A real live tree. Well not live for much longer.

We put up our Christmas tree this weekend. It's pretty, I think:



I'd never had a real tree before, and neither had my roommate, but neither of us knew the other one was a real tree virgin until we'd lugged the thing into the apartment. I always thought my family had always used a fake tree because my dad was allergic to them, but apparently this isn't true, because when I called him and told him we'd bought a real tree he said, "Aren't you allergic? That's the reason we never had a real tree." So I am extremely confused but not sneezing yet. My theory is that my mom knew what a pain pine needles are to clean up (already, I am a little annoyed by them), and decided to tell me that I was allergic in an effort to avoid the hassle. Smart woman, that one.

Also thankful that my new life didn't involve three months on the Mayflower

Let me tell you a little bit more about my Thanksgiving, because it turned out so perfectly that I am still thinking about it. I'd been worrying about Thanksgiving since August, when my roommate and I decided we were both staying in Colorado and not going back to Ohio to celebrate with our families. I was worried I'd be homesick, and so to fight the homesickness I decided I needed to have a full-blown, awesome, wow-that's-a-lot-of-food Thanksgiving meal. And I would probably be the one to make it.

Surprisingly, though, I wasn't. I did find all of the recipes, and make the shopping list, and tell everyone what to do in the kitchen, but I had nothing to do with a couple of the dishes we ate, like the mashed potatoes and the stuffing. We ended up having dinner with my roommate's brother, and the three of us had a lot of fun. My roommate even got all serious and made a touching little toast before we ate. All the food I had worried about ruining? It all came out exactly the way it was supposed to.

I was listening to an old episode of This American Life a couple of weeks ago, and one of the contributors read a piece she'd written about spending Thanksgiving with her family. I was sad, at first, that I wasn't going to be able to spend it with mine, but near the end of the piece she said this: "It is curious that we Americans have a holiday, Thanksgiving, that's all about people who left their homes for a life of their own choosing, a life that was different from their parents' lives. And how do we celebrate it? By hanging out with our parents."

After listening to her say that, I was glad that I was spending my Thanksgiving out here, celebrating my new, different life. If you had told me a year ago that I would be spending my Thanksgiving with my roommate, his brother, and my dog (my very own dog!), I wouldn't have believed you. Especially if you followed that up by telling me I'd be spending the day in Colorado Springs. And so this year, I'm thankful that I tried something new, and that I am lucky enough to have such great friends to try it with. Of course, I'm thankful for my family and I'm still sad that I'm not celebrating with them. But I think it's important that I spent this holiday celebrating my choice to give something different a try. It's all working out wonderfully.

Thankful it all turned out perfectly

This was the first Thanksgiving I've ever played a major role in meal preparation, and it was FANTASTIC. Everything turned out perfectly. This is my plate.



After we finished eating, we were looking at my pictures and my roommate said that even though he was stuffed, that picture made him want to go eat the entire meal over again.

It was a lot of fun, and I will probably talk about it more tomorrow, but today we're going to put up the Christmas tree and maybe go downtown for the lighting of the Denver City and Council Building's Christmas lights. I just have a lot of holiday goodness to soak up today, is all.

Sidenote: Does anyone have a good idea for about half a gallon of left over cranberry sauce?

I'm going to try to fake someone out with a football today, too.

Tomorrow I'm going to get all sentimental about what I'm thankful for, but today you can just watch this video. I have always loved to watch Snoopy fix popcorn and toast, which unfortunately is cut out of this clip. Still, you can see it on the plates, along with pretzels and jelly beans that are probably six-month-old Easter leftovers.

For your entertainment, while I frantically prepare Thanksgiving dishes

Your Message Here - an Urban Outfitters art installation that invited people to submit phrases to be displayed on a window sign. They're quite pretty to look at. [via Slice of Pink]

Embroidered Text Messages - This is the epitome of crafty-meets-geeky and I like it a lot. [via Mighty Girl]

I was excited about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland until I read this and found out that it's going to be shown in 3-D. We all know how much I love that.

Photographs of painted hands - It doesn't makes sense if I try to explain it, so just go look. [via Kottke]

Thursday is going to be CRAZY.

"Do you know how to cook a turkey?"

"I think we need vegetable oil."

Denver: Month Five

This won't be very long, for two reasons. First, I've been posting so often that there's not much new stuff to write about, and second, the last few weeks of my life have been pretty much the same thing over and over again. Not that I'm complaining, in fact, it's the opposite. I have finally settled in here and I am happy and my life is pretty simple (as simple as it can ever be, at least).

So there's your update. Now I'm off to look for Thanksgiving recipes. True story: I've never made green bean casserole.

