If I "owwwed" yesterday, multiply that by a factor of 5000. I can hardly walk today. It's so bad I don't even want to complain about it anymore. Yes, definitely going to go home and drink today. Oh, wait. I was going to do that anyway [grin].

Leah, Tacia and Josh will be coming over tonight to ring in the New Year/Leah's going-away party. She says we have to watch The Order, since I had promised to go with her when it was in theaters and it was only in theaters for a week (literally) and we missed it. We will be going the wine/champagne route tonight - big change for us. So I will be stopping by the grocery store - horrors! grocery store at 5:00 on New Year's Eve! think of the people! - on the way home tonight, before I pick up all the crap I still have laying about the house. Why do I do this to myself at the last minute?

So Happy New Year, my stalkers, see you in 2004!

Ooooowwww!!! I shoulda taken a Tylenol PM last night. I decided I should do a little warm-up this week before I started training hard-core next week, since I haven't done anything for three weeks. Josh guilted me into pushing really hard, since he thought I should start training this week, and I blew him off to excercise by myself, and now I hurt. My legs were pudding by the time I finished, and they're still killing me. I suppose in the long run, it'll be good for me, since I think the tournament I want to go to is at the end of January, and I have only a month to get ready, but ooooowww!!! I am going to be so sore tomorrow if I'm this bad today. [/whine]

Leah got in last night, and didn't call me like she promised. She's gotta leave again for Des Moines really soon, and I'm not going to be able to spend any time with her before she leaves at this rate. I would even help her finish packing...

My weekend was not all about presents, as opposed to my previous post [doh]. Ran into both Megan and Tim at Candlelight service Christmas Eve. I hadn't seen Tim in an age. Still a very handsome man, I might add. I spent a good ten years crushing on him. That's a really long time. Megan invited me to hang out with her at Quinton's Friday. I met her boyfriend, and Jeff, another friend from high school. We ended up closing the bar, which I have not done for a long time. It was really fun. Saturday I hung out with Josh; we went to see Paycheck and then to the Brewery. I then came home and finished watching Firefly. It's such a shame it was canceled. I have a new appreciation, being able to watch the show in the correct order and all. I haven't even watched any of the commentaries yet. Very much looking forward to it.

I slept so much over vacation. I had at least 10 hours of sleep every night, and that was all going to bed when I felt tired and waking up when I wasn't anymore. It was so hard waking up this morning. When the alarm went off at 7, I felt like I was in the middle of a very deep sleep. Definitely was not ready to be up, so I slept until 7:50 [evil]. First day back, I think I can afford to walk in at 8:30.

How awesome is my family? I am so blessed to have a family I enjoy being with so much. It's just so much fun! We need our own reality show. "The ______ Family." Though I don't know how much of it is just us feeding off each other. If Emily's laughing, I can't help but laugh. 'Course when she throws a tantrum, I feel that, too.

And to jump on the bandwagon, the loot count:

Leah: Pirates of the Carribean
Chelsea: Crocheted scarf she made herself
Kristen: Candle she made herself, The Perfect Guy keychain (worth many laughs), and Snowman poop (worth even more laughs)
Lew: Third season of South Park
Emily: Isabel Bloom statue "Sisters" It even looks like us! Emily comes up with the best presents!
Mom and Dad:
Went in on the coat I bought for myself: I fell in love with this coat from Textiles. It's gold and brown suede with shearling wool inside, it is so beautiful and so warm and so machine washable! It was way expensive, so I bought it, gave it to Mom to give to me for Christmas, and she bought Christmas presents, and put the rest of my allocation in the pocket of the coat. Sweet deal, I'm telling you.
CD rack: It swivels! It is very nice, but it only holds 150 CDs, and I have 157. Go figure. The overflow goes into my old one, with room for DVDs. Still very helpful for organizing.
The Two Towers extended edition
The Federalist Papers, by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay
Dido's Life for Rent
Ever After DVD (which has been on my wish list for almost two years now!)
Red and black peasant shirt
Scarf - very 70s pattern

I think that's about it, besides the stocking stuff - the obligatory underwear, socks, candy, bookmarks. Pretty good haul, if I do say so myself. Everyone liked their presents, except the skirt I bought for Emily doesn't quite fit. I don't know if she's decided to take it back or lose the weight. I think she's trying to lose the weight anyway, but [shrug].

