christmas is less than a week away! i've done half of my christmas shopping already...and the rest will be completed once i'm back home. i do love that malls and stores stay open until 11pm the week before christmas. there's something a little bit fun about walking around target or the mall so late at night, past normal operating hours.

friday night, my church volunteered at the union gospel mission in pioneer square. we were there to serve food and sing christmas carols. we were a bunch of sorry carolers. we didn't sound bad, but we did butcher a few songs here and there. pam joined in on the fun and was part of the food serving line. at one point, both of us were put on guard because one guy was hanging a little too close for comfort. he looked thin and pale and a little mentally/emotionally unbalanced. he asked me if he could come over to my house. at this point, i probably should have moved, but instead, i politely said, "no, that's not a good idea" and kept on singing. then he asked me my name and i introduced myself and asked him for his name. why? it seemed the polite thing to do. inner alarms again said i should've moved to safer locations. but no...i try to tough it out hoping he'd move on and leave. no such luck. but, one of the UGM dudes comes by and is like, "buddy, you're in the way." i see my opening here and find myself a new place to stand. except the run-in with the dude, it was a lot of fun. some people joined in and sang with us, or clapped their hands. we did get lots of compliments and cheering. they were too kind. :)

later, pam and i woke dennis up and we went to the hi life in ballard. i had some yummy overpriced scallops. then mark, chris, and david joined us for some more fun.

saturday was my day off, but i woke up super early [earlier than i wake up to go to work] to go to the mall to pay a bill and then to christmas shop a little. later, i met up with pam, rob, and mark for lunch at costas opa, by the fremont bridge. after lunch, we walked around there for a little while and sat in the music store playing with random stringed instruments and the must-have gong. afterwards, we headed to pochi's where i got to play one round of othello [which i won] before i left for dinner with melissa. it seriously felt like i was eating all day. i felt sick after dinner when we went to see spanglish, which wasn't great, but it was good and it had its moments. then it was back with the seattle-portland gang - they were watching harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban at dennis's roommate's posh condo. 'twas a long day.

today was a volleyball tournament and a surprise party for my pastor, the latter of which i didn't make it to. i anticipated being able to go after the games, but i guess the party was pretty short. our team played well and we had fun, even if we only won one match out of the three. and just a little bit ago, i took pam and rob on a walking tour of the UW campus and a small portion of the Ave. and now, i'm tired. i want to sleep, but it's only 7pm. so instead, i'm going to uvillage to run some errands and walk around a little, and that's ok, because i love uvillage at holiday time.