"Where are all the chapters on lights and Christmas trees?"
This post is going to be long. Which is an issue I'll get to in a second.
Thing the First: Happy Birthday, Anna! Hope you have an awesome day. And I hope I get to see you again in 2008!
Thing the Second: So Atonement (the movie) is coming out. And I don't know if it's going to be good or not, but I did want to say that if at all possible you should totally read the book first. It's one of my very favorites ever. And I do honestly believe the book will be somewhat ruined by seeing the movie. So... you know. If you can...
Thing the Third: I am officially thrilled that Charles Simic is the poet laureate. He was my professor at UNH and writes simple often devastating poems. His latest in the New Yorker is here.
Thing the Fourth: Yesterday was the kind of day I love... it feels like it will go down in holiday history.
So I decided I maybe wanted to go cut down my own tree this year, rather than buying it from a lot. And farmer Lisa confirmed that that's best for the farmer (by cutting out the middleman). So I called this place just to see when they were open and if they took credit cards, and the woman was exceedingly charming when she explained they were too small of a farm to take cards. So I felt like I had to go there.
So I picked up Bob and we made our way to what I guess was Clarksburg... northern Montgomery County. We finally found the farm, just as it really started raining. There was one car leaving with a tree when we got there, and just the farmer himself, replete with a huge gray Santa beard and flannel and long underwear and all of his farmer finest.
The reason I picked this farm was because they said they had Fraser firs, which are my favorite kind of tree (soft needles, great for hanging things, thick branches, smell great). But the farmer explained that they hadn't grown that well this year, and so of the 10 rows or so, only two were Frasers, and none were that tall or full. But he also had Balsam, Douglas and Blue Spruce. So Bob and I traipsed around the wet field, which looked not nearly big enough to have a good selection but ended up taking a long time to properly go through. I almost settled on a full and sweet Balsam, but the Blue Spruces had the best shapes, and Bob spotted a perfect one that was happily actually very green (I don't like the paleness of some Blue Spruces). So we sawed him down. (Read: Bob sawed him down.) And then we took him to the car.
It was only then that we realized that he was actually a very fat tree and that the farmer, being small and such, didn't have one of those balers that helps shrink a tree down. After trying to stuff him in my not-huge trunk, we finally decided he had to go on the roof, even though I don't have a roof rack. So with a mere two pieces of twine, Bob pulled out some pretty awesome Boy Scout knots and tied him down (with the twine stretching through the inside of the car).
And then it was a looooooong, slow, wet, windy, scary ride home on 270 with the huge tree strapped to the top of my car. The whole time I could see the tree shifting slightly in the rear view mirror.... and Bob wouldn't give me a percentage of certainty that we were going to make it okay. I even got off 270 and tried to take back roads to my house to avoid the Beltway, though I made a wrong turn at one point, making the trip even longer.
But we made it. And the tree was in great shape. If anything he looks happily groomed... and wasn't even very wet, given the drying effect of sitting on top of a car going down a highway at 60 mph. He is lovely. I'll introduce him formally when I get him decorated and take a picture.
Thing the Fifth: I've noticed lots of Americans adopting the British subject-verb agreement rules for collective nouns, namely giving them a plural verb. (Example from an e-mail I just got: "I know the team are excited to be working on this.") Not okay! It sounds cute sometimes when a little British teenager says "Gomez are awesome." But... we're Americans. And we've collected our nouns into singular entities! Let's be proud. It's an actual accomplishment.
Thing the Sixth: So it's with great something that I officially announce that I've finally given in and started blowdrying my hair. And you know what? You were right. You were all right. My hair looks much better. It's less frizzy... it lays down nicely. It's shinier. Everyone wins! And I don't even mind doing it that much. At most it's more five minutes or so in the morning (they certainly make hairdryers better than they used to), and like I learned from Arrested Development (in one of my favorite recurring themes of the show), there's a lot of good self-esteem to be had by taking care of your hair. I feel just a little bit like someone else. In a good way.
Thing the Seventh: I am pretty sure I might be done with my journal... which... I know seems ridiculous given how much I've just written. But I'm finding it pretty hard to normally muster up the energy to post, and I've been a terrible commenter and not even a great reader. And I'm not sure LJ is what I want/need anymore. Which isn't to say I'm going to stop reading my friends list. Or delete my journal. Or anything like that. I just think I'm going to make the break a bit more official. We'll see where it all ends up...
