crappy ornaments

christmas is a big deal in our family. for a long time, we always made a huge event out of decorating the tree. we would all stay home one night, get in the car and go find the perfect tree–at walmart.  joel would ceremoniously whip out the christmas music collection, and we would fight over which ornaments went where on the tree and was the ku ornament higher than the kstate one.

over the years, though, we’ve all gotten busy. between finals week, work and being all over the place, we are never all in the same place at any given time in december. so now, my parents go get a tree and my mom decorates it.

this afternoon i helped her. we must have hundreds of homely ornaments we made in school or church. with each ornament comes about a flood of memories. between us siblings and our cousins, we’ve made thousands of holiday memories over the years, from our “holiday musicals” to the living nativity to carolling to top secret projects.

 i love my family and, Biblical significance aside, the holidays have little meaning to me without them. 

this year’s been hard for us, though, and for those we love. 2007 saw the deaths of several family friends, including three childhood friends. while it makes me more thankful than i’ve ever been for the safety of my own family, i can’t even imagine what those families feel right now during the first holiday season without brad or amanda or alex or any of the other people who passed this year.

not to be pithy but, in the middle of all the happiness, just slow down for a second and let those you love know just how much they mean to you. it sounds cliche, but you really never know when it might be your last with them.

can i please say that i hate people’s free internet?

i love panera, but right now i want to shoot it.

i wrote a lovely post about my thanksgiving, and when i went to post it, panera decided to take a survey of how i like bread, erasing my post. i hate bread, thanks.

let’s try this again.

my brother brought his new zealander roommate for thanksgiving. that was fun, mimicking his accent for a week. he didn’t really get the whole thanksgiving thing, but he was polite and made good coffee, so we let him stay. even though he bad mouthed the macy’s thanksgiving day parade.

we took him to my dad’s side’s thanksgiving in the middle of nowhere. we ate obscene amounts of green bean cassarole and my grandma’s german cooking, then we went out in the pasteur and shot stuff. we’re classy. jacob says guns are illegal in new zealand. my only concept of new zealand is lord of the rings, and frodo only had a sword, so i have to believe him.

thanksgiving evening, i went down to the lord’s diner to do a story for the sunflower. it was a lot of fun, actually. the people are very nice and friendly. sometimes a little too friendly–a few 65+ men asked me out. i said, thanks, but it would make my boyfriend sad.

then came the main event: friday morning shopping. corrie and i were going to sleep in my car in front of best buy, but then we decided that cheap stuff isn’t as fun to play with if your hands fell off from frostbite. instead, we were at walmart by 3:45, standing in the already long line for the electronics department.

along about 4:20, jack, the friendly walmart line keeper, announced that the line had split into 5 lines and everybody needed to get in the right one. the natives panicked and all herded into one fat line, squashing corrie and i in the process. we were so hot from our preventative layers that we nearly passed out. it really wouldn’t have matter much, though, because we were packed in so tight, we wouldn’t have fallen.

so, we get about three people back in line. our eyes were on the prize and victory was about to taste very sweet. then corrie asked jack if the mp3 player she wanted had rechargeable batteries.

it didn’t.

we left. but we managed to shank a couple $4 coffeemakers and a toaster on the way out. we hit a couple more places, then feigned illness and went home to pass out on our parents’ new carpet.

friday was my mom’s side’s thanksgiving. lots of people, lots of artery-blocking food. jeff felt like he needed to pull his weight in the meal, so he brought a very popular lipton parmesan noodles dish. he had been planning on bringing a few bowls of hamburger helper, but decided at the last minute that hamburger clearly doesn’t go with turkey, and every meal needs cheesy pasta.

friday night was duane frazier’s going away party at sidepocket, the official lutz hangout. i’ve only worked with duane for a year, peanuts to gary’s 26, but i’m pretty sad to see him go. he was a great guy and a lot of fun to work with. also, his departure bumps jeff up into his vacant spot–as my boss. i don’t know yet if we’ll have to go sign a statement with corporate… 

when i was in sixth grade i got cut from the basketball team. it came as some what of a blow. i’d spent the previous few weeks dreaming of a cute uniform that i could take to school on a hanger and change into. then the whole team would pile into vans and drive off to the game singing team songs.

anyway, i got cut because i suck at basketball.

tonight monique wanted me to teach her how to play. she is an aspiring basketball manager and wanted to look like she knew what she was doing. she figured that because i write about sports, i can play them. 

false.

but i’m a trooper, so i took her to the Y to practice. (i had to put my keys up as collateral at the front desk to rent a ball.) i don’t know who had more airballs– me or her. i remembered why i never made it in the world of basketball.

finally, i decided that i really wasn’t helping her, so i went looking for someone who could. we found a few guys on the other court who seemed to be pretty good at this shooting-the-ball thing. the first guy said he was too tired to tell us how to shoot, but the second one sat us down and explained the importance of two directing fingers and a steady other hand.  

