Lacking Holiday Cheer

So strange... I am not pepped at all about the holidays coming up.  I don't even dread them.  I just am not eager to start my holiday-music-listening-24/7 on Black Friday like I usually am, and I'm just not excited to do anything.  Writing cards, baking stuff, making paper snowflakes, all things that brighten this (physically) dark time of the year.

Probably because I know that all I'll be doing the holidays is writing grad school applications?

Maybe I'm just that caught up in things to do?  But I've been so much busier before.

Maybe it's got to do with where I stand on faith?

Maybe I don't feel enough connection to family and friends?  Nah, not likely...

This makes me concerned!

Surprisingly Good Christmas

• Bananagrams with all the bros
• Rumble in the Bronx, a dubbed Jackie Chan movie, with Alex and Andy (Netflix 30-day free trial for the break was such a good idea)
• Yummy food and desserts out, and even some family-like conversations with everybody leaving the restaurant at the same time... gasp
• Even Paco, the ferocious little hater-dog kind of liked me (and my clementines)
• Found out my dad has an entire week of vacation!!  He has never had a break longer than a rare 4-day weekend since we came to the U.S. ten years ago.  So happy for him and the new place he is in, and excited to be here to spend so much time with him at home, just like during childhood.  Learning that was probably my favorite part of the holiday.

Cheddar cheese, Pretzel Crisps ("Everything" kind), "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," clean and pretty room with a high ceiling -- the perfect backdrop to some quality time with my paleobiology project towards the end of a Thanksgiving break.

fan·tas·tic

[fan-tas-tik] adjective

1.  conceived or appearing as if conceived by an unrestrained imagination ...
4.  extravagantly fanciful; marvelous.

I had a fantastic winter break.  Good food, good sleep, good company, desperate reliance on God --- exactly what I needed.  He has been so good, so merciful.  Hallelujah.

Good-bye, UGA Foundation Fellowship!

Hel-LO winter break!!!!!!!  HO HO HO

Slowness

In all of the years that I can remember, Christmastime has always come way too early.

You know, on a nice crisp mid-autumn day, you walk into Borders Cafe, and all of a sudden you see wreaths and red-and-green gift boxes and hear "Santa Baby" playing.  Then the next morning in homeroom I'd complain about impatient holiday marketing tactics and how they are devaluing true Christmastime because it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

So.......  Where are the eggnog lattes?!  The pretty ornaments??  Holiday music??  Reindeer?  Lights?  Ribbons?  Holiday sale e-newsletters?  WHYYY do they still have pumpkin spice drinks and fall leafy things out??

As you can see, I'm a little anxious for Christmastime to get here this year.

On the other hand, another mental calendar is flipping by too quickly: the academic calendar ahhhh.  It's always backwards, always backwards.  What you want for to go by quickly goes slowly, and vise versa.

But I've learned the value of slow things.  Life as a whole is so fast, so short, so I should appreciate the things that seem slow.  Slow food.  Slow motion.  Slow dance.  Slow(/gradual) weight loss.  See?  All so nice.  I'll try to savor this slow arrival of Christmastime, too...  Because I'll never again be a 19-year-old counting down the days til this long-waited-for Christmas.  What a blessing it is to have something to be so excited for!

Meanwhile, this quotation should put me back on the right track:

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.  - Thomas Carlyle 

This Christmas

I heard a rendition of "Silent Night" that made me cry.  Wow, what a beautiful song.  Don't you love it when you finally find what made these too famous, overplayed songs too famous and overplayed in the first place?  I remember in 10th grade, hearing Itzhak Perlman play Vivaldi's Four Seasons, feeling the music beyond the ubiquitous melodies.  Same thing today.

Christ the Savior is bo-orn
Christ the Savior is born.

Magical.

Merry Christmas.  I love you, God loves you.

Besides the intrinsic meaning of Christmas...

I freakin' love the
lights
cards
friends
music
gifts

I LOVE CHRISTMASTIME HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO

1/8 (or 7)

Can't believe the semester is over.  What?

I try to look back, but there's nothing to look back at.

There was the beginning.

Here is the end.

It's as if the middle isn't there.  What middle?  I don't remember.  It's as if... somehow I have all these test scores and graded paper back, but I fast-forwarded through the parts where I actually learned stuff in class and studied and wrote.  How strange.

We said goodbye.

We'll say hello.

