Part 2

As of Saturday, my birthday is officially over. The way I've come to celebrate things isn't new, but I didn't figure out I'd been doing it until this past Christmas. It's become more than one day. Christmas for me starts Christmas Eve, and doesn't end until all gifts are exchanged, so, for instance, my Christmas went from the twenty-fourth to... I don't remember. I wanna say New Year's, but that was when I gave Jon a little knife thing, and I'm pretty sure Christmas with the grandparents was some time after. But as I said, birthday's done now.

Saturday I got to hang out with my dad. Grandpa, as far as I am aware, is still having problems with bleeding, so we didn't see him, and I thought Grandma was gonna be out a while longer, and she was not. But after Monsters versus Aliens 3D (which I enjoyed), we got some dinner and afterward, grabbed Nova and took him over to hang around with us. He was out of sorts, which sucks, but I think he appreciated being out and about, even if he didn't like the water we got for him (he would stick his paw in the bucket, as if he was fishing something out of it). I like the dog most when we're just hanging out at home, because sometimes, like today, he'll get reeeaaal close and just -look- at ya, maybe a little expectantly. That means he wants you to pet him, and if you're sitting down, he'll sit with you, as long you've got a hand in contact with him. Nova is a good dog, even if he sucks at listening.

I don't know how it manages to keep happening, but every time I go to St. Andrews, it feels a little more bleak. Not the church-sharing thing we're possibly gonna do, but in terms of people. I keep losing my church friends. My first friend was Click Thomas, the first person in the congregation (as opposed to Fr. Henry, who I don't count in that number) to reach out me in a real way. And he's neat! He was a paratrooper, a manager at Ford for years, and is one of two people who taught me about investing (although whether I'll be able to use that knowledge or not has yet to be seen). I haven't lost him, but Click's got scleroderma, and it's not exactly smooth-sailing right now. He's just gone a lot (not as bad as me, though x_X). Fr. Henry left first, then Craig Perkins, then Steve Trudell... Click isn't my only friend left, but he'd leave a noticeable gap for sure. And it sucks. With everyone else, it's small talk. I don't hate or even really dislike anyone, but I hate small talk.

For Marian; if the idea of poking yourself in the eye doesn't deter you, I'd say go for contacts, if you hate glasses so much. I'm not trying to spook you or anything, but that lady on your Myspace is painting a real rosy picture of it all. You have more of a risk of infection because of contacts, but that's not as scary as it sounds, since apparently only 5% of wearers actually develop problems like that. I'll tell ya what, though, as soon as it looked like I was getting pink eye (in both sides -_-), I ditched my contacts forever. I didn't get great clarity, either, but I have slight astigmatism, and at the time, the super-convenient lenses for astigmatism weren't common. I stick with glasses now primarily because I like to indulge in a good eye rub more often than I was allowed with contacts (ie, never), and secondarily because it doesn't take me 5-8 minutes to put glasses on.

Sean