burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

Subject Line = my mantra today.

At one point this afternoon, Sara was waiting for me while I was on the phone and after I hung up I said, "I'm going to kill everyone I work with."  Sara sort of made a hiding gesture and said, "Including me?" and I sort of laughed and said, "No, not you."

From Y!M:
me [2:44 PM] My mother's "Try to be mature and hope it'll pass." is my new mantra. *breathes*
mjules [2:46 PM] Heh. I misread "breathes" as "Beatles," and I was trying to put the two together, though my brain brought up "Let It Be" pretty quickly.
mjules [2:48 PM] (which rather suits, with the whole "Mother speaking wisdom in times of trouble" motif.)

***

Holiday Party today from 4-6pm.  MaryAlice showed up at my desk at 3:52.  I was like, "Um, I was expecting to leave at 4pm.  I'm still doing work."  A few minutes later, she and Katie and Greg were in front of my desk, so I finished up the last email I was working on and headed out.

I don't mind getting to stuff like that right when it starts except for the fact that I don't know a huge amount of people outside of my Unit -- and I see the people in my Unit all the time (I've actually barely seen Katie in like two weeks, but this wasn't necessarily the ideal time to catch up).  But when I went to get dessert (I was peer pressured into starting with healthy food) I bumped into a guy who sees me on the T a lot who introduced himself.  And then I saw Emily from Strategy (whom I know from commuting -- she lives in Teele) and chatted with her and she introduced me to Sean (sp?) who's been temping in their department (and just recently graduated from Hampshire, and is living ridiculously far away like Marshfield).  And then I bumped into Kara (who started as a temp for Katie and is now in GM) and Chris (BGIE -- whom I met randomly at the Centennial).  Later, Jean (floater staff assistant who's been sitting behind me for a few months now) came over and was telling people about what an awesome relationship I have with my faculty (i.e., B) and with other faculty in the department and how well I handle all the craziness of managing these folks.  Hee.

I had 3 glasses of white wine (Bordeaux).

We went back to the office around 6:30, and I killed some time before heading over to my 7:45 class at the div school.

***

Before class, Laurel said, "I was going to get you a Christmas present, but then I heard what my mom's getting you and decided it would be overkill."  I was like, 0.0  She said it should be arriving in a few days.

On our walk back to Harvard Square after class, I was venting and she reached over like to rub my head.  Hee.  ('Cause I am forever petting her hair to comfort her.)

***

On my way up the stairs at Davis, I saw Adam (who temped for Ranjan Monday and Tuesday of this week).  Apparently he lives in Teele, just moved from Chicago two months ago.

***

Walking home, I mentally drafted Prof.B's Performance Evaluation of me if it were just one big prose document (a la what I did for Skarda -- per her request -- when I wanted her to write me a letter of rec).

[Advent day 25] Psalm 98

¹ Sing to the LORD a new song,
      for he has done marvelous things;
      his right hand and his holy arm
      have worked salvation for him.

² The LORD has made his salvation known
      and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

³ He has remembered his love
      and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;
      all the ends of the earth have seen
      the salvation of our God.

⁴ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth,
      burst into jubilant song with music;

⁵ make music to the LORD with the harp,
      with the harp and the sound of singing,

⁶ with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn—
      shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

⁷ Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
      the world, and all who live in it.

⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands,
      Let the mountains sing together for joy; ⁹ let them sing before the LORD,
      for he comes to judge the earth.
      He will judge the world in righteousness
      and the peoples with equity.

The Johnny Damon thing amuses me.  A(lmost a)ll the Red Sox fans are like, "So sad to see you go -- not!"  And all the Yankees fans are like, "We're stuck with him?"  I don't really follow sports, so I have no opinion (I root for the Red Sox and consider the Yankee teh evol, but that's 'cause it's in the air) but I am amused. [And it has happened so often that I have ceased to be surprised by it, but I still feel like there is an ethical code prohibiting RedSox players from defecting to the Yankees, though clearly many are the sinners.]

Eric called in today 'cause his back was killing him (he fell and landed on it yesterday -- and Barbara said today that she told him he should have just gone home rather than exacerbated it by coming in).  Sadness.

Prof.N. had asked him to do a number of things, only some of which he could do from home, so I got to help.  I learned that FedEx InternationalPriority will get something to the Phillippines on Saturday if it was shipped today, and FedEx International NextFlightl uses commercial airlines and courier services and starts at $225 :)

V!A [woman who went on vacation, giving me a temp gig next door to my usual HBS building for a week back in September] came up to my desk this morning, having misread a room number, and she was so pleased to see me.  "You look great.  I think of you often.  Always fondly.  You were so great."

Other morning anecdote:
Me: "So our scanner works now."
TechGuy: "Yes."
Me: "So that took you what, 5, 10 minutes to fix?"
TechGuy: "More like an hour.  Or two, really."
OtherTechGuy: "And it took us 4 months to coordinate it."
Me: "Yeah, that's the thing."
(As I understand it, it was more like 6 months, but I didn't push them.)

OtherProf gave me a Banana Republic gift certficate. 

Bianca okayed my working from home on Friday.  And talking to my bro tonight I realized that I can go visit the h.s. on Friday (and could briefly even if I'd had to go in for the half day).

The temp is working the week after next, which makes more sense than the "next week" I originally understood it as.

All 3 of us remaining FAs (there were ~3 profs left, but they were all working) headed over to the Community Holiday Party ~4.  First stop: booze.  Second stop: food.  I quickly moved on to third stop: dessert :)  I found my finance people at a corner table and it was nice to spend time with them.  And the white wine was yummy.  I had two glasses.  Hi, my name is Elizabeth and I have no alcohol tolerance.  I left around 5:40 to make the 6:15 train (the one after the one I normally make, 'cause socializing trumped coming home in time for dinner to maybe not even be on the table) but I bumped into V!A on the way out as well as another Morgan coworker, so it was 5:50 when I left, and the building the party was in is a bit father away from the Square than the building I work in.  (Not a whole lot, but every bit counts when it usually takes me close to 15 minutes to get to the Square.)  So I get to the Red Line a little after 6, a lot of people are waiting (which is a good sign 'cause it means a train is due to come), a train does in fact arrive very shortly thereafter, and it hits 6:15 before I even arrive in South Station.  I walk quickly up the escalator anyway, though.  People are on the next escalator, so I go quickly up the stairs, look at the board anyway, and Franklin-495 is boarding on Track 7 though the clock says almost 6:20.  I run, get in the first door, ask "Franklin-Forge Park?," get a yes, sit down in the first available seat, and commence catching my breath.  The train actually didn't leave until 6:25, and my mom was on the same train so dinner wouldn't have been ready had I come home on my usual train anyhow.  So glad the train was leaving late, however, as the next one was 7:35.

Oh, anecdote I forgot from last night: Talking about carding or something, my brother said that in Ireland so long as you can see over the bar they'll serve you.  (Which I've heard before.)  "So it sucks to be a midget."  Ba-dum-bump.  "Which is too bad because they have so many of them."  (My mother had to explain to me that he meant leprechauns.  The shame -- 'cause I've been translating for my brother since before he could talk.)

Hey, look, a variation on the anon-meme I actually wanna participate in (via thistlerose).  Who do you think your friends would set you up with? Comment with your username and then people can subsequently reply with who they would put you on a blind date with. Fictional characters, actors, real people -- they all apply!  Do me here.  (Yeah, that was bad phrasing.)