Seven Things

I haven't really posted a well-rounded entry in a little bit, so I am going to write a "Seven Things" catch-up post.

1. I really think that my employer should just send us home for the remainder of this week... and most of next week too. The phone doesn't ring. Nobody is stopping in. Nobody seems very interested in even following up on e-mail. I went to a vocal performance at lunchtime...and would really like to take a nap right about now. Co-Worker Nina is out today with a cough so the day seems like it is going by very slowly, despite the Christmas carols on iTunes.

2. I took a half day yesterday in order to start my Christmas shopping. Yes, START. What can I say? I am a procrastinator when it comes to Christmas. I love the music, I love the food, I love the television, but I cannot stand heading to the mall during the holiday season. Fortunately, I had a general idea of what I was going to buy my family... er, well, at least where I was going to buy their gifts anyhow. I ended up spending the night packaging up presents while making homemade chicken soup and doing two loads of laundry. It was a very productive day. Go me, go me!

2a. Rather than going back to the mall today, I have to T it up to Harvard Square to finish the rest of my shopping. I also want to try to get Christmas puddings at Cardullo's. I still don't have a real handle on the new system for buying fares for the T. It's like they want to be like a real city with a real transportation system, but somehow it still feels like a little kid running around in mom's high heels.

3. Having gotten lost not once, twice, but three times, I spent a fabulous evening at a holiday party at my friend MH's house in Hingham on Saturday night. I haven't been there since the beginning of the summer, shortly after she and her husband (CC) purchased it. It is GORGEOUS and looks like it should be featured in the West Elm catalog. It wasn't a very large party, but it was people from all different areas of the hosts' lives (MH and I are friends/roommates from college)... and yet, 10 out of the 12 of the guests there were from Connecticut...all over the state. It was SO random and so cool at the same time. I really like CC's friends and hope that I get another chance to hang out with them.

4. So I spent two nights last week (Tuesday and Saturday) out and about long past my bedtime. (MP: no follow-up from my Tuesday night companion, which is disappointing, but at least this is a consistant pattern of behavior. Michelle says either I am going to have to get some patience or let this one go. My response to both of those options is "no" so clearly I am going to be having some problems with this.) ;-)

To catch up on my lost sleep, I have been to bed before 10pm every night this week; I just can't keep my eyes open any later. My life without caffeine is sucking so bad, and my teeth STILL giving me problems. Except these particular hurty teeth are part of a whole new problem called: "I am so stressed out by Christmas that I am going to grind my teeth into a pulp while I sleep." I think that I am going to have to suck it up in the New Year and buy myself a nightguard. Otherwise, I might end up doing Polident commercials in my old age.

5. I now am the owner of not one, but TWO, Slinky Juniors: a purple one and an orange one. I think that I might have to race them down the stairs next week when no one is around... (see item 1) I should come up with some fun gifty things to bring in to work for people next week. I really do wish that I wasn't quite so far behind with things this year.

6. Is anyone else missing tv? Everything on lately is repeats. I watched "House" reruns last night, as there wasn't even a "Veronica Mars" rerun on. I like House... wellll, I like Hugh Laurie :-) but he is no Veronica. I was checking entertainment blogs earlier today and new shows aren't going to be on again until mid-January. Is this a new development? Are the networks ordering fewer episodes? Because I remember new episodes right up until Christmas and then a few reruns during the Christmas week and then back in to your regular scheduled programming in time for MLK weekend.

My personal favorite is when I catch myself watching films that I own on dvd on tv...with the commercials. I don't know why I can't be bothered to go put in the film and watch it without the commercials. Maybe I just like the option of being able to change the channel if I want to. I have some films that I really want to see coming from Netflix this week: Mrs. Palfrey at the Clairmont, Lady in the Water, Scoop; so that is something to look forward to for tonight.

7. Tomorrow night, I am going out with some old work friends for dinner at Redbones, where I have never been. Nothing like a little barbeque at Christmastime; makes me feel like I belong in the cast of Steel Magnolias. I have to stop reading the menu; it is making me horribly hungry. These Lean Cuisines are just not cutting it. I am totally having pulled pork... and hush puppies... and mac and cheese. Screw the diet. (Question: would it be horribly gauche to order a cocktail with one's barbeque or should one stick to Coronas?) Then I am meeting other friends to see a friend's band at the Kirkwood Cafe: The Allstonians, who are reunited with original lead singer King K. It is going to be a HOOT. Hopefully I won't end up feeling too old. ;-)

So that is the big picture of what has been going on with me. Holiday greetings and blessings to all of you.

