hectic holidays

this is just going to be a quick summary of my holidays so if that bores you, click here instead, this is damn interesting.

My friend Melynda came to visit from SC, and after V & I went to pick out the new awesome beautiful ginormous TV we went to the cheescake factory with her bebehs and mine, hung out all day at my pad and AGAIN she teased me with talk about wanting to move back to the area, though I think she was scared away by real estate prices around here!! I told her Catonsville is way more affordable and we should both buy houses there next door to eachother!! keep dreamin. As usual the visit was too short and not enough time for catching up and talking about REAL stuff without the kids around! But she does have 3 beautiful adorable girls. One of them is almost the same age Melynda and I were when we met--- GULP!

Then Friday the hannukah party at my mom's with V, monica, and aaron G. from way back when.
<--aaron & i singing hannukah songs! haha Went to V's mom's in Culpepper for Xmas, then Xmas day to his aunt's house where his dad and cousin played some guitar which is always nice and inspired me to pick up my ol' guitar too when i got home! Sat. night we went to Federal Hill with V, Aaron & my bro who hated it because of the smoke (In NY they banned smoking everywhere, not so in Baltimore--yet.) We went to a regular bar, then a gay bar called the Eagle where V's neighbor Matt bartends. It reminded me of the Blue Oyster Bar from Police Academy! Later on Mo came to visit on his break from officer school and we went to the always delish and highly recommended Iron Bridge Wine Company for dinner then home to watch 'Invincible' with Marky Mark on the new big telly with the kids. The next day Mo, Jojo, kids and I went to Balt to visit Edgar Allen Poe's grave which in all of my years living in this area I've never gotten around to, then pizza at Matthews with V, dropped the kids off with their dad and then we all saw Apocolypto, which despite the gruesome and emotional beginning that made me feel like I was going to have Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, was really good and so different from all of the other movies out there - very refreshing to have no big actors in a movie for a change, no tom cruise or brad pitt headlining.
Next movies I want to see: Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth

Anyway, all in all a very busy, stressful, fun, company-filled holiday! Hooray for having friends and family, which makes one feel rich indeed.

stranger in a strange land

Being Jewish in Christian america is an interesting experience.
I think I spent my early years trying desperately to assimilate and blend in with my peers, embarrassed to death of my foreign-accented mother throwing a slew of high-decibled fast-flowing hebrew at me, longing to be like my best friend in elementary school with her soft spoken uber-american parents with their 'okey-dokeys' and phony fronts. While I've mostly grown out of the need to blend into invisibility and conform to those around me, and with hindsight would never want those people as my parents, sometimes I wonder what life is like for those in the majority. I don't think about it often, more so perhaps during the holidays. Still its an interesting life experience to always be different in some way from those around you. All of the 'merry christm....er, happy hannukah...' s and awkwardness that comes with that. Perhaps because I am one of the 'different' ones, I never feel any kind of strangeness about being around those of different backgrounds or religious affiliations, yet sometimes I feel the christians around me find my jewishness very foreign, as if I have cancer, or some sort of deformity or something. I wonder how it has shaped my personality. I wonder what its like to feel 'normal' and like everyone else. But really, does *anyone* feel 'normal' and like they totally fit in at all times? I wonder...

What really got me thinking about it was my son complaining about how some kids at school always manage to fit something in about him being Jewish, whether it makes sense or not. Its like, constantly having someone say, 'you're different. you're not like us.' Does this sort of thing build character, or is it just an additional arbitrary hurdle to add on to all of the difficulties of growing up and living this life?

But really, who wants to be just like everyone else? Boring!

awesome: radiohead live

best present ever

Is a 57" TV

woohoooo!!!!!

Some lovely gift ideas for your loved ones:

• A very special holiday gift
• There is no gift that says "I am thinking of you in a very special way" quite like this

A (whack) happy feel-good holiday video

punny weird or punny haha

Sticks float.
They would.




oh come on, that's hilarious

what are you going to spend your xmas bonus on - gas to get to the party, or... a trip for 4 to hawaii all expenses paid!

