You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2008.
Look at me, posting without internet! I am so talented.
I hope you all had a merry merry Christmas. (yes, I said it. MERRY CHRISTMAS. you may also wish to have a Happy Hannukah or a Cheery Kwanzaa, or a boringly generic “Happy Holidays” but I am going to wish you a Merry Christmas damn it and you can take it or leave it.*)
For the second year in a row, I was lovingly adopted by a friend’s family (which is how you know I do a good job choosing friends) and spent Christmas in the cute little city of Providence, RI. I had a lovely time–and bought books. OMG the bookstore my friend took me to was amazing. Aside from a pile of Nero Wolfe and Lord Peter Wimsey books, I acquired a small green book about Queen Victoria, which was given in 1894 to a young man whose name was scratched out in honor of his remarkable ability to get to school every day. Also a first edition of Garrett Mattingly’s Wonderful Book The Armada, which I am going to send to the professor who calls it so. (if you know who that is, please don’t tell him.) Anyway, the bookstore was trés fabulous. (did I put that accent the right direction? I am way too lazy to look it up right now.) Cellar Stories Books. Go there, if you get the chance.
And now I am off home, because I am starving. Awaiting me there–my brand new bed! Begone, backaches.
*This rant against political correctness is a bit outdated now that Christmas is past, but I have some pent-up Scroogeness in me still.
Keeping a blog going without internet access isn’t easy. No joke. I’m going to try to stockpile some posts that will post automatically throughout the week. But–we’ll see how that goes. No promises.
Can I get a big HIP HIP for the Boston Public Library and their free wireless? HUZZAH! HUZZAH! I mean, I do have to walk like 4 whole minutes to get to the library from my house (uphill in a blizzard both ways), but will you just LOOK AT ALL THIS INTERNET!!! Heaven. I’m in heaven. And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak; and I seem to find the happiness I seeeeek…
Anyway.
Wow I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been away from blogging/internet so long I’m just kind of in shock, stunned into inactivity by the treasure now open to me. Where to go? What to do? What to say?
I think this is a good time for bullet points. Here we go.
- The blizzard. A big huge blizzard hit Boston this weekend, tho I don’t think it ended up as big and huge as everyone expected. So now everything is a winter wonderland and ready for Christmas.
- I have finally realized without a doubt that the US Postal Service lost one of my boxes when I shipped everything from Minnesota. I wasn’t sure before, see, because I had been living with my sister temporarily and never really unpacked because I knew I’d be moving again fairly quickly. But there were some DVDs that I could not locate, and I began to suspect that a box was missing, but since I wasn’t fully unpacked I thought maybe I just couldn’t find my DVDs. But now that I’ve moved into my new place and unpacked everything, it’s absolutely certain. A box is gone. And not just any box. The box that contained some of my precious books and almost all of my DVDs. Yes, that’s right, most of my DVD collection is gone. Green Wing–gone. Shrek–gone. Yes, Minister–gone. Someone hold me. At least I still have the Star Wars trilogy. (And since the box was mailed in late August, it’s almost certainly in the Dead Letter Office by now–which is in Oklahoma, in case you were wondering. I am still investigating but hold out little hope.)
- I fail at holidays. For those of you who were unaware. But I know this, and I keep trying to improve, so this year I bought my presents early, like the first week of December, and wrapped them. And now they are still sitting on my kitchen table even though they need to be mailed by… probably last week sometime. Oh well. New Year’s Presents! This is of course not including the presents I still haven’t purchased because some of the people on my list are impossible to shop for. Also–my ability to write and mail Christmas cards is a lot lower than I had expected. So far I have gotten 2 in the mail. My list has approximately 20 people on it. Maybe I should mail out Christmas postcards, that might be easier…
- I am going to get a cat after Christmas. Excited, yes I am.
Okay that’s about it. I feel like for the amount of time I’ve been away, I should have more bullet points, but really I just don’t. Sorry. So now to wander around the library looking for DVDs since mine are, yanno, in Oklahoma. Or something. Sighhhh…
Hi everyone! Still no internet at the apartment. I’m currently in Providence, RI with a friend, drinking and writing and getting my internet fix. (yes, there are places closer to my apartment with drinks and internet, but this is what worked for me.) Will be going back in a couple of hours.
This is the weirdest thing to me about the East Coast. I can get on a commuter train and end up in a different state. wtf? I’m used to it being a major deal to go to the next state. Like a couple hours at least. Good grief. Everything’s so compact here. Compact and crowded and intense.
So anyway, I’m still alive and up to my usual hijinks. Just a quick post to say hi before I go back to the dark ages.
Seriously, I will be throwing a party when I get internet at home. A PARTY.
Whew. Exhaustion it hits me.
