Happy Holidays...Even for Atheists!

Here's the Atheism Song. 

For all those little atheist kids who have no songs of their own:

And of course, because I can, here's the original Chanukah song:

and Part 2:

It's Officially Christmas Now

I picked up the cards, I have all but a few addresses in my newly reconstructed list (which of course I lost when my computer was stolen last spring), and I am watching Ralphie for the first time this year.

I will of course watch at least 8 times on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.

It's officially the holidays... Part Deux

Today was the first $tarbuck$ peppermint mocha of the year.  I am generally NOT a $tarbucks fan, but I am such a peppermint whore that you will find me in there at least a  dozen times over the holidays.  Particularly after shopping at Target in Clovis with my Mom.  They have an awesome $tarbucks.

Generally, I love the holidays.  The cold weather, fog, smell of pine trees.  It just makes me happy.  The cards and silly decorations.  Like Helen, it looks like Santa Claus threw up in my house most years.

This year, I can barely get up the motivation to finish addressing Christmas Cards.  I still don't have a tree.  The decorations are down from the attic, but they're just sitting in boxes in the front room.

I have no idea where my motivation went, but I suspect it's somewhere up auto-immune creek.  I feel like I am dragging myself through each day, just trying to accomplish what I can.  Without my faithful to-do list, I'd be sunk, as I seem to have no mind or memory for the things I need to accomplish.  Forget meetings and appointments, without my calendar, I'd be MIA all the time.

Even my students and coworkers are noticing the drag.  I'm usually up and about, dropping in to say hello to people, checking up on my students while they're studying.  But for the last several weeks, I've been content to sit in my office and try to work.  Meanwhile, people walk by and ask my what's wrong.  Clearly there is something down.

I mean, it's fucking Christmas.  My favorite time of the year.  The month I spend the other 11 looking forward to.  And I don't seem to be able to give a rat's ass.

I just don't get it.  I should be over the fucking moon, right?  I mean, in the last 6 months I've lost close to 30 pounds and I am down 1-2 sizes.  I have actually been exercising MORE than the recommended amount and LIKING it.  For a while I had more energy and the insomnia was gone and things were good.  Now, the insomnia is a joke, as I could sleep 15 hours a day and still be tired.

Now, before you all tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing, my Rheumatologist knows all about most of this, and I do have a referral to an endocrinologist so we can try to get to the bottom of this.  In February.

Until then, I'm just going to have to keep kicking myself in the ass and reminding myself how awesome life is, and just keep wishing for snow.

I think some snow would help a lot.

No, you're not seeing things

Given my utter lack of Christmas cheer, I thought I might brighten things up with a return visit from the Snowfolks of No Evil, who some of you may remember from a couple of years back.

Boy, CSS is just like riding a bicycle... I haven't played with the site design in a while, and I was afraid I'd screw it up royal. Especially since I went from 2 columns to three since the Snowfolks last came out to play.

They need names, by the way. Any suggestions?

So enjoy the holiday theme. At least there's some snow in my virtual space....

I think we have a winner

The Snowfolks of No Evil, in an ironic twist, shall henceforth be known as Penny, Billy, and Hammer.

Notice that the "Corporate Tool" one even has a tie.  Nice touch, I thought.

Congrats to Sleepy Beth for suggesting the winning trio of names!

BTW, if you don't get it, you REALLY MUST go here.

From the Why Me? file...

This morning I go out to the car to go to work, and what do I find?  An inch and a half of standing water in the driver's seat.

Either the seals around the sunroof are dead, or someone left it cracked.  Likely me.

Fuck.

One seat cover and two bath towels later, the seat was usable, and the headliner and flip-down sunshade on the driver's side were mostly dry.  Oh, and the carpet too.

It remains to be seen whether it was negligence or maintenance that caused my morning freak out.

Either way, definitely NOT the way to get my Christmas cheer going.

I had been doing pretty well, too.  Christmas cards going out, lights hung all over the house, wreaths, I was getting there.

So I treated myself to Peppermint Mocha #2 while I picked up a $tarbucks gift card for our gift exchange this afternoon.

That helped.

It was the idiot, not the sunroof aka: odds and ends

Two more days of rain and the car's interior is dry.  Guess I didn't get the sunroof all the way shut after all.

And on an unrelated note, randomly finding a webpage that calls a jackass from high school a "donkey fucker" is AWESOME *.

Getting ready for the annual holiday trek.  Today's task was to clean the house.  I hate coming home to a frigging mess after vacation.  Even when it is not vacation.  Tomorrow we'll start the odyssey of packing.  Making my packing list, gathering all the small things up, getting them organized. Figuring out how to fit everything in the car with TWO dogs for the first time, as last year our little Princess was waiting for us in Fresno.  At least we're planning on pizza so as to NOT make dirty dishes!

Work sucks, as usual, but I got a project complete that's been hanging over my head since August.  Finally.  Too bad it ended up the way I suspected: unusable.  But that was a probable outcome, and nothing I could have done would have changed that.

Oh well.  More later

* Seriously, he's a complete prick.  And his job is EXACTLY what you'd expect a smug, nerdy prick to be doing.  And that's why he got called such a perfect name.

I had a Bob and Tom moment

For Ben, who totally understands why:

I really need to get out those Planet Bob and Tom CDs. "The OJ Simpson Christmas Album" is appropriate for this Christmas, don't you think?

h/t GOC

Time for Donuts!!

When Tammi was out here interviewing a couple of weeks ago, we decided that since her stay was too short to get together, when (not if!) she got the job we'd have to go out for donuts to celebrate.

Because Tammi loves donuts, see, and the best donut place in the whole world is just down the street (well, in the same town anyway) as her new job.

Looks like I just need to wait for her to get her butt out here.

Congratulations! YAY!

Happy New Year!

My wish for everyone for 2009: When you find out what you want to do with your life, go out and do it, don't wait for tomorrow.

And give your sweetheart a big ol' kiss too!

Wishing you all blessings and joy in 2009!