Christmas and the New Year

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year. I enjoyed celebrating the Reason for the season at my new church in downtown Macon (love it) by singing old Christmas hymns and having Christmas communion. I wish everyone could just sit back and realize why we celebrate Christmas - realize that it is a wonderful spirit-filled time of year and forget some of the commercialism that our society has so willingly associated with the holiday.

But on the note of commercialism, I really did get some amazing gifts this year. Here are a few highlights for those of you that might be wondering:

• A new digital camera - wide angle lens, 12 megapixel, 7x optical zoom = amazing. It is seriously a very, very cool camera. And I got a huge memory card and case and all that stuff to go with it. I am currently experimenting with all the settings (and have discovered that my dog automatically looks at the floor when I get it out because she has learned to hate the flash).
• A new printer - HP Photosmart with a touchscreen (this was really much appreciated as my old one hasn't been working properly in the last year) and a new printer cable (this one capable of reaching lengths longer that 2 feet), ink cartridges, and a ream of paper to go with it, haha.
• A new blender - hooray! No more "piece-of-junk" blender that can't even crush ice, haha. My new blender is glass and stainless steel and capable of turning ice into snow in a matter of seconds. Is it bad that I am at the age where I can really appreciate a kitchen appliance as an awesome Christmas present?
• Scrubs, white lab coat, stethoscope - all these things were needed for my medical placement... and I look legit in the whole get-up.
• Season 1, Volume 1 DVD of GLEE = love, love, love.
• Volume 1 and Volume 2 of GLEE CDs = good for jamming out in the car.
• 17 Again on DVD - Ah, Zac. Where have you been all my life?
• Clothes (yada, yada, the usual)
• Money, gift cards, etc.

Anyway, the new year is approaching and I am very excited to say goodbye to 2009. (Dear 2009, thank you for teaching me that I never want to take another standardized test ever again, that I can get through graduate classes just fine and still maintain a life, how much stuff I really have and how much I don't want to move it again, how pathetic my dating life was, and how much I actually hate being more than an hour away from home.) I have all sorts of resolutions that I am going to try and keep this next year. For starters, as you may have read on my facebook page, that I am going to read the whole Bible chronologically. Very excited about this process.

2010 already holds several wonderful things in store: graduation (again) from college, my first real job, my first real home, financial independence, the wedding of one of my best friends, the engagement of my other best friend, and the fact that this time next Christmas, I will be able to buy my family some nice gifts too.

Seriously?

Seriously.

Closing In

Christmas is fast approaching (although really, it's not approaching any faster than any other day of the year... how's that for a Sheldon?)

Tomorrow is a crunch day. And while I should be fast asleep preparing myself for a long day of shopping and making gifts and wrapping, I'm up late trying to figure how it's all going to get done.

First order of business: Barnes and Noble with my mom. We get my youngest cousins books to add to their family library every year for Christmas and we need go pick out this year's selections. I also found a slim Bible there the last time I was home and have been wanting to go back and get it. Especially since I forgot my big study Bible at my apartment and looked ridiculous on Sunday morning when I didn't have a place to "turn to."

Second order of business: finish the "projects" for two of my favorite little guys. I have been babysitting them for the past six years and they are about to move halfway across the country. I started a (rather ambitious) Christmas-slash-going-away present for each of them and now I'm worried that they might not get done in time. Hopefully, I won't have to ship them!

Third order of business: shopping tomorrow night with one of my best friends and hopefully some more friends as well. I am hoping for a little reunion of high school friends. (That is really one of my favorite parts of the holidays--seeing all my old friends again. The only bad part is trying to remember how many first dates I've been on since the last time I saw them, ha ha ha. Or in keeping with the season would it be ho ho ho? Nope. Definitely cliche.)

Fourth order of business: do NOT forget to pay the cable bill.

Fifth order of business: return Christmas present overload. I bought my mom three different kinds of the same thing because I couldn't make up my mind which one was the best. So after careful consideration, I picked one. Now I have to return all the other stuff and get my money back. Hooray money. (Really, that was much more enthusiastic that it looks in type.)

I mostly put all this up for a certain someone who said I was getting behind on my blogging. You know who you are. :)

Seriously?

Seriously.

