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Who loves Wallace and Gromit? Everyone! Here is a special holiday-infused short that is quite lovely. I love those two, I wish they were my neighbors.

Speaking of neighbors, it is true what Robert Frost says. Good fences make good neighbors. Speaking Robert Frost, I love his poems. I haven’t read all of them or anything, but I love the ones I have read. They are snowy and quiet and very gentle to your soul. Speaking of gentle, I love the facial cleanser Cetaphil. I highly recommend it to everyone.

This story and these pictures make me happier than I could ever possibly explain.

I overheard someone talking about me this weekend. Obviously, that person didn&#146t know I was listening. If she DID know, I guess she didn&#146t care. But I am fairly certain she did not realize I was within earshot.

I am not sure if I feel bad for eavesdropping. On one hand, it is troubling to hear someone talk badly about you. And who wants to feel guilty about listening in on someone else&#146s conversation? But on the other hand, it is good to know how someone truly feels about you.

We all have to pretend, to a certain extent. We all have to deal with people we do not particularly care for or enjoy. But we pretend. We play the game. We do it because we know that sometimes it is easier to act the part then be honest. Sometimes it is necessary; people at work, family members, a friend&#146s husband/boyfriend, children, old people…the list goes on and on. The effort it requires to be completely forthright is too much. Maybe we want to avoid hurting someone&#146s feelings. Maybe the benefit of being nice to the person far outweighs the cost of telling her off. Maybe we are just manipulative jerks. Simple cost-benefit analysis stuff here. But the end result is the same: not a single one of us can be 100% honest about another person 100% of the time.

The disturbing thing about what I overheard is that it came from a person that I believed genuinely respected me. I think it tripped me up so much because I was wrong, because I made a mistake, because I greatly misjudged someone. I am okay about it now, though. I bounce back pretty well. I am glad I heard what I heard. I feel empowered by it.

Actually, you know, now that I think about it, this entire weekend was a nice eye-opener for me. I gained a better perspective all around about those who respect me and those who just go through the motions…

We had our company holiday party on Friday night. I work at a small office, just 6 people. You would think that a small office would not have such drama, such tension, such politics. But it does! I think it might even be worse at times than the shit that goes on in a bigger company. And when you give people who work together in close quarters a bunch of alcohol, people who are all very different and don&#146t really like one another that much, then things are bound to go sour.

To be fair, nothing went horribly awry, but as I sat looking at everyone, watching them talk and eat and drink, I finally understood my place, I saw how THEY all see me. Everyone I work with grew up with certain advantages that I did not. They all come from families in the upper-middle class and higher. They all have a good bit of money and they all consider themselves &#147high culture.&#148

They look at me as a lesser person. A flaky girl from the west coast, someone with &#147mental issues.&#148 Low class, no money, a MEXICAN for chrissakes. What could a Mexican possibly know about the finer things in life? I don&#146t wear makeup or dress fancy or act girly and frou-frou. I drive a shitty car. I don&#146t play by their stupid rules. I am a drippy hippie who doesn&#146t eat meat (which isn&#146t true, because I eat tuna!), the weird one, short and frumpy and bitter. I have liberal views and I am a feminist and I have no intention of getting married and having kids and settling down, just because that is what everyone else does.

I am carrying on a little here but my point is that no one at work respects me. Because of all those things and more. The posturing and the placating they did a few months ago when I was ready to quit was just that, nothing more, nothing sincere. I did not get the respect I demanded, just a pretty cake with sugary sweet icing and a hollow core. It is not in my nature to remain still for great lengths of time. What I have known for quite time was simply confirmed on Friday night. Time for Christa to move on.

Based on feedback regarding my new look here at loafe, it seems like it is ace! I&#146m ace! Did ya hear that? I AM ACE.

Ace! As in swell. As in Ace. like, ace ace baby, too cold.

okay, I&#146ll stop.

So you know, I sort of miss coming up with a quotation. And it&#146s only been one day. How lame is that.

Tonight is my company&#146s annual christmas party. I love annual christmas parties. Mostly, I love the free alcohol.

I generally like this time of year. I like the smells and the colors and the warmness and egg nog and presents and lights and everything so sparkly, etc. But there are definite things I hate about this time of year, mainly: the lexus and kay jewelers commercials. I complain about them every year, because every year they make me want to claw my eyes out and shove hot pokers into my ears. And not just to myself, but everyone around me as well.

Regarding my links over there at the right, I thought I&#146d say a few words about why I chose each one. Be aware that these links will change as my mood sees fit…

daypop.com: This site is great for news stories, top articles, etc. and to see what is hot hot hot on the Internet. It&#146s all in list format to boot! And as you all know, I like my web sites like I like my sex: no-frills and easy access. Daypop fits the bill all the way.

crazy stephanie a: Stephanie is one cool chick. I don&#146t really know her very well, because she&#146s a stranger and lives in Phoenix and stuff, but she&#146s swell and she&#146s funny and she&#146s talented and she&#146s goofy and I like all those things in a person. She has a lot of creativity and a lot of motivation and she is the person maybe I wish I could be, if I weren&#146t so incredibly lazy. She would be my friend if we lived in the same city, I am sure of it. It isn&#146t just some delusional thought of mine, shut up.

picture phones = FUN: My friend Dave runs this site. Dave is so silly and fun and he makes me laugh and his pictures and captions make me laugh and he&#146s smart and kinda crazy. He helps me with things that I don&#146t understand and he plays a mean game of Scrabble. He makes a lot of money. He says things that most people are afraid to say. And he can be such a jerk. What more could a girl want?

flip flop flyin&#146: I would say this site is my Internet crush. My site loves this site. It is very creative and original and the guy who handles it seems like such a top notch guy. Ace in fact! ACE! Okay, so if you&#146re wondering where all this &#147ace&#148 talk is coming from, I saw it in one of my favorite movies, 28 Days Later, and ever since then I kept thinking of how I could start incorporating that into my vocabulary without sounding like a dumbass. Then I realized that would never happen. I&#146m just a stupid american, so the dumbass part is pretty much inevitable. So I&#146ve given myself the okay to ace away.

sea of humanity: You know, I am not exactly sure how I stumbled on to this site. I think I was doing a search for something somewhere. Anyway, I took a few moments to read through it. It made me laugh and I could sense a lot of anger and hostility. But not in a &#147I&#146m such a macho badass, I&#146m gonna kick your motherscratching ass, don&#146t you look at my girlfriend like that&#148 way but in a christa way, you know, with all the hating and the seething, but very quietly, on the inside.

older loafe entries: And older loafe entries are duh–older loafe entries. I figured I should put a link to those, for the people who love to go back and reread all my wonderful words (that should be all of you). For super duper way old loafe entries, visit this archive.