Season's Greetings...

To everyone who reads my blog ever:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

AND A HAPPY 2008!!

christmas festivities

Yay Christmas season!

Okay. So I have two parties to go to this Saturday and two parties to go to next Saturday. Except that all four parties are IN TORONTO! Yeah. Not cool. How can I be social and festive when my social life in Toronto is far more exciting then my social life in Victoria (which largely consists of setting fires at office Christmas parties).

So as for presents:

Mom: still working on it
Dad: Idea number one ruled out. Onto idea number two.
Sister: Part One: Done. Part Two: Done.
Cousin #1: Done
Cousin #2: Still working on it
Boyfriend: In progress.

That's not great - but it could be worse - and there are still plenty of shopping days until Christmas!

shopping at the grocery store

Today I went to Safeway after work. This was quite unusual for me - because with the location of my apartment this year Safeway is no longer within walking distance. So today I took a detour after work to go shopping at Safeway. I made two exciting purchases:

1) I bought two haagen daaz! Yes two! That was because they were on sale 2 for $9.50. I bought one tub of Baileys and one of Mango sorbet. I was a little worried about the Bailey's, but I remember having it in Ireland and really liking it - so I bought some. Turns out - I don't like it. Not one little bit. Well there's $5 I will never get back. The Mango Sorbet however is lovely.

Luckily purchase number two was more successful.

2) I bought a potted mini-pine tree for $7. It is fabulous. It is too small to hang any ornaments on - instead it is currently on the top of my bookcase (although I may move it), next to my (sadly) small collection of Christmas cards. It's all very festive. And the mini-pine smells like pine which is lovely and it has a festive red ribbon tied to the top so I am now most definetly, slowly, starting to get into the Christmas spirit!

Christmas at the Office

Though I don't usually write about my job, for obvious reasons, tonight I am making an exception. Tonight was the annual, and my first, staff Christmas party for my office. We went out to a nice restaurant, sat in their "group area", had a lovely three course meal (actually two of my courses were almost not editable - but I digress), and then had a tacky gift exchange.

Out of 15 people I got to choose my gift second. It was a book (worthy of its own blog post) wrapped in many many layers of tissue which I took off and placed on the table. As I was showing everyone the book, someone says something about a fire. Yes folks - that's right - apparently in my haste to display my tacky gift I neglected to notice that the tissue paper was precariously close to the candle on the centre of the table. And by precariously close I mean all the tissue paper went up in flames.

I immediately stepped back from the fire while other people attempted to address the now leaping tissue paper flames, which were somewhat contained in the original (but cardboard) box. Several people attempted to smother the fire, but to no avail. And it was far too big to stamp out using one's foot. Finally, after one very long minute, several glasses of water were thrown on the fire and it was mercifully extinguished. Around this time the wait-staff began to come over, apparently the leaping flames had caught some of the other patrons eyes. Although by that time all that was left were the ashes floating through the air like snow and a pile of charred tissue paper.

Apparently that is the most excitement that the office christmas party dinner has seen in some years. And afterwards, everyone said they were glad that my hair didn't catch on fire.

So now, at every Christmas party for years to come, long after I have left this job, someone will say "remember the christmas party when Elizabeth started a fire". Rarely is one aware of the exact moment when they become part of office lore - but for me - without a doubt - it was tonight.

thoughts

1) buying christmas presents is super fun, but it's also a little bit stressful b/c you always want people to like what you bought them. Next year I am going to buy everyone designer coasters.

2) there are people, in life, who you can be mad at, or frustrated with, and it doesn't matter, because you both know that it doesn't change how you feel about each other. the obvious example of this is the parent-child relationship. and if you have this relationship with a friend, then it must be a really special friendship, because it's a really freeing feeling to be frustrated with someone and to know that it doesn't really matter because you love them and in a day or two you will have only the love, minus the frustration, and that the ability to argue and express all your feelings actually makes the friendship stronger.

3) Not that I was ever very good at pool, but I am officially quite bad again.

4) The loss of independence which accompanies being at home is killing me.

5) I do not understand people who never move out of their parents home. I understand moving out for school, then moving back to save money. I get saving money by going to school and living at home, and then moving out after graduation. I don't get being 25 and having NEVER lived anywhere else.

6) My new life plan: I am going to be a life coach! Seriously. And my sub-speciality will be self-esteem, but I will also be able to assist with career planning, household organization, and talk therapy. If anyone is interested, I am offering my services at a discounted rate while I work on establishing my practice.

Circle Craft Annual Christmas Craft Fair

I spent the past couple of days in Vancouver attending the Circle Craft Annual Christmas Craft Fair, the largest one of a kind craft fair in western Canada. I went with my friend Sarah and her mom, and it was super fun. The Thursday night we went out to a Malysian restaurant for dinner (it was good, not great. And now that I am eating red meat again, I had lamb, which was really good!). Friday it was crazy-raining so we drove down to Canada Place and we spent about 5 hours at the craft fair (we would have spent longer, but I had to catch a ferry back on the Sunday night). I ended up with Christmas presents for my mom, dad, sister and Alex, plus a couple of extras. All of the gifts are really random - well my sister's is sorta normal. But the other gifts are super random. I also got a shirt for myself, though alas, not the $100 hoodie of my dreams. So now, the only major gift I still need to get is for Devin, and so I just have to figure out where I can go to get a motorcycle helmet engraved.

Vancouver:
*Banana Leaf
*Blended Lychee Mojhitos (sp?)
*6 hours of travelling
*milk in a glass bottle
*crazy curvy houses (which I will buy when I an extra $350)
*glass insects made by the husband of the $100 hoodie woman
*amazing feeling of being surrounded by people who do what they love for a living, and hoping that someday I can be like them in my own way.

The Abyss and Freedom

Today is Sunday. The day of rest. Or the day of reading "Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom". Unfortunetly, I am spending the day doing the latter. And let me tell you, the Abyss of Freedom is about as pleasant to read as it sounds. Actually, the Abyss of Freedom is good thing, but it is not a particularly fun thing to read about.

However, I was supposed to read it last week, and I didn't start it until yesterday, so I don't have the option of giving up for the day. This week was a good week. I finished my final grant proposal (well, the second of two) and now I have a million-less-one things to worry about. Just now, to take a mini-break from the Abyss of Freedom I went to Starbucks and bought my first eggnog latte of the Christmas season!! Apparently a grande skim-milk/eggnog latte has 10 grams of fat and costs $4.72. This has prompted me to re-evaluate my plan of an eggnog latte a day for the next two months. Mainly because $150 is about half of my monthly food budget. Though it's still not enough for the shoes I want to buy :) Plus, I have to save for Devin's Christmas and birthday presents, so I can't go spending all my money on coffee.

me this very moment

I think I am sick. In fact, by this point, I am pretty postive I am sick. I haven't had a cold in a couple of years, and hopefully it won't ever get really bad and it will pass quickly. I bought orange juice in the hopes that that would help. But unfortunetly it does not appear that chocolate has medicinal properties where viruses are concerned.

And then - last week the girl at Starbucks told me that the Christmas drinks were coming out on Wednesday, but apparently they are coming out NEXT wednesday. Grrr.... !! All I want is an eggnog latte. Well - that's not all - but it would be a nice start :)

devin's christmas gift

i gave devin my blog address. this is because i'm crazy. so this is where the xmas present post used to be... so that devin can read the blog w/o finding out about the awesome new computer i bought him for christmas!! (right.... first i need to buy myself a new computer). okay. that's it for now. xoxo L.