Footprints on the Moon

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you enjoyed your holiday!
I had a pretty good Christmas myself, despite being pretty ambivalent about the whole thing when my day started. I got up and showered and went to my Dad’s at 9 this morning. This afternoon I really didn’t want to go to my mom’s side for Christmas at all, I just wanted to stay home and sleep. It wasn’t bad though, I had a good time.
Here’s a rundown of what I got for Christmas.

From Ryan and Ash-lee: a smore’s kit with hot chocolate and two snowman mugs
From Lori and Dan: Bath and Body Works shower gel and lotion, $20
From Gammie: A little squeaky frog toy for the kitties, shower gel, and $100.
From Jim: A Stitch pillow case, and a Stitch lamp (with nightlight). I think Jim forgets that we’re 23 now and not, well, 8.
From Dad and Gloria: A t-shirt, Mutts PJ pants, a frog car charm, a calendar, a $50 Meijer gift card, and a three piece American Tourister luggage set. Oh! And Gloria made me one of those fleece tie blankets.
We exchanged gifts with Mom and Harold and Grandma last week, but here’s what I got from them.
From Grandma: A Brita water filter pitcher and three replacement filters
Ryan and Ash-lee: a tree frog poster
Mom and Harold: A Betty Crocker cookbook, and a five quart t-fal pan with a lid.

So I’m pretty happy. I’m going to be one of the crazy people out when the stores open to spend my Christmas money. If I can find what I’m after, of course. There’s a good chance it will be sold out everywhere, but I’m going to try!

I cannot believe it. I made it through an entire function with my dad’s side of the family without one person asking about my love life, or lack thereof. My ex did get brought up, which was probably intended for the same purpose, but oh well. I don’t understand why people insist on reminding you that you’re single. I’m accutely aware of that fact, thank you.

Anyways, the night wasn’t all bad though. There was some good wine. And my grandmother didn’t start in with her stupid comments until later in the evening. I went to the Christmas Eve service at church, which is always my favorite. We were sitting in the dark, with candles, and two thousand people singing Silent Night when the clock rolled over to Christmas Day. Beautiful! My only complaint is that the girl sitting behind me thought she was the next Aretha Franklin, and that she was most definitely not. You take the good and the bad together, I suppose!
Well, I guess I better get to bed. It’s going to be a lot of shuttling around tomorrow and it all starts in about 7 hours.

It’s officially Christmas Eve, but it still doesn’t feel like Christmas. The temperature felt a little more like Christmas leaving work this morning than it has recently, but still no snow. The 24th and 25th of December are the only days of the year I actually want snow, but it’s probably not going to happen this year. So I’ll blame the Scrooge Syndrome on the lack of snow. Hey, snow isn’t here to defend itself. It does seem to be going around this year though. I don’t remember the last time I saw so many people be so BLAH about the holiday. I wish I was excited about it… Christmas is my favorite holiday, but so far my heart’s just not in it this year.
I finished wrapping all of the presents yesterday, and I get to start gifting them this afternoon. The agenda for today starts off with some sleep (as soon as I post this, as a matter of fact). Festivities with my dad’s side of the family begin at 4. I’m just hoping that they aren’t making a traditional dinner because I’ll be having one of those tomorrow. We usually do finger sandwiches, and other easy to eat foods on Christmas Eve. Then I’m hoping that we’re going to church for the 11pm service. It’s my favorite church service of the year (and other than mother’s day, it will be the only service I attend this year, shh…). It’s the one Christmas Eve service out of the seven they are putting on that actually goes over into Christmas Day. They shut off all the lights and several thousand people sit in the dark with their candles and sing. It gets me every year.
I hope you all managed to cross off all the entries on your to-do list and you can finally rest up today and enjoy friends and family. Merry Christmas!

Sometimes I hate working with all men. They are dirty and smelly, and half of them have issues with women, and especially women with authority. The last part doesn’t concern me most of the time– I’m still going to be in charge whether they like it or not. It’s the dirty and smelly part… these guys just keep getting dirtier and stinkier all the time. Seriously, one of the men that works here is the worst smelling person I have ever met in my entire life. Marcus, I hope the guys in your security outfit are cleaner than the guys in this one.
I miss Erica… she helped me clean. Now I’m the only one who cleans. What’s so hard about cleaning up after yourself? I even buy those pre-moistened Clorox wipes- it doesn’t get any easier than that! But still, it’s apparently too difficult. I even heard someone make a comment that they could clean up after themselves, but they know that I (or Erica when she was here) will if they don’t. That’s seriously rude. When I run one of the clorox wipes over the countertop when I get here (I do this every day, mind you) it comes off black, even without scrubbing. Ew.
What brought on the cleanliness rant? It smells like something crawled in here and died. I’ve changed the trash, I’ve cleaned and sprayed unhealthy amounts of air freshener to no avail. This is seriously nasty.

