Main
Today was our departments Christmas party. Yes, yes, I know that Christmas was a while gone by now, but we're busy people damnit.
So a bit after noon we took the rest of the day off and headed to Quartino for lunch. We had three pizzas (I ate two: one topped with bunches of fresh spinach and one with a slab of spicy but yummy sausage), Italian "sliders" (a small sammich of fresh mozzarella (made in house) and tomato), nice pillowy gnocchi and green beans, and a sulumi platter of Duck Prosciutto, Bresaola, olives, artichokes, cheeses, and a few spreads. Yumyum.
When they brought out the dessert menu I was told that since we were also celebrating my birthday that I had to order dessert so I got some yummy profiteroles stuffed with chocolate sauce and vanilla gelati. When they delivered it everyone sang Happy Birthday. But then the restaurant staff brought me a cup of gelati with a candle so they sang again. I passed around the cup but was ordered by the boss to eat my whole dessert myself. Done and done.
After lunch we headed to 10 Pin for some bowling. It's a cool little place (I actually always expected it to be bigger) with a nice (but expensive) martini menu (I had a yummy peachy keen martini) and giant screens of music videos playing above the lanes. The first round sucked. I came in dead last. The second round I had the second highest score. I attribute that to the fact that for that round the scoring screen had turned to PINK. The next round we did a face off of marketing vs. pr with the losing team having to buy Starbucks for the department. Alas, marketing lost :-( I was horrible that round. The next round I did better (because the board was now a different shade of pink), but we still managed to lose again. Ohwellz.
 
  
 
 
Josh is back from Korea! Last night we hit up Piece. He was actually the one who brought up wanting to go and brought it up, which was funny because I had only just been there with Emily a few month ago. It was rather crowded when we got there, but luckily it didn't take the full hour wait they said it would. As we waited I ordered a beer called "Festivus" which actually was probably the most pleasant tasting real beer I've had. I'd seen it in Time Out so I decided to get it because it description sounded OK: "he leaves spices out altogether and instead coaxes a maple syrup-like sweetness from this strong, dark, Belgian-style ale with a touch of toasted malts in the finish."
We finally got seated but our table was right near the door/check in area so people walked by and bumped our table all night. We ordered up some yummy guac which was tasty but a bit spicy. I gave Josh his Christmas present which included an iPod sock and Beatles playing cards. He gave me a cute pink pouch thing and a letter opener that doubles as a hair clip, both from Korea. I can't wait to wear it in my hair so when someone asks me to open a letter I can say "Sure!" and whip it out!
I wanted to introduce him to the wonder of the white pizza with mashed potato and bacon topping, and he wanted meat so we also got a red pizza with meatballs and Italian sausage (I shot down his wanting ricotta.) They were both yummyyumyum.
On our way home we drove my Brookfield Restaurant and saw that it is no longer Brookfield Restaurant!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WTF?
At least the cow is still there.
We then stopped for Coldstone because, you know, 2 pizzas and guacamole and beer isn' enough to fill you up... So I ordered a small strawberry shake and then they asked me if i wanted strawberry ice cream with strawberries in it (which was what was on the board). I said yes and they said they wanted to make sure because some customers get mad because they wanted vanilla with strawberries. Who wants vanilla in a strawberry shake???
We called it an early night because Josh doesn't get any sleep.
And then I watched part of Alice in Wonderland on On Demand but passed out a little after ten.
New Year's Eve
I have spent every New Years that I can remember with my best friends from grade school. OK, so maybe that isn't exactly true as I do remember two times where I didn't see them, but basically, it's not a New Year's celebration unless I'm with them. It's also usually not a New Year's unless it's the day before the big day and we still don't know what we're doing. But this year, we all surprised ourselves and managed to plan ahead.
The night started off at Fuego for some Mex food. I met Jen and Adam at their house and we headed off to the restaurant. Due to her work kidnapping her, Nadia was running a bit late but that was OK as it took a while for us to get seated and we were able to get some yummy tableside guac and drinks. I had two strawberry coladas that tasted like milkshakes and were the tastiest drinks ever.
Nad finally arrived with her husband Bryan and Joel in tow.
