Month: November 2010

November 30, 2010

~ Julia ~ 1 Comment

When thinking about how I was going to wrap up NaBloPoMo this year, I thought bout other ways I’ve done it.

So, finishing my fifth NaBloPoMo, I wondered what I was going to do about a final post.  Instead of talking about the past, I’d like to look towards the future.  Because in part, when we talk about favorite months and least-favorite months, mine are back-to-back.  Most favorite: October.  Least favorite: November.

Which is not to say that part of my dislike is because of NaBloPoMo.  I just find that my Novembers are pretty fraught with stress.

This of course begs the question: do I remember my Novembers being stressful because they are? Or are they stressful because I’m keeping score?

So let’s look to the future, shall we?

I know that I say this every year, but NaBloPoMo inspires me to blog on a more permanent basis.  Once I got over the fact that I was not going to be the next Dooce, or Pioneer Woman, or even Sundry, I focused on keeping a blog for me.

My plan is to turn my blog, my Flickr, and my tweets into a compendium that I can keep for posterity.  One of my favorite things to do is go through old boxes and read and see what I was like “way back when,” as cringe-inducing as it may be.  Since I don’t keep a physical journal, diary, chapbook, whatever, this is the best way to do it.

My project for December as I move into the end of the year is to start compiling this stuff together and get the files ready for when I do have an actual computer again.

Of course, I’ll still make a point to make accounts of my December.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end, as the saying goes.  The end of 2010 NaBloPoMo ushers in a new outlook on blogging, with an actual roadmap for accomplishment.

November 29, 2010

~ Julia

The DadZ and I went out to buy a new battery for my car.

$81 later, I have a car that I’m not terrified I will be stranded in.

However, I had wrongly hoped for a miracle: that the leak in the oil would stop, that I didn’t have to have my radio volume at an obscene level just to hear it over the noise of the car moving.

Le sigh.

Of course I am grateful.  At least I don’t have to go looking for a car desperate and hungry.  There is nothing less comfortable that knowing someone has got you by the stones and you have no choice but to smile and ask for more.

November 28, 2010

~ Julia

There have been a few things that I have missed about having a computer at home, but I’ve been able to make do with occasionally using my mother’s laptop and being able to do some things on my off-hours at work. So, I’ve been making it through pretty well.

However, having an iffy car is a whole other ball of wax. Not being able to surf the internet at night is a lot different that getting stranded in a downtown parking lot.

I think it knows that I’m going car shopping on Saturday. For a while, when it’s been very cold out, it’s been sluggish to start, so I’m pretty sure it’s a battery issue. But really, who the heck wants to drop a brand-new battery into a car you’re going to trade in within two weeks?

My mother was gracious enough to let me park in her spot in the garage and let me drive her car downtown to CSU for the week, so I feel pretty positive that I won’t be stranded anywhere if the battery finally decides to give up the ghost.

In addition to the battery issue, the cover to the passenger-side window controls refuses to stay on. In addition to the other sundry issues I’ve dealt with on this car, I can’t say as I’m sad to see it go.

November 27, 2010

~ Julia

Having the furnace break again this weekend spurred me to put the extra blanket on the bed, sandwiched between the top sheet and the duvet cover.  Having bizarro Indian Summer this year in Cleveland where one day would be 63 and the next 42, I didn’t really get to formally make the summer-to-winter change.

I still have all of my summer wear folded up and jammed in a door.  They really need to get put into vacuum storage bags.

Which also reminds me that I need to yet again go through my wardrobe and figure out what needs to stay, what needs to go, and what should be put in semi-permanent storage.

November 26, 2010 – Friday 5

~ Julia
  1. What’s your favorite holiday album?
    Last year, I discovered Ultra Lounge’s Best of Christmas Cocktails, which is totally awesome.  But, much like my father, I am a folksy kind of gal and my two favorite Christmas albums are  Christmas on the Mountain, and Hammered Dulcimer Christmas.
  2. What song’s lyrics, title, or theme best expresses the positive aspects of your general mood at this time of year?
    First, I’m going to say that I only go to church at Christmas, and the only things I sing during that mass are the Christmas carols.  My favorite, fill-you-with-the-spirit-of-the-season carol is I’m going to say that my favorite Christmas song ever is Joy to the World.
    We spend so much of the season in the dark and the cold that the lightness and brightness and sheer power of joy from that song is what it means to celebrate (in my case, totally secular) Christmas.  Laughing and feasting and light and warmth.  That song is it!
  3. What song’s lyrics, title, or theme best expresses the not-so-positive aspects of your general mood at this time of year?
    Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas from the musical Meet Me in St. Louis.
  4. What’s your favorite song about a non-December holiday?
    Um…Thriller, I guess…. Weird question.
  5. What holiday song makes you want to cover your ears and flee?
    When I worked for Heinen’s they subscribed to the prescribed satellite holiday station.  There was one song in a 9-hour shift that would cut through the noise of the cash registers, the customers, and the refrigerators when I was working in the back.  The opening chord of this song and the chorus reached that one spot in your brain that screaming children and nails on a chalkboard could hit.  It’s simple insipidness knows no rival to me, even in a musical word in which Justin Beiber exists.  Every single sphincter-type muscle in my body cringes when I hear it.
    That song is Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney.
    It is my firm belief that The Beatles broke up because they knew Paul McCartney would eventually sing that song, and they wanted to put as much distance between themselves and that musical travesty as possible.  Yoko had nothing to do with it.

Source: Friday5.org