This is one of the first days in a long time that I haven't had to be at work or school (or both), and there's nobody around to hang out with. I never work on Thursdays because I usually have classes, but today is different. The instructor cancelled because he didn't want everyone coming to class hungover. I think that means he'll be too hungover to teach, but doesn't want to say that. Anyway, Josh is at school until nine tonight, Brigette is putting together her new bed from Ikea (complete with cryptic Swedish pictograph instructions), Rachel is working, Ayrton is at Kim's, Kim is going to Tsawassen later, and I can't get a hold of anyone else. I was going to go to Vancouver today, but as I told Brigette, Josh has scared me out of doing that by myself.

I'm going to have to go grocery shopping later, but I'm doing what I do best right now: procrastinating! It's rainy outside, and I'm not particularly in the mood to take the bus to the grocery store. I'd better go soon though, because I'm really not in the mood to take the bus to the grocery store in the dark.

I suppose I could see a movie tonight, but I don't like going by myself. It's not like I'm afraid people will look at me and think I'm pathetic. That's far from the truth. I like going with people so that I can whisper during the movie without looking crazy. I enjoy making little comments as the story progresses, and having someone to ask questions to if I think I may have missed something (conversely, I also like answering questions if someone else missed a key point). It's not the same cinematic experience if I go all alone.

Uggggggggggh. I only had four hours of sleep last night, and now I have to go to work. I'm relatively wakeful because the sleep was like a long nap, but I predict that by two this afternoon, I'll be cranky and sleepy.

Last night I got off work early (we closed really quickly), so at midnight I was sitting in the mall saying "Happy New Year!" to Josh. We then proceeded home, where we ordered pizza and watched about 4 or 5 episodes of Banzai (a crazy British/Japanese show where they have people do weird things and you place bets). My favourite segment was Mr. Shake Hands Man (he like to shake hands with celebrity people for long time!), if only because of the name.

Off to work now, quite possibly the only fricking thing open today (other than 7-Eleven, Starbucks, and the arcade).

I just checked the label on my new hair moisturizer, and it contains frankincense. That was one of my favourite words as a kid. It's like Frankenstein and Incense melded together into one crazy biblical word. I also like myrrh, because it has no vowels.

Can you tell that I'm procrastinating on getting dressed? I have to be at work in an hour and 15 minutes, but I don't want to go (so what's new there?). I'd much rather be celebrating New Year's. I had so much fun last year. Josh took me for dinner at an Irish-style pub, and then we went back to my house, and I got drunk as a skunk. I sang TV and movie theme songs and started to make up my own words to the Ghostbusters theme after I realized that buster and bustier were spelled almost the same way. "When there's something wrong in your lingerie drawer, who ya gonna call? Ghost Bustiers!" Also, Josh asked me to describe something and I yelled: "My adjectives ran away!"

This year, instead of crazy drunken revellry, I get to serve popcorn to Lord of the Rings fans who have nothing better to do than see the movie again. Instead of champagne, I get to guzzle down diet Pepsi.

The high point of tonight is that by working, I get my minimum amount of days to collect holiday pay tomorrow. The best thing that will happen tonight is Josh coming to visit me at work.

Happy New Year, everybody :)

Go camera!

Huzzah for narcissism!

In other news, I've lost about 35 pounds since last Christmas (see the gingerbread house pic). I do believe that my hair is also infinitely better looking, although I'll probably look back at these pictures about a year from now, and think: "What was I thinking with that hair?!?"

Oh, while I'm still in a good mood, I may as well mention that I checked my schedule, and I will have worked exactly 15 of the 30 days before New Year's Day. Yeah, baby. $150 dollars for seven and a half hours of work. That makes the irritation of working a late night and then working the next morning so much easier to bear. Now Josh doesn't have to deal with a grouchy Erin. Three cheers for statutory holiday pay!

Because. This is the coolest picture ever taken of me.

