Well, I survived the holidays without any major incidents.

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.

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.

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.

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 carsoma 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.

On the positive side, I'm still quite thrilled about going back to school next month. I'm finally doing an apprenticeship. I just think it's an easier way to gain qualifications and experiences than doing a full course.