We exchanged Christmas presents. Nad really liked the Kobayashi trading card and cloud necklace I got her and Jen liked the photo frame and softest sweetest socks I got for her. Jen got me some hot cocoa mix and a Starbucks and movie theater gift cards and Nad got me a cupcake cookbook complete with a cupcake tester and spatula. The first cupcake recipe I turned to contained smoked salmon. Score!
Dinner came. Jenny's tostadas looked like they would feed ten people. I just ordered an appetizer (thankfully because I was pretty full on chips and guac) of shrimp and scallop tamales. They were OK, but the sauce on top was way too hot for my taste and the shrimp were those baby shrimp that come in fried rice that I don't consider to be real.
After dinner we headed down the block for our show. We went to see the Second City Dysfunctional Holiday Review. None of us had seen Second City before so that was kind of awesome, even though it was the touring group (how the first time I go to SC is a touring group when the real group is 12 miles away, I have no clue). The show was funny though! I wished that there was more improv, they only did two improv and the rest were sketches. Artificial insemination! Hopefully I'll be able to catch another show soon!
The show ended with 15 minutes before the big countdown. We grabbed some champagne and noisemakers and awaited the big moment. They brought out Father Time and Baby New Year and counted down. Come midnight I celebrated with my best friends, and toasted some toasts.
Soon after, Jen and Adam called it a night and Nad, Bryan, Joel, and I headed to a house party at one of her coworkers. The party was fun. The woman whose house it was sings with this guitar dude. So they played music and later it turned into karaoke style where we all got to sing. Then Joel told a joke and totally killed the party. Just saying. Bryan nicknamed me "Valgina" and I kind of hate him for it because I kind of like it. And then one of Nad's coworkers asked me "Are you seriously with him?" And then I said way way too loudly "OH GOD NO!!!!" And then the guitar player started hitting on me and told me that he thought I was a foreigner because of my broken English.
And then around 4:30 or so we called it a night and I went back to my car. I was frozen out of the front and so I had to crawl in through the back door, and scrape the hell out of all the ice that had frozen on my car. But alas I finally cleared it out enough and headed back home.
More New Year's Pix here!!!
New Year's Day
I slept entirely too little. I got home at around 6am then woke up at maybe 10am. :-( Then I basically bummed around until it was time to head to JoeJoe's for the Rose Bowl. Quite honestly, I don't think I've ever watched a Rose Bowl game in my life. But the Illini were playing so I was totally psyched.
I, of course, arrived at Joe and Alina's way too early and told Joe that I must not have taken his advice on a New Year's resolution. Then more people came and it was game time!
There was lots of yummy food like brushetta and dips people made. And Joe tried out his new drink pouring machine and it seemed to work.
The Illini...well...sucked. I guess that's enough said on that.
What didn't suck? The phenomenal cake I made! I spent three days on this thing and dyed my hands completely blue in the process. It was a 2-layer cookie cake with blue frosting, an Illini I made of orange rice krispies, and orange roses I made from gum paste. Everyone agreed that it was very sugary.
About three quarters from the game I leaned over to Joe to ask him what USC stood for. I really never had bothered to find that out. He said University of Southern California. It was a toss up for me between Southern California and South Carolina, but I had had no clue.
Whatever team they were they were much hotter than ours. Sorry Illini, it is true. Glen made fun every time the announcer said "John Davis Booty" and Julie was sad that there was no one named "Dick" on our team to tackle him and how it was too bad he wasn't the tight end.
Alas, the Illini lost. No, wait. The Illini were slaughtered. Throw the damn ball once or twice, will ya???
I hope everyone had a very Happy New Year!!! Can't wait to see how this year turns out!
I hope all y'all had a very Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Goat Day/Whatever it is you celebrate this time of year.
As Bromann Family tradition dictates, we went to see a movie this afternoon: Sweeney Todd. It was an enjoyable movie, good, but not fantastic. It also felt entirely too long when it started at 11 and we weren't going to open presents until after the movie. I also didn't like the ending even though it was appropriate but sometimes you just want everything to be happy and smiley and it's so completely not.
So once the movie was over we headed back home. Jen and Dale brought their pug Sampson. Surprisingly our dog Luke was well behaved and didn't try to kill him, except he spent the whole night trying to lick Sampson's private areas.
