xmas, itchy, getting lost

It's very weird to have come home from vacation two days before Xmas. I missed the weeks of holiday hype but came back when the hype is at its peak, so it's disconcerting. I feel very disconnected from the whole Xmas thing. (In Hawaii, and even Japan, there were Xmas decorations and music, but nowhere near the kind of hype you see around here.) Yesterday when I went to the grocery store near work for lunch, I was all, "why is there so much traffic? why is the grocery store so crowded?" and had to remind myself that it was only two days till Xmas.

Plus everyone here on lj and on my lists is talking about plans and gift-buying and such, and I'm not doing any of that. So the fact that we've decided in my family to not exchange gifts this year adds to my confusion, I guess (although it's certainly nice not to be in a last-minute gift-buying frenzy).

In other news, my sunburn itches horribly today, which is a big inconvenience since the worst of it is in places that I either can't reach (i.e. my back) or can't scratch in public (when, oh when, will I learn to put sunblock on the backs of my legs as well as the fronts??). Sigh. Also, I think my mom has given me her cold :P although I went to bed extra early last night and got some good sleep and am feeling a bit better than yesterday. I'm still pretty tired from the trip though, so I will probably have to pass on the invitation to join a couple of Jewish friends for their traditional Xmas Eve Chinese-food-and-movie outing.

I just got spam with header, "Never Get Lost for Under $20!" Ah, grammar, the lost art. Here we see the pitfalls of unclear phrasing, grasshopper.