Wondering

if anyone would ever throw me an Amy Atlas-designed party, and further, if I would survive the shock its beauty would leave me in?

Weird Midwestern and East Coast things I miss, five months later:

• Jones potato chips(I never thought I would miss these. But I miss the salt & vinegar variety especially)
• radio stations starting with W (I don't know why, I just do)
• Bob Evans (oh, for a late breakfast at Bob's on those weekend days I wake up hungover...)
• Calling it Hardee's, not Carl's Jr.(it just feels wrong)
• TV shows starting at the time advertised (this is endlessly confusing to me)

Wondering

what my roommate is going to do when he realizes that the "event" my friend and I have been talking about, the one we're all going to tonight, is not just any old event, it is the Jingle Bell Ball, a Christmas Tree Extravaganza that takes place BEFORE THANKSGIVING?

Because celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving is probably his least favorite thing.

Seriously, how fun is it going to be to see the look on his face when he walks into a huge display of Christmas trees? It's going to be like getting an early gift. Which will make him even more upset.

The Land of Misfit [Dog] Toys

Francie used to have a lot of toys, but every once in a while I'll look away from whatever I'm doing and find some toy's insides all over the floor. I always think I can fix them, so instead of throwing them out I put them on the bookshelf. The other day she killed two in the span of only a few hours. That's when I realized maybe it was time to actually fix them.



And no, I totally don't get ANY pleasure out of the moments when she notices that everything she loves to chew on is a few feet out of her reach. Nope. None whatsoever.

Grandma's Marmalade Jar

When I moved out here this summer, I discovered a lot of the wonderful things I'd packed away while I lived with my parents. I had also just gotten my camera, so I started taking pictures of everything I loved but had sort of forgotten about.



This marmalade jar is one of them. It was my grandma's, and it was one of the weird things my family thought I was a little silly for taking. I think it is perfectly charming, especially the way its facial expression is impossible to decipher. Is he smiling happily? Is he angrily narrowing his eyebrows? Why is he shaped more like an apple than an orange?

"You want that?" they asked, and when I said yes and also could I take the plastic souvenir cups from Sea World, well, that's when they realized that I am a little off.

Unazukin Doll

More on this tomorrow (I am busy tonight, and posting everyday is a BIG commitment), but here is the Unazukin doll I bought myself last year. You ask it a question and it shakes its head yes or no. It's creepy, but way more fun than a magic 8-ball.

It just gets worse and worse

Besides having to live in a scary old house, not being able to send my own email is just one more reason I wouldn't really want to be president.

Progress

My roommate is gone for the weekend, and I think the cat started to miss him today. This morning I was sitting on the couch and she curled up at my feet. She spent the rest of the day sleeping on my bed, and at one point I went into my room and found this:



I'm not anticipating anything like a friendship between them, but I'll take what I can get.

Listen to this

A new season of one of my favorite podcasts, RadioLab, started yesterday, and I wanted to let you know about it because I love it. I have been waiting for this season to begin since I listened to the last new episode on my drive out here to Colorado (I stockpiled them, along with about ten This American Lifes, for the trip). The Morning News interviewed RadioLab's host, Jad Abumrad, and if you're wondering what's to love about an hour of listening to interviews with scientists about things like sleep and morality and time, this is what he had to say about the show's target audience:

"i don’t know if this is true…but i’m hoping our target audience is pretty wide. meaning, anyone who is curious, open-minded, interested in how things work, in questions that have answers and also questions that don’t have answers. basically anyone who finds the world a wonderful and weird and slightly scary place full of mysteries."

I love this show, and I like the way he describes it. Go listen to it. NOW. You can start with Memory and Forgetting, which is one of my favorites. Time was pretty good, too.

What I did this morning

We had our first snow this morning in Denver. They've been saying it was going to snow everyday this week, so I didn't believe them when they said I'd wake up to it.

Things worked out nicely, as I took the morning off to take my roommate to the airport and therefore have not yet had to brave the snowy roads. The first snow of the year is always a little crazy for everyone, so I'm glad I'm avoiding it for the next few hours. Instead I made french toast and coffee and watched traffic coverage on the news.

Of course, the dog couldn't be happier about the return of her favorite part of nature. Both my roommate and I have already taken her out to play in it this morning, and although she was a little unsure about it at first, she was chasing snowballs and just generally frolicking around in it.

All of this is to say, I had a really nice morning.

So it's kind of an addiction.

