I just got back from another holiday party. God, I'm exhausted. I've been going like gangbusters all day. I'm supposed to go another party tomorrow afternoon, but I'm thinking of not going. I'd like a day to just relax and decompress. I spent the whole day shopping, and waiting in line at the post office trying to mail presents; me and the whole world it seemed.

There's also another party on Christmas eve to attend right before the late night service, that I just got invited to. I told them I have Christmas eve dinner plans, but may show up for dessert. Then I'm going to a Christmas day luncheon party. Just thinking about it all makes me tired.

Still, it's nice to go to parties to catch up with people whom I haven't seen or talked to in awhile. Athough I'm not a big party goer, I go to all the Christmas parties to catch up with friends.

Like take my friend who was in the hospital with a bacterial infection. I've been meaning to send a card or go and visit him, but I kept forgetting. Some friend huh? Anyway, he shows up at this party tonight and it was so good to see him. We spent about 20 minutes talking about what happened to him, and how he's doing now. Then I spoke to another friend who I hadn't talked to in awhile, and she was telling me about her new medication for this recurring medical problem that she's having.

Parties are where I get to hear the nitty gritty details of people's lives, and that's why I go to them. Well that and the gossip. I get to hear the gossip about various friends, and that's always kind of fun in a purely perverse way.

Now I just want to sit down and read my new Caleb Carr novel. I love Cale Carr! He's an amazing writer. He's a historian as well, and he includes all these factoids in his stories. I love him, and want to write like him. His stories make me think deeply about issues.

I haven't been writing since the end of November. I kind of feel guilty about it, but a part of me feels like I deserve a break and a vacation since I spent all of last month furiously writing. The December holidays are the worst time to write. There's just so much to do this month, that it's hard to fit writing in.

It feels strange not to write though, and I'm starting to feel it. I'll have to start writing again after Christmas. Things will have calmed down by then, at least until New Years.

I read a book a few months ago called, "Move your things, Change your life." In a fit of who knows what, I moved my desk to a totally different area of my apartment. I wanted my desk to be near a window, so I moved my desk to where my dining table used to be, and then had to move a bunch of stuff around to accomodate the change.

I've had my desk in the same place since I moved in seven years ago, so it feels a little weird to have my desk in a new place, but ... I kind of like it. Maybe it will change my life. Maybe not.

I went to look at an apartment tonight. I think the guy renting that apartment I looked at, must have been desperate because he listed it last week, and was showing it last Saturday for $50 more. I wanted to check it out, but I had that screenwriting seminar that day. When I emailed the guy if he was showing it another time, I never got a reply back. This Tuesday, the guy relists his apartment only this time with a more detailed description and $50 cheaper. I keep wondering what happened last Saturday that made him relist in more detail for cheaper. I decided to go and check it out, because it did sound so good on paper.

The apartment was in the back of someone's house, which people refer to as an "in-law". I know people who are in great in-law apartments, and they love it, so I decided to check this one out.
The size was good, and it was on a quiet street, and it was perfect except for the fact that it only had two windows.

I think it might have looked better during the day, but Mr. Desperate Landlord decided to show it on a Friday night at 6:30 pm. It makes you wonder what the story is with this landlord. I spoke to his wife earlier on the phone, and she told me the husband inherited the building from his parents who live in the top apartment. An older couple live in the bottom apartment, and then there's the in-law apartment underneath. The wife and husband used to live in the bottom apartment, then they went and bought their own place. Curiouser and curiouser said the cat.

I'm spoiled. I have a corner apartment with seven windows, and I adore them. Six of the windows are bay windows, so they're nice and huge. I just love all the light streaming in, so I bought these horrendously expensive guazy white cotton Pottery Barn curtains with little suns all over them. The light comes in but people can't see in. I never draw my shades, and when it's pretty outside, I open the curtains.

The windows are one of the main reasons I moved in here in the first place. Not having windows in that in-law freaked me out. Sure I would have way more peace and quiet, way more room, and a garden outside, but it would feel like I was living in a cave and I think that would drive me insane after awhile. I need light, windows and lots of lots of sunshine. This love of light and sun must come from island upbringing. We had big windows in my childhome home.

Two more apartments tomorrow. Yikes! My gut keeps telling me to wait for a place that feels really, really good. That I'll know it when I see it, like I how I knew about this place when I first saw it. My gut also keeps saying that rents will still come down, if I just wait another month.

So in the mean time, I'll just move my whole apartment around and disrupt my current way of life. It's already disrupted big time anyway. What's a little more disruption in my life? Besides, maybe my life will change if I just move my stuff. You never know.

Because of the catholic priest sexual scandals, a catholic friend of mine just learned that both her brothers were sexually molested by their childhood catholic parish priest when they were altar boys. Her brothers finally had the courage to tell her after all these years.

My friend is incredibly bitter now, so this is her latest rant. The catholic church protects right of the unborn child, but not the rights of the living child. The catholic church is against abortion so their priests can have more children to sexually abuse. She says that the catholic church's whole pro-life stance is a joke to her now.

These are incredibly nasty comments, but I don't what to to say to her. I don't know how I'd feel if I found out one of my siblings was abused by a member of the clergy. I told her to pray to God for answers, but my friend is so mad at God and the catholic church right now. She's refusing to go to church, and she's a devout catholic. She's thinking of volunteering to work with groups to oust sexually abusive catholic priests from the church, and my friend is not the volunteer type.

It's hard to know what to say to anyone in this situation. I told her to seek professional counseling, perhaps even with her brothers. Maybe there are even support groups for this kind of stuff. She needs to talk to people who understands what she's going through. Just thinking about what that priest did her to her brothers makes me mad. Her brothers are nice guys, but kind of messed up. Now I know why.

Check this site out: Only in America. It's laugh out loud funny!