Josh and I were standing at just the right angle in front of our closet mirror, so he and I (and my reflection) are all in the picture. Cool, eh?

Anyway, not much has been happening, other than I bought myself a lot of cool post-Xmas presents on Boxing Day. I got grey pants, red pajama pants with blue snoflakes on them, more cranberry shower gel from The Body Shop, cute underwear (one pair has a heart on the front and the caption: "Can't live with him..." and on the back it says: "Can't live without him" and has a heart cutout), an ironic t-shirt (it says "Trixie's Tanning Salon", and I'm just about the palest person I know), henna hair moisturizer from Lush, and a tres expensive haircut and dye job (and styling products). I really wanted to get a manicure, but I can't wear nail polish to work, so that would have been a total waste.

Speaking of work, I only get paid regular wages for working Christmas day. The government changed the statutory holiday pay so that if you only get it if you worked at least 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. At my work, statutory pay is double time and a half, so $20 an hour. I should have made $150 on Christmas day, but because of my busted ankle that kept me off work for four days, I only had worked 13 of the 30 days before Christmas. Instead, I only made $60. That annoys me unbelievably. First, I re-injured my ankle at work and can't get compensated because I never saw a first aid attendant, and now I get paid less than everyone else who worked on Christmas?!? Bah humbug to the government. I'm going to check my work schedule to make sure I worked 15 of the 30 days before New Year's Day, and if I didn't I'm going to be so ticked off, because I work until 12:30 on New Year's Eve, and then at 9:30 on New Year's Day. That's not even enough time to get eight hours sleep in between shifts, and if I don't get paid extra on Wednesday I'm probably going to cry (due to my highly irritating monthly cycle).

I think I'm going to stop being so negative right now (thinking about the government screwing me over makes me very peevish) and concentrate on some happy things, like the TV Josh and I bought on Boxing Day. 25" of pure viewing pleasure, baby. I haven't had much of a chance to watch a lot of programs, but I did see some Avril Lavigne music videos, and the closed captioning is screwed up on all of them. It's like some of her illiterate teenybopper minions typed them up.

Speaking of cool Boxing Day stuff, we went for dinner at Josh's mom's and she gave us a totally awesome and useful present. It was a giant Rubbermaid storage container, filled with food and candy, and a toolbox, plates and cups for our set of dishes, hand lotion for me, homemade cookie mix and chocolates, all sorts of things to fill our cupboards and tummies. Then we went to visit my mom, and she gave us a whole bunch of canned food, a gift certificate for the grocery store, a Healing Garden Green Tea bath kit, and some other household items (soap, paper towels, etc). Heh, it's almost like everyone except my grandma thinks we're going to starve (she gave us some lovely fluffy towels). Starvation is far from the truth, our fridge and freezer are always full. Or, as Josh's older brother put it, "Wow! You guys have food!" He recently moved from home, too, and seems to have trouble getting groceries. I think the only reason that Josh and I have as much as we do is because every week we make it a priority to buy $100 worth of groceries (I buy as soon as I get my paycheque, so I always have the money). If we don't spend $100, the extra money goes into a jar so we can save for something, like furniture or a vacation. I can't wait until we have enough money, just thinking about a possible vacation gets me very excited. I rarely have ever left the Vancouver area, except once to go to Manitoba (but I was one, and don't remember it), and occasional short trips into Washington state (but I still haven't been to Seattle). I've always wanted to travel, and I was going to go to Europe in grade 12, but the whole September 11th thing made it impossible. The school almost cancelled the trip, and when they finally decided that it was okay to go, my mom said no, because it was unsafe. One day I am going to go to Ireland and England, and I'd also like to take one of those Mediterranean cruises where you stop in Rome, Athens, Turkey, The Holy Land, Egypt, Casablanca, and Gibraltar. Once I get a real job, I'm going to start saving so I can do that. Until then, the money in the jar might take Josh and I to Oregon this summer, where Josh says that the sand dunes and caves are very beautiful.