Vacation, abridged

It feels like it's been forever since I last updated. And really, I guess it sort of has. For that, you may blame my trip to the more southerly and easterly parts of the state. In my absence, I took some pictures. So here you are, dear readers: amends.

These are my cousin's daughters and are also two of my most favorite children in the world. They are Kylie and Ashlyn. They are seven and two, respectively. They are bright, sweet, fun, and always eat their vegetables. (Seriously, these girls leave nary a broccoli floret untouched--they just put some hummus on it and open wide. I like that and plan to implement a similar healthy eating policy with my own kiddies. Sorry, future children, you will eat vegetables when momma's home, and you can thank your cousin Meredith for showing her that it can be done.)

I spent pretty much the whole of last Saturday taking pictures of these girls at my aunt's house in Huntspatch, and these are a couple of my favorite shots. True to character, both of them.

Here is my brother drinking a beer with lunch during our Monday in Fredericksburg. Wait, allow me to come at that statement from a different angle: here sits a twenty year old sipping a German lager. In a restaurant. Before 5PM. On a Monday. Fredericksburg was awesome as all get out!

Sean and I spent a good hour on Saturday going through his mom's photo collection. Why? Because I need pictures for our wedding slide show, of course! I figure it's not too early to start compiling it since the baby pictures we have today are pretty much going to be the same baby pictures we have a year from now, and that'll leave one less thing for me to worry about during crunch time. Sean's mom, dear woman that she is, allowed me to borrow a good chunk of her collection, and in return I told her what date we'd chosen (because she either hadn't heard or didn't remember) and promised to bring the pictures back the next time I visited Texarkana. Anyway, it was clear from all of the pictures that I looked at that Sean was just born precious.

Be mine

[This lovely Valentine's bouquet is compliments of my daddy-o and my sweetheart. You'll learn about its origin in just a bit.]

I'd planned on doing a fairly thorough post about Valentine's Day (aka: my fourth or fifth favorite holiday or something) the day after it ended, and then two days after it ended, and then you know those times when you're employed as a writer and after hours upon days of doing your job you just want to step away from the words? That's me right now. But instead of putting the post off until 2011, I've decided to give you a quick and dirty break down of the weekend activities.

On Friday I...
- Built a snowman with my mom and dressed it up as both my brother and my Valentine.
- Made snow cream. Yum!
- Drove my dad to Costco so he could buy four dozen roses for my mom. Thirty red for the years they've been married + six white for the years they dated = six red and six white left over for yours truly.
- Arranged said roses in vases. HO BOY do I suck at that job.
- Welcomed my sweetie home from work at 7:00 only to learn that he had about four more hours of work ahead of him. Yuck.
- Drove all over the Metroplex Dallas looking for binder clips for Sean's take-home work project. Seriously, Target, Walgreens, and Tom Thumb are on my bad list for life. Especially Target, because how can you sell sets of multi-colored binder clips of various sizes that come packaged with sets of multi-colored paper clips but not just boxes of small black binder clips? Team Wal-Mart 4eva!

On Saturday I...
- Lifted my head off the pillow just long enough to mumble "good-bye" to my sweetie as he left for work at 5:30AM.
- Visited Tom Thumb (it may be on my bad list, but that doesn't make it any less conveniently located) five hours later to shop for ingredients for lunches for Sean + ingredients for dinners for both of us.
- Cooked lunches for Sean while working on, well, work.
- Welcomed Sean home from work at 7:00PM and received a beautiful bunch of baby blue hydrangeas. "You kept talking about how much you like them," said Sean, "so I figured that was a hint or something." The man is good!
- Didn't have a vase for my hydrangeas and I didn't want to plop them in an oversized cup that my parents got from Texas Stadium and passed down to Sean, so I got creative and stuffed them in with the roses I got from dad. (When I say "stuffed" I am referring to my ineptitude at arranging flowers and not at all trying to indicate any negative feelings about my bouquet, which is in fact the only bouquet that I have ever endeavored to keep alive. I'm failing, of course, but I'm doing so with a lot of extra elbow grease.)
- Watched Good Will Hunting for the first time in like, 10 years. (Hint: It's WAAAAAY better when you're 23.)

