"And on the 26th day..." If you celebrated the holiday, what was your day-AFTER-Christmas like?

A good time to unwind.

Took down decorations, hauled out several large trash bags, tried to organize the gifts a bit, and chilled out.

For us, Boxing Day was very similar to Christmas. On Christmas Day we stayed at home and opened presents from each other (in our immediate family). On Boxing Day we went to my Grandma's and had a big Christmas dinner, and opened presents from the more removed family members that were also there. Both days were great!

Real exciting. Suffering from kidney infection, washed cat litter boxes, trimmed cats' claws, brushed cats, worked on curio cabinet I am staining and finishing.

What is Boxing Day all about? Never heard of it, obviously not a U.S. holiday.

I went to work. After work, I met a friend that I hadn't seen since 10th grade. We went out to eat with her family. They then came over to our place for a couple hours. We had a nice time reminicing about high school and junior high.

I don't really know, actually. I just know that some people, like my family, use it as more time to celebrate, sort of like a second day of Christmas. Some people don't celebrate it at all. Others use it for cleaning up after Christmas.

It was my third anniversary! Well, dating anniversary, not marriage anniversary. Dammit the years pass quickly!

I put in a 12 hr day b/c my manager forgot to schedule more people. I got 6hrs of overtime, plus holiday pay, so a 57 hr paycheck , the only bonus

I know it's officially observed in Canada, but that's it. Check out this site. Apparently nobody truly knows how it was started, just a bunch of theories.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.as...

It was mellow.

It was a day full of stress. I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to get everything done for my dad's wedding. We had to move chairs and tables, decorate, buy some last minute stuff, etc. That evening, we had a rehearsal, then went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. After that, some people came over. Nothing went right, but it all worked out in the end. My dad got married on Saturday afternoon, even if the bride was 20 minutes late!

A day of much needed rest. I didn't even leave the house. Stayed in and watched TV and went on the Internet. I ate far less too.

I wasn't well and ended up going to the emergency room for real bad stomache pain.

I had to fire someone.

I'm glad it all ended up going good after the motorcycle accident and everything. So the Bride showed up late, did you think she got cold feet or something at first?

They must have really screwed up! Or has it been coming for a while and you just decided to mess with them on the Holidays.

It had been coming for a while, and they screwed up BIG TIME a couple of days before Christmas.

What kind of work do you do?

I own a smallish (9600 square feet) commercial building.

Oh was the person you fired some kind of Maint. person or something? For your building.

It was just like any other day except my house was trashed, garbage everywhere, looked like a toy store exploded all over my living room. So, I went out that night with my friend. Good post-holiday-stress-relief.

I figured she was going to be late. The wedding was at 2:30. When I left the house at 1:45, she was just getting in the shower! That day was so crazy.

My dad and Linda knelt down at this little table thing to light the unity candle. Well, the night before my brothers had gotten my dad's shoes and written "help me" on the bottom of them. It was so funny.

When the preacher said, "You may now kiss your bride", Caleb said, "Pops don't do it, you'll get girl cooties." That was also funny. Everybody started laughing.

My brothers and Linda's son decorated Linda's truck, which is what they left in. They sprayed doe urine on the door handles, the steering wheel, and the gear shift. It smelled awful!

What can I say? Your typical redneck wedding!

No, it was a contractor who had been cleaning up after some major water damage (which happened in July, and was a result of careless plumbing).

Boxing Day was better than Christmas Day for me - I wasnt throwing up all day!

It was quite depressing. My family went to my maternal grandparents house - my uncle and his kids were there. My older rbother was thoroughly miserable because he didn't want to be there and is incapable of just making the most of the situation. My older, male cousin is about 15 and a real teenager - a true Kevin. He's been getting in a lot of trouble lately and he just hid away all day, playing on his playstation. My grandad had a stroke this year and he's never really recovered - he's very weak and shuffling. A doddery old man and really not very with it. My uncle is nt the brightest or most educated guy in the world and tries to tell my brother that if he really didn't want to be diabetic that he could just think it away, which pisses my brother off because he's a pessimist and is certain that he's going to die young.

I spent most of the day trying to learn some Russian and taking photos with my younger, female cousin who is currently lovely but could turn into a monstrosity when she hits true teenagerhood, especially now she's living with her mother and stepfather.

It was a pretty depressing day all in all.

Sounds like it was one hell of a good time! That "HELP ME" joke on the bottom of the shoes is a good one. Also what Caleb said was cute, leave it to a kid to come up with a good line, they'll do it every time

Damn, they've been working on cleaning it that long?
I fired a guy once, then I hired him back just so he could finish the job then I fired him again. I just didn't have the time to do it myself or find someone else to finish it within the next day or so.

Well, it wasn't just cleaning. There was quite a bit of demolition and restoration involved too. But they said they would be finished by the end of October, and they weren't even close. Fortunately, what's left is just cosmetic stuff that I can mostly do by myself.

In some parts of the world we call it "boxing day". A lot of stores have come up with a new thing recently called "boxing week". I used to think it was a stat holiday until I had to work it this year.

