well, it's over.

and now the returns begin. i spend all day telling people that they can't trade their christmas gifts for cash. i shouldn't have to tell them why we don't do that. are they really that hard-pressed?
i mean, jimmy told me some people returned a fence to home depot the other day. used. these people tore their fence out of the ground, brought it to home depot covered in mud and bothered the employees for two hours until somebody agreed to give them their money back.
is this just the beginning?





it might be time to read grapes of wrath and get some food storage together.

merry christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

i've been thinking about the christmas movies we loved as kids.
here are a few that we'll never forget!
(youtube is a christmas miracle.)

i think we used to call this orphanage christmas or something. the song is my favorite.

this is the real rudolph. like, really old.

i love this one because a lot of our movies were recorded off of the television, just like this. our mickey's christmas carol had all the commercials included. haha.

how can you not love muppets doing, well, anything? my sister used to sing all the songs from this throughout the year.

nestor, the christmas donkey. he's just too cute. the music is even better.

this one cuts off just in time. it's a bit much. i can't believe we used to watch the entire movie!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

actually, it's looking like late september.
it's seventy-two degrees outside right now!
we have the back door open so judge can roam in and out as he pleases.
it's overcast and looking to rain, that's why it is so warm and humid.
i mean, it's downright balmy! too bad we're not closer to the beach.

i'm used to sliding my car down a snowy mountain to get around.
i'm not used to crunching the leaves in december.
it's so odd! i like it, though. it's different, but i like it.
i'm putting a lot more of the layering items in my closet to use and my boots aren't ruined from salt in the parking lot. so it's good for my wardrobe, i guess.

i keep doing holiday sorts of things to feel like it's christmas time:
making cookies, putting on music, turning off the radio in the car so i can sing carols at the top of my lungs, looking at the holiday issues of home decor magazines, keeping the lights on the tree on all the time, making holiday cards, etc, etc.

judge just brought me a frisbee, so it looks like i better head outside into the heat.
that's not christmasy at all.
weird.

ginger snaps!

anybody want some?
homemade!
i'm just going to have to eat them all alone in my red and green outfit.

i've been really lucky.

i don't think i've been "sick" once this whole last year. i've had some days when i didn't feel so hot, but nothing that prevented me from going about my business. today i think something might be coming on. i've had sinus headaches for a few days and last night my nose exploded! that's right. i was just sitting in an armchair when, suddenly, a large amount of liquid popped out of my nose. it looked like water so it wasn't a snotty mess but WEIRD, right? in any case, i took some nyquil and went to bed. i woke up this morning feeling groggier than ever. my nose is stuffed and my throat is sore. i'm about to take some dayquil and start cleaning up the house with the hopes that it's just exhaustion and not some kind of infection. if that doesn't work, i'll try and sleep it off. that's plan b.

but i don't even have time to be sick in bed.

update: scarf day.

so this is me, all ready for scarf day.

making and baking.

last night i baked about a thousand cookies.
okay, not that many, but a lot!
it's a miracle - they taste exactly like the pink cookies you get from vending machines. i can't tell you how or why, i just know it's the truth.
i'm going to have to take them to work and make other people eat them. we can't do this alone.





in other news, i'm finally mailing my christmas cards. most of them.
they turned out pretty great.
this little guy is jimmy's favorite:









have to work the next few days in a row.
it's going to be crazy, especially since we have a dress code. it's like being in a clique. they call me and tell me what we're wearing so we all match. today is scarf day. tomorrow is grey and pink day.
i've never thought so hard about outfits in my life.

blurbies!

i'm up really late and that's a bad thing!
(we watched pride and glory at the dollar movie. it would have been free and better if we had watched the wire at home.)



i love my christmas tree!
(so far i haven't given in to jimmy's desire for colored lights. my mom has ingrained upon me her ideas about colored lights being tacky. i'm trying to overcome.)



i'm the family's financial president!
(and i'm still getting settled into my new position. i really hate conducting business on the phone. i'm really great at the charts and graphs part.)



it's the week of $100!
(we're playing this game where we only spend $100 total this week. so far we've only bought groceries and gas and we're doing fine. i just have to try not to crave candy.)



jimmy's going to kill me if he finds me online in here!
(he's watching the late show, but he doesn't have to work tomorrow and i do - early! whooooops!)

Judge is asleep underneath the Christmas tree.

This is when I wish I had a camera (and not just a camera phone.)
Too bad I can't carry my computer into the room and snap a quick one without waking him up.


I guess I'll just go look at dogs online instead.
I'll also look for a second job. Sort of.

crafty.

I made some Christmas cards to send out. I like them quite a bit.
I'm making a few more.
Hopefully I can get them out at the right time. Doubt it . . . :)

How We Spent Our Day:

Hear this:

KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic

Music junkies, bask in this gift of free performances.



See this:

Planet Earth

You've probably never been more amazed by nature.

life for dummies.

this is my first real day off in a little while, so i'm warranted a couple of posts. right?


okay.


ever since i was a little kid i've always thought that there is some secret manual to life, one of those "for dummies" books, and that everyone but me must have one. some of the time, i still think that. i just don't understand how people know about all the procedures involved with riding the bus or how to make small talk in the walmart checkout line without some kind of instructions. how do people pick careers? how do they know what books to read? it just seems like everyone is really good at life and i'm really . . . not.
i'm one of those people who can't make a decent response to everyday greetings. i trip on my own feet regularly. i talk to myself. sometimes i have to really concentrate on remembering to close the fridge when i'm done. every day i wake up and make an effort to just do normal things - go to work, brush my teeth, talk on the phone. it's like i wasn't programmed for this.

another conspiracy theory i've imagined is that everyone can see what i'm thinking displayed on my forehead, like a cnn news feed. i've also thought that, possibly, i'm some sort of disabled but everyone in the world is involved in an elaborate charade to keep me thinking i'm just like everyone else. when i was eleven, i wrote a will because i thought i was going to die after reading the book bridge to teribithia . sometimes i worry about the day when everyone i know jumps out and says "surprise! we hate you and we've been pretending to like you all this time because we thought it would be THE BEST JOKE EVER. ha ha ha!"
i also worry that i'll wake up and everything will be a long, long dream.


is this possibly a disorder? i think it's a most likely disorder. at least i'm getting over the phase where i thought i had every disease i read about online.

except diabetes. i still think i have diabetes.
why else would i drink so much water and still be thirsty?!

thanksgiving.

our internet was out over thanksgiving, so i didn't really get a chance to squawk about it.

it was great, really.

this was the first thanksgiving i've had off in a few years. it's nice to remember that holidays are about having the day off to relax with family - not working your butt off so that everyone else can relax with theirs (and sneaking some pie in there, somewhere). we had TWO dinners, the night before and the next day. i met some new family here in georgia and i adore them all. once we get a break in our schedules, we have to do more visiting. we're actually not that far away from our family out here. i'm also enjoying georgia this time of year. it's really beautiful.

this was also my first thanksgiving far away from home. i don't like to think about it too much, but i never realized how many little things i would miss. i miss grandma's kitchen, packed as full as it could be with people i love and every kind of pie known to man. i miss my loud family - never a dull moment. it's strange how things that seem to bother you become the things you really love the most.

this was, above all, my first DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING. i worked black friday, 10 AM till 9 PM. it was insanity. it was really great deals (30% off everything in the store). it was tiring. it was like nothing i've ever seen. we made twice as much as they expected, so it seemed like the economy wasn't as bad as everyone thought. then i worked last night and did so many more returns than sales that we could hardly make change at the end of the night. go figure.


gobble gobble.