But darling I'd still catch a grenade for ya.

I've made it to vacation! I always love the Sunday night before a week off. It feels so good knowing that I don't have to go to work tomorrow. (Sorry for those who do.... you'll have time off soon, right?)

The last two days of work were hectic as I expected: most of it due to the annual talent show preparations. The talent show turned out great, as usual. All of the winners were very deserving, and all of the acts were pretty entertaining. Every year the talent show exposes me to some new pop song of which I was unaware. Last year it was "Bad Romance" and this year it was Bruno Mars' "Grenade" which is pretty darned catchy. I always get a little bit emotional during the talent show: I'm so proud of all of the performers for being brave enough to take the stage. And, the audience is always very encouraging of every act, no matter how different or slightly bad they may be. The best was when we had an amazing classical pianist play this year. I was standing near some rather thuggish kids in the audience who cheered "Mad talent! Mad talent!"

After all that, we had a staff lunch (meh), I went home and had a short nap, and then my pal Fea and I took student council out for a Christmas dinner to celebrate a successful first four months. It was lots of fun. Those kids are just really great people, and it's nice treating them for dinner. Which we all deserved since we worked so hard on organizing the show.

Yesterday was another busy day with lots of food since I had two birthday parties. All I ate at the second one was a piece of super delicious red velvet cake though. Also, I got to catch up with a good friend who I hadn't seen since the summer; and both of us kind of fell off the map for similar reasons. We're going to have a good catch-up session complete with some beer when we're back in town.

Today I woke up early and got myself a Zipcar so I could drive Rilo to my parents' place as a Christmas surprise. I first had to stop by the pet store to get her a new carrier. She was able to claw a hole through her old one on her last car trip. This time I got a sturdy plastic one; I'm pretty sure she's met her match. Anyway, she was a little bit better this time: she was quiet for maybe half an hour of the two-hour trip.

My parents had no idea that I was planning this trip and were surprised when I showed up. In fact, my dad had just done some Christmas shopping, and I wasn't allowed to enter the living room until they had time to hide all of it. Anyway, they were happy with the surprise, and Rilo was happy to investigate my parents' giant Christmas tree. I also bought her a laser pointer cat toy at the pet store. She loves it and I had a fun afternoon making her chase it around. It's the first cat toy I've found that she gets super excited for.

I did a bit of shopping in downtown Stratford this afternoon. I got my second last Christmas present and an excellent chai latte at my fave Stratford coffee place. Then I went to Swiss Chalet to get Festive specials as a treat for my parents. Man, they're spoiled! Dinner and a cat taxied to their doorstep!

The drive back was very smooth, and now I'm home. I'm pretty tired so I think I'll be in bed very early. The next couple of days involve appointments, social plans, cleaning, packing, and a concert (yay!). I'll head to Stratford on Wednesday night for almost a week. I'll get a couple days of rest then, but there are a lot of fun plans to keep me busy as well.

Less than one week 'til Christmas. Yay! Hope you are all merry, and slightly less tired than I am right now.