It was a needed day of rest!

We need to take our tree down soon. A little plastic chair accidentally got thrown into the tree and glass ornaments broke everywhere. I might take it down tomorrow.

We *did* have a good time. The "help me" thing was really funny. Everybody started laughing and my dad and Linda didn't have a clue to what they were laughing at. After the ceremony, they asked me what was so funny, so I told my dad to take his shoes off and look at the bottom. They about died when they saw "help me" written on the bottoms. It was really cute, though.

Yeah, kids always come up with the funniest stuff. Caleb's always doing stuff like that. I can already tell that he's going to be the class clown when he starts school in August. Which could be a good thing OR a bad thing!

That's good there isn't much left to do and that you can do it, have fun.

Better he is more a clown than a loner not interacting at all.

My neices and I went out for all the after Christmas sales - supposedly but didn't find any yet.....guess it was too early. All we found was alot of lines for returns.....Found a few nice things...but I'm not sure it was worth fighting all the crowds again.

That's true. He is very outgoing. He'll talk to anybody and everybody. He's also a big flirt!

Needed rest!

How are you going about learning to speak Russian?

Sorry your "day after" sucked. As your cousin goes ("the Kevin"), I've been on both sides of that emotion--not wanting to be somewhere I was so much that I really didn't care to even try to want to be there...as well as being dragged down by someone when I was willing to make the best of it myself. Neither place is a fun one.

I didn't celebrate Christmas, so--as they say--"the question is moot".

I was in bed sick with the flu.

Are you all better by now? You didn't sound so hot the other day...

It was good of David to nurse you back to health, you must admit...

Did I sound THAT bad on the phone?? My God!! I guess I really WAS sick, but, didn't know it!

Yeah, I'm better NOW. Hated to go back to the old grind stone....but, you know the story. Ha!
My co-workers say they missed me......yeah right! They just had more work to do while I was home sick in bed. Some of them were even jealous that I was off of work for 2 weeks! How sick is THAT??? Bastards!! One chick said, "Wow! Must be nice to be home for 2 weeks!" I was like, "I was SICK!!!! Okay!! Sick with the flu!"
Then just so happens that I had Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, New Years Eve & New Years Day off (those are my regular DAYS off. Wednesdays & Thursdays) Boy were they pissed & jealous! They don't understand how I lucked out to have those days off. I didn't know they were the same days as Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, New Years Eve & New Years Day

Cause like MADONNA said, "People NEVER get what they want, cause they DON'T ask!!!"
When I first started working at Walmart I ASKED for those PARTICULAR days off. Cause that's when I have to take David to the doctors. I was the first person (of the NEW hires) to ask & receive regular days off. The rest of them would have whatever days the boss scheduled for them to work.

Like one time they scheduled me to work 7 days straight then the next time 8 days straight! That's when I went to the boss & said, "Hey, I need this & this day to be off cause I gotta take my husband to the doctors on these certain days! & Boom! I got it! The other girls were wondering how it was that I got regular days off while they STILL struggled working the 7/8/9 day stretches.
They would be all happy & stuff when they had 4 days straight OFF & bragged about it to me but, they complained when they had to pull the long stretches. I just told myself, that's it! No more long stretches for me & went to my boss.

My heart goes out to you for having to work in that environment. I hope it either improves drastically somehow for you or that you are able to shift into (or over to) something you like more (or at all)!

My mom gently refused to simply take off some time when I first helped her move out here to L.A. She had a job within a week, I think, working retail for the Bed, Bath & Beyond that had just opened. The hours were horrible, the pay stunk and the people she had to deal with everyday didn't help matters. Retail is a brutal business from what I've seen. I just couldn't take my mother being battered like that when she was supposed to come and live in L.A. to enjoy herself. Luckily, some nice guy picked her out of the crowd and asked, "How'd you like to fill a position in the office?" during the initial training and opening periods. She flew to that seat upstairs, gladly leaving the cash registers and all that kind of crap you describe above far behind.
She quit one year when I got her a pretty cush job there at Par, but it was too "cush" for her, so she ended up interviewing with the same company again, who wanted her back. She's now working as the direct assistant for a great guy, who's the regional manager of the stores now. Are there any Bed, Bath & Beyonds in Temecula, or in the Riverside area? Maybe she could refer you! Maybe you could be working a job closer to the one like hers, or maybe like an office manager at one of the locations, where you wouldn't have to deal with that ca-ca poo-poo! I'm going to ask her where the nearest BB&B store is near you. Ya never know, couldn't hurt to interview, if that's what can happen...right?

