Let it be said that I love Christmas. This year it took me a long time to get in the Christmas spirit. I generally kind of build Christmas spirit throughout December, and this year started out pretty typically… But between getting sick before my trip to Boston a week or two ago, and the interview which stressed me out to no end (and will continue to do so until I hear one way or another). So even a few days ago I really didn’t feel too holly or even very jolly, but between yesterday and today, I was kicked in the ass and got a cheer jumpstart thanks to my awesome family.
Yesterday us minus Aimee (who had to work and arrived late last night) went to visit Grammy & Grampy in Martinsville. We usually have the family gettogether at their place, and just munch on deli sandwiches and stuff while catching up and exchanging gifts, but this year they took us out to eat, which was a nice change of pace. We returned home around 4pm and after a bit of waiting started the aforementioned movie night. We watched Christmas Vacation, Christmas Vacation 2 (which sucked big-time, we bailed after 15 minutes), and Die Hard. We have been taking a few years off from Christmas Story, as my family feels a bit burned out on it (I don’t quite understand their sentiment).
After the movie night I had this insane craving for hot wings that went unfulfilled. Larissa even drove me around for awhile trying to track some down to no avail. I am still having residual pangs of craving right now, and I believe this is one of the strongest cravings for food I have ever had. I am going to need to have wings tomorrow one way or another.
After everyone woke up this morning we opened the gifts under the tree. It is just so awesome watching everyone open presents, it instantly transports me back to my childhood. It isn’t even about the presents so much as it is the one time of the year I know everyone in my family will be in the same place, all with smiles on their faces. I ran some cat5 out to the living room so we could run my Slimp3, so we had an endless supply of Christmas music.
After we were done shredding wrapping paper, I whipped up some Pancakes, and we cooked the bacon and sausage that we got from the butcher earlier in the week. Man that was a yummy breakfast, and the bacon was literally the best bacon I have ever had. I can’t even believe how good it was. Pretty much as soon as the dishes from breakfast were clean I started prep work on the Ham I was making for dinner. Oh man is that recipe so awesome… made it a few times when he lived with us in Boston, but this was the first time I made it on my own… I am salivating just thinking about it.
What I got for Christmas:
I know it sounds corny, but time spent with my family with nobody stressing over much was awesome.
We just had our yearly Christmas Movie Extravaganza! This year Die Hard was added to the fray, an awesome addition to our catalog of Christmas movies (thanks Rory!). We also watched the first 15 minutes of the sequel to Christmas Vacation that NBC ran a few weeks ago (Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure) but it was just too bad.
Art and Joe (the contractors we have working on the bathroom) were here this morning at around 8am, which means I woke up at around 8:15am. I was still really tired and had a headache, so I popped in my earplugs and went back to bed. I didn’t sleep all that well, however, so I kinda just tossed and turned for a few hours. I have been up for awhile now, but I just took a shower and feel like I am “rolling”, finally.
I have to run a few errands today, so I guess I am going to tackle that crap before figuring out what to do for the rest of the day. I’d like to run Cat5 to the stereo out in the living room so we can use my Slimp3 to listen to Christmas music, but mom is sleeping out there (she had to go into work at midnight cuz someone called out at the hospital). It’s a short run, so I can just do it tonight or tomorrow.
Finally caught Return of the King last night with Johnny and Chuck. It was a long film, but in my opinion probably the best of the trilogy. Why do people stand up and walk to the back of the theatre before the credits roll? I can’t answer this question, but I do know that those people were punished during Return of the King, being forced to stand at the back of the theatre for 30 minutes, as the film had about 4 different “endings”, each tying up the plot of a particular set of characters.
Dad and I took a trip down to Sussex Meat Packing to spend what was left of a “Meat Gift Certificate” from last year. We got a few really nice looking shell steaks, some bacon, some sausage, and some taylor ham. We hoped to get a City Ham there for Christmas, but ended up having to go to the supermarket for that one.
It ended up taking me six hours to get back home last night. I was just completely drained by the time I finally did, but I am feeling better today. Aunt Kathy stopped by this evening to exchange gifts (note: exchange, not open) and it was good to see her. She drove down to Bernardsville to visit my Grandparents graves and stopped by here on the way back. She got stuck in some god-awful traffic jam, and so she could only stay here for a little bit before she had to continue on to Syracuse.
Dad and I installed some new switches in the master bathroom today. He wanted those fancy-looking low profile switches, and he also got a new switch for the fan that has this neat digital timer.
Was supposed to go see RotK tonight with Johnny, Chuck, and Calmie, but I guess John got sick, so we are postponing until possibly tomorrow. My dad bought some high-octane egg nog at the liquor store before, so I had better get out for some food before I imbibe. :)
Ok, I took a bit of a nap and an in a much better state of mind to actually talk a bit more about today.
As I said, I was there from 11:30am until 5pm, straight interviews with 6 different people. I had kind of expected there to be a lunchbreak in there somewhere, but that wasn’t the case. No big deal, though, I stocked up on cereal before I left. I was hungry as hell by the end but not dying or anything.
All the people I met with were really cool. I seemed to do really well, answering all the questions presented to me with what I think were good answers. I didn’t seem to put any of the interviewers off, although I’m sure I was a little less vivid with the last person given the length of time I was at it.
Man, it would totally rock out to get this job. I’d get to work on some great software, some seemingly way-cool people, and also make my triumphant return to the Boston area. I’d get to have a friendly rivalry with and Chris Mason, and hopefully make the world a better place through Open Source Software. I know it sounds corny and idealistic, but I think it could be true.
I don’t want to say anything cocky like I knocked it out of the park, but I am pretty comfortable saying it went pretty well.
I was in there from 11:30a until 5pm. Pretty intense, but I think it went well. Won’t find out until after the holiday. Right now I am totally burned out, so perhaps more later.