i'm gonna smell like christmas until easter.

yeah. so i have this nice Christmas-y job, packing and shipping fragrant, freshly made garlands and wreaths. at least it seemed nice for the first week, but now all i can think of is how nice being a student will be (i won't have to lift anything over my head for a full year and a half), getting a full-body massage, and buying an artificial tree. little garlands don't seem too heavy, but DAMN! by the time you lift 300 8-foot pieces into boxes, then lift the boxes two at a time, six feet in the air...just thinking about it makes me want to be a quadriplegic.

i also clean stalls before work...not so much on the fragrant side...and feed horses after work. all in all i commute about 5 miles a day. 5 MILES!!!! it's so great! i even get to come home every day for a lunch of kraft mac 'n' cheese! oh, that reminds me. i really don't think it's going to work out with OT and i. he says kraft mac 'n' cheese is culinary abortion. what does he know?! ah, but he CAN spell "you're". this is a first for me, folks!! i have never met a guy who used "you're" correctly. or at all. apparently "your" can mean whatever-the-hell you want it to, if you're male. but OT is different. this is good. he says maybe i just hang out with the wrong crowd. i think maybe that was a bash on my redneck friends. this is not good.

social life update: things are looking up. i went to a party last night and was the only one in my racial group. went to another tonight, and was the only one in my age group. party A was a birthday party for one of the little mexican guys at work. they all really wanted me to come, so i promised i would. but then I, in my usual fashion, decided to take a nap, cook myself some fresh venison and mushrooms from the woods up the road, and take a shower before i went, so the party was pretty much thinned out to a couple hombres who were far more interested in dancing with me than i was with them. i left. quickly. party B was a cool lady i know who was having a tree-trimming party. i was going to get there at 5, but talked to my dad, picked out a wreath to take to the hostess, visited ER and tried unsuccessfully to get him to come with (his exact words were, "i'm not married! i don't have to go to these kind of things!"), and finally ended up there at about 7. i was the only person under 40. but i talked to a cool couple--they are both photographers, and had lots of cool stories and advice on how to get into--and being in--the field. i stayed. comfortably.

good stuff.