mydarling

1. Christmas was great. Very low-key; It took us literally ten minutes to open presents. I got David Plouffe's The Audacity to Win, season 3 of 30 Rock, and a check for $60 from Grandma - which went towards this webcam, Kristin Gore's Sammy's Hill (because I need 60 more cents to qualify for free shipping, and that was the cheapest thing I could find that I actually could have a use for) and this shirt (which is technically free, but with shipping cost me 25 cents), all while also paying of my credit card bill to something more manageable. Dinner with the aunt&uncle&cousins was good as well; I was able to pick up my two little cousins Lucy and John (I had been forbidden to lift anything heavier than 20 pounds before and shortly after my surgery, but now I'm all better), ate some delicious beef tenderloin, and played a super-intense game of Mad Gabs with my older cousins and the adults.

2. Speaking of family get-togethers, one of my uncles and his two kids are coming later tonight! Both are close in age to Graham, Monica and I (cousin Mairead is Graham's age and Austin is right in between Graham and Monica) and they're staying until after New Year's - so we've got all kinds of shenanigans planned; and unlike last time Mairead was here (back in July, right after I got out of the hospital), I won't be too tired or weak to participate. We're getting together with the aunt&uncle&cousins again for a New Year's Eve party (which will definitely include an epic Mad Gabs rematch), and then everyone is coming over here for New Year's Day to watch bowl games on our big TV.

3. Other than the holiday plans, not much else is going on. Graham had ACL surgery last week, so I'm busy tending to his needs. Definitely catching up on my sleep. Marathoning TV - I finished season 3 of 30 Rock in about two days, and I've now moved on to How I Met Your Mother. Ordered my books for next semester (only $200 worth). Gearing up to try and write a lot in the coming weeks.

4. Also busy working on my year-end stuff. My picspammy entry is almost done - I have one more show to picspam, and then decide how I want to format it. My playlist of songs I listened to in 2009 is finalized, and I'll get that posted ASAP. And of course there's those year-end survey things - I did the fandom one earlier today and I'll probably do the year in review one sometime tomorrow if things aren't too busy.

5. NFL playoff scenarios give me major headaches.

( This meme in no way makes up for the fact that I haven't done a real-life update in quite some time. )

Other things I need to post about besides real life things: the past three episodes of House and general thoughts on this season of Mad Men - which, sadly, is almost over. Where did the time go, you guys?

The following is brought to you by The Colbert Report's "meTunes":


... MAZEL TOV!


Okay, I can explain. It's a line from the Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling"! I don't know what was up with me last night - I'd only been drinking ice water, but I must have had too many glasses, which I guess made really me hyper for some reason - but as soon as that was mentioned, I could NOT. STOP. LAUGHING. And then when Colbert added that the Black Eyed Peas clearly knew their audience was Bar Mitzvah DJ's, I laughed even more, as I immediately thought of that SNL sketch where you could hire the Peas to "pump up" important events (including - you guess it - Bar Mitzvahs!) Of course, I pretty much crashed once the segment was over, but not before listening to Movitz via their MySpace - jury's still out on the whole lyrics in Swedish thing, but hey, the music is pretty jazzy!

And that's the only thing in my life right now that requires a super-urgent update. But I have other things to talk about (MY OWN LAPTOP ZOMG, more thoughts on season 2 + general predictions for season 3 of Mad Men, Eureka - should it ever get better, family dinner shenanigans from later tonight, college stuff) that I will get to within the next week or so. I've resolved that I'll try to update every single day (multiple times a day, even!) next week, as I'm not going anywhere or doing anything for the next few weeks. Oh, life.

I know I haven't updated in four days, and I planned to do a big damn update post today, but I'm being lazy, so it'll probably come sometime tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this iTunes meme from the flist:

( If you would like any of the songs mentioned, please let me know and I'll upload them for you. )

Things I've done over the past few days:

• CLEANED. Grandma (Dad's mom) arrived here last night, so in preparation for her visit I cleaned various parts of the house. She's staying in my room, and I've been so busy that I rarely do anything in there besides sleep, read and do homework in there, so it hasn't gotten very messy - it took me literally ten minutes to clean. I left a few things until the last minute, and I got home late and was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get them done before Grandma got here. Luckily, Mommy was home all day, and she finished straightening up my room. So Grandma's here, I'm sleeping in Monica's room, and week that she's here is going to be fun.


• Listened to The Decemberists' new album The Hazards of Love. I've only listened to it once in full, but my impression so far is that it's better listened to as a whole album rather than as individual songs. It's pretty interesting, but I think I prefer their earlier stuff from Picaresque and The Crane Wife; I'm gonna go as far to say that The Hazards of Love is to The Decemberists as Narrow Stairs is to Death Cab For Cutie. I think I'd be able to offer a more cohesive review once I've listened to it a few more times. So I'll do that.


