Sassy Black Friend

The most wonderful time of the year

I’ll admit it. I’m a rabid consumer. Especially at this time of year. I get little gifts for everyone. It isn’t about spending a lot of money, I just love the whole process of holiday shopping. With one large exception. The music. (J, don’t kill me for this). Having every elevator, street corner, and store playing aggressively cheerful holiday music gives me a headache. So, I spend most of December walking around town with headphones on, listening to anything else, loudly.

So, while I will happily spend hours picking out candy for clients, scarves for my cousins, a playstation 3 for the boyfriend (not really), and bottles of booze for my pals, I do it with crappy R&B from the late 90s in my ears.

All grown up

My dear friend, “Little Sister” is growing up so fast. It seems like just yesterday she was interviewing for her first job, and renting her first car. Now she’s been laid off. Yup, in December. Awesome. nothing says holiday season like losing your job as a complete surprise.

It turns out her company lied to the employees for the last 6 months about how things were going. They hid a lot of the lost business behind stories about trying to seem more economical during these financial times.

So, instead of shopping and partying her way through the next couple of weeks, she’s sending out resumes to companies that probably won’t read them for a month, and trying to budget for $0 of income in 3 1/2 weeks.

Which reminds me that I need to send my clients their holiday gifts, ASAP.

Cruising

After a lot of discussion and research, the boyfriend and I are actually taking our vacation two days after Christmas, and we’re going on a cruise. Not the blue-haired, shuffleboard kind. Much smaller boat, no movie theater on it. They’re called “adventure cruises.” I’m very excited.

Now, it’s not the cross-country drive, or Orlando vacations at the beach, but it will be awesome, I expect. Plus, we’ll be on the boat over New Year’s, so we get to skip that madness around here.