Definition of a Good Day

Blah, blah, blah [insert generic Christmas event here], blah, blah, blah. I love the holidays but ever since I returned home, it's been a lot of the same thing (sleep til lunch, watch random television, run errands, eat dinner, stay up late watching movies, repeat). Today, however, was a welcome break from the blah-ness of my rigorous holiday schedule. A little joi de vivre if you will....

After getting the necessary eleven hours of holiday sleep, I got ready (and actually wore eyeliner and mascara on my bottom lids, ladies, shocker, I know) and went to lunch with my freshman year roomie. I hadn't seen her in ages and it was so good to pig out on cheeseburgers and Dairy Queen hot fudge sundaes (I mean, since it's the holidays and all, I'm not counting calories) and catch up. I also got to meet her precious Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (who despite her overwhelming cuteness is hardly big enough to live up to her breed's name).

Add a great lunchtime with holiday shopping with my brother and you have yourself the ingredients for a spectacular afternoon. We roamed the aisles of Best Buy for a while before buying each other a Christmas present. Let me also state at this time that it was a little less like shopping for each other for Christmas morning surprises than shopping for ourselves, finding the perfect gift for ourself, and then handing it to the other sibling to buy. It's how we roll.

To top things off, I ended the day by going with my best friend and her rockstar mom for Mexican and margaritas. Aside from the mariachi band who decided to play raucously loud (and obnoxious) latin music less than four feet from our table (really, I would have gladly tipped them a big fat 20 to just go away), we were able to enjoy each other's company and to destroy the chips and queso and nuestras cenas in no time flat. After dinner, the three of us went to see The Blind Side, which is an amazing movie. Go see it. Now.

Seriously?

Seriously.

Lovin' the Holidays

So begins my five weeks off from internships....

I finished up my school placement Friday. It was bittersweet--although glad to be done with another chapter and being one step closer to my degree, I was so sad to say goodbye to the faculty and students and the school where I have been since August. I got some of the nicest (and super sweet) cards and presents from both teachers and students and enough memories to last me a lifetime. Including the following:

While screening kindergartners (on my last day... trying to get those last few hours in!) Friday morning, I had hilarious conversation with a little girl. There is a question on the Fluharty screener where you have to ask the student, "How many brothers and sisters do you have?" After asking this question to a little girl, she responded,

"Ummmmm, one brother and three sisters, and, oh! Wait! Three boyfriends!"

"Three boyfriends?" I asked. "How do you juggle all those boys at one time?"

Laughing, she responded, "It's easy. They are all in different classes!"

It was my turn to laugh. "Do I know any of these boys?"

"Not unless you know Peyton, Carter, and Riley." (*names changed)

"Riley in the class next door to yours?"

"Yes!! Do you KNOW him? Because he is the one that likes to KISS me."

Oh, the image of kindergarten puppy love. :)

Seriously?

Seriously.

All My Friends Are Growing Up...

This has been an interesting year... and I'm pretty sure next year is going to be even crazier. For starters, one of my friends had a baby. I was super excited for her, but it was weird at the same time--seeing her baby belly, knowing that she wasn't just a friend and a wife... that she was a mom. Like... for real. (You know who you are and you know I love you!)

And then there was the fact that I got invited to fifteen weddings this summer, one of which I was a bridesmaid. Happy Singles Awareness Day x 15. But I got through it just fine, thank you very much.

So that left me wondering what was up next for me. When was I going to grow up? I've been in the same boat for a long time--going to school, getting good grades, hanging out with my friends, going to church, going to work, etc, etc. I thought moving to a new city and living on my own might do the trick. But really I was doing the same old things than I was before I moved, including getting a roommate all over again (which has turned out to be a good thing - paying the bills all on your own is tough stuff!)

But today, I did something that makes me feel VERY grown-up. And you know it's serious because I don't like to capitalize all the letters in a word very often :)

I officially submitted my resume for my first big girl job today.

It was a little scary at first, making sure everything looked right, etc. Resumes are a tricky business. You can't put too little information but you really can't put too much either. Do you include this or that or leave it out all together? What's relevant? Etc, etc.

But here's hoping that everything looked reeeeeal nice and that after reading that wonderful piece of paper, that they will want to meet me. And hire me? I dunno. Haven't thought that far yet.... It would require me to move back home and possibly in close proximity to my parents.