Then we opened presents. My mom was thrilled with the postcards and CD I got her of the Bellagio fountains and my dad liked the presents I got for him at Pottery Barn Kids and my sisters liked their books and kitchen gadgets (hand blender for Nat, tomato press for Jen) and my dog completely ignored the stuffed sushi I got him because he was too busy licking dog penis.
Presents I got included a couple of Lonely Planet guides, some Martha Stewart kitchenware (because it comes in my shade of blue), and a kickass Illini sweatshirt.
Oddest gift goes to this one that Jen gave me:
Best gift will surely be blogged about tomorrow once I get a chance to start using it.
Then my aunt came by and we ate dinner of roast beast, mashed potatoes, green beans and bacon, rolls, macaroni, and salad. Sorry, I did not take pictures. Then we ate my buche. Then that was about it.
Two hours later and my aunt is still downstairs, but I came back up to my room to play with my toys and talk to Joshua who's in Korea right now where it is morning. He is not eating bugs. :-(
I hope everyone had a wonderful day! Merry Christmas everyone!
When I was younger my dad used to tell me that Santa doesn't like milk, that he really likes Pepsi. This year he told me that Santa's on a diet and likes diet rootbeer.
Today we went to my mom's family's house for a Jewish/Polish smorgasbord of pierogis and bagels. Basically that meant me and my sisters sat in the kitchen all night talking to each other.
My cousin works for Borders and they were having a contest for selling the most gift certificates. The amount on the card though didn't matter, just how many were sold. So I ended up getting from one aunt five $5 Borders gift certificates. Brilliant.
Now I am watching Saw III which is way to disturbing to actually watch and tracking Santa on NORAD.
I was getting antsy to see Santa, so I emailed NORAD. They responded rather quickly!
Hood's reaction: 9 and 12? what is this, the sears repair man estimate?
Scott's reaction: I think they think yo'ure about 8 years old
Tomorrow I open presents which I am too excited about because Christmas turns me into a five year old and my family goes way too all out on presents. :-)
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!!!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!
Update, 11:17pm
Update, 8:30am, Tuesday
Santa ate my cookies and drank my root beer!
Hood didn't agree with my choice of diet root beer:
me: my sister says that you are the one who lies and that you are probably jewish
Hood: the PROOF that you're the jewish one is this idea that santa would go on a diet
Hood: every american knows that santa is supposed to be fat
Hood: in fact, you're probably muslim
but Santa drank it all!
1. Cake
Unlike a certain Mr. Tyler Florence on a certain episode of Iron Chef America, MY Buche de Noel turned out swimmingly. My buche (a traditional French "yule log" cake) actually turned out really well and, I say, redeemed me from last week's baking disaster. I slaved away on this puppy (please note, the cake contains no fluffy animals) all day, and really was afraid that it would completely fall apart. I also had no faith in the meringue mushrooms but the way they came together was uberawesome. I am very proud of my yule log. Check it out:
2. Presents
Between one tissue paper, two wrapping papers, two bows, four tags, four gift bags, and five ribbons, I managed to not wrap any of my gifts exactly the same!
presents for friends
presents for family
1. My gingerbread house is still in one piece! I decided against decorating though. Why decorate a crappy house with candy when you can just eat the candy?
2. Over the last 2 weeks I have fallen asleep almost every night with the tv and lights on at a pretty early hour.
3. Work holiday parties are always fun. Free wine and food (who can resist eggnog cheesecake bites on a stick), gossiping with coworkers, finding out who else is obsessed with the Hills, finding out who's going to get the drunkest...
4. Oh. My. God.
1. I don't know whether I am disappointed or relieved about that photo.
2. The other day I saw the fattest squirrel ever. It looked like a fuzzy ball with a tail. I wish I had had my camera.
3. Last night I stopped by a party at a coworker's condo. It was seriously the most amazing condo ever: a ubercool lofty condo right overlooking the Chicago River and the city. I am in love with it. He had good food too. And a chocolate fountain, although I don't think he keeps that up year round.
4. This morning I finished all of my Christmas shopping.
5. I found the most awesome dress ever that I plan to wear to Joe and Alina's wedding!
6. Tonight I went to see Good Boys and True at Steppenwolf. It was a pretty good show, but not spectacular. And I never think anything ever has a good ending.
