Tis Christmas Day (or night) and all through the house we hear A Christmas Story on the TV set. "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!" plays on loop in our head as the fruit cake does sommersaults in our stomachs. A white Christmas is great when home with a fire but less than welcomed when roadtripping through cornfields. But a star bright peaks through the clouds and leads us to our home, where the twinkle lights on the tree warm the front room. Wrapping paper and empty boxes litter the floor with small children passed out under the tree, smelling the pine and sap and dreaming of the fun they'll have with the new toys and games (and snow) tomorrow. As Ralphy shoots his eye out, we laugh and think fondly of past holidays when we were once young, and filled with pie and sugarplums. And as the snow begins to fall again to softly blanket our houses in innocence, we fall asleep as contented as can be.
Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
A New Day is right around the corner...
Ugh. That's basically all I can say. I guess the stress is showing.
You can't please everyone-and I know this. It doesn't stop me from wanting to please everyone-however, foolish the idea. And I usually don't stress when I don't-because I do have a semi-realistic bone in my body. But something is going on and I have no clue what. It would be great to not wear my emotions on my sleeve-it would be great to be able to hide everything like I used to. I was pretty miserable then though, I'm thinking more miserable than now. It's just a rough patch, I know. I'll feel better in a couple days-can't dwell on this and let it bring me down. It just sucks.
On a completely other topic (bipolar moment)
Chocolate covered marshmallows rolled in graham crackers! So good! A smore without the fire-but still pretty darn tasty!
You can't please everyone-and I know this. It doesn't stop me from wanting to please everyone-however, foolish the idea. And I usually don't stress when I don't-because I do have a semi-realistic bone in my body. But something is going on and I have no clue what. It would be great to not wear my emotions on my sleeve-it would be great to be able to hide everything like I used to. I was pretty miserable then though, I'm thinking more miserable than now. It's just a rough patch, I know. I'll feel better in a couple days-can't dwell on this and let it bring me down. It just sucks.
On a completely other topic (bipolar moment)
Chocolate covered marshmallows rolled in graham crackers! So good! A smore without the fire-but still pretty darn tasty!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
I Should Be Sleeping
I should be sleeping. Work is only 7 hours away. But I just got home and am decompressing.
It was Ugly Christmas Sweater day today-what fun! It was a blast to see te booksellers and customers laughing and gawking and having a goodtime-all from some ugly sweaters. But hey-whatever works!
It does feel a little more Christmas-y. We have this slush they call snow on the ground now. Winter is a little more present. Although the weather has been so tame lately that it's hard to believe that people don't think global warming is happening!
We put up our Christmas tree this week too! It's gorgeous-a frasier fur! I know I've already blogged about my gorgeous Christmas Tree-but I'm just too in love with it to not mention it again.
I'm almost done Christmas shopping. I'm on a search for something for one more person-who is proving to be a bit difficult-probably because I'm not sure that what I want to get him actually exists-but I do have a less personal back up. But I am totally one of "those" customers now that goes into the store with the question that no one knows how to answer because I don't actually know exactly what I'm looking for because I don't actually know it exists. Why haven't I Googled it?!?! Ugh! I can't believe I wasted all this time...!
Happy Holidays!
It was Ugly Christmas Sweater day today-what fun! It was a blast to see te booksellers and customers laughing and gawking and having a goodtime-all from some ugly sweaters. But hey-whatever works!
It does feel a little more Christmas-y. We have this slush they call snow on the ground now. Winter is a little more present. Although the weather has been so tame lately that it's hard to believe that people don't think global warming is happening!
We put up our Christmas tree this week too! It's gorgeous-a frasier fur! I know I've already blogged about my gorgeous Christmas Tree-but I'm just too in love with it to not mention it again.
I'm almost done Christmas shopping. I'm on a search for something for one more person-who is proving to be a bit difficult-probably because I'm not sure that what I want to get him actually exists-but I do have a less personal back up. But I am totally one of "those" customers now that goes into the store with the question that no one knows how to answer because I don't actually know exactly what I'm looking for because I don't actually know it exists. Why haven't I Googled it?!?! Ugh! I can't believe I wasted all this time...!
Happy Holidays!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Christmas Tree Care
It's here! My first Christmas tree out on my own! We had one my first year here-but it was more Deb's than mine-she bought it, decorated it,-everything. So now Me and Joe have our own! Thank God my roommate indulges my whims like this!
