Deck the halls with thriftstore trinkets, fa la la la la, la la la la

I don’t know what the hec is going on, but I am super into the holiday season this year. For the past couple years, Christmas has snuck up on me, and the season passes with me feeling like I didn’t even enjoy it, like it or care to see it go.

Not this year. Uh uh. I’m some crazy mutated version of a Christmas elf.

What is with me!?

Do you get Christmassy when you’re pregnant? I feel like my sudden onset of manic Christmas spirit is some abnormal sign or symptom that I should be reading into, stressing and freaking, and peeing on sticks.

First off, there’s the Christmas movies – I’ve been watching every bad movie that comes on cable) – and the music – I’ve been listening to it a couple hours each morning to start my day, humming along to my hand-picked Christmas station (thanks once again, Pandora). I even nearly bought (I’ve gone batty), the Sufjan Stevens Christmas CD off Amazon.com, I liked it so much.

I can’t get enough of all the sparkly Christmas lights and decorations either. It’s like my work building, downtown Seattle and my neighborhood have all come alive. I want everywhere I go and everything I see to be sparkling and twinkling in red, white and gold! So, I’ve been dying to get a Christmas tree and decorate my home for the first time since senior year of college. Last night, I was determined to find a tree (even though I have zero money to spend on one since I’m saving all my pennies for the holiday wine party I’m hosting this weekend. Throwing a party is expensive.)

The BF and I stopped off at one of those little parking lot Christmas tree stands last night. I was certain that they’d have little trees for $10 or $20. WRONG. They had crappy, two-foot trees for $25! Yikes. I guess the last time I actually bought a tree was four years ago. Eff inflation. So we continued on to The Goodwill for yet another hunt for an ugly Christmas sweater.

We walked through the front doors and ta da! There was the Christmas tree of my dreams. Ok, maybe not of my dreams. I’ve never really wished for a Goodwill-smelling, leaning tree with ugly, scratched, mismatching ornaments and neon garland, but my imagination could see it taking shape…and the price tag read only $20! The only setback was – it was The Goodwill’s decorated-Christmas-tree centerpiece, and I had to make them take all the ornaments off, so I could load it up in the car.

We were shoving it in my VW Beetle, the metal branches falling off in the parking lot, and the gold tops of ornaments still hanging off the ends of some of the branches, and I totally felt like The Grinch, stealing Whoville’s big Christmas tree the night before Christmas.

“Fah who for-aze! Dah who dor-aze! Welcome Christmas, Christmas Day.”

And here it is in all it’s undecorated glory. I think once I get the white
lights and red bulbs on, it’ll look fab-U-lous. Picture to come.

Currently Feeling: A little wishy washy about what I want to do tonight. Stay home? Go out? Head to my boyfriend’s? Hmmm.
Currently Anticipating: Launching the magazine Web site tomorrow that I’ve been working hardcore on at work. It’s SO pretty!
Currently Loving: Trader Joe’s terriyaki-glazed frozen chicken.

Mayday! Mayday!

My freakin’ blog header is missing – I think the site I hosted it on more than a year ago must be obsolete now or something. Anywho, it’s driving me nuts, but I have to dig through my old work files to try to find it and upload it again.

Bear with me… (I just wrote bare with me, looked it up, and realized I don’t want to ask the Internet and all it’s randomness to get undressed with me. Thank god, once again, for being a journalism nerd.)

I’m gonna get rich quick, or die glue gunning

For the last two weekends, I’ve gone on FAILED Ugly Christmas Sweater Missions. (I’m into a lot of missions these days. Watch out.) What is it with these things?! It’s all people are talking about – “Do you have an ugly sweater yet for ____’s party?” “Dude, you HAVE TO see this sweater I bought for ___’s party.” Frankly, I’m quite over Ugly Christmas Sweater parties. They were a brilliant idea for whoever started them five or so years ago. But now the idea’s a little stale, and even worse–there’s a serious shortage of ugly Christmas sweaters out there. And did I mention that they’re ugly? There’s nothing flattering about them at all. Call me prissy, but it’s hard for me to get excited about putting on something that smells like my Grandma’s lingerie drawer, and was worn by someone from the Midwest with two chins, a kitchen decorated with ducks and a knackering for scrapbooking. Neva gonna be pretty. Know what I mean?

So, I was talking on the phone last night to Bestie Amanda about what else – ugly Christmas sweaters for a party we have coming up in two weeks, and we were commiserating on how much they suck and how INSANE the ugly Christmas sweater market has become. They’re not available anymore for $5 at The Goodwill. Oh no. I’ve scowered thrift stores the last couple weekends, only to find one lame male Christmas sweater – handmade Norwegian wool with reindeer – for my poor BF who’s probably going to break out in hives from the material. Amanda claims they’re selling for $30 at good ole’ J.C. Penney’s (marked down from $50) and some people are trying to make a killing off eBay, listing them at $50 each. Seriously?!

So, I mentioned something to her about how I’m going to start making my own ugly Christmas sweaters – buy a couple solid colored $2 sweaters from a thrift store, iron on some Christmas patches, add some yarn, sequins and bells – and voila! And she said she’s going to hit up J.C. Penney’s after-Christmas sale and scoop up all their good when they’re super clearanced, which led us to deciding that we’re going into the ugly Christmas sweater business together. We’re gonna call it Sweataz.com with a Z.

*Tony Danza accent* Hey, come get your Sweataz here, kids. We got da best in da city.

