I haven’t taken a vacation since I started the job that I currently hold; yes, I’ve taken a day off here and there, and the end of one week when Meg’s brother graduated from Marine boot camp, but it’s never been like a real vacation. I ended up having to cancel on our plans to go to Cyprus with some university friends back in September due to the fact that just flying over there would have cost me over $1200 - a bit obscene, really - and things were busy at work and basically all the odds were against it.

In any case, I finally made it to London two days after Christmas. Meg came with me, as well as our friends Anita and Karen, and we stayed at my friend S’s house; she, coincidentally, just came out a few months ago after much speculation, and I was eager to check out the London gay scene with her (not that we ended up doing much of that, but never mind). It was a fabulous ten days, rowdy, crazy … though in hindsight, if I were to go back in time and take the trip again, I would probably change a few things, not sleep many of the days away, visit more sights, that sort of thing.

We decided, upon much deliberation, to go to a club called Wish for New Year’s. If only they had a place like that in the NYC-area! It was a wicked club - two levels, the basement bit playing thumpy electronic/techno music, and the upstairs bit playing alternative, sing-a-long kind of stuff (think The Killers, The Fratellis, all of those fun groups). We went with a group of S’s friends from around the UK, all of them uber-trendy lesbians with killer haircuts (which I want to imitate, but I’m a pussy when it comes to new hairstyles, so we’ll see how far that goes), but sadly we never really got a chance to interact too much. I did meet Miss Gay Manchester, who was off her face but hilarious and very nice, and it’s kind of cool to say that I’ve met a minor celebrity, anyway. S ended up going to a house party later in the evening, and Anita and Karen went home as Karen wasn’t feeling well, so I spent most of the night dancing with my girlfriend and our friend James, who’s simply fabulous - straight, but fabulous. A good night, in general, and a relatively cheap one with good music. Can’t go wrong with that.

The rest of the time in London was spent meeting up with friends from school. It was the first time I’d seen most of them in over a year, and it was great to catch up. I miss that group and all of their eccentricities. On the upside, a number of them are planning visits to the States in the first half of this year: three definitely, another two or three maybe.

Anyway, now I’m well into the daily grind once again. I think my aversion to taking vacations from work stems from the fact that, even when I take a day off, things change, methods change, goals change. In a start-up, especially in the software industry, things just seem to happen so fast. In any case, now I’m back to work and it’s crazy-busy, but everything we’re doing is so interesting that the only problem I have is that there are only so many hours in a day!

I got a surprise last week when a random young man called me and informed me that he was calling on behalf of a certain acquaintance of mine to complete her federal background investigation. The surprise was based upon two factors: one, that she hadn’t told me she had put me down as a reference, and two, that we haven’t spoken since a drama-filled fallout back in autumn of last year. That was the last time I’ve spoken with her, and to be honest, she’d largely slipped from my mind save for the occasional reminder by the feed on the Facebook main page.

The man came by last night for our meeting, which lasted about half an hour. He asked all the usual questions - “How do you know her?,” “Has she ever worked for a foreign government?,” “Has she ever been a member of an extremist group?,” and so forth. Nothing major. With some of the questions, like those relating to drugs and alcohol abuse, I think I may have had more problems answering if the person in question weren’t so straight-edged. Anyway, I gave my recommendation and thus did my civic duty. I just thought it was random.

A paycheck right now would be much appreciated. Hmm.

I spent my first couple of months here at The Office asking everybody for more work, because the CTO for whom I was working directly really didn’t have all that much for me to do except arrange travel, do his expense reports, and manage his fundraiser. As I said before, I was doing loads of work for HR and various projects for other people.

I started assisting the marketing department right before the new year, and now my title has officially changed from executive assistant to that of marketing coordinator, which makes me feel important even if I’m not really. The major bonus of this is that I finally get to utilize some of the skills that I haven’t used in forever, namely web design, and I love that. Basically, then, I am absolutely swamped with stuff to do, but I’m enjoying most of it and the days just fly by, something that never happened at The Firm when I worked there.

This also means my hours have extended somewhat, as I feel guilty leaving before six or six thirty. I’m hoping all this work will pay off when bonus time comes around … we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m having a blast and that’s what counts.

Apart from work, what’s been going on? Meg and I had our one-year anniversary on Saturday night, which we spent by going out to dinner and spending a night at the Hilton, which was just wonderful. I always forget how much I like room service.

Also, Jen and I went to the L Word premier party in the City last Sunday at the Copacabana. Awesome. Apart from me getting absolutely tanked, which is always a good time until the next morning, we spent the evening dancing, watching the first episode of the new season of the L Word, and listening to live music. Plus, we got to see Jennifer Beals (of Flashdance fame), Marlee Matlin, and series creator Ilene Chaiken.

Six and a half hours a day in a classroom (technically it’s eight, but this is taking into account breaks, lunch, and general administrative duties) is not conducive to reliable, daily posts in a blog, so for that I apologize.

