A Wandering Eyre

Well, I seemed to have survived the holidays so far though I still have New year’s to go. Last night I had dinner with Mr. Rochester’s parents, sister, and my parents. We went to a bring your own wine Italian place in town. I have to admit it was the first time I had been there and left sober. We only drank 4 bottles for 7 people. We usually have almost 2 each. Ahh, good times. My father was relatively well behaved, though he did invite himself to K’s wedding. It could have been worse.

I only have the series finale of Buffy to watch and then I have seen them all. No more new Joss Whedon, until September anyway. I think I might survive. Maybe.

I am heading to Dallas for New Year’s. We have tickets to the Cotton Bowl: A&M and Tennessee. The Aggies are favored so we should be celebrating a victory Saturday night. It has been awhile since I was able to watch my favorite team play. I am also going to spend time with my old roommate, B. I bough champagne to make mimosas for the occasion. Hooray!

For Fun: Some “mildly” amusing fortune cookie messages from McSweeny’s

I have to pack. Happy New Year and don’t make any ludicrous promises to yourself this year, ok?

Well I finally got to sleep in since this is vacation and all. I spent yesterday as planned, drinking whiskey sours, eating too much, and being surrounded by my family. I also managed to get a few really great gifts. Mr. R even broke down and bought me a season of Buffy. That means I now have leway to get the others. All hell shall now break loose.

The Ukrainians go back to the polls today and southeast Asia has had some really bad luck with earthquakes. Other than that, most of the news is top 10 best and worst lists of the year. Nothing too exciting. I guess people are too busy returning presents they did not want today. President Bush did call for more compassion in his Christmas address for the sick and needy. How nice. Here is a little thought. Maybe we should spend less money on the inauguration and more money on the sick and needy. But call me crazy.

I watched I, Robot yesterday and I was displeased with the little jab they made at libraries. As if the internet will replace all libraries and books. I will not even warrant that flawed thought with too much comment except to say NO. I liked the premise of the movie, that we could create AI that could evolve. I know Asimov’s book is very different from the movie, but I think that I should read it to see how much they jacked it up to make it more appealing to the masses.

–Jane, is enjoying her time off

I have now entered the fun that is family. By fun, I mean my brother and I will spend the majority of our time making fun of our parents with inside jokes. Our sister might join in, but we are the rude ones of the bunch. My mom and I spent the day baking stuff for tomorrow: a peach pie, an apple upside down cake, sun dried tomato pea salad, banana bread, and broccoli rice casarole. Yum. We have to start getting ready for mass soon. Every year we have to go to Mass with my parents, even though they are the only ones who do not find it tedious and rather smelly. Damn incense. Then we will come home, eat steaks, and open presents. At 11, those of us who feel that attending a non-Catholic church will not send us straight to hell, go to the Methodist church’s candlelight service. That’s a whole lotta Jebus.

I may be too busy tomorrow, but I will try to recall a couple amusing stories, there are bound to be some, to share.

–Jane might need a lot of egg nog to get through

A new version of Phantom of the Opera opens in theaters today. It is essentially the stage musical on the big screen. I have never seen it on stage, though I have always wanted too. It got a decent review on All Things Considered yesterday. I must admit, though, that the main reason I want to see this movie has nothing to do with intellect. It has everything to do with Gerard Butler who plays the phantom. Yum. I even watched Timeline TWICE to look at him. If Gerard Butler and David Boreanaz were in a room and I was forced to choose only one, my head would explode first.

The weather guys are still predicting a good chance of snow for Houston on Friday and I am still flabbergasted. It was a nippy 33 degrees this morning. Hello Winter! I still have two presents to get and then I am absolutely done with shopping. I spoke to my mom this morning about what we are taking to my grandparents for dinner. Ahhh, family gatherings. Christmas at my grandparents house means a lot of things, but the the most important…. the best damn whisky sours on the planet made with love by my grandfather. He makes them from scratch. I am telling you that nothing is better on Christmas morning at 9:30 than a whiskey sour. Move over bloody mary.

Mr. R is still unable to decide if he will be with us for Christmas Eve. Why is it that men can NEVER make plans? I do not think planning ahead is unreasonable.

I have yet to hear from my high school friends for the annual Christmas get together. D, if you are reading this, call me; we need to talk. In case anyone was wondering, the gathering includes a bunch of nerds and alcohol. Pretty much the same as in high school only without the drunkenness. Last year, W, introduced me to the wonder that is good scotch. We shall see what this year shall hold, hopefully not me doing something stupid.

I am not traveling for Christmas, so I will still be posting in between my brother and I singing “Snow” from White Christmas (the best holiday movie of all time) at the top of our lungs while my mom yells for us to tone it down and why did she ever have to have two such loud obnoxious children. Funny, my sister is never included in the loud obnoxious bunch. Poor her. She has no idea what she is missing.

–Jane, it won’t be long before we’ll all be there with snow

After careful consideration, I have decided to submit at least one paper to SC2: the Slayage Conference on the Whedonverse when they open up their call for papers. I now feel like I have completely lost my mind and I love it.

–Jane, says she is happy once more with feeling

I woke up around 4 this morning to the sound of a torrential downpour. I have a second floor apartment in an older building. When it rains hard, the noise takes on the sound quality of rain on a tent. It makes me wonder how thin my walls and roof are but I think that it mostly has to do with the poxy material of which the roof is comprised. Do you like how I artfully avoided dangling a preposition there?

I have a J.W. Waterhouse print on the wall of my office. It is entitled The Crystal Ball. A graceful woman with pale skin in a crimson dress holds a fist sized clear ball in her hands. Her face and eyes are downcast, so the viewer must imagine that she is gazing into the ball. Her thick dark brown hair is gathered into a large bun at the back of her head. Her dress, though fitted at the top, has extra folds at the waist and elbow of the arms. She is standing in a study, filled with a table, on which a rather large book sits open, and a dark wooden chair with a red cushion. A half moon window fills the back of the picture and the blurred shapes of trees are visible. I alternatively wonder, what is in the crystal ball and would I look that beautiful in the picture? There is a sense of loneliness about the woman, as there is in most of Waterhouse’s works, but there is also the isolation that comes with a long day of study.

–Jane obviously has noting much to say

Note to self: Excess coffee does not make the benadryl sleepiness go away. It only causes your body to be both sleepy and excessively jittery and floaty.

–Jane, has yet to start actual work at work

Mark your calendars everyone! Scholastic has announced that the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, will be released on this day. There is an article here.

–Jane is a tingle with excitement

Today is the longest day of Winter. I already want to go back to bed. The benadryl I took to counteract the irritating allergies I was experiencing this morning have made me sleepy. The cloudy weather is not helping either.

I read for a couple hours last night. I had forgotten how good it feels to lay prone and pour over the pages of a book, albeit a very bad one. I bought a Buffy/Angel spin off book and it is bad, very bad. I have read romances with bad plots that were better written. The paragraphs are choked with metaphors that muddy the page, only to reappear in the following paragraph. Reading this book is like watching a car accident; I just can not look away. The good news is that the novel’s poor writing makes it easier to read quickly, read skim, so I should finish it in a couple of days. Then I can move on to something better, like The Time Traveler’s Wife or Something Rotten, depending upon my mood.

–Jane, is counteracting medication with coffee