Santa Claus is coming to toooooowwwwwnnnnnnn . . . .

I know it has been a really long time. But thank you to those who have submitted playlists. I expect to be hearing from the rest of you soon. But I thought I should write up a post before the holidays in case I do not have time later. I leave Friday for RI. My parents Christmas Party is Saturday. And I have been told that there is a rapidly expanding list of things for me to help with while I am home before Christmas. We are having 14 for Christmas Eve, then 11 stay for Christmas Day, and then I am expecting 16 for Christmas Night. Of course that is just at my house. Matty and I will be doing the annual Christmas relay again this year. Christmas Eve I have the 1st 2 courses (of 6) at my house, then Matty comes, says hello, picks me up and we do Christmas with his brother and sister-in-law and parents. Then back to my house and he does Christmas with my crazy Aunt and Uncle. Then he leaves and I finish dinner, dessert and presents at my house. Christmas morning we do presents and then crazy Aunt and Uncle come for breakfast. Then I go to Matty's for Christmas dinner with his aunt and uncle. Then back to my house for dinner and my great uncle and cousin come down for dinner. Then we have the cookies. Oh the cookies. And we have usually between 2 and 10 over for cookies and dessert. Then Matty comes back and does Christmas with my family. Then the next day my mother and I usually do crazy day after Christmas shopping. But instead, this year we are all (13 of us) going up to New Hampshire to go skiing. Matty's first time skiing! I am very excited and nervous for him. We will be up there until the 30th. On the 30th we will head back with a day of outlet shopping in the middle. Then bright and early (actually it will still be dark) on New Year's Eve we fly back to Philly. Matty and I go to work and then a whiskey tasting New Year's Party. Then on the 3rd Matty and I will do our Christmas. So yeah. A busy busy time ahead. Oh and then New Years Brunch on the 10th.

Last Saturday was our Holiday Fete. It went really well. 23 people. 29 food items (plus 2 brought by guests) including 20 new recipes and 8 cookies/candies that are sent home as favors (along with handmade holiday magnets by yours truly). We had 7 out of town guests. 5 stayed at Hostel SmithGallagher and 2 stayed with Dan. Like I said it all went really really well. I am kinda sad it is all over though. Sigh. Oh and Dan got my Guitar Hero! Yay! We have no played it nearly enough yet since we only have 1 guitar at the moment and we have been super busy Christmas shopping this week.

Ok, well I have PCRs to set up, but I thought I would start a regular item on Random Musings. The South Street Bridge Project. The bridge, which used to provide me quick and easy access to work, was closed last Monday to be torn down and replaced over the next 2 years. So I thought I would mark its transformation. So Week 1: Hmm. I guess I am going to have to bring a real camera with me in the future. But really, there is not much to report. There are construction vehicles on the west end, the on/off ramps are closed and empty and that is about it.

If I do not get a chance to write again before then (if you celebrate it) Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy New Year's, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus, Happy Winter Solstice . . . I am sure I am forgetting something. But Happy Happy. Remember this is a time to be happy and relax and be thankful for what there is, not buy presents and not be miserable and mean and ruin other people's happiness. This is not a time to have nervous breakdowns or beat small children over the last copy of a DVD. Ok? So everyone take a moment to smile for me. K? Do you need some help? This seems to work for Matty.

Repost of Playlist Request

For those of you who do not read regularly and do not read old posts, I am requesting your 2008 playlists. The details are below:

I would like to collect the "Playlists of 2008." What were you listening to this year? Not necessarily music that came out this year or even that you discovered this year. But if you were to design the playlist for the last year in 10ish songs, what would be on there? Now most useful would be if you could actually send me the songs. I recommend drop.io or sendspace. You can just put the link in a comment. If you do not want to share with all of the readers of this blog, all 4 of them, get in touch with me with the link directly. If you do not actually have a way of getting in touch with me, you can send me a comment and tell me not to publish it and I won't. If you either do not have the songs in a shareable format or do not believe in sharing music, that is fine, just send me the list and I will find the songs myself. I would really like to have the lists by January 6th and actual songs by January 8th. I will be posting reminders (like this one). But start compiling and let me know. If anyone else is interested I will post my list when I actually complete it. Thanks!

Happy Prohibition Repeal Day!

Today in 1933 the amendment to repeal prohibition was ratified. Yay! Perhaps we should celebrate with a Sacher Torte since it is also National Sacher Torte Day. What is a Sacher Torte you ask?

In the early 1800's, the Congress of Vienna ruled that a Sacher Torte was made of two chocolate cake layers separated by apricot jam with a chocolate glaze on the top and sides.

I think celebrating with booze would probably be easier. So go to it.

Some things that have come to mind today:

On wearing pants:
If you have to keep pulling up your pants, not because you recently (overnight) lost 200 lbs (and didnt have time to buy new ones), but because you intentionally bought pants designed to fit someone 200 lbs heavier - YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! Buy some pants that fit jackass.
If you have to keep pulling up your pants because you belted your pants halfway down your thighs and are now forced to waddle with 6 inches of underwear showing - YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! Pull up your goddamn pants asshole.
If you are a woman and you are bigger than say a size 6 (and I feel I being very generous here) and you are not living in 1980 and you needed either a hanger or friend to zip your jeans and you cant sit down due to extreme risk of severe internal injuries or actually splitting your pants - YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! Buy some pants that fit bitch. Rip out the tag if you cant handle the number, or find a company that will lie about their product sizes. Because just because you were technically capable of zipping them, that doesnt mean they fit!

On talking to me:
Generally, I am not a people person. I do not particularly like to talk to strangers. Or even acquaintances really. But I will if I have to. But if the first time we met, at a happy hour for a grad school position you were applying for and I already had, 15 minutes into the conversation you decided to tell me that you made money during college performing phone sex for an old guy who randomly called your dorm room, do not expect me to ever be able to hold on a normal conversation with you. Ever again. K?

Ok. That is all for that.

Matty is in Ireland. I am pretty pathetic without him. It is so sad. I do not like sleeping alone. I do not like cooking alone or for one. I do not like having no one to talk to when I get home. I have been watching a bunch of movies. Mists of Avalon (ehh, ok I guess, not well done). 27 Dresses (worth seeing as a chick flick). Sex and the City (actually cried. Pretty happy with it). And I have been listening to christmas music and lighting scented candles and have started decorating for the holiday fete. And I started cooking on Tuesday. He comes home Monday. I am very exicted but have so much I want to get done before he gets home. He called last night and we talked for about 4 minutes. He is having a good time. I still want him to come home. I know, I am awful.

Monday, the South St. bridge closes as of 9:30 am. It needs to be done. It is going to collapse or fall apart and people will get hurt. Matty and I have actively, seriously planned what to do in case it begins to collapse depending on where we are on the bridge. You know, besides pray. But it means that my 30 minute straight walk down South from apartment to work and back is now going to be a 45 minute-1 hour trek up to Walnut. Mostly because I am WAY too cheap to pay $14/week for some sort of public transit because my destination is RIGHT there. Plus, the Walnut bridge is icier and colder and they really had to start in December? Really? I took some pics on my walk over this morning.










Sigh. Sad. I will let you know how the new walk goes. Ok, go celebrate prohibition repellation now! (If someone know the real noun for repeal please let me know)!