sensitive characters and aren’t willing to suspend disbelief, go watch some other movie, because you will not find any of that nonsense in Deathrace.

And then there was Wall-E. Everyone I knew who saw it this summer raved about it, so I expected to like it, and I did. What a sweet movie! Yes, I cried at a robot love story. That Wall-E is very endearing. You got a problem with that?

I received a lot of cheese as gifts, and when I say a lot, what I mean is an amount so massive I could run a cheese cart at the mall. I’m pretty sure people think I’m exaggerating when I tell them about the cheese, so I’m posting photographic evidence here. Behold the power of cheese:

Not one ounce purchased by me.

I spent countless hours of quality time with John and Seamus, the two most important people in my life. I probably did not spend enough time at the gym, but whatever. I’ll get back there tomorrow. I saw more of my mom and my dad than I usually do, and even managed to catch up with some of my friends. I read books and daydreamed and took naps.

It was wonderful, and much needed after what was a very rough time for me over the last few months. For once I completely checked out. No reading email, no worrying about voicemails, no thinking about work stuff at all. There were days where I had no idea whether the stock market was up or down. While I won’t say I’m delighted to be heading back to work in the morning – I think I could do with one more week of lounging around before I’d start getting nutty – I am going back refreshed and with a much better attitude. Maybe 2009 won’t be a complete disaster after all.

How was your holiday?