Sunshine State My Ass.

It was cloudy for three days straight over the weekend. And it never stopped raining all day Saturday and Sunday. I think I like 25 and snow over 45 and rain. But I can't really complain too much because it was 60 and sunny today. We had our Christmas party on Saturday. We took a chartered paddle/river boat out in the St. John's River. There was dinner and dancing and all the usual crap. It was cool to see the city from the river but unfortunately due to the weather you couldn't stay out on the top deck for long without getting soaked and the windows were all fogged up on the inside. They actually had to dock 45 minutes early due to a boater warning put out by the Coast Guard. It was a good time nevertheless.

Work is going well. I drew blood again last week for about the fifth straight week but it was very minimal. I've gone through more band-aids this year already than the previous ten combined. At least they're only band-aids and not bandages or casts. I did return to the site of the shooting last Tuesday to finish the landscape job with 8 midshipmen. Nothing exciting happened and we finished up by lunch. I took a belaying (rock-climbing) lesson yesterday with Kristen. Neither of us fell to our deaths so it was a success. We have to do it 4 more times in order to be "certified" and no longer require supervision.

Tonight we had our Americorps "Senior Center" Christmas dinner and gift exchange. Our house is the Senior Center because we have all the old people here. The next oldest after me is probably 24. The average age in our house (30) is probably 7 years older than the other houses. We used Kristen's gift certificate at Cracker Barrel. It was Nick's first Cracker Barrel experience, which is hard to believe since he worked in Tennessee all last year. After dinner we came home and exchanged the gifts we bought for each other. I got golf balls and the Scene It Sports DVD game. Kristen got socks, a dog puzzle, and a dog calendar. And Nick got a pair of pants, a shirt, some undershirts, and a chess timer. He was very greatful for the clothes because all of his are the same as he wore for construction last year and now he works in the office and is supposed to be "business casual." It is crazy but Nick seemed more greatful for $50 in clothes than some homeowners are for getting a house for $300 a month. And I felt more satisfied helping him than helping some of the homeowners. Crazy world.

I'm heading home by car on Thursday night. I'll be sure to document the road trip with my brother on the way back down here. I'll see some of you in the next couple days and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to everyone else.

PS - That is a picture of Lee and I at the Colts-Jags game. (I took the picture if you can't tell.)