I'm tired. Ugh. Quite tired.

I was up until God knows when last night (this morning)...got little sleep. Then Gina and I went shopping at Target for some Christmas things. I actually got Christmas shopping done, as opposed to last time we tried to go out and do that, and I got two things. Whoop-dee-do. God, I feel so pathetic having bought my Mom's gifts. I mean, she'll love them, no doubt. But there's no feeling behind them, ya know what I mean? She'll be able to use what I'm giving her and she'll like that, but I'm not a fan of giving gifts that are all function and no fun. So I'll have to think of something.

Now, after a couple of hour break from running around, I'm going to see a movie by a friend of a PolishBasia et al, called "A Place in France." I was an extra for this movie, but I don't know if I actually get in it anywhere. So we'll see. It should be a pretty good time though, I'd expect. :)

I have work to do as well, and I was hoping to go see Gina sing at Mass tomorrow at 11:30 before work. The guys at work will have a blast when I show up in decent clothes for work on Sunday, there's no doubt in my mind. "aawwwwwww...she got you to go to church?" And I'll be like, well, yes and no. But whatever. They won't care. :)

At any rate, I'm enjoying the fraction of an inch of snow that just fell. I love snow. Did I ever mention that? Well, I do. So now, it's off to this movie premeire...then hopefully to bed sooner than later. But we'll see about that.

Just to update you on Donna's status. She goes into surgery on Monday now and will be there until Thursday most likely. She still would probably be happy to hear from you all and/or see you...or at least send her a card or something, if you're feeling nice. :) So that's the latest news...she didn't know what time on Monday she was going into surgery, but it was expected to be a three-hour deal.

Click here for the supposed top 10 holiday pickup lines.

Not one of these beats the all-time greatest pickup line of them all: "Nice shoes, wanna fuck?"

Gina bought me some ornaments for my tree! That was nice of her, as she did it out of her own goodwill. So now, instead of five ornaments, I have 13. :) I have to hang them today.

I got a haircut yesterday at lunch, and I'm pretty satisfied with it, though the back isn't as short as I'd have liked.

I helped Gina grade papers in the evening after I stopped at my parents' to borrow money (grrr...)--I graded math workbook pages on counting money. I'm always surprised at how smart second graders are. It's pretty funny. Gina was grading reading tests and she was reading some of the funnier answers. It was quite funny. We put on "Kate & Leopold" which happened to be on one of the movie channels, but it was just kind of on in the background.

I'm happy though, because I'll probably get to spend Christmas Eve with her and her family, since my family is apparently not doing anything that evening. That's cool, and I'm looking forward to it...it should be a good time, no doubt about it. Plus, then I'm gonna go to midnight mass at her church to see her sing in choir. I miss Christmas choir. I used to be in it. We'd sing once a year--Christmas midnight mass--and it was a good time. We were a small choir, none of us (except Gerard) having any musical experience or operatic voices by any stretch of the imagination. But for our little church on the Southwest Side of Chicago, we were beautiful. I could NEVER sing some of the stuff I did for performance at a theatre or anything like that, because I'd be laughed right out of Dodge. But at our little neighborhood church, it was good enough--it was the ambiance and the idea that people liked, not so much the quality. Now, that's not to say that after several years of singing solo on "O, Holy Night," I didn't nail it my last year, but the first few years were not pretty.

So maybe I'll take up choir again...I've been looking for an "excuse" to get me back to church anyway, on my own accord (i.e., with no one saying, "you should go to church with me")...maybe this is it?

Oh, and hey, I have a favor to ask all of you...I have a few leads on this (thanks, UrbanTherapy!), but I was trying to find more. Gina and I are looking for places to learn to swing dance--we want to take classes--like, multiple classes, not just a one-night workshop deal. We want to really learn. Anyone know of any good places that aren't super-expensive around here? In the city is better, of course. If so, pass them on to me, would ya?

Hmmm...it's been a while.

Yesterday I re-hung our icicle lights above the kitchen counter--no doubt they fell because of the moisture from boiling water on the stove. Maybe this time they'll stay. We'll see.

This was after I dropped $240 on four new tires, which I had to have. But that money was earmarked for other bills already. I'm going to have to ask my parents AGAIN to bail me out. I HATE that...I hate asking ANYone for money. You guys don't understand, even if you think you do. I know I'm better than this, dammit.

So that puts a major, major damper on my Christmas shopping prospects. I'm not pleased. I'm going to have to cut back on some people and/or give out rainchecks for Christmas. God, my financial situation is just horsecrap right now.

I also watched "24" with Luis after we grilled up some steak tacos and finished off the propane tank on the grill. Damn good tacos too. "24" was finally, finally really good again. Although I'm amazed at the resilience of a man who was shot in the neck only a few hours ago and underwent surgery to remove the bullet. I was concerned at first, but it got much better.

I then kind of sat around and wished i could be more productive instead of actually BEING more productive. That always sucks. :)

Ah well...I should get back to work.

