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I'm finally home. Thank dog. The baby is in bed and I have the house to myself for a little bit. The boyfriend drove my cousin home because I guess she overindulged in the alcoholic beverages at my grandmother's house. My mom left a little bit ago to go pick him up. They're not back yet so I'm assuming they stopped into my cousin's house to bullshit.\
This was a very fine Christmas. The baby got a ton of cool stuff to add to the ton of cool stuff that he got for his birthday three weeks ago. I got many cool things…although all of them are slipping my mind at the moment. I suppose I should mention that gave the boyfriend, the baby, and me the tshirts that she silkscreened herself. They say “trite (trIt): not fresh or original”\
The witty part is that she gave them to a bunch of her friends, too. So there are going to be a bunch of dorks running around Pittsburgh with these tshirts on. Watch for us.\
Last night we went out to Brookline to spend Christmas Eve with the boyfriend's family. I guess they started doing this when I wormed my way into the family, but I think it works out nicely. The boyfriend's aunt and uncle were over…smoking in the house. Grr. But, as usual, I wasn't trying to start drama so I kept my mouth shut. We only see them like twice a year. I know that's no excuse but whatever, it's not the issue at hand. The boyfriend's grandmother, Nunnie, made ravioli for a dinner but the boyfriend, my dad and I had gone to Tram's for lunch and were still stuffed. We opened presents and the baby got lots of cool stuff, including plenty of tracks and engines for his Brio train set. The boyfriend and the baby actually got into a small fight over who was going to play with it and how, while I sat rolling my eyes and wondering, “Who's the toddler in this situation?” The baby was tired and not feeling so great so several meltdowns occurred, but overall it was a nice evening.\
When we got home I put the baby to bed and snuggled into bed to watch one of our new movies. The boyfriend's mother, in what appears to be a new Christmas tradition since it's the second year that she's done this, gave us a case of beer. It's a sampler of all of these imported dark beers that sound really yummy. My plan was to eat candy and drink a bottle of this stuff called Young's Winter Warmer, however, the thought of that beer sitting in my stomach all night made me feel immediately sluggish so I decided to abstain. The boyfriend, however, plowed ahead. Halfway through the movie, and about 3/4 of the way through the beer, he stood up to get under the covers. He sat back down, laughed, looked at me with crooked eyes and said, “Wooo, I think that beer went to the dome.” I fell asleep soon after while he stayed up tipsily playing Tony Hawk's Underground, which his mom gave him (I should really send her a thank you note for that, because I will be thoroughly ignored for the next few months. argh).\
We woke up pretty early this morning and got right to opening presents. Then we slowly started to get ready to go to my grandmother's. Now, I am at a weird size right now and don't have many clothes that fit…certainly nothing festive or Christmasy (sadly, my collection of fugly applique sweaters are too large. weep.). I decided to go for comfort and just threw on a black sweater and jeans. My mom insisted that I at least put on some black slacks, but that the sweater was fine. I did so, and she said, “You're dressed in all black! You look like you're going to a funeral!” Then she started picking apart the boyfriend's outfit and sent him upstairs to shave. I put a pair of red earrings on and yelled, “Christmas will still happen no matter what we're wearing!” I must admit, I looked painfully postmodern showing up for Christmas dinner in all black.\
We finally left and headed for my grandparents' where much excellent food and drink was consumed. More presents, you know the deal.\
After a few hours we headed out to Penn Hills to visit the boyfriend's aunt/cousin/person (the relation was never made clear to me) and participated in another holiday tradition: getting lost on the way there. More food, a present for the baby, and some more beverage.\
I must say that I am full to the point of bursting but am still eyeing a bag of candy that is sitting across from me.\
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All in all, with everyone in generally good health, a new, highly awaited job coming up, my gorgeous son being so awesome, and having plenty of good conversation today, this has been an excellent Christmas.

I stayed up pretty late last night wrapping presents and watching Adaptation. with the boyfriend. My mom came in several times to scold me for not doing a zillion things around the house during the day, even though I kept reminding her that I had been feeling sick all day. Then she berated me for getting sick around Christmas. Like I plan these things just to piss her off.\
Anyway, the baby woke up congested and crying around 4:30 and I was just completely befuddled. I changed his diaper, patted his back and gave him more VapoRub then just sort of collapsed into my mom's bed with him in the exhausted hope that he would just go back to sleep. I kept drifting off but he was pretty wide awake and kept talking to me. I felt bad because he was being so sweet, leaning over to give me kisses and touching my face and saying, “Mum, pretty face.” I was just delerious at that point. My mom got up and went to rock with him in his room and I kept having those half-awake dreams where I would dream that I was up and putting the baby to bed. Then I would completely wake up and realize that I was still in bed. It was so confusing and I felt bad that my mom was taking care of the baby but I was just really bushed. I ended up sleeping the rest of the night in there. Earlier this morning I got up thinking that I would curl up with the boyfriend but when I got into our room he was completely spread out and somehow taking up the whole bed. And farting. I thought, “Wow, he really missed sleeping with me,” and just grabbed the laptop and headed down to the kitchen. Upon sitting at the kitchen table I discovered two things.\
1) we don't have any coffee cream or good breakfast stuff\
2) my email isn't working! (*@#&(*&(@*&#(@*&(#&(&!@(*&$^#*@($&*$*@&^#$@%&*^*!\
I foresee my email remaining down until next week what with the holiday and the weekend coming up and I want to find the nearest Santa and punch him.\
My grandmother gave the baby this plush Cat in the Hat doll for his birthday. When you press his hand he says one of several phrases from the movie (barf). I just heard, “Why I'm the Cat in the Hat, there's no doubt about that!” so I guess my little one's stirring. Later.