Anyway, it’s pretty much genius. Now I don’t have to focus on that 10-year plan anymore. Whew.

Currently Feeling: Super weirded out by my graphic, random dream last night.
Currently Anticipating: Bingo at Jabu’s tomorrow to welcome Adam to the neighborhood?
Currently Loving: The banana chocolate chip bread someone in my office brought in this morning.

A Seattle Sunset

Elliot Bay from the 53rd floor.
–
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

If he would have said football too, I was outta there

During my date night last Saturday with my BF, I got a little tipsy and started to talk Slumber Party. You know – when you temporarily forget your boyfriend isn’t one of the girls and you ask questions in very high-pitch, screechy voices like, “What would you name a little girl if you had one?” or “What do you want your wedding colors to be?” Anyway, I was babbling about my top four favorite things of all time EVER…

“If I had to pick four things that I couldn’t live without right now – my ALL TIME FAVORITE THINGS – I think they’d be wine and sushi… going out to breakfast… and… potlucks.

“Potlucks?!”

“Yeah! Potlucks! I’ve loved ‘em since the beginning of time. What are YOUR top four ALL TIME FAVORITE THINGS?!

“Hmmm…

A lot of thinking. A lot more thinking. Wait for it…wait for it…

“Beer, wine, sex and food.”

And then he jumped on top of the bar, bent his knees, put one hand in his armpit and one hand on top of his head and started scratching, while shrieking “Oohh Oooh Eee” and running up and down the bar.

BEER.

WINE.

SEX.

FOOD.

Currently Feeling: Excited to give my special homemade gift!
Currently Anticipating: Thai food and Survivor with Amanda tonight.
Currently Listening To: Streaming Christmas music on Pandora.

Turkey weekend highlights, peppered with lots o tryptophan

I took the 4.5-day Thanksgiving break to fall off the Internet wagon, so to speak, totally failing in my intended last push to completion of NaBloPoMo. Bummer dude.

But, a little failure in one category is usually necessary to get ahead in another. The category I focused on this weekend was my SANITY. Corporate America stresses me out, to say the least. So I took a break from everything for nearly five glorious stress-free days. And here they are in brief:

Wednesday: Went on a totally unnecessary payday shopping trip to Nordies where I purchased the most absolutely beautiful grey suede, flat boots that my feet are stuck in. Literally. STUCK. I don’t think I’ll ever get a pair of heels on again.

After my shopping trip, I got all gussied up and met the usual pre-Thanksgiving college party suspects out at The Wild Rover in Kirkland. The night would have gone on without one little drunken debauchery hitch if it weren’t for the fact that Baby Daddy’s ex showed up at the bar. This is the first time I’ve seen her, in person, since we’ve been together. I was reminded why their kid is so damn cute; she’s pretty. Dammit. But then I was reminded why he likes me so much—she’s kinda loco. I’m not so much. Well, unless you put a marshmallow pie in front of me, then I’m totally loco. Bitch watch out! No you didn’t just try to eat my marshmallow pie!

Thursday: Went to go see Four Christmases with my parents. Do you know how long I’ve stared at the word “Christmases,” second-guessing myself on that spelling? Just seems a little loco. Kinda like the ex. Anywho, totally a movie I recommend. So yeah, it’s a romantic comedy, which are always a bit cheesy and predictable, but it’s still pretty funny. Like a modern National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I dug it. Then I dug my face into my mother’s Thanksgiving feast and passed out on my BF’s couch after watching slews of terrible Christmas movies (Read: Queen Latifah is dying and so she spends her last couple weeks avoiding motorcycle-humping sex with L.L. Cool J. What about this says Merry Christmas; I don’t know.)

Friday: Most people spend Black Friday shopping for inexpensive Christmas presents for friends and family. I spent it shopping for myself. Tis’ the season. My Black Friday booty includes a charging dock/radio/alarm for my iPod, a prize for the winner at my holiday wine party, a new cheese cutting board and knife, 50 space-saving hangers to continue my Closet Make-Over Mission (this won’t fail like the Underwear Overhaul Mission) camel-colored motorcycle boots, a matching camel-colored belt, two new tops to layer with my boots and a pair of earrings that I TOTALLY needed to add to the other 100 pairs I own. Merry Christmas to me.

Saturday: After three days of doing virtually nothing, I was ready to hit the town again. Except everyone was either gone for the weekend or staying in again. So, Baby Daddy and I made it a date night with one of my favorite past times—bar hopping on lower Queen Anne. We started at Solo, my 26th birthday party location, where I ordered a couple of their Mojito Catalans (champagne instead of soda water, so lots o alcohol). We then bumped around to Jabu’s for a couple beers, and wrapped up our night with happy hour at Peso’s. Well, that’s not really how we ended our night, but that’s probably T.M.I. for you.

Sunday: A little breakfast at Noah’s Bagels, some coffee, some book shopping at my favorite local shop, and then home to lounge in PJs all day. I did laundry, watched Along Came Polly, cleaned the bathroom, watched Made of Honor (terribly cheesy), cleaned the kitchen, took a nap, read a book, reorganized my closet and cleaned my room—all in time for The Amazing Race and Desperate Housewives.

See it’s two nights of partying and three days of doing nothing that leads me to actually being productive. Why can’t I have this kind of schedule every week? I’d certainly feel a bit more caught-up and balanced.

Currently Feeling: Like my butt is numb. It’s spreading! I can tell the desk job is making it spread!
Currently Anticipating: Snuggling.
Currently Reading: In the Woods by Tana French.