My mother, Lord love her, after twisting my arm and forcing me to promise to travel to her house on Christmas Eve along with the rest of creation, instead of Christmas Day when everyone else will be at home, called today to tell me that if it looked like terrorists were going to attack the city or the train system, I should come on Christmas Day instead. Oy.

If it looks like terrorists are going to attack, traveling will be very, very low on my list of priorities. Curling up in a fetal position under my bed will be the order of the day.

Ah, well.

Last night I went to a delightful dinner party in honor of this man's birthday. It afforded me an opportunity to talk with Faustus for a while, which I really hadn't had a chance to do yet. Good food. Good conversation. A very pleasant evening. It was the sort of thing I imagined myself doing when I moved to New York. Going out with a group of friends and their friends, having discussions about theater and literature. More often than not, however, I spend my evenings at home watching movies. Ah, well.

Sadly, MAK had to leave early for his trip to visit his family. I walked David home so he could give me my belated birthday present, a Goblin journal. I, too, have ordered something from Cafe Press for his birthday present, a Gotham Knights Rugby Calendar.

Good times.

Today was another 'do nothing' day at work. Well, I did do one interesting thing. I played Santa Claus and took a bunch of presents to a special education class at an elementary school in Queens. The kids were wheelchair-bound and non-verbal. Many were mentally retarded. Several of the kids had feeding tubes and other physical problems.

I will say this for myself, I managed not to cry while I was dropping off the presents and meeting all the kids and their teachers.

It just broke my heart to see how much the deck was already stacked against these kids and their families.

Sure makes all my problems seem remarkably trivial.