Good-bye 2008!

I can't believe 2008 is nearly over. I had a good Christmas vacation, visiting lots of family, eating lots of food, and opening lots of presents. In fact, we got so many DVD movies and boxed sets that Mike and I went out to Best Buy and bought a new shelving unit for all of them. Last year seemed to be the year for getting board games (we received several and gave several others as presents), but this year was certainly the year for DVDs. Now I will have plenty to watch for all those days when I'm home from school.

Mike and I spent the last few days cleaning around the apartment. Forget spring cleaning, I think people should partake in new year cleaning. We've gotten quite a bit done, but there's still plenty of paperwork to sort through and either shred or file.

Good-bye 2008! You were (like most years) a little bit of everything: happiness and new adventures with enough sadness and stress to make the good times seem even better. Here's to hoping that 2009 will be even better, with plenty of good stories for me to blog about. Cheers!!

Extra Vacation Day

I can't believe it...I'm actually a little bit bummed that school was canceled today. Yes, you read that correctly. The interpreter who LOVES when we have snow days is sad that she didn't have school today. I'm disappointed that I won't be able to give the kiddies their Christmas treats (candy canes and pencils--so stop bumming pencils off of your interpreter already). I'm also sad that I won't be able to sit through class period upon class period of Christmas movies (seriously, because when the kids are watching Christmas movies it means that I don't have to interpret, thus giving me free time, although I have been forced to watch some really bad movies at school, i.e. the Spongebob Squarepants movie).

Oh, well, I'm sure I'll find something to occupy my time today. :o)

Jolly (belated) Twelve Day!

Jolly Twelve Day to all my readers! Yes, I'm a day behind, seeing as it's now the 13th, but better late than never.

Twelve Day, for all of you who are unfamiliar with the holiday, was invented by some of my friends back when they lived in the dormitories at Kent State. It was their way of celebrating Christmas before everyone had to leave campus for winter break (also, it's a celebration of the twelfth day of the twelfth month). They would exchange cheapo gifts (college students, remember, do not have much money) and generally goof-off. Well, the tradition has continued and we celebrated last night in typical Twelve Day fashion.

Twelve Day has some rules to the gift-giving...in order to participate one must purchase three gifts that total $15. I know some celebrants who buy one really nice/cool gift and then spend $1 or $2 on the remaining two gifts, but my goal is to usually buy three gifts at around $5 each. It's also important to remember that Twelve Day is not Christmas, so gifts are to be goofy/juvenile/tacky. Because there is a low price limit, random gifts from the dollar store are quite common.

I purchased a My Little Pony coloring book with some Crayola glitter crayons, a miniature Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figurine set, and (my personal favorite) a package of High School Musical stickers and a Harlequin romance novel (The Italian Billionaire's Secret Love Child, no, I am not making up that title). Naturally, I made sure that the Harlequin book and HSM stickers went to one of the guys in the group.

I received three coloring books, a box of Cars metallic crayons, a set of Hannah Montana crayons, a pirate sword, a Winnie-the-Pooh paddle ball game, a Pirates of the Caribbean night light, and randomly, a bride and groom cake topper. Good stuff.

"The Brainy, Organized One"

I see from the poll results that I have a legion of Simon-lovers out there reading my blog. That's cool, I voted for Simon. I don't know how accurate the poll is though, seeing as I know of at least one person who voted twice. Although, to be fair, if you stop and think about it, my husband definitely is both Simon AND Theodore-ish.

For a Simon-related aside, a couple of years ago the interpreters in my building came up with labels for one another. We had "The Militant One," "The Soft-Hearted One," and "The Brainy, Organized One," just to name a few. I, naturally, was labeled "The Brainy, Organized One."