7. At the show there was a guy in front of me wearing a pink button down, but I am pretty sure he was there with his boyfriend.
8. The Steppenwolf garage is my newest enemy. Damn, tight driveway sharp cornered concrete monstrosity. :-( It wrecked my car :-( There is a big gash in the side of it now. This makes me sad :-(
Didn't kids used to wait impatiently to see Santa Claus at the end of the Christmas parade and not some Disney Channel star?
Saturday Emily and I headed over to the Mag Mile Lights Festival. We arrived early to catch a Sister Hazel show. Of course, most of the people there didn't even know who Sister Hazel was and were all tweens lining up to see Corbin Bleu (who apparently is a star of High School Musical). The concert was pretty neat because I surprisingly know Sister Hazel songs (I never know who sings anything!) and they did play the one song I knew was by them and really like despite never actually hearing it on the radio - champagne high (and it seriously took me forever there to figure out how champagne the drink is really spelled...).
After the concert we got our picture taken with a piece of cheesecake and then headed to the Hershey store (aka the entire other end of the mag mile) to get some cupcakes and cocoa. Despite getting regular sized ones the cupcakes were huge and I got frosting in my nose and the cocoa was of course yummy until the powdery finish (and, of course, nowhere near as good as mine. Have I ever mentioned that I make the best hot chocolate in the whole wide world?)
Then we headed back to the other end of the mag mile to check out the Nutcracker window displays at Macy's (sorry, I don't care if I sound unChicagoan...but I think those people who are still protesting the change from Marshall Field's need to give it up already.)
I loved the windows...but then again I am still a ballerina at heart. :-)
After that we staked out a spot almost two hours early to watch the parade. We were surrounded by a bunch of kids who couldn't care less about anything in the parade except for Corbin Bleu. There was one twelve-year-old girl who was fanatic. She reminded me of how I was (am?) when I was that age though. She was convinced that she was going to marry Corbin in the same way I was (am?) convinced that I was going to marry Zack Morris (please note: I did not say I wanted to marry Mark Paul Gosselaar...I wanted to marry Zack Morris.)
The parade had a Disney theme because, you know, when you think Chicago, you think Disney! Right? It was kind of fun to watch all the lights light up, the hilarity of the kids, the sickly looking whale puppet, etc. etc. It's also fun that at events like these everyone (OK, everyone but the pushy parents who insist their kids have the right to go up front because they are small) is pretty friendly and talkative. Some fun conversations ensued:
Kid: Who is Sister Hazel?
Emily: It's an adult band.
Woman: Who is on the float.
Emily: Chip and Dale.
Woman: The Chippendales?
Kid: I'm gonna faint.
Me: If you faint you will miss Corbin.
Kid: You're right! I can't faint!
Me: How is it that that four year old has a boyfriend and I don't?
Emily: Val she's four, adult relationships are more than just sharing Twizzlers with someone.
Me: I want someone to share my Twizzlers with.
After Santa flew by we met up with Joe and Alina and went to some bar which I think was just called "The Bar" for dinner. Joe and Emily got bacon beer that came with a side of bacon. Awesome. I got a yummy pulled pork and sweet potato fries and raspberry beer. Afterwards at Joe and Alina's I made them watch the KSO they Tivo'd so I could point myself out on TV...let me tell you, it is so much easier on their 50,000-inch widescreen.
Joe and Alina called it a night and Emily and I headed over to Charlie's art show on the west side. It was fun as always and there seemed to be a lot more people there. I played some bouncy ball with Jeff and talked to Mike (who I couldn't tell if he was being aloof or didn't know who I was), tortured the man who was growing out of Charlie's stomach and bought some pocket paintings from Charlie which cost $2 a pop but will someday be worth millions.
**PICTURES HERE!!!**
1. I always knew he'd be the perfect boyfriend:
2. Wednesday I went for coffee with MK and his friend Dan, but I had a milkshake and it was damn yummy. We then went back to Matt's for Top Gear and I made him play the episode where they go to America and show how horrible of a country we are :) At one point they have a challenge to drive through Alabama without getting arrested or shot...and at the same time try to get the other guys arrested or shot...and they did so by painting things such as "Nascar Sucks" and "Vote for Hillary" and "Man Love Rules OK" on each others cars. Yeah...they were almost killed...
