What I did over my Christmas vacation, or, Update Vomit
I should figure out how to make an automated “Gone Fishing” message appear when I haven’t blogged in a while. Then you would know that an update-vomit* is on its way!
What I did over my Christmas vacation
- Hosted a kickass adults-only Christmas party with kickass white elephant gift exchange and kickass imbibing of beer, cheese balls, and sugary snacks. The being-feverishly-knitted-at-the-time hat was stolen from me at the gift exchange, so I ended up with a Miracle Bread Stamper, Utah-shaped cookie cutters, and three packets of official Mormon orange jello.*
- Had a somewhat crappy pre-Christmas that I was in no mood to blog about.
- Had a good and snowy Christmas Morning at home, failed to go caroling at Senior Centers with friends in the early afternoon, and then Ben and I spent the early evening with a former coworker who is undergoing cancer treatment.
- Played our newly acquired Rock Band 2 (for Xbox 360). A lot.
- Played Killer Bunnies with friends and cursed the impracticality of the rules. It gets a FAIL for intuitive gameplay. Though the ways that bunnies died were amusing (for most of us, anyway).
- Played Rock Band 2 with friends, for which gameplay was more than intuitive; It was AWESOME.
- Met with my government-issued Employment Counselor to discuss taking classes at Utah Valley University—the cost of which would be covered because I was laid off from a company that sent jobs overseas. Signed some papers that were immediately wrapped in 4 rolls of red tape.
- Celebrated New Year’s Eve at home with Ben, with Fuzzy Navels and another new game, this time for the Wii: MySims Kingdom
. It started off slow (survivable with a light buzz and sarcastic/inappropriate comments) but actually turned into an enjoyable game for me. Lots of collecting things and some puzzle-solving—a perfect blend for my OCD tendencies. Ben zonked out on the couch for a little while, and for some reason we watched the ball drop on TV. Every year we turn off the TV at 12:01 and wonder why it’s a tradition to watch it, and then make our first official resolution: Not to bother watching NBC’s “Rockin’ New Year’s Eve” next year.
- Saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Ben on New Year’s Day and most definitely cried in the theater. There were a few small incongruencies that didn’t make sense to me, but other than that it was a great movie. Also, see: Brad Pitt Is Hot.
- Flew to Denver on Jan. 2 where I met up with my mom and we spent a few days visiting my sister and her Norwegian holiday house guest (who happens to be my “little brother” from my year in Norway, whom Monique invited out after they became friends through that magical place called Facebook, and whom she is not dating because that would be some sort of weird incest even though they’re not related).
- Bought an ugly sweater at Monique’s favorite Arc thrift store in Denver.
- Attended an Ugly Sweater Party at Monique’s house and finally met a bunch of her grad school and French Club friends.
- Tried a weirdly delicious spiked blueberry lemonade at Bar Louie in Denver, which accompanied a $1 Tuesday Night Special burger ($3.50 with my desired toppings).
- Saw Marley and Me with Monique and her roommate. It’s a good thing we had some extra restaurant napkins on hand to catch all the chick flick crying that was going on. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to movies regularly, but I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I’ve seen two tear-jerkers within one week. It’s like if there were a Lifetime Channel movie theater or something. But seriously, Marley and Me was better than I expected.
- Flew home on Wednesday, dropped off my bags at home, and drove up to the Sundance Resort for my training/orientation for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. I have more to share about that, and won’t diminish its coolness by including it in this update-vomit.
- Met with a UVU adviser and registered for a full courseload of classes that, if completed, would award me with an associates degree in business management. Because I already have my BA, all the general education requirements were waived so I’m free to start taking electives in Digital Media. I’ve already attended a couple classes, but that is also worthy of a separate blog entry.
Next time there might even be some photos of some of the aforementioned events. Hey, it doesn’t take a BA in English/Creative Writing to know that you have to give your readers a reason to come back!
* There actually was a little vomit involved in Denver after eating some presumably shellfish-tainted restaurant chicken. Monique was sick, too, and is also allergic, and the non-allergic person who also ate chicken was not affected. I’m sorry to bring vomit to my blog. It’s a new high for me, to be sure.
** Distributed by the church. Seriously. “You can’t BUY that, you know,” said the giver. (I don’t like jello [brand name Jell-O or generic gelatin] much in the first place, but I certainly won’t touch it if it has shredded carrots mixed in. Is that a vegetable? Dessert? Trans-fat? I haven’t seen it in person, but many Utahns have reported that rumor to be true. I think I’d rather have a stapler in my jello.)
