Travelin' time.

Happy holidays, everyone! I'm sorry I haven't had time to do a proper post all week. I've been busy last-minute gift shopping (because I'm a world-class procrastinator), cleaning (because the apartment desperately needs it), and freezing my butt off (unfortunately not literally).

I'm going to Iowa today! Jon and I are staying with my aunt and uncle in Bettendorf. I'm really looking forward to seeing my cousin, Katie, who spent her summer in Germany and I'm sure has a million pictures to show and stories to tell. My uncle, the one that lives in Minnesota? Michigan? I can never remember...will also be there, as will my grandpa (who lives in Cedar Rapids).

I have one thing I've been meaning to say. I usually dread shopping over the holidays, but this year, it actually wasn't that bad! My personal highlight: the retail employees who helped me out. I have extreme gift anxiety. It's really bad. No matter what I get for people, I panic that they'll hate it or already have it, etc. The people at Macy's were really helpful and sweet, and I kind of enjoyed it for once. A favorite moment happened at Lush, where the salespeople are ALWAYS really...persistent. Especially over the holidays. This 25 year-old guy kept following me around telling me exactly what a 16-year-old girl (Katie) would enjoy using. He held up this one bar of soap and said, "Smell this! It's so good, isn't it? This is what I imagine Hanna Montana would smell like if she was soap!" I didn't buy that particular soap, unfortunately, but opted for a gift basket instead. I currently have gift anxiety over it.

Ok, well, Happy Holidays everyone! Enjoy your time with family and friends, stay safe and warm, and I'll talk to you (at you) when I get back. :)

Off to pack, pack, pack...

A big ol' jumbled mess in my head.

So, I'm going to straighten it out here. Yes, I suppose it may be boring for anyone who decides to read this specific post, but on the other hand, what better way is there to get to know what someone is up to than by reading their to-do list? Plus, if I post it here, there's some sort of accountability that goes along with it, right? If I end up doing none of this, I will feel like a giant failure and who wants that?

This weekend is going to be crazy busy. I haven't done ANY shopping yet. None. I need to get my mom something. I'm pretty sure I've already decided on a Netflix subscription. The only downside to this is that I'm sure her new husband will use it more than her and she might resent me if he spends any more time watching the TV than he already does.

I have to figure out the best way to get my boyfriend his present, which I've already mentioned on here is Guitar Hero World Tour (Amazon might take too long, carrying it home from Target might not be physically possible...I dunno, this might involve a cab ride or something).

I need to fill out Christmas cards for everyone I'll actually get to see in person (my family in Iowa, people at work). Then, I have to figure out what to do with everyone else. An e-card seems somewhat impersonal, but let's face it. Nothing I send out now will get to anyone in time because I've last-minuted this thing to death. I will just have to find some really good e-cards??? Ugh, I'm the worst.

I just received a gift this morning from my supervisor at work. I wasn't expecting anything from anyone here, so naturally, I didn't think about it. Now I have to get something! I have no idea what! I don't know what she got me...and I'm not supposed to open it until Christmas.

I have to do MASSIVE amounts of grocery shopping. I must somehow carefully manage to only buy enough for what I need to make and not have a ton of excess because we are heading to Iowa on Wednesday and it will all go bad if left in the fridge. I have apparently been nominated to make polenta (the only thing I make well) for my boyfriend's pot luck at work (which I'm not invited to, so seems like a scam to me). I also want to make cookies for work...I'm thinking these vegan cookies, which were posted by Luciana on Twitter and seconded by Lauren, because it will be something different than what everyone else will bring. The only problem with this plan is all of the ingredients that it requires, of which I have very few at home. I would probably have to go to Whole Foods to get some, and I just don't know if I'm willing to make that trek in the snow. It's not all that far, to be honest, but it's not exactly on the way to anything else, you know?

I need to buy jeans. So. Bad. I have one pair that falls off of me after wearing them for 15 minutes because they are too big and they stretch out immediately. I have one pair that is on the verge of being too tight and too short. I have two pairs that are identical to each other that I adore. I've worn them for more than eight years now, though, and they are literally falling apart. Every time I wear them now I worry they will just crumble and I'll be bottomless. And cold.

I have to finish cleaning my apartment. I moved there in June. I mean, c'mon. It's time to finally complete the unpacking process, don'tcha think?

I have to make a decision on whether or not I want to go to church on Christmas day with my family and call my aunt about it. If I tell her I'm not interested, they will go on Christmas eve before I arrive. This may be more convenient for both of us, but I'm worried about offending. I really don't want to go, but it's one of those things that I'm willing to do to keep the peace, you know? Hey, my family may be Catholic, but they're also Democrats, so they're not totally crazy. ;)

Hopefully 20 extra hours will somehow magically appear in my life this weekend. Right now, though, I have to get back to work. Adios!

Catch up time!

Last night, I got off of work and went straight to the boyfriend's place of employment to dooooooo this:

That's right, we made a gingerbread house! But it's not just any gingerbread house...no sir. It's a LEED Platinum certified gingerbread house, and it was his company's entry for Gingerbuild 2008, a charity event where it was auctioned off tonight. I'm not taking credit for much of it. I'm no good with constructing anything, and the other people there (5 of us in all) are all architects and interior designers and such, so...yeah...I left it to the professionals. I helped with signage and ideas mostly. It was a lot of fun to be part of the whole thing, though. It our first time doing anything like it (all of us). I was pretty proud of everyone.

You want to know the best part? It WON! I didn't see the other entries, but I heard they were good and we still won. Cool, right? I don't know how much it went for in the auction, but I'll probably hear about it tomorrow. Yay!

Anyway, we were there pretty late and I didn't even get home until after 10:30. I was absolutely exhasted. Probably went to bed around 12:15. I don't think I've slept more than 5 hours any night this week. Barely even got the 5, so tonight, I plan on getting to bed waaaay earlier. I'm catching up on my Top Chef at the moment, so I'll probably pass out right when it's over (and catch up on my sleep). Is the title of the post starting to make more sense now?

I am SO so so so excited about tomorrow. I think I mentioned a couple of posts ago that my work holiday party is this week...well, it's tomorrow. But I'm not going anymore. Yeah, I double-booked myself and didn't realize it. Instead, tomorrow I am going to see Oasis and Ryan Adams! Oh, and Matt Costa, which I guess might be exciting if I knew anything about him. I know the name. Does that count?

Right, so I've seen Oasis a few times. They canceled on me twice in my teens, I finally got to see them in West Palm Beach when I was 16 or 17. I saw them again in Atlanta once and in their home city of Manchester when I was in England. That was by far the craziest concert I think I've ever been to, but those stories can wait for another day. Let's just say I was dodging flying cups of pee from drunken football hooligan types all night. Fun, though!!!

Anyway, I have never seen Ryan Adams live, so I'm sort of more excited about that. In case you haven't noticed from my post on here or my Last.fm page, I've been kind of obsessed with his new album. I always do that when he puts out new tunes. I just can't stop listening! It will just be a great show, I think. It's half of my Christmas present from Jon, the other half being The Killers concert in February. I love going to a good show. Yep. I'd take a concert or two over pretty much every other present in the world. He's getting Guitar Hero World Tour in return (don't worry, he already knows...and probably doesn't read my blog, ha!).

So, no work party for Alissa, but it's probably for the best. I can listen to the stories on Monday and know for sure that there are no bad ones about me. Win-win, you see. :)

Ok, that's it. I HAVE to get some shut-eye. Night!