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12-18-03 // 10.32 am "are we having an earthquake? (that was enjoyable)" NP: Ben Folds - "Ben Folds Live" Ugh, Christmas. I'm not a grinch, honest. The holidays are great, especially cold nights where I can sit around with Erin and just admire the colored lights reflecting around the darkened apartment. Christmas Eve & Day are wonderful family times, even if they're often so ridiculously jam-packed as to take away a bit from what should be a totally laid back holiday. But otherwise...Christmas gets on my nerves. Christmas cards are nice but there are so many of 'em. Same with presents -- I love giving gifts but I don't like having to brave the throngs of people and needing to check my list two or three times. I loathe the advertising that springs up this time of year. The TV ads exhorting assholes to "give a Lexus for Christmas" this year, complete with giant novelty bow on top; the unending barrage of radio ads telling us that we're worthless unless we "give the gift of diamonds", as if your partner will leave you on the spot if there isn't a box with a necklace or earring set under the tree. I'm pretty sure the straw that's currently breaking this camel's back is tomorrow's office Christmas potluck & gift exchange. Barf. I've been roped into providing salad for the lunch, and now I have to go out tonight and get some $5 white elephant type gift. Another thing I don't want to do, just so I can then waste valuable work time tomorrow being surrounded by management types "in the Christmas mood". Save me. This makes December #2 that I am grateful for being done with college and never having to take another final exam again unless I somehow willingly choose too. Hallelujah. So SLU is going ahead with building a brand new 13,000 seat basketball arena on campus. Because what this city needs is another arena. Apparently the Keil Center downtown and the Family Arena in St. Charles isn't enough. I understand the desire to have an arena right there on campus, to add to the sense of community and home-court advantage, but it just seems like a collossal waste of money, especially since SLU is already pretty close to the Keil (I refuse to call it by its new corporate moniker). Granted, very little public funds are being used for the construction, so it's not much of my business, but it just seems like universities increasingly have no clue at all as to what the priorities are. If I was a SLU student I'd be super pissed, as their tuition's probably going to go up. Though if you can afford to go to SLU in the first place, you probably don't really care anyway. This is one of those days where I would very much like to be left alone so I can do my boring work in peace. No coworkers jabbering away outside my cube, no project mates calling to ask questions, no stupid corporate emails. Now I remember why I used to not mind coming in extra early -- there was that precious 1.5/2 hour window where the lab was basically empty and I could get my work on in uninterrupted joy. Despite the fact that I sound like a cranky old man, this is a good day. It's Thursday, and thanks to a bit of overtime I put in early this week I'll be leaving a bit early tomorrow, and since Erin has a real, live, actual Friday night off, that's looking to be an old-school traditional pizza & beer night. Cool. The entire floor just shook. Seriously. I'm used to loud booming noises and the occasional feeling of the building shaking (we're right under the flight path of jets from the nearby air force base), but this was different, more ground based. I wonder if the New Madrid fault is doing its thing? Hrm. I'll have to investigate this further. Now I must continue on with writing technical documentation, which is easily the most mind-numbing part of my job. Joy.
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