45,000 words signifying nothing, no holidays, and awkward thankfulness

After a neglectful week I'm finally posting something.
Most of the week was devoted to working on "15,00 Years" in an attempt to be sure to hit the 50,000 word mark by November 30.
Now that I've exceeded 45,000, I'd say it's looking like I will definitely hit that mark. The real question, though, is whether or not I'll actually finish the story.
That's actually a tricky question to answer if you consider that this entirely character-driven collection of text can hardly be said to have a story.
It's like some sort of extended episode of "Seinfeld," only not as funny (or gratingly irritating, depending on your point of view), as it can't really be said to be "about" anything.
But it's an interesting exercise, especially considering at this point I've written more than twice as much as I've ever written on any one subject. I count this as "one subject" despite the fact that there is no real subject, but it is consistently about two main characters and their relationship with each other, so I guess that counts.
And the real challenge was to simply do it. Whether or not I did it well is largely irrelevant.
So it's Black Friday, the busiest retail day of the year. I, however, am not one of those foaming at the mouth consumers raiding and pillaging the nearest mall. Instead, I'm at work.
Since I work in a 24x7 operation, I don't actually get holidays.
I do, however, get holiday pay, so that's something, anyway.
Surprisingly I did actually do something to mark Thanksgiving's passing yesterday. My natural inclination would have been to treat it like just another Thursday, but an invitation to dinner had been extended and I felt it would have been rude to refuse.
The dinner was very good, but I'm always rather awkward in large social settings. In this case the awkwardness was exacerbated by the fact that most of the other people present had much more extensive personal histories with each other while I shared very little in the way of common ground with most of them.
With the exceptions of my boss Scott and his wife Stacy, my former co-worker Jamie and her husband, and my co-worker Chris, most of the people (including the hosts) were only casual acquaintances, and several others were outright strangers.
Still, any social awkwardness was my issue, and it was a good meal, so overall I appreciated the fact that I was invited.
Since I am at work, I don't really have the time to write anything extensive, but I thought that I should check in at least once this week, and, as I'll likely be done with "15,000 Years" by then, I should have plenty of time next week to fill this space with random anecdotes, complaints, observations, and other musings...