What was in between?  I do remember, but I'd rather not.  Let us not.  That was fast-forwarded, too.

But for now there is holiday music on Pandora, snowflakes on my door, and... memories... of Christmas.  Last Christmas... we were boundsotightlyinloveandwarmth.

Love and warmth with you

Warmth with you

You with warmth

Twenty Full Days!

1. Work out
2. Watch Fated to Love You
3. Watch movies
1. A Christmas movie --- something like Elf or The Santa Clause
2. A chick flick --- Garden State?
3. A classic --- pick one, doubt I'll get to both just because they're each soooo long
1. Braveheart --- yes, it is a classic! And one of my all-time favorites
2. The Godfather --- own it, never seen it
4. Read at least two out of these
1. The Good Earth --- because it's good every time
2. A Purpose Driven Life --- because we've had it at home for years
3. 1984 --- because everybody else has read it...
5. Go to the mall --- just because I haven't been since May
6. Rome, GA
7. Reflect / set new goals
8. Study physics --- ahh
9. Play lots of violin
10. Marietta Diner
11. Christmas cards
12. Christmas gifts
13. Exchange stuff
14. Quartet piece
15. Finish Chinese book
16. Invite Caitlin over

Krall and Sinatra

Maybe it's much too early in the game
Oh but I thought I'd ask you just the same
What are you doing New Year's
New Year's eve?

------------------

It's that time of year
When the world falls in love
Every song you hear
Seems to say
Merry Christmas
May your New Year dreams come true



Ahh... I feel like I just had some warm drink.

Christmas Time Is Here

from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of the year

Snowflakes in the air
Carols everywhere
Olden times and ancient rhymes
Of love and dreams to share

Sleigh bells in the air
Beauty everywhere
Yuletide by the fireside
And joyful memories there

Christmas time is here
We'll be drawing near
Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year
Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year



Aah...

(-glissando up- DECK! -lights flood the stage- -applause- the halls with boughs of holly fa-la-la-la-la la-la la-la! -repeat and go on-)

YOU KNOW WHAT'S almost AS GOOD AS

Kenny Choi singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" with his acoustic guitar?

Chris Martin singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on his piano!!!

Heard it on 98.5 while going down Broad Street and thought it was such a nice arrangement... and then the voice just sounded so familiar...

AND I found it on YouTube.  Enjoy.

Kenny Choi - breathy-ness + British accent - guitar + piano

I'm the most compulsive blogger EVER

So Pandora's just freakin' amazing and it's playing "Christmas Canon Rock" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  After some measures of Christmas tunes, this electric guitar does a Canon melody.  And.....

A surprising feeling.

I hear Pachelbel's Canon in D and I feel good.  Nostalgic.  Sweet.

WTFeezy?!?!?!

Yes, that Canon that was banned in the orchestra room (and for very good reason).  That Canon I vowed  to not have played at my wedding.

I hear it and it brings me images of flower arrangements and pretty houses and rows of white chairs and perfect grass and trees and sunshine and historic buildings and warm fuzzy feeling...

And just now I'm reminded of our Norcross gig.  Our very first gig with Angela's neighbor.  I'm reminded because it was during winter.  We went to historic Norcross and there were Christmas decorations all over the place.  That gig was our worst one ever... and thank Goodness there hasn't been one worse because...... wow, we should just quit out of shame.  And it was bad mainly because of me... hm, don't like to recall.  I feel pretty bad.  Oh well.

Guys, we should pretend that we have a gig and go to some random quaint town together over winter break.  (hahahahaha... this is so sad.  Business is slow)  I'm serious!

A huge mirrored glass window

That was December 15, 2007.  What?  Two years?  Wow...  There's no way it's been that long.

Anyway, wow, I might have Canon played at my wedding after all.

Favorite Christmas Songs

Oh yeah.

I've been meaning to make a list for a few days.

1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas --- specifically by Kenny Choi
2. Sleigh Ride --- any version
3. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire --- preferably male voice... e. g. Michael Buble
4. Let It Snow --- any version
5. Christmas Time Is Here --- from A Charlie Brown Christmas
6. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
7. Winter Wonderland

I know.  I'm so original.  I think that's like.... all the typical Christmas songs.  But I love them all! (And they all just sound better when sung by guys)

I'd kill to make one of the ASYO Christmas concerts.  They're magical.