Friday, December 23, 2005

Happy, happy, joy, joy

Last weekend included lots of celebrating, first the birth of my good pal Ginella (the big 3-0) and then xmas at my dad's. One of the beauties of having divorced parents is an extra day of giving and getting presents. Course, this usually involves lots of sweaters as this is the preferred gift of my father's. Every year he valiantly attempts to match knitted cloth to his children's (and their significant other's, if applicable) bodies. And every year, this effort is rewarded with a one in 4 success rate, and that could be generous.

Anyway, this weekend we welcome our first hosted Christmas with Bryan's parents arriving from North Carolina and his older sister and family from NY. There will be some O'Connfrey mixing and lots of wine should be drunk (or maybe that's what we'll be).

Aside from the 1562% increase in traffic in Framingham, this is a fantastic time of year. People are a bit cheerier, houses are a little brighter, families gather together, and the air is scented with evergreen and cookies. Oh, and there are presents. I hope everyone's holidays are tasty and that you all get at least one sweater that doesn't make you want to cry.

Merry Chanukah, Happy Christmas, and Have a kick-assed Kwanzaa.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

A pebble?

So, I was driving on the highway last week and a pebble flew out from some truck's tire and whizzed off of my windshield. Other than scaring the crap out of me, the small flying stone did little damage - just a small nick below my sightline. I thought about this nick for .2 seconds before forgetting about it's existence.

Silly me.

This morning, while peacefully driving on the highway (read: inching forward through traffic tighter than a nun's ass), a long, slow crack began stretching out in either direction of this nick and only stoped when it had traveled almost the entire width of my windshield. There was no fanfare, no drama, just a blossoming line accompanied by the tiniest sigh of a 'snap'.

My insurance agent asked if there was anyone to blame and I answered, "you mean the pebble?" And she answered no anyone. Obviously the answer here: god. Jerk.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Since I last blogged:
*I shoveled a lot of snow. A Lot.
*I finished stringing xmas lights though I haven't quite figured out how to plug them in without having to use an indoor outlet (could let a little more cold air into our already chilly apartment).
*I spent an evening playing board games and drinking beer. Strangely, this involved a lot of singing. A Lot.
*I attended Bryan's office holiday party where I somehow persuaded a table of 8 strangers (plus Bryan and his sister Colleen) to make utter fools of ourselves dancing in front of the other 50 people attending the party who watched and pointed from their seats.
*Received a hug from the DJ after said party for helping him get engineers and "finance people" on the dance floor hopefully securing for him a fat tip from the CEO (who had told the DJ, "this isn't a dancing crowd")
*Met the Sports Guy from ESPN, Bill Simmons, at a book signing and watched as Bryan and Gary swooned just a little. Discovered that BS was 5 years ahead of me at Holy Cross and that we were probably at our respective class reunions at the same time. For some reason, this was a cool fact.
*Bought and put up a xmas tree. Tipped over this tree 3 times (yes, all the way over) while attempting to put lights around it. Put the tree back up and got the lights on. Decorating to follow.
*Finished my top 100 albums list. This year's top ten (according to me):
Aenima - Tool
Not a Pretty Girl - Ani DiFranco
Pearl - Janis Joplin
Under the Pink - Tori Amos
The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle - Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
Grace - Jeff Buckley
OK Computer - Radiohead
Nevermind - Nirvana
Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendrix
Reckoning - REM


I wanted to give a quick plug to a few books. My book group at work just read First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and everyone agreed that it is one of the most compelling memoirs they've ever read. Ung's story begins when she is 5 years old and the Khmer Rouge comes in to power, forcing all citizens living in the city (Phnom Penh) to evacuate with whatever they can carry. Ung is one of 7 children and this story tells of her family's fate during the 5 years of Pol Pot's rule. From the title, the reader knows that not everyone in Ung's family survives, but her losses go beyond family members: the innocence and joy of childhood are systematically stripped away. Ung draws the reader in with her candor, and the melodic and engaging way that she uses words to paint the stark reality in which she found herself at such a young age. A quick, if emotional, read.