So It's sitting in some sugar water. We got the nursery to cut an inch or so off of the bottom-to give it a nice fresh cut to soak up the water (and sugar). It will sit in it's sugar water and stand for 24 hours to hydrate and let the branches fall. So by tomorrow afternoon it will be ready for decorating! :) The house smells so wonderful! This has now made my Christmas cheer come to life.
Plus Krista and I went to the Christkindle Market tonight too! Such Christmas wonderfulness! And peeps are coming over tomorrow to help decorate. It's really the best times ever!
I guess growing into adulthood isn't so bad. Happy Holidays!
So It's sitting in some sugar water. We got the nursery to cut an inch or so off of the bottom-to give it a nice fresh cut to soak up the water (and sugar). It will sit in it's sugar water and stand for 24 hours to hydrate and let the branches fall. So by tomorrow afternoon it will be ready for decorating! :) The house smells so wonderful! This has now made my Christmas cheer come to life.
Plus Krista and I went to the Christkindle Market tonight too! Such Christmas wonderfulness! And peeps are coming over tomorrow to help decorate. It's really the best times ever!
I guess growing into adulthood isn't so bad. Happy Holidays!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
elevators tears and emergenC
Well I got stuck in the freight elevator today. Just couldn't take it that it was really broken. I thought I knew the solution. So off of my partner in crime's stellar advice-being that the buddy system now be used in the frieght elevator-we both got in. Let me preface this by saying that the cafe manager had just gotten stuck and had to pry herself out because the doors wouldn't open. But I thought we could just ride it back up and bring it back down again-it would line up with the floor and everything would by ok. And my partner in crime-and her buddy system rule-decided to follow me into the freight elevator. And as i pulled the door down and the latch hooked-I had a small concern: what if it really is broken and now both closing managers are stuck in the elevator? Not that that would happen because I knew how to fix the issue. However, the elevator wasn't aware that it was supposed to be listening to my wonderful idea and suddenly be fixed. So the second after my that concern voiced itself in my head-it was reality. And we were both stuck in the freight elevator. Both closing managers, hanging out in the freight elevator.
Luckily it's spacious in there. It was a little chilly, because this is the elevator that goes up and down from our loading dock and it's drafty. Thank God my partner in crime thought to bring her coffee with her-and a book. The book just happened to be-Are You There Vodka, It's Me Chelsea. By Chelsea Handler. So there we are, sitting on pallet jack and cardboard, Chelsea Handler in hand; people breaking broom handles trying to pry open the doors, and pull levers and push big red scary buttons. All the while, no one's told our boss yet. But when she does find out she considers leaving us in there to "think about what we'd done." And of course-it's my fault that we were both in there-eventhough the buddy system was totally, completely and utterly not my idea. I did not force her into the elevator or any such nonsense. And yet it's my fault-go figure.
Finally, about a half hour later ( probably not that long-but I can dream), through brute force that no one else could muster (probably because they didn't really want us out of the elveator), our store detective rescued us from our traumatic predicament. I mean really-if we were claustrophobic or had a fear of...freight elevators, we could've been in trouble. But thankfully our big strong detective was there to save the day.
An hour later, facing a sobbing bookseller, who was upset that I had made her job easier (that's right I said easier), I was once again wishing I was still in the broken freight elevator. I mean sobbing! I don't know about anybody else, but if my boss comes up to me and says, you know what-we have people to do this so you can actually do your job today and not 5 different ones-I'd be fucking exstatic! I mean, I wish for that every day! I would love and not have to go and clean up other people's half done stuff, or run their department for a few hours, and then MOD on top of it all. I'd love to come in and just be a merch manager for a day. But not my bookseller. They would rather project all night and ignore the customers and embarass my kids lead.
And then I threw an emergenC packet in the detective's face. Right in his face-smack dab in the middle of his face. It was pretty funny.
Luckily it's spacious in there. It was a little chilly, because this is the elevator that goes up and down from our loading dock and it's drafty. Thank God my partner in crime thought to bring her coffee with her-and a book. The book just happened to be-Are You There Vodka, It's Me Chelsea. By Chelsea Handler. So there we are, sitting on pallet jack and cardboard, Chelsea Handler in hand; people breaking broom handles trying to pry open the doors, and pull levers and push big red scary buttons. All the while, no one's told our boss yet. But when she does find out she considers leaving us in there to "think about what we'd done." And of course-it's my fault that we were both in there-eventhough the buddy system was totally, completely and utterly not my idea. I did not force her into the elevator or any such nonsense. And yet it's my fault-go figure.
