Got back in town from Charlotte last night; partied hard in the Queen City to ring in the New Year. Decided not to use a subject in any of these sentences, leaving the tense terse.

Okay, sorry, feeling a bit goofy. I'm much better now.

I drove down to Charlotte Monday evening after work to go visit my very good friend, Derek (or Duc to his friends), and his fiancee Katie (who was down for a while, on break from the U of Maryland). We went to dinner at Ri Ra, right smack in the middle of downtown, at 8:30, and what a mistake that was. We all agreed that if we did something like that again next year, we'd eat at home first, then go out. Because of the sheer number of people, our food was tremendously slow in coming. We got our salads at 9:00, entrees at 10:30, and deserts at 11:00. It was a good thing we were staying there anyway. One of my favorite Celtic rock bands was playing there, Loch Ness Johnny, and I'm actually getting to be sort of friends with the lead singer, Donald Merckle, and his outgoing carrot-topped girlfriend, Shannon. Other than the slow food service, and the drunken revelers wandering up to the non-smoking section we were in with cigarettes dangling from limp fingers, and the heinous piss-water that they were passing off as champagne for the midnight toast, and that fact that I had no one to kiss when the clock struck twelve, I had a pretty good time, though I always have fun with Duc and Katie. Yesterday, we just relaxed and hung out, and took the penny tour around Charlotte. I got back home around 9:30 last night.

I also had a really good Christmas, despite my sister not being here (she had to choose between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and since my grandparents came down for Thanksgiving, she came then). I got lots of great gifts (eight, count 'em, eight books: King of the City by Michael Moorcock, Indigo and Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce, Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, Americana by Don DeLillo, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, Into the Green by Charles de Lint, and Threshold by Caitlin R. Kiernan, all of which were on my Christmas list) and spent a bunch of time with my parents. Also, as if I didn't have enough books to read, I bought The Sun, the Moon, & the Stars by Steven Brust, The Fourteenth Annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Moonheart by Charles de Lint, Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson, and Kissing the Beehive by Jonathan Carroll. I should be set for quite a while.

It is now snowing outside my window, soft little flakes that look sweet and innocent, and will probably immobilize the city tomorrow. I most likely won't be going in to work, and to tell you the truth, I'm really quite okay with that.