I've
been trying to dump all of last year's photos off my cellphone to
no avail, so my year-in-photos recap will have to wait another day
until Gray can (hopefully) figure it out for me. Apparently he doesn't
like it when at 10 o'clock at night I go, "Can you try to get
my pictures off my cellphone with that cable and software that's
really tempermental and probably won't work after an hour of trying?"
cuz he said no.
===
Christmas
was good. I got sick with a chest cold on the 23rd and so was kind
of weak and boring the whole time, but we managed to go out to a
big Basque dinner at one of my hometown's more famed hole in the
wall restaurants, where $19 will get you a dinner with a first course
of soup, bread, ceasar salad, beans, cottage cheese, and a square
chunk of bleu cheese, the second course finds you staring at oxtail
stew with potatoes and vegetables, spaghetti, and more bread and
whatever of the previous course your brain but not stomach tells
you you didn't get enough of, third course nets you garlic fried
chicken and french fries, and then to end all the debauchery you
get a bowl of ice cream with Hershey's syrup squirted on top. And
red table wine, as much as you want, is refilled the whole time
you're eating, which as you can imagine was sheer torture for me.
So I can only conclude that either authentic sheepherders in the
Basqueland spend a lot of time running around chasing their sheep
and dogs and burning calories, or they're really rotund weeble-wobbles.
We
also went to see The Good Shepherd, which just don't do unless you
want your ass to fall asleep and your brain to go "Why is that
scene in this movie at all?" and "Is anything ever going
to happen?" and "Why don't Eric Roth and Robert DeNiro
understand anything about conflict?" Of course what do I know
- I just got my own script torn apart yet again by somebody who
knows what he's doing, so I'm in no position to be giving advice.
(But still don't go see it.)
Then
I was sick and laid (layed?) around watching a lot of football and
played Sorry! and Gray complained about how bored he was so I sent
him out to the local mall where he bought a new wardrobe by himself
(he'll be taking back the Steve Jobs-like mock turtlenecks, good
jesus), including a few hats, one which was clearly a girl's fedora.
I said, "That's a girl's hat." He said, "No it's
not. I like it." So he wore it to work yesterday and everybody
told him it's a girl's hat and why didn't he get a purple one, etc.,
so now he'll take it back. My opinion, apparently, counts for naught,
but sometimes peer pressure is okay.
My
favorite Christmas quote: "But mock turtlenecks make my neck
look nice." I'm married to Audrey Hepburn.
===
And
then we got home, and shortly thereafter his parents came to stay
with us. And it was a good time, but for some reason I've been having
dreams about them ever since they left and waking up feeling really
hostile. I think it has to do with how one morning they went on
a walk without me, and during it my mother-in-law made some baby
name suggestions. Did I write about how we aren't telling anybody
any names? Except we made an exception for them before we left their
house at Thanksgiving and said, "These are the final two names
we've chosen." They didn't react wildly in either direction
to either one, which I felt was respectable and fine as both names
are a bit unusual, but then on the Christmastime walk more suggestions
were made and it clocked me upside the head all the wrong way. I
said so to my friend yesterday while we were at the toddler park
playing in the sand with her son, where by the way I saw the next
two years of my life flash before my eyes and didn't really like
it, and she said, "You really let her get under your skin,
don't you." Meaning that I was overreacting. So... whatever.
Maybe. The problem is meddling. I'm not a meddler. My parents aren't
meddlers. I trust that people will make their own good decisions
unless they're asking for help, and I respect people's ability to
make choices for themselves. So that's the trouble. And I hate cliches.
Meddling mother-in-law is such a cliche. It makes me want to rewrite
the whole thing.
===
I
got an iSight camera and put myself on AIM and now all of my friends
who used to be AOL buddies back in the day are IM-ing me trying
to chat, and I just hate it. There, I said it. I hate instant messaging.
What do they want to talk about so much? We went years without chatting,
so haven't you filled your life with something to replace me by
now?
===
In
baby news, I'm big and fat. Almost eight months pregnant. How the
hell? I'm still not sure that I look pregnant, but I saw video of
myself from the back and I definitely look fat. My OB is almost
officially dumped and I've officially signed up with the natural
birthing center. My friend who keeps trying to convince me to have
an elective C-section is just not going to understand this at all.
The baby has been breech inside me (head still up, feet down, can't
deliver that way) which isn't a big deal as long as he turns by
36-ish weeks (I'm almost 32) but I think he turned the other day
because suddenly I'm feeling lots of kicks high up rather than what
is cutely called "tapdancing on the cervix" which he was
doing before. This is good, because I would have been and still
will be one of those people who goes in to have him manually turned
if he hadn't flipped or flips back between now and then. Ouch. Let's
not even think about that, please. The hardest thing I'm dealing
with in this natural birth center thing is all the granola hippyness
of it, the "you're a goddess, you're mother earth, you can
do it." What if I just want to be somebody who's not a sandlewood-burning
Wiccan and just wants to experience the whole thing without being
numb? So far there doesn't seem to be much in-between.
===
Oh
my god, Bernard Sumner of New Order is 51 today. Michael Stipe is
47. Wow. Just wow.
===
Here's
this year's (chopped-off) Christmas card. My belly is photoshopped
bigger for effect, just as our heads always are. Really!
===
December
music:
12.6.06
: Chemical Brothers / Q-Tip - Galvanize
12.12.06 : Tears For Fears - Bloodletting Go
12.19.06 : James - All My Sons
12.22.06 : Lily Allen - Shame For You
