I am, admittedly, not the easiest person to shop for come Christmastime. There just aren*t that many things I want most of the time, so it*s difficult for me to make a list for people. Now, my parents seem to come up with incredibly thoughtful gifts in spite of my inability to help them out too much. This year they outdid themselves in a couple of very different ways.

On the good side, they gave me a wonderful book called Faces of Man (I think that*s the title) that has a series of photos of people and families from around the world. It was originally published in the 70s and is really fascinating. It*s particularly interesting because when I opened it I was immediately reminded of an exhibit at Millenium Park in Chicago. After flipping through the pages a bit I saw the notes they had each put inside the front cover, and both of them mentioned that they were reminded of this book when they visited Millenium Park with me during a visit over the summer. It was really neat to see how our minds all made the same connection, albeit from opposite starting points.

Equally thoughtful was one other gift, which they recognized the necessity of when I mentioned over Thanksgiving that I needed to pick up a tire pressure gauge for my car. Given that this is a $1.00 item, I managed to scrape up my pennies to take care of the purchase myself in the meantime. However, mom and dad didn*t know this, so they decided to get one for me and send it along with my other gifts. Being who they are, however, they decided that I needed something more. Enter the Talking tire pressure gauge. Actually, this one is a BILINGUAL talking tire pressure gauge. Why, you ask? Probably for the same reason that they picked up a Perfect Pancake Maker last year – again, based on a chance comment I*d made a few months previously.

I come from a strange people, and I wouldn*t have it any other way.

Last day at my “old” job today. I*ve had several last days and this one easily qualifies as the most surreal. I have gone around the company (big place too) and said goodbye to all the people I have worked with for the last 4 years who I wanted to touch base with. None of those folks are with my current group. my current group has me wrapping up projects and submitting access requests for them in my final hours here. Truly bizarre.

The whole situation is made weirder by the fact that its the holidays and the whole coprporate campus feels like a college on winter break.

Anyway. Another hour or so and I will vanish softly into the night. there is a party next Thursday night with a bunch of folks that I used to work with. But outside a few awkward moments with my director this morning, nothing is happening here to indicate to the world that my cube will be empty come Monday.

All in all, a very strange day to be me.

On a completely unrealted note, this post marks the achievement of a minor goal. Averaging at least one post per day for the month of December. Granted it went in fits and starts, but the posting is on an upward trend