tacky LI XMas Love

OY! Sometimes I forget about how tacky we LongIslanders can be. Or at least in my neck of the woods. Of course there is no better reminder of this than lawn decorations at Christmas time. I don’t know why towns bother with street lights this time of year as every other lawn proudly displays a brilliant array of holiday spirit. Perhaps the best one this year is a house just around the corner with a small manger scene flanked on either side by a giant inflatible Frosty and Santa. Next to the manger, guarded by the giant blow up holiday icons is a small sign that reads “Keep Christ in Christmas.” However, this by no means tops the gaudiest house that we’ve found in years past. On holiday break, during my sophmore year of college, a house was found that had 10 santas, 3 nativity scenes (including one on the roof) and, just to play it safe, a menorah.

It’s times like these that I realize I need to get a digital camera.

Happy holidays from Amityville

The last days have been pretty hectic. I finally made it home to Long Island late on Saturday. As usual I was stuck in traffic for quite a while once I hit the NYC area. Which, coincidentally, is usually when really need to find a place to pull over to go to the bathroom. Definitely not a fun combination.

When I got home I found Mom suffering through a terrible cold. My brothers and I took over Christmas preparation from her so she could rest. They handled most of the baking, while I worried about preping and cooking Christmas dinner. By the 25 Mom was feeling a bit better and thankfully could be there in the kitchen to answer any questions that I had.

Yesterday was spent catching up with close friends. Hopefully today I’ll be able to connect with some others I wanted to visit. Then tomorrow I head back to Rochester. There hasn’t been much rest in this vacation, but it’s still been very enjoyable.

oh, as far as gifts, I did pretty well… a couple Johnny Cash CD’s I’ve wanted, a PS2 game, a book or two, and a George Foreman Grill (which wasn’t on my list, but I’m pretty curious about it). I think there might be one more gift that will be coming my way, but we shall see. I hope everyone is having a happy holiday as well!

sometimes there are no words

Yesterday I found out that the son of a good friend died, unexpectedly, at the age of 19. I’ve known this family for almost ten years. No matter how many of these terrible surprises we go through, each one affects us just as much as the one before. And there are no words; there is no sense I can make out of this. I wish there was. I know we all wish the same thing at time like these. If there was a way, we could better understand the stupid, senseless things that happen around us. Today is the viewing. After that I’ll be heading to Long Island to visit my family. But my thoughts will be here in Rochester, with others dealing with the profound loss at a time when they would normally be celebrating together.

Have a safe and happy holidays. And keep those you love close.

fingertips

These past two weeks have been mondo hectic and blogging has dropped into the background for a bit. So today you get the soundbites version of what’s new…

I hate UPS – with a passion! I’m never home when they deliver and the packages that Amazon ships require an in person signature. So basically I have to typically wait until the third delivery fails and then pick up the packages at the UPS office. Bleh, they suck.

Aaron’s hickies – an apology goes out to Aaron and Jenny for the condition of his neck after his first rank Kung Fu test. He was my partner, I got to choke him, and not being a good date I left hick… I mean choke marks. Sorry about that. I’m sure you look fetching in a turtleneck!

Holiday Gifts – I am so behind on the holidays. The entire grad school thing consumed most of my time for quite a while. So I haven’t dedicated enough thought to getting really good gifts (unlike everyone who has been giving me soo-per cool stuff). Worse yet what I did get is being held hostage by UPS. So, everyone, your gifts are one the way. But this year I’ll probably celebrating the 12-day’s of Christmas this year; or at least hoping that I’ll get everyone his or her presents within 12 days of Christmas.

A new blog is born – my friend Heather has given in and started blogging. Welcome to the cult, H!

reevaluation

It’s been a strange weekend for me. Friday I was told (as mentioned in the previous blog) that the HCI Program at CMU probably would not be the right fit for me. After that I had a five-hour car ride to think about that. And to think about how sure I had been that this was the right thing for me to do. How I’d begun to order the next months around the idea of leaving Rochester in the fall. Suddenly, that had been changed and I felt like a rug had been pulled out from under me. Friday night I went out with Kodaker’s to see Tony DJ. I ended up leaving early as I was feeling exhausted and I had to be up early the next morning.

Saturday was better, for the most part at least. I helped run a martial arts seminar and then got to see an old friend earn her black belt (Go Kathleen!). After that a group went out for lunch at the Dinosaur BBQ (yum!). By the time I got back home Di had arrived from Pittsburgh. Her semester was up and she’s crashing at my place for the next few days and visiting friends before heading home. But the events of the day before were starting to creep in on me again and I was still feeling exhausted. That deep exhaustion, mixed with a hint of depression, that sets in when something that you worked hard on didn’t go the way you wanted. That pretty much hung over me for the rest of the day. (Sorry for seeming a little out of it when we talked Tina).

By Sunday I was feeling a bit better. I accepted that it’s ok to feel crappy about things like this and started to turn my energy towards more positive action. For example, I began to investigate the schools that the director of the CMU HCI program suggested I look at. I don’t know if I have enough time to apply to either of them, but anything is possible. :-)