holidays are for lovers

I'm tired of being at my parents house, and I've got another week and a half to go. I'm not really sure why I decided that three weeks would be ok this year; I think I just wanted to spend time with my niece. That's been great, she's absolutely adorable. But there's nothing to do here but watch tv. I've been knitting a lot (I'm working on socks right now), I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha, and I just started working on reorganizing some old photos that my grandmother started. She put them in albums, but there are pictures from before I was born right next to my baby pictures, and they're ll stacked on top of eachother. I feel like I'm putting on weight fast. It's so hard to meet people here. I don't really want to go out by myself, and going out with my brother and his fiance feels too much like they're doing me a favor. The funny thing is I'd be bored out of my mind at home, too since all my friends would have gone out of town. My solution is this: I'm going to go stay in a hostel for new years eve. It'll give me a chance to explore portland a bit on my own, and to meet some people my own age. This was suggested by a friend as a way to have a fling. I'm not counting on that, but at least it'll be throwing the start of a new year out to the unknown.