Since I had to follow MK and Dan back, they kept trying to throw me off by constantly switching lanes and turning on the turn signal and switching places with each other Chinese firedrill style. It was funny. :) And, since it was a *warm* 35 degrees I put down all my windows and sang because the shuffle Q101 was playing had a bunch of my fav sing at the top of my lungs songs (when's the last time I ever heard Little Black Backpack on the radio???)
3. Today my department had our Christmas party. Yup. We got some yummy tapas (I had some muchrooms stuffed with duck and topped with cheese amongst other dishes).
4. I am currently signed up for 2 classes next quarter and can't decide between them. Now, I could take both of them and be done with my masters by June...but I don't really want to devote that much time to class while working full time plus hopefully there will be something I really really want to take next quarter. My choice is between technical writing and text and image. I probably should take tech writing, but it meets on Mondays so I will no longer be able to attend any 24 things. But then again, text and image is on Wednesdays so I will be in class when they announce who gets kicked off of American Idol. Decisions, decisions... Opinions on what sounds better???
mattyk, brandana, and I went to a FREE champagne tasting at WineStyles today.
Yummy. I liked the Toad Hollow the best (because it was the sweetest). It's apparently made by Robin Wiliams's brother. :)
After the tasting I finally got to give MK his Christmas present: a replicate vintage toy Bugatti racer :) Bugattis are really expensive and one of his favorite cars, so I've been telling him for weeks that I bought him a Bugatti, but he didn't believe me :( Matt really liked the car I think, he played around with it a bit :)
Alas even though I came through on my word of buying him a Bugatti, I got no Tiffany boxes :( Its OK though :) Since we were talking earlier about how he feels guilty when someone gives him a present and he doesn't have one in return, I pulled a Marge Simpson and gave him something to give to me. I was so surprised when I got a coupon for a massage :) (it wasn't with full release though, damn, I suppose I can still add that in ;-) )
Too bad I didn't get to cash it in though, since MK had to leave to do some business (I really think he went to go hang out with a bunch of hot strippers though). Oh well, I'll have to cash in next time. And it best be a damn good massage because that car cost like $500...yes...hehe. I'm thinking scented oils and hot stones and hot Brazilian men should be involved. :)
a.
Jen to Nat: It's easiest to pick you as maid of honor.
Nat: Yeah, we can say that I will be your MOH and you will be mine.
Jen: Right, then no one gets offended.
Me: What about me?
Jen: You've already said that we aren't even going to be in your wedding party. You said we were too old.
b.
I have been sick this week. That means I've been doped up on DayQuil/NyQuil and has resulted in some very loopy email conversations:
me: i don't like mustard i like boys i think the medicine i took is putting me to slleep
scott: hehe, that's an awesome email. Just random stream of conciousnessinvolving mustard, boys, and medicine. That's sounds like a badcombination.
Me: are you free satursday to do thingds?zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Matt: What did you feel like doing?
Me: right now i feel like sleeping. silly dayquil isn't supposed to put you to sleep silly sickme. i want to go fishing or golfing. or maybe we can go to maine. or we could buy a puppy. or we could go swim. or we couldsleepy
Matt: Well if you feel sick, then you should become unsick first. Go to sleep, silly.
Me: i cannot sleep i am working. by working i mean i am on myspace. i hate myspace. i also hate that my sick days don't kick in for another month :( we will do something fun on saturday! i want to do something fun yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay i will bring you a bugatti. you will drive it vroom vroom
c.
Applebees tonight was rocking the best collection of 80s music ever! Too bad I can hardly taste my food. Silly cold. I exchanged gifts with Nadia and Jenny. Jenny gave me a gift certificate to Pottery Barn and a cute dragonfly ornament. Nadia got me a set of stemless wine glasses and a Wine Tasting Party Kit. Now I can host my own blind tastings! Then I will guess them all correctly! Hehehe.
p.s. I have so many wine glasses because this is the third Christmas ever that Nadia has given me wine glasses :) I totally love her for it.