We use Google Earth a lot at work, and I have become so obsessed with it that I downloaded it at home (you can get it free here). One of my favorite features is Panoramio, which is an application you can use to upload photos to the internet and place them for everyone to see on the Google Earth map. At work, I frequently find myself thinking of places I'd like to look at, scribbling them down on a post-it, and wasting time at home looking them up. Here are a few from the last week or so:

• The Taj Mahal
• The Eiffel Tower
• My apartment
• My parents' house
• Four Corners
• The Pyramids at Gaza
• The PeeWee Herman dinosaurs
• my grandparents' house
• all the places I used to work
• the places I work now
• Disney World
• my high school
• my old dorm rooms
• my apartment (like ten more times)

Phoning it in

Look, I'm busy enjoying a pretty delicious Colorado beer and watching Casino Royale (we're going to see Quantum of Solace tomorrow at midnight), so here's a link to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenues across the United States. [via BuzzFeed]

By the way, have you seen Dear Old Love yet? It's heartbreaking and sweet and beautiful and I really, really like it.

Like buried treasure, only not.

I absorb a lot of news during the day. I listen to the radio on the way to and from work, I download a couple of news podcasts and listen to them in the morning, and part of my internet addiction entails reading news feeds from three different sources. I just picked this habit back up in September after I started my new job, but I had been even more immersed in current events before I left my job in June, and I remember quitting the news cold turkey when I went to Bonnaroo and feeling really weird. I remember listening to the news on the drive home and thinking, But what about the earthquake in China!? Which I understand is a serious problem, but there are worse addictions, I suppose.

Anyway, today I have been bombarded (no pun intended) with news about the missing nuclear bomb near Greenland, and I have to say that I am underwhelmed by it. This is probably because a year or two ago, I was watching the History Channel with my dad and saw a documentary about this missing nuclear bomb off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. In both cases, the military is all, "well, if we can't find it we figure it's as good as gone." Sure, military. THANKS. I feel so much better.

Besides, if the US government loses nuclear bombs, don't you think other governments have lost some? I like to think there are missing nuclear weapons all over the place, and so far nothing bad has happened. It keeps me from worrying about spontaneous nuclear explosions. Sort of.

Better than winning five bucks

There is an episode of How I Met Your Mother called Slap Bet. I don't know if there were Slap Bets before this episode, so if not, a Slap Bet is when you make a bet and the winner gets to slap the loser across the face. And of course, because we are a little obsessed with all things concerning this show, my roommate and I can't have an argument without instantly challenging each other to a slap bet:

"This song is from Tom Petty's newest album."

"Um, I'm pretty sure this song is as old I am."

"No, the only album of his I have is the new one, and I know this is on it."

"You wanna slap bet?"

"Absolutely I do."

Generally we back out as soon as the other person asks to slap bet. I've won twice (I won that Tom Petty bet up there, by the way), but I as I'm not a very violent person, I put the second slap in reserve, and we decided I'm allowed to use as an out if needed. The only slap bet we've had since then ended in a draw, since we were both wrong.

It's a nice feeling to know that I could take a risk and come out even, but at the same time I like holding on to the power of having that slap left. You're supposed to have a non-biased Slap Bet Commisioner who decides what's fair and what's not, but we don't have one. That's probably going to come back to haunt us (and by us I mean ME, specifically), even though for now we're doing alright. I just know it will end something like this,* especially since we can't seem to live our lives differently than they do on the show.

*but with less happy singing and more pain.

Wherein I give proof that I am a terrible brat

There are some moments in my life that are more vivid as photos or video than in my memory, and there are some that I wish I'd had the opportunity to capture with a camera, I remember them so well. By some stroke of luck, here is one incident from my childhood that for some reason is not only one of my most vivid memories, but is also preserved on film. I'm really, really glad about this because when I look back on this this moment in my life, it seems to be quite symbolic.

The summer I turned seven, my family moved into a house that needed, among other things, a remodeled kitchen. One day I found my dad painting the floor, and it looked like fun. He explained that it was sealant or something, and that I could help him, but I'd need to start against the wall and work my way to the edge. Basically, above all, I needed to avoid painting myself into a corner.

I got started, working my way carefully across the kitchen, and after a while my brother showed up. He wanted to help too, so my dad said sure, explained to him the exact same rules (namely, don't paint yourself into a corner) and left us to it. I suppose he went and got the camera, because here we are:



Take a good look at that photo, and you will see several things:
1. My brother, painting all the way around himself.
2. The area I haven't painted, complete with a spot for me to step out of the kitchen.
3. My big mouth, open and presumably telling my brother what he is doing wrong.

So anyway, we kept painting, and here is about what it came down to:


I finished my space by safely crouching outside the kitchen, and my brother finished his space by painting himself into the little spot you can see to his right (your left).

