Gus is staring at me.

This year, I accompanied my boyfriend home for Christmas.  His family may have been a touch of a culture shock, but very nice people.  I felt welcomed and learned an awful lot about his roots, Jeffersonians, and a large swath of the South, and today, he dropped me off in DC to enjoy the an amazing Christmas gift- 2 nights in a swank hotel room with a very loose agenda and absolutely no required human interaction for 2.5 days.  I visited a few sights today- the American History museum, the Freer Art Gallery, and the Textile Museum.  I had some amazing food, and I adopted a creepy new addition to the family.

His name is Gus.

Clearly, the message here is that my boyfriend rocks, even if his thanks for that is going to be that he gets to get stared at by a rainbow pony for the drive home... because Gus?  Gus has informed me that he prefers to ride in the front so he can see things.  LIKE YOUR SOUL.

I have a lot of heavy stuff going on these days.  My dad is getting better, and in doing so, he's driving me up the wall.  My job is a constant source of angst and frustration, and fixing that situation, one way or another, is going to be a project.  My injured shoulder can't decide if it wants to get better or worse... but for the next two days, I don't have to fixate on those things.  I've got space and a great big city and a MASSIVE squishy hotel bed, and I can practically feel myself decompressing from a knot that I've let get way too tight.

All my things to worry about will surely still be there when I get home.  For now, I'm happy that I don't have to worry about anything deeper than where the yarn stores are in relation to the museums in the mall and the meerkats in the zoo.