I should be asleep but I’m doing a quick post now because I’m heading home from Seattle at the crack of dawn tomorrow and who knows when I will have internet again. Maybe the roomies got it set up while I was gone, maybe not.
I have had a fantastic time here. I mean, I’ve been working ridiculously long hours in totally the wrong time zone, but it’s been fun. Exciting. Interesting. Other such words. I learned a lot and I think I was useful, so it was a win for everyone involved. Because, yanno, the entire conference revolved around me.
So now back to Boston and my new apartment and a weekend of doing as little as possible in fuzzy pajamas while drinking hot chocolate. Yes, I have strenuous weekend plans. You may join me if you like.
Oh wait. I have to go back to my sister’s to rescue some of the belongings I accidentally left (you knew it was going to happen) including Boba Fett. And then AFTER that–see above about fuzzy pajamas and hot chocolate.
Okay. Plan.
Anyway. To bed now (this, bee tee dubs, is what a rambly, sleepy grace-post looks like) and then awake and off to the airport and then off to Boston. Woo-hoo!
In other news, I may be better at chess than I had originally thought. So LOOK OUT.
Bye!
have arrived Seattle for conference stop successfully moved to new apartment last weekend stop still no internet at new apartment stop in Seattle for 3 more days stop must get back to work stop
stop stop
er, anyway.
Moving tomorrow! Well, sort of. I’m moving all my stuff on Saturday, but tomorrow’s the day the lease starts and the day the rest of the roomies get to town, and I want to be there for the “first day of the new apartment” festivities–wine and dinner! Also I want some say in which bedroom I get. :) So I’m packing up a suitcase and a sleeping bag and taking it to work tomorrow, and then I am going to the new place after work. On the T. With my big suitcase. During rush hour. Yeah this is gonna go well.
Whatever. I can’t wait. I love moving into new places. And this is going to be my first “non-transitory” place in over a year. Like the first place where I know I will be living for more than like 3 months. (England, 9/07-12/07; Saint Paul Apt #1, 1/08-5/08; Saint Paul Apt #2, 6/08-8/08; sister’s place, 9/08-11/08. god I’m tired of living out of boxes.)
I haven’t even seen the place yet, but I trust Kay’s taste. (Kay = the one roommate I know, a former college friend. note: not her real name.) But it’s in a cool neighborhood and it’s huge and it’s near the T that goes straight to my office. I’m so excited!
Hm. I suddenly smell Pop Tarts. Want.
Anyhoozle. The one downside of this new place is the (temporary!) lack of internet. So I’ll try to post when I come back for my stuff on Saturday, or I’ll try to find a coffee shop with wi-fi, or something, or it might be a while before I post again. We shall see. Until then, have a lovely weekend.
YIKES
New WordPress layout! (behind the scenes–it’s perfectly the same for you viewers) It’s freaking me out. At a cursory glance (er, approximately 10 seconds) it seems to be pretty intelligent and functional. We will see. Probably what’s going to happen is that now instead of packing I’m going to spend the next two hours playing with WordPress 2.7.
.
“Israel is not an island.”
Well, I’m glad you have that figured out, dearie.
oh man. I just got used to using WordPress and they’re about to change it all on me.* oh well. confusion is the price of progress.
.
*really, you don’t need to click that link unless you’re REALLY interested in WordPress. I just put it in as a reference.
So seriously, I had this incredibly clever blog post all planned out. I started thinking about it on the way to work this morning, and I went back to it a couple times throughout the day (in my mind, since I was at work). And then I got home and sat down here at my computer aaaaaand–
Nothing.
I mean, I know what I wanted to say, and I’ve been trying since like 6:30 (it is now 9:12) and I have the title, which is awesome, and one paragraph, which is the opposite of awesome. Blegh. It’s just not working.
So I am going to do a “bullet-points of my day” kind of post, a random medly mish-mash of stuff that’s happened recently that amused me and I think might amuse you. Or just stuff that happened. Or something. Yes. Welcome to Gracetopia’s first ever Random Medly Mish-Mash Post.
- today I discovered an Eddie Bauer outlet store 5 minutes away from my office. win.
- going home for Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and also made me wretchedly ill. damn you, lady on airplane who was coughing and sneezing.
- the more-than-slightly sketchy website I use to watch The West Wing IS NOT WORKING WTFBBQPANCAKES. at least, it’s not playing Season 6, which is where I am. so I am forced to go back and watch Seasons 1 and 2 again. (Stackhouse Filibuster = win)
- thanks to an awesome writing buddy I am back on track with my current novel. (I <3 you, writing buddy)
- quote of the day: “I am quite miffed at your murder attempt!” from everyone’s favorite lost-in-space crew of MST3k
- I’m moving to a new apartment on Friday! *eek*
- and finally, the post that wasn’t there was going to be called “me and my homie Miss Marple.” make of that what you will.
