"Shut it butterscotch"

So, Christmas happened. I bullied my entire lab into making snowflakes and signing them before my break, then hung them on the Immunocap. It's quite an impressive display. On Christmas Adam's Eve I locked myself out of my house and broke in through the milk box. I sat there for 10 minutes just looking at it, wondering if I'd fit through it, then decided I'd better take the risk--because I was without a phone, without keys, and in my pj's. I went shopping with my sisters that same day, if I remember right, which might not be so. I finished finding presents for all my nieces and nephews. My little sis and I tried to save a duck on our way home. It was just chillin' out (very aptly since it was sitting on the frosty ground next to a lot of snow) in the back of Target. It would have none of it. It seriously just sat there as we drove by, stopped, snapped it's picture, and took off, but when my sister went towards it the duck made off into the snow. Oh well, but I did feel badly with it being so cold. I attempted to put together my tree of cans, but only succeeded in piling them about the basement, to my father's chagrin.

There was a party at FKs somewhere in there, and I saw old roommates, which was great. Christmas Adam I went to the McSomethingkin's family party, with all the McSomethingkins on my dad's side. I got some bungy cords to put in my trunk from the white elephant exchange we do every year. Then the kids did the nativity. My 1 and and half year old niece GF decided half way through that she didn't want to be a sheep. So every time we sang a hymn she came out and danced to along to it instead. I guess she was the "Christmas Queen" of our pageant, so I think I might refer to her as Lucy from now on. My sister and I started working on our puzzle Christmas Eve, which my twin niece's somewhat destroyed the day before last. Christmas Eve night I went to my second oldest sister's house for dinner, along with my parents, and my little sis and her husband. We put together a ginger bread house after dinner, and we discovered that I'm the most artistic person in my family. That night I slept on the top bunk of my nephew's bunk beds. He serenaded me with the "ABC song" in rounds that started out boomingly loud, then got softer till he was humming, then he fell asleep. Christmas day we had our immediate family party, which was chaos with our numbers. My nephew JC is so cute. I only barely finished my mother's picture, which was actually a frame with 30+ pictures in it, that I gave her for Christmas. Now I'm back at work and I'm very tired lately; and I finally got my cold, which probably explains the tiredness.

I saw Night at the Museum Wednesday night with the gang. I wasn't too impressed, but I'm not really a big fan of Ben Stiller other than Zoolander, so what can you do? There were scattered parts that were funny though, such as the title of this post. Before that I got to see my 9 month old nephew, because my brother and his wife are in town from Virginia. He's such a cute little boy, and he no longer looks like a little old man. Last night I got ample sleep, but I'm still exhausted. It feels like pneumonia, but without the cough. I've been going to work later and later each day it seems, and so I've been here later. However, I've been here at night for our group M&M breaks, so that's been nice. I work with all boys lately, and they have some pretty fun idiosyncrasies.

Belated Instances

This is old; oh well:
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Tuesday I went bowling for the first time in at least 2 years, I think. It was me, and 4 boys I work with. I managed to break a hundred, and broke my streak of going terribly downhill from 1st to 2nd game. I still bowled from way too far away, but in that second round I beat Logie by 2 points, which was nice as he had boasted winning me in both games just minutes before. I have yet to arm wrestle him, but he has a boasting problem. I also slaughtered him at Tekken 5 with my little log man. He had stupid victory dances, but cool moves. He is a very good bowler though; Logie, not the little log man. We decided to start a league, which probably won't happen, but we have a cool name; the Lab Rats. Logie did this fake trip and belly dive, which outrageously produced a strike.

Earlier that day Worm and I watched an Avatar marathon at his house, and he made chicken squares, and we sipped fancy beverages. He's my new gay best friend that's not gay.

Wednesday I had scones at Winder Dairy with my sister and her husband, then we watched Christmas movies. I made her sit on Santa's lap with me and get a picture. He wondered whether we were serious, then after a little bit of a look of senile incredulity, he made us both sit on his lap. He was very very old, and with his real beard is the best Santa I've every seen. Then he gave us candy canes. There was also a story involving rootbeer milk, but I refuse to tell it. However, if you see my little sister, she'll be sure to tell it to you.

Extremely Successful, Financially Crippling.

School ended Monday, and I celebrated by buying my body weight in shoes and clothes yesterday. Frogkisser helped. Actually, she was the catalyst. We worked out this arrangement a while ago, which I quite like. Basically she picks out all my clothes, I try them on, and--with her feedback and my minimal opinions on the matter--I buy them. It works quite well actually. Shopping with me is usually highly unpleasant, but I like not having to do the work and so am less stressed, and she likes picking stuff out. Pinkie came with us, and she didn't seem to get all that annoyed with me, so it mustn't have been all that unpleasant. I bought 3 pairs of shoes, two watches, 1 skirt, 1 dress (?), and many jackets/tops. I feel pleased with the experience--all but the over 300 bucks part. So I guess that's where my work bonus will go.

Today is Wednesday. I planned on selling my blood, but I might be getting a sore throat. I'm not sure. It might just be a lack of sleep. I also have a "getting to know you" meeting with my bishop tonight. I might have to take a nap before it. And Thursday will be an excellent day. I get to have tea with my favorite person (my little sis), I get to see an old friend (who's getting married) and tell her I like sushi after all, and I'll be taping a most excellent hour long "The Office" Christmas episode. I still have to finish some presents tonight too. Maybe I'll illustrate my book while I'm donating plasma, if I do.

