Doesn't feel like it when I'm at work stressing about data elements and a failed overnight model build so I'm scrambling to find solutions.

Still, the day is young, and I should be out of here around one-ish, enough time to go pick up last minute presents for the In-Laws and stand in line for an hour amids the rush. I do enjoy the last minute rush, for some reason, it means Christmas to me. I suppose, that's the ultimate statement of commercialism - when I don't think of dinner or family or friends, but shopping in an overcrowded store.

I always feel like I'm playing catchup at the end of the year, as if all the year's expectations are to be finished in the next seven days, but that's impossible, of course, and with Christmas in the middle of the week, it doesn't feel like anything at all. I like the Thursday through Sunday long stretch of Thanksgiving best. There's enough time to digest and kick back and experience the holiday.

Already the new year is tempting me with a new start. More work, more projects, more expectations but I hope - I really, really hope - that I've been able to scale back my expectations and given up dreams of any success outside of my vocation. Shift my priorities from "making it" as a creative type and just enjoying it as a hobby. Leave myself time and space to enjoy this stuff again rather than slave over it for the sake of some audience that doesn't exist. If anything, I'd like to stick to that, one thing through this year.

Donna and I had dinner with Dillon on Friday and I miss that little Cuban. Plans were made to visit Chicago just for the sake of his homosexual majesty.

Oh, and I got new glasses this weekend. They're frameless and very suave, so I feel like an impostor wearing them, like I'm pretending to be a hipster. I can't believe I'm such a fucking yuppie. Also, I need to stop listening to Slowdive, This Mortal Coil, Engineers and My Bloody Valentine continuously. All this dreamy shoegazer music is making me feel like I'm permanently stoned.

But a few more bands in their vein can't hurt. Any recommendations?