While Christmas has come and gone, we are now in final countdown mode to New Year's Eve and the welcoming of 2005. It's great how this time of year works, because if New Year's was not coming up, I feel quite certain we'd all be seriously depressed. "I've got a car full of presents! And...weeks of boredom ahead of me." This way we get to come back to work for a few days (or like SOME LUCKY BASTARDS GET THE WHOLE WEEK OFF) but with the knowledge that there is a mighty big party around the corner, and in the case of my circle of friends that party will once again take place on the Chesapeake bay, where we brought in 2004 with dangerous bouts with fire, and mysterious juice concentrate and whiskey mixtures. My friends and I warmed up the house with a serious get-together over Christmas break. Not serious as in sad, boring, or otherwise, but serious in the sense that all eight of us, who've been emailing since high school, made it for the event. We realized that we may never have all been in the same place at the same time (save the hallways of St. Stephens and St. Agnes) and found great cause to celebrate because of it. We even made a list for the evening, including such items as "solve all our problems" and "plan Cara's wedding." This one, of course, was of great intrest to me as I've gone into full-fledged I-SEE-WHY-PEOPLE-GET-SO-INTO-THESE-THINGS! mode and am ready to plan a damn wedding like nobody's business. And despite my careless blog title, it will certainly need to have an agenda.

The latest comical notion is that not only should the reception be at the bay, but the ceremony as well. We'd stand at the end of the pier as friends and family pulled up in various boats, rafts. Because J and I will both burn in hell should we not be married in a church, with God and all the saints witnessing our happy union (No, of course we don't live together yet, Father!) the boat idea will probably just remain a daydream. Plus, our friends aren't nautical types. Come on, now.