We now return to your regularly scheduled programming

Apologies for the strange post that appeared in your feed readers earlier today. My little sister was playing with my computer and she seems to have discovered Flock's blogging feature.

Should auld acquantance be forgot

Happy New Year, folks. Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Since I've been home it has been extremely hectic, plus I haven't really been in a posting mood.

Not long after I got home, I went to New York with my sister to see her wedding dress and to help her pick out a veil. She got her dress at Kleinfeld's, which you may recognize from the TLC show Say Yes to the Dress. That was very exciting, and it's always fun to do a little New York trip over the vacation (even though it was FREEZING).

Other than that, I haven't done much. A bit of shopping. A bit of reading. Watching my youngest sister, who is "in between schools" at the moment.

Christmas was very quiet. We went to church and to my grandfather's house on Christmas Eve, and my brother's girlfriend's family came over for dinner. On Christmas day we had my godfather (he just stopped by to visit) and my grandfather's cousin, who doesn't have any immediate family. On the Friday before, we went to the Christmas party at the assisted living community where my mom works. (My mom supervises an Alzheimer's unit there.) What I liked best about it is how much my youngest sister liked helping the residents. She is in the teenage "me me meeeeeeeeeee" phase, so it is nice to see her care about others. On Sunday we had my sister and her fiancé over, since they went to his family's house for Christmas.

This was the first time in a while when I feel like I really did well with the present-buying. For example, I got my youngest brother a Spiderman comic book (a "graphic novel," I guess), and he was totally obsessed with it - he didn't want to open anything else! And I got my sister and her fiancé the champagne flutes for their wedding (I got their names and the date - 06-07-08 - on them), and she loved them - she even cried, which surprised me. I got another present for my parents, but as it has not arrived yet and I suspect that they read this blog, I will not go into detail about it here. In any case, I think they will love it.

I don't usually make resolutions for New Year's, but I have two this year and I'm really serious about them. The first one is to lose weight for my sister's wedding. I don't have a particular goal (I don't obsess over clothing sizes), but I do care about the fact that I will be in pictures that she will have for the rest of her life. I don't have a specific plan in place yet, but I do have some ideas - no more vending machine or hall desserts, no Coke, and trying the vegetarian option a few times a week. I also plan to use our college gym regularly and/or finding a place to swim.

The other one is to be a better correspondent. I'm terrible about returning emails and phone calls, and I want to improve on that. I also want to catch up with friends with whom I've lost touch. Part of this stems from the fact that this year will be my 10-year reunion from high school, and I've been thinking a lot about what these people have been up to all these years.

On that note, I'm off to call Chrissie in California, who has been trying to call me for a few days and I've been terrible about getting back to her.

Happy 2008, folks! Let's make it a good one.
Kxxx

This is why I have a cameraphone.

Hello! I'm back. Back on the blog, and back in the USSRA. I've been back since the 12th, and I go back on 10 January.

I was going to write a whingey post about how I am going gray and how people in stores call me ma'am. But instead, I will share something that made me laugh today.

I went Christmas shopping today, and during the course of my time at the mall I went over to Barnes & Noble. Whenever I go to Barnes & Noble I mosey on over to the Libros en Español section, because sometimes reading a book in Spanish makes it just *that* more interesting.

For those of you who don't mosey on over to the Libros en Español section of your local Barnes & Noble, the section usually contains books in the original Spanish (Cervantes, Neruda, etc.) and translations of gringo books (I see Hilary Clinton's bio in that section quite a lot). I was looking at the books by García Márquez, when I came across this one:This is his famous Love in the Time of Cholera, which was an Oprah's Book Club book. What cracks me up, though, is the little purple disclaimer in the upper right corner: En Español.

No. Really? Because if I didn't see the Spanish title, the phrase "Premio Nobel de Literatura" (you figure out what that means) and the quote in Spanish at the bottom of the page, together with the fact that the author has a Spanish name and that the book is in the Foreign Language section of the bookstore, I wouldn't have guessed.

I couldn't help but laugh. And I couldn't help but document the occasion. This, folks, is why I have a cameraphone.

Lucky number seven

Since I have seven days to go before I head back stateside (welllll sorta...it's still Wednesday in the US), I thought I'd play along with the "Seven things about me" meme that is back in circulation (seen pretty much everywhere lately, too tired to find the links). I don't care about tagging people; if you want to play along, be my guest.

Here are seven random things about me:

1.) My picture was in a Chilean gossip magazine in 2002. Loryta may remember why, but otherwise I'll leave it at that to keep y'all wondering. ;)
2.) Sometimes I take more than one shower in a day. It's not an OCD cleanliness thing - if I can't sleep or I don't feel well, taking a shower helps. When I was an undergrad and then when I did my first Master's, at the point when all my finals were papers, I took a shower after I finished each paper - I felt like it cleared my head of the old material and made room for whatever was due next.
3.) One of my favorite drinks is whiskey (preferably Jameson) and cranberry juice. Bartenders and friends almost always look at me funny when I order it. I had it this way for the first time at the Jameson Distillery in Dublin and I've liked it ever since.
4.) I own six different editions of the Quijote. None of them are particularly rare or interesting, but they're all useful for different reasons. Two are English translations, one is an abridged version that came free with a newspaper in Spain, one is an electronic copy that I use for searching for passages, one is the Murillo edition that I've been using since my undergraduate days, and one is the Rico edition that I've started using since I've been here.
5.) I keep very odd sleeping hours here in Oxford, but I sleep fairly normally while at home.
6.) I love traveling, but I hate the traveling part of it. That is, the riding in planes-trains-buses part of it. Also, I hate dealing with luggage. I could probably manage this by learning to pack better, but I'm neurotic and always pack too much.
7.) In various situations, especially Junior Dean-related ones this year, a lot of people tell me I am (or was) "obviously very nervous." In most cases, I'm actually not as nervous as they think. I attribute this to two things. First, I am a neurotic firstborn, and I worry about everyone. So if someone is throwing up or has fallen and hit their head, I worry. That's just how I am. Second, I get very fidgety if I have nothing to do. So, if I am asked to wait until someone (security, an ambulance, etc.) arrives, I just get fidgety, which people assume to mean that I am nervous. I promise I'm not: trust me, I've dealt with far worse.

That's all, folks...feel free to play along if you like.

G'night!
xxx

Just checking

This is for the Americans out there: when doing the times tables, you would say "eight times nine," right? You wouldn't say "eight nines," would you?

I ask this because I noticed last night that one of my favorite authors does not write Americans very well. She has them saying things like "eight nines," "we had a really huge row" and "it's my favorite tipple." Maybe it's me, but I can't imagine an American saying any of these things.

Just thought I'd check. A post of actual substance coming soon!

xxx