December 27, 2006

Happy Kwanzaa

Christmas was lovely this year. On Christmas morning, according to tradition, we all had brunch at my Grandma's (although tradition changed a bit because my Grandma moved out of the house she'd been in for the past 40 years and into a senior living residence place).

Anyway, my family really missed Richard, so they even called him up to tell him so. Then during brunch, as someone is saying Merry Christmas, someone says Happy Kwanzaa...just being silly I guess since we're as white as white gets :) My lovely grandmother goes...."oh....kwanzaa? Is that Mexican for Christmas?"

OMG - I was laughing so hard.

THEN, my mother goes "No - it's for Jews!!!"

WHAT?!!! Is my family that culturally behind??? We cleared up the fact that the Jewish holiday is called Hannukah (I have no idea how to spell it...sorry). And then we cleared up the fact people don't speak Mexican, they speak Spanish. We didn't even get to explain Kwanzaa before someone changed the subject (which happens frequently and with ease in my family!!!)

Aaahhhh my lovely family.

Feliz Navidad - I think that's Spanish for something or other..... ;)

Freak Crane Almost Accident

Picture this:

Driving down a semi-country road, minding your own business. Now picture something that looks kind of like this:



Imagine a bird like this getting up and slowwwwly trying to fly across the road that you are going 55 miles an hour on.

Yep, that's what happened to me on Christmas Eve. A crane and I almost smacked right into each other. I made eye contact with it before it realized it better fly upwards to avoid my parents Ford Escape from barreling right into it. I don't even like birds anyway. Why does something like this have to happen???!!!

December 21, 2006

Tutoring

On Thursday nights Richard and I tutor at my church on the north side. Today we had our annual Christmas party instead of hitting the books. The kids were amazingly cute. They got to make penguin ornaments, and decorate cookies. We discovered some of the kids who are pretty awful at math or reading are actually incredible artists!! Norm, our leader, had the great idea of having the kids give their cookies to people they were thankful for at the end of the night. It was really cool to see the kids be excited about giving, and not just the receiving....although they did receive a lot! We had some donations from Norm's school and the kids took home bunches of stuff with them. It felt good to give. We get so caught up sometimes at Christmas - caught up in the hustle and bustle, everyone is tense wondering about what to give, how much to spend, etc...but that's not what matters you know? Let's be thankful for what we do have, and make sure those around us know we are thankful. That's probably about the best thing we can give.

Merry Everything :)

p.s. I stole that phrase from a MoveOn holiday card I just saw on the internet tonight. Check out all the cool e-cards they have on their site!

December 19, 2006

ELCA News

Some links you may want to check out - especially if you're a crazy Lutheran like me :)

How many Lutherans are in the new Congress? I'm sure this is a question that's been keeping you up at night. Well now you have the answer. Click here.

What's Becky doing for New Year's? Another question racking your brain, I'm sure. I'll be at my 7th, that's right, 7th National Gathering. This year though, it's bigger and better, and it's in New Orleans. For the ELCA News link, click here. Be sure to check out the CELEBRATE website as well. Why? Because it's cool.

December 12, 2006

Borat

Krista and I went to go see Borat tonight. What an *interesting* movie! Most interesting was the 2 crazy-looking naked men in the hotel room fight scene. I'll stop there since I'm going to keep this blog PG-rated....

What else is new? I'm on a break from class for a little while, so rather than take a much needed rest, I'm working all week. It's good though, because I need to save up some money for my trip to Geneva in January. Today I signed Christmas cards in the Admissions Office for 6-ish hours!!!

December 11, 2006

Laundry woes

I just mailed in my last paper of the semester. Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh a nice big ole load off my shoulders for the next month and a half or so!! wooohoooo

I woke up this morning and thought I'd be productive and start doing some much needed laundry right away (oh yeah, also doing my boyfriend's laundry - what kind of girl am I??!!!) . Anyway, when I go down to put the clothes in the dryer, there's a guy in there who's already moved my clothes to start using the washer (My other washer was still running, so he must have been standing there waiting for my clothes to finish). Have a I mentioned that I hate when other people touch my clothes!?? guess I have to deal with it if I'm using a public laundry area....oh well).

I put all my clothes into the dryer and then the stupid thing doesn't work. There's only 2, and the other dryer has a tag on it that says it's out of service. So I'm like, now what? I go back upstairs with some of my stuff and bring down an empty basket, figuring I'll have to go find a laundromat (gasp) or something like that. When I return, the mysterious guy has all his wet clothes in the supposed broken dryer, and tells me that it works.

Interestingly enough, the tag was on the wrong dryer.

Hmmmm.....

And rather than let me use it, since my laundry was there first, he says "sorry" and continues to use it. So I have to let my wet clothes sit til whenever he's done doing all his laundry.

aye aye aye