Mestee Blogger

Okay, I know. It's been a while. I've been on an unannounced holiday hiatus. Surprisingly, not too much has happened since I last wrote here, considering how long it has been.

Christmas: Fun as usual. I got a nice shirt, a sweater, some socks (now with odor control!) and a bunch of gift certificates and a an iPod FM transmitter and a Soduku book, which is great, because I've been wondering for a while what this Soduku thing is. I've seen it on billboards and buses and even at the book store -- Soduku for Dummies. I wasn't curious enough to pick it up, but I thought it was safe to assume that it was closely related to either martial arts or sushi. It's not.

New Year's Eve: Steve was in town, so I decided to be his man-date to Balicki's party down the street. It was a relatively relaxed affair, though we did manage to get in some drinking games. I'm not sure what the name of it is, but it involved rolling dice in an attempt to get 7, 11, or doubles while a person drank a shotglass full of beer. If successful before they finish, you drink again until they are unsuccessful. The dice started getting rolled off the table more often, so we decided to create a punishment for the act -- down a heaping spoonfull of dillweed. We thought that this would curb the errant dice rolling, but Tully proved us wrong immediately. So did the next guy. And then that guy again. Sheesh. Those people must love dillweed. We rang in the New Year and then somehow found ourselves standing in a big circle. Somebody suggested that we all take turns saying our resolutions, which made us chuckle a bit, until we realized they were serious. Some people said they wanted to be more financially responsible and some said they wanted to go to the gym more often. When it was my turn, I insisted that my goal was to grow a full mustache, then Steve said that he would try not to...well, maybe we shouldn't say what Steve said. It was funny, though.

I've been enjoying 2006 so far. Yesterday, I got an informal offer to start working at Upromise as a full-time employee after my contract ends. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, since I don't really know the details of the offer, but it sounds like it could be okay.

On Monday morning at 8:30 AM, I'll be reporting to the court house in Lowell for jury duty. Now you understand the giant Pauly Shore movie promo picture. Maybe I'll rent it for inspiration. Anyway, this is actually the second time I've been selected for jury duty. I got selected for jury duty in New Hampshire right after I moved to Massachusetts, which afforded me a pretty stellar excuse not to perform my civic duty. They say it on the letter they send you: "It's not just your responsibility, it's the law", or something sort of threatening like that. When I got the first letter last month (part of what I referred to as potentially my worst day ever, until Jack reminded me "What about that time you got fired from your job and then got a speeding ticket on your drive home?" There's not a clear winner.), I opened it, unleashed a furious storm of profanity, then took note of the date and time. What I didn't notice was that you're apparently supposed to send them the notice that you received your little "invite". I didn't do that, so that sent me another letter last week which told me how I didn't respond, but they also noted that my lack of response did not relieve me of my duties. However, my lack of response may have potentially put me on the wait list, which would be fantastic. I'll let you know how it turns out.
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