ChrisCam

Christmas was lovely, thanks. Had a very nice time, and everyone like the presents I got for him or her! Yes, even my mother. This is due entirely to the fact that I went jointsies with Care in every parental present. Yes, I did think of the phone cord she wanted, and was the mannikin for the beautiful sweaters, but it remains that had I bought the same presents alone, she'd have hated them all. It's a rule of nature.

Trying to decide what food to make on Wednesday for Catch-phrase extravaganza. I made dinner last night, Bright, and it was a hit. ;-)

Dad had visited Grandma last week in Florida when he was there on business and took her out to ice cream. She was delighted to meet him, thought he was very handsome, and enjoyed parading him around the nursing home. She then called home and screamed at my mom for not inviting her to the wedding and letting them meet sooner. (She was invited, 23 years ago!) He picked her up from the airport as well, and when she got here we sat and chatted on the couch while he made a fire. Grandma whispered to me secretively (and not entirely sure who I was), "I think I'm in love with my daughter's husband!"

I'm fine!

Not really. But nothing's wronger with me than I already knew about, if I may be allowed to make up a word and use an awkward sentence construction! If I never get stressed or eat anything fatty again I'll be fine. ;-) So therefore, I'm making a conscious decision not to be fine occasionally.

Christmas shopped for Mom, Care, and Mark...and that's about it. Daddy doesn't want anything and I think everyone else is taking the copout route of "we'll all go out to dinner and call it our present" which works nicely for a limited budget.

The Santa collection is up, lights and ornaments on the tree, and it's all looking great. I love being home for Christmas. I've gotten to spend time with Boo. I can't picture how we're going to interact when we're both older. I'm so glad I have a sister! We spend so much of our time laughing and joking and talking about everything. Nice to come home to live with one of my best friends!

Tucker's now got his bells on (and is very unhappy about it). Tiger's at the vet, so I'm a little worried about him, but hopefully he'll be fine.

I'm hungry! We have very little food here, so I'm going to go scavenge. Your turn, Brightski. ;-)

Dear Mom, Thanks for letting me know about the lawn guys before I got out of the shower. I wish, however, that you’d also told me about the guys working on the roof…since the bathroom has a skylight!!

Went out hunting for Christmas presents today in the mall. Anyone who reads this knows that I HATE shopping. Hate it. I slipped into Bloomy’s and started to slalom around the perfume fiends. You know the ones, they jump out from behind pillars and counters and try to spray you with their noxious fumes so you’ll buy their icky products. Gross.

I bought a salt and pepper shaker that are impossible to knock over. You push them down and they bounce back up, so they don’t spill. (No spilling the salt, Harry.) They’re going to drive my dad nuts; I’m very pleased. But that’s the only present I have for him so far, any ideas anyone? I spent a lot of time looking for Mark and Carolyn today. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted for either of them, which is always frustrating. I walked the whole mall, and for me there’s nothing as bad as knowing that you’ll have to come back.

I say nothing as bad in very relative terms of course. Given how often I get “sick” (in nice euphemistic quotation marks), the docs have finally decided to make sure there’s nothing really wrong with me. Which means a very bad day for me on Thursday, but far worse, I don’t get to eat anything tomorrow. What’s that, you say? I don’t go more than three hours without eating or I become terrifyingly cranky and practically hysterical? I know. No food for me. Not a happy camper.

We’ve stocked up on chicken broth, grape juice, ginger ale, and green jello, all of which are allowed. So I think I’ll survive, at least. I figured, “Screw it, I’ll just sleep the whole day and I’ll be fine.” No no. The medicine they give me to clear me out will effectively prevent that. I will likely be mooning around on the computer all day; feel free to send me blitz love to keep me company!!! And update your damn blogs, people. ;-)

I just got a wicked craving for Indian food.

Bright, you have RUINED me.

Alright, alright.

I know.

I've been very bad. But I've also been very busy! And there are only 5 or so of you who read this anyway. I just handed in my last final, and will be taking the rest of this day off to play photography games with Bright. (Which doesn't bode well for blogging, given the last post was also photography with Bright.) So.

Things I did this term: Turned in a thesis proposal. It's going to be on whether or not there can be a feminist redemption of Ayn Rand. It's a little more detailed than that, but I'll be talking about it with anyone who cares anyway. I got my yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. I also got into terrific, unbelievable, six-pack shape while doing it. I am a little softer now, two weeks after it ended, and I've been eating lots of finals junk food, but I'll work on it over break. (Maybe.) I volunteered reading to kids...for a few weeks, a child with the biggest case of undiagnosed ADD or extremely poor parenting I've seen. Girl couldn't focus to read unless she was swinging on the monkey bars with me walking below holding the book, or if we ran around like mad-men after every two pages, or if we acted out the book (in which case it had to be something like Where the Wild Things Are, so we could roar and be fake monsters). The last week I had a different girl, who was terrific. As we talked about her love life, she mentioned her plan to call up the boy she liked that night, so she could tell him to meet her in between their classrooms, so she could give him a note that said "I love you" so they could get married. I suggested a period of getting to know each other before the wedding, to which she responded, "Yeah, good idea. My mommy's giving me all this advice about boys. She came up with the note idea. She's had TWENTY-FIVE boyfriends! She had sex with 5 of them and kissed 10." Too much information, sweetpea!

Oh yeah, what I did this term. I also babysat once at the women's shelter in West Leb while the mother attended counseling. That seemed very worthwhile. I was New Member Ed, and we got a terrific class of women in Theta. I hosted wine and cheese and it was yummy. I went to a few too. I went to a Dashboard Confessional/Howie Day concert. Saw a bunch of cool movies: check out the Blind Swordsman! I voted in my first presidential election (and helped turn NH blue). Learned about Feminist Legal Theory, Literary Theory, and Anthropology. Besides that first post, didn't take any photographs or develop at all. Went to the bonfire. Skipped the homecoming football game. Went to formal. Danced a whole lot. Blew my hair dry almost every day, and did not look grody once for the first three weeks of school. Wore skirts and high heels. Went running when it was warm.

Other stuff too, of course, but I think that's good for now.