Movies I highly recommend...

Two movies I've seen recently that I would highly recommend:

Juno

Lars and the Real Girl

Anyone have a lunch pail?

In just 2 ½ short weeks I will be hitting the books and returning to school…AGAIN. You know when you applied for college and it asked you to list all of the schools you had ever attended and then said to attach more pages if necessary? Yeah, that note was meant for me. When I had to send out requests for colleges to send in my transcripts I nearly choked at the number of schools I had credits from – 7. YES, SEVEN. Granted I had credits from three of those before I graduated high school, but the thought of me having credits from seven institutes of higher learning and no piece of paper to show for it was depressing. But that’s why I was requesting the transcripts, right? Right.

As of January 4 I will be starting at The College of Saint Catherine (or St. Kate’s as the locals like to call it). It’s an all women’s (for the most part) Catholic (but very liberal) college a short 10-minute drive from our new apartment. I will be switching my major to social work this time and should graduate in like 25 years. Just kidding. I’m hoping to finish up in about 2 years, although it could stretch a little longer. I’ve been really impressed with all of the people I’ve met so far. Everyone has been extremely helpful and kind which are rare qualities to find at colleges these days (and trust me, after going to 7 other schools, I know what I’m talking about!).

I went to orientation on Saturday. After sitting through a BORING couple of hours of email, safety, and other “important” training I was able to take a tour of the school, buy my books, obtain my parking permit, and get my student id all in under 30 minutes. Not bad at all (even if the books for my first two classes cost almost $300!).

I’m sure I’ll be writing a lot more about school as it gets started and I start getting inundated with work…something for all of you to look forward to, I guess :)

Happy Holidays!

We got our Christmas tree up! Okay, so it’s been up for a couple of weeks. I’ve just been lazy and haven’t had a chance to write about it yet! After a little nudging from Lisa last year we picked up a tree. As I was opening the box this year I worried that parts may be missing and chided myself for not setting it up last year to make sure all was well. The worry was for nothing, though, as all the pieces were there and we were able to get it set up.

Tempers only flared for a moment when I was trying to put it in its stand and Kristin was laughing at the sight of me with my head buried under the tree and butt in the air instead of telling me if it was straight or not. She finally stopped laughing long enough to tell me that it was all wrong – too far to the right, too far to the back, too far to the left …after some more laughing on her part and a death glare from me we finally got it done.

The tree sat for a few days without any decorations on it. At my begging Lisa came over to help me decorate. I decided I didn’t buy enough decorations last year and hope to buy some more for next year to make the tree a little more festive.

Surprisingly, the cats have pretty much left it alone (maybe it had something to do with our attempt at trying to force them to be in a 'family' photo - see below - none of them were very happy with the whole process, and that might have scared them off a bit ;)). Occasionally they’ll try to bite at the lower branches, but it’s been up for a few weeks now and so far hasn’t been torn down or otherwise destroyed by the cats.

We put up a few of my nativity sets. I used to collect them. I remember seeing a news thing when I was 12 or so about some weirdo who collected them. She had like 300 sets or something. I decided I wanted to have more than her. I never made it past 75 or 80 sets before I gave up on that. Most of the sets are stored in boxes at my parents’ house. My mom keeps telling me that she’s going to mail them all to me, but I always come up with a reason for her not to (the current excuse is living in a 1-bedroom apartment with 3 cats!). The cats have pretty much stayed away from the sets as well with the exception of Milly’s obsession with my s’more set (which Kristin thinks is totally sacrilege!). For some reason Milly thinks it’s hilarious to knock the marshmallow Mary and Joseph off of the shelf they currently reside on, so every day I search the floor and behind the couch to find them and put them back on either side of Jesus so she can knock them off again.

That’s about it for decorations this year. We’re leaving for Utah/Idaho on the 22^nd and won’t really be around until New Year’s, so I figure a tree and a few nativities are good enough for this year.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season!

Birthday Time!

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated the coming and going of yet another year. For a full 29 years I’ve been taking up space on this planet. I’m getting old, folks (even though I'm not yet to the ‘holy shit’ age of 31).

I’m not a huge fan of celebrating my birthday, so Kristin agreed that this year it would just be the two of us for a quiet dinner (last year it was a surprise party at Dave and Buster’s – which was fun, but not what I was really going for this year). She mostly kept to her promise and we went to dinner at La Casita with a few surprise guests (Lisa, Kamie, and Michele) followed by cake at home (made especially for me by Kami!!).

It was nice to see everyone, and we had a great time catching up. The worst moment? When Kristin decided everyone should share a memory of me. Interesting the things that people remember… ;)

Anyway, it was a good day, and I appreciated all of the wonderful cards, emails, and phone calls I received. Thanks, everyone!

PS - A few photo highlights:

Aw, how cute ;)

With Michele

Blowing out the candles!

Throwing coins in the fountain of youth...

haven't been able to determine if it worked yet or not...

Kami and Lisa

Knitting!

So I have taken up a new hobby – knitting! I have always wanted to do it, but it’s something I haven’t ever taken the time to learn (and, to be honest, I was pretty much just chicken to go to a class). Several weeks ago, though, at the urging of a certain someone, I enrolled in a 2-hour class. Up until the moment I walked through the door of the store I was certain I wouldn’t do it. I’m just not the “crafty” type and learning with 5 other people wasn’t my idea of a good time. But I went and managed to survive the class just fine.

I’ve now made several scarves and have watched my one grocery bag of supplies multiply to 4 bags, a box, and part of a shelf. Obviously I need to invest in some organizational items. It’s been a great learning experience for me, and I’m so grateful to those who urged me to ‘just attend the class already!’ :)

Here's a picture of Kristin 'modeling' my very first creation:

My next adventure is going to be a baby blanket. I’ve spent the last week or two looking at various patterns to find an easy one that won’t overwhelm my fledgling skills and hope to buy the yarn for it this week.