Tired is as tired does.

Kurt Vonnegut tells a story in one of his books about his favorite party joke. People would often come up to him and ask, "So, what are you working on right now?" And Vonnegut would say, "I'm working on committing suicide by cigarette." In the spirit of that remark, I am currently working on committing suicide by tiredness. I doubt that this qualifies as the busiest time ever in my life, but I'm not as young as I used to be, you know, and it gets harder and harder to maintain this level of activity without a break.

[I have some videos that I'd love to get up here as well, but I'm still working on converting them. I'll keep you posted. And if any of my family is reading this, send me any pictures that you might have!]

After my return from California on Monday the 18th, I worked for a few days, and then headed to Muskegon for Christmas. Had a great time there, hanging with the family (especially got some good quality time with Dad, although he's not pictured here):




...and then on Wednesday the 27th, I drove to Grand Blanc to visit Kingston's family. I hadn't seen them in years, and it was really nice to catch up with everyone, even though the visit was brief. Thursday, he and I drove back to Chi-town just in time for me to head to the airport and meet Mom and Pat's flight in from North Carolina. Friday, Wes and family came over on the train and we all were tourists for a couple of days:











...culminating in a visit to the Field Museum on Saturday afternoon:




Among all of that, we found time to see three movies: "Polar Express," "Happy Feet," and "Dreamgirls." I had seen "Polar Express," but only on TV. It's still creepy on the big screen, but the story started to grow on me. "Happy Feet" was much better than I anticipated. It was a little too long, and I was a little creeped out by Steve Irwin being one of the voices, but overall it was very enjoyable, especially the music. And "Dreamgirls" was fun, although I had a lot of problems with the direction. I thought it looked pretty, and Eddie Murphy in particular gave a fantastic performance, but they made a lot of easy choices that could have made the movie so much better if someone had just been paying attention to the details.

We did have some bad car karma over the weekend, as I parked the rental car too close to a fire hydrant and managed to get us towed on Friday, and then on Saturday when we got back into Michigan, we found that Wesley's van had been broken into at the train station while they were away. Thanks to the amazing powers of my Treo, however, I found a nearby Lowes that was still open and we got their window covered in plastic and duct tape so they could make it the rest of the way home. (The Treo is also responsible for all of the pictures you see here!)

Sunday morning we had Second Christmas:









...and then that night, Mom and Pat and I volunteered to babysit ALL FIVE nieces and nephews so that their parents could have a fun night out for New Year's Eve. It actually went pretty well, but we were all so tired that even the kids were ready to hit the sack by 11:30pm. My nephew Xavier got Apples to Apples Jr. for Christmas, and we had a great time playing that in the hotel room.

Monday we spent relaxing with my sister's family:



...(and watched "Garfield 2" - sigh). And Tuesday headed back to Chicago. Wednesday I was back at work at Columbia, then took Mom and Pat to see the Second City Mainstage show (obviously I would have preferred to take them to the ETC show, but it didn't work out with our schedule). And Thursday they went to the Shedd Aquarium while I worked, and then I dropped them at the airport in the evening. Then I headed straight to Second City for a last couple of days shadowing Lee.

Saturday night we had a birthday party for Kingston at the apartment which was a big success. It was our first big party since I moved in, and I think it went really well. If nothing else, I cleaned our bathroom so thoroughly for the party that it's almost unrecognizable (who knew the walls were actually WHITE?). Also at the party was a wonderful young lady that I'll be going out with again on Tuesday, so let's plan on a separate post about that in a few days.

Last night was Lee's last night as stage manager of ETC, so there was a big party connected with that, and tonight is the Second City Holiday Party. Tomorrow, as I mentioned, I have a date, and Wednesday the Stingrays are getting together on an off-night to practice our bowling in preparation for the League's resumption on Monday. Then Thursday night I officially begin my reign at SC. Dad is coming into town for the show, and even though in some ways it's just another show, in other ways it's a big deal and I'm pretty excited for it. This is the cast backstage just before the show last Thursday:



And of course, this begins the next few months of working TWO FULL-TIME JOBS. I'm definitely going to die.