• 18:40 @ragingmanbeast Jon is looking for NYE party too. We're going to magfest but he has to work NYE. #
• 18:41 @gnu_lorien So my musical tastes shocked you, eh? Should have been with us in DC back in the day. #
• 10:31 Waiting impatiently for the dude in Austell to call back so we can get me a laptop. Sure is piddling around for someone who needs my money. #
• 14:57 The guy with the laptop continues to screw around and hem and haw. Makes me wonder if it is hot, & whether I ought just go to Best Buy. #

christmas:

went to mom's thurs eve to make spiced nuts & wrap presents
drove up to frederick and spent the night on the couch with the cats :)
had a lovely christmas breakfast with Dad, Bonnie, AJ & Joe
we opened presents, lazed around, and watched national lampoon's christmas vacation
drove up to silver spring mid-day to drop off presents and change
went to mom's for Christmas/birthday dinner w/Mom, Jerry, Bonnie & AJ
opened many presents and stockings, ate an enormous amount of food/pie

saturday:

went shopping early to complete birthday gifts for granddad and extended relatives
drove up to Columbia to go to my uncle's house for exchange of gifts and yearly photo
drove back to silver spring tentatively
( my car started doing this strange bucking thing it has done once or twice in the past
methinks it is time to bite the bullet and have a mechanic look at it )
met up with Jen R. from college for some delightful catching up
metro'd to chinatown, bought some corduroy pants on sale
met up for dinner at Teaism with Bussink & Gwynn
saw Too Much Light at woolly, joined by Kurt & family

sunday:

slept in
had brunch at commissary with Bussink & Hannah
walked in the beautiful weather over to the kennedy center
drank coffee in the sunlight, wanted to see a children's show but it was sold out
walked back to dupont, parted ways with everyone
came home, organized presents, wrote all received gifts down, sorted and organized things


The holidays were enjoyable overall. Food & family were a lot of fun. It's lovely to see the people I get to see. As is often the case, I feel like I don't have enough presents, especially for friends. Earlier this month I bought a bunch of craft-making things, but never had the time to actually put together projects for people. Perhaps I can make them things and mail them during the new year. There were some really lovely things I received, both handmade and bought - hats, scarves, sweaters, vanilla-scented things, candles, chocolates, etc.

Birthday happened; it's always such a funny underwhelming thing to actually turn another year older. Sometimes I wish I could do something with friends, but the time of year is just not practical. My mom made french silk pie, and she got cute little party hats for everyone to wear.

I actually had a nice time at my extended-relatives gathering - everyone has relaxed over the years. One of the funniest things is my granddad, who used to be a rather cranky person but has grown more sentimental and laid-back as he gets older. He usually gives each of the four granddaughters a little bag of gifts - which were weirder than usual. My granddad lives at a large retirement community. Every time a resident.. um.. passes on, their possessions that are unclaimed by family are taken to the "Treasure Chest", a room where other residents are free to come and find things that they might like. So our little goodie bags this year included some hilariously random things that were previously owned by total strangers who have now passed on to the next life. I got (amongst other things) a wooden vase carved with herons, a small glass paperweight from Jamestown, a silver dollar coin (in box), two wooden African statuettes, some duck-themed wall plaques. It was fun. I also got some great tupperware & food-storage stuff from my cousin, and some nice gift certificates.


this week: workin', catching up with friends
tomorrow night is friend-palooza with Noelle, Maribeth, and Sally
hoping to get organized at work, and to um.. get paid. still waiting on my first salaried paycheck.


need to do a year-in-review
and make some resolutions
for real.

• 09:31 What happens in Shadowmore, stays in Shadowmore. Though even the observatory was jumpin'. #

Attn Parental or Teacher types: Anyone know of a group or school anywhere that teaches a class or workshop for kids basically on "Life 101" but none of this sanitized white washing of things, but a truthful look at how your choices affect your entire path? Kind of like "Scared Straight" but not geared towards criminals?

(And no Alanna didn't do something wrong, relax. )

Current Mood: curious

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Current Mood: crazy

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Current Mood: depressed

We will be here on New Year's.
Not a lot of time to visit but if it works out, super. (Off Seminary Rd in Alex.) Dec 30-Jan 2nd.

maps.google.com/maps

Current Mood: busy

I'm up at my sister's place with her housemates, wearing my christmas eve pajamas and hanging out. We're having breakfast with my dad, and then a bunch of us are going in the evening up to my mom's house for dinner.

i am celebrating another trip around the sun, and also that my hair is long enough to french braid again. happy holidays wherever you are celebrating.

