2005 is here. I had a great time last night at Aunt Mary's house. My Dad's whole family was there (yes, in one place)

There was one rude moment the whole night, but probably better to save that for my novel, rather than my blog. We ate, talked, gossiped, played numerous rounds of fusball, etc. Everyone left at around 11 p.m., so I watched the ball drop with three of my younger cousins who were the only ones who would stay up late with me.

The hit of the night were the statues my Aunt Mary bought for her Catholic coworker's children's confirmations (say that five times fast). They say "Jesus is my coach" and had Him, complete in white robe and sandals, playing sports with kids. The football one has a kid playfully tackling Jesus. You can't tackle Jesus!! My aunts had a good run of jokes about these things. Think one of the kids saying "No fair, Jesus is your coach! We only have stupid Mr. Smith coaching our soccer team" or "No fair, Jesus can't help you hold the bat!" Or check it out here: Jesus is my KARATE coach. Jesus playing karate?? Then, think of another alternative, for people's jobs. "Jesus is my lawyer", "Jesus is my accountant", "Jesus is my plumber."

My Aunt Mary had the football Jesus sitting on her desk at work for a little while, the one where the kid is tackling Jesus. She said she got a kick of watching visitors expressions when they tried to figure out why she would have this on her desk.

Ok, I may not be the most reverent person in the world, so I hope this entry didn't offend my more faithful friends. But these statues are just bizarre.

Well, tomorrow my two week vacation is over. Sigh. On Monday, I go back to work, which is making me a bit more anxious than usual for a multitude of reasons all related to my up and coming job shift. I'm trying not to be a type A person and just go with the flow of the change, but the lack of really knowing the details really bothers me. I don't deal well with things not quite under my control. Add to that the complete lack of a plan for taking a class Spring semester (my planned robotics class stayed scheduled, like the rest of the Mech E classes at my university, in the middle of the day, an impossibility given my schedule)... well, 2005 could start out with some more certainty than I currently have. I'm trying to be "zen" about it all though.