I get to go home and sit down and watch ANTM tonight. I haven�t been able to since the second episode of this round. Yay me. I really should probably get a Tivo, I never get to watch my stories and now that I don�t work with Pug Dad anymore I have no idea what�s going on with All My Children. I don�t know, this is just another place where I�m stubbornly digging in my heels and avoiding technology. I guess I�ve always just felt that getting a DVR of any kind means admitting that TV isn�t just a passing thing I use to entertain myself when there is nothing better to do. It means that there are thing that I HAVE to watch and the fact that I am not home isn�t enough of a reason to skip them. I don�t know that I�m comfortable with that. I�m rather uncomfortable with the fact that I�ve started getting really into Heroes, since I tend to avoid serial television because I don�t want to feel like I need to see it every week. Grey�s Anatomy is about all the commitment I can handle. And people wonder why I�ve been single for so long. Heh.

My shoulders hurt from my belly dancing class last night. You have to maintain an upper body frame similar to the one used in ballet and basically never drop your elbows below your ribcage. For an hour. That is very tiring and hard on back muscles that usually aren�t taxed like that. I had so much fun, though. I am so going back next week, when we will learn the shimmy (I don�t know what that means yet).

Thanksgiving is only a week away! How did that happen? I�m so happy to have a four day weekend. There is also the possibility of Dr P coming to town, so that is very good as well. I have quite a bit of family coming to town for this one this year. This is, of course, a good thing, but at the same time it always seems much more stressful when family is here for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas. I think it�s because we feel the need to try to cram more �family time� into the one day instead of the two and a half that we usually spend celebrating Christmas. I know I�ve talked about this before here, so I won�t bore y�all by going through my family politics yet again.

This also means I need to start Christmas shopping. I hate Christmas shopping. I love giving people presents, but Christmas shopping feels so much more urgent and arbitrary. The plus side is it means I get to hang out in Union Square with Princess, since that is our little tradition to spend an afternoon shopping, looking at windows of stores we will never actually be able to shop in, and eating snacky cakes. I want to get my shopping done early this year. Money is a wee bit tight and I would really like to be able to call it done with one day of crazy (yet frugal) consumerism so I don�t have to brood about it as the calendar ticks down. If I thought I would have time I would plan to do it this weekend, but I have just enough planned that it would be a bad idea to add anything more. After work next week might be possible, though slightly ungainly since I will be shopping via bus. I�ve done it before, quite a few tri though and as long as you plan and pack your parcels appropriately (say THAT five times fast) it isn�t so bad.

I am so ready to go home and just sit and be quiet for the evening. Of course, I have to go grocery shopping because I have no food in my house, but other than that, I am home free. Well, I should also do laundry. I�m dangerously low on socks and underwear, but other than groceries and laundry I�m home free, and this ashtray, all I need is this ashtray�

I still have about 45 minutes left. Oy, the time, it slows to a crawl. Well, I have things I need to do, so I should get to them and leave here with a clean conscience.