God jul!

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I like my apartment - it is cozy, convenient, and ludicriously cheap. I like to call it "bohemian". The downside to being so cheap is that our landlord is very lax, and doesn't seem to have a lot of technical knowledge, or money to hire people who do have that knowledge. It takes a long time to get broken things repaired, and they are often just fixed with a temporary solution that doesn't solve the underlying problem.

Last night I went to do an emergency load of laundry, with the very last quarters left in the house. We only have two washers and two dryers in my apartment building. I loaded my socks & underwear into the machine, put the soap in, put the quarters in, and... nothing. It didn't work. Couldn't get the quarters out, didn't have enough to do another load. So I took my soapy laundry and washed it in the bathtub. Doing laundry by hand is much more tiring than one might think.. I felt quite like a pioneer lady. Would've been better if I had a washboard. Afterward, I loaded it into the dryer. I noticed at the time that everything felt very damp, but I didn't have the energy to wring it all out. Turns out the dryer didn't either, and I have an epic amount of socks hanging all over my room, air-drying the rest of the way.

Also, when my housemate Yas came home yesterday, our sinks had "exploded", meaning there was brackish water in the bathroom and kitchen. This happened once before when there was a backup in the plumbing. Everything seemed fine, she cleaned up. But this morning, water was leaking down the walls. In the bathroom it was coming through the wall tiles near the toilet. In the kitchen it was dripping off of the sides of our metal cabinets over the sink. The flow is uneven - when someone is showering upstairs, it gets very steady. Yasmin and I unloaded the cabinets, so there's food all over the living room...We called the guy who "fixes" the apartments, who is very nice but not very scientific. He went back up to ask the person upstairs to turn the shower on again, to see what it would do. He seems to have zero concern for the water damage that has already been happening. That's when I left for work. I am hoping that the apartment does not literally fall apart today.

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thursday night I went to bussink's office xmas party which was at the wax museum. It's a very strange place, kind of a singular experience, but not most practical for mingling and party flow. It was fun though - Photo ops all over the place.

friday night i went to see "take joy", a concert at Strathmore. It was lovely, but the snow was falling by the time we got out, and Stacy and I fled back to silver spring. There can't have been more than about a half-inch on the ground, but my car slipped a bit on the way home. It was a little scary.

Saturday everything got cancelled. Bussink and I ventured out on a journey at mid-day, bounced around takoma park and got food at the co-op. We made bacon and breakfast, and did a lot of nothing. Then we watched movies - the 2nd half of "Purple Rain", a teeny bit of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", then "The Three Musketeers" and "Batman Begins".

Sunday a lot of things got cancelled too. We shoveled out the front walk, the cars, and some of the driveway, which was fairly exhausting. The parking lot & driveway didn't get plowed till today, so we couldn't get the cars out. We decided to adventure down to DC to make getting to work Monday am easier. The aboveground metro trains were down, and a lot of the buses were still out. Walked to takoma park, took a random bus on a long journey to silver spring, waited forever for a bus headed south on 16th street. That bus got stuck behind a police barricade just north of Columbia Heights - a bunch of fire trucks were pulled over doing some emergency work at an apartment building. We got out and walked the rest of the way, about a half hour or so thru lots of cold slushy unshoveled sidewalks. It was unpleasant, but soon melted away in a nice warm dinner with hot toddies and soup and all sorts of deliciousness.

I'm very tired.

Tonight I picked up some more presents, and am fighting off a cold.
Many friends are in town this week, and I have no idea how to see them.
I had a lot of plans to make christmas gifts, and haven't had any time.

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Current Mood: relieved

come and shop with us and keep up from being bored please!

Waes Hael / Happy Winter Solstice / Jölnir to those of my friends who celebrate such tonight!

Current Mood: creative

It was on the solstice ten years ago today.  The last solstice before the turning of the millennium, appropriately enough.  With the return of the light came something utterly unexpected.  A light brighter than any other illumination--one that colors every part of my life.  A light that chased the dark self-doubt out of shadowed corners, a light that healed, a light that guides. 

I fell in love with my best friend.

And now I stand and look back over a decade of adventures and laughter, a decade of tears and stress, a decade of joy and pain and pleasure.  I am amazed at how far we've come, how much fun we've had, how much we've done together.  I am amazed that I have spent a third of my life loving just one person.  I am amazed that after all this, he's still the one person I'd rather spend time with than anyone else.  I am amazed that I am still in love.  

I can't wait to see what comes next.

I love you, Jay.  Happy Anniversary.

Current Mood: loved