Hi kids,

As usual, it's been much too long since I've written. That said, let's get right to business!

For Christmas, my boyfriend and I went down to my folks' place. It wasn't the first time he's met my Mom, but it's the first time he's met my stepdad. I was really apprehensive about the whole thing, but as soon as they met, I saw that things were going to be more than cool.

While in my small town, we went and saw some friends of mine and mostly just hung out. We were there from Christmas Eve to two days after Christmas. On Christmas Day, we went with my "sister" (i.e. my gay friend Daniel who grew up with me in aforementioned small town) to the casino (we're near a reservation) and gambled a few hours there. I won a little bit of money, which was neat, and went home happy (and smelling like cigarettes). Since many Native American tribes don't celebrate Christmas (because they're not Christian), I didn't feel like I was breaking my rule about not patronizing any business on Christmas. So we all win!

At work, one of the cool managers is quitting. He says it's because he's going to trade school, but everybody knows it's because of the douchebag general manager that we've had now for about 6 months. Nobody likes him, and he's not really competent. He's had a lot of experience, and he uses all sorts of bullshit corporate buzzwords (teamwork, synergy, etc.), but I'm not sure we're all convinced he's a good thing for the restaurant. Anyhow, so everybody is sad about that, and we hope that we get another, just-as-cool manager soon.

In other news, the only New Year's Resolutions that I'm making are to do a better job of keeping in touch with friends and to perhaps *think* about utilizing the gym membership that I have. :-P Wish me luck!

Tonight, I think we're going out with my "sister" and his new boyfriend for New Year's. Since I'm the one that works late, I'm not sure if I'm even going to make it there in time. I told them that they should find a nice place and call me and let me know where they're at. There's no reason that work should hold things up for the rest of them. But you'd better believe I'm going to do everything in my power to leave by 11:00 p.m. tonight!

Well kids, whatever you all do for the New Year, I hope you all have a wonderful (and safe) time.

Michael