Is what has happened in the past 48 hours.  My neighbor, who is the last of my 5 girlfriends to be pregnant this year, had her baby on Christmas Eve.  It's been a long time, 17 years almost, since I have been an active part all the way through a pregnancy with someone.  It's funny too because of all my friends that gave birth this year, they all live far away from me and the pregnancies (to me of course) felt like they flew by.  Being so close to my neighbor this time around it felt like it took forever, which is the norm from what my girlfriends tell me.  She had a rough time, her water had leaked for too long and she wound up with an infection in the uterus which caused the infection; poor thing had a 103° when she delivered.  I don't care who you are that is a high fever, not too mention what it was like for the baby that was inside of her.  She had a gorgeous little girl, 7 lbs 2 oz 19.5", she has tons of black hair and has an olive complection like her mommy.  I don't know what it is but olive complected babies are the best looking, it kills me.  My oldest niece was as white as snow, and her younger sister had jet black hair and a tan that I spend all summer trying to get when she was born.  When the hubby & I got home on Christmas Eve we took their trash out, cleaned up their house a little bit, decorated with the lovely "It's a girl" signs, fed the cat, got the mail, blah, blah, blah.  I spent Christmas morning making food and freezing it so they only have to defrost and throw it in the oven; in the middle of all that came the phone call.  My Dad's best friend who came to his funeral, his wife died on Christmas day.  She had been sick with something similar to my Pops, but not for nearly as long.  She left behind 4 adult children, 14 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild on the way.  This man and his wife came to both of my weddings and have been major fans of mine since I was born.  Their oldest children are my Godparents and I grew up with them.  This death is harder for me than my Dads.  In the last 24 hours I have been either crying or sleeping, no in between.  I have a meeting with my boss tomorrow to go over my pipeline for work and where I plan to finish at the end of the fiscal year in June.  This is something that I should have been working on for the last month, yah I haven't even started, and here I sit whining on Xanga.  You know what, I could give a shit.  Life is too short to write stupid fucking reports and worry about how much money I am required by contract to make my company.  I will get the job done in an orderly fashion but in the mean time let me grieve in my own way - blah!!  Hey maybe I should put that in my report?!?!  I am definitely ready to close the books on 2007!!