Broadway Bound

This link to You Tube nearly had me fall out of my chair this morning. It is Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segal from "How I Met Your Mother" singing from Les Miserables on the Megan Mullally show. It is priceless. Like MasterCard priceless. (I knew NPH was "Broadway", but the Segal guy is really good too.)

I have watched one episode of "How I Met Your Mother" in the past two years it has been on the air. I am going to start watching next week.

Trying to fight "The Man"

I have been suffering from acid issues all day today, but the good news is it isn't because I was drinking soda. YAY!! Back to the Diet Coke, which I initially thought was to blame! Stupid stress and raw onions in breakfast burritos. DOH! Who puts raw onions in breakfast burritos??

I have to warn you that I am having one of my "I hate people" days. I have been eating all day; I am going to explode. Francisco, who is the waiter working my event, just laughs at me. He also told me that I was so bored that I was being boring. Sad thing is, he is right. I think that he rocks, plus he has a very interesting story, having emigrated from Mexico to come here to study. In Mexico, he taught in university; here he is a waiter. Ahh, the American dream. (But he is practicing his English and that is important to him.)

My beloved student worker Protégé is going to come back to work for us in the spring semester. YAY!!! That is the best news of the week, even better than my Coke news.

I had nightmares all night that I was being pursued by a serial killer. I even woke up and fell back to sleep in the same dream. And I keep having dreams that I am friends with Amanda Palmer from the Dresden Dolls, but not last night. Serial killer.

That is my randomness, and this is just the first day my three day hell week!! I am hoping that Punk Rock Mom might join me for chamomile cocktails at Rendezvous after work on Friday, but as of right now, I just want to go to bed. But I might feel differently on Friday; it is so far away.

Steal food, spread disease, but save room for the pumpkin pie

There was a commercial for a program about the Mayflower on the History Channel with William Shatner thanking the Pilgrims for starting a land where there would be religious freedom (he's Jewish.)

And I felt the need to rant at the tv, "Why the hell are you thanking the Pilgrims? They came here so that they could repress everyone else!! They are STILL repressing us!!!! We have a scary Purtian work ethic, and New Englanders are MEAN. GAH!!!!!!!"

Then I had to change the channel because clearly I have issues. Thank goodness I was alone when this happened or someone might have started to worry about me.

Paved paradise, put up a parking lot

I was saddened to read on Boston.com today that my beloved Virgin Mega Recordstore at 360 Newbury Street is going to be replaced with a Best Buy.

I was under the impression that they were looking for something a little more upscale. Clearly, I was wrong. I am sure that the people who bought those million dollar condos upstairs are just thrilled. The not only have living right over the Mass Pike to deal with, but a mini mall downstairs.

I wonder if they are starting to rethink the fabulousness of living there; I sure would.

Bringing in the sunshine

I was feeling rather down yesterday after work. I had had a series of diappointments over the course of the day, some large scale, some not so large scale. So I headed off to Whole Foods to buy myself a little pick me up.

I ended up with some "emergency cheese" (which is exactly what it sounds like, cheese to eat during emotional emergencies) and some calla lillies and orchids which I arranged together in a vase when I got home.

Surprize Me

Lately, I have been rather down on the human race. It is kind of hard not to be what with the stories that have been in the media lately. But something has happened to reaffirm my faith in humanity. Yesterday would have been my brother's 30th birthday, and I think that all of us were pretty down in our own way. I went out after work and bought myself a present, which is kind of funny as during the first few years of his life I had "decided" that my brother didn't really appreciate presents that were given to him and I would take them for myself. Ah, to be the older sister.

Anyhow, my parents, in particular my father, were feeling particularly down, and they had decided that they were going to go out to the movies to see Man of the Year, in an attempt to lift their spirits. Before they could leave though, the doorbell rang. At the back door, with a rose for my mom, was one of my brother's friends from high school. He stayed for about an hour, updating my folks about the old high school gang and reminiscing about fun times he had had with my brother. He told them that there were a lot of times that he thought about my brother and "talked" out difficult decisions with him.

It was incredibly thoughtful and moved both of my parents greatly. It also really moved me. I used to wonder if this particular guy was going to self-destruct during high school and to hear about how kind he was to my parents yesterday just filled me with an incredible feeling of HOPE.