New Year's Eve

What a rollercoaster year...I'm really glad it's over!

Stopped by Wegman's tonight to pick up some things and got the sushi guy to make me a rainbow roll, just so I could have something like sashimi today. Local kine girl, 'as why. :) They do decent sushi for a grocery store, and he was out of something so he put on something more expensive to make up for it. How nice. :)

I'm already in my pjs since I won't be going out tonight. Melody and Mittens are curled up beside me on the bark-o-lounger, sleeping. I'm going to put on a chick flick in a bit and eat cookies, watch the movie, knit, maybe read a magazine. It'll be like nearly all my other New Year's Eves over the past decade.

This is the year in which I learned that I adore knitting socks. I like it so well that it's pretty much the body of my completed work this year in knitting. I am in the middle of knitting my first pair of two-at-a-time socks, a pattern called Sugar Maple. When I'm finished with these, they'll be the 10th pair of socks I've completed. Next month, I'll be competing in Sock Wars as well. And, as I told them last night, the knitting group women really saved my sanity in the past couple of months. Without them, I think my sadness would have become even more overwhelming than it seemed. How lucky am I to have found them, huh?

I'm also actually rather happy here. It's just so gosh-darn pretty! When a group of us went to a yarn shop in Pennsylvania last week, I stared out the window at the snowy landscape and beautiful old buildings we passed. I do love this area and can't wait to feel completely settled.

Hang On

Survived Blizzard 2009. No power outages, had enough knitting to keep me busy, also food and tasty beverages on hand. The cats and I hunkered down on the bark-o-lounger, wrapped in a blanket together and snuggled.

I also played some Dragon Age; I am a Dalish rogue. My goal today is to play through more of the story. So far, so good. I do like a nice BioWare game to immerse myself into.

Was supposed to head out to The Mannings today with some ladies from the Wednesday knitting group, but the snow is still abundant on the ground. We're going to go up tomorrow instead. Hopefully, the back roads will be plowed by then.

At my current gig, we do not get the last week of the year off with pay, as was the case with SOE. I am instead taking the rest of my annual PTO this week, which may or may not be a mistake. I've been a bit anxious about how all this freakin holiday cheer is affecting me. So far, I've only burst into tears once, though, so that's good.

This'll be the first time in forever, though, that I have not had one or both little cherubs with me. It totally sucks. I suppose in my mind, I was going to be in Seattle with Dan and would get to hang out with them...and since that isn't what happened this year, well, there you are. And here I am, in a wintry wonderland 3,000 miles away from the men I love.

Holiday Party Time

The past week has been party after party, always a challenge for someone who is as "party shy" as me.

Last Saturday was the knitting group's gift exchange party at Chandra's house. I have to upload all the photos I took, after yanking out all the blurry pet photos (heh...I love Chandra's cat, who is named Remington...just like my first cat!). It was a snowy night, perfect for testing Jane Grey in the cold.

Sunday, Mike and I drove down to Rockville and spent some time with Ray and Rane. Mike and Ray talked art and got caught up while Rane and I talked about all sorts of things. :) I wish I lived closer to them; it was so, so comforting to be able to chat with someone that I knew before moving out here. They invited me to come spend time with them over Christmas.

On Tuesday, I had some co-workers and some of the knitting group over for a cookie exchange. The event filled me with anxiety beforehand, as I couldn't invite everyone I wanted to lest they all show up and have no place to sit or stand in my apartment. It seemed that every time I turned around, I remembered someone else I wished I could have invited. Still, folks seemed to have a good time, and we were certainly filled with an abundance of marvelous cookies!

Then Wednesday night, Jeremy planned a get-together for the content devs at the Irish pub. It was a nice event (even if he had to guilt me into skipping knit night) and we got to meet the significant others of some of the guys we work with. Just not enough space to mix up and visit with everyone.

And then, tonight. It's the company holiday party in DC and it'll be very big and very scary. Big because it includes the Bethesda studio as well, and scary because it's, well, a party. Fortunately, I am carpooling down to DC with Anna (our newest dev...yay! another chick!) so I won't be alone. We're sharing a hotel room down there, too, so we won't need to drive back in the middle of the night.

I just need to figure out what I'm wearing and how much gear I really need to take for a weekend in DC.