I don't remember how we got started on the tradition of having crab legs for Christmas, but I'm so glad we did. That was the best batch of legs we've had, I think. Mmmmm.

Okay, I lied. I'm back. Lew, the little maroon, put bells in my present. Bells in my present. Okay, yes, I'm a shaker, but bells? Grandpa was always really good at figuring out what his presents were, too. One year, my dad got tired of it. He knew Grandpa would figure out that his present was tire irons. So he cut out two pieces of particle board, each about three feet in diameter. He cut out a nest in a round piece of styrofoam for the tire irons and bolted the whole thing together. Grandpa didn't figure out what it was, and the whole family had a huge laugh. For years to come, in fact, since the "wheel" has made the rounds ever since.

Okay, last-minute Christmas shopping is expensive, Emily! After your "I spent a lot of money on you, so you better have gotten me something good," got me feeling a little guilty, because, yes, I spent more on the rest of the family than I did on you. One, that's not what gift-giving is about, and two, now I've spent way more on you than I wanted to. [major raspberry] Okay, it's something I really wanted to get you, but now I think it's going to have to combine in with some other holiday as well. Maybe it can be my maid of honor present. Not your wedding present, but to the bride from her maid of honor. Or...I'll just tell you I got it, and you can decide whether to get it now or later. Oooh, evil!

Almost forgot...Mr. Ashton called and asked if I wanted to teach TKD to the kids out at the Nest next semester. I'm a little conflicted. I really, really would like to start teaching, one, because I think I'd enjoy it, and two, if I want to be a black belt, I'll have to (get to [wink]) start teaching eventually, and now would be a good time to start. On the other hand, starting a new obligation during tax season is suicide. I did get an offer for help with treasurer duties at church, so that would take some pressure off outside obligations, maybe enough to do this. I'll have to think about it somemore. (Read: talk myself into it.) The funny part was, Ashton talked like it was all his idea, but I knew better. Todd called me ahead of time to warn me he had made the suggestion.

If I don't want to deal with the parents' dial-up and don't blog again, Merry Christmas, everyone! May the joy of the celebration of our Lord's birth be with you now and throughout the year.

Yesterday was quite as fun as I thought it would be, but I was in kind of an irritable mood, so it might have been better. Calvin loved his present; I spent the afternoon playing with Play-Doh. Actually, I spent it making cars and tractors and trying to keep Calvin from smushing them when he played with them. Play-Doh cars just aren't as tough as plastic ones.

Kristen's graduation party was great, too. Todd gave her a book with an engagement ring hidden inside and asked her to marry him. *Sigh* It was so sweet. She opened up the present, and you could just see her face tighten with a fake smile, like "This is what you got me?" Then Todd told her to open it, and she about died. I don't know how long it took him to carve out the hole in the book, but her reaction was so totally worth it, I'm sure.

Return of the King was awesome! And not just awesome, speechless awesome! My favorite review comment was Kristen's (and this is spoilery, so don't read it if you haven't seen it, I'm too lazy to spoiler tag it): "A girl can kill all the Nazgul in the world, but if your crush shoots you down...that's just rough." Very worth seeing again, even at three-and-a-half hours long. I would have cried so hard if I didn't know what was going to happen. As it was, there were tears.

Family Christmas tomorrow, then Kristen's graduation party. Tomorrow should be fun.


You are

Willow Rosenberg

"I don't get wild. Wild on me equals spaz."

What "Buffy" Character Are You?

In the spirit of Celebrity Poker, we played Texas Hold-'em last night. With Cheerios. It got so Todd and I were just pushing piles of cereal back and forth, so we just quit. We shoulda quit the hand before, because I ended up with 63 Cheerios, and Todd had 85. I'm going to have to kick his butt at the 80's game Sunday. I am 9 months older. I remember more of the 80's. In theory.

ROTK tonight! I'm so glad they waited for me to get back from Des Moines to go. So 'cited!