My stomach's upset for some reason and thankfully the baby went down for a nap with little to no fuss. I'm just lying in bed trying to get my mind off of it but people keep calling here for no good goddamned reason. I put us on the Do Not Call list last month but it said it wouldn't take effect until January or something. Now it seems we get twice the calls we got before. The last one was just a recording saying, “This is so-and-so, your former book club. We are sorry that we don't have an agent available to talk to you during this telemarketing call–” So why fucking call? My mom and grandmother keep calling about…I don't even know. For my mom, especially, Christmas seems to be such a chore. bah.\
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I went to CMU earlier to pick up my offer letter, which was very nice and said how they were all looking forward to me coming to work there. My bosses are so so nice and I'm actually really excited to go to work there. They're also going to be paying me more than I thought so that rules. Another thing I realized today is that I will have access to all of CMU's facilities, like the gym and the pool and whatnot.\
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I'm watching the baby show on TLC at the moment and the mom that they're profiling seems like a total pain in the ass. Instead of having a shower, she threw herself a baby party. All of her girlfriends and their six zillion kids came to her suburban home that looks like every other house in their cul-de-sac. Then she keeps yelling at the kids to be quiet and listen to her as she reads “thoughts on having a new baby” and blahblahblah and the kids are like, “shut up, we're playing with fingerpaint.” She's also eight months pregnant and wearing regular jeans and a belt. Wouldn't that be really fucking uncomfortable? I mean, you just sort of get to a point where you don't want any pressure on that part of your body. Join the team and wear the maternity jeans with the big-ass panel in the front, lady!\
Whatever.

The baby's still asleep so I'm sneaking in an entry in case I don't get a chance the rest of today.\
Last night, I invited , , and over to my house so that I could give them their presents. As the week gets busier, there's no telling when I'll see them next. I gave Cristina these yummy smelling homemade soaps and some sock monkey notecards from Jay Designs. I gave Cara some fingerless gloves from Urban Outfitters, so now she'll be the coolest girl in town since we don't have a bricks-and-mortar UO here. Gotta hit up the online store (although, really, lately I've been thinking it's no big loss). I gave Frank this really goofy soap from Jay Designs that is in the shape of a jello salad mold with chunks of mysterious fruit-looking stuff in it and everything. It came on this little plate with a doily and it might just be one of my most favorite gifts ever. Originally, I had a better and more appropriate gift idea for him but the only chance that I had to go to this particular store they weren't open (what is it with my Christmas shopping plans being thwarted by independent business owners?). Hence, the jello salad soap. It's a quirky gift, yes, but he's a quirky fellow, so I think it worked out in the end.\
Cristina gave the boyfriend and me a DJ Skribble Drum and Bass Spinhead, which has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. His head works like a joystick and for every different direction you turn it, a different sound or phrase is heard. He says really goofy things like, “CYBERTRONIC” and “DJ gonna make you MOVE.” He also carries a glowstick and has his labret pierced. It also comes with DJ Skribble's Club Terms Dictionary and a little fact sheet about drum and bass. I could have died. Cristina gave the baby this little shirt that says “I like green eggs and ham!” on it. The baby was quite impressed since that particular Dr. Seuss book is one of his all-time favorites.\
The four of us spent a few minutes playing with Legos and talking about various goofy things…mostly the Internet, since we're dorks. It was very nice since I hadn't seen any of those kids in weeks. Then I had to kick them out so that I could put the baby to bed.\
My kid went to bed pretty easily but around 2 a.m. he woke up crying and with some bad chest congestion and a cough. I picked him up, changed his diaper and patted his back for awhile. My mom got up to help me set up the humidifier and to put some VapoRub on his chest. He fell back to sleep pretty quickly. Hopefully, this will clear up soon since being sick over Christmas would be suck-ass. I checked in his developmental book for croup but I don't think he has that. His cough didn't sound weird enough.\
The boyfriend didn't get home until 3 because he was out in Brookline helping silkscreen tshirts. He's been out late every night for the past week, which is fine but we really haven't had any one-on-one time in a long while. I'm really starting to miss him and I think the baby does, too. His friends don't have kids so I don't think they realize that him not being here for bedtime and stuff is kind of a big deal so they convince him to stay out all night (although I'm sure his arm isn't being twisted too hard). Terds.\
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Today I have to go to CMU to pick up my offer letter from the English Department and prove to them that I'm not an illegal alien. I'm hoping that only consists of signing some papers and not some bizarre INS ritual involving the American flag and a fraternity paddle. I also have two gifts that I'm trying to get today, one for my mom and one for my dad.\
I got relatively little sleep last night but I'm suprisingly chipper. Let's see how long that lasts.

