Amelia

Five Things:

1. I had a wonderful time at my 10-year college reunion this weekend!!! It was fantastic to see everyone and spend time together on campus.

2. Celebrated Father's Day by calling my dad (he and my mom were in the kayak), and playing "father's day olympics" with B.'s family. We played mini-rounds of ten different lawn games (croquet, lawn darts, horseshoes, etc.). It was fun!

3. B. and I had our anniversary Sunday night. We were going to go out but I was so exhausted from the weekend that we stayed in, ordered takeout, and watched The Hangover. It was nice and low-key. He got me lovely gifts: socks (relates to an anecdote the weekend we met), a dvd, and a guidebook for Las Vegas (I do love guidebooks, the planning!, the maps!).

4. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep because I had such bad heartburn? Weird.

5. A poem for Monday.


since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
- the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other; then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

e. e. cummings

I'm having my yearly "omg Christmas is when" moment, which seems kind of silly given that I've been doing some Christmas-y things.

Saturday we went to Strawberry Banke. I'd never been, it was really lovely with all the decorations and characters. Just a smidge too cold. My parents and B.'s family went (including B.'s sister-in-law's dad) so it was a nice holiday family outing. We had a delicious dinner at The Common Man.

Sunday B.'s mom invited me over for cookie decorating with her and B.'s sister-in-law H.. B. had to work and the other guys did other stuff (why? cookie decorating is fun!). I'm not much of a baker, so I tried one new recipe (lime and pistachio cookies). They were interesting, not exactly what you expected, a little like a margarita. Then I spent a long time decorating sugar cookies (christmas camel!). It was fun and lovely to be included. B.'s mom and H. are good bakers and I ate way too many cookies. :)

I worked late Mon. and Tues. so spent two nights with my aunt. Monday night I woke up at 3am with horrid stomach cramps. Had some cheerios, but that turned out to be the wrong decision and I ended up vomiting. It's been a long time (4-5 years?) since I've been sick like that and even longer since it hasn't been alcohol related (like maybe when I was a kid?). It was awful. I finally got back to sleep around 5am.

B. skyped with me and drove up after work. He made me breakfast and then after work we went out to dinner. It was really nice.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas morning and then flying down to see my sister in VA. I missed her over Thanksgiving and can't wait to see her and the baby.

One more day of work and I have a week and a half off! (Unpaid, but still, woot!)

tribecon was awesome this year! I am too tired to post details, but here's some random cool stuff (there is plenty that I'm forgetting, this is off the top of my head, in no particular order)

( listyness or listiness, I can't decide )

I think I needed this weekend more than I realized and am very happy I went.

Dartmouth folks, I wish we had a similar thing. I miss all of you!

Monday bayleaf and I headed to Niantic CT to see a friend of hers and then to giddygeek's for the night. Yesterday I drove to NH/VT to see family. Last night I hung out with one aunt while she manned the refreshment table at the junior high basketball game, and then we went out to dinner. Today I saw my other aunt and uncle. We met at the place and fed my grandmother lunch (she is doing okay), and then chatted for a bit before I headed south. bayleaf, giddygeek, and I had dinner at an awesome Irish restaurant tonight, so good and I am so full.

Tomorrow we are going to NYC for the night (I hope to see nonemorecomic, grumph, and toran)! Then we are back north to see afrikate, then back home before my spring semester class starts. Whew. :)

It is getting down to the wire with the Christmas gifts so I ventured out shopping today. It was not as crazy as it would be after work or on a weekend, but still not fun for me.

My major goal was to buy for the children: P. (4, boy), Jo. (10mos, girl), and Ja.(10mos, boy, nephew). I don't have a clue what is age appropriate, and that was very frustrating.

I started out in the bookstore, this was fine. Got some board books for the babies. Your Personal Penguin made me tear up in the store. I would recommend it for anyone that you love, of any age.

Also got an extended version of the book with the mouse and pancake that had recipes for things (like pancakes) and songs for the 4 year old after calling my mother (with a patient), my aunt (his grandmother, didn't pick up), and finally his mother to see if he had it. Also got something called PailPets for Jo (not like garbage pail kids which is what the name reminds me of). This was fine. Went to some other places, had no luck.

Ended up at Target for toys because I couldn't deal with the idea of going to Toys R Us. Thought I would get some sort of tent/tube combo for Ja since he's very into crawling/walking-while-pushing-something everywhere and could use some changes of scenery. Store employee (working in the toy dept.) tells me they don't have any. Later I find a whole aisle of them (wtf?), but all of them have licensed characters and are for 3+ so forget that. The whole toy dept. is organized by brand (aisle sub-headings are all logos), it was a little intense.

Also wanted a baby doll for the boy. Didn't think finding a doll for a baby under two would be a big deal. IT'S LIKE A STUFFED ANIMAL BUT IN THE SHAPE OF A SMALL HUMAN. Plenty of stuffed animals. Lots of dolls for 2+ that talk, suck, shake, pee, whatever. They all make creepy noises when you walk down the aisle past them. Ended up with a stuffed monkey, it's kind of like a baby (except not, because I fail at toy shopping).

