this is too long, but who wants to work today anyway?

So, Christmas.
I spent Christmas with my boyfriend and his mother, stepfather, and little brother in b.f. Virginia. It was actually pretty nice, lots of yummy vegetarian food, the Redskins beat the Cowboys, and I got some sweet gifts (even though we agreed not to buy any this year!!). I took a nice drive to the Shenandoah mountains where there was a tiny mountain town with an old-fashioned country store, a swinging walking suspension bridge over a bubbling crystal-clear pebble-bottom river, and some secluded mountain cabins nestled in the snow, their front porches overtaken by heaping mounds of chopped wood, a trail of smoke drifting, tranquil and lonely, from their chimneys, surrounded by a forest of stark, barren trees rising to the sky. It was very zen.

There was a terrifying/hilarious moment that night when we thought we broke the guest bed in half.... It was a futon, and was just trying to fold itself back into a couch with us in it, like a taco, or a hungry venus flytrap...

The next morning we went to church- it was a small country church that looked like the inside of an ark. The pastor said things in his sermon like, 'Have you ever been all lathered in a dither?' and 'you know how kids can get, all wiiild and wooly'. Haha. I'm not Christian but, mostly it made me think, 'there has to be more to church then this.' Like, a fancy cathedral with the sunshine filtering in through the stained glass windows, a choir that makes something stir inside of you when you hear them sing, a sermon that compels you to try to be a better person... I've never been to anything like that, but these small-town churches with their boring sermons and white-bread Christian contemporary music just doesn't do anything for me. I'm not religious at all but I feel there is a beauty to be found in religion, I just have never experienced it. I passed the time by reading the Book of Esther in the bible- a damn good story whether you are religious or not!

The next day we went to V's father's side of the family's holiday dinner. There are a couple of Jews there that are somehow related and they always bring Jew food, like kugel. There was a killer Cuban black bean soup and also a fruit/coconut side dish that was delish. After dinner, V's father, an accomplished musician, and his cousin Jason played a few songs on the guitar. Jason had such an amazing voice that I have no doubt he could be famous if he put his mind to it. Before I had to leave he played Leaving on a Jet Plane, Mary (great song by Patty Griffin), and finally Shelter, a song by Ray LaMontagne, who I hadn't heard of before. It was so incredible that I immediately downloaded his album, Trouble. If you are one of my favorite people, you will be receiving a copy of this in the near future, yet another reason to rejoice knowing me :P. If you're not one of my favorite people, click here to have a listen.

Monday V took me to a play, West Side Story, at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. It was so sweet of him because I know he isn't into musicals, not even a little bit, somewhere deep down inside. We got all dressed up (V made an entrance, coming down the stairs in his suit and tie, the handsomest boy in the world) and went to Kumari on Charles St. for lunch, it was sooo gooood. I noticed people walking in eyeballing us with a mixture of envy and mirth, the good-looking couple in the seat of honor by the window overlooking Charles Village from on high, obviously with more interesting afternoon plans then them, perhaps imagining what swanky event we might be going to next :P

Next up- trying to survive the yearly hannukah party

Song of the day (er, my life?)
You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want); Joe Jackson