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Month: December 2008

2009: last year's 2007?

2009: last year's 2007?

so 2008 didn’t suck as much as 2006, but it wasn’t as wonderful as 2007. before i go into ranking my living years according to suckitude, let’s just say that 2008 was personally not so bad but globally and futurifically not that great.

2008:
• bought a house
• helped vote in the first black US prez

hm….there had to be more to 2008 than that…

• bad economy
• $4 gas
• $1.50 gas
• lost 401k match
• forced vacation
• no raise
• still have a job! and so does nate (something to be thankful for, especially with the house)

whenever i read the news, i am on pins a needles about my job. will i have it? will i be forced to take MORE vacation that i don’t have? when will i get the 401k match back? ugh.

so i hope 2009 brings more good things personally, and better things globally. 2009 is also the year of my golden birthday, so it’d better bring about good things. BRING ON 30!!!!

night divine

night divine

i’m not a church going person. i go two days a year basically, with some random days scattered throughout. this year i’m missing christmas eve mass, which i really do enjoy. the christmas carols, the fact that everyone dresses up, the familiarity of the readings and the gospel. it’s just a nice time of year for church.
the highlight, however, is when one of the choir members sings "o holy night". it’s something i look forward to every year because she hits that high note and it’s absolutely spot-on, tone wise, and just clear as a bell. it gives me goosebumps and just about brings tears to my eyes it’s so lovely. i’m sad i’m missing it this year.
i hope everyone has a merry christmahannukwanzaaka. and happy festivus for the rest of you.

nerd alert

nerd alert

today majel barrett died.

before you get all sentimental, let me tell you a story. besides, chances are you don’t know who she is.

my mom is a star trek nerd; not just any star trek: star trek the next generation. well, thanks to her, her children* are also star trek nerds. every night at 9 p.m., st:TNG would be on TV on channel 9 or something, and we would plunk down and watch the reruns. one of the highlights of the show was watching the cast list in the beginning to see who would be on. would wil be on? would it be a Q episode? then came the inevitable lwaxana troy. if majel barret was in the cast call in the BEGINNING of the show, it would be a lwaxana episode, and we would prepare for an entertaining (and maybe naked) episode.

but the fun also came at the end of the episode, when the voice of the computer would be listed. who was it? why, majel barrett, of course! later on, we learned the majel was also on the original star trek, and also married to gene roddenberry**. so majel barrett became kind of a star trek icon to us who watched TNG. 

hats off to you majel. may you boldly go to an afterlife as exciting as a betazoid wedding.

*ok, maybe mostly just me and liz.

**for those of you who are completely NOT nerds at ALL, he is the creator of star trek.

bears repeating

bears repeating

i was bored and read all my LJ entries from 2004. took 45 minutes. anyway, i found this gem, and i thought it was appropriate for the season:
from James Lileks’ Backfence column in the Star Tribune, referring to Charlie Brown Christmas music:
What makes the music last long after you’re grown is something you sensed when you were a kid, a wistful tone that almost makes you sad to say goodbye to the Christmas not yet come. As an adult, you hear the sadness between the notes, the sense of loss for the Christmases of childhood. But the notes themselves are cheerful and offhandedly wise. As a kid you leaned forward into that mood; as an adult you look back to find it. And you meet right there, in the opening notes of each song.

tatt 2

tatt 2

i went to jeff’s the day after thanksgiving and had the dude draw me a tree, and it just wasn’t doing it for me. plus it would cost $200. so i decided that if i’m going to have something tattooed on me and i’m gonna spend that kind of money, i’d prefer that i draw it. so i drew this tree using a trunk of a tree in a pic i liked as a basis. i’m not too worried about the leaf part of it since it will just be shading, but what do you think of the trunk? are the roots too creepy looking? it’ll be small, maybe 2″-3″ tall total.
tree_tat
ETA: megan, i DID get your message. my phone was still on silent from seeing bruce! i think the music note is a cute idea!

ah christmas

ah christmas

what other time of year can a creepy old guy with a beard, matching pants and shirt, and "Scream"-killer black boots go around calling everyone HOs?
anyway, i am waiting for the christmas spirit to kick in. i know it’s gotta be there somewhere because i hung some lights around my kitchen window and wrapped presents and watched "elf" tonight, but it’s not quite there yet. the tree is going up this weekend, so maybe then it’ll happen. and it finally snowed a reasonable amount to stay on the ground, so that helps a little.
wrapping presents, i realized i am big on giving books. and i spent a TON on my mom. and i’m still not done wrapping and i need to go to bed because shoveling my driveway this morning wore me out.

work woes III!

work woes III!

they changed the vacation thing, again. now everyone has to take 80 hours from t-day to jan. 31, no matter how much vacation you have in your accrual bank. i took two days for t-day, which leaves me with 8. xmas and new year’s takes up 4, then we are closed MLK day w/out pay. so i had to pick three days in january to take off. i’m taking a five-day weekend over MLK day. what a crock. when all’s said and done, i’ll have -24 hours of vacation feb. 1. given the fact that i only accrue 40 hours a year, this is really annoying me. why couldn’t they have pro-rated it according to how much you accrue? the people who earn 4 weeks a year could take twice as much as those who earn 2 weeks. so much for a summer vacation. good thing i didn’t have one planned.

toooo much!!

toooo much!!

angie’s pregnant. and won’t stop talking about it! i don’t need to know that her cervix is a centimeter smaller than most and she’s having 4 ultrasounds in the next month and she needed a flu shot because her immune system isn’t up to snuff while preggers. she called me today to give me an “update”. not only do i not need to know, i don’t really care!
there’s a reason i’m NOT pregnant. and if i DO get pregnant, i won’t be talking about it nonstop every time i talk to someone.
so how do you politely tell a person that all they talk about is their pregnancy and that that really isn’t all i want to hear about? 🙁 it’s not like i can just, not talk to her for another 6 months… 🙁
i feel like a bad friend, but goodness!