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This weekend I hated the following: Santa, Buddy the Elf, elves in general, anyone wearing fishnets, anyone wearing tutus, Rudolph, and Xmas trees. More on that to come.

Work last week was about what was expected. Very busy due to my project, but then 2 early days which helped my mood because my other days were so swamped. We got let out early on Wednesday for the overall company holiday party. I decided to skip the party because last year the space was so crowded you couldn't move, and I spent the party trying not to sweat on people. My besties and I were going to skip together and just hit up a bar, but they both decided to go last minute to the party. So I headed home. And got texted from them both about 30 minutes later that they had already left the party because (shocker) it was so crowded. And hot. At that point, I was already home in my pajamas so I told them I was skipping on more festivities.

Thursday my bar friend texted to come play trivia. But the weather that night was bitter cold. So being a big giant baby, and being totally against my blog post a few weeks ago about how I never say no to invitations during the holidays (god, 2 paragraphs, and I've said no twice - go me), I declined the invite. I just wasn't feeling it. It turned out that her dad had flown into NYC to surprise her for a short weekend, so I missed the whole shindig! I was so bummed when I heard, and totally wish I could've been there to see her face when her dad just showed up in front of her. I learned my lesson about saying no, and will now stick to my "just don't say no" plan.

On Friday, we had my immediate work group party at the office - we did a massive gift exchange and I ended up with a nice set of wine gear - corks, pump, (haha - sounds filthy!), and 2 servers. They had brought in a massive spread of food also, so we spent the afternoon just chatting, picking at food, and swapping gifts. Not a bad way to end the week. When I left on Friday, the weather was pleasant also so I decided to hoof it back to my hood - and I'm glad I did. Everywhere I looked is lit up for holidays, and crossing 5th Avenue was amazing (home to Saks, Harry Winston, Bulgovi, etc). When I got home that night, Blondie and I decided to stop in at our local for dinner and to see if my bar friend was there with her dad. They weren't there, but we ran into a ton of other people we knew, had some dinner, and just hung out into the evening. Which made my nice-week-ending even nicer.

Saturday brings us to the first line in this blog post. Santacon invaded NYC. Now, they do this every year, but this year it happened to start one block from our apartment, so Hells Kitchen bars were the starting point (and honestly, mostly the ending point too) for these "festivities". What is Santacon you ask? It's an excuse to get drunk off your ass, and dress up like Santa. Or Buddy the Elf. Or elves in general. Or wear fishnets. Or wear tutus. Or wear a Rudolph costume. Or dress like a Xmas tree. The problem was that there were about 10000 people who participated, and they just overran our neighborhood. I watched a guy (in an elf costume) cross the middle of the street, against the light, blowing a whistle to get cars to stop, and watched 3 cars in a row have to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting him. And his friends fucking cheered him on.

My friend from TX was also in town on Saturday so unfortunately we had to head out into the mayhem to meet up with her. We managed to find a nice bar at the very edge of our neighborhood that only had a few respectful Santas in it. We sat with her for a long time there, eating and drinking, and just finding out on the last 6 years of each other's lives. After several hours, we headed back down into the fray to show her our local bar. We walked into madness. The place was trashed - it literally look like the Santas had a beer bottle throwing contest - the floor was covered in broken glass. You couldn't hardly move in the place. We only lasted a few drinks there before calling it a night.

Sunday I headed out early afternoon to meet up with my bar friend and her dad. We met at Pony bar, and the bartenders there filled us in on how bad it was at Pony and their sister bar during Santacon. After we heard the news and shared our stories, we spent rest of the afternoon just hanging out and watching the Packers roll to NFC North champs! Goooo Pack!

Plans coming up: Wisconsin, Blondie's bro coming to visit, poker night at our house in Jan, launch of my major project late Jan, Spokane/SF late late Jan.

Workouts (sucked):
Tuesday: 30 mins on bike - 2 mins level 6, 2 mins level 11, 5 min cooldown; 7 mins on treadmill - 2 mins walking at 4.1 mph, 5 mins running at 5.5 mph (wanted to see how my neck felt).
Wednesday: 3.1 mile run in 35:44; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thurs-Today: none. Shame rattle. Shame rattle.

--K