I got home last night, and started making phone calls, and no one was home. I felt a little 28 Days Later. It was a little eerie. Emily stopped by after work to water my Christmas tree (a little late) and ended up staying almost an hour. I'm going to miss her. *Sigh* It seems like everyone is abandoning me, after all. I don't want to make anyone feel guilty for leaving, because I really do want them to have their own lives and follow their dreams, but it's hard to not feel like I do, because it's pretty much all happening at once. My best friend is leaving the country in 2 weeks. My little sister is getting married and leaving the continental 48 in May. Josh graduates and moves to the West Coast in May. Todd's going to Des Moines next semester, and who knows where Kristen will end up. I feel a little embarrassed admitting this, but these people were the first time I've had a group of really close friends, and they mean a lot to me. Not having them around is going to be hard. It'll be okay, I know, but I'm getting a little teary-eyed, so I'll stop.

Got most of my Christmas shopping done while I was in Des Moines. Finally found something for Dad, thank-you-very-much. I found The Honeymooners full series on DVD. He'll like it. Whew. And something for Kristen. I love it when something just pops out at you and screams, "Kristen has to have this!!" Not necessarily Kristen, but you know.

Little known fact: I can't for the life of me remember how to spell "necessarily." I have to look it up every time. It got so I wrote it down on a post-it and tacked it up over my computer. Grammar Nazi falls a notch.

All right. Some interest. At least I know I'm not talking to the ether, but after all that work putting in the commentary feature, it would be nice if someone used it. [tongue] By the way, vacation has been extremely beneficial for both body and soul. I've been sleeping a lot, but not too much, and immersing myself in Season 5 of Buffy, since the DVD came in the mail the first day of vacation. But may I say, I've been terribly disappointed in the special features so far. [pout]

Back to the question. What is my type? You know, that's a really good question. I know what I look for in friends, and I suppose that's what I look for in a boyfriend, plus the attraction factor. And looking back, I can almost only count on one hand the guys I've truly been attracted to. Which kind of makes things difficult, I suppose. When I do happen to find one of those guys, it tends to mean more to me, and the risk is way higher. But if you knew what I was like when I got to college 7 years ago, you would barely recognize me as the same person. And I'm not talking looks. My confidence level has skyrocketed since then. I'd like to think, if it was one of those times, I would be able to take the chance and ask him out. But then it wasn't so long ago that I chickened out big time and by the time it actually happened it was too late. It might be easier if I wasn't so dense and could pick up on those clues that a guy is interested. I can see them now, hindsight being 20/20 and all, and I wonder how I could be so dense. But somehow it's still a foreign concept, that a guy might be interested in me, so it doesn't naturally occur to me. Kind of has to be the big blow to the head kind of thing.

But the things I look at is how he treats other people - not just the people he likes, how much we have in common and how much we don't. I want some things to be similar, because I want to agree on movies and food and other forms of entertainment once in a while, but not too much, because I want to be introduced to new things, and I want to introduce him to new things. I like a guy who knows how to use sarcasm. He'll need it in my family. [grin] I want someone who will take care of himself, mind and body, i.e. no smokers, reasonable diet, a non-aversion to excercise, goals. If he's not Lutheran, I would want someone who would at least be willing to learn about what I believe, because it's important to me, and I would hope he would expect the same of me. Other than that, I can't say I'm all that picky.

I'm meeting Kristen to go Christmas shopping here in a couple minutes, so I'll end this. Hope I made sense.

I put on my do-bok last night to go to TKD, and I realized that was the last place I wanted to be, so I took it off and stayed home. I just did not feel like going. I feel kind of burned out on life right now. I need this vacation, because to feel like this going into tax season is just a recipe for disaster. I just need to get through today, and get lots of work done, so I don't feel guilty being gone. And I shouldn't feel guilty, but hey, that great American work ethic. Woohoo. [rolleyes]

I'm a little miffed. Average Joe ended last night, and Malena picked Jason over Adam. In other words, the average joe got the shaft. In Malena's defense, she at least did give him a chance, and he definitely took it. And he was such a gentleman about losing! You knew she was doing the Mexican Hat Dance on his heart, and he just wished them good luck. What a sweetie!