On Valentine's Day I...
- Woke up too early for Sean's taste.
- Made breakfast for us to share.
- Tried to catch the 2:20 showing of Valentine's Day but missed it because I am a slow dresser. Tried to catch the 4:00 showing of Valentine's Day but missed it because the ticket lady said it was sold out. (Not so, said the board behind the ticket counter. Lame.) Bought tickets to the 5:20 showing.
- Wandered the mall waiting for show time and SURPRISE! Managed to save all of my money excepting the one dollar I spent on a drink at Sonic.
- Didn't breech the subject of how inane the movie was until we were almost at the car. I certainly did not like it, but I don't feel strongly enough about it to say that I hated it. It's like this--if you regularly spend $10 to take a nap, then by all means, see Valentine's Day. If you prefer to nap for free, don't see Valentine's Day ever. Not even when it comes to a Redbox near you.
- Returned home to chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and some pretty interesting show about human love (and some pretty nutty show about human sexual disorders. Weird.)

So yeah, I guess the actual quick and dirty version is this: More or less uneventful because my poor Valentine had to work through 2/3 of it. No matter though, because it just so happens that chick flicks (even truly awful ones), chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and hydrangeas! are the keys to my heart. The end.

2009 in Memoriam

Many people are inclined to lavish a year with praise or write it off as a loss as it's on its way out. I am not usually one of those people--one year ends, another begins, and life continues on its merry way--but 2009 was such a special year that I'm going to make an exception. You see, in 2009 life wandered off its merry course and into very unfamiliar territory (also known, by those of us for whom change is a fate worse than death, as hell). So for you, 2009, a swift kick in the pants for catapulting me into a fetid cesspool of uncertainty. And for you, 2010, a prayer that life will get back on track.

Of course, last year wasn't all bad, and it would be unfair for me to judge it based on one event (however dreadful) so I present to you a list of the 15 most influential occurrences of 2009. Can you spot the highest high? The lowest low? The biggest "What Was I Thinking!?" moment?

15. January: Said goodbye to my paternal grandfather.
14. January: Welcomed Sean's niece into the world.
13. January: Visited Texarkana for the first time.
12. February: Tried to touch up my own roots with atrocious results.
11. March: Roadtripped to amazing New Orleans.
10. April: Found out at 2AM that my bestie was engaged.
9. May: Saw Death Cab live.
8. May: Graduated from college.
7. June: Moved out of my sweet home in College Station and back into my parents' house.
6. June: Got my current job (albeit with far fewer responsibilities).
5. July: Backed my car into a tree.
4. August: Moved Sean to Dallas.
3. August: Visited Las Vegas.
2. September: Had to make my first ever major investment in my decade old car.
1. October: Dyed my forever blonde hair brown.

And in the spirit of ending on a high note: In 2010, I hope to watch more movies, read more books, write more fiction, save more money, and find more purpose in an effort to become a more satisfied former student.

Happy New Year, one and all!

Good things, pt. 2

Breaking down some more of the sweet things I got from Santa and my family this Christmas:


1. When Sean and I walked past the Build-A-Bear Workshop in NorthPark at the beginning of December, I said, "Oh! I've always sort of wanted a stuffed animal from there!" or, "Hint hint, nudge nudge." (The fact that Sean took the bait is indicative of his utter inability to fulfill the role of "thoughtless gift-giver" that was bequeathed him at birth [busted!].) Meet Bogart the Bear! I was unaware that he'd been named when I unwrapped him, and given his argyle sweater, Chuck Taylors, and delectable scent of eau de Armani, I accidentally called him "Sean!" at first glance. A little later, when I was having trouble remembering his actual name in a conversation with my mother, I called him "Hudson? No. Gable? No. Grant? No. BOGART!" And my mom said, "Sarah, it's easy to remember! Just think of Humphrey!" Well, obviously! Because I was waaaay off with Rock, Clark, and Cary. ANYWAY, he's precious, no?

2. Santa picked up a bag like this one for me at a craft fair, and when I opened it up on Christmas morning, my initial reaction was, "Eep! Santa really isn't familiar with my style." But then I put all of my stuff in it and carried it around and now I really like it, SO DO NOT GIVE ME A LUMP OF COAL NEXT YEAR! An added bonus: the bags are handmade in Nepal and Free Trade products, which means fair wages and safe working conditions for the women who weave them!

3. The Hairdryer. It's the highest rated affordable hairdryer on the market, and it's not 100 years old or broken! I am satisfied.

Good things, pt. 1

Breaking down some of the sweet things I got from Santa and my family this Christmas:

1. Because I lacked the proper storage vessel, I used to keep all of my jewelry in a small tin box. Whenever I wanted to wear a piece, I'd have to untangle it from a giant wad of chains and hooks, until now: baby brother gave me this filigree jewelry hook [that I found on the Urban Outfitters site and put on my Christmas list] and doesn't he just have the best taste? The space on the vanity in my bathroom is limited, so I love that this goes on the wall. I'm also very fond of the way it looks--it matches the style of my bedroom (to which my bathroom is attached) perfectly, and I'm head over heels in love with the style of my bedroom.

