You know you have social anxiety when....

You know you're coming off a good weekend when you can't decide what the highlight was: finding a fascinating Holocaust memoir to read, or Sunday morning when Titanic and the Sex and the City movie were on simultaneously.

I was supposed to venture out and interact with others Friday night, at Eric's work Christmas party. Something I've come to realize as I've gotten a little older is that Christmas parties for educators are in a different ballpark than Christmas parties in the private sector. Apparently those provide drinks, food, a location, gifts, music, etc....aka it fits the widely accepted definition of "party".

For us, it's more like "hey, when do you all want to get together and drink before Christmas?". And everyone picks a time, and an (inexpensive, we don't make much) place, and it's on.

I got home from work and was exhausted. That's a pretty typical state of affairs, but I also had a headache and a slight fever. (99.1, but I'm a freak and my temperature almost never even hits 98). I pretty much didn't leave the couch until it was time to go to work on Saturday at 3pm. I still felt fairly sick, and as we all know, working sick is just fantastic.

You know you have social anxiety when a fever is preferable to a party where you hardly know anyone. Also, Legally Blond was on. Do you realize that movie came out in 2001???

As I said, Sunday involved two of my favorite movies, and more reading and crying. The historical fiction novel I read last week got me sucked in, and now I can't stop. (Full disclosure: those aren't affiliate links, because I'm not cool like that, just amazon links to the books for those of you who want to be depressed when they read, like I do.)

A weekend where I leave my pajamas as little as possible is a huge win for me. It's freezing out, so hot chocolate is my newest dessert obsession.

I managed to leave the house Sunday night, and also did 30 minutes on the bike trainer. I went to the Charm City Run employee Christmas party, which, incidentally, did fit the normal definition of "party". Eric had his monthly WWE hot date with a bunch of other fake wrestling obsessed men. I convinced my (male) friend Alex to stand in as my date.

It was actually fun, chatting with others face to face, and it didn't hurt that the food was delicious. The best part was white elephant (the game where everyone brings a gift and you can either choose one to open or steal one). 

Most of the gifts people brought were on par with the one I provided, which was a huge hit.

I'll miss you, Mr. New Booty.

We have five locations, and the lucky recipient of my fabulous gift works at a different one, so I wasn't sure if he would be comfortable with the internet fame that comes along with exposure on Chocolate is my Life. But trust me, he was thrilled.

I was doing pretty well, but my Starbucks gift card and then Trader Joes goody bag both got stolen, and my despair forced me to try every kind of Christmas cookie provided. I ended up with one of those heat or freeze packs that you can use on sore muscles. This one is filled with cherry pits, which sounds weird, but it smells great, and as I've made clear, I'm all for anything and everything warm these days.

In summary, it seems when I'm not running (and done with grad school), I'm averaging one book for "pleasure" per week. I'm happy with those stats.