Christmas is a comin'!

Should I be worried that I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet? It's only 17 days til Christmas! Yikes! At work today, I was sweeping out the fitting rooms and I found someone's Christmas shopping list. She had a list of names, some with a few gift suggestions penciled in but most names just had question marks next to them. At the bottom she had written "Me" and underneath was a very impressive list: jeans, gloves (black, brown), sexy boots, belt...and it went on and on. I laughed because that's pretty much what my Christmas list looks like.

I'm so glad I put in my request for days off work at Christmas way back in October. I thought they would just say no, so I was surprised to see that I'm free from the 23rd to the 28th. So I'll get to spend a bit of time with the family. My parents are still trying to recover from all my conflicting announcements, "I'm quitting my job", "No I'm not", "I'm moving to New Zealand", "Never mind, I'm staying here". So I'll try my best not to confuse anyone over the holidays.

Future: Undecided

Thanks to everyone who voted in the "Where should Kathleen go?" poll. The results are in and it looks like the winner is Australia and New Zealand with 60% of the vote. That's the same thing I chose! So after hardly any thought, I handed in the SWAP (Student Work Abroad Program) application for the South Pacific combo, paid the hefty non-refundable fee, and less than two days later, completely changed my mind. I should have known better when, on my way to apply for the program, the little voice in my head said Don't do it! But the little voice offered no alternative life plan, so I did it anyway. It's not that I don't want to go; I definitely do and still plan to (especially if I can't get my money back). I just think it's the wrong time. The decision came as a result of one bad day, deciding I needed a change, and going a little overboard. I included "stay at Wal-mart" in my poll as a joke answer, but ha ha, the joke's on me because that's what I'm doing. I've already survived three Wal-mart Christmases. One more won't kill me. And now that the stress of moving is gone, I'm actually excited about Christmas. I'm relieved. Maybe I'm too old for adventure. Maybe Wal-mart is secretly drugging me. Either way, it felt too rushed. I need more time to plan and get excited about it. I'm going to leave major decision making for after Christmas.