Can I get giant nightlight over here?

As if the rain and wind weren’t enough in the wintertime here, the darkness is becoming a bit depressing as well. Only 22 days left until the shortest day of the year but it’s already dark for 2/3 of the day. The sun come up at about 8am, as I’m getting to work and is set around 4pm, before I even think about leaving. At least I’m used to driving in the dark now. The first few times I drove in the dark over here were a little weird because it stays light until about 11pm in the summer, so you don’t get much opportunity for ‘night driving’.

Let’s see – what’s been going on this week? I got more Christmas presents in the mail! My mom has sent 2 boxes over so far, with multiple presents in each. She must feel bad about me not being home for the holidays. It’s just not the same when I know I’m not going to be waking up at my parents’ house with everyone on Christmas morning, you know?

Anyone who has been to my place at Christmas time knows that I have accumulated quite the collection of Christmas decorations, dishes, towels, etc… I miss having all of those to decorate with over here. I’d normally have most of them up by now and I’d be planning my trip to pick out a tree sometime this week/weekend. They aren’t even selling trees here yet. I don’t own any decorations here either, and it’s kind of silly to go spending all of that money on things when I don’t know how long I’m staying or if I’ll get to use them again.

I did get myself a little nativity. It was really inexpensive and the baby Jesus comes out of it. That’s important because in my house baby Jesus doesn’t show up in the manger until Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. I figure I’ll set it on my mantle above the fireplace. I really miss having my Hallmark ornaments here. I didn’t want to risk shipping them or travelling with them because it would break my heart if they were damaged. I’ve gotten one every year since I was born so there’s quite a collection sitting in a box at home. Maybe my mom will take them out and hang them on her tree so they won’t be neglected this year.

On a brighter note, my boss stopped up the other day and seemed pretty pleased with things. I work on-site and so I’m not in the office and don’t report to my boss on a daily basis. I kind of AM the boss, but it doesn’t feel as empowering as I always though it would. Anyhow, I guess my boss ran into the architect/engineer who works here at a dinner last week. The architect was complimenting my organization and communication skills and saying that he was really surprised somebody could get the muddle of projects up here sorted and running smoothly. That made me smile for the better part of the day!

I also ordered a new phone yesterday that I’m waiting to show up in the mail. It’s the Motorola V3 Razr in black. There’s a fairly limited number of phones available with the prepay service I use, but that one seems pretty handy. I’ve always loved my flip-phones so I wanted to stick with that style even though they don’t seem to be as popular over here (and they call them ‘clam shell’ phones). The buttons and ringer on the super cheapo one I got when I moved here are starting to go. I can’t have that because I use it to text a lot and I also use it as an alarm. If the alarm goes I miss work and that wouldn’t be cool…

This weekend is looking like a good deal of Christmas shopping is in my future. I’ve actually got most of my shopping done, but I want to pick up one or two more things and I need a new dress for my company Christmas party. Well, maybe I don’t need one – but I’d like one. I’ve got a 40th birthday party coming up as well, so it will get good use.

Back to work for me. These lunch breaks seem to get shorter and shorter… ;-)