Christmas Eve--my favorite day of the year!

It really is my favorite day of the year. When I said this to one of my friends, she asked, "Why Christmas Eve? Why not Christmas Day?"
"Because Christmas Day is so close to the end of Christmas. I love the day of anticipation more. I love Christmas Eve because I spend all day waiting for Christmas to come. It makes me excited."

Anyway, I had a productive day--got all of my chores done, went jogging, played Christmas carols on the piano, and even went last-minute shopping for Christmas. My mother had a coupon for $10 off anything in the department store of JC Penny and it was expiring today so she told me to go ahead and use it. I asked her what she wanted to buy and, without hesitation, she said, "Underwear." And so I bought my mother underwear. Now I don't know what size her underwear is, and I didn't want to take a pair of her undies into the mall, just in case someone might think that I stole it. So, what I did was take a pair of her clean underwear and cut out a paper replica of it. Imagine the look on the face of the saleslady when I held out my cut-up copy and said, "Do you have any underwear in THIS size?" Mind you, my mother has a bit of a hefty waist so we're not talking petite undies here. I saw the saleslady' eyes grow all wide when she saw it. "Um, er, we might have that size over there." She ended up showing me a pair of just the right size and I "bought" it with the coupon.

When my mother came home from work that night, I showed her the new undies and her first reaction was, "Wow! A name brand! I've always wanted of these!" Apparently, she had liked this brand of underwear for a long time, and had sworn to buy one someday but always balked at the last minute. She thought they were too expensive. I didn't even notice the name brand, but then again, I don't notice much.
Well, they fit when she tried them on so I must have done something right.

Anyway, I went to Christmas Eve Mass tonight and halfway through, I realized that I had forgotten my gift to my godmother! I had wrapped up these blue-and-white porcelain food dishes for her gift, you see, and then I forgot them at home. I started to panic in the middle of church, but then I remembered that I could just give them to her some other time. A late present is still nicer than no present at all, at least most of the time. I apologized to her after church, but she said that she had a present for me, too, and that to wait until tomorrow to exchange gifts. Christmas IS technically tomorrow so I suppose it can wait until then. I can't wait until she sees her gift! I quadrupled wrapped it because my godmother has four sons (three of them very young) and the extra wrapping is just in case one of them gets their hands on it before she's able to open it. This way, the dishes should be safe in case one of them tries shaking it or accidentally drops it. Now that I think about, though, quadruple wrapping it might have been overkill. She might have a hard time unwrapping it at all. Oh well. It's all been done. In any case, Happy Holidays, everyone!

Phineas and Ferb

Phineas and Ferb is, by far, one of the best television shows to come out. Ever. And I was actually home this winter break when it was on television. And I planned to watch it. And then I FORGOT to watch it. As soon as I realized this, I went, "NOoooo!"

My mother and Hoang-Anh asked what was wrong, but I just wailed, "I missed Phineas and Ferb! And now...(hic) now it'll never come again!" I spent the next minute of my life inconsolable, hugging my arms to keep my silent sobs from shaking my body too much. Yes, I tend to be overly dramatic sometimes. You can ask anyone who's been my roommate. They'll tell you.

Anyway, it turns out that Hoang-Anh liked Phineas and Ferb, too.
"I love how the sister is always trying to catch them."
"Yeah, Candace? I watched a clip of Phineas and Ferb where she DID catch them. Also, I didn't know they were stepbrothers."
Hoang-Anh's eyes grew wide. "They're STEPBROTHERS?"
"Yup," I said, somehow proud of myself for knowing that.
After we talked about it some more, I admitted, "It's probably the only Disney show that I think is good."
"It's DISNEY?!"

Hoang-Anh sure seemed surprised by a lot of this considering that she's seen more episodes than I've ever seen...

Anyway, I know that Phineas and Ferb is a kid's show and that I already graduated from college, but I really do think it's one of the best shows around. If you haven't seen it or heard of it, then check it out for yourself. You don't have to take my word for it (Thank you, LeVar Burton).

Okay, about that last post...the one on Christmas Eve eve

Wtf? The abbreviation "mP3" is in the computer's spell check dictionary and "girly" is not?! This all kinds of messed up...

December 23, 2011--Christmas Eve eve

I finished the shopping for Christmas dinner. Or, rather, my father did. I offered to cook Christmas dinner again this year, but my dad bought so much food that I think it's unwise if I try to add to that pile. The refrigerator is already crammed enough as it is now. However, my father's been cooking a lot these days--unusual for him. He's also been going to sleep much earlier--6 p.m. At least he seems more mellow. No more angry emotional outbursts or overreacting to trivial things.

On the other side, my mother has been having all these aches and pains. She's been asking me for advice on the aches, but I usually don't know what to do other than to recommend medicine or a massage. It's strange, but she reveres my word like I'm some kind of doctor. Well, I suppose I know a little bit more about the human body (since I like to read about it), but I'm still no M.D. Oftentimes, all I do is look up her symptoms on the Mayo Clinic's website or check WebMD. Then I tell her what I find. I hope they're reliable...

Lastly, my friend Hoang-Anh came over today. She brought Christmas presents for everyone and then insisted on giving me a manicure. So we sat around doing our nails and talking about boys and all that girly stuff. She ended up staying really late at my house and my mother said she could spend the night here so it just ended up being a slumber party. We talked a lot more and I took her through my mP3 player so she could write down the names of the songs she liked. We stayed up until 12:30 in the morning (very unusual for me considering that I go to sleep at 9).

"Just tell me when you want to go to sleep, okay?" Hoang-Anh tells me.
"Oh, don't you worry. We can just talk until we fall asleep. If you tell me something and I don't respond...then I'm asleep."

Then I rolled over onto my side and promptly went to sleep.

Poetry Project

I just finished my poetry project! It cost a small fortune to print it off but boy, it was worth it! I also bought a special folder in which to bind it and today, I borrowed my brother's hole puncher so I could fit them together. When I was done, there was a flurry of little white circles on the floor and I waved around my project shouting, "I'm done! I'm done!" I am overjoyed. It took three months to find and type up all of the poems in here and I ended up with roughly 70 pages of material. My mother was surprised that most of the poems in there were mine. She thought that I had just compiled a bunch of poems written by other people. "Nope, they're mine," I told her proudly. "Minus two poems that other people wrote and I just translated into English."

I finally have a tangible result of all my hard work. Now I'm going to put them into a drawer and forget about them for a few years. That way they can age correctly. I can't wait to read through them a few years from now!

Reading outside

I was reading outside yesterday when my father noticed me out there. He opened the door to the house and said, "Why are you outside? It's HOT."

"It feels fine to me," I said. He closed the door; I returned to my book.

I was wearing a jacket and long jeans. It was 94 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

I always knew I was a strange person.

To go or not to go?

I've been feeling happy recently. Yes, that's boring, but it's a rare feeling for me as well. Also, note to self: Never go to cycling class again. The seats hurt.

Oh, and I have an assignment from my creative writing group to make up the first five lines of a story. Then, when we meet again, we're going to swap them and finish each other's stories. I'm thinking about writing a story from the point of view of a ghost. Or maybe of someone with split personality disorder. Something interesting. Or maybe I should do a happy story like bringing a pet home for the first time or waking up to find that you have cool superpowers.

Lastly, open mic night: To go or not to go? And if I go, what would I do? Interpretive dance? LARPing? Poetry slam? So many options.