Finally, about a half hour later ( probably not that long-but I can dream), through brute force that no one else could muster (probably because they didn't really want us out of the elveator), our store detective rescued us from our traumatic predicament. I mean really-if we were claustrophobic or had a fear of...freight elevators, we could've been in trouble. But thankfully our big strong detective was there to save the day.
An hour later, facing a sobbing bookseller, who was upset that I had made her job easier (that's right I said easier), I was once again wishing I was still in the broken freight elevator. I mean sobbing! I don't know about anybody else, but if my boss comes up to me and says, you know what-we have people to do this so you can actually do your job today and not 5 different ones-I'd be fucking exstatic! I mean, I wish for that every day! I would love and not have to go and clean up other people's half done stuff, or run their department for a few hours, and then MOD on top of it all. I'd love to come in and just be a merch manager for a day. But not my bookseller. They would rather project all night and ignore the customers and embarass my kids lead.
And then I threw an emergenC packet in the detective's face. Right in his face-smack dab in the middle of his face. It was pretty funny.
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Windy City Chronicles
Chicago Nov. 2009
(Well it's technically 24th-but night of 23rd)
It's a foggy and chilled evening. London-esque (not that I've ever been there-but I've heard). The dampness is fall trying to hold on before winter hits us head on. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and whereas the leaves have mostly fallen and the trees mostly bare, the bitter cold has yet to present itself. But back to the foggy night on the streets of the Windy City...
The streetlamp casts an eerie yellow glow on a vacant street that is all but abandoned due to construction. Filled with orange cones, huge cememt cylinders that will eventually be sewers, and silent bulldozers and dumptrucks we here the steps of someone walking. It's a confident and steady step. Not in a hurry, not dallying, deeper than a woman's high heel click clap, but not the sound of a rubber sole. As the sound gets closer a shadow starts to appear on the ground. A long shadow of a man, a tall man, a tall well toned man, the sound was obviously his cowboy boots, as his shadow showed a man with a stetson on his head. As he stepped directly under the light, it was like watching a cowboy from an old movie western walk right off the screen directly onto the Chicago street. The stetson shadowed his face but she could just make out the dark tresses that brushed his shoulders. His very wide shoulders, that were very clear in his long cowboy trench coat (did this guy just get off a cattle run or something?), which hung on his 6'2" body and stopped right around his knees, opened at the front-clearly the cold and wind of the city didn't bother him. He turned away from her, responding to a sound from behind him that he didn't like. She could see his shoulders tense and tighten the fit of his coat on his upper body as he turned around. He scanned the block and the mounds of dirt and gravel until he was certain no one was there and turned back around to look right at her. He was staring right at her. How could he see her, how had he known? But he saw her, she was dressed all in black and tucked into the shadows, behind one of the giant wheels of a dump truck. He tried to hide a smirk as he walked towards her. There was no hiding now. She looked for a route of escape; she could crawl under the truck to the other side and try and make a run for it, but it was up against a fence and she knew that of the 2 directions she could run once on the other side, one was blocked with cememt cylinders and the other would just point her toward him. She had no choice but to come out of the shadows and face the music. As she stepped out of her hiding spot and into the light she gave her fiercest glare and braced herself for the assault.
(Well it's technically 24th-but night of 23rd)
It's a foggy and chilled evening. London-esque (not that I've ever been there-but I've heard). The dampness is fall trying to hold on before winter hits us head on. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and whereas the leaves have mostly fallen and the trees mostly bare, the bitter cold has yet to present itself. But back to the foggy night on the streets of the Windy City...
