This vid still brings a tear...

I used to want to do what this guy is doing. I almost tried during our senior trip to Chicago. Diane stopped me. I was young... naive... still looks like fun though. 

It's true what they say.

All you need is love. 

2008 Resolutions

It's almost 2008.
That means, I have to get started on my list of resolutions.

I say LIST of resolutions, because if I make one I never follow through; if I make ten, I might stick with one. Who knows? I guess it's worth a try. (They are in no particular order, I just thought a countdown would fit nicely here.

Ten resolutions for 2008

10. Make time to read a lot of good books this year.
9. Blog every day. Something, anything, just blog.
8. Get more violin practice in each week.
7. Move out of my parents' house.
6. Volunteer more.
5. Get along with parents/brother more often.
4. Eat better, excercise regularly -- come up with a plan and stick to it!
3. Get better at drawing/sketching and photography.
2. Keep in regular contact with old friends via phone, e-mail, text, snail mail, whatever.
1. Get my clips organized. Figure out how to be happy professionally and start doing it. (Or at least actively working toward it.)

There.
If I can do a couple of those, even one of those, I will have made myself a better person in 2008, I figure.

First Christmas

My first Christmas with David went off without a hitch.

It started last weekend when he and I exchanged presents. He got me a DSC-W80 Sony Cybershot digital camera (silver) and I got him a Yamaha guitar and starter kit, complete with soft case, extra strings, picks, a tuner and a short instructional DVD. We were both very happy with what we got. He doesn't know how to play yet, although I am trying to teach him what I know about music (translated from the violin, and it isn't that much yet) and he is trying to learn to read tabs. He already knows the beginning to about three songs. :) And he loves it. That's what is important.

Here's my new camera!

After work on Christmas Eve, I picked David up and took him to the Wittman family celebration at the Susnig Center in Jerseyville. Yes, our family is so big we rent a community center for holiday parties. Anyway, it was all overwhelming I'm sure -- at least until we left for my uncle's house afterward, where the crowd was much smaller. Then we went to my cousin's house and played Wii with her family. It was all nice, but kind of strange. For one, my brother was much more outgoing and pleasant than usual, which was great. Plus my cousins, who are all older and all live in Jerseyville so I never got to know any of them well, were a lot of fun. Did I mention they like to drink? We did some of that too.

On Christmas morning, my immediate family went to my Grandma Wittman's for lunch. It was tasty. No one stayed very long, and niether did I this year. Usually, I stay and play Phase 10 for money with the aunts. This year, I had other places to go.

I went to David's parents' house in the afternoon and stayed until about 8 p.m. We had dinner, which was almost entirely different from the one I had at Grandma's -- but also very tasty. Afterward, we played Cardinals World Series Monopoly, which I got from my brother as a present this year.

Good thing too, because my family won't ever play and it might have never gotten played otherwise. David's youngest brother, Dan, whomped the rest of us when he got lucky landing on free parking (which got him more than $1,000 dollars) and then his dad Jim traded him Josh Kinney, which enabled him to construct hotels on half the board. That was the end for the rest of us. His parents and I also exchanged presents. I got them a ceramic candy container shaped like a holiday wreath and filled with Hershey's kisses, because David said his mom would like it and I had no idea what to get them. I'm very new at this. I paid good money for the present, but I still feel bad I didn't get them more. They gave me shower gel, bubble bath, body spray and body creme from bath and Body Works (senusal amber scented, my choice) and a pretty journal with a couple pens -- which David advised them that I would like. And I do. I feel like my present wasn't as good as theirs, but I hope they still like me anyway.

We also watched some Lost (disc 1, season 3) in an attempt to catch up before the new season, and we visited his grandparents who also allegedly like me. Go me :)

Then I went home to sleep. I work the rest of today, tomorrow 9-6 and Friday 2-11, and then I'm on vacation till the folowing Friday. Can't wait. It'll be even better than Christmas to not have to come in to work.

Working on Christmas Eve

Because I was able to scrape myself out of bed at 8:15 this morning (not quite 7:30 but earlier than the usual 9 a.m.) and because I have sporadically eaten two bluberry Special K bars throughout the day instead of taking a lunch, I can be out of work this holiday by 4:15 p.m. Less than two hours to go.

Would have been better if I didn't have to work at all, but hey -- anything's better than last year. Last year I had to work Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day (whereas I get Christmas Day off this year) and ON TOP OF THAT, I became deathly ill on Christmas Day and missed the next 3 days of work. Then I worked New Year's Eve AND Day (which I get off this year) and spent Beer Fest New Year's on meds, unable to partake in much of the alcohol and debauchery.

I guess there's still time for all that. Speaking of sick, one of the editors spent the whole morning sick as a dog -- coughing and wheezing all over the place, unable to call off work because of the lack of people staffing the newsroom on Christmas Eve. And he sits right behind me, so I shudder to think what might be ahead. Luckily I moved to my OTHER desk (yes, I now have two -- this one with a better computer... still not great, but better) halfway across the room. I feel better already.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that I was already not feeling 100 percent but that the Loratidine and psuedoephedrine (fake 24-hour Claritin D) I took this morning is making me feel quite nice. I chose to stock up this week because when the sickness attacked last year, it was the only thing that really helped. Better to be prepared I always say.

