I'm a pirate, doncha know?

Last night instead of sleigh bells, all I heard on my roof was RAIN, washing my beautiful white Christmas down the drain. ='(

I know y'all want to hear about the booty. I had a pretty good haul this morning. My dad bought me an iPod even though I told him not to; and I mean, it'll be great to not have to deal with the defective select button on the ol' video iPod anymore, but as long as the thing played music I wasn't going to replace it. I got loads of socks and I'm thrilled because I've gotten holes in all my favorite pairs this month. I got all kinds of shampoo and other useful things that every college girl needs, like a toothbrush and chewing gum. I got a few books, too. I should read more often. I miss it.

I think I need to issue a list of approved stores to my grandparents, though. They always buy me gift cards, and it's good that they want me to pick out my own gift so I'll be sure to like it, but there's only so much you can pick out at a store you don't really want to shop at. I could use a gift card for Hot Topic, Pac Sun, Journeys, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Forever 21, the Apple store (which my uncle was shrewd enough to get), or the whole gosh darn mall if you really wanna play it safe, but they ALWAYS get them for Macy's or Kohl's and... I just don't really buy stuff at those places anymore. Last time I used it on a toaster oven, which I'm not actually even allowed to have at school....

Kudos to whichever grandparent picked out the Panera card, though. When in doubt, food is always a good gift. Just look at all the banana bread I baked this year.


My dad's new robot toy is talking really loudly downstairs. Harold is a riot about it; he keeps going over to sniff it, then the thing says something and the poor dog runs away in terror. I won't lie. I've walked by it a couple times, thinking it was off, only to have it make some remark. I screamed and practically fell over on my way upstairs to make this post.

I know I promised an excerpt from my story. Until I have time to get that up, enjoy these lovely pictures:

This is what remains.

"I Celebrate the Day"
Relient K

With this Christmas wish is missed
the point I could convey
if only I could find the words to say to let you know
how much you've touched my life, because
here is where you're finding me -
in the exact same place as New Year's Eve -
and from a lack of my persistency,
we're less than half as close as I want to be.

And the first time that you opened your eyes,
did you realize that you would be my Savior?
And the first breath that left your lips
did you know that it would change this world forever?

So this Christmas I'll compare
the things I've felt in prior years
to what this midnight made so clear:
that you have come to meet me here.

To look back and think that
this baby would one day save me
In the hope that what you did,
that you were born so I might really live
To look back and think that
this baby would one day save me...

And the first time that you opened your eyes,
did you realize that you would be my Savior?
And the first breath that left your lips,
did you know that it would change this world forever?

And I
I celebrate the day
that you were born to die
so I could one day pray for you to save my life.

------------------------------
Every Christmas, I come back to this song as a work of profoundly childlike thought, heartfelt truth, and artistic beauty. We tend to forget that when the last dollar is spent, the last ribbon curled, the last present unwrapped and the last cookie crumbled, THIS is what's left. A baby. A Savior. A celebration, a promise, and a hope. A song sung in every tongue that can never be silenced, although at times it fades. I won't pretend it hasn't faded for me this year, but amidst the raging currents of life, there will never come a time when I don't believe this is true: that God sent his only son to take on flesh - I mean, FLESH; think about the implications of a deity wrapping himself in FLESH - so I could one day pray for him to save my life.

Merry Christmas.

Snowy with a high of 32

"It's funny how you find you enjoy your life when you're happy to be alive."

Reasons I am happy to be alive:

- I had a fantastic time on my date last night. For the record, though, Twilight is a pretty awful movie. Awful acting, plus some of the camera work really aggravated me/made me dizzy. And as Paul pointed out, the special effects left a lot to be desired. Anyway, let's get back to reasons I'm happy.

- Driving around, all the houses have Christmas lights twinkling on the trees. And I'm sure that I've not seen the Christmas lights this bright before.