Our Top Five lists for the year-end issue of Pulp were due Monday at noon. Guess who had a list more or less completed but totally forgot to send it in? \
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Me. \
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I guess I just got all distracted with Christmas and job stuff. I just emailed it to my editor, but I don't know if they're going to be able to use it now or not. Gah, I'm so irritated with myself right now! How could I be so flaky? It was an optional thing, we didn't have to do one, but I didn't do one last year so I really wanted to participate this year.\
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*cries*

I got the job.\
This is good because I had completely convinced myself that I was going to be receiving a form rejection letter in the mail tucked in with the holiday greetings.\
But enough revelry, I have to go do laundry 🙂

My kid just went down for the night. I'm so tired at this point I can't even think straight. I'm also starting to hallucinate.

The boyfriend brought home some muffins, so I just scarfed down a big lemon poppyseed monstrosity because I was a tad famished. It hasn't kicked in yet, though.\
I went to the Pitt basketball game tonight with Jwan, which was fun. I'm no sports nut, but I find that occasionally actually going out to watch a game is pretty enjoyable…and it goes much quicker than trying to watch it on TV. I drove us home, which was a little nerve-wracking since I hadn't driven since August. Oh, by the way, that really irritating woman driver who's going way too slow? That's me. For now, anyway. Just have to be cautious.\
I was going to wrap gifts today but never got around to it. Ergh.\
The boyfriend and his sister went out to the mall today to do some Christmas shopping. Apparently I am getting many, many DVDs this year, which is cool. However, my movie viewing is a little backed up at the moment. I have a couple of DVDs from my birthday still waiting to be viewed.\
This post will only become more random.\
Last night at the LUPEC thingy, I was sitting at the bar waiting in my tiara for my cocktail. The drag queen to my left said, cheekily, “Hey, I like your tiara.” I said, “Oh, and yours is lovely as well.” Then she started quipping about how she was a little shocked to see so many tiaras out that evening. I tried to make a hipstery joke about their ubiquity and said, “Yes, they're like trucker caps for the glamour set.” For some reason, that pissed her off since she abruptly stopped speaking to me. I don't get it. I thought it was pretty funny. Sigh…queens.\
I think I need to sleep and pack that lemon poppyseed muffin onto my backside.\
Night.

In reading over my post from last night I realized how carefully I was wording it in order to not sound like a drunken idiot.\
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Where is everyone?\
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I think I'm housebound tonight. Expect lots of annoying crap from yours truly.

Tonight I was able to attend two very cool events. The first was the holiday party for Pulp's free-lance writers. It was at the Iguana Grill on the South Side, which was a decent enough place. I got to talk to Shanley for the first time in weeks, talked to Cindy for a bit, got free drinks, and my paycheck! Can't beat that. I didn't really know any of the other free-lancers by looking at them, but recognized a few names. The boyfriend was being a good little wife and stood off to the side while I talked business with the “office folk.” ;-p\
After that most of us headed to the Lava Lounge for the LUPEC event, which was so, so fun. We were only there for about an hour and some change, but as soon as we walked in we were greeted by Shanley's wife, Jennie, who handed us our own tiaras and information about the different cocktails being feature that evening. The theme of the night was royalty and focused around a woman named Doris Mercer who was from E. Liberty but became the Princess of Persia through marriage. They created a special drink for her tonight that was called…uh…I can't remember but it had some Chambord, some Crown Royal and something else and a cherry. It wasn't the tastiest thing ever but it did a number on my speech abilities. I spent a good bit of time talking to Robert Isenberg who writes for Pulp and a couple of other publications in the city. He told me that I looked like Cate Blanchett, so I said, “Thanks.” Then we talked about our favorite writers and whatnot. The boyfriend had a good bit of fun, too, which pleased me. He wore his tiara like a true lady and sipped on his fancy cocktail. Yinz guys shoulda come aht. Apparently was there but I was a tad tipsy so I didn't really notice. Sorry, Jen. :-)\
In addition to the tiaras and whatnot, we got some gaudy rings and beads and cookies. We got home at 9 and my mom and son, knowing that we'd only been out for about 2 and 1/2 hours wondered what the hell we had gotten into.\
Anyway, the baby and my mom are in bed, the boyfriend is at Havana and I'm all curled up in bed and watching Roseanne. Life is good. I definitely needed a decent night out since my son has been being very…two and fighting a head cold. I really needed to be around adults who didn't need me to change their diapers or suck the boogers out of their noses.\
Ahhh….