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feeling: hungry... mmm, coconut thingy from grandma...
listening to: Unwrapped on Food Network o.o
Ah, the seasonal rush. Well, mostly seasonal. Finest two weeks of the year, every year. >.> Pre-blog warning: the following is an account of my activities over the past week or so, and will probably end up long and quite boring. But I sorta have a tradition of running to this blog with updates on those rare days when I actually get out and do stuff... and since this is the first day I've had ample time to recount said activities, AND was in the mood to do it, they've sort of backed up. Hence the length.
Fun began last Thursday with the church dinner, which my brother showed up for with his son. Most of the evening consisted of me carrying him around (nephew, not my brother >>), along with letting him sit in my lap for the meal and generally being a good little windup doll. Much to the amusement of most everyone else in attendance, who see my nephew's adoration toward me as just the cutest thing... and much to the agony of my upper arms, which ached for days afterward. That kid is a workout and a half, I'll give him that. *rubs biceps*
Friday I tasted short-lived freedom, with a clear schedule, and Saturday was rehearsal day for the church program, meaning brass ensemble and choir thingy for me. Went ok, I guess. I had planned to go with my mom to my cousin's post-baby shower after that, but my practice ran late so she left without me. But I later found out that the new baby hadn't even been there anyway, and she WAS at my mom's family's Christmas party thing, which was that evening... so oh well. Took the nephew to the party again, and as usual he wouldn't let me put him down for the first fifteen or twenty minutes. Then I had to play trucks with him until his daddy arrived. Otherwise, decent evening, though kinda boring later when my parents upheld the yearly ritual of making our family the last to go home.
Sunday was... ok, actually. Brass ensemble had its first performance during the morning service and it went better than I expected. I don't know why exactly I always perform twice as well during the actual event as I do in every practice before it. *shrug* But heh, I was right in being thankful to have Jess there playing first trumpet along with me. There's one song that starts on a high F, which I had no trouble with in high school, but... after years of inactivity my jaws lost the ability to achieve that note when it's the very first one in a song. So I told her before we started the song, "you better hit this first F." And gumitall, she did. And gumitallsomemore, I didn't. :P Even better, there are several other high Fs in the song after that, and I got them all, but she missed them all. Exact same thing happened at the full program in the evening. It was great.
Anyway, about halfway through the morning service I stepped into a back room as I usually do (hey, there were Oreos and soft batch Chips Ahoy in the kitchen... I'm only human T_T) and on the way back out, ran into Jess. So somehow we ended up spending the rest of the morning hanging around talking, about our present lives and our favorite memories of a sweeter time and updates on some of the stuff that had happened in between, etc. I miss her, dangit. We had great times and we still have some good talks every now and then. Anyway, other activities of the morning involved praying that the suddenly driving snowfall would continue throughout the day so the evening program would have to be cancelled. Alas, no such luck - snow stopped falling before we even left church that morning. >_>
I feel I should add that I got my hair cut exactly one week ago, and I SWEAR it feels like it's grown half an inch already. x_x End tangent...