didn’t help much.

i wish monique all the best, but i think i’ll keep watching from the sidelines

Panera

just sitting here at panera, loading up on carbs and coffee

a little more than a year ago, i discovered that panera has free internet. my life hasn’t been the same since. it’s my go-to spot for cheap bagels, coffee and accomplished homework. i turn on my music and i’m good to go. i like to open the place at 6 a.m. and sometimes come back for a little bit of afternoon homeworking.

thoughts from panera:

1. i’m a talented sample hoarder. panera puts out sample bread baskets, and i’m the primary depleter of of those baskets. i generally grab several pieces everytime i get up to refill my coffee. i think the panera employees would hate me for this if i weren’t such a regular…

2… i think i’m finally gaining “regular” status at panera- after a year and a half. it used to kind of hurt my feelings that some of the employees still had to ask for my order. y’all, it’s the same everyday: wheat bagel and a cup of coffee in a mug. you should know this. however, i think we’re making progress. the other day, she looked a little surprised when i asked for a to-go cup.

3. today, i came in a little stressed out about everything that i had to get done. i saw a friend of mine from high school across the restaurant. she’s married now and has a baby. she was just sitting there shooting the breeze with her mom and sisters, carefree with nowhere better to be. for a few moments i was jealous of her. it would be nice to just be settled down and have the next 18 years of your life planned out, worrying about PTA meetings instead of how you’re going to find a job and support yourself.

then i snapped out of it. i chose this. i want to live a few years before changing diapers. i mean, yes, i might miss it all and get to my 70’s without any offspring to take care of me in my old age, but chances are i will have died of hypertension long before that.

it’s cool for other people, but i just never was the get-married/procreate early type. 

4. my coffee caught up with me and i took a little bathroom break. in their flurry of remodeling, they forgot a climate control issue. i walked into the bathroom and saw my breath.  i thought i was going to get frostbite before i left.

 ———–

the indians lost last night. victor cried. stupid boston.

Playoffs Jeff

lately, i’ve been dating october-jeff, also known as playoffs-jeff.

opening day, the regular season and clenching the division all came and went with much fanfare, but i’m not sure they really prepared me for the month of october and baseball voodoo.

the indians won game one of the yankees series, their first of the post-season. therefore, before each game, we reinact the entire afternoon of that first game:

1. go to the grocery store to buy ingredient for salsa, following the same path through the store everytime. i have to run into the rack on the end of aisle 9.

2. make salsa. put it in the fridge to chill. i have to leave for at least an hour and come back before scott gets there.

3. when scott gets there, we stand outside for 15 minutes. i pull weeds and wash my hands twice.

4. then we pile in the car to go to chipotle. i ask scott if he wants to sit in the front seat, he says no, but maybe on the way back.

5. on the way, i have to remind jeff to turn at the the right spot and we have to argue about it for a while. when we get to chipotle we have to park facing maize road.

6. in chipotle, i pick up a menu, jeff takes it, i take it back and set it on the ledge. he gets a chicken burrito with just a little rice, i say that i don’t want anything, and scott gets a steak burrito that the girl has to write C2 on. scott pays (result of a lengthy mitigated fantasy trade) and we start home with me again sitting in the front seat.

7. when we get home, i go get salsa, jeff goes down stairs, and scott gets a plate. i eat chips for the opening pitch, scott warms up his burrito.

8. through out the game, scott and jeff stay in the same places, but i have to rotate various spots through out the room, depending on the inning.

the witchcraft was strong enough to get cleveland through the yankees series and deep into the boston’s.

i did, however, get the boston series off to a bad start by not only not participating in the ritual, but by in boston at the time, across the street from fenway. i was assured that it was my fault.

however, we lost last night, voodoo and all, sending the series back to boston 3-2. jeff has spent the last 16 hours in depression and cold sweats. i’m positive fausto will clench it tomorrow night, but i’m kind of worried about jeff. we’re not to the point of worrying about sharp objects, but only because there is still a sliver of hope to be had.

——————

jeff recently bought me a stack of baseball cards. all indians. all 35 of them. i haven’t had a sports card since i had that basketball cards stint back in ‘91, complete with the micheal jordan trapper keeper.

Boston: Feeling miles behind the curve

i’ve never designed a legitimate page in my life, yet last weekend i found myself in boston at the society of news design’s annual convention.

i may not have any real design experience, but i love every part of this industry and i spent the weekend on cloud nine: inspiration. that is after i scraped my ego off the ground.

my sunflower compatriots and i sat through days of sessions and portfolio critiques that confirmed our worst fears: our paper has a long way to go. it’s hard to hear, but sometimes you have to get knocked down so that you can get back up, stronger.

one of the (many) things we learned was that we need to each have a much greater internet presence if we want to be valuable in the job market. therefore, carissa and i made a pact to both start blogging. thus this page.