Wed. night, V came over to watch the Wizards game. We cooked some Indian vegetable curry with sweet potatoes, asparagus, and broccolli (A.K.A. magma) and samosas, and ate dinner together, him, me and the kids. then V watched the game while Jake and I put together some chairs I just got for FREE off of Craigslist. Just a regular old evening, but I really loved it. Also I got flowers :)

It put all of the rest of the days of this week to shame, prolly why I'm in a piss poor mood today! Oh, no, wait, thats probably the holidays doing that. Bah humbug.

Speaking of the holidays, my one friend got a $3600 bonus and a $300 gift card to best buy. And, she's not like the CEO or anything either! I shouldn't complain, I'll probably get between $100-$200, my other friends got nothing. but, wow! $3600???

If you shot a deer and it had 7 legs and both male & female sex organs, would you eat it??

An uplifting song & video about the events of 2006 and where this country is headed by Jib Jab

Humping Dog USB Drive Robs Us All of Precious Dignity

Sure to be a big hit around the orifice this season...



:P

wow cool

Check out GOOGLE CHECKOUT

Watch the tour video, sounds pretty cool, you dont have to fill in a million forms and passwords for every online store you shop at. I havent tried it yet but i'm going to! Try it now and get $10 off purchases of $30 or more. nice.

China is weird!

TERRIFYING NEWS STORY OF THE DAY:
Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'
"They are said to have scampered off at the sight of humans, some carrying pieces of flesh. "

cruise photos

Click on the large photo above to flip through the slide show.

The first bunch of photos are from the cruise, the last few are from South Beach Miami, FL where we were stuck for the day on Sunday and scammed a hotel into watching our luggage (they even gave us some free bottled waters) for us while we relaxed on the beach and watched some winning ravens and redskins games!

Jet

This weekend I took V to see the band Jet, a kind of up-and-coming Australian band that has a little bit of a Beatles-esque sound to them. It was supposed to be this great surprise gift but then I found out the concert was on the evening of the same day that he was going to be at a Redskins game all day! So, that sucked, but he rallied and, although he was a little tired I think it was still fun. Sadly, planning things is NOT my forte.

I also helped M paint her dining room a deep dark red, which was an adventure! An amazingly NOT messy adventure. Man, painting is hard work though! She's got these amazing high ceilings, and the room is a cool shape, like not just a boring rectangle. Its going to look great when its all done. Then I played spades with V, Matt & Eric and ate Indian food. Sunday designed a logo for a freelance project; working on the weekend blows. Anyway, fun weekend but exhausting! On Monday morning I'm in a meeting, half asleep and trying to rub the 9:30 club stamp off of my hand, haha!

I wish people were better

Including me.

This week someone told me a story about going to visit a couple she had met. She had a strong attraction to the husband when they first met, and after that had began a flirty relationship over email and IM. Soon after, she was going to be in their town for the holidays, and they invited her over to visit. Upon visiting them, the husband and this person found the attraction between them to be irresistible. He snuck away from his wife with a lie about going Christmas shopping, and they had a couple of tumbles together. Now, although both feel somewhat guilty and know what they did was wrong, would both be willing to do it again. Because its exciting, and taboo. Why are people like that, and can you ever trust anyone?

This story, a common one I'm sure, really caused me to feel down. Temporarily seriously lay-in-bed depressed. Why can't people be better? When I told my mother why I was feeling down, she said, 'all you have to do is look at the news to see how crappy people are. Every day they talk about genocide in Sudan, and everyone just says, 'that sucks' and turns the channel."

And I'm one of them.

And now for something completely different!
Quote of the day, overheard my mother talking to my brother:
"I'm not going to give you a guilt trip about going to Norfolk during the holidays.
...Everyone else goes home for the holidays, you go to Norfolk. I guess I can see what your priorities are."

haha- you see, its funny, because immediately after saying she wasn't going to give him a guilt trip, she plows right into him with the biggest guilt trip ever! I guess if you have to explain it, its not that funny. Oh well.

In case this has depressed you, read this somewhat uplifting story