Ended up getting a lego man head lamp (it says 5+, but he's an advanced mature 4 *shrug*) at HTO and a t shirt online for P. (he's into Star Wars and Wizard of Oz right now).

All the cool toys seem to be for kids who are 8. Can't wait for 8. (There was a hydroelectric kit that I wanted to get for my dad, a civil engineer, to play with the kids when they get to 8, but I decided that was too many years away.)

Still have nothing and no ideas for my mother, and need something else for my sister. Ideas welcome.

We had a lovely holiday weekend. Seder on Thursday at J. and A.'s. D. attended Seder again on Saturday hosted by darthfox, I was sorry to miss it. Sunday I went to church, and then we had Easter brunch at durdge and Jem's. Denis made yummy french toast the way his mother makes it.

My sister sent some photos of Jacob's first Easter with the comment "(you'll have to ask Dexter what happened to the bunny's other leg....)" Dexter is one of the dogs :)

Doesn't seem that I can do pictures here yet, right? Perhaps down the line :)

What I'm doing on my Christmas Vacation by Amelia

Christmas Day I spent 12 uneventful hours in the car with my parents driving to Maine. Traffic and weather were fine. Music choice less so (Joan Baez, fine, Joan Baez for 8 hours, um okay, other options I nixed were Kris Kristofferson and Michael Bolton. We finally settled on Eric Clapton and the Mama Mia soundtrack. (Yes, my mother is a middle-aged white woman.)

Friday I snuggled with my kitty (the one the ex-boyfriend gave me in highschool, the only remaining childhood pet as the dog and two other cats have died). My dad and I went cross country skiing. We skied a lot when I was in elementary school, but by high school I had switched to downhill. I'm not sure when the last time I went cross country was. Junior High? Maybe? It took more concentration than I remembered, and I fell down once. Conditions weren't great (hard snow since it had rained and frozen a couple days before, also narrow, uneven trail). I didn't get to enjoy too much of the woods since I kept looking at my feet, but eventually I got the hang of it. It was nice to hang out with my dad.

That night I went to A.'s house to hang out with three friends from high school! It was so good to see everyone. A. and E. live in Waterville, and L. is an art historian like me (except she's already employed in a tenture track job) and lives in Mobile.

Saturday my dad left for a church trip to Honduras. I got up and went to see E.'s house and meet her babies. The last time I saw her she was pregnant with baby #1 and now #2 is 2ish. The kids are soooo cute and I got parenting tips to pass on to pregnant sister.

Saturday night pregnant sister arrived after driving 15 hours with BIL and the two dogs. About 30 minutes after they arrived I went out for drinks with E., L., and L.'s sister-in-law. We went to You Know Whose, it was fine. There were some other random people from high school we waved at. I was supposed to see J., but the roads were icy so we rescheduled.

Sunday I was supposed to help my mom usher at church, but since it was the only time I could see J. I bowed out. He picked me up and we went out for coffee. I hadn't seen him since he moved to the West Coast, but it is particularly nice to catch up with him since he is a friend from both highschool and college (in highschool we "dated" briefly, after college he was the best man in our wedding).

That afternoon mom and I hacked at and shoveled away all the ice coating the driveway. Fun, fun, fun! I also finally finished my grading and submitted grades. Now I just have two recommendations to write and syllabus prep for next semester.

Monday I slept in since I had horrid insomnia and I was up until 3am. I futzed around the house with the kitty and the dogs (my sister and BIL had driven to the coast, mom had to work). Tonight we're having lobster from the farmer's market (where it's the same price as chicken at home). Tomorrow it's off to meet up with Denis in the Upper Valley and then Christmas #2! Then New Year's!

Yay! It is Christmas morning in my house today. My family has Christmas whenever people can get together. This year Christmas with my immediate family is today at my house (whenever Denis gets out of the shower, my sister and boyfriend get back from Starbucks, and my parents trek over from my uncle's.) We're also have Christmas with my extended family next Saturday in New Hampshire.

Jury duty is intellectually interesting and emotionally difficult. The other jurors continue to be lovely, interesting, and for-the-most-part rational people so I think it's as good as it could be. I mean if bad things didn't happen to people we wouldn't have to be there.

Friday my parents flew in and we had dinner with them and my uncle at his house. Then six of us (my uncle's friend came too) went to see the Nutcracker at the Kennedy Center. It was really lovely. I hadn't seen the Nutcracker since I was a little girl so it was really fun to see it again. The production was neat and the dancing great. My uncle knows the head of the costume section so afterwards we went backstage. It was fun to see all the sets and props and to stand on the stage.

Yesterday we hung out with my parents at our place until my sister and her boyfriend arrived. We had dinner at my uncle's with two of my cousins who are in town and a bunch of my uncle's friends. There were probably about 15 people and it was a really nice mix of family and people I hadn't met. Tonight we're going out to Notti Bianche.

Merry Christmas!


ETA: My parents and I just got back from Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols at the National Cathedral. Written in 1942 it was performed by the choirs of girls and men with a harpist. The text is in Middle English. It was lovely and haunting, and an interesting change of pace from our family's traditional carols and lights service.