A day off with good food, a good film and great company

Yesterday was my first day off in 2 weeks, and I am grateful to have had some downtime. I was starting to get more and more testy and less and less tolerant of things, especially at work, since that was all I was doing. On days that I'm gone for 12 hours, I get up, go to my kitchen to have breakfast, bike to work. Then after work I bike home, come into my kitchen for dinner, then climb into bed. What a life. Good thing it isn't sustained for anything more than a few weeks at a time.

Miguel came to town yesterday afternoon before heading out to Clarkston for Christmas with his family. Even though we eat dinner out every few weeks, we don't do on much that feels like a "date" (and I'm heavily using quotations there, because I dislike "date" as much as I do "boyfriend"). So, we facetiously called out evening a date and went out for a dinner and a movie. My advisor recommended the Bombay Cricket Club, so we went for an excellent Indian dinner. Tuning out people around us is not one of my fortes, and so I was continually distracted by loud table of people next to us celebrating a birthday. People watching can get in the way of being present with my "date" but it is so interesting to attempt to figure out what people are talking about ... Miguel, on the other hand, is oblivious and brings me back to our table and conversation many times during a meal. After filling up on Indian food we went to see Juno downtown. I had heard the tail-end of an interview with the main character, and apparently mis-interpreted the film premise because it sounded like it was about a sexual preditor or something. Miguel read me a review of the film, which convinced me that the movie was a good idea. And was it ever ... It reminds me of Once in some ways, oddly enough because the films are very different. I highly recommend it. Strongly brought up my desire to have a baby. (It doesn't take much...)

My parents are coming together on Christmas Eve to visit me and celebrate Christmas. Over the Christmas/New Year's time, we split up the work so everyone gets 5 days off either around Christmas or New Year's. The last 2 years, I was in the NICU over Christmas. This year I'm working nights (5 nights in a row) on the general pediatric wards. These annoying signs were put up on the doctor's workroom door that proclaimed "X number of discharge days before Christmas," as if we weren't aware and keep kids in the hospital longer than needed ... So hopefully the wards are (dare I say it?) quiet. I'm hoping to get some sleep in during the nights in order to get stuff done at home during the day, like finally getting to the post office tomorrow to mail this pile of packages sitting next to me on the desk.

I may actually go to mass on Christmas. It somehow feels like the right thing to do, even though I don't really qualify myself as a Catholic anymore. The energy of that environment and singing is appealing and is calling to me ...