brokenrecord | Entries tagged with family

holy crap Brittany Murphy died? I think I'm more surprised over this than when Michael Jackson died. I wasn't like a huge fan of hers, but that's really terrible. I haven't seen loads of her movies, but I remember liking her a lot in Girl, Interrupted.

Anyways, I'm home now. I've been back since Saturday night. I don't think it's fully sunk in yet that the semester is over and I'm home for 5 weeks rather than just 4 days and then back to school. I'm a little behind on TV, and I wanted to watch more movies before the end of the year, but I think I'm going to focus on my end of the decade picspam(s).

I watched Fool For Love and Darla back to back with my parents last night. ugh I love everything about the Angelus/Darla/Spike/Dru backstory so much. Which I've said before, but it bears repeating. I'm so excited to get to a lot of the episodes in season 2 of Angel and season 5 of Buffy, but I don't know if we'll get all the way through during break. Particularly since as I mentioned I'm getting season 2 of Dexter for my dad (which I'm still nervous he might end up getting for me; I didn't put it on my Christmas list and I told my mom I got it for him so she could like... dissuade him from getting it for me, but yesterday at lunch he was like "So what did you ask for for Christmas?" and I was listing some things and he was like "Why not Dexter Season 2?" and I was like "lkasjfkj uh... I don't know." I am not good at making stuff up on the fly. Oh well. If he gets it for me, one of us can exchange one of the sets for season 3 instead.

I always suck at posting when I'm home for some reason, so I'm going to try to not fail too much and still post at least 2-3 times a week. We'll see if that actually happens.

Current Mood: good

Ok, so I talked to my mom about my dad changing law firms. Apparently this new place has been after him for a year now. He's not really happy where he is; he's worked there for 30 years, but the people who hired him have all retired yet, as have all his friends who worked there except for like 1, and he feels marginalized. Like they don't appreciate him enough. Whereas this other place REALLY wants him and would appreciate him. This new place is much smaller, and it's actually just the floor below where he works now, so it's not like the commute (which is 15 minutes from our house) changes or anything. And he would have to retire at the place he is at now in 5 years, and then he'd be stuck figuring out what to do next anyways, so he might as well switch now and be happier and not have to retire in 5 years. And apparently he asked my mom and a bunch of other people what they thought, and not a single one of them thought he shouldn't do it. He just made the decision a few days ago which is why I hadn't heard about it before and why it was so sudden that he couldn't come. So that all makes a lot more sense now that it's been explained. It still was a huge shock when he first told me, though, because it's not like I discuss my dad's work with him pretty much ever, so I wasn't aware of all these factors.

Anyways, my mom was here this weekend, which was great. I got to eat out and go shopping and stuff! It was fun. And we started watching my The Big Bang Theory Season 1 DVDs. ( Her reactino to TBBT S1 )

I got my IRB comments back. My research is approved pending I address some comments they have (which is what happens to everyone, basically; no one just passes outright). I feel like I should feel really great about this, and part of me does, but another part of me just feels kind of... weird? And I keep obsessively going over the comments? I don't know. I think part of it was before this research was just me discussing it with my adviser and the other 5 members of my group, and it's just been so supportive, so even the criticism is easy to take, you know? Because it's like we're all encouraging of each other and know where each other is and all that. But this is an entirely different group of people who aren't familiar with what I'm doing, and it's just not the same kind of feel. I don't know. I'm overly sensitive. The professor who e-mailed me the comments did begin with the fact that they found my proposal overall very impressive, and everything they had issues with I fully understand why they did. I need to stop being so negative and just be thrilled I'm this much closer to getting my research done.

Current Mood: okay

I forgot to mention it in my last post, but in August I watched 120 episodes of TV, 1 movie, and read 8 books (which seems like a lot of books, but they were all the Sookie Stackhouse books, so for some reason it feels like it shouldn't count). I'm going to end up getting so behind on watching movies. I don't think I'm even going to make 100 this year. Oh well.

