Holiday shopping is complete, save for one last thing which I’ll get tomorrow, and some loose ends this weekend. Aw yeah. Whew.

Today my co-workers and I spent a few hours volunteering downtown at the Salvation Army. Their annual toys for needy families event takes place this week through the weekend and we helped to prepare by moving large pallets of boxes and decorating a couple rooms that will become the “store” for people to choose their toys and food boxes.

It was nice to spend an afternoon doing physical labor. Took me back to ’95, when I was working in a book warehouse, lifting boxes and shelving books all day in West Berkeley. The pay was low, but it was a sweet job. Nice co-workers, plenty of exercise, could wear whatever I wanted, and listened to music all day. And of course the books, to be thumbed through at my leisure. I still remember the smell and taste of the sludgy coffee we made, and how once it was so thick and black that it scoured salad greens from my body, undigested, an hour later. Sorry, TMI. Hee.

Anyway. After I was done volunteering, I did some xmas shopping downtown, and then the roommate and I went to this Chronicle Books event inside the Metreon, where we enjoyed free peppermint martinis and appetizers. Some fella handed us cards loaded with video game credits for the place next door, so we went to play Ms. Pac Man and Skee-Ball. I was a bit tipsy, as I am a lightweight. It was lots of fun though.

Home now, chilly apartment. Cats want to be fed, gifts want to be wrapped, body wants to be snuggled into my nest of a bed. I think of the fuzzy electric blanket I had as a kid, and swoooon.