clutteredlife.com: December 2005

previous posts
Goombas on the 50 yd line.
Now in color!
Halloween's most frightening skeleton.
Election Day mayhem.
Xmas lists.
Halloweeeeeeen.
And I'm in!
Chrome.
Matriculation.
Nope.

Archives
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
October 2008
November 2008

Monday, December 26, 2005

Tulips.

My mom gave me a bunch of beautiful red tulips for Christmas:

Part of their beauty stems (hehe) from the fact that they won't last. I used to shun the idea of receiving gifts of flowers, "They'll just die in a few days." Now I realize my error; it is partly because they will die soon that they are so beautiful.
I'm not talking about the science of botany as much as my need to soak up and appreciate their existence while they are here.
Every time I walk into my kitchen, I look at my tulips and appreciate them. There is a sense of joy I get from those short moments that is cumulative. At the end of the day, I feel better off for having seen them.
posted by hilary at 4:51 PM | 5 comments | links to this post

Christmakkah.

Hope everyone had as wonderful a day yesterday as I did! I spent the majority of my day at my mom's celebrating Christmas, and drove home so late that I felt bringing the menorah out would just be trying to gild a very tired lilly. Instead of lighting our own, on our way home I drove past the town menorah which was nicely lit up (with a Christmas tree in the background).
"There it is! Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas!"

Catallarchy has quite succinctly summed up my feelings on the "Happy Holidays" debacle (that there is even a debacle seems pretty grinch-ish):

I think it's lame to be offended at being wished "Happy Holidays" because its a "War on Christmas", and it's lame to be offended at being wished a "Merry Christmas" just because you don't celebrate the religious holiday.

He goes on to make even more sense in the rest of his well-written post. Now that it's December 26th, I assume no one will bristle when I wish them a Happy Holidays? Or has that become pavlovian?
posted by hilary at 10:22 AM | 1 comments | links to this post

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Christmahanukwaniza.

posted by hilary at 10:26 AM | 0 comments | links to this post

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Paperwhites.

I love flowers. I love to look at them, I love their scents, I am the kind of person who actually stops to smell the roses.
So I planted a pot of Paperwhites in my kitchen a couple of weeks ago. They look so pretty, and delicate, and christmassy what with their green-and-whiteness, and the box of bulbs said they were very "fragrant".

My little pot of Paperwhites, lovingly tended for a few weeks, has finally bloomed.
They're pretty, but they smell godawful. Apparently Narcissus tazetta smell rather musky, which one might never guess from the appearance of their delicate little white blooms. Think overly perfumed french prostitute, only not so feminine.
posted by hilary at 10:41 AM | 2 comments | links to this post

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Feet Happy.

My feet and I have decided that, while we both really love these:

with all our sole (snicker), we realize that we might look a little silly in public, so we are happy to put these equally gorgeous:

on our list for Santa instead.

Oh winter clogs, how I love them so.
posted by hilary at 6:17 PM | 1 comments | links to this post

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Arghhh.

Many errands were to be accomplished today. Sadly, most of them required the use of my visa card.
There were two local stops, and then I planned to drive ALL THE WAY out to shopping civilization, about 30-40 miles away. Traffic was hell, my sunglasses broke so I was susceptible to sun blindness, I figured I'd get lunch out there so I hadn't eaten, etc etc etc.
Got to the first store and waded through surly crowds, stood in line for 15 min, went to pay, and.... WHERE'S MY CARD?!

Not in my wallet, or anywhere else on my person. Meh!

I ended up putting everything back that I couldn't cover with the $13 in my pocket, then drove ALL THE WAY home supremely annoyed. Apparently what happened was that at the local errand I'd done this morning, my card somehow made its way into the bag with the receipt. I dunno how it got in there, but I've been known to experience moments of distraction, so it's not really surprising.

Happy Holidaaaaaaaays.
posted by hilary at 4:09 PM | 1 comments | links to this post

Friday, December 16, 2005

Matrix Ping Pong.

I assume this is from a Japanese tv show, but omg it's so fricking great. Watch.
posted by hilary at 11:16 AM | 0 comments | links to this post

Free.

Yay! I'm done! I'm all done!
Until January somethingth, anyway.

"So how'd the final go?"
I have no idea. Usually, when I feel like I really nailed a test, I get a worse grade than I was expecting. When I walk out of there feeling like I just completely bombed, however, I end up with a fantastic grade.
I feel like I bombed.

In previous exams for this course, I was the first or second done, and received the highest grade in the class. This time, I was one of the last done. Hopefully this is because I just had more to write about in my four essays. Maybe.
My professor showed me my grade up until that point, and I had a solid A, so even if I get an 80 or something on this one final it won't affect my GPA.

Oh, and out of the 24 hours I studied, I think probably 4 of them were actually useful for the test. Oh well, I'm more edjukated now.
posted by hilary at 10:45 AM | 0 comments | links to this post

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Final final.

Final starts in 15 min. I feel like Ima throw up. Why? There's about 24 solid hours of studying over the past week locked up in this brain. My professor knows most of the class is there purely to fufill a requirement and has no interest in the subject, so she's not going to be TOO hard on us, right? Right?