The streetlamp casts an eerie yellow glow on a vacant street that is all but abandoned due to construction. Filled with orange cones, huge cememt cylinders that will eventually be sewers, and silent bulldozers and dumptrucks we here the steps of someone walking. It's a confident and steady step. Not in a hurry, not dallying, deeper than a woman's high heel click clap, but not the sound of a rubber sole. As the sound gets closer a shadow starts to appear on the ground. A long shadow of a man, a tall man, a tall well toned man, the sound was obviously his cowboy boots, as his shadow showed a man with a stetson on his head. As he stepped directly under the light, it was like watching a cowboy from an old movie western walk right off the screen directly onto the Chicago street. The stetson shadowed his face but she could just make out the dark tresses that brushed his shoulders. His very wide shoulders, that were very clear in his long cowboy trench coat (did this guy just get off a cattle run or something?), which hung on his 6'2" body and stopped right around his knees, opened at the front-clearly the cold and wind of the city didn't bother him. He turned away from her, responding to a sound from behind him that he didn't like. She could see his shoulders tense and tighten the fit of his coat on his upper body as he turned around. He scanned the block and the mounds of dirt and gravel until he was certain no one was there and turned back around to look right at her. He was staring right at her. How could he see her, how had he known? But he saw her, she was dressed all in black and tucked into the shadows, behind one of the giant wheels of a dump truck. He tried to hide a smirk as he walked towards her. There was no hiding now. She looked for a route of escape; she could crawl under the truck to the other side and try and make a run for it, but it was up against a fence and she knew that of the 2 directions she could run once on the other side, one was blocked with cememt cylinders and the other would just point her toward him. She had no choice but to come out of the shadows and face the music. As she stepped out of her hiding spot and into the light she gave her fiercest glare and braced herself for the assault.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
And I wish unto all a good night
So, now that I have a bed, chronicles from the floor can't really happen. A new witty name for the scrawlings of my random boring life in Chicago. I'll have to figure that out. But I am trying to slow down a bit, enjoy things, enjoy life.
Chicago has the parade of lights the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and last year I went and I was freezing and was so far down Michigan Ave-I couldnt' see anything. This year the weather was great, and technically we were in a good spot-but it was so flippin crowded that even on my tippy toes, I couldn't quite see a whole lot. But there were a couple balloons, and there were a couple higher floats, and there were pine twigs in the big blocks that hold the bushes. And yes, I took one of those branches, that smelled so gloriously of pine trees/christmas trees/nature. It now adorns the fire place and pine permeates the air. It's such a glorious smell. I love it.
Which leads me to my present predicament. Where to buy my Christmas Tree? I'm a little afraid of these city lots with the trees brought in from who knows where. I mean, I like to know that when you go to the lot, the tree was cut down from the field next to the lot the day before. These trees are from somewhere far away, are possibly already so dried out that there's no salvaging them. Clearly research or a roadtrip is needed. Because I don't want a dead tree come Christmas morning. I'm sure that's some sort of bad omen. It's a dilemma. I could go into Ohio-Toledo-one of the several farms around my parents house, I'm sure sells Christmas trees. Or do I road trip it up north and see something I haven't seen before and find a farm. It's more rural in Wisconsin right? They have farms? Or hills? Are there any hills between here and the Rocky Mountains? Yes this will take some homework-I don't want a crappy tree.
Goodnight.
Oh and by the way-I'm on chapter 35 of Pioneer Woman's Love story with Marlboro Man-it's great! They just got engaged!
Chicago has the parade of lights the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and last year I went and I was freezing and was so far down Michigan Ave-I couldnt' see anything. This year the weather was great, and technically we were in a good spot-but it was so flippin crowded that even on my tippy toes, I couldn't quite see a whole lot. But there were a couple balloons, and there were a couple higher floats, and there were pine twigs in the big blocks that hold the bushes. And yes, I took one of those branches, that smelled so gloriously of pine trees/christmas trees/nature. It now adorns the fire place and pine permeates the air. It's such a glorious smell. I love it.
Which leads me to my present predicament. Where to buy my Christmas Tree? I'm a little afraid of these city lots with the trees brought in from who knows where. I mean, I like to know that when you go to the lot, the tree was cut down from the field next to the lot the day before. These trees are from somewhere far away, are possibly already so dried out that there's no salvaging them. Clearly research or a roadtrip is needed. Because I don't want a dead tree come Christmas morning. I'm sure that's some sort of bad omen. It's a dilemma. I could go into Ohio-Toledo-one of the several farms around my parents house, I'm sure sells Christmas trees. Or do I road trip it up north and see something I haven't seen before and find a farm. It's more rural in Wisconsin right? They have farms? Or hills? Are there any hills between here and the Rocky Mountains? Yes this will take some homework-I don't want a crappy tree.
Goodnight.
Oh and by the way-I'm on chapter 35 of Pioneer Woman's Love story with Marlboro Man-it's great! They just got engaged!
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