I tried to warn him not to, internet, I really did, but of course he didn't listen to me. My dad had to lift him out of the kitchen and I was infinitely annoyed that he managed to get away with it. My logic was something along the lines of, if he wasn't going to listen to my advice and my dad's directions, he should at least have to suffer for it. I imagined him marooned in the middle of the kitchen, standing in the little space he'd left for himself until the next day when the floor was dry enough for him to walk across. THAT would really show him, you know?

Much to my disappointment, my dad was able to lift my brother out of his dry spot. My mom showed up with the video camera at this point, and we have this great video from right after this moment, where my brother is bragging to me that he didn't get any of the sealant on himself, and I sort of roll my eyes and touch his shirt with my apparently sealant-covered hands. This sends him into a little hissy fit, and I walk over to the video camera and pronounce, "He bugs me. HE BUGS ME!" As if the masses would understand my frustration with this kid. Look at him! Didn't even follow the directions! Comiserate with me!

I watched this video about a year ago and realized that I still use the phrase "it bugs me." I also still boss people around and get annoyed when they get away with something I don't think they should have. And my brother? I guess he's still the same, approaching problems from a point of view that is completely different from my own. He also still bugs me. Just not as much.

Happy Birthday, Puppy

On Thursday, Francie turned one year old. I meant to write this Thursday night, but all the things I didn't do Tuesday during the election or Wednesday while I working late caught up with me. And then last night I went to a CSO concert and got home at 11:45, which was cutting it pretty close to the post-a-day deadline (hence the cartoon). So anyway: she's growing up.

It's hard to believe she has been around this long. I remember bringing her home and wondering what I'd gotten myself into. She is the most vocal dog I have ever had. She growls if you pick her up and she was comfortable where she was, she whines at the door to go out and when she's begging, and if she is giving herself a really good scratch, she cries while she does it. And also, she barks. A lot. At everything. Luckily for her, I learned a long time ago that the two things we have in common--a love of sleeping in and a distaste for bananas--are the kinds of things that make her easy to love. The things we don't have in common, like bladder control (me) and a taste for stuffed animal innards (her), well, these are things I am willing to overlook when she rolls over on her back and begs for a belly rub.



Sometimes, it has been lonely out here in Denver, and I have to admit that every once in a while I start to feel a little overwhelmed by the fact that I picked up and left a comfortable, familiar life for what was basically a big question mark. On those days I couldn't be more thankful for Francie. I had my first appointment with a new doctor last month and had to list my nearest relative. I had to list my parents in Ohio, and it was so clear in that moment that I am on my own. So I went home and fed Francie about a billion treats and didn't move her to the end of the bed when she curled up next to my head that night.

Of course, she can be frustrating sometimes, especially when it comes to my roommate's cat. Francie is something like an obnoxious eight-year-old sibling to Socks's melodramatic teenager, and at least once a day, I have to break up what Socks considers to be a fight and what Francie considers to be good-natured banter. But they've come a long way, I think, because although the cat doesn't eat the dog food anymore, she still likes to drink Francie's water, and they are usually pretty civil about sharing the space around the food bowls.

So there you have it, I'm one of those people. I'm a dog person. But I can't help it. She's a pretty good dog.

Ahhh I thought I was the only person who ever felt like this!

nataliedee.com

I really hate being breathed on.

Things my dental hygenist thinks about my mouth

"You have a VERY shallow mouth. This is probably going to be painful."

"She has a strong gag reflex."

"It's weird that they left the top wisdom teeth."

"Wow, you have that really stringy kind of saliva."

A few things on my mind today

1. Last night when Obama gave his acceptance speech, I was distracted by his comment that his daughters would be getting a puppy to take with them to the White House. Awesome! I thought. Those little girls must be SO EXCITED! They are getting a puppy! And you know who ISN'T excited right now? The White House staff. You know they are totally rolling their eyes right now, like, oh PLEASE, Obamas, train that thing before you even THINK about bringing it to this house that we are in charge of keeping presentable. I was having a good little giggle about that, but then I had another thought: if I were eight or ten and moving into that creepy old building, I would be freaking out. This is clearly residual scardey-catness from the October Scary Movie Marathon. But still. I would not be looking forward to it, sleeping in a house that has its own slice of webspace dedicated to the ghosts that haunt it.

2. This morning I had to go to the dentist for a filling. And, you know, whatever, it's not fun at all but it's over pretty quickly. Today we were right in the middle of things and suddenly I had to sneeze. I was terrified that I actually would, and there are few things scarier than the thought of sneezing with a drill in your mouth (it's right behind sleeping in the White House). For a few seconds I thought it would be something that actually happened and not just something to gruesomely picture happening, but I was, thankfully, able to stave it off.

