"And what did you do on your vacation?"

The past two days have been filled with this question. I leave work for more than 3 days and everyone seems to figure I left the country. (Okay, a trip to Portugal and a trip to Canada later, and this is the reputation I get.) Actually, last week was just a week to relax. I finished up hell my finance II class and am patiently awaiting my grade. An "A+" is probably not on the transcript for this one, but I should fair at least a "B." If I receive a decent score on the last individual paper and the team paper, I may even pull an "A-." I did not try quite as hard the last couple of days, knowing that I only need a "C" to get the reimbursement from work and knowing that I do not plan on ever pursuing a career in this type of finance.

On vacation, I slept late every day. I stayed up all hours of the night, getting into the habit of being awake at 7 or 8 am most nights. Oops. But it worked for me. I'm a complete night owl, enjoying the stillness of the dark. For some reason, I actually sleep better when the sun is up and appreciate the fact that I don't have to squint in the daylight that often. Maybe that is why I do prefer winter to summer. Sure, it's cold, but I can bundle up.

Karaoke was on the agenda four of the nights of vacation. I went up on the first Sunday, without DM. She was not feeling well. The bar has been completely empty on Sundays and I just sat, writing in my notebook (a post to come, none-the-less) waiting for James and Liz to arrive. After karaoke, I went with them to Bryan and Liz's house to play with their dog, Theo, and watch classic alternative music videos on VH1 Classics. VH1 Classics reminded me of being in Portugal, visiting Johnny, with DM. We had quite a few giggles over the thankfully gone fashions.

The bar was also where I went on Wednesday night and Thursday night. On Wednesday, I was just wanting to visit with Angie Ang. She and Sara were there and so was this woman named Barb. Barb was friendly, overly as such, and wanted to invite us all over to her house the first night we all met. I didn't go. I'll mention Thursday night in a bit.

Sunday was another night of karaoke, this time with DM. Again, it was dead in the bar. Unlike the last three weeks, there were no awkward moments when the boy, Pete, Guru, and their new friend, Mullet Man, arrived. We've been steering clear of this particular group, realizing that the boy only appeared smart because of who he was with. Here's a thought - if you KNOW that you don't like tequila, you don't feel well after drinking it, and you hate it, then you don't HAVE to drink it. That's not hard to determine. Bah! But back to this past Sunday. We were listening to Bryan's CDs play, just relaxing and waiting for Liz and James when this softball team showed up. Unfortunately, the "leader" of this group is a woman that neither DM or I can stand. It's not that she's a bad singer - in fact she can sign pretty well, it's just that she's so arrogant and tends to strut around the bar thinking that everyone should worship her. I wouldn't care that much, except for the fact she's rude in other ways. One night she came very close to burning half the bar (including me) with her cigarettes that she didn't pay any attention to in her flailing arms and she never claps. Not even for her friends. Rude.

But then James, Liz, and Dean showed up. I was happy to see Dean who DM and I haven't seen in a couple of months. He's a good guy and always makes us smile. We had a great conversation with everyone and headed back to my place.

Also on vacation, I went to dinner with my dad on Tuesday to Moe's, a supperclub/sports bar near our homes. They make a terrific blackened cajun porkchop - not too hot but full of flavor and it is sauteed instead of grilled so it retains the moisture. Yum! On Thursday, I went to Olive Garden with my mom and Scott. Friday was a night out at Manny's with Liz, Bryan, James, Char, Tom, and of course DM! It was a week of eating.

On Saturday, DM and I visited my mom and Scott at her house. Mom got a ton of new furniture and redid the family room. Looks very nice and I'll post some pictures at some point. I need to upload the images from my camera to the computer. We socialized with them for awhile and then headed back to my place for scrapping. Friday night was spent at home, with Sarah visiting. DM and I also scrapbooked (verbifying that word!) on Saturday, Sunday, and part of Monday. My road trip to Canada album is coming along nicely and I'll probably be done before the end of the year. There's a nice feeling when you know you'll be done with a project before undertaking the next one.

Thursday night was karaoke at the Chalet again. It was my birthday and although I tried to keep it pretty low-key, I was still surrounded by friends. Char and Tom stopped up early to visit with DM and I. Steve and Katie (his roommate) showed up and Sarah was not far behind. Liz and James also arrived. Sarah got me a bag full of scrapbooking supplies - she is so sweet! It was a great gift and has already been broken out. DM and I kept commenting all weekend about how thoughtful the gift was and how well she knew me.

The only other thing I really did on vacation was to go to Perkins a couple of nights and help Sarah with her accounting homework. She's taking classes and accounting is not a subject she's highly interested in and since it was my major at some point back in the day, I can help her out with some basic accounting.

Oh, on Monday I had to head to the DMV to get the tabs for my car and then DM and I went to Super Target. I bought groceries. This is a random event for me. Now my fridge is stocked and I've even brought lunch to work. With this training that I'm running and the fact our center needs to hire three team leads, Steve and I are finding it difficult to find time to meet for lunch. When the team saw I had a sandwich, yogurt, cheese sticks, and a granola bar today, they about fainted! Steve and Sarah both asked me if I felt okay. Maybe I'll save a bit of money by bringing my lunch now. It saves time at least. The only real downside is that I haven't been able to meet with Steve this week about the team.

Well, off to relax again. I do enjoy the fact I'm not in school right now.