I'm Dreaming of an Austrailian Christmas

This week gives a whole new meaning to the idea of a blue christmas - as in I don't think my toes will ever regain their normal shade in my lifetime. On the bright side, I'm finally getting used to having to leave the house early to defrost my car, so I was actually on time the past two days to work! Yes, I can learn from experience. It just takes a lot of experience.

I note with some dismay that my email inbox is sadly lacking in Christmas-card seeking holiday-ers. Come, people, come let me spread my over-enthusiastic Christmas self across the country. And give me something to do - all of the internet lines are down still in my neighborhood and I'm running out of things to clean in my house. So, if you want a bit of holiday cheer to appear in your mailbox and smother the store circulars to a gilttery death, just email your address and favorite/worst Christmas tradition/memory/etc. to asunlitrose@yahoo.com.

My finals are dead and decaying in their graves (a hidden treat for you Christmas-philes out there), so I am free, free from this awful, horrible, no-good, very-bad course selection. (A treat for those of you, um, Alexander-philes?) Next semester I'm taking a whole bunch of wacky, crazy things that have nothing to do with anything relevant, becasue I am almost done, people! One more semester and then you'll have to listen to my nervous breakdown over finding a job. Oh, good times ahead.

I was out Tuesday taking pictures of the ice storm damage at a friends request, but I don't think it worked out very well. See, I was driving through the streets and when the opportunity for the best pictures came up, I was too busy navigating through the trees to actually take any pictures. The one time I tried to do both simultaneously, I almost ran into a tree. As it was in the middle of the road I have some justification, but still if I'd had to stop and get out in the cold I would have mutinied. Against what, I'm not certain. I don't see how a mutiny against winter would take very well - unless it was accompanied by a plane ticket to the Carribbean. Ooo, better yet - Austrailia! It's summer season down there right now. I miss being warm. I did my laundry yesterday, just so I had an excuse to stay in the laundry room without people thinking I wanted to steal their shirts.

I'll check my email tomorrow at work to see who has answered my desperate invitation. You all get a one day extension - then no more! I'll have to resort to looking through the phone book and sending Christmas cards to random strangers. That won't seem creepy at all.

Let it Snow

I'm imprisoned in a library! Ah!

Normally this would be no bad thing, but I'm also trapped behind the Information desk. The situation is becoming dire.

I was supposed to work in the Reference office this morning so, without checking the university webpage, I blithely went to work. I wandered outside, chipped my way into the car, spent half-an-hour deicing it, drove around the fallen trees in the road, and walked into work.

So, apparently there was this big ice storm. And the university closed. But not the library - heavens no! But noone came in, really, because most people are trapped by tree limbs, so the seven or so people who made it here, once they got over their surprise, shanghaied me to the information desk. Now I'm stuck here until someone can come relieve me. I'm into hour 7 of this shift by now and I'm super ready to go home. Really.

The number of people who have trudged through the storm to get to the internet amazes me. Well, not as much since one of my regulars said it was this or staying home in a powerless apartment. Still. Not everyone here can be out of power, plus they're all really industrious. Who risks life and limb to come work on their research paper? I mean, I'm all for dedication, but seriously: finals are canceled for today. Take it as a sign, give this day a miss, and curl up with a hot beverage at home.

This unexpected sojourn has given me far too much internet time (What, study for my final? What language speaketh you?) and I've determined something. There are way too many cute things on the internet. Shoes and books and stationary and clothes. My pay is minscule here, internet, why must you taunt me? But I've also had time (Plenty of time, if time were money I could buy that shirt I saw at Anthropologie. Wait, or is the phrase 'time is money'? Because that wouldn't work at all - at this job, it would have to be 'time is peanuts.' Which doesn't make any sense whatsoever.), and I've decided that I'm feeling too Christmacy to let it all end with the present wrapping. Which I did during the ice storm - festive!

So, for all those who made it this far through the unending post, here's the deal: if you email me your address and favorite/most hated Christmas pasttime/tradition/habit/experience you will get in return a lovely extra-special Christmas card! For those of you already excited, my email address is asunlitrose@yahoo.com. For those of you still dubious - think of the joy of getting mail that isn't a bill or a circular for tires! That's the spirit. See above for my email. Now come, give me a reason to make merry again.

And if it starts to snow again, promise you'll come rescue me?

Oh Happy Days

Well, I had a very long post written, but it was not a happy post. Mainly because I am not happy, and I'm tired, and I'm not happy about being tired. Again. So, instead I'm going to write down something happy from this day. I need to smile, here.

When I was sitting through class, I saw a leaf float past the window, playing in the breeze like you always see on animated movies, but never in real life. It fell in slow swings and twirled past the window, all orange-red and pretty, as though it was dancing a ballet to music that only it could hear in the breeze. It made me smile.

I wish that once you smiled in a day, it made a big stamp on that day and then nothing bad could happen. I can see the huge stamp, with yellow ink and a ginormous hand stamping 'HAPPY' across that scene. Of course, then everyone would wake up smiling so that nothing bad would ever happen. It would be cheating, I suppose, but wouldn't it be nice?

