i hate crazy malls

Argh. Need to brave the madness of the mall as much as possible in the next few days. I am a terrible procrastinator, even about easy things like Christmas shopping. I'm finishing the last of my breakfast coffee and hoping that it will help me muster the strength I need for this endeavor.

I really want to get myself a haircut and a massage. I miss my old salon. I totally can't afford them anymore though. It's okay, I don't think I was ever trendy enough to get the haircuts my stylist gave me anyway.

I'm supposed to be planning the holiday get together for my High School Clique. I know "clique" kind of has negative connotation, but I don't know what else to call them. This is my central group of friends that I spent the most time with and whatnot. We've been pretty good about getting together for Christmas every year--and this year there were actually great turnouts for birthdays and such too. I wish we all saw each other more, but everyone's busy ... you know how that goes.

I'm in charge of the planning since I'm unemployed. I'm thinking dinner at Ichi Riki because I love shabu shabu. It's always such a pain to plan these things so I just asked for free days from everyone and am going to make a reservation where I want to eat. If they don't like it, then whoever complains can find a new venue ... I think it's a great plan. We're not exchanging gifts at all this year so I figure that we can spend a little more on food. Usually we do a secret santa thing that never works out because:

1. One person always has to know who our friend who lives in California has because they have to call and tell her.
2. Most of the group only talks frequently to a couple of the others.
3. Everyone always tells each other who they got because we often end up with the one person in the group we really don't see often so we have no idea what they like
4. It's a pain in the ass and no one ever wants to get it planned. This also involves all of us getting together twice--once to pick names, and once to exchange--and it's hard enough getting nine schedules in sync for a dinner.

Sooooo, I said eff the secret santa thing this year. I'll probably just get gifts for the people I see all the time. I wanted to play grab bag, but that idea was ill-received by Xmas (not really Chirstmas-y spirit for someone who shares a nickname with the holiday!).

Okay, I've dawdled enough. I really need to get a chunk of people off my list today.

I also work at The Restaurant tonight. I love when it's busy! We're having a much slower holiday season than in all the years I've been there, but it's a huge increase from what we've been doing recently. I love it when we have a packed house, and a full staff to take care of it all. That's when my job is interesting and enjoyable. I work all of the Eves and the Days in the next two weeks though--I'm hoping to get out early on New Year's Eve at least and go out for once with friends.