christmas tiiiiiime is heeereeeee

well, christmas is actually over now, but whatever.

[brief unrelated thing i just remembered: i had this weird feeling that i've acquired a slight accent, probably southern, but my family didn't notice it. but when i mentioned it to yasha last night he totally did. weird.]

dude, the last two days of work last week were surprisingly fun in a hectic way. wednesday i counted the storage backstock and snacked on our holiday potluck food. syeda's samosas were very good, even though najib ate about half of them... cedric smoked a whole turkey and it was tasty, though cold. mom made chili and brought some of our christmas cookies. there were some vegan foods too - tim's cookies were really good, which somehow surprised me. not because he made them, but because i wouldn't think of vegan food tasting that good for some reason... idk...

christmas eve was busy but fun. there was still a lot of random food to be had: liz brought munchkins, there were some leftover cookies from the party the day before, syeda brought 2 dozen donuts, and then dan ordered 9 pizzas. yeah, plenty of food. jt ate 8 donuts plus he leftover chili and a couple slices of pizza. jay ate a ton of pizza too. dan hid one of the boxes of vegan pizza in the office for people who were actually vegan because it's so good non-vegans eat a lot. though fred had probably at least 4.

those are the only 2 days i didn't really feel any ill-effects of not taking a break.

went to bed ridiculously early christmas eve: around 10:15. it really hasn't felt like christmas at all. i think that might be because we've only implemented some of our traditional christmas things, not everything. so there was no mug rotation, hardly a table covering rotation, no hunting for a real tree to go with the fake one, no combined shopping trips, no listening to the same old christmas cds. i think we were kinda lazy this year regarding our traditions. we did our same decorating rituals, we set up the nativity [even though we're hardly religious about this anymore], dad finally got the moravian star to go together correctly.

matt was actually the last one up christmas morning. mom made multi-berry coffee cake and i had my yummy kiwi-pear tea. my presents: lucy-the-sewing-machine back in october, $50 cash-money, "jean therapy" book, "easy one dish meals" book, an old pair of jeans of dad's. not bad. matt: "where the wild parties at?" shirt, knit hat, $50 cash-money, 'modern warfare 2' for 360, probably something else i forget... dad: tbd jerry garcia tie, knit hat, chalk mug with pen, uhh.... [it was a couple days ago, i forget...] mom: yummy dessert cookbooks, giant map of us for mapping motorcycle trips, a bunch of eyeglass-keeper pins, chalk mug with pen, boombox with double headphone cord.

then we headed over to poppop's! it was a super informal dinner, as aunt anne had brought short sugar's barbecue. so i wore my free kitten shirt. the cousins were at the murphey's to give poppop a break from having to deal with ben and nancy, which was nice of anne. so us older people sat around talking and such. and waiting. and finally we call over and find out it'll still be a little while [there's a backup in the shower] so we decide to go ahead and eat. mmmmmmmmmmm

finally everyone gets there and it's hella loud... like whoa... we open presents. nothing really remarkable. kat really liked the stuff i made her and the hoodie mom made for her. poppop gave all the families pretty much the same thing: a wind chime his neighbor made out of old kitchen utensils and a rotary belgian waffle maker. i played some guitar hero and then kat coerced a slew of people into playing taboo. dad kicked ass cuz he's mister media. if i'm ever on a game show or in the cash cab, he's my lifeline, no question. it was pretty fun.

pawpaw and carole came on boxing day. we talked for a while, matt opened his presents cuz he and andy were hitting sales [and no doubt other things...]. he got a really nice knife, sand circles for a nice power tool. i'm not sure what specifically it was... dad got a few ties and a set of giant reusable zip ties. mom got a twisty note pad and something else... i got a twisty note pad and a giant mug. we ate cold ham [yummm] and pawpaw went to pick up carole from somewhere off 97. she got here and we opened the rest of the presents. mom got a rubber shoe door prop and a measure conversion magnet. dad got a wheely shop chair. i got a person pot coaster and a nice glass wall clock for the house.

then i ran off to have fun with yasha. i helped him fold his laundry. we went to dinner with his dad, alla, and his grandparents at don pablos. i ate my entire plate of enchiladas! i was so proud and so stuffed! then we left them and decided to hang out with harry. not really sure why... we picked him up and drove all the way down eastern ave from middle river to the city. then we parked in fells point and walked from there to harborplace and back. when we passed the wtc i had to take the time to try and name all the flags. i did pretty good. thank you, hetalia! and so we drove back home and such.

and yeah, that was pretty much my christmas. i recorded the doctor who special, as i was out with yasha at the time, and i watched it when i got home from work today.

