Happy Year of the Whisper Quiet Maytag Dishmaster!

It seems like i'm on a once every two week kick around here, something I'll try to remedy soon. I'll add it to the resolution list:
Eat Better/Exercise:New Year's Resolutions::RSTLN E:Wheel of Fortune Bonus Round. Also reading more things that aren't on a computer screen, unless I'm writing them. Also go out and drink more often but drink less quantities of alcohol overall. Get out of bed earlier, work harder. Get through at least one conversation with someone, anyone, but preferably with someone I don't know well, without fearing that they have quickly lost interest in whatever I'm saying and are only being polite before finding the chance to end said conversation (the only times in my approx. 26.6667 years that this has happened is when I'm the one being polite and looking for a way out (which represents a small percentage of overall conversations), so what I'm really saying is, I suppose, is have more conversations that are mutually appealing, without the urge to bang my head against a hard surface either after or during.) Also: cook interesting but practical meals.

Christmas was basically a long weekend with lots of gifts changing hands and driving. We got our load of things to try and cram into our apartment (which will be doable once we obtain and assemble our fifth bookshelf.) My personal highlight was absolutely destroying my family playing poker on Christmas Eve, despite the fact that I haven't played in nearly two years. But overall it was quick and also exhausting. The following 4-day workweek was among my worst work week's ever, and it seemed roughly twice as long. Thursday night I broke my routine to go out with coworkers for drinks. Several hours later the 'drinks' were the equivalent of roughly 13 beers, all consumed without any food since my two-sandwich lunch around noon. Needless to say, the fact that I was conscious enough to find my way 85 blocks home was remarkable in itself, with no permanent damage save for a nasty scratch on my new inessential cell phone from when I dropped it either before or after a failed attempt to call one of my coworkers and shout something loud into the phone. I made it to work around 10 the next morning, luckily it was a slow pre-holiday day. This episode was enough for me to avoid regretting not having fun, sexy plans for new year's eve, which I largely spent alone at home trying to fix my ipod. As midnight fireworks were heard emanating from downtown, I was on hour seven in the process and (obviously) too wired from sheer adrenaline to notice the passing of one calendar year closer to my (fiery?) (watery?) (sticky?) grave.

Later there was champagne and cake and a trip to a Nepalese (sp?) restaurant in the north suburbs and watching the excellent and highly recommended 'The Squid and the Whale' afterwards. (TSATW, along with 'Me and You and Everyone we Know' make up the entirety of my 'best of 2005' film list, fyi)

The Best of 2005 CD should be in several hands already, and others will have to wait until I get CD-packing envelopes and make a trip to the Post Office. Best Year Ever? You can be the judge.