<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880681534503108788</id><updated>2011-07-08T02:51:46.203-07:00</updated><title type='text'>The Mike Blogger</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://themikeblogger.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4880681534503108788/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://themikeblogger.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Jim D</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>1</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4880681534503108788.post-2881310054747278267</id><published>2009-02-10T20:37:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-09-23T14:39:25.935-07:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;Well, I survived the holidays without any major incidents.&lt;/p&gt;      &lt;p&gt;Al's mom and brother visited us for about a week, which was cool. I feel really bad about taking them to Christmas dinner at my mom and sister's house though, because they must have been completely bored out of their skulls (well, I was, so I don't know why it would be any different from them). Anyway, I regret inflicting that on them so soon after meeting them.&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p&gt;We went to see "Elizabeth" last night -- it was fantastic! Elizabeth was a kick-ass queen, and is now my monarch-hero. It used to be Catherine the Great, but I've changed my mind. Elizabeth I was definitely much cooler. My favorite line from the movie was: "I will only have one mistress here, and I will have no master!" (Or something like that -- we'll have to wait until I buy the video for the exact wording....;-) Oh, and the actor who played Elizabeth is *so* beautiful...she looks like the woman who played "Orlando," but it's been so long since I've seen it that I can't be sure. Maybe I'll go look it up at IMDB.com.&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p&gt;Well, I'm back at work, and definitely happier than last week. Things have calmed down considerably between Al and I; after breaking up earlier this month, things have been fairly tense between us. I guess that relinquishing some of my tight-fisted control over my emotions about the whole thing helped us both be a little more comfortable.&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p&gt;Having said that, I still believe that I'm officially depressed. I stopped taking St. John's Wort last month because I wasn't sure how much of my negative mood was due to actual physiological reasons and how much was due to the tumultuous nature of my life. I decided that I'd wait awhile to see how things went; after the initial crash from not taking it, I have been continually blue for the last month. *shrug* I'm still not sure though.  Then I started thinking it may be side effects of the &lt;a href="http://www.carsoma.com/"&gt;carsoma&lt;/a&gt; I am taking for my muscle pain. But who knows? The holidays are always a little rough for me, and this year has been particularly terrible because of other circumstances. I may still wait a month or two before starting to take it again, just to see if things improve.&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p&gt;On the positive side, I'm still quite thrilled about going back to school next month. I'm finally doing an &lt;a href="http://www.realworkrealpay.info/"&gt;apprenticeship&lt;/a&gt;. I just think it's an easier way to gain qualifications and experiences than doing a full course.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4880681534503108788-2881310054747278267?l=themikeblogger.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://themikeblogger.blogspot.com/feeds/2881310054747278267/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://themikeblogger.blogspot.com/2009/02/well-i-survived-holidays-without-any.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4880681534503108788/posts/default/2881310054747278267'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4880681534503108788/posts/default/2881310054747278267'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://themikeblogger.blogspot.com/2009/02/well-i-survived-holidays-without-any.html' title=''/><author><name>Jim D</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
