Isn’t that a Mark Twain quote? House guests are like fish; they are only good for three days. Sigh. I’ve gone from being a house guest for a week (my parents’ house for Christmas, which I think is excluded from the three-day rule) to having a house guest for the past five days. She does, in fact, have a plane ticket back to Tokyo next Friday, so that’s a helluva a long way to travel, which I believe also excludes her from the three-day rule. Still. Bless her little heart for being a longtime and dear friend, I’m about to go into full-tilt psycho mode soon if I can’t get back into my regular routine. That same, boring, regular routine that only two weeks ago I was aching for a break from now seems like a lovely, distant memory. Of course, we have had a great time recently. On New Year’s eve we did manage to hit the new Purple Martini in the glass bridge over Lawrence Street in the Tabor Center — nice views, pricey drinks, trendy crowd — and then caught the fireworks on the mall before we grabbed a pedi-cab over to the Merc. The staff at the Mercury Cafe was in a tizzy all night; with too many events in too many rooms, they were incredibly disorganized, but the band was amazing, the champagne was tasty, and the swing dance performances upstairs were great fun to watch. We even made it over to the 15th St. Tavern at the end of the night for one last drink. (Which I abandoned shortly thereafter; I noticed I kept slipping off the bar stool and opted to head back to the hotel before anyone else noticed said slippage.) Overall, it’s been a wonderfully fun couple of weeks. So, happy New Year to everyone, and thank God the holidays are over.