Trying this again...hope this works!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Here's a funny thing of me, MommyKnickers and DaddyHankiePants doing a dance for you!!!

You asked for it!

Christmas is Coming...

Here is a picture of the gloves I bought myself yesterday. These are to hold me over until I get the ones I want from L.L. Bean (they are on my wish list for Christmas/Birthday, but if I don't get them then, I will order them after said holidays, especially since I want the hat on my wish list more...*hint*hint*).

I really like these gloves because:
a. They are convertible to mittens so my fingers can keep each other warm!
b. Even the thumbs are convertible! This allows me to pop just a thumb out to play with my iPod at the bus stop, something I couldn't do last winter and so resorted to using my nose!
and...
c. They were cheap! Well, for Target gloves at least - they were $9.99, which is pretty good considering all the features!


Yes, it has become obvious here in the Twin Cities that Christmas is indeed coming, and how! On Sunday as I waited for the bus to take me to church the streets were quiet and the only things rushing were the little snowflakes. I could just imagine them, flying around in a frenzy, singing "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!"

Later on Sunday I saw an ad for the Macy's Minneapolis 46th Annual Animated Holiday Show and Santa Claus at Macy's SantaLand!, which is of course actually the Dayton's 8th Floor Show, but since the Macy's takeover has been re-named...but don't get me started on that! Still, it is always a wonderful show and this year the story is A Day in the Life of an Elf, so I am sure there will be some spectacular displays. If you have never been, have no fear, it is a tradition for me to go every year, so I will post something really good about it closer to Christmas (I think going before Thanksgiving is a bit much).

Yesterday the snow actually stayed on the ground in the morning! It's funny how gray wet weather makes me gloomy-- unless there is snow involved, and then I get happy and excited!

Three numbers run through my head today:
34
41
42

34 days till MommyKnickers arrives! 41 days till Christmas Eve! 42 days till my birthday!

Of course, one reader in particular should note that it is also only 17 days till the first day of Advent...*hint*hint*nudge*nudge*

I played the wrong one!

Wow, two posts in one day! This is what getting used to internet at home and then its absence does to a person! Celeste out and out tagged me for this meme, so I thought I better play, since that rarely happens!



1. It is always hard for me to come up with facts not widely known about myself...at least ones I care to share with people!

2. I dream of working in the film industry, as an editor and/or director, but I am scared of having to live in L.A.!

3. I have always thought it would be fun to work as an entertainer on a cruise ship! Sleep all day by a pool in the middle of the ocean and then sing in a cocktail lounge all night!

4. I realize #3 is highly unlikely and that most jobs like this are really hard work and offer little compensation. And I also realize that with my skill set and looks I would be likely to get cast as Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast on a Disney cruise and have to wear an unbearable costume all the time!

5. I have great disdain for academics.

6. I fantasize about living in a small house and getting rid of a lot of my crap. And truly, I would rather have animals and children running around then books and knick-knacks laying about, but that's just where I am right now.

7. I have to pretend all winter to complain and commiserate over our weather, but truly, I love every snow-flake! The slush, not so much, but I don't see that as weather, that's just what happens because of cars and such...but I ask you, what is more beautiful than a riverbank in January after a snowfall? (note, I said more. I think there are many things in nature AS beautiful, but they are all equal, if you see what I'm saying)

Thanks for tagging me Celeste!

One Word Meme

It's been an up and down kind of week, culminating in a good sermon on anger (which I needed!) and the remembering of homework I needed to do! So, after church today I got myself to a computer and typed up my bit for a scene my group is writing for screenwriting. Soon I am going to head to my fav lil theatre to watch at least one movie, but maybe two, just to make up for lost time! I can't wait for popcorn!!

And now, Celeste invited me to play along with this meme from her blog! Here it goes!