2. Last year for Christmas (or was it my birthday? I can never differentiate) I got a couple of Margaret Atwood books and absolutely devoured them, so this year I put one more on my list. Surfacing is billed as "the story of a talented woman artist who goes in search of her missing father on a remote island in northern Quebec. Setting out with her lover and another young couple, she soon finds herself captivated by the isolated setting, where a marriage begins to fall apart, violence and death lurk just beneath the surface, and sex becomes a catalyst for conflict and dangerous choices." The feminist overtones in these books are quite pronounced, so it doesn't make all that much sense that I, a veritable Phyllis Schlafly in my own right, enjoy them so much, but c'est la vie.

3. On Diane! On Carla! On Coach! On Sam! When Cheers died in 1993, it took the whole sitcom genre with it (Friends and Seinfeld* notwithstanding, or so I'm told). At least the place where everybody knows your name (including mine--NORM!) can live on in DVD sets and in our hearts forever.
*After reading my post, Sean protested (loudly) that I accidentally neglected Seinfeld (aka the another mega-popular post-Cheers sitcom that I did not watch). Of course, according to the Wiki-official List of most-watched television broadcasts, Cheers was indeed more popular than both Friends and Seinfeld. In fact, the only show that was more popular than Cheers--M*A*S*H--was 10 years younger. So my argument still stands.

4. Beatles or Stones? Beatles. Don't know what to listen to in the car? White album. Wondering what you should name your next ungrateful psycho hellion cat? Dame Eleanor Rigby McCartney (or "Rigby" for short). No matter the question, the answer always relates to the Beatles, so when my smarty-pants boyfriend was wondering, "What should I get Sarah for Christmas?" the answer was, of course, a Sgt. Pepper's puzzle. Sean's even promised to glue all 1000 pieces together for me after we finish it and mount it on the wall (next to his Abbey Road poster, presumably) in our eventual residence so that John, Paul, George, and Ringo (and the one and only Billy Shears!) can bless our home with love, love, love.

Holly jolly

Working on Christmas presents and Christmas goodies and Christmas hellos has somehow put me in the mood to fill out a Christmas meme at 1:15 in the AM. Borrowed from Stef, of course:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? My gift wrapping skills are horrendous, but wrapped gifts look so much better under the tree and are so much more fun to tear into!
2. Real tree or artificial? My family has always gone the artificial route, but I put a real one in my apartment last year. The feeling was comparable in my opinion.
3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? Right after New Years.
5. Do you like eggnog? It's tasty, yes, but the calories are prohibitive.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Humm...nothing really leaps to mind. I was pretty excited about every gift every year!
7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad, for sure. His interests and activities are pretty limited.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Sean! This year he sent me a list that was two miles long (and completely unnecessary since I already had too many ideas for him anyway!)
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Personally, no. My mom has two though.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? E-mail Christmas cards? Such practices exist? No way, nothing's better than getting cards in the mail!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Haha, I'm not sure. Probably something from the White Elephant exchange that we do at my grandmothers' houses every year.
12. Favorite Christmas movies? A Muppet Christmas Carol and Christmas Vacation
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Thanksgiving-ish
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not until this year (re: the White Elephant exchange!)
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Baked goods! Specifically saltine cracker bark, mmm!
16. Color of lights on the tree? My mom always does white, but Sean's tree is a mix of white and colored and I sort of prefer it.
17. Favorite Christmas song? "Santa Baby," "Last Christmas" (by Wham!), and pretty much everything from the White Christmas soundtrack
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We travel to wacky Waco every year for Christmas with the families.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolf!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star! I've bought a half dozen over the past couple of years.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? My immediate family gets up on Christmas Eve morning and opens stockings and gifts, then we go to my dad's family's Christmas and do a White Elephant exchange on Christmas Eve night, then we go to my mom's family's Christmas and do another White Elephant exchange on Christmas Day. I'm spoiled with Christmas cheer :)
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? I recently stood in line at the post office for half an hour, which was lame. At least I had the foresight to bring a magazine!
23. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? I have a personal tree in my room that's full of ornaments that have been gifted to me, including a number of Barbie themed ornaments and so many A&M ornaments that I'm going to have to buy a separate tree for all of them.
24. Favorite for Christmas Dinner? We usually have Mexican food at my mom's family's Christmas celebration, which is nice because my mom makes fabulous Mexican dressing, but I agree with Stef--it's all about breakfast!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A functioning hairdryer! Some Margaret Atwood books! The clothes that I bought a couple of weeks ago! (I dream big.)