/hurl
posted by hilary at 12:30 PM | 3 comments | links to this post

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

To Say Nothing of the Dog.

I just finished reading "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis. Knowing Willis is an author my dad likes to read, I called him:
"There's a great book you should put on your list." (he keeps a running list of suggested books in his notebook)
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, Connie Willis. To Say Nothing of the Dog."
"Okay."

Two days later, I get an email:
Ordered Connie Willis. Act surprised. (Am glad to see you like reading her since she is a quality writer.)

Huh? Act surprised?

"Dad, what do you mean, 'act surprised'? Who are you giving this book to?"
"You said you wanted it! You said put it on the list!"
"No! I just finished reading it! I meant YOUR list!"

Oops.
posted by hilary at 12:40 PM | 0 comments | links to this post

Monday, December 12, 2005

Orphan laptop.

I have my final final this week. It's a hard one and I will require hours upon hours of study time in order to keep a firm grasp on my She-Who-Consistently-Ruins-The-Curve title.
My choice of surroundings when I hunker down to absorb, spongelike, ideas and facts which I would not otherwise care to know, is my local public library. It's comforting to be surrounded by books, and I treat myself to a shelf scan every 30-45 minutes just to keep my distraction level in check.

Today I spent 3 hours there dissecting the federal bureaucracy. Oh joy. After 180 minutes, the stuff backed up and started overflowing out of my brain no matter how many times I reread it in my attempts to cram it in.

Sitting at the table next to me was a guy who had marked his territory by just spreading his stuff all over the place. Perhaps he figured on just moving in? He had his jacket on the table, sunglasses, ipod, itty bitty laptop, books, cds, notebooks, assorted papers. A mess.
The laptop was cute though. I admit to coveting it, especially when the guy got up and left.
I don't mean "left" as in wandered into the stacks but well within hearing distance, or even "left" as in ran down to the bathroom on the first floor. This guy left for at least a half hour and then returned with a Snapple, which leads me to think he actually exited the building entirely and possibly even made a journey to the store. Perhaps he figured I looked like an honest enough type and didn't think I'd let anyone walk away with his pretty pretty laptop. My precious.

If only I hadn't been wearing my goody two shoes...
posted by hilary at 7:35 PM | 1 comments | links to this post

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Tannenbaum.

I was out with Michelle and Mike the other night and the subject of christmas trees came up.
"So did you get yours yet?"
"Yep. Home Depot." Michelle loves to shock me with her delight in having a fake tree in her house. I still don't get the point. I mean, the whole thing is a little bit absurd anyway, right? Tree in your living room and all that, to say nothing of the decorations that range from quaint to truly hideous. I say, if you're going to take part in tradition, then go whole hog and put up a real tree. Deal with the sap and needles, it's part of the experience.

Mike then one-upped my affinity for tradition. "I chopped mine down myself at the tree farm."
Oooh! That sounds like fun! Apparently there's a tree farm literally two miles from my house that had escaped my notice over the past two decades. Not only does one grab a hacksaw and wander into the forest of short, plump fir trees to hunt down the perfect tree, it's cheaper than the pre-cut place I've been getting mine from!
I immediately made plans for a visit.

Sadly, the experience was not as enjoyable as I'd thought it would be. It was muddy, the trees were quite natural, and not at all pretty. I felt guilty, especially after having been moved to tears by "Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect." Here I am, a vocal proponent for christmas au naturale, and I'm wet, cold, and miserable at the magical tree farm.
In my defense, I did stick it out for about a quarter of a mile along a muddy path, but I simply wasn't feeling that same thrill that I saw in others' as they tromped giddily through the forest with their hacksaws.

I brought my saw back to an overly cheerful lady manning the tree barn. "Maybe I'll try again tomorrow."
"Oh, okay," she looked disappointed for me, "but we're only open on the weekends."
Apparently I'm a pre-cut tree kinda gal.
posted by hilary at 4:16 PM | 3 comments | links to this post

Friday, December 09, 2005

Popularity.

Ha! My blog, most recently updated two weeks ago, is most definitely not "popular", but thank you Roy. I don't think I've ever been personally meme'd before. This past week has been all about final exams, so my time for playing within the blogosphere has been limited. Thanks for giving me something to write about after my brain has been turned to mush. :)

Five random facts about me:

1. I can fill two glasses with exactly the same amount of liquid. Every time. Without trying.

2. I have double-jointed thumbs that I can naturally bend at the joint 90o backwards, and I have no problem making little kids laugh by pretending to break my thumbs.

3. Whenever I get one hand wet, I can't dry it off without getting the other hand at least a little bit wet as well. The feeling of touching any kind of drying device (ie: towel, paper towel, etc) with one dry hand and one wet hand just completely irks me.

4. I can listen to nails on a chalkboard or forks on a china plate all day long, but the sound of a broom sweeping a carpet drives me UP A WALL.

5. My favorite food is generally sushi, but I have to mentally hold back my feelings of revulsion in order to eat it.

Tag.
posted by hilary at 7:59 AM | 3 comments | links to this post