So let's play a little catchup, shall we?
Step One: Transit Strike. I walked to work and back 5.6 miles each way for Thursday and Friday, after a botched attempt to work from home on Tuesday. I was happy to do it; as I explained to my friends who were apt to call the TWU a bunch of "terrorists," they do a fuck of a lot for this city, and I was happy to do that for them. Most people seemed to disagree with me, which means that most people are cold, calculating, heartless bastards. But I don't have any fun pictures of this, so let's move on.
Step Two: Christmas 2005, back home in the big C-O. I had a ton of fun and bought a bunch of new jackets from the thrift stores there. My niece and nephew continue to be utterly amazing, and little T. S. has the cutest way of shouting my name from across the room and then running over to hug my legs. Mal had actually drawn a life-size picture of me, from lots of tapped-together sheets of paper, before I even got there, and it's hanging up at work. The last batch of photos are blurry on one side where there was a thumbprint on the lens (damn you, digital cameras!), but otherwise they're good. You can see all of the adorability here. I dare you to look through those and not say "Awwww!"
Step Three: My 10-year high school reunion. Pictures for this live here. And yes, these still have that stupid thumbprint. This happened on my last night in town, and I made Danica go as my date. It was tremendously weird, for lots of reasons, among which are a) apparently I was the only attendee who smokes or drinks, although this did lead to a very close relationship with the waitress who would spot me across the room, nod, and then appear at my side a moment later with a vodka tonic on a tray. Also, b) most of my time was spent talking to a guy who hugely intimidated me for most of high school, but all of a sudden he seems tremendously nice and friendly and I have no idea why I was so scared before. Lesson: It's nice to be grown up.
Step Four: New Year's, which happened the night after my reunion, but before any actual sleep occurred, as I basically got on a plane after the reunion, got to New York, and went to a party. I'm wearing one of my new jackets! And yes, at one point Ross is also wearing my new jacket because people go outside and get all cold or some junk, so I let them wear my clothes. I really like that I totally look like a dirty man dancing with Dawn in the last few. We tore up the floor, yo.
And Step Five: Today, when I went to jury duty. It was actually a lot of fun for me, and I really liked the bit about seeing how a courtroom works in real life. Although I have to say I felt REALLY pretentious, waiting for jury duty and reading a biography of Cicero at the same time. I have to go back tomorrow because they haven't finished picking a jury for the case I'm associated with, so they still might pick me, which would be pretty neat. I don't have any pictures of this either, and I'm very disappointed we didn't get to watch the instructional video. There was apparently some sort of technical difficulty, so all I saw was the first few seconds, of a medieval trial-by-ordeal, where actors were trussing someone up to toss them into a lake. It looked really funny, and I'm very sad to have missed it.
There. We're all caught up now. Enjoy.