Going out

I'm going out to hear a friend's band tonight. I've been going out quite a bit lately: I have previously heard her band, Blue Sundaze, on October 30th, and I went to hear her play solo on November 3rd and 17th - both Wednesdays, which is really something for me, although I did cut out early each of these two nights, and I skipped my dogwalk the following mornings.

I also went to hear another friend's band, Manchester Blue, on Thursday, November 4th. Again, I left early that night and skipped the dogwalk the next morning. (That was also a night for Indian food, my first time in a long while.)

The next few weekends will be busy, full of post-Thanksgiving events, Christmas preparations, and a few parties thrown in. Work shows no sign of letting up, even over the holidays, but I've had some vacation time between Christmas and New Year's locked in since about June, and I still have a double-handful of days left to play with that I have no intention of losing. I have received assurances that our vacation days will not expire at the stroke of midnight on December 31st (they're usually good until the end of March), but I have learned over the past 15 years that in business promises are not worth the air they're breathed on, or the photons that make up their e-mailed images.

But why am I talking about work? This is the weekend, and I'm going out!