Yarg

I have just discovered that I have more than enough vacation time to allow myself to take off the full week of Christmas and the full week of New Year's off. I may move some of the days around, though, depending on when Michael and Lilly are coming home.

But the possibility of sixteen consecutive days of non-work is enough to make a girl feel faint.

Sabbatical? What sabbatical?
- posted by Laura @ 4:13 PM

 
On a musical note... (heh)

Two things. One: I absolutely loved the hell out of John Mayer's first album (or maybe he had more before that - "Room Enough for Squares" is what I'm talking about). However, I'm finding myself not liking his new album at all. At least, none of the radio-play songs are catching my fancy.

Two: Evanessence(sp? See, I don't even like 'em enough to look up the correct spelling of their name) just needs to give up right now. They are SO OLD and I am SO DONE with them. There's just so much heartfelt wailing that I can take, really.
- posted by Laura @ 1:32 PM

 
Weird

I'm on hold with my hair salon. On my laptop, LaunchCast is playing "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac. The salon's hold music is "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles. My mind can discern each song individually - I find that I can sing along, in my mind, to both songs at the same time.

Does that make me an idiot savant?
- posted by Laura @ 9:48 AM

 
Venting

Have you ever been accused of something, and that something was the furthest thing away from the truth? Have you ever been continually discounted when trying to convince the other party of your innnocence, to the point where you stop trying and just get mad instead?

Annoying, isn't it.
- posted by Laura @ 8:25 AM

 
Editor's Note

I added a little prep note to the potato casserole recipe, just in case you, you know, printed the recipe off as soon as you saw it or something.
- posted by Laura @ 7:58 PM

 
New one

There's a new entry up in the journal. With a couple of new recipes, if you're interested.
- posted by Laura @ 5:15 PM

 
Fu Wisdom

This made me snort water out of my nose and all over my keyboard:

"When all the words you used to have are vacationing in Borneo, and the words that are left behind are fat and flaccid and boring and bombastic and trying to wrestle them into place is like trying to grapple a Criscoed-up boulder of boils up onto the apex of a pyramid made of tapioca-filled condoms? Writer's block."

Here's the whole entry. I really don't know what I did with myself, pre-Jen. Life was certainly less colorful, that's for sure.
- posted by Laura @ 2:19 PM

 
Exorcism

I'm sitting here at my desk doing an analysis, listening to LaunchCast. "Love Song" by Tesla is on.

This was the very first song that X(m) and I skated to, on our very first date, back when I was fifteen. So it became one of "our" songs.

Except that now, the first thing I think of when I hear this song is the day I sang it at the top of my lungs to Calvin, driving down the street with the windows open one sunny day. And how he grinned through the whole thing.

And just like that, another memory connected to X(m) was exorcised, replaced by a memory trigger featuring Calvin.

Heh. And now "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood is playing, and it reminds me of a day in late November when I was a teenager, dancing in the "living room" of one of my sister's less reputable dwellings, to this song. There was a tree stump (not one of those fancy varnished and smoothed ones that the artsy fartsy places like to sell - no this was a stump brought in from the woods) in the middle of the room, with the remains of what must have been hundreds of candles, melted in a great multi-colored lump on top, wax running in hardened rivers down the side.

I'll have to do an entry sometime about the colorful experiences I had with my sister in the early years.


- posted by Laura @ 2:06 PM

 
Blarg

For the last five days, I have done absolutely nothing of any usefulness whatsoever. Oh sure, I baked a couple of pies. I did a modicom (sp?) of house cleaning on Saturday. The laundry is clean, but not folded and/or put away. I think I read, like, five books. I love Laurell K. Hamilton. I love Anita Blake.

Friday Calvin, Marie and I went to the video store. Wandered around proclaiming "I'm bored!" to no one in particular. Rented "The Kings of Comedy" and "Martin Lawrence Live" and "Money Talks" (I think? That one with Charlie Sheen and Chris Rock. Or was it Chris Rock? No, it was that other guy that was in those movies with Jackie Chan.). Watched them at different points throughout the weekend. Bored.

We went to the drive-in Saturday night. Saw "Bad Santa". Sat there for an hour and a half with horrified looks on our faces. Went home, stunned. Then watched "Rules of Attraction" on cable while in bed. Went to sleep, stunned.

Yesterday. Ugh. Yesterday Calvin and I sat on the couch and watched "About Last Night", and some other miscellaneous TV. There was vodka, and orange juice. Ever been hung over at 8:00 at night?

Calvin needs to stop working weekends. It throws my whole routine off.

On a positive note - Michael, Lilly, and the baby are planning on coming home around New Year's. We have decided to postpone our usual Christmas Lobster Dinner until they're home to feel the love. Which leaves me in an interesting dillema - what do I serve my family on Christmas? I haven't had to think about that in six years - the menu's always been set in stone.

Huh.
- posted by Laura @ 2:35 PM