Christmas Eve:
We all went over to my aunt's house. Everyone kept asking what I was doing there as if they didn't expect me to come. Basically all the guys went and watched football, my mom and aunts talked amongst themselves, and me and my sisters talked amongst ourselves. Umm, we also ate. We had pierogi and dumplings and lox and bagels and a Greek salad my sister made thrown in to make it more multicultural.
At night we had our Christmas Eve tradition of ordering Dr. Pizza (tradition started because when I was a kid I was a much pickier eater and one year my aunt didn't bring the bagels so I didn't have anything to eat). We also watched the wonderfully appropriate holiday classic "Hostel." It was OK. We managed to convince my mom for the first half hour that we were watching a sex comedy. :) Then we ate snowman-shaped Krispy Kremes and I made my hot chocolate. Yumyum.
If you have ever wondered why I tend to take any idea anyone comes up with too far... We keep trying to think up things to tell Dale (my sisters boyfriend) "holiday traditions." For instance last year we told him that we normally go caroling at hospitals. This year we decided to tell him that we have a bi-annual Bromann Bowl tackle football game. So, before settling to watch the movie, we made a trophy and a list proclaiming the winner of every game since 1980. Basically every year we put that my dad won, since he would obviously win a tackle football game :) I then aged the paper in tea and coffee. It really looked like we pulled it out of the fire to keep it. Hehe.
Before retiring for the night I put out my cookies and Pepsi for Santa (my dad always told me when I was a kid that Santa likes Pepsi and not milk). :)
Christmas!
Santa ate my cookies and Pepsi!
He left a little of a half-eaten cookie. Maybe Matt can sell it on eBay for me and make me rich! I bet someone would buy a cookie eaten by Santa!
Yay! We went to see Dreamgirls. Dale didn't go because he he's "not gay." Whatever. It was a really good movie, but the audience was funny because after Effie's big song everyone burst into applause. I don't see the point of clapping for a movie unless it's like Jason making a good kill :)
Then we opened our presents. I got lots of cool stuff (I tend to get more too because I usually also receive all my birthday gifts too). I got:
A pink ipod (engraved on the back with a quote from Perks of Being a Wallflower):
A softest sweetest robe, etc. from Bath and Body Works (it seriously is the softest sweetest robe ever):
Board Games:
DVDs:
Kitchen Stuff:
Yay!
Then we busted out the 80s Trivial Pursuit, and Dale kicked our asses. Then my aunt came and we ate. And then, since it wouldn't be a holiday without me bursting into tears... my aunt was chasing the dog around trying to put a collar she bought him on, but he was guarding a new ball so she chased him near me and he pounced and growled in the way that I knew he would have bitten me badly if he didn't have the ball in his mouth at the time. :(
The best news of the day though...My sister Jen is finally engaged! She got the ring on Christmas Eve night. :)
Hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas!!!
1. A pic I stole from Julie from Friday night:
2. So, last night I get a random text messege that says "OK, Jimmy's it is at 8:45." I kind of assumed that was a random wrong number text or something until around 7 when Joe asks me if I am going to Jimmy's (it was Julie who had texted me). It apparently isn't a person, it's a bar. Yay for fun times with JoeJoe and Alina and Glen and Jen and Julie and Emily and Amy and Aaron and Dave and Mike. :) The martini I got sucked though because it was $11!!! And they put ice cubes in it. Who the hell puts ice cubes in martinis???
3. A conversation I had with my dad:
Dad: Guess what I just found out we get? Fox Reality Channel.
Me: Damn! I could have been watching My Bare Lady.
Dad: Yeah, I've been watching that all day.
Seriously, I've been looking at the line up of programs on Fox Reality...umm, do you think it's possible to get a cable plan that only includes this station? Really, there is no need for anything else :)
4. Merry Christmas Everyone!
Things I want for Christmas, but will not recieve:
1. Sony Vaio Pink Laptop:
Cost: $1,200 to $3,000
Is it a bad thing that my only criteria when making a major electronics purchase is that it comes in pink???
2. Victorias Secret Diamond Bra:
Cost: $6,500,000
I'll wear it for whoever buys it for me...I'll also not wear it for you too :)
3. Tiffany Dragonfly ring (with diamond)
Cost: $975
I've been asking for this for years :(
4. A boy :(
Cost: ????
I've been asking for this for years too.