HOLY GOD!!!!!!!!! I'M GONNA EXPLODE!!! RTD, YOU ARE FUCKING AMAZINGGG!!!

part 2 premieres next saturday. I CAN'T FUCKING WAITTTTT!!!

also, i have no idea wtf my internet is doing right now. seriously.

anyway, a pic!

drawn for me by jessica! yayyy!!

owwwww

first of all: gosh, is my life so sad that all i can do is blog about it even though i know no one reads this? apparently...

that, and i'm wasting time, making it look like i'm doing something when i'm really waiting for one parent or other to go away...

anyway!

i'm unhappy that the movie extravaganza we just managed to schedule had to be derailed. stupid work. stupid lack of cars. oh well. i'm still seeing 'boondock saints' tomorrow!!

oh shit, that reminds me, i need to check to make sure i wasn't lying and it really is still playing...

ok. yes, it is, but checking wall posts reveals confusion on my part. i hate feeling left out.

work is starting to give me physical pain. i was already/still hurting from yesterday, and going up and down a ladder for probably close to 4 hours today has not helped. my feet are aching, my back hurts, my legs hurt, and i think i'm going to take a bath instead of a shower so i can just sit in toasty water for a while. mmmmmmm.

but i organized the entirety of wellness top stock in about 2 hours, and started organizing the extreme amounts of back stock for inventory next week. so i feel mildly satisfied. and when we were pulling into the neighborhood after work i remembered i didn't take a break, so that was 8 straight hours. no wonder i hurt! i'm definitely taking a break tomorrow, especially since it's truck day and i'll be lifting and bending and generally murdering my back for those first 3 hours. joy...

but in slightly brighter news, i finally got me some [supposedly, hopefully] intense tea to wake me up: irish breakfast tea! according to the box, it's intense, especially when compared to english breakfast tea. english is, apparently, meant to be enjoyed over a period. irish is a kick in the pants with caffeine! which is just what i need when getting up at stupid o'clock.

i was gonna say something and then i forgot...

oh! i'm working on catching up on all the fics i missed due to this whole snow thing and finally getting set up for christmas. last night we set up the tree and dad pulled out the moravian star and the hand-painted nativity set. even though i'm not religious, it was still nice to see the two family traditions together. as in, the star is from the fisher side and the nativity set is from the burhenn side. the moravian star became the star above the nativity. and i had to make sure the wise men weren't there yet because it's not epiphany. and it's weird that i would be concerned about that, considering my general non-religion...

apparently i got a package from woot at other-house. which is weird cuz i just checked my woot account and i haven't ordered anything since the wild parties shirt, which came already. i can only assume someone ordered it for me, but i have no idea who...

ugh, i need to work on my christmas presents... the only person i'm done for is matt. i've got half-presents for mom and dad, and i've barely started kat's... and christmas is friday! i should just stop catching up on fics and watch some doctor who and kit that hat. i'm also making fred at work a hat, though that's not exactly a top priority right now...

anyway, a pic, somewhat snow-related:

adorable canada and russia is adorable.

dead

wooooooooork...

had to be there at 5 this morning. not really a problem, transport-wise, because dan scheduled mom and i for similar/the same time during the week.

today was a truck day. and wellness had a ginormous order: 21 boxes, plus another 9 from separate companies. i brought my ipod today and so spent 3 hours stocking and listening. i got through all but about 5 or 6 before ellie got there at 8 [so that's 15 or 16], and then we switched to those other boxes [the non-unfi ones]. i got to spend a stressful hour as the only person in wellness because there was a leadership meeting ellie had to go to and fred didn't get in till noon. thaaaat was hard, mainly because i had no idea what i was doing and couldn't do much to help customers and i felt bad about that. even though it's not really my fault.