Time of the year

Hello, friends, c'est moi! I've not been doing much more than jobbing of late, but I thought I'd stop by to say...
...Hydrangeas! I love them!
...I'm making an eggnog cheesecake tonight (you know, as if one without the other wasn't enough to make you lose a button).
...It turns out that the one movie you cannot get from Netflix is A Muppet Christmas Carol, which is really a darned shame this time of year.
...I am so jealous of everyone who's whining about finals (um, what?). Riddle me this: Why oh why did I not keep livin' the dream right on in to graduate school? And why oh why are the only schools that I'd like to go to so soul crushingly expensive?
...The kiddies in my old high school's theater department really do put on great musicals. Last weekend we saw their fabulous rendition of White Christmas, and after the cast had taken their final bows and "snow" had fluttered down over the audience, I walked out singing "Sisters" and "Count Your Blessings..." and didn't stop until the next morning.
...Know who's celebrating a birthday on Saturday? Hum? That's right: Jake Gyllenhaal! (Who is beautiful, P.S.)
...As a gift wrapper, I am an utter failure. Not only does it take me 10 minutes to wrap one box, but by the time I'm done the only saving grace is "Oh well, no one really looks at the paper before they rip it off anyway."

Exhibit A

Sean: We really need to drink eggnog and watch Christmas Vacation. Maybe we can do it next weekend.
Sarah: But that's my birthday.
Sean: Your birthday is NOT all weekend, it's just Saturday. I also have a white elephant gift exchange coming up at work. I think we're meeting at Macaroni Grill for dinner next week, or maybe it's lunch. I mean, lunch would probably make more sense. Anyway, I still need to go shopping for a gift.
Sarah: For my birthday?
Sean: Never mind.

T-minus eight days

We are slightly,-nay-moderately,-who-am-I-kidding?-intensely obsessed with birthdays in my house. I may have mentioned before (though I'm really not sure) that the typical birthday celebration begins with a few presents and a breakfast of choice, consists of hourly "but it's my (his/her) birthday" excuses and reasonings, and ends with a dinner of choice, the rest of the presents, and cake (made by me, natch). I'm really very comfortable with this arrangement and usually begin preparing everyone for it at the onset of December: "In theaters December 19th" "Hey, that's my birthday!" "Hurry, sale ends December 17th!" "Hey, that's two days before my birthday!" "We're going to grandma's on Christmas Eve." "Hey, that's five days after my birthday!" You get the idea.

Today my mom reminded me for the six-hundredth time that she did not know what I wanted for my birthday (other than clothes: I do almost all of my clothes shopping for the entire year at the end of it. No, it doesn't make any sense to me, either.) and I was all, "How should I know? I misplaced my list when Sean graciously reformatted my computer and now the only one I can find is from 2007, and I certainly do not need another dust buster or a second mixer to pack in the 'save until marriage' box. Why don't you just give me that new computer battery that dad ordered indiscreetly last weekend, the three novels we ordered together, and the clothes that we shopped for on Wednesday? Oh, and a hairdryer to replace mine that's one hundred years old and a hand-me-down. BUT NOT JUST ANY HAIRDRYER for heaven's sake, because that would be a surprise, and there's certainly no fun in those!" I love my birthday!

Pie there!

Yesterday was Turkey Day on the patriarch's side, and after we'd all stuffed ourselves full of turkey, dressing, and mashed potatoes and rolled on the floor clutching our distended bellies for half an hour, we descended on the desserts table. The options on the table were nice and varied--chewy chocolate chip cookies, berry cobbler, grandma's toxic pumpkin and pecan pies (she's not a baker, you see)--but lacked one key offering: my dessert. My instinct to bake for the holidays was crippled by a busy weekend that began with a Friday evening dinner party, evolved into a matinee movie and high school football playoff game that began on Saturday evening and ended in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and was punctuated by a sleepy trip to Waco and back yesterday. Still, I couldn't help but feel misused as I scanned the dessert table yesterday afternoon, so I vowed to make it up to myself by baking something outstanding for the matriarchal Thanksgiving on Thursday.

While my dad's family is into cakes and cobblers, my mom's family prefers more traditional pies and cookies. That said, I'm loath to make a plain Jane pie when there are so many recipes out there for pies with pizazz. And anyway, it's really fairer to say that my mom's family prefers desserts that are pie-shaped, so they wouldn't be opposed to something unfamiliar as long as its pieces had pointy tips and rounded back ends.

In the end, I'm leaving it to you, dearests, to supply me with Thanksgiving dessert inspiration: vote below on the type of pie I should pimp or leave suggestions in the comments section, s'il vous plaît :)

Which pie do you always have room for after the turkey's been gobbled?