Where is your mobile phone? Window-sill
Where is your significant other? missing
Your hair colour? auburn
Your mother? storyteller
Your father? dreamer
Your favourite thing? singing
Your dream last night? unnerving
Your dream goal? film-maker
The room you're in? dinning room
Your hobby? refurbishing
Your fear? loss
Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
Where were you last night? play
What you're not? risk-taking
One of your wish-list items? mittens
Where you grew up? CityofLakes
The last thing you did? wrote
What are you wearing? layers
Your TV? unplugged
Your pets? bestever
Your computer? not mine
Your mood? peaceful
Missing someone? always
Your car? shared
Something you're not wearing? mittens
Favourite shop? target
Your summer? short
Love someone? love many
Your favourite colour? green
When is the last time you laughed? monday, screenwriting
When is the last time you cried? thursday, car ride

Music Meme

Mommyknickers did this meme over at her blog and I thought I would give it a shot too! (Note: My advice is to do number 3 first as you can otherwise be influenced greatly by the band name and album title!)

1. Band Name: Random Wikipeda Link

2. Album Title: Random quote generator (take the last four words from the first quote on the page)

3. Album Art: Flickr Interesting Photo (pick one)


My new bands name is State Road 261 and our breakthrough album is titled Shall They be Saved. The album cover is below. Our music is mainly Old-Timey, but we like to do covers of non-old-timey stuff, if you know what I mean. Our big hit single is an old-timey version of 'Ode to Billy Joe,' originally by Bobbie Gentry.

One Singular Sensation

There is nothing like the feeling you get when your candidate has won. Nothing. It is a singular sensation.

Yesterday I had this feeling like I hadn't found my song. Some days have songs, and there were a lot of songs running through my head, but none of them was 'the' song, ya know? But it hit me this morning...



...that's how I felt all day yesterday--so excited at the possibilities that lay in front of us, but so scared of the possibility that it could all blow up in our faces.

Then this morning I woke up and I thought, "there's my song!" I had it on the tip of my tongue when I woke up, but it quickly slipped away. I worked at finding it again as I got ready for work..."Woot! Woot! Said he's leaving..." no, that's obviously not it, I just like the 'woots'. "Morning glow, by your light..." nope, that's not it either. hmmm...

wait! I've got it!



(side note: I wish you could hear the young man I went to school with in New York sing this song...Beautiful, tall, dancer, African-American man who was still discovering his voice...he was having a difficult time connecting with the emotion of the song...until the teacher asked him to imagine the way he felt at the end of a dance. Breath taking.)

So, if you have a song to sing today, let me know! It is definitely a day for singing from the rooftops!

a single tear

I got up this morning at 6:22 --- about 14 minutes later then I meant to --- to accompany Comrade Landlord to the polls. We got to the site a few minutes before 7 as planned and waited in line with our neighbors. Sleepy but excited, the line had a visible bounce to it as we waited for the doors to open.

When we got inside Comrade Landlord vouched for me (I was a little lazy in getting my address change made official, but luckily being vouched for is incredibly easy). He was the 37th person to cast his vote in our district, and I was the 39th.

Standing in line, looking at the people who make up my incredibly diverse neighborhood, tears came to my eyes. Voting is this amazing thing that so many take for granted, but I knew standing there that no one here was taking it for granted. Not today. Even in the 5th District of Minneapolis, which is historically about as liberal as it gets, all the washed out hippies, first time voters, Little Earth residents* and hipsters, saw this as a chance to have our voices heard, to make an impact, to take a stand.

When I got to work early I spent some time on facebook. A lot of my friends had used their status updates to say things like, "I voted, did you?" and "last chance! Vote Obama!"

again, tears in my eyes. I was saying to a friend, I think some of us younger committed liberal voters were really damaged by the 2000 and '04 elections. These were our first chances to vote and it felt like we couldn't make the impact we wanted to. Our eyes were opened in a very real and serious way to how much of an impact individuals can have. We don't want another victory to slip through our hands.

My friend, Singing Twin P., participated in Midnight Madness last night where, from 11pm to 2am, a group of young citizens went around the University campus posting signs, talking to bar hoppers about where and how to vote and doing what they could to get out the vote at the last minute. He has been working really hard this past few months to make sure that college students make their voices heard.

A cousin posted a video on her blog which I will paste here as well.



once again, little miss water works over here.

Then I watched Obama on the daily show from a few days ago. This is what we need, I thought. My stomach flipped. I've done what I can do, what anyone can do. I voted. Tears.
(*Little Earth is a community for Native peoples in Minneapolis and the school that houses many of their programs is where the polls were, right across the street from the Little Earth housing development. For a short time I worked as a sub for one of the child care center's that works out of the building)