- I woke up this morning and the skylight was blanketed with snow! I call it the white window test. It's how I know the snow is sticking. It's always nice to look out the window and see those very first few flakes of snow. Later on, we can go outside and create the impression of an angel that just fell from the sky.

- The bare trees don't look so naked now in their robes of white.

- Now that it's snowed and we have a beautiful evergreen sparkling in our living room, I feel that it is totally acceptable for me to blast my holiday playlist in the car.

- The only thing that makes me happier than Relient K's old-skool punk-rock Christmas album, "Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand," is their cover of "Sleigh Ride." When Megs and I saw them last year, they played that song and some random guys we'd befriended and started a mosh pit with insisted that we "slow mosh" to it. Soooo imagine a slow-motion mosh pit to this:


- I also feel that it is totally acceptable for me to laugh my head off listening to "Sleigh Ride" alone in my car while all the drivers around me wonder if I'm completely nuts. The answer is yes; yes I am.

And you know what?

I am okay with that. ^_^

Deck the halls

We put up the Christmas tree today. It was a little sad because my dad had to be at work and wasn't here to help us pick one out, or to put up his golfer ornament after everything else was finished, which is the tradition. Generally he gets the tree standing and leaves the decorating to the rest of us. But we girls got the tree inside and standing up just fine, thank you, and it looks lovely and cheerful and smells delightfully of Christmastime. And we have mistletoe.... ^_~



For the record, I really want to go WASSAILING this year. But I don't think people really do that nowadays. I also am fairly certain that wassail has rum or something in it so yeah. I just really like the word. XD

Stuck in a Moment

Happy Friday! I'm stoked it's finally here. I'm heading out for home as soon as I finish babysitting, so probably around four-ish, to see my beautiful, talented little sister in her high school play. Tomorrow we're putting up the Christmas tree. I love Christmastime! Yesterday I made cookies with some girls on my floor and ate way more than was probably healthy. Then my roomie and I decorated for the season.







I'm on a random U2 kick today. I don't know what sparked it. I've always thought U2 was great morning music, but it's clearly not morning anymore and I'm still listening, so.... *shrug*



Expect that prose thingy tomorrow. I think this post is long enough.

...and I like keeping y'alls in suspense. ^_^

One day, robots will cry.

I feel like this whole break is shaping up to be eating and sleeping. If my family didn't make so much noise, I'd probably just sleep through the whole thing. At any rate it would be entertaining; I had a lot of dreams last night. First I dreamed I was seeing Kiros, but half the band had left and the other half looked like completely different people and I didn't recognize them. Then I dreamed I was a Pokemon trainer and somehow I got pushed into a raging river or something and got hurt pretty bad. Then I dreamed my teeth were falling out, which is positively the worst kind of dream to have. Then I dreamed I was spooning with this guy I've met like one time, and it was really random but I was totally cool with it. I think that's it. I kept waking up in the middle of stuff because my head was cold and my covers kept coming off. Brr. I'm going to sit in front of the fire now and try to be a little more excited about life.

It kind of bothers me how early Christmas starts. Don't get me wrong, the Christmas season is one of my favorite times of year. I love all the twinkling lights and I love how happy everybody is. Walking around the streets is like walking around Gordon - you can talk to anyone and you'll get a smile or a laugh, whether you've ever met them or not. But seriously, the stores have been playing Christmas music for two weeks already. Don't wear it out, people.

It sickens me how the materialism of the season just gets worse and worse every year. This year I'm trying not to ask for a lot of things I don't need. I need a new phone, for instance, and socks that don't have holes in them. But I'm refraining from asking for a new iPod, even though mine fails, because at least it still plays music. I'm not asking for clothes or CDs, either. I could go for tickets to see Reel Big Fish at the Palladium in January, though... *hint hint* Yeah, but the best price I can find is $75. Boo.

Ok. La-la-la-laundry time, then left-overs. Routine. Blah. I hate predictability.