Thing the Eighth: Christmas! Holy fuck!
Thing the First: Happy Birthday, Anna! Hope you have an awesome day. And I hope I get to see you again in 2008!
Thing the Second: So Atonement (the movie) is coming out. And I don't know if it's going to be good or not, but I did want to say that if at all possible you should totally read the book first. It's one of my very favorites ever. And I do honestly believe the book will be somewhat ruined by seeing the movie. So... you know. If you can...
Thing the Third: I am officially thrilled that Charles Simic is the poet laureate. He was my professor at UNH and writes simple often devastating poems. His latest in the New Yorker is here.
Thing the Fourth: Yesterday was the kind of day I love... it feels like it will go down in holiday history.
So I decided I maybe wanted to go cut down my own tree this year, rather than buying it from a lot. And farmer Lisa confirmed that that's best for the farmer (by cutting out the middleman). So I called this place just to see when they were open and if they took credit cards, and the woman was exceedingly charming when she explained they were too small of a farm to take cards. So I felt like I had to go there.
So I picked up Bob and we made our way to what I guess was Clarksburg... northern Montgomery County. We finally found the farm, just as it really started raining. There was one car leaving with a tree when we got there, and just the farmer himself, replete with a huge gray Santa beard and flannel and long underwear and all of his farmer finest.
The reason I picked this farm was because they said they had Fraser firs, which are my favorite kind of tree (soft needles, great for hanging things, thick branches, smell great). But the farmer explained that they hadn't grown that well this year, and so of the 10 rows or so, only two were Frasers, and none were that tall or full. But he also had Balsam, Douglas and Blue Spruce. So Bob and I traipsed around the wet field, which looked not nearly big enough to have a good selection but ended up taking a long time to properly go through. I almost settled on a full and sweet Balsam, but the Blue Spruces had the best shapes, and Bob spotted a perfect one that was happily actually very green (I don't like the paleness of some Blue Spruces). So we sawed him down. (Read: Bob sawed him down.) And then we took him to the car.
It was only then that we realized that he was actually a very fat tree and that the farmer, being small and such, didn't have one of those balers that helps shrink a tree down. After trying to stuff him in my not-huge trunk, we finally decided he had to go on the roof, even though I don't have a roof rack. So with a mere two pieces of twine, Bob pulled out some pretty awesome Boy Scout knots and tied him down (with the twine stretching through the inside of the car).
And then it was a looooooong, slow, wet, windy, scary ride home on 270 with the huge tree strapped to the top of my car. The whole time I could see the tree shifting slightly in the rear view mirror.... and Bob wouldn't give me a percentage of certainty that we were going to make it okay. I even got off 270 and tried to take back roads to my house to avoid the Beltway, though I made a wrong turn at one point, making the trip even longer.
But we made it. And the tree was in great shape. If anything he looks happily groomed... and wasn't even very wet, given the drying effect of sitting on top of a car going down a highway at 60 mph. He is lovely. I'll introduce him formally when I get him decorated and take a picture.
Thing the Fifth: I've noticed lots of Americans adopting the British subject-verb agreement rules for collective nouns, namely giving them a plural verb. (Example from an e-mail I just got: "I know the team are excited to be working on this.") Not okay! It sounds cute sometimes when a little British teenager says "Gomez are awesome." But... we're Americans. And we've collected our nouns into singular entities! Let's be proud. It's an actual accomplishment.
Thing the Sixth: So it's with great something that I officially announce that I've finally given in and started blowdrying my hair. And you know what? You were right. You were all right. My hair looks much better. It's less frizzy... it lays down nicely. It's shinier. Everyone wins! And I don't even mind doing it that much. At most it's more five minutes or so in the morning (they certainly make hairdryers better than they used to), and like I learned from Arrested Development (in one of my favorite recurring themes of the show), there's a lot of good self-esteem to be had by taking care of your hair. I feel just a little bit like someone else. In a good way.
Thing the Seventh: I am pretty sure I might be done with my journal... which... I know seems ridiculous given how much I've just written. But I'm finding it pretty hard to normally muster up the energy to post, and I've been a terrible commenter and not even a great reader. And I'm not sure LJ is what I want/need anymore. Which isn't to say I'm going to stop reading my friends list. Or delete my journal. Or anything like that. I just think I'm going to make the break a bit more official. We'll see where it all ends up...
Thing the Eighth: Christmas! Holy fuck!