I'm currently reading The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester, and I'm enjoying it. The two characters alluded to in the title are James Murray, the editor and driving force behind the original OED, and W.C. Minor, an American physician who contributed thousands of entries to this dictionary. The reason there is a story here: in some kind of psychotic breakdown, Minor shot and killed an innocent man (who was "out to get him") in England, and was convicted and sentenced to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, from where he sent these entries. Murray accepted the entries for 20 years before arranging to meet this prodigious contributor - this is when he discovers that Minor is a "madman". The most interesting part of the book for a nerd like me is the description and study of the making of a definitive English dictionary. One of my favorite observations by Winchester is that early writers like Shakespeare and Spenser had nothing to consult when writing - they essentially "made up" or put into practice so many words because there was no reference work for them to consult. As a librarian and frequent checker of many, many reference books/databases, this fact amazes me. The book is a quick read and is interesting though you have to be interested in language and the history of locking that language into place to really appreciate the story.

And lastly: Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger, the author of The Devil Wears Prada (which I haven't read). I am listening to this book on CD during my commute and while completely predictable and probably shallow, it's a very fun listen and I'm enjoying the look inside the world of celebrity PR and the vapid, self-indulgent characters mocked by Weisberger. Eliza Dushku reads the book and does a good job with the main character and an appallingly bad job with any foreign accents, but I'm even enjoying that for some reason. Maybe it's because I'm not listening xmas carols on the radio.

And just to make sure everyone's paying attention, Christmas is next week! Wow.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Holly Jolly

I took a snow day today and have been loving the day off. It's always a little strange to be home without being sick or without having anything planned (except lots of shoveling). Bryan also called in snowy, but he has to "work from home" which he's actually doing despite my best efforts to distract him with movies and games. I have taken this opportunity to decorate for Christmas, the first time I've ever done this, since Bryan's family is coming to us this year and I want the place to look festive. Towards this end, I ventured into the Christmas Tree Shop last night and bought holiday-inspired candle-holding knick knack-type things. I REALLY hate knick knacks and don't understand why they are okay for holiday decorating, but I jumped right in and acquired a few new things. My favorite is the Holly Jolly sign for the front door which puts "Holly Jolly Christmas" in my head instantly upon seeing it. My lovely significant other has thoroughly mocked my efforts, but even he had to admit that the peppermint striped candle was nice (that's right, that's how bad it is).

I'm off to continue making the yuletide gay.

Happy Birthday Gary and to my cousin Anthony.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Things I've noticed today

Dove milk chocolate is damn tasty

It’s incredibly cold outside, especially without a hat

Economics, try as it might, will never be exciting

Writing with a computer thesaurus is a bad idea if you have the vocabulary of a circus flea

The tv show The Office is even more hilarious the next day, over lunch

Books are heavy

Throbbing headaches make it difficult to bob one’s head in agreement

I have 10 more sick days and 14.5 more vacation days to use in the next 17 days of work

I missed Chris's birthday - sorry about that (I'm glad the e-card was funny - happiest of happys)

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Birthdaytastic!

Surpassing what I deemed "the best birthday ever" (last year), this year's bday was pretty great. Highlights included:
*Dinner at the Top of the Hub with my honey
*Watching from the 52nd floor as tiny cars crept all over Boston while eating one tasty dinner
*Hearing Brandi Carlile sing "Hallelujah"
*The opening note of Ray LaMontagne's set
*Getting a new copy of both Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, a yoga mat, a new endtable and a lamp, soft leather gloves, a David Sedaris book on CD, and brand-new pink slippers
*Homemade chocolate beer cake
*All the e-cards and good wishes from my buds
*Watching the "meet-market" scene at Soho in Brighton
*Being thanked once or twice by Gary
*Getting breakfast in bed on Sunday thereby making it my birthday weekend

So, while I don't love being IN my 30s, I heart my birthday. Only 363 more days 'til the next one!

Friday, December 02, 2005

Another year...

A year has passed and come back around again to that most sacred of days...my birthday. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I love my birthday. I like that we all have one day that reminds us of our entry into this world. And that people say "happy birthday" and it makes you smile. And I like presents, not in a materialistic way, but because I am lucky enough to have people in my life who take great care and thought in selecting things for me. And there's usually cake. I like cake.

So, this past year was one of welcome surprises, more laughter than tears, and some wedding attending and lots of wedding planning. A girl can hardly ask for more.

Oh, and Radio Sh@ck commercials can eat my ass - they are the definition of the gross commercialization of christmas (and as I mentioned, I like presents, but snotty kids demanding electronics from their parents, brutal).