Saturday and Sunday at work I plan on making Christmas decorations on my down-time. Yesterday I chatted with people quite a bit, and did a few random tasks for others when I was super board. I have a new best work buddy (I actually have quite a few of them), Worm, and that's exciting. He reminds me so much of Clarkie that it's scary. He was in my O Chem class, and will be in my Human Genetics class, and we studied a lot for O Chem. And we watched cartoons, The Avatar to be specific, when both of us were too sick of studying to continue. He's also turning me a wood mushroom, and he wrote a fantasy novel over the past year which I have a copy of to critique. I really do like the people I work with right now. I'm going to make Logie wear a matching hoodie with me tomorrow. That will be delightful.

"Stop stop stop"

School just ended. I'm still in a bit of a state of shock. Genetics ended last week, and I don't think I've ever been as happy. Oh, I guess that's what happened on Wednesday of last week that I couldn't remember, which means I spent Tuesday studying. The test didn't fill me with impending doom, but it's a wild card as to how I did, so we'll see. The important thing is that I stopped caring, so I'll be good no matter what happens. I can't say the same for my Organic Chemistry final I just took. I think I started studying early enough, but didn't focus on the really important things until too late. It's also a wild card as to how I did, but I care very much in this case. Dropping out of this class prematurely the last time I took it, making this the second time I've taken it, is mainly why I care as much as I do. It was a medical reason, but I don't think they ever acknowledged that on my transcript, so... But what's done is done. I don't think I aced the final by any means, but hopefully I didn't botch it badly enough to fail it.

Now I'm sitting in the Marriot Library, typing this, and wondering what to do with my life for the next week. I've been "go go go" all semester, and I'm not sure how to make the transition to Christmas break mode, especially with so much to do still--though highly more pleasant of course. Tomorrow I start my work week, and I'm buying shoes with FK. It should be memorable, since my shopping expeditions are always memorable. She was trying to beg Duckling to come with us yesterday at the fireside, and I felt slightly insulted at the implications. But with her doing all of my actual shopping for me, and me only involved in the trying of things on and purchasing, it shouldn't be as stressful as I tend to make these things. Wednesday Duckling and I are going to sell our blood. Thursday we're both going with my little sis and other friend to tea. Then I have a wedding reception. I feel something's happening Friday, but I don't know what. I have to start shopping for family presents sometime soon, and I have to clean out my room at my parent's house since they're remodeling theirs. And I need to start on my can tree, finish my pinata, start practicing my anatomy skills for next semester, and plan Fun Week. I feel a little overwhelmed still, and I have less money than I think I need to accomplish all I want. Well, we'll see how it all goes.

Old Stuff

This is an old post I wrote and then didn't post. Then I discovered I hadn't posted it way after the fact. If there are spelling and grammar problems...Tough luck Aaron. I'm not willing to go through it and make sense of what I wrote then.
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Monday we had a pizza party at work. Gus decided we needed a Friday tradition (our Friday that is), I decided there should be food, he decided pizza is a Friday food, and so our biweekly tradition was born. I got the nastiest nose bleed during our party. Our Benefits Fair was also this day, as was my last Genetics class; now there's just the test left to go. O chem ends Monday, so I need to get in gear immediately. I'm dropping my last test, and it's kind of a joke how badly I did. I really did laugh; I didn't know it was possible to do so badly on a single test. My sister sent me one of her random powerpoint presentations while I was still at work, but I didn't have enough time to watch more than half of it, then got busy and didn't finish the rest of it before leaving for the week, which kind of bummed. What I saw of it was as I remember the rest of her random projects to be--hilarious. I need to convince her to start posting them on her blog or something. I don't know if that's possible, but there's got to be a way to post it to the internet, and then link to it at least.

I don't really remember Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Friday was Winder Dairy followed by a Christmas movie. There was a lot of driving, and I finally convinced Sheidi that I am a horrible driver after all. Before heading to WD I stopped at my parents' house and my dad put on my new license plates, and some books I ordered online had come in the mail--Amazon is way too accessible. I wasn't so happy with the movie choice, since the original Grinch is such a classic and in my opinion the new one is a defamation; there are just too many Christmas movies I'm looking forward to watching this season, and I had hoped to cross one of them off my list. Such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Home Alone (which I bought just the other day on DVD), A Bump in the Night's Christmas special, The Smurf's Christmas special (if ever I can find it), Frosty the Snowman, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer...The list is long, and I plan on watching all of them. We did watch a Claymation Christmas, or parts of it, but very few people enjoy it as much as I, which throws a damper on it completely. If there's one thing I hate, it's when a damper is thrown. They're heavy, and all-encompassing. Scones were excellent, even though the dog ate my remaining scones. Now there just needs to be sledding and a snowball fight.

I had a date on Saturday, with this kid my sister wants me to marry so she can combine family functions with his sister, who is her good friend. I also went to the Festival of Trees earlier with most of family, which made me happy. My niece was dancing, and the vast majority of my nieces and nephews were there. We didn't really get to look at many trees, but as that's one of the places I went on my date, it didn't really matter much. After the first visit I took a nap at my parents' house. I got to sleep on my old, queen sized bed. Man do I miss that thing. Then I got ready and went on my date with Guy, as I will henceforth refer to him. At the F of T's I got some good ideas for my tree we're entering next year. In addition to the ornaments I already have, I'm going to cut apart cans and construct 3D ornaments, as seen on some of the trees. And make a train out of Soda can boxes. I love Christmas trees. After the trees we went to Iggy's Sports Grill, during a jazz game no less, so there were random bursts of cheering during our conversations, which startled us both. Funny that neither of us were huge on watching sporting events, but we were at a sports bar. We had an overly attentive waiter, which was made for interesting breaks in conversation. Guy smelled really good, and was pretty cute. But although we had a lot in common, there wasn't much in the way of chemistry. Perhaps too much in common. Anyway, after I bought meatballs for my potluck the next day, and my sister was nice enough to lend me her crock pot. That turned out better than I thought it would--I'm not too fond of Swedish meatballs, even with mushrooms.