Seriously?

Seriously.

So... I Tried Some New Foods...

I tend to migrate back to the same foods over and over again. I like order the same thing in restaurants each time I go, request the same types of foods to be made during the holidays, and buy the same things at the grocery store each week. So you might can imagine how hard it must have been for me to travel to an entirely new part of the country and be hundreds of miles away from my comfort foods.

I landed in New Orleans Wednesday morning determined to not be a baby about eating new foods during my trip to the annual ASHA convention. First stop, lunch. My friends and I asked the concierge at the hotel where we stayed for a recommendation for New Orleans style food within walking distance and under ten bucks. The result? Hobnobber's on Carondelet Street. Don't pass this one up, folks. Though it looks rough from the outside (and you have to pass through a bar that looks like it could have come from the Godfather), it was worth it. This little restaurant in a tiny room at the back of a bar, complete with plastic lawn chairs like your grandmother has on her front porch, had the best shrimp po-boy I have ever tasted. (Granted, it was my first po-boy ever, but it was really, really good.)

Moving on to dinner, I managed to eat a crab and shrimp pasta dish at the Red Fish Grill on Bourbon Street (also really, really good). Dessert was way better though. I highly recommend you order the "Chocolate Creme Brulee S'mores Style." I cannot praise it highly enough do to it a shred of credit. Toasted mini marshmallows, crunchy graham cracker pieces, thick (and seriously rich) chocolate custard.... YUM.

I won't detail every meal I had, but for any of you who have been to New Orleans, here is a list of the other restaurants we went to:

• Cafe Maspero on Decatur Street (more shrimp po-boys, but more importantly, $1 daquiris and $1 glasses of wine!)
• Acme Oyster House on Iberville Street (where, no joke, I ate THREE oysters on the half shell... Chargrilled to perfection and covered in cheese and butter!)
• Oceana Grill on Conti Street (awful service, but probably the most incredible pie I have ever put in my mouth = Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Pie)

Oh, and I had to save this one for last. You will have to look at the evidence on Facebook. But, for the record, the last night we were in New Orleans, I actually ate... Lebanese food. Chicken shawarma and hummus to be exact. Not exactly the best thing I ever put in my mouth, but I surprised myself by eating more than two bites of everything. Would I eat it again by choice? Probably not. But I would suck it up if everyone else wanted to go :)

Seriously?

Seriously.

Christmas is Coming!

Dear Santa,

Here is my grownup Christmas list this year, a few weeks early so that you can avoid the after Thanksgiving rush. Also, to get you in the spirit, click here and listen to one of my favorite Christmas songs while your read this. It'll make it more fun.

I would like for my neighbors to stop making noises in the middle of the afternoon, for my across the street neighbors with Oklahoma license plate to stop parking their giganto car in my spot, for the dog two apartments down to stop barking in the middle of the night, and for my little patio to spontaneously grow about one hundred feet in each direction. In short, Santa, I would like a house for Christmas. Preferably with at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathroom, and a fenced in backyard for Mattie and for the inevitable younger brother I am going to buy her once I have a place big enough to have two dogs.

Speaking of a younger brother for Mattie, Santa, we need to talk dogs. I want a big dog, that is easily housetrained, affectionate, snuggly, that doesn't shed a lot, doesn't smell too "dog-gy," and that gets along well with his precious older sister. In short, a cat. Only, I don't want a cat, Santa. So you have to use your head and make this happen for me.

And if I get a house, Santa, I am going to need some things to make it more like a grownup home and not a college apartment. The following list is totally reasonable and acceptable: a new living room set (couch, loveseat, chair, coffee table, side table, rug) in a neutral dog-friendly fabric, a new bedroom suit (because college graduates need big girl beds) in a gorgeous dark stain (like mahogany or cherry) complete with all the trimmings (king sized bed, dresser, chest of drawers, mirror, night stands), and of course some amazing bedding to go on that new bed. I've saved you the trouble and found some that I absolutely adore. In case your elves are extra busy this year, save yourself a trip to the workshop and buy it directly by clicking here.

Okay. Thanks, Santa. That'll do it. For now.... :)

Seriously?

Seriously.