Well, no tree lighting for me tonight. Have you ever felt like you are a pawn in a really awful game of monopoly? One where you are constantly drawing bad "chance cards" sending you into financial struggles, or losing turns that you really needed to take so you could "pass go," or having to choose what to mortgage when you are rotten at math anyways? Well, this (world's largest ) monopoly board is my life in NY, and for some reason, I have sucked at dice rolling! Sure there are occasional "chance" or "community chest" cards that are good, such as:

- "You've won a new bike for buying a certain brand of cheese at a particular grocery store regardless of the fact that you never entered a contest!"

- "You've accepted a better job. Advance 5 spaces."

... But usually my "chance" cards read more like this:

- "Your husband's boss did not come in to work yesterday, so your husband could not work. Advance to "Luxury Taxes" and be happy you bought groceries last week."

- "You have 3 large term papers, 4 presentations, a handfull of smaller papers, no motivation, and until December 19th to have everything complete. Go directly to "Jail" and have all priviledges revoked until you finish."

- "Your best friend moves to South Africa. Go back to "Luxury Taxes" because calling is too expensive."

- "Your school is run by people who have Cracker Jack Prize degrees and you must contact 6 different people to overcome 1 issue. (And naturally, no one is held accountable.) Pay each player $2,250 per class you've taken. And be happy about it or else we'll fail you."

- "Your husband has a bizarre staph infection. Pay the hospital $1000 for your mental anguish and his antibiotics."

I think you get the picture. Hence no lighting ceremony for me tonight. Well, maybe I'll catch it on the tube. (Question to fester in your minds - Is sight-seeing an appropriate response to placement misery? WWJD? What would Jonah do? I bet Nineveh had a wax museum.)