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.