It's Christmas!!!

OK, well, not yet. But it will be in a week. And it's close enough so that people like me who simply bask in the over-commercialisation of Christmas can acceptably deck the halls and all that other nonsense. I put up my Christmas tree about two weeks ago...it's really tiny and pathetic with plastic ornaments, and I don't even care. It makes me so happy that I leave the lights on it turned on 24 hours a day. Just doing my part to speed up the process of global warming...

In all seriousness, I think maybe I love Christmas so much because it's the time of year when we can outwardly appreciate friends and loved ones without being called a pussy. I never understood those people who get all miserly and wretched around the holidays because they're single or poor or something. So what? I'm single, I'm poor (destitute is probably more appropriate), but that doesn't mean there aren't things to celebrate. I'm normally a glass half-full person anyway (unless the glass contains a really good cocktail, in which case anything less than a full glass is saddening), but something about the holidays just makes me overly giddy. Fair warning to those of you out there who are cynical grinch-like people-you will find my mood this time of year unfailingly annoying.

But you want to know one of the major reasons I'm in such a good mood? NO MORE CLASS FOR A WHOLE MONTH!!!! Wahoo! It's not that I don't like class; class is fine. My teachers are great, my classmates are always a good laugh, and the work is really not that strenuous. But let's face it, no matter how much a person likes school, inside each one of us there's that little kid counting down the days until summer vacation. Plus, no class for a month means no Latin homework for a month. Ace.

It is a little bit lonely here, though. Most of my friends have gone home for the holidays already, so I've been doing a lot of sitting around watching TV. I did manage to drag myself out of bed on Monday to go out for a drink and a show with my friend Rosy, which was fantastic-I haven't seen her since West Side, and my life felt distinctly Rosy-less. I also went out for really yummy hot chocolate with my friend Alicia yesterday, which was really good, and I'm meeting up with Rebecca on Friday, about which I'm excited. So my life isn't totally empty and lonely now that the holidays have crashed down upon us.

You know what I really love? I love the fact that you can move to a new city on a new continent and make a whole group of new friends that you absolutely love and adore without losing one ounce of love and affection for the friends you left behind. Sorry, I know that was ridiculously sappy, but it's true. I was afraid that I would either end up not getting close to people over here because I was too attached to my friends in Miami, or I would grow emotionally unattached to my friends across the pond and reform new attachments here. But that isn't the case, and it makes me happy. Maybe it's just the effect of tinsel and twinkle lights and wassaling, but I am one lucky girl. Merry Christmas, everybody!