Media-crity

Be safe, be happy, be festive.

I will be watching the downtown fireworks at midnight from a friend’s apartment way up on top of an apartment building with a killer view of Hartford.

As inspired by Lisa’s post about Christmas and picture of Molly I bring you … Wrapped Cat!

This is my friend Carolyn’s cat, Cat, enjoying a little bit of Christmas cheer.

And, as requested, some pictures of my robotic friends!

The two of them hanging out under the tree.

The big one guarding all the sweet, sweet X-Files goodness.

I just finished the book I started on Christmas Eve, The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. It’s a memoir, which is far and away my favorite genre. I’m a really fast reader and this took me from Christmas Eve night to last night to read, reading a bit each day to finish, which is actually a good thing. It was just that dense and winding. I felt a connection with the author in a lot of ways, especially in his childhood fears/neuroses. He mentions being terrified to be the last one awake at night. I had the same fear as a child but had never encountered anyone else with the same thing.

The ending is a bit rough, especially the epilogue, as it takes place just after 9/11. The author grew up in Manhasset on LI and that community lost 50 people in the attacks. In his capacity as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he returned to Manhasset just after 9/11 to do a huge story on how the town was coping. Some of the characters I got to know and love through the course of the book died in 9/11.

I had read somewhere that it is an “addiction memoir” but I really didn’t see that too much. The author definitely has a problem with alcohol, as well as smoking and gambling, but it’s not the centerpiece. He tends to couch his alcoholism in his love of this one particular neighborhood bar. When the story ends he’s still drinking, then the epilogue brings us in 10 or so years later and he’s been sober for about that time.

The book really rattled me, which is a sign of a good book for me. After I finished it, I was lying in bed unable or unwilling to get up to turn off the light, my head swirling with thoughts and images. Eventually I turned off the light and had to find a happy, quiet, restful place so I could sleep.

So, does anyone else find MRIs relaxing? No? Just me then? I actually sort of dozed off in there, in between wishing there was some sort of LED show going on inside the tube for me to watch. Nate was disappointed that he couldn’t go in the room and see the images.

Now it’s off to Wood-n-Tap for a friend’s birthday. Yay!

I know I already posted today but this story on Pamie.com had me in tears laughing because it’s happened to me.

Sometime recently my coworkers and I became fixated on text messaging. We’d send each other weird text messages at odd times. Amanda would never get said text messages. Then one day I got a new phone with a camera and wanted to test the function where you assign a picture to a person and when they call their picture pops up. So I took a lovely picture of Amanda (Exhibit A: ) and set it up and tell her to call me. She does, no picture.

“Maybe you need to do the area code?” she says.
“I think I did, let me check …” *pulling up menus, both of us peering at it* “See, I did!”
“…that’s not my number,” she says.
“What?”
“That’s not my number!”
“OH MY GOD!”
At this point we both dissolved into laughter as the full weight of the situation hit us. You see, the aforementioned “weird text messages” usually said something like “I’m watching you” or “Don’t turn around.”

So, to the nice old lady whose grandchildren forced her to get a cellphone, you can turn yours back on now. I promise, the demons have all been exorcised.

So, that’s it. Sort of. We still have a family party on January 6, and still have to give my dad and his family their gifts, and other assorted family members their gifts …

It never ends!

I did really well this Christmas, courtesy of a very smart Nate. The big things were a mini roboreptile, a BIG roboreptile, and the entire X-Files DVD collection! Some of you may or may not know that I was a HUGE X-Files nerd in high school. Huge. We’re talking went to conventions (not in costume, mind you). So this gift is just insane for me. I’m so excited to dive back in from the beginning and revisit old favorites.

Now, for my new robotic friends. They are SO COOL! The little one just walks around, but he’s adorable. The big one is incredible! He’s pretty lifelike and has very articulated movements. Mine seems to be the bad seed, though. He comes with a plastic piece that you fit over his head to put him to “sleep.” You’re supposed to put it on him and he calms down (the same effect can be achieved by turning off the lights or just putting a towel over him). WELL. Mine just tosses the hood off! He sits quietly for a few seconds, lulling you into a false sense of security, then he swings his tail, tosses his head, and off the hood comes, leaving him free to attack anything in his path! Leave it to me to get the bad raptor.

