hey, lady!

for some reason it's been bugging me more each year that right after "how was your xmas?" comes the question "what did you get?". maybe it's because i never really get big-ticket items to brag about, but i'd like to believe it's more a case of my becoming less materialistic as i age.

regardless, my xmas was very nice indeed. my father and i spent a lot of time together, as did my mother and i. i even got a glimpse into another family's holiday traditions by spending xmas morning with m&m and her parents. small and sometimes plentiful gifts were exchanged, lots of food was consumed and many laughs ensued. all in all, it was one of my better holidays of recent memory, even though no one bought me a new car.

there was a little shopping done while on the island, of course. i bought myself a whole bunch of new underwear and spoiled my mom rotten with a new coffeemaker on top of all her other gifts. we saw star trek: nemesis and rented the importance of being earnest & happy accidents. i re-learned how to knit thanks to the mom-unit and i'm currently in the process of knitting my own damn crazy scarf because i refuse to pay $40 or more for a damn scarf.

the only real let-down to the whole experience was yesterday morning as i was leaving for work. i'd left the car too long without running her and she died without a hope of restarting. i woke up my poor father and he came and took me to work (and even picked me up and took me home). as for the car, i forced her to warm up to operating temperature last night then took her for a spin and stopped in at my mechanic's to make an appointment to take her in on saturday to get the oil changed and get it winterized. this morning she started, and kept going, fine, but i nearly lost it twice on ice while on my way to work. bleh.

oh, remember that little treat i had mentioned a couple weeks ago? here it is. aren't i just the cutest little thing? that was my friend tammy o'guru. somehow i got invited to participate in the obon festival with her during the summer of '77. they took me to the stadium, dressed me up in a kimono and i got to dance around with all the other cool japanese kids. i don't remember much about it except goofing up the steps at one point and being really embarrassed.