I never know what to write for these sorts of things, but since I’ve been tagged twice I decided I better try! So here goes…

Five things you may or may not know about me:
1. I am a twin. This might not be a surprise to some people, but there are always people who have known me for a long time who are surprised to learn that I have a twin brother.
2. I was born with a hole in my heart. It’s a small one and doesn’t really affect me. The doctors from Rileys Children’s Hospital checked me out when I was a baby and said it would probably close by the time I was an adult. It was still there when I was 13, but status is unknown at this point.
3. I enjoy the beach, but I’d much rather swim in a “cement pond” than in the ocean or lake. I get seriously creeped out by seaweed, and I don’t like the thought of swimming with creatures I can’t see. I think that’s from getting stung by a jellyfish in Florida when I was younger.
4. I’m not a big fan of “dating around,” I’d much rather be in a relationship.
5. My AIM screenname comes from a teacher I had a crush on when I was 13.

So there you have it, five little tidbits about me that I hope are interesting!

This is so sad. I don’t know if this story is hitting any of the news stations out of the area or not. There was a natural gas explosion in Cass County which created a crater 75 to 80 feet wide and 12 feet deep. It killed an apprentice lineman at the scene. He was only 27 years old. I can’t find a written story with the details, but I think I heard that he’d just gotten married in September, and his wife is pregnant. It’s so tragic, and right before Christmas too.

You can read the story from the local newspaper here: Utility apprentice, 27, killed digging to install electric line

This has got to be the weirdest piece of news I’ve read in awhile. “Let it be whale vomit, not just sea junk.” You read that right. Whale vomit. Heirloom whale vomit, to be exact.
Someone sent her a fifty year old, four pound hunk of dried whale puke. It could be worth $18,000. How crazy is that?!

Christmas Eve is a week from today. Am I the only one who finds that really hard to believe? What I’m also finding hard to believe is that my first Christmas gathering for the season is today. Number one of five, I believe. Today is Christmas with my mom, her husband, my grandma, my brother and his fiancee. Christmas Eve is dad’s side of the family, Christmas day is Dad and his wife in the morning and mom’s side of the family in the afternoon. Then there is the gift exchange with the friends that is, as yet, unscheduled. Phew. At least today isn’t the traditional Christmas dinner, there will only be two of those! Today we’re having swiss steak, mashed potatoes and Jennifer’s Favorite Salad. (Yes, I do mean me.)

On the gift list for today-
Everyone gets one of the custom calendars I made.
Mom- A Charles Wysocki puzzle and a roll-up puzzle saver.
Harold- The Deal or No Deal Handheld Game
Grandma- Skip-bo and Phase 10 Card Games
Ryan- PayDay Board Game
Ash-lee- Bath and Body Works in Strawberry Lemonade and Pearberry

The best part is that the last gift for this group showed up yesterday with the FedEx man just as I was finishing up the wrapping! Great timing!

Just so there is no confusion as to how spoiled my cats are, here’s yet another entry about the two of them! When I say spoiled, I do mean spoiled. You only need to walk into my apartment to know that they are. There are cat toys spread out through the living room, and they have their own stockings on the wall. I never even got my own stocking hung up, but theirs are! Yes, I admit it, my kitties are beyond spoiled. Their favorite treats are the Whiskas Temptations and I’m almost ashamed to admit that I have five (5!) different flavors for them.
Pudge and Lucy both love paper products of any kind. This includes, but is not limited to: kleenex, paper towel, toilet paper, and newspaper. They will happily shred it, spread it about the apartment and shove it under the couch. They are also big fans of Christmas. Or more specifically, the Christmas tree. I’m about ready to give up and take it down just to save myself the stress!
Other quirks? They both are full of static! You can hardly pet them without getting shocked. If it’s dark, you can see the sparks jumping. Their mother was overprotective of them, so they were still nursing when they were taken away. As a result, they still nurse. On what, you ask? My microplush fleece blanket. Poor Lucy will nurse on her paw, a trick she learned at the vet when my blanket wasn’t there. It’s a comfort thing I think, because they always do it just before they go to sleep.
Side note: If you have cats, invest a couple dollars in getting a laser pointer. It’s great fun! I get Pudge and Lucy running in circles in the apartment until they are panting.

Now it’s time to meet my other kitty, Lucy! She’s from the same litter as her brother. Although you can’t really tell from the pictures, she’s about as small as her brother is big. He’s big, she’s dainty.
Lucy very rarely gets called by her name. In fact, until she spent two weeks at the vet, I doubt she knew her name! She was probably there going “I don’t know this Lucy you speak of, I’m Baby Girl.” I usually call her baby girl, occasionally Rotten or Spazz.
She doesn’t understand the concept of covering her junk in the litterbox. Though, I think this may be a female cat thing because my grandma’s cat does the same thing. Anyways, she perches on the side of the box and scratches the wall. Pudge comes along and covers it for her.
She’s completely rotten. She spent two weeks at the vet after she got spayed because she got two staples out within an hour of getting home. She wouldn’t leave them alone. She is one of the sweetest kitties, though, and the vets all fell in love with her. They even sent her home with her favorite toy, which is highly unusual.
She is always looking for something to get into. She’s only peaceful when she’s sleeping. Other than that, she’s always on the move. She loves trashcans– big, small, empty, full, she doesn’t care! I can’t keep her out of them no matter what I do. She’s also fascinated by the microwave and the rewinding VCR.