Merry Christmas Eve. This is perhaps my favorite day of the winter holiday season. This year is even sweeter due to my absence in the family festivities last year. I don't think I ever took said festivities for granted, but I appreciate them even more after having missed out.

I drove home early Tuesday morning to avoid traffic. Since I am still on orientation at work, I can't work holidays (they don't want to pay two people-- my preceptor and me-- holiday pay). Fine by me! So I worked on Monday and don't have to be back until Saturday. I told my mom and we decided to surprise my dad. When he saw me in the driveway Tuesday morning he thought something had gone terribly wrong until I said "Surprise!" Nothing crazy mind blowing or terribly exciting, but fun nonetheless.

It's nice to be home even though I was here just a few weeks ago. I like that more frequent visits are a reality.

Feeling in the Christmas spirit, my dad paid for a guest pass for me to my favorite gym ever this morning. I went to spinning (duh) and enjoyed it thoroughly (double duh). Frequently in the class, the instructor will say "Give your neighbor a thumbs up" after a particularly challenging song. As I turned to give the thumbs up, my neighbor said to me "Don't eat too much tonight." What a tool. I know men don't get women... but seriously, you would think they'd be a little more aware. I was especially grateful to spin because the past two days I've been here I've been running in the hills outside and my knees needed a break from that nonsense. Spinning was the perfect remedy.
The first day I was running outside on a particularly narrow and windy country road. There are either gravel shoulders or no shoulders at all out here in the sticks. As I crested a hill, I saw a car coming towards me with a construction orange sign on top of it that said "OVER SIZED LOAD." I looked behind that car and saw an incredibly over sized load, so I decided to stop running (phew!) and get as far to the side of the road as possible. Unfortunately there was really no where to go. I looked back toward the over sized load, I saw orange flags hanging off the side of the load signaling that it was significantly wider than the road. The flags were coming straight for my head. I didn't panic but I was confused-- I wanted more to figure out what in the world was on this load and why in the world they were using this road to transport it. I snapped out of my curiosity just in time to duck and avoid decapitation. I didn't get a good look at whatever it was, but I didn't lose my head either, so I guess we'll call it even.

Not a lot to report. Work is going well and I am enjoying it. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was overwhelming, but that's to be expected, and it's my sincere hope that in good time it'll be better. I know it will be, I remember feeling even more overwhelmed when I started my old job. So I know there's light at the end of the tunnel, but it's a long tunnel.
My apartment is looking good. My parents were kind enough to come up last weekend and help a lot. I needed some power tools so my dad brought a toolbox for a champion and helped me put my guest bed together (that's right, I have a guest bed!), and helped hang a bunch of things on the walls, and a ton of other stuff. It was great to have the company and the help. My mom brought a fancy pants wall hanging that fits perfectly above the TV. It's starting to look homey!

Merry Christmas-- happy holidays. I'm a Christmas enthusiast, but embrace your holiday of choice. The Wal-Mart bell ringer was quite excited about Winter Solstice yesterday. I love the West Coast.