Christmas 2007

(We used to be photogenic people. . . )

I hope your holidays were joyful, faithful blog-readers (whomever you are!). Brett's family went to California for Christmas, so he spent Christmas Eve (making homemade pizzas for dinner) and morning with us, which is pretty exciting seeing as how he's the ONLY guest at the Johnson household for Christmas morning (with the exception of my maternal grandparents who visited before Austin was even born). Here's a photo blog post to explain the rest:

All dressed up for the 'casual' Christmas party for Brett's work. Remind me to rave about the chocolate fountain at the party. . .

Leftover snow = White Christmas in Boise! Just ask this garden turtle statue (to know this is to know my mother) how he feels about all the snow!

As previously mentioned, we made home-made pizzas for Christmas Eve dinner. Here's the family creating their scrumptious concoctions-- apparently, Riley thinks pizza is yummy (pictured above begging for pizza tidbits under the table).

I bought a Wii last July with my summer job money. My brother has every other game console besides the Wii, so my purchase rounds out the technological goldmine in our house; it also came in handy to entertain our Christmas Eve all-nighter. (However, Brett and I proved what an old couple we are by falling asleep around two a.m.) The above picture shows Brett playing Call of Duty-- or trying to, anyway-- with my brother in the role of backseat-gamer.

And then Christmas morning came!

My mom made a great Christmas brunch-- breakfast casserole (egg, sausage, cheese, mushrooms, and other breakfasty/omelette items), fruit salad, coffee cake (from Brett's mom), bacon, and OJ. Gift-opening was quite an ordeal as well, at least in my family, because one person at a time opens their stocking, then gifts, and the non-openers look on in great anticipation for the perfect reaction on the recipient's face. . . quite a suspenseful and slow-going process!!! Judging from the gifts from my family, one would conclude that I am a narcissistic video-gamer (somewhat accurate), based on the Wii supplies, brown boots, desk items, candy, pasta recipe book, misc clothes, and other items they gave me. Brett gave me a new black iPod nano that holds 8 GB's worth of videos, pictures, and--of course-- music. I'm still in the process of loading my CD's onto it. Very cool! Now I can join the rest of society and tune out everything except pure musical satisfaction pulsing through the microscopic magnetic holes in my earphones.

All in all, 'twas a great Christmas.

Farewell, ANTM... for now.

My week consists mainly of school, teaching, and watching ANTM on Wednesday nights. Well, last Wednesday was the season finale of ANTM Cycle 9. Congrats to Saleisha, the winner:

although I have to express my extreme disappointment (to the point of tears) that my girl Jenah didn't win.

I feel like my week will be devoid of skinny-girl drama and the oh-so-fierce Tyra Banks. But, here's the great news: the new cycle starts on February 20!!! YES!

my index finger is killing me...

from incessantly moving around on my mouse/square-thingy while trying to condense my syllabus into four pages (i'm trying in vain to work on my verbose policies. . . that i'm pretty sure no one reads anyway).

currently, i am seeking an elixir to quaff that will result in a short-term death lasting until the third stroke of midnight on thursday, december 20 in a very "romeo and juliet"-ish fashion. payment to be made in the form of my scrumptious tomato soup courtesy of campbell's. or oriental top ramen. you choose. merci beaucoup.

ah, the end of the semester (i call it "cheating death").

You would think by now that I would have planned for the end of the semester cram, late-night paper writing (oh, don't EVEN bring up my pseudo-prospectus disaster!), and preparing for graduate-level presentations the week before dead week. But no. Here I sit in the nice new building at BSU, the Interactive Learning Center, in a room that I reserved for student conferences (you know, to seem more teacherly and to seem like I have connections in high places that hook me up with a sweet breakout room. . .), and weirdly stroking the shiny, silky, fragrant-- in a bookish sort of way-- cover of the new LCRE Moby-Dick.

I thought I'd share the most brilliant opening of a book. Ever. Even though I complain about my coursework, I am still tragically in love with Herman Melville's writing. I also thought I'd share the REAL first line of Moby-Dick (none of that "Call me Ishmael" pishposh):

"Etymology"
(Supplied by a late consumptive Usher to a grammar school.)

The pale Usher-- threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer hankerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars; it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality.

Ah. Dearest Usher: I, too, know mortality. . . especially when my laptop loses a wireless internet connection repeatedly and my cell phone battery dies after less than the stated battery life on the box. Ah, being threadbare.

EMA Fall Banquet

Last night was the EMA Fall Banquet presented by (the spirit of) Lewis Carroll. It was an excuse to dress up (I wore a pretty hot black strapless dress with a black satin sweater wrap and my painful but fierce black stilletos with the sparkly jewel on the ankle strap), hang out with fellow English-interested people and profs, and laugh so hard my face hurt.

Sometimes I'm not sure I fit in with English majors-- am I well-read enough? am I convincing and assertive enough to survive in this field? is writing a narcissistic and self-fulfilling task?-- but I still love them. . . in all their nerdy-laugh, alcohol-induced, and bibliophile greatness.