the "weekend"

Saturday. My weekend started Saturday around 2:30. Dylan and I went down to Cincinnati and hung out with lots of great people, and we ended the night with a trip to Nicholson's Irish Pub downtown, followed by warring it out on the new 007 game for Wii. Sunday. Dewenter came over around 1:00, and we went to Applebee's for lunch and then drank beers at the house and played Mario-Kart before doing some much-needed Christmas shopping. Monday. I returned to Cincinnati to visit my best friend Jessie who's in town from Illinois. It was so great to see her. We went to Rock Bottom Brewery on Fountain Square (though we had to park far away), and I had the most amazing nachos ever:

When winter comes around, I tend to get more depressed than usual. The cold and dark evenings with the deadness clinging to the trees becomes an echo of my own heart. It's as if I were looking straight into a mirror. It's been like this every winter for as long as I can remember. Seasonal Depression, they call it. I have several friends who experience the same thing. I generally want to do nothing but hole up in my room and go to bed by 6:00. But I force myself to be active, to do things, and hanging out with friends is one of the best possible remedies. Seeing all those people this weekend--Rob, Mandy, Amos, Blake, Tony, Blayne (just to name a few)--is one of the best antidotes to the depression. And getting lunch with Jessie, drinking a beer and talking face-to-face as if she'd never left, that was great. I do miss her. She's one of the few who has been by my side as long as we've known each other, and I owe a lot to her. Here is a picture of the two of us at Rock Bottom:

I still have a considerable amount of shopping to complete. Tomorrow I have the day off before the insane working schedule of Christmas (and Christmas travelling itself), so I hope to finish all my shopping then. I'm spending the evening inside, as we are *supposed* to get icy rain sometime this afternoon. I'm going to go to I.G.A. and get some steak and fresh vegetables and create a delicious dinner. And if I'm lucky, I'll get some writing done. Even though I've eaten out a lot, I've eaten religiously strict the rest of the time, and coupled with working out, I haven't gained any weight. Fingers crossed that I can keep it up through the new year.