Anyway, then I went home for my afternoon nap, and then program time came around. Once again, brass ensemble went surprisingly well... very amused by Jess' and my highly efficient co-handling of those stupid Fs, again. :P Kids' program was pretty amusing to watch, especially since their director is in the habit of recycling old programs from years ago, back when I was still being forced to play parts in them. We all find it very amusing every year to point to a little kid on the stage playing a part that we played ourselves years ago. I was the co-host, Justin was the host, Nate was that one wise man, Willard was Herald, Jess was still young enough to be in the chorus with the other rugrats in angel robes and garland halos, etc etc. I couldn't remember what role I'd had in this year's though, so I assume it was one from, like, a year or two after my last year as a kiddie actress. Geez, I'm getting old. =.=
Then Monday I returned to the church to go caroling, something I used to do every year but hadn't done in probably 10 years now, for various reasons. Weather cancellations, conflicting plans, refusal to put up with certain demon spawn cousins who felt the need to go, unwillingness to see certain faces there having fun together as always while I wandered around alone and unnoticed, etc. I wanted to go last year, but didn't in the end because my emotions were still kinda rubbed raw from certain situations then... plus that cousin felt the need to go. Ugh. But I took a chance this year because I regretted missing it last year, plus I wanted to see Jess again. >.> Thankfully, demon spawn cousin was not there. But neither was Jess. 9_9 So we made her house one of the stops on our caroling route, and Willard and I attempted to drag her into our little party, but she refused, claiming it was too cold. Bah! This coming from the girl who joined me in complaining when caroling was cancelled due to weather in past years... >.> ahem... anyway, was still a pretty fun evening. Got free hot chocolate out of it. *heart*
Then yesterday we took a break from the holiday rush... but the rest of the world didn't. x_x Of course my parents' anniversary just HAD to be on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, which meant taking mom out to dinner and doing some random no-special-occasion shopping (mostly window shopping heh) became an all-day affair just because of insane traffic and mobbing crowds. So we went to Lancaster and poked around in various places, where the only actual purchases made were a tiara and fabric to make a shirt, both for my Ohayocon Kaede costume. Other points of interest were dad stopping at every cellular phone kiosk in the mall comparing competing family plans, and spending probably two hours in an antique mall that had loooootts of Snoopy/Peanuts stuff. *is Snoopy's fangirl* But again, didn't buy anything. Finally we went to Olive Garden, which doesn't exist in our hometown, so I had never eaten there before. Good stuff. Finally, on the way home, we stopped at Kmart to browse color cards and pick out potential colors to paint a few rooms in the house, including mine.
Finally, today we visited my great great aunt, which every year leaves me wondering just how many more Christmases she'll be with us. Since it's pretty much the only time of the year we see her, and such. For most of my life she and Uncle Ray were the two most elderly and essentially homebound members of our family, both of whom we've always dedicated a day in the week before Christmas to visiting and sharing plates of cookies with... and Ray died this past year, so now there's only Nellie. I do love the woman, but her house smells disgusting. It probably hasn't been cleaned in decades, and she's our resident cat lady in the family. x_x Not crazy, but still the cat lady. So yeah... floors buried in 2 inches of fur and dust and the odors of the ages hanging in the air... *shudder*
After that I finally made it to the post office to pick up a money order that should make certain short tempered Asian boy pretty happy. >.> Was pretty amusing when the first guy I talked to said he didn't have any international MOs, so he had to send me to another teller, and when this guy asked me what country I was shipping to and I told him Japan, he said "Not gonna happen." Yeeeeah, never mind that I just bought an MO from there, like, 2 months ago and the items it bought me are happily strewn around my room as I speak. >.> So yeah... set him straight, got my order, and accompanied the parents to Lowe's, where I got some more color cards in preparation for the painting of my room. I got sick of the nasty grey-lavender color on my walls long ago, not to mention the cracks and holes and greasy spots all over them. Gonna be nice to finally get some real blinds after the painting is done, too. I kid not when I say my current curtains are made from an old bedsheet cut in half. >_>
And that's pretty much it, so far. Tomorrow morning I have a dentist appointment, and the following day is Christmas Eve, which means I get to see my Dumplin' and eat lots of spiffy food. <3 And of course the day after that we go to see my brother and nephew to give them their goodies. Then the rush pretty much ends for another year, and I get to scramble around trying to finish assembling my four Ohayocon costumes. >__x;
In other news... it's really cold. And our central air doesn't seem to like climbing the stairs to my room any more than I do, so nights have been rather chilly up here lately. *curls up in blankey and rubs hands together* I understand it's also snowing like crazy in pretty much every Ohioan location that exists to our north, but all we've had here today is cold and dreariness and rain. *le sigh* Dangit, I want my snow too.
I am done now, so until next time, I suppose. Loves. <3
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dragged from Becky's stream of consciousness at 12/22/2004 06:10:00 PM
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