"There are four women outside. No, wait. Four women divided by vodka equals two women."
1. So apparently the neighbor who hit my car robbed a White Hen in Western Springs the other day. The police came by and confiscated some stuff from his house, but I guess he is hiding out somewhere and they haven't caught him. I think I should get a new car for that. He could have at least been polite and stolen me a Jetta or something. Hopefully I will have my Saturn back soon.
2. The other day at work I saw the dress rehearsal for Die Fledermaus. It was pretty awesome. A very light opera and very funny. Basically it was about this couple who were both kind of unfaithful, and then as a joke someone sets it up so the wife will witness the husband cheating. And then they drank a lot of champagne. For a better explanation than that, you can click here: Die Fledermaus. What struck me as odd was the amount of spoken dialogue. There was a LOT. And I always thought that opera had no speaking at all ever. Who knew?
3. Yesterday was our holiday party. Yay for free food and wine and meeting people! :)
Amy Sedaris on gift giving:
"The best presents come from the heart and say something simple: 'I like you.'"
"Some people put very little energy into buying a gift and then use the excuse, 'Well it's the thought that counts'...They're the same people who start their Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve."
"Make you own gift certificates like: 'good for one back massage with full release'"
...
Woohoo! I now know what to get every male I know!
Hehe, obviously kidding (can't give that to everyone) ;-)
So, I officially finished Christmas shopping this morning, and believe it or not this is very late for me. I like to be done by Thanksgiving, this year I didn't even start until after that. :( So, everything is bought, wrapped, and put under my little silver tree. (I hope nobody minds all the hair that got stuck under the tape, I tend to shed.)
So, since pressure is off, if anyone is looking for a person to help out on that last minute shopping I'd love to go along! Hehe.
Oh, and in case you want to buy me something, remember I am a ring size 6...
1. Wednesday I made MK come pick me up to go out for coffee so I could wallow about my car. It was really NICE of him to do so, so I was NICE in return and bought him his coffee even though I always go to see him and he never comes by me. Did my attempt at being NICE to him on here work?
2. I went Christmas shopping this weekend and am almost done.
3. While Christmas shopping I ended up buying way too much for myself. I bought a new coat because a) I am having a bad week because of my car (did I mention I had to go with my dad everywhere because I don't have a car right now???) and b) I wanted something warmer than what I have. I bought one of those down puffyish coats that goes down to the knees and has fur around the collar. It wasn't until I got it home that I realized that the fur is real raccoon.
4. I haven't done much else because I do not have a car. :( It really pisses me off because it was in no way my fault and the drunk driver who hit my car has been driving around all week and I am forced to sit at home doing nothing. The insurance company is looking at the car tomorrow.
5. Question of the day: Do you think the thuggish black back-up dancers for Weird Al hate their lives?
Dear Santa,
For Christmas I would like a boy who will...
... take me to see the Christmas trees at the museum of science and industry (it's my favoritest).
... drive around with me to look for ridiculously decorated houses.
... sip hot chocolate with me.
... make snowmen with me.
... cuddle with me to keep me warm.
I will leave out homemade cookies and a Pepsi under my tree for you. Thank you.
Love,
Val
1. I think my spirit is broken.
How did this happen?
I had to force myself to do it this time.
I didn't really feel like doing it though.
So, here it is:
It's kind of a reddish dark brown. And it is color number twelve for the year.
Seriously, I didn't really feel like doing it, but a goal is a goal, so I forced myself to buy a box and dye it. I have officially accomplished my goal of twelve hair colors in twelve months although I probably will go one more time this year for the heck of it. Maybe I'll shave my head for the new year. who knows.
2. I went Christmas shopping on Saturday, which meant that I ended up buying a bunch of clothes for myself. Those included the cute furry hoodie I am wearing above and a sweater with the furriest furry collar ever. I look like a puppy dog. Someone should pet me.
3. I went to Houlihans with Jen, Nad, and Adam on Friday night. A snippet of a conversation:
me: I need to be in the city because there are no single guys our age here.
Nad: yeah, they are all married or gay, right?
Adam: yeah, I was on the fence for a bit, but I decided to get married.
Nad: Well you do like Madonna
Adam: her early stuff was good
|
|