I’m quite enjoying the insurance course, actually. The material’s pretty interesting. There are over thirty of us, ranging in age from 23 (yeah, so far as I can tell, some other guy with one of those cow ring things in his nose and I are the young’uns of the group) to probably sixty something, from all over the world (I’ve counted a Russian, a Frenchman, and a German so far). Many of the guys are ex-military, some serving as far back as ‘Nam (my smoking buddy) to Iraq (a seven-foot-tall behemoth). Anyway. Diverse group. The teacher, Mr. W, is a riot and very good at what he does, which makes sense because he was in the insurance business for over thirty years before taking over this class in the mid-’90s.

It’s wonderful to get out at four, before rush hour clogs the roads and causes it to take an hour to go two miles near my house, and I figured this would give me ample opportunity to head on down to Cartaret to - finally! - see my car and grab any personal effects that are left, of which I’ve been told there are quite a few. But no. The place shuts at four-thirty, and it’s at least four exits down the Turnpike, so there is no way I’d ever make it. I’ll have to wait until this class ends next week, I guess.

I finally got my estimate, though! USAA is going to give me $3299, over seven hundred dollars more than I read in an online version of the Blue Book. Wicked. I don’t know when I’ll manage to go out looking for a new car, but it should be soon. I can’t hold Meg’s car hostage forever.

Speaking of Meg, we drove down to Virginia late Friday night for the weekend. Her family reunion, dad’s side, was to be held on Sunday in Maryland, so I figured this was a good excuse for me to pop round and visit my aunt and uncle while they’re in town (she lives in California and has an open-ended ticket, so she could realistically be around forever, but he lives in Vietnam and is heading off in about two weeks, and understandably I don’t get to see him very often). I also had the opportunity to chat with my mom about my future - yes, again - and it went really well. She’s being extremely supportive and enthusiastic.

I figured, per tradition, we’d meet up with Erica at TGI Friday’s on Saturday night for a beer and a chat. The conversations leading up to the actual event left much to be desired, as Meg and I got into a bit of a fight. Basically, she was upset with me because I was planning to have a beer at Friday’s and then head home; yes, in my car. Personally, I think they set the drinking and driving limit as they do so as to allow someone the freedom of having a quiet drink with a friend, and therefore have little problem with it, but Meg is very passionate about such a thing. Anyway, Erica offered to drive, bless her, so I got my beer and everyone was happy.

And then we went out to DC to see Dom. I don’t really understand how that happened, but we got to Corey’s apartment in Foggy Bottom at about one in the morning and hung out for awhile, drinking extraordinarily sweet concoctions brewed by a very inebriated Dom and listening to an eclectic mix of dance, rap, and showtunes.

The next day it took us quite a while to get down to Meg’s family reunion (extenuating circumstances included a 3-year-old, a mom playing hostess, a reckless driving ticket involving a state trooper who obviously hasn’t been laid in a few years, and a fat redneck woman - not the cool “I keep my Christmas lights on the front porch all year long” kind - who decided that her week’s amusement was to keep us from passing her on Route 5), but ultimately I decided that her family is lovely, though I’m still extremely sore from playing baseball and soccer with her 3.2 million first, second, and third cousins, most of whom were approximately 3 foot 9 inches tall and far superior to me in athleticism.

This heat is destroying me. One and a half weeks until London, baby! I’m just going to forget the fact that I have two tests next week. Mmmmm … gone. Excellent.

PS, I’m very happy that Italy won the World Cup (woot!), but I wouldn’t have been too upset had France been the victor. But Zidane - really? A red card in your last game ever? Clever publicity stunt. No one was expecting that.

I think it’s absurd that we’re expected to come into work today, even for a half day (and half is all relative, really, given that we get off at two). On the upside, we were allowed to dress ‘casual’ today, which means jeans for me. They’re about the same comfort level as a suit, but wearing jeans to the office kind of feels like sticking it to the man. Kind of.

On Friday night, Meg and I ended up hanging out with my flatmate TJ and a group of people, and somehow we found ourselves playing board games until four in the morning. How that happened, I have no idea; I blame the addictive quality of such games as Taboo and Cranium. The next night was absolutely gorgeous and breezy, so a whole bunch of us chilled in the backyard, drank, chatted, and, yes, played another game of Cranium, boys versus girls, and we girls lost again by one question. Frustrating as hell, I tell you. We’ll get them back, sooner or later.

I’m supposed to hear back from the insurance people about my car sometime this week. I’ve been looking at used vehicles on Craigslist, and I can get a pimped-out version of my now-defunct car, including the very necessary alarm system, for less than $5000. That’s the limit I’ve set myself. I’m not going to go out and buy a new car while I’m living where I am. That would be just asking for trouble, I’m sure, and anyway, now is the time to be saving money. And I pay enough in rent as it is to be worrying about car payments.