Sorry, that title is a bit of an in-joke, and a rather corny one. It just came to mind after I realized it's been nearly a year since my last journal update around these parts, and yet anything I might write about current events would come off like a broken record.

So, here are the Cliff's Notes: things are still pretty much shit. I hate to come off all whiny and such, but that's the truth of it. 2009 marked what I seriously hope will be the last time I ever speak to what was formerly known as my mother (now referred to as "the bitch" when trying to be polite), which makes the holiday season rather awkward since there are still people on her side of the family I'd like to see. Then again, she's convinced them that my brother stole all the drugs she and her boyfriend were selling, so I'm not sure they'd care to see he and I.

The financial situation isn't any better either - I have a job I enjoy that pays well enough, but the hours aren't near enough to keep the bills paid. I'm behind on most everything at this point, and looking at selling off my car and a few other things to get rid of some payments and put out fires and such. Being poor sucks.

I'm still mostly just hanging around with my brother and my old man - working when I can and doing whatever in-between. I'm still cooking on occasion and enjoying that... we actually fixed a tasty oven-roasted turkey for Thanksgiving a few days back. I was kinda dreading the holidays now that both my old man's parents are dead and the family is effectively demolished, but my brother and I have been spending a fair bit of time with my aunt and her partner, and having loads of fun. Her partner's daughter moved back into town last holiday season, so we'll be seeing a lot of her and her family this Christmas. Having the six kids around can be exhausting, but they really brighten things up when they're around. I could barely stifle my laughter when their 2-year-old burst into his own rendition of Sir Mixalot's classic "I Like Big Butts" at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Good times. So yeah, we're coming up with as many excuses as we can to make the 2-hour trip for a visit. This one was Thanksgiving dinner and a chance to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert... they fucking rocked.

Anyway, I don't mean to blab on about boring and/or depressing crap, but there isn't much else to say. I've been playing a few games, watching a few movies, etc. but I expect they'd all be old news or at least common knowledge to anyone who might be interested.

So yeah, enough of my bullshit. Happy Holidays to all you unfortunate souls not lucky enough to pass this droll journal entry by. I'll be back in a better year, though if it's the same story for three in a row I might just give up on writing about it.