Christmas comes but once a year, thank the gods.

Made it though another Christmas-- barely.

All in all, not such a horrible experience, but one of the most exhausting ones of the year by far. Between me and the boyfriend, we have four households, sometimes more, to hit up in one or two days. Christmas day, we started at 9 AM and did breakfast, lunch, and dinner with three different families, and presents at each one. I had a lurking head cold, which made the day seem urky (that was going to be "murky" but "urky" actually describes it better) and vaguely surreal (and doubly tiring).

Same routine at all the families-- It's great to see you! Oh, you know, school and work. Mm, what tasty foodstuffs you have prepared! Yes, we should briefly chat over some banal subject. Oh, a present? For me? You shouldn't have! Whelp, I'll be heading out now, see you next year!

Just thinking about it makes me head hurt. Mostly the gifts involved money, which was fabulous and much needed. However, my mother bestowed upon me a fabric shaver, a device which removes those annoying fuzzballs from sweaters and the like. (Somewhat surprisingly, it works). I think she has a minor addiction to "As Seen on TV!" products--we get them every year for Christmas/birthdays/other excuses for gift giving. Whatever makes her happy, I suppose.

There was another part to this post, I think, but it has disappeared into the void of my mind/the ether/the internet. I need to start waking up before one in the afternoon.

Lazy resolutions

Winter Break To-Do:

1. Make office into usable room

1a. Get a floor lamp

2. Hit up after-Christmas candy sales

3. Make shepherd's pie (Mmm.)

4. Play with Sculpey

5. Help sister with college applications

6. Produce at least one piece of writing, goddammit!

As with all of my to-dos, who knows what will be accomplished from this, but I've tried to set the bar low enough to actually tempt me to step over it.

Also--Christmas is way less fun as a grown-up. However, despite yesterdays failures and frustrations, I did manage to produce a couple pans of reasonably festive red velvet cupcakes, which were only a tiny bit burnt on the bottom. After burning the crap out of my hand trying to relight the oven, of course. No pain, no gain.

I'm dreaming of a white chocolate Christmas

There is no white chocolate available for purchase in this entire city.

This is a shame, as this was going to be the year I was finally going to make white chocolate peppermint bark for friends and family. Miraculously already having the supplies on hand, I was following my mother's recipe, which was simple enough: melt the chocolate, stir in peppermints, pour onto cookie sheet, let cool. I didn't have the fancy red and green peppermint chunks she always used, but she assured me I could just crack regular peppermints. I proceeded to do so, violently, with a rolling pin. Meanwhile, I was melting the chocolate. Inevitably, it was irreparably burnt. Drove all over town trying to find some damn white chocolate bark/chips--nada. Coming back, made a U-turn on a red light that may or may not have been monitored and in the process broke some of the eggs I'd just bought.

So, in conclusion, I have a three cups of toasted white chocolate in my garbage can, a handful of battered peppermints on my counter, and a potential traffic ticket which I cannot afford (and which is unconstitutional, if you ask me. Damn Big Brother). I'm afraid to even make the little clay figurines I was planning, lest my house catch on fire.

Happy bloody Christmas. I'm going make a sandwich.

School does not equal happy

Down the street from my house, there is an elementary school with a marquee which reads "WE TEACH THE HAPPIEST CHILDREN!!!" And every time I pass it, I just think, "Uh, so?"

Not that schools shouldn't aim for the happiness of children (as much as is feasible, I suppose. Schools by nature are anathema to children). But something about the wording of that sign always just seems off somehow to me. It doesn't so much say that "Our teaching makes the children the happiest" as "These children are (for some probably unrelated reason) happy, and we just happen to teach them. Yay!"

Silly, but just a little thing that is continually a twinge in my day. Also, one of my friends very briefly attended said school, and promptly transferred out after they spent multiple math classes discussing the result of multiplying by zero. So... yeah. Happy children, I guess.

Brain arthritis

At this point I have three different half-finished blog posts saved, all on different subjects, all written the past two days. My thinking has been weird, fuzzy and frustrated. When I try to get around to writing it down, I feel like whatever section of my brain is responsible for writing production has arthritis. This does not just apply to blog posts, but to my writing in general of late.

It was a rough semester, which almost justifies my sleeping until 1 for the last three days.

Also, dammit, the vowel keys on my keyboard are being infuriatingly non-worky. Especially "u". Not a major hang up, but (ARGH) it has been happening enough to make typing a chore. (This is more of a complaint than an excuse).

Submitted to delta. My poems are significantly better than the ones I sent in last year, but despite working on the staff, I am in no way guaranteed publication. This only means I have to see how people vote on my poems. I heard there was drama during the decision process last year, but I suppose that's inevitable when you have a dozen twentysomethings who fancy themselves poets getting drunk on cheap wine and reading each others' work. Looking forward to it! (Actually I really am looking forward to it, we have a lot of great writers submitting stuff this year. I really should have branched out beyond poetry. Less competition.)

I don't know why I feel so compelled to be simultaneously whiny and self-deprecating on here. Holdover from the LiveJournal days, maybe?

Anyway, I really need to get out more so I have more to write about. In general. I literally didn't step foot outside the house today. In my defense, it was a very gray, chilly day.

Goal: Wake up before noon tomorrow. Do something.