• Read new spoilers for The Office, declared that season 5 pretty much sucks, and lost all hope that I'd be getting a Jim&Pam wedding. I HAD TO WAIT A WHOLE SEASON TO GET A FRAKKING PROPOSAL, NOW I'M GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT A WHOLE OTHER SEASON TO SEE A WEDDING, WHICH I COULD HAVE SEEN THIS SEASON HAD THE WRITERS NOT DICKED AROUND WITH ANDY/DWIGHT/ANGELA FOR THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON AND KEPT PAM IN NEW YORK. NOT FAIR.


• Hardly any homework. It was wonderful to just lounge around, sleep, and watch The West Wing season 2 without any major worries that I had more important things to do, especially after the weeks I'd been through.


• Wrote my story for inrevelations. It's making me frustrated - I've got it planned out in my head, and when I put it down on paper, it doesn't sound as good. I'm reading other people's entries, and even though I shouldn't compare my stuff to theirs, mine seems much, much worse. I hope the person I wrote it for in enjoys it. And I'm worried that I won't reach/exceed the 800 word minimum. So I'll keep writing and self-editing, read others stories, and have mine ready by Friday. I hope it turns out as well as I think it will.


• Got psyched about Obama's press conference tonight, though I'm pissed that it messes up my TV watching schedule.

Yesterday was the real "last day" of my spring break :( Both Graham and Monica are around this weekend, so it's gone back to being super-stressful around here. I no longer can get the computer to myself for long periods of time, stay up until midnight and wake up at noon (like I did last night), or spend the days bumming around in my pajamas doing absolutely nothing. Plus, we "spring forward" an hour tonight, which is totally going to mess up my already-screwed up sleep schedule. Great.

I had to be actually productive yesterday, since I hadn't done anything school-related the entire week. I printed out a few sources for my research paper (which I've decided will be on realism in The West Wing - an absolutely ace topic, given it's been something on my mind lately since I re-watched the last two seasons and has actual sources for me to cite.) I didn't do the research proposal yet, but it won't take as long now that I've got a topic in mind, so I'm planning on doing that during my break on Monday. I'll annotate the sources sometime this weekend, along with reading those stupid, unrelated-to-the-class essays and writing summaries and answering questions about them. But I did watch The War Room and Annie Hall last night for my Film review, both of which were incredibly good. I have a feeling I'm going to have a hard time picking a film to write a journalistic review on.

The Office was pretty meh this week, but ( American Idol was surprisingly good. )

I'm still sick, by the way. And I think it's getting worse, which is absolutely great when I have to go back to school. Really.

( 100 questions meme, stolen from a few friends on Facebook. )

Downloaded more music from Death Cab For Cutie, and there's a new Numb3rs on tonight. Those two events are unrelated but worth mentioning. I'M GOING INSANE FROM MARATHONING SPORTS NIGHT EARLIER, CAN YOU TELL?

Year end things:
- over and over and over, a mix of songs I had on repeat throughout 2008
- top five events in sports & politics, my super lame entry for picspammy
- ( 2008 in review meme. )

Tonight's plans include eating excellent shrimp and Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve with Ryan Seacrest. Since my Internet connection shuts off at 10 PM, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Oh, and I signed up for picfor1000 again because I'm insane I'd like to get back into writing things, and this is my assignment. I'm literally weeping right now. How do I make a good story out of that?

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I'm very excited about tomorrow - church, presents (hopefully), and dinner with aunt&uncle&cousins in Ann Arbor. Tonight's dinner is with just my immediate family, which will be nice, plus A Christmas Story is on TBS later, so we'll probably watch that. And I have some present-wrapping to do. Busy day.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Monica and I frosted a bunch of sugar cookies, plus she made snickerdoodles (didn't turn out so well), and I made oatmeal raisin ones, because they are Dad's favorite. I used Grandma's (Dad's mom) recipe, and Dad was thrilled because he used to have them all the time when he was younger. I'm really glad I did a good job! And then last night Graham and I watched Studio 60's "The Christmas Show" to celebrate. Two years later and I still love the Matt/Harriet kiss (see icon) and when Danny tells Jordan he's in love with her. I may or may not watch The Office's "Christmas Party" and The West Wing Christmas episodes if things don't get too busy. We'll see.

I finally got around to posting my Christmas mix last night, even though I've been listening to it since the beginning of December. It's called "Christmas, Don't Be Late" and it's here at sixcenturies. I played it while helping my six year old cousin Maggie decorate cookies in Chicago, and she thoroughly enjoyed it and even sang along at various points. So there you go.

IT'S CURRENTLY RAINING HERE. IN DECEMEBER. AND IT'S MELTING THE SNOW. WTF.