I'd like to think looks don't matter much to me, either. Most of the guys I've been attracted to haven't been the definition of handsome, it was always something else that drew me to them. First impressions, yes. Looks do play a major part. And there is a certain look that I seem to like (Leah, you know what I'm talking about! And now that I think about it, there was another one, but I don't have a picture). And if there's something I like about how they look, I'm more likely to give them a chance. I suppose it's that first hurdle that's discriminatory. Of course, I went out with Kevin, too, and the only motivation behind that was to give him a chance. Since I've never managed to ask out a guy, I'm not discriminatory that way. I'm equal-opportunityly shy.

Kyan: Grooming Guru


Which Member from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is your type?
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Decorating was fun. Although Emily had an aversion to watching half-time of the basketball game, so we ended up watching Jack Frost on ABC Family. Clay-mation goodness! Gotta love that cheezy schtick. There was this song they sang about passing around an empty box and saying how much they loved what they imagined they got. Emily started giggling - she was making up her own 'rejected stanzas' in her head. Sometimes it's better just not to ask.

I found presents for Mom and Lew. Just Dad, Emily, Calvin & Matt left. I wanted to get Calvin a Disney Karaoke Microphone, but Amazon is all out, and they're going for sixty-some bucks on eBay. I'm not sure I want to spend that much. So I'll have to think of something else. Emily won't be too hard. She said she'd like some sweaters, except my favorite sweater places don't carry sizes that large. It's hard enough for me. Why do all the cool places assume you're 5'2" and weigh 100 lbs.? You'd think they'd make a lot more money if they offered a greater size variety. Matt won't be hard, either. He'll be happy with a gift certificate. Future brother-in-laws don't care if you're somewhat impersonal. Especially Matt. Do you know how long it took before he let me hug him? He still tenses up. Silly Matthew.

Decorating tonight! Emily is coming over after she gets off work to help decorate the tree. Hopefully she'll be a bit late, because they're playing an extended version of Apocalypse Now on Bravo tonight, and I really want to watch it. I think the Xander portions of Restless lose some of their significance if you haven't seen it. But I have to buy milk so I can make hot chocolate. And buy a tree, of course.

I'm just not as good at scheduling my time as I used to be. I've gotten too used to lazing around all the time, so that when I actually have a lot of stuff to do, it feels overwhelming. Like today, I had to mail my Christmas cards, do some Christmas shopping, buy a tree, go to the grocery store, put in some time at work, and write peer minister stipends for tomorrow. All I've gotten done so far is mail my Christmas cards, and look at the time! I guess I've done some of the work stuff, too, but that's enough to make me puke. I've got two audits on my desk right now. One we've been working on for almost two months, because we only get 90% of the info we need, and that info always seems to generate more questions. The other is a Benefit Plan audit, which I have done only one of so far, and it's still all about the learning curve. It's going better than the other one, but I've only got 15 working days this month due to vacation/holiday/CPE, and trying to get it all done in time for tax season is daunting.

The only Christmas shopping I've gotten done so far is for Lew, and he's really easy. I have few ideas for anyone else, and I have to get it done by next week, since I'll be in Des Moines for the entire week before Christmas. Next year, I'm doing all my shopping in November over the internet. Avoid crowds, avoid shopping malls, avoid all this last-minute (well, it feels like last-minute!) agonizing over what to get people.

Iowa Wireless finally has downloadable ringtones on its website. Guess what I downloaded first? Guess!

I love Christmas carols. As soon as December rolled around, I had my radio at the office tuned to the all-Christmas station. Except they don't play my favorite Christmas artists as often as I like: Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole...all the oldies and goodies. And you just can't beat "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Then there's the new ones: N'Sync, Britney Spears and even Shaggy's got a Christmas song. I looked at Amazon.com. "Now That's What I Call Christmas" has all of them. It makes me wonder: are any of these songs someday going to be an "Oldie but Goodie"? I mean, some of the Beach Boys' stuff is closing in on the classic category when it comes to Christmas songs. Will our grandchildren be listening to Shaggy sing "Christmas in the Yard" and think, "Now that's a classic!"