3. I just listened to last week's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and Christopher Buckley was the guest celebrity. He said the nicest thing: "It's a scientific fact that everyone from Ohio is nice." I know from experience that this is far from the truth, but it warmed my heart, being a transplanted Ohioan. Speaking of Ohio, this week's episode of How I Met Your Mother centered around Ohioan-turned-New-Yorker Ted's inability to deal with his emotions: "I'm dealing with it Ohio style. Problem showed up, I avoided it, it went away." This is another thing I know isn't always true. But still! Way to represent, Ohio! You are more ubiquitous [relevant?] than I had realized.

On Election Day

The company I work for is an international company, and I work with a lot of people from other countries. One of my co-workers is from Great Britain, but recently she became an American citizen We threw a little party to celebrate with her. It quickly devolved into people asking her what she had to know to pass the citizenship test ("well, there were a lot of questions about who was defeated in the Revolutionary War!"), but I was charmed by the people from other countries--Peru, Spain, Australia, and Mexico--who had very nice things to say about a country that wasn't theirs. I think I most enjoyed hearing someone say that they had a lot of respect for the United States because it has brought so much good will to the world.

I know there are a lot of Americans who would disagree with that sentiment, but I think today, while the election is on everyone's mind, it is nice to reflect on how great our country is.

Alright, I'm done being mushy, and the bitchiness will once again commence tomorrow.

Friendly Breakfast Conversation

"I got my flu shot at work, so if I get sick, I am going to complain."

"And who are you going to complain to?"

"You."

"And that is different from any other time how?"

"Oh just shut up."

Boys and Girls

It's National Blog Posting Month again, which means you are in for a daily dose of my questionable writing skills for the rest of the month. I'm sorry.

I am more than a little concerned that this is going to be a difficult month, mostly because everything I want to write about is sort of themed "Look at the difference between boys and girls!" as living with my roommate is a lot of fun, and whenever we have a clash of personalities it is relatively easy to chalk one up for gender differences. For example:

• Last week he was cleaning his bathroom and carried his plunger out to the kitchen to get some paper towels. And then his plunger TOUCHED the paper towels. I was grossed out and told him we couldn't use those for anything in the kitchen anymore. He told me that was silly because he hadn't used the plunger in forever, couldn't even remember the last time, in fact, and that I was overreacting. GROSS. I didn't give in.
• I made cookies last night and cut them out in autumn shapes (acorns, turkeys, pumpkins and maple leaves). I only had red and brown sprinkles to decorate them with and I was disappointed. He quickly pointed out that the pink and purple sprinkles in the cupboard, while not autumn-colored, would taste the same as the ones I had out. I think his exact words were, "I will eat a purple pumpkin, Loren." It just didn't seem right.
  
• This, and this, and also this from the archives.
  

Hey! That was scary.

My roommate and I were successful and made it through October with 31 scary movies under our belts. In the order we watched them, they are:

The Blair Witch Project
The Amityville Horror
Planet Terror
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part 3
Friday the 13th Part 4
House on Haunted Hill
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Friday the 13th Part 5
Friday the 13th Part 6
Friday the 13th Part 7
Friday the 13th Part 8
Friday the 13th Part 9
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Jason X
Freddy vs. Jason
Night of the Living Dead
Carrie
Dawn of the Dead
Dracula
Prom Night (2008)
Poltergeist
Poltergeist II
The Ring
Prom Night (original)
Pet Sematary
28 Days Later
Saw
The Exorcist
Halloween

Some I liked, some not so much. For about three days after watching The Ring I had creepy dreams about the girl in the well (I know, cliche, SHUT UP), but Poltergeist is one of my new favorite scary movies and I am anxiously awaiting a free night when we can sit down and watch 28 Weeks Later. I am your stereotypical scary movie wimp, but this sort of worked out ingeniously because all those evil, creepy bad guys pooled together left me with so much to be frightened by that it was too much work, and I gave up. I specifically remember waking up at 3:15 a few weeks ago, rolling my eyes and thinking, I am way too tired to stay up and be scared right now. And then I went right back to sleep.

I do think all the horror movies primed me to be easy to scare. Yesterday I was driving home from work, and I think I'd forgotten it was Halloween. I was on the highway, and I happened to glance up into my rearview mirror and see the Joker following behind me. I jumped and then realized that he must simply be on his way to a party. I wish I could have told him how great his makeup was, and that he made me yell, out loud, in fear. I don't think anyone could ask for more from a Halloween costume.