I worked and then spent time with the boi...went to the Mall, had dinner and such

WOW! Like WOW!! I would really appreciate that! Seriously! & yes! Retail is a brutal business! I don't work the registers tho. I've done it before & hated it! I don't like being responsible for money! But, I don't know of any B & B in my area. Tho Temecula would be the closest to me. Other than Elsinore & Hemet.
But, yeah, all I do is straighten up the towels & carpet stuff in the Domestics Department & talk to customers all day long. The only draw back to this job IS the customers have NO respect for the store items or the employees hard work (they rip into EVERYTHING) then they toss the carpet on the floor, walk all over it, pull another one down, do the same & THEN walk away, leaving the carpet on the floor! The towels.....OH MY GOD! Don't EVEN get me started on THAT!
I just wanna rip their heads right off!!
I can't tell you how many times I've had to keep my temper under control. & that's not easy for me. I'm a VERY vocal individual & always voice my opinion rather you like it or not. This job (I think God put me here to learn patience) is supposed to be teaching me something, but I don't know what? I would love to work somewhere else.....just too lazy to pound the pavement to look for one right now.
But, yeah any & all help would be MOST appreciated. I would you to pieces!! Forever!

Hey, maybe this current job of yours is just supposed to serve as one with just enough adversity for you to relay it to someone who could possibly refer you to something that would at least turn out to be an opportunity for better...? I will give my mother a call the day she gets back into town (from Virginia, visiting sisters) and ask what she could possibly do. I'll vouch that you're the type of employee who insists on carrying her Oozie gun with her into the workplace (exemplifying determination to keep customers under control), that you want a station closest to the exit so at 5 o'clock you can punch out and get the hell out of there (to relay your attention to punctuality), and that you'd like to start getting paid immediately but you can't start until mid-May or so (to explain how you're one who efforts to always plan ahead).

Sound like a good summation to introduce you by? (Just kidding. I will definitely keep you tabbed about what she might be able to hook you up with! That would be cool!)

That's why I love you, Joe!! Your so in tuned with my thoughts & needs.

I'll be sure to leave my 357 magnum at home, should you not make it to the Ho 'olaule 'a this year. Don't want you picking up your Sunday morning newspaper & reading about some crazed maniac Hawaiian chick going postal on the "haoles" at the Hawaiian festival. I can just see the headlines:

L.A. Times:
"Hawaiian woman unloads her 357 into a crowd of spectators at the Lawndale Hawaiian Festival because her SC Buddy Joe, never showed up there as promised!"

she was found 2 blocks away, clutching her 357 magnum to her chest, muttering to herself

"But, he promised! He promised he'd make it THIS year! What happened to you, Joe? What happened?"

We still have not been able to receive a comment from THIS Joe person.

Follow-Up Report, "Magnum Madwoman" - Los Angeles     Local police have retrieved an official statement from the woman dubbed as "the Magnum Madwoman", who shot freely into a crowd of spectators at the Hawaiian Festival this year. According to law enforcement officials, not much has been cleared up by the issuance of her account. At a press conference last night, LAPD released an official statement regarding the interrogation: "The woman's signed admission to her mass murder spree provides little more than additional questions. The statement surrounding the unhappy incident only creates more mysteries than we had before we asked her to provide the details of what occurred on that sad day, fateful for so many."
LAPD refused to provide specifics, but one informant claims, "The woman mostly babbled. She spoke in some personal code or something, using acronyms like 'S C' and 'W E E S'--whatever that means."
L.A. Times will continue to report on the progress of this case.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Good come back!!! I love it!!!

Game set, match, touch down, home run, CHECK MATE!! You win!!

Follow-Up Report, 'Magnum Madwoman' Released, No Charges - Los Angeles     The Riverside community and surrounding area picketed the L.A. County Jail facility over a period of three days, around the clock, day and night. The surprisingly peaceful crowd was estimated at 22,000 to 25,000 in the first hours of the protest, from local hobos to revered state-level dignitaries, from both coasts and a few in counties between. All bid for the release of the woman dubbed the 'Magnum Madwoman', chanting such phrases as, "No Release, No Peace!" and toting signs reading statements that matched the tone of, "Free O' Cleo!" and "STOP Abb-you-zin' Dabprovin!"

LAPD was heavily present at the protest event, which was continuous through the first part of the week and grew to an historic 1,349,000 by the time the well-regarded Survey Central member was finally released late last night. Cleo Provin was stealthily escorted from the county facility by law enforcement officials to her home, in Temecula, California.

No statement has been obtained from the woman as of this print, however Mrs. Provin is expected to be carried through the local parade by float early tomorrow. The multi-million dollar festivities were thrown together by top-notch event planners, who were flown in during the week in anticipation of her widely-beckoned release. Mrs. Provin' (or Cleo, or Dabprovin, or 'Dabbers', or 'Dabbs'--take your pick as she is known by all of these nicknames to many) is scheduled to address the internationally covered event by noon, live on all news networks as wells as the five majors.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: From all of us here at L.A. Times and all Century City white collars, we congratulate you on your highly deserved and safe return home. We love you, Dabbs!]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Your ONE crazy haole dude! I'm speechless!!!

You better show up at the Hawaiian Festival this year, Joe! See all the problems you started here!!

That's why I loved you from the very beginning!! You have a top notch sense of humor that could make you become a famous writer......someday.

& You have missed your calling, Joe. You should've been a newpaper reporter. You write eloquently! I just love it & you!!

I have a book and some cds. There are different lessons which correspond to dialogues recorded on the cds. Not ideal, but better than nothing