So, after saying yesterday that Gina and I weren't in a hurry, we decided to make it "official" yesterday. So I now have a girlfriend, for those of you who give a flying fart... :)

Hey, she's happy and I'm happy, and that's all that matters. Everyone else can jump in the lake. :)

I'm glad this happened, because it has softened my anger at my car situation. I blew out a tire last night, fortunately slowly enough that I didn't lose control of the car on the expressway. So I'm leaving work in about 45 minutes to get new tires, finally. I can't wait any longer. It's too dangerous. However, I'm concerned that something is wrong with the suspension. My car sways and lists (like a boat, side to side) now...I assume it's the tires, but I could be wrong. I hope it's just the tires, I really really hope. I cannot afford the tires, let alone the tires PLUS something else. Now, normally, I'd be so pissed off at this, but I'm only marginally pissed because I'm in a good mood. Thankfully.

Yesterday I visited Donna at the hospital. She's doing OK, though she obviously has little to do there other than read and watch TV. Her parents are coming to town on Thursday, I think it is. So that'll be nice for her to have them there. That's the first day she COULD have surgery, I guess. She seems in good spirits and isn't nervous or scared about the surgery, because she talked to two surgeons who told her the same thing, which is good. As I learn stuff, I'll let you guys know more.

Finally, good money news, actually. I won the first round of the playoffs in my big-money league, which puts me $25 on the positive side of the ledger. We get money in this league for winning your division, making the playoffs, winning playoff games and a couple other things. It will be nice to get a winner's check hopefully soon after the season.

Oh well...back to work. I have a meeting soon and then I'm off to get my tires.

Time to post...a.k.a., recap time!

They Might Be Giants kicked ass, as expected. They had a few surprises up their sleeves in terms of what they played. Songs that my cousin and brother and I were surprised they played. One of them, "Dead," is a very basic two-part harmony song that me and Will have sung in the car (and on our camping trip last summer). They did not play "Spider," but they did play a "song" called "Fingertips," which is basically a string of one- to two-line "songs" at the end of their album Apollo 18. Songs such as "Leave me alone, leave me alone," and "I turned around. I heard a sound. I turned around to find the thing that made the sound." Those are the entire "songs," and there's about two dozen of them strung together, that each sound completely different. They also played "Why Does the Sun Shine?" and really rocked out to it, which was awesome. And they played some stuff off their upcoming album...they also did this hilarious Christmas song where the lead singer asks Santa what he left under his Christmas tree, and Santa says "NOTHING!!! NOTHING!!!! NOTHING!!!!" Too funny. It was a great show, and the XRT folks were happy to get the toy cars from me.

We went to Twisted Spoke to get some eats afterward, and they were good. I then headed home because I was kinda tired, and Saturday promised to be a big day.

Gina and I were going to go window shopping downtown with her roommate and her "man" or whatever. But that got cancelled early on Saturday. So Gina and I decided to go to Old Orchard and do some Christmas shopping ourselves. Got NO Christmas shopping done. Instead, my wardrobe revamping began. I dropped about $120 on three shirts and new shoes. I needed all of them (and didn't need Gina to tell me that, honestly). So I now have a pair of Skechers that I got at DSW Warehouse (go, big bargains there, I'm telling you!), a Perry Ellis shirt that I got for $12 and two other pretty nice shirts that were on sale at Marshall Field's. Gina did not escape unscathed, either...I bought her this sweater she wanted...she liked it, and when she went to put back the one that was too big, I stepped up to the register and bought it. So she was happy. She also bought some new boots, nice name-brand boots, at DSW. She was so excited I got the shoes...

We then needed to get something to eat, and her parents happened to mention they were going to Outback Steakhouse. So we, spur of the moment, decided to meet them there. This was the first time I was meeting them, but I don't get nervous about that stuff, ya know? They were nice people...very friendly and cool. They didn't seem nervous around me, either, so that's good. Of course, I guess at this point, really, there's nothing to be all that nervous about. :) So we got there, had a burger, and left pretty quickly, because we had to get back to see one of Gina's former 4th graders in a park district performance of "It's a Wonderful Life." It was cool--Nathan, you'd have loved it, because it was done in old-time radio-show style--they were on stage acting into microphones, and they had the sound effects guy and everything. It was really cool and a good time.

Then we decided we were going to Lincolnwood to see some neighborhood where the Christmas lights are like, infamously good every year. We spent an hour looking for the damn things before we finally found them, but they were pretty. We actually spent more time looking at the houses than the lights. :) Some of those places are just nuts. But there was one house that was a Frank Lloyd Wright-style house that was just BEAUTIFUL. We both liked it a lot...but it wasn't your typical, low-to-the-ground FLW house...it just had some major characteristics--porch, wide eaves, big windows in the front, vent windows under the eaves on the sides of the house. It was very pretty.

We then hung out here and I showed her a bunch of pictures, and we talked and talked and talked. We've been very open and communicative about our relationship and where it might be going, and I love that. We're not boyfriend-girlfriend at this point, but we're "working on it," if you will. There's plenty to hammer out, as many of you know, in relationships. So we're taking our time, since there is no real rush anyway, right?

I'm probably now going to go visit Donna at the hospital and visit PolishBasia and Starbux Princess at, where else, Starbux. :) Then, later, who knows what's going on? :)