2010

So, this is the new year. Absorb my enthusiasm for a moment; unlike any other year that I can recall, this year rang in without feeling much like a new year at all. Is this a good thing? I'm not certain.
December 31 was, as I recall, a Thursday, one of the last few days of our winter break. I woke up late, at my mom's house, as I'd been doing for the past week or so (my mom had been working mornings for most of the week). That night, we were going to go to the "Cirque de la Symphonie" performance, which I hear was really awesome, but I had read two weeks previously that tickets were nearly sold out. So I figured last-minute that it probably wouldn't be worth going, because we would likely get a crappy balcony seat with a terrible view. And of course, the view would be rather important. So, when my mom got home from work that night, I related this news to her, and she and Wesley were perfectly fine with the prospect of doing something else; for dinner, we drove over to Olive Garden, only to find that it was congested with New Year's Eve celebrators. So, we went to KFC instead, and Wesley made the man behind the counter laugh with some corny joke like, "Well, this is the last time we're coming to eat here all year." He kept making jokes like that throughout the meal, addressed to me, and being the ditzy person that I am, it took me about an hour before I started to catch on; in response, I would keep saying things like, "All year? What's wrong with. . .(whatever we wouldn't do until the new year)?"
After dinner, we drove home and watched a movie that we rented from the hot guy movie store (I think it was "9," the Tim Burton movie). Then, my mom and I went to my room, where we planned to listen to this Bill Hicks comedy recording that I happened to have on my iPod for some reason, I suppose because I allowed the computer to auto-sync songs to my iPod. Wesley came in to inform us that the ball was going to drop in precisely one minute. We paused the comedy, and instead of going out to the living room to watch the ball drop, as we usually do, we just sat on my bed until it was midnight, and then Wesley left the room again. We exchanged, "Happy New Year's" before my mom fell asleep in the middle of the comedian's routine. It was rather amusing; I laughed out loud a few times. After it was over, I woke her up, helped her over to her own bed, and then went to sleep myself - with the aid of the awesomeness that is Beethoven's "Larghetto" movement of his Second Symphony. This cd, "Beethoven at Bedtime," along with "Mozart: The Greatest Hits" (which has two disks) was my Christmas gift from Wesley. They're both amazing. I got many other amazing gifts over the holiday that I don't have the time nor patience to discuss.
For most of the holiday, I was in Atlanta with my father, visiting his side of the family. We celebrated Christmas at my Aunt Kirsten's house, and I got to watch my 6 and 3 year old cousins (Nathan and Keira) open their gifts, which was a treat. At night, we went over to my grandparents' condo to open the rest of our presents and have a delicious Christmas dinner that featured some rather tasty ham. During this second gift opening, an amusing incident occurred: my cousin Nathan had mentioned to me a few days previously that he was looking forward to receiving a "Space Police" themed Legos set from Santa Claus. Well, everyone held their breath when he opened it at the condo. He hungrily peeled off and discarded the paper, and then there was a deep silence as he read the writing on his gift and tried to see what it was. When he realized that it was what he asked for, he set it on the ground, leaned over as though in prayer, and then jumped high into the air with a victorious, "Yaaaay!" It was the moment of the night.
After the present-opening, the kids grew tired, and so my dad and I departed to see "Sherlock Holmes" at this movie theater in the mall (I didn't even know that they put movie theaters in malls until we went to Atlanta for the first time a few years ago). The movie was pretty good; it's hard to judge, though, not having read anything of Arthur Conan Doyle's before now. However, seeing the movie has made me want to read at least one of the books, though this will not be accomplished until I have finished reading The Grapes of Wrath and The Sound and the Fury, not to mention the nine or ten other books that I received for Christmas. I'll get to you eventually, Mr. Doyle.
So, when we came back to Winston-Salem, the Saturday after Christmas, I celebrated a second Christmas at my mom's house when she got home from work. I also stayed at her house for the last week of break, during which we played four games of Scrabble (all of which I won). Saoirse and Kiki accompanied us during one such game, and then we all rented "500 Days of Summer" from Curious George, a movie which was super-amazing. If you liked "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Amelie," then you will like this movie.
Then, besides the dream that I had this past week that my French class went on a field trip to France (during which Ms. Matisko decided to show us around the suburban neighborhoods and try to make us admire the various colors of vinyl siding), those are about the only things of event that have happened since the beginning of Christmas break.