The end is here.

So officially, my Christmas celebration started this Sunday when my family was having their usual annual dinner. It was pretty much the standard affair with thirty of my closest relatives and a whole lot of noise. And all I had to do was show up... which was pretty easy if you don't take into account the fact that I got to bed around 5am the night before. Yet, I managed it pretty well - I was home by 2pm that afternoon, which left me just enough time to take a shower and drag my ass to my family's place. A few hours later, I made some lame excuse and bailed out of there to have the rest of the evening to myself. To try to make what was left of it peaceful and quiet.
On Monday, I went to another Christmas party, this time the one my friend was throwing. The one I ran to get wine for the day before. I arrived an hour and a half late, and still was among the first who showed up. To be exact, I was third. It was a Russian party but for some reason everyone who came in, brought wine. A bit abnormal, if you ask me. Naturally, it was all gone by the end of the night. Wine or no wine, no one had a problem drinking it. The party was a blast and everyone ended up having an awesome time. I did notice something hilarious though - since we were stocked up on wine, everyone kept drinking it. Everyone, except the only non-Russian guy there. He was sipping vodka... I swear, at that moment the world turned upside down... the traditions just went down the drain... At some point, another friend of mine was trying to make a toast and when he brought his glass to mine, he broke the damn thing. As I recall, one moment I was standing there, glass on wine on my hands, about to take a sip, and the next - I see pieces of glass in my wine as that guy decided that my wine glass will withstand his beer glass. Naturally, it didn't... He said he was going to take care of the problem - he took the glass from me, poured the wine out on the grass, threw the glass away too (question, why the hell would you pour the wine out first?), and brought me a plastic cup. To avoid future incidents, I suppose.
We then had some more wine... then some shisha... then wine... etc., etc., etc...
At the end of the night, just when I was about to leave, another guy showed up to say there are tons of sobriety standpoints all over DC and that driving somewhere would be unwise, to say the least. At that point I decided to call R. to see if she can pick me up. She was free and agreed to come and get me. I decided to spend the night at her place since I wasn't feeling like driving and a bottle of wine and shisha I had didn't do much to wake me up... I woke up the next morning around 2pm, and after having breakfast (that R. conveniently cooked for me and her roommate) figured it was time to leave. R. said she was going to drive me back, but at that exact time A. called and said he was coming back from Reagan and could pick me up so we could talk a bit. I agreed, and so did R. (it definitely beat the option of having to drive me all the way back). I met up with A. shortly thereafter. Apparently, he still has a lot of shit going on for him that he's trying to resolve... We spent half an hour or so talking about different stuff and when he finally dropped me off and I made it home, it was 5pm.
Finally, the crazy weekend ended and I could breath free. Or free-er. It is only five days till New Year anyway, and I have a feeling the madness will all resume then.