Haul out the holly

I can't believe that it's December first! Wasn't it just Halloween a minute ago? Crazy. Also crazy is me being done Christmas shopping. I have all the major gifts for all my major people. I'm still picking up stocking stuffers and little things that catch my eye, because I absolutely love giving gifts. I get more excited waiting to give a gift than I do waiting to get a gift, because I know what the gift is and they don't!

My holiday spirit is a mix of impatience and laziness. I am so excited to decorate, to bake, to do all the holiday fun stuff, but I lose my steam halfway through and give up. For example, I bought candy for stockings tonight and it's taking mountains of self-control not to fill up the stockings RIGHT NOW, but it took all of my energy just to hang the stockings and the garland on the stairs. So this year will be a lot of work to channel my "can't wait" energy into "get the things done" energy.

Speaking of ''get the things done," putting up what few decorations I could manage made me think about doilies. My parents have a doily I made on their kitchen table that matches their kitchen: light blue. It really doesn't go with the red and green centerpiece I dug out. Wouldn't it be nice to have a doily for every holiday, or season? IT TOTALLY WOULD. I am totally doing it.

Don't dream it, be it.

Last night, I fulfilled a teenage dream of going to a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was always jealous of my friends that would go down to the Oriental in high school, and I thought that in college I would find a time to see it in the Cities, but it never happened for me. And then Kerida and Becky invited me to go with them for the Halloween show. Neither of them really knew the extent of the audience participation, in fact Becky had never even seen the film.

It was a little annoying that the show started at 2 instead of midnight, but I'd already waited 8 years, what difference did it really make? It was everything I hoped it would be.

It also seems that I spend my Halloweens waiting in line in the cold for two hours. This year, I was wearing pants and a sweatshirt, and it made all the difference. It also worked out because it was cold inside the theater and a revealing costume would have remained uncomfortable all night.

I have come to the conclusion that I really love Halloween. While I don't go for the scary stuff at all, I really get a kick out of the creativity and effort that goes into Halloween costumes. Last night, I was Leela, Kerida was a dinosaur, and Becky was a fairy because she's 8. We were in line behind a Na'Vi, Lieutenant Dangle, and a rain cloud. We saw a sock monkey, Sheri Lewis, Cap'n Crunch, a Sim, Colonel Sanders, Buddy the Elf, Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer, Harley Quinn, Beaker, and those were just the good costumes!

Halloweenie swap

These are the lovely treats I got from smorancie in Maryland.

Nothing more depressing than re-knitting.

Imagine you've been working on a project for several weeks. You really want to finish this project so you can move on to the next project. You work diligently to finish and you finally get to the end........only to realize you made a significant mistake and have to redo half of your project. That's me and my sock right now. I was so focused on finishing that I forgot to include the increases that make the damn thing fit over my calves, so I had to rip back all that knitting to redo it. It's like the sock did this on purpose to make me feel bad about wanting to be done with it quickly.

The continued adventures of being an addict

I realized that I need to do something about this coffee drinking I've been doing. A small "Wild" drink at Caribou comes to $4.12 a pop. While I can certainly afford to spend $4.12 a day on coffee, I feel pretty freaking bad about doing it. I decided yesterday that I'm going to start making my own candy-flavored coffee drinks at home on the cheap. I went to World Market to look at their flavored syrups, and I was quite disappointed with the selection. Really, no marshmallow? Peppermint but not plain old mint? I selected the Honey Vanilla, because it tasted somewhere between marshmallow and nougat in flavor. A few shots of that, some hot cocoa mix, and a cup of coffee made a pretty tasty beverage. Not quite Caribou quality, but hey, if I wanted Caribou quality I'd pay for it.

We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto

Today, I opened a different store in our franchise that was desperate for an opening manager. It was quite an experience. To put it politely, that location is run a bit differently than mine. It reinforced my gratefulness for being placed at my location. To put it politely. When my co-worker, who used to work at the other location, texted me to ask how it went, I replied "I survived and so did the store. They all say hi."

Also, I bought two new pairs of sunglasses, cause I love me some cheap sunglasses.

Stunt Boyfriend

Amy is my stunt boyfriend - she is always there to hang out with me when the boyfriend can't. I didn't come up with this term, she and Kerida decided upon it, and I just go with it cause they could beat me up easily if I get too sassy.

One day while driving with Amy, I had my iPod set to play some David Bowie because I was in that kind of mood. After a song and a half, Amy says "I don't really like Davie Bowie, can I switch it?" I figured that it's a shame she's not into Bowie, but I figure we all have our likes and dislikes. She then proceeded to pick tracks by the Beatles, ALL OF WHICH SOUND LIKE BOWIE*. This strikes me as odd. "Amy," said I, "this sounds just like Bowie. Why do you like this and not Bowie?" We then proceeded to have a short pointless argument, which has yet to be resolved.

Cut to today, driving again: Young Americans came on the radio. I blasted it for a bit and sang along, and then lowered the volume again to tell the other passengers about Amy's Illogical Bowiephobia. You know that line in Young Americans, basically the best in the song: "Ain't there one damn song that can make me break down and cry?" I freaking love that line. So powerful. So of course, I had to turn the radio back to 11 and ask Amy at the top of my lungs: Ain't there?

She gave me the finger.

*The Beatles are the be all and end all of music. If I say this particular album sounds like Bowie, what I really mean is that the style and sound is similar to that of Mr. Bowie, and that the Beatles came first and made it possible for Bowie to be Bowie.