Hello? Anyone still there?

So, holidays and moving for the lose, apparently. I am a NaBloPoMo failure. Such is life.

But now I have a new apartment!

It's so cute, a little efficiency, but they put in this HUGE bookcase, so all I had to do was hang drapes and *voila* instant 1-bedroom!

I thought I might be paranoied - more than usual - living all by myself, at least at first, but I absolutely love it! I don't have to worry about people being noisy when I want to sleep, about not being able to get into the kitchen, about someone walking in when I'm jamming out to the Broadway musical station, Christmas carols, and/or KT Tunstall. (For example.) Despite being rumored to be in a scary part of town, I haven't seen anyone creepy yet and I'm convinced that my neighbors - if they exist - must be somehow related to Santa Claus. Y'know the ability to sneak around a house without waking anyone up, despite decorating, eating cookies, and stuffing himself down a chimney. Did anyone else find that a little difficult to believe? Especially since I never lived in a house with a chimney. The 'magic of Christmas' was thrown about a bit, but there really was little surprise when my cousin told me Santa Claus didn't exist. I was a very cynical six year old, I guess. Either that or very logically-minded.

But my apartment. I do have a few problems finally - thank goodness! I was beginning to believe it was all too good to be true and I was going to wake up from my delusions somewhere horrific, but then I discovered that the water heater only holds enough hot water for a ten-minute shower. And then the blind fell down on me. So it's definitely real. And painful.

I've been having fun decorating, though it's been tough to stretch my decorations to fit the whole apartment. I didn't think that was going to be a problem, when I moved I had a lot of boxes. I was thinking "Wow, is everything going to fit? When did I get so much stuff? What is in all of these boxes?" Well, remember the HUGE bookcase? (Totally the selling point of the efficiency. After I toured the apartment, I pretended to need a little time to look elsewhere, but really I knew I was going to sign that dotted line posthaste.) After I unloaded all of my books onto it - and ALL of my books fit onto it, this is a new thing - I had very few boxes left. Now the rest of my apartment looks a little - empty. So, apparently all my wealth is sunk into books. If they were a valid currency, I'd be set.

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Get Custard

Well, I guess I'm out of the running for NaBloPoMo, although since I started five days late, I suppose I was never actually in the running, but still. Yep, I missed posting yesterday. My failure is as ashes in my mouth.

Such is life.

Back to the pumpkin spice! (Ah yes, just when you thought you were off the hook.):

3. Pumpkin spice custard: I learned this autumn that the Historical K and I share a love of all things pumpkin spice, so it was with delight that I listened as she raved about the fact that one of her favorite treats was back for the season. She insisted that we leave immediately to gain a delectable and I, all curious and unknowing, eagerly went along for the ride. Where do we arrive at but Rusty's. Rusty's and I are old friends, I have long had a passion for their chocolate raspberry concoction as well as a short, illicit affair with a chocolate marshmellow delicacy. In the three years that I've lived in Norman, I never knew that Rusty's had pumpkin spice custard in the autumn. I felt betrayed, wounded, slighted - and then I tried the custard.
Rusty's is forgiven, I have been bought off by sweet, sweet custard, but the sting still lingers in my heart. There were three autumns that I could have been enjoying this custard - nine months of pumpkin custardlessness! The custard melts bitter-sweetly in my mouth even now.
I guess I'll have to get the large size from now on. Just to make up for lost time, of course.

"How to Outrun Maniacs in 5 Simple Lessons"

I'm honestly too tired to have much to say tonight - the pumpkin spice posts are on hold until tomorrow, so much for that 12-step program - so this will be a short entry. Actually, it's just going to be a question:

What book could you not do without? (Feel free to make up your own situation. Stranded on a beach, locked in a cell, outrunning a crazed foot fetishist. Your call.)

Till tommorrow!

Spiciness Part II

Yay, I'm actually continuing this post! I sometimes have problems finishing things I start, most notably papers, so I feel this is something like the first step of the 12-step program for procrastinators. But onward to the real point of the post!

2. Pumpkin spice lattes: I actually didn't discover these amazing creations until last Christmas with one of my dearest friends, Redhead. I was visiting her in St. Louis and we were wandering through the mall, not really Christmas shopping so much as window-shopping as something to do while we talked, when we ran across a Starbucks. Normally I avoid Starbucks, if I'm going to pay $4 for coffee, Id really rather actually be able to taste coffee, but Redhead began talking about needing intravenious caffeine and got in line so I went to keep her company. So we're standing there and suddenly I see a festive chalk sign for their seasonal drinks - now I may not like their coffee, but I'm always up for sugar - so we decide to split one. Choice? Pumpkin spice. (Of course. Don't you remember the donuts?) We sit down on a bench and drink and chat; it was a very special moment, reconnecting after so many months of hit-and-miss phone calls. So I suppose Starbucks can keep on existing, even with their weak coffee. At least during the autumn.