when fred got in i slowed down and started fading, having been working since 5. but when ellie got in that morning she was glad i was there and could do all that stocking because of all the other stuff she had to do. but yeah.

i spent the car ride back trying not to fall asleep, doing that in-and-out thing. and i didn't nap, like i pretended to do yesterday, so that i can hopefully get to bed earlier tonight and get a bit more sleep. though mom pointed out that i really can't sleep in too much or everything will be that much harder on thursday when i have to get up at 3:30 again. so i'll be up at 9 tomorrow. joy...

i've been watching the first season of 'doctor who'. i've been looking and listening for references to bad wolf. so far i've counted 3: spray painted on the TARDIS in that first ep, mentioned in the news or something [i forget exactly...], and it was a new station in ep 7 [and featured a story about the face of boe being pregnant...]. i'm rally looking forward to season 3, not necessarily because i like martha [i think donna was my favorite companion, followed by mickey for some reason...], but because of 'blink' and i just remembered 'gridlock'. why do i remember the creepiest episode ever, and one of the saddest ones? seriously, 'blink' freaks me out every time - though i really like how it was done, focusing on random humans instead of the doctor and martha. also, "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey... stuff."

but what i'm really looking forward to is seeing the regeneration from 9th to 10th. because that fascinates me. like how i'm sad about dt leaving, but excited and interested in the regeneration and how ms is going portray the doctor. yeah.

gosh, i'm a nerd.

also: CHRISTMAS IS IN 9 DAYS AND I'M SOOOOO NOT READY!!! i have half presents for my family, and that's about it. i really need to hit up joanns and figure out what else to do for matt.

here, have an adorable arthur! by the amazing zulenha.

break?

sooooooooooo

today was my first day back at work! unfortunately, mom and i are scheduled for the same hours, which means i have to get up when she does to go in with her. i was up at 4 this morning. but, when mom was scraping the ice off the car i called anna to wish her a happy birthday. it was a weird message...

everyone i saw was all excited to see me and asked me about college. i saw najib, damean, jon, jon [lol], syeda, janeen, jaclyn, and yuri. and i get to see jt tomorrow! yay! and will too, i think... maybe...

crap, i have to write a proposal for mr obrien. we need to come up with a good purpose behind the duct-tape thing for them to let us do it, something besides "wow, that's cool!" but so far the deepest thing we've managed to come up with is "the artist herself is on display, she is the art" metaphorical bullshit that isn't very good. honestly, i really can't think of anything else... not good, cuz i can tell obrien kinda does like the idea. we even scoped out a better place and tested the duct tape and everything!

the christmas tree is already filled with presents. i know i got a dvd and a bunch of cds, but that's the only specifics i can work out... yesterday dad and matt and i went shopping for mom. and we went to panera bread, and i got a DELICIOUS bread bowl. and a d'peach mode jones soda. god, i love those things. the juice and the soup bread joy.

hmm, yeah.

i was just sitting here, thinking about what i could do online, and i remembered i hadn't updated this in a while. so i decided to.

my final grades are in. 3 c's, 2 a's and a b. my gpa is 2.78, which isn't too bad. the only real surprise was the b in time. i really didn't think i could get higher than a c, somehow... not even sure how i did that.

oh, speaking of just sitting online... i've been amusing myself with the joys of sapayne. and, after reading the 2 current stories as far as they've been written, reading 'snowflakes and embers', and re-reading 'heroes and ghosts' and 'the lies we tell,' i started to re-read 'btl: from the ashes,' only i started from, like, the middle. and i was reading this bit about toshi's granddad [human] working to during the plague, and it hit me: 'if i lie here' is a total precursor to 'btl'!! like, 100 years before it, but still! riley is one of the alphas, and the contruction company ranvier really is toshi's g-pa and the inkie communes are there being all awesome. and i was like 'sarah, i love you so much for this.' she must really like that universe if there are technically 3 stories written in it. it's pretty sweet, learning how the i/s guys came into being and all that stuff. i was pretty giddy for a bit there when i figured it out. and i wouldn't have if i hadn't gone back and read 'from the ashes' like i'm doing.

so, yeah...

oh, and anna and jenny have this strange fascination with cuttlefish...