Nate also loved his gifts. They were all cooking related. I got him a grill pan, a digital probe thermometer, some grill pan accessories, and a bunch of fancy marinades and sauces. I see many tasty dinners in our future …

Ah, Christmas at home. My new motto this year is “Christmas is about doing whatever it is you want to do.” So, we slept all day. Pretty cool. Well, we got up to open presents and stuff, but mostly we lazed around. Now we’re making the baked apple pancake we meant to make around noon but couldn’t be bothered to do using Nate’s birthday apple peeler/corer/slicer device. It’s SO COOL. Everyone should have one.

Tonight, we may hit up a movie. God bless Hollywood for staying open even on Christmas.

Well, at long last it’s here.

Today will bring brunch at a friend’s, then off to Nate’s rehearsals and two church services, then back to Ye Olde Hartfordshire to pass out and then tomorrow we’ll exchange our gifts to each other. This is our third Christmas together but the first one we’re doing our gifts just the two of us on Christmas day itself.

No idea what we’re doing tomorrow. Maybe we’ll just laze around and play with our new toys! Have a happy one, all.

This year’s tree! And that big one on the floor there is for me, yay!

This is another favorite Christmas picture of mine. It’s Nate playing the guitar in front of our tree in our old apartment on our first Christmas together.

I took this picture in college. One morning we woke up to find that someone had hung colored Christmas balls in the bare trees all over campus and then it had snowed. It was surreal and beautiful. This has become one of my favorite “winter holiday” pictures.

Hooooly crap. We just got home from a marathon shopping session that resulted in our new American Airlines miles card getting suspended for suspicious activity. Oops. To be fair, Nate did buy $600 worth of stamps for work tonight.

Anyway, we did pretty well. We at least successfully finished anything we’d need to get in the Manchester area. That place will kill your will to shop.

Today I received the best Christmas gift so far: my insurance company approved my MRI. Thank you Jesus.

Now it’s time to scarf down some pasta and get ready to collapse into bed because I have to be at a networking thing at 8am. This sounded like a good idea two weeks ago …

They’re getting so expensive! We got a 3-pack of wrapping paper for $6 that is, admittedly, nice. However, each of the rolls is only 12 sq. feet. What kind of crap is that? Italian tole practically costs less per sq. foot. We also didn’t find a tree skirt. They barely had any and the ones they did have were $40. I’m usually pretty good at estimating what something will cost and I estimate that a freakin skirt to go under your tree should NOT be $40! I think Target is getting too big for it’s Christmas breeches. They used to have a range of stuff.

Leaving my cranky old man persona behind …

Nate and I continued the tradition of him opening his birthday gifts the night before his birthday. I come up with good reasons but really, it’s just that I’m a child and cannot wait for people to open their gifts. Tomorrow we’re going out to dinner with some friends. It was kind of a last minute thing so I’m pretty psyched that it worked out so well.

It’s a good thing I’m not Santa cause I certainly would not fit down any chimneys by the end of this week. Lunch at Grants tomorrow, dinner at Plan B. Lunch at Friendly’s on Thursday.

Aunt Mary-palooza was fun. We were only a little late, mostly due to Walgreens being out of my prescription and sending me to another store. Oh well. It was nice to catch up on all the family gossip. The Somerset Marriott, where we stayed, had lovely rooms but a godawful restaurant. Ugh. $11 for a burger that tasted like it’d fit better in a high school cafeteria.

It was … interesting to see my grandmother. She’s shrunken and kind of out of it and mumbles when she talks. Not at all what I remember. I also saw one of my dad’s sisters, which was nice, and one of my cousins. Didn’t even recognize her. The last time I saw her she was 10 and now she’s 16 which, if you can imagine, is a lot of growing up. I’m not sure what I got out of the visit, not sure what I was looking to get out of it, but I did it so I won’t regret anything.

Drive home wasn’t too bad, We stopped at Chili’s and met my mom and I got more of the post-party family gossip, plus shared some of my own.

Man this is really boring, mostly cause I shouldn’t SHARE said family gossip on the intarwebz.

Just very glad to be home, though not so glad that it’s already time for another week.