My True Soul

¡Feliz Navidad!

The last few days have been kinda hectic, as is usual for this time of the year.

The 21st was spent shopping with my father. No... it was not bundles of fun. He never really has a clue what to get my mother. He waits til a day like the 21st to say "let's go shopping" then he gets super paranoid (as always) when it comes to crowds. They make him nervous... which I can understand, cause they make me nervous too. It's just kinda a thing with his side of the family. My grandmother was EXTREMELY nervous and so... my father, his sister, and his brother all are that way. So far, my father's been the best about not being that way, but it seems the older he gets, the worse he gets.
This is something that I dread. I can see this... tendency in me... I guess. I also try to deal with it and not let it get the best of me.
Anyway, so that entire day, he was a complete grouch. It pretty much ruined my christmas mood. Manda also got hers ruined that day. It was quite nice, I think, for both of us cause it'd been a while since we'd really been in the Christmas Spirit as it were. I switched parents about 2/3rds of the day and helped finish up my mom's shopping. Picking up some last minute and mostly drastically on sale items. It was pretty okay, but I was pooped. Not to mention, the entire evening that we were back, my parents kept snipping at each other. What a joyful noise. It was... ugh.

The 22nd was their anniversary. My mom worked, which is pretty usual for that day, so I spent from like 11 til about 5-6 wrapping. I'm the primary person to do wrapping, I won't do my own. So.... tired from that... went out to eat with them... it went better than the previous day.

The 23rd... was Sunday.... right. Good chunk was cleaning, spending time with the grandmother, and going shopping for the Christmas Eve thing that's taken place for the past several years. Ugh. Just... ugh.

The 24th was ... hell. In ways, it was enjoyable, but by the time the house was packed with people, my feet hurt like hell. Lots of people + lots of noise + lots of dust = bad headache with no ability to breathe through nose. I got gift cards... one for $25, one for $17... don't ask. I'm not sure why $17... it's.... kinda an odd amount. I mean... 15 or 20, but 17? Strike anyone else as odd?

OH! I said something in Spanish and got one of the people at the get together to ask me if I spoke Spanish. Even though I just repeated what had been said in Spanish... I think it was because of my pronunciation. Anyways, it made me happy and made me feel (once again) that taking all these Spanish classes has made me speak the language better... 2 years in high school and 21 hours so far in college. I don't know what it is, but I honestly do like learning it, just don't like getting graded for it, haha. I've been meaning to send my professor an e-mail asking her what I made on the last test and the essay I turned in. I'm curious but halfway scared that if I do that, she'll find out she made a mistake! Haha.


Today was a lot calmer, in most ways. There was still the bigger Christmas dinner to do. But, it was pretty easy for the most part. My dad kept fooling around with his MP3 player that he got, he kept getting more and more CD's to get songs off of them to put on it. He started at like 2 and finished around 10:30. He took a break to eat and watch a movie, but wow. I got a digital camera... it's pretty neat. I'm most looking forward to when I get back home (yes... home) and get to use it with Manda. I really want some more pictures of her and I together... I think there's only like 1 in existance. It was snowing and we both look so happy. Got tons of CD's... I seriously have a stack of 11 in front of me and that's not all of them. Most of them were fairly cheap, that makes me feel better. I wanted some older music and some new music, I'd gotten kinda tired of the ones I have. Got some money (Christmas & Birthday), of which, I have plans for already... at least about 20-30 of it.

We went to see my grandmother on the 22nd for a bit and she gave my parents their anniversary presents and my birthday presents. The card she gave me for my birthday was full of a solid guilt trip. Then something was mentioned about her not getting mail from me since I'd been in college. Ha. LoL. Not a lot of people have and if they have, they should count themselves lucky! Nah. I just ignored them. It doesn't bother me so much anymore, not from her. The ones from my parents wear on me, but I'm learning to ignore them.

My parents have been bickering back and forth about different things probably for a week now. My dad was bitching about the get-together thing and stuff. The more you bitch, the worse it's going to be. It's tiring and stressful, but if you can stop focusing on that, it's actually kinda fun, a little bit anyways. Plus, we're seeing people that we normally don't the entire year. I thought that was kinda what the whole deal was about. So, that's one thing. The other is my dad's been drinking a lot more than usual. It's not a lot, but for him, it is, if that makes sense. He's been sipping Jack Daniels & Jose Cuervo for the past 2 days. Not to mention every night when he's come in from work he's drinking 1 or 2 beers. Anyways.... It's not a lot, but it's weird for him and is a lot for him. So she let him know tonight that it's bothering her because he's drank a lot more in the past 3 months than he ever did before.
I don't know. I can tune out a lot of their lil fights... but... there's been so many of them the past week that it's starting to bother me and starting to really make me wish I was home.

Most of my friends seem to be busy right now or are sick. So... there's not really been much of an escape. I'm just thankful there's only about 11 days until I go back.

Manda's mom has been telling her to call me apparently. She told me the other night that she wants to text out of stubbornness. I thought it was pretty amusing, plus that stubbornness is a reason why I love her. I talked to her for a bit today, kinda found out how her Christmas was. Woulda liked to have talked longer but my grandmother was about to leave. I woulda called tonight but she's got to get up early and plus her sinuses have been bugging her, she needs her rest.

I feel silly in a way... but I think it's good... we've been together over 2 years, ups & downs, and... I miss her so much right now. I was OK for the most part until like the 23rd, but the 24th especially. I am still really happy I got to spend my birthday with her. I miss her company, her jokes, her conversation, her warmth, her everything.

Ok... before I get sappy or ruin the moment.... haha....

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!