So, David is going to meet the Wittman clan tonight, and I'm a little frightened for him. They are so many in number and many of them look the same. I hope they are at least nice and easy to get along with. Also, I hope my grandma doesn't start talking that crap about not being able to have Christmas at her house this year because Carl, her husband who has been dead for years, is grouchy. I assure you Grandma, he was grouchy and now he definitely is not. (I'm just trying to make light of this sad situation people. Plus, it's really awkward...) Seriously though, I hope she doesn't call me Minette. I heard she called my mom Laura last month. I'm glad at least that she'll be around one more Christmas.

I will be taking along my brand new Sony Cybershot, which my lovely boyfriend purchased for me this Christmas. Maybe I'll have some new photos to post. Or maybe not. We'll see.

Tomorrow after church and lunch with the fam (David gets a get out of jail free card this time), I will meet David at his parents' house. This should be far less frightening because his family is small, his parents are nice and his grandma already likes me apparently, but the fact that I've only seen his brothers one time because they seem to hide when I'm around might pose a problem. I'll just have to think of them like James. That seems like something he would do, but then again James is fairly outgoing and friendly around strangers -- he just acts quiet and wierd around my parents.

Anyway, that was a little insight into my holiday. Tomorrow we will open presents and for the next week I'll scramble to get some work done so I can party on New Year's. The question of where this partying will go down remains, since Emily will be in Chicago and thus unable to have her usual themed party. I'm guessing that David will have people at his apartment, or it's back to Norb's. Oh what a way to ring in 2008.

Happy holidays everyone!!

It's almost Christmas

It doesn't really feel like it though.

I'll tell you one thing, I can't wait to get my digitial camera and then to be off for a week again (much needed to get used to this new M-F schedule).

Wish I could make it to Chicago this New Year's but I'd like to spend it with David, and unfortunately he cannot get off -- soo, my Chicago lovelies, you'll have to wait for another day. I miss you!!

Alright, back to work. More updates later.

"Stiff" -- I've finally finished it.

Mary Roach's "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" was all I hoped it would be and more. Even if it did take me forever to read it. (I read slowly, OK?)

When I saw the book at Barnes and Noble early in the year I remembered it being mentioned on an episode of "Six Feet Under," a TV show that I enjoyed for mostly the same reasons I liked the book. I'm morbidly curious. 

I was pleased to see that "Body Worlds," which is currently on display over at the St. Louis Science Center, was mentioned in the last chapter. It kind of excited me for some reason. 

My favorite chapter was the one about body farms, and how they leave bodies out wearing various amounts of clothing in different conditions to measure how fast or slowly the body composes. Roach's descriptions were so vivid that I could almost smell the putrification. 

In any event, the book is wildly interesting, although a little gross at times (if you get queasy, that is). But I recommend that everyone pick it up and at least give it a chance. 

Off to "Wicked" and "I Am America (And So Can You)" before I borrow David's "Haunted" by Chuck Palahuinuk (or whatever), and then "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" (curiously, another TV show featuring Michael C. Hall that can be seen on Showtime) from the library. 

Christmas fun

David and I built a gingerbread house last night. Check it.

This angle looks tasty, but don't let those pieces fool you, they're hard as rocks. 

That tree looks YUMMY. 

An icing avalanche hit this side of the cottage. 

Note the cute little snowman. 

We love doing lamo family-type things like carving pumpkins and making gingerbread houses and baking cookies. You know you think we're cool.

JR's battle with cancer

My former professor (and definitely one of my favorite professors) John Ryan recently wrote an article for the Charleston Times-Courier newspaper about his battle with colon cancer. It's a good read. 

Mostly though, I think it's an important article because colon cancer isn't talked about as much as other cancers, like breast cancer, and awareness of it is just as important. 

I wasn't around when he was missing classes and trying to deal with rough chemotherapy treatments (2006-2007), but I remember hearing about them when I would visit my alma mater -- and it scared me. 

I've known people to have had cancer before, but I never thought once JR would be one of those people. You know, he was that guy who taught us stuff and played along with our Brokeback Mountain-esque jokes about him and Joe and "Theel and Polly," not that guy trying to battle a deadly disease. 

He sent a link out to the article this morning, which I read, and I was happy to discover that he is now cancer free. 

Anyway, I know a lot (or all) of the five people that read this blog (if that) are not 50 yet -- but when you turn it, you need to get a colonoscopy. Don't ever think it couldn't happen to you, because it can. 

And if you're the praying type, pray that "cancer free" stays cancer free. 

Our Media Library

David and I started our own private blog -- (He's a bit self conscious and won't keep it up otherwise) -- for the purpose of expanding our literary horizons and our personal library. 

We found a pretty cool Web site that goes along with it too -- www.goodreads.com -- which allows users to compile lists of books they're read and which ones they want to read, and gives them resources to read and write reviews of books as well as rate them. Pretty much, it's a great way, other than picking random books out of the library and judging a book by its cover, to find great reads that I didn't otherwise know about. 

I'm pretty excited. 

Right now I'm reading "Wicked," "Stiff" and "I Am America (And So Can You)." I can't seem to get enough time to read them... and go to work, and work out, and hang out with the boyfriend, and do Christmas-sy stuff and sleep and play the Sims and all this stuff I'm addicted to now, but I'm working on finding a way to squeeze a good book in when I can, even if it takes forever to finish. 

Any suggestions?

Math Camp Massacre

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!
Starring Thomas, David, Ben, George, Laura and Justin.

Enjoy.