Ahh...it's here...

Ahh...I love winter break. Well, I love it once we get past Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I just don't particularly care for the craziness of the last minute have-to-dos. I think I did better keeping my wits about me this year, than I did last, though. Baby steps to sanity.

So I love winter break, heck, I love all breaks. I love them way more now than I did when I was a student. I feel that breaks should be a time of relaxation and rejuvenation but my teachers never seemed to agree with me. Many of my high school teachers felt that vacations were just a time for us to work on lengthy, time-consuming projects so throughout high school a little part of me dreaded vacations just because I knew what was coming. It got better in college because at least winter break was stress free. But now that I'm working, all vacations are wonderful. There are things to do when I go back to work, but they can all wait until I get back to work. I am planning to enjoy this break because I suspect that I will not be able to enjoy spring break as much since it is the week before the convention. On my list for Winter Break 2007-2008:
1) Knit - I knit like crazy in the beginning but that was Christmas knitting. Now it's time for more relaxing knitting. I have some unfinished objects to work on and my mother has requested scarves for her and my aunty for their upcoming trip.
2) Read.
3) Work on the house - We actually plan to do quite a bit of this. Lance has been scraping away at the floors and we've been organizing and putting stuff away. I cleaned a bit and we've been working on getting some of our decorative stuff up. We just bought some stuff from Inspiration today and although it won't be delivered for a few weeks, we do have to prepare for the delivery. Hopefully we get a significant portion of our floor done during vacation. We still need to have a house warming party.
4) Relax.

Oh Christmas Tree

Two years ago, Lance and I celebrated our first Christmas together. We brought the tree home and learned that a Leatherman is a poor replacement for a saw. No matter, it was our first Christmas. Last year, we didn't get a tree. I was bummed but we were trying to sell our townhouse so no tree. This year was our second tree together. I thought it'd be easier than the first year since we had a little experience under our belt, but alas, an easy time it was not:

1) First weekend of December: Want a tree, but husband thinks it's too early to get one. Husband promises to get tree following weekend.
2) Second weekend of December: Too busy to get tree. Bummed.
3) December 10: Concern sets in that all of the trees are gone.
4) December 10: Drive by Star on the way home. Panic sets when no trees are spotted. Hopes Husband realizes that his Christmas will be unpleasant if there is no tree in house on Christmas morning.
5) December 10: Continue driving past Wal-Mart. Thrilled to see big white tree tent.
6) December 10: Husband arrives home and the tree hunt begins.
7) December 10: Go to Wal-Mart, only tree left is 9 feet tall. Proceed to Daiei.
8) December 10: Get distracted by Home Depot, end up buying tree. Strange woman approaches M*Bark to coo at her, impedes tree progress.
9) December 10: Arrive home w/ tree, stick it in large bucket outside.
10) December 11: Gear up to set up tree, realize that if tree is set up with no skirt around the stand, M*Bark will probably drink the water. No tree skirt found, remember that the skirt was thrown out two years earlier. Decide to put off tree decorating until tomorrow.
11) December 12: Buy new tree skirt, go home to set up tree.
12) December 12: Husband arrives home and brings tree in. Tries to put tree into stand, realize that stand is way too small for tree. Decide to put off tree decorating until tomorrow.
13) December 13: Buy new tree stand. Husband comes home.
14) December 13: Husband brings tree in. Tree goes into stand and doesn't fall. Rejoice.
15) December 13: Tree looks thirsty. Realize that forgot to cut off the base of the tree. Very quietly tells husband.
16) December 13: Realize that still do not have adequate saw. Go to dad's house to borrow one.
17) December 13: Take tree out of stand, saw off base.
18) December 13: Tree refuses to stand in base, realize that bottom branches must now be cut off.
19) December 13: Cut off bottom branches. Tree stands nicely. Rejoice.
20) December 13: Put up lights and ornaments.
21) December 13: Realize that there is no star/angel for the top of the tree. Realize that amount of ornaments too small for size of tree.

Oh Christmas tree.

I love my ipod

Wednesdays are my testing/paperwork/catch up day. Today I didn't have to test so I used my day to catch up on some stuff and to do some paperwork. As usual, I reached into my bag and extracted my ipod. I also use my ipod in the car and at home (Lance got me a iHome so I can wake up to the Spice Girls), so it's not unusual that my earphones were not connected to my ipod. I looked in my purse/bag but no earphones. I didn't panic because I thought surely they were in my backpack. They were not in my backpack. Panicking, I re-searched each bag twice and finally resigned myself to a musicless day. No music = Grouchy Kathleen. Near the end of the day my friend found a pair of extra earphones in her classroom so at least the last hour of my day had music in it, but still it was a pretty grouchy day.

Music's always been an important part of my life. I don't know why, it just always has been. I'm not one of those people who is a music critic. I generally won't pick apart a piece and talk about it. I just like what I like. I had a friend who considered himself a music critic. Actually, he thought he was a critic about everything. Music, movies, restaurants, he had an opinion about it (and annoyingly he felt the need to pompously share his opinion, regardless of whether or not you cared to hear it...). He couldn't help but share when he thought that what you liked sucked. It would've been okay if he could've just left it to a "I don't like it," but he felt the need to tell you exactly why he didn't like it. He never understood why people got offended but I never understood why he couldn't understand.

Anyway, I love my ipod. After only a year and a half my first ipod died. I was so devastated that I felt a little piece of me died with it. It was a horrible couple of days as I desperately tried to revive it. No such luck and I ended up replacing it. The newer model was sleeker and had video but I was still sad that I had to get rid of my first one. It took me days to re-add my library. My ipod's with me nearly every day. I wake up to it in the morning, I listen to it on the way to work, and I listen to it during work whenever I can. It keeps me sane. There are days at work when I get stressed having to deal with stupid adults but once they leave I put my earphones in. I feel better when Pink's coursing through my head.

I'm going to bed now. What should I wake up to tomorrow morning?