More details from the trip: I went to the Grand Canyon for the first time. I have some nice shots of it. More importantly, there was the most adorable squirrel there who just came right up to us and started eating a berry or a nut or something and I got a lot of awesome pictures of it. Also, in the afternoon, it started raining (it rained nearly every day of the vacation. It stopped once we got to Missouri and Iowa) and as it moved through the canyon, the sun was shining, and there was a double (almost triple!) rainbow that arched into the bottom of the canyon. It was ridiculously amazing. I sadly didn't have my camera with me, but my parents got some nice shots, so I'm going to beg them to send me them.

Also, we visited my mom's uncle for the first time in 20 years. My mom's cousin, who I had never met, and she hadn't seen since she was 4, who lives in the area also came by, so I met him as well. It turns out I have a lot of random family I didn't know about. My great uncle gave my mom a bunch of pictures of her mom, his sister, who died when she was 12, and of her grandmother. There were also two letters, one from 1920 from my great uncle's uncle (I have no idea what that makes him to me) which described being in the Civil War and his living situation as a kid and stuff about my great grandfather (I guess that would make his brother my great great uncle? I have no idea), and another from 1840 or something from... someone I forget but some relative as he arrived in California, describing what it was like at the time. I found that stuff pretty cool. My uncle was very nice, although I always feel awkward in those situations. It was fine, though. He's 87, but he's super energetic. He and his wife are pretty hilarious together, too. She smokes, which he hates, and she was like "Well, I don't want to live to be 103 anyways," and he was like "Well, you better, because otherwise I'll be really lonely when I'm 113" (he's 10 years older than her).

I'm ridiculously excited for Glee. When I saw the Glee pilot back in May for the first time, I liked it, but I didn't get quite why everyone was going crazy over it. I think part of it was I saw the 10 minute (or 5 minute, whatever. I can't remember how long it was) preview and the show didn't really show me much that the preview didn't. And the show wasn't quite what I expected. I mean, I was still looking forward to it, but I just wasn't quite as crazy over it as everyone else. But I randomly decided to rewatch the pilot today and I think I'm loving it a lot more. Matthew Morrison in that last scene is just amazing. He looks like he's totally about to break down at the beginning, seeing them singing together, and then there's this moment where he's like "Yeah, ok, I'm going to do this" and then he walks forward, and ugh. He was one of the few things I totally adored the first time I watched it (in addition to Emma and him with Emma), and I somehow loved him even more this time around. I also didn't really care for Rachel/Finn for most of either time I watched it, but during Don't Stop Believing, the way Finn looks at her (not that I think there are even any feelings on his end. I can't really explain it. He's just so into the song and the performance!) kind of makes me ship them. I'm ridiculously excited for the new episode on Wednesday. It's going to make getting through the first day of classes so much easier knowing I have a new episode to look forward to.

Current Mood: good

I was talking to my parents the other night and my mom was talking about some relative and she was like "She's actually from Shreveport, in Louisiana" and I nearly was like "OMG SHREVEPORT THAT'S WHERE FANGTASIA IS." But luckily before I opened my mouth I was like "...uh, wait. There is a difference between fiction and reality." I got super excited there for a second, though. And I couldn't even express my excitement to my mom because she doesn't watch True Blood. I need more fandom-y people in my real life!

Anyways, I am leaving tomorrow to go back to school. We're driving up again (whenever I say this, people always ask me why, and... I don't know. It's fun? I think my dad likes being able to take 2 weeks off work because he's way overworked. It's just what we do now. And I enjoy it). We are going to Kingman, AZ; the Grand Canyon (my first time! Well, I visited when I was 8 months old, but that doesn't really count); Winslow, AZ; Albuquerque, NM (we're staying there two days with my mom's uncle; it'll be the first time I've met him, other than when I was 8 months old. I'm kind of awkward around strangers, and we're staying at his house for two nights, so I'm kind of... nervous about it? I don't know. I'm sure it'll be fine); Santa Fe, NM; Colorado Springs, CO; Hays, KS; Kansas City, MO; Des Moines, IA; and then to St. Paul. We're arriving in St. Paul on September 2nd, and my parents are leaving on the 6th. Then classes start on the 9th! It's weird that I'm going back already. Well, I guess this has been a really long summer, and May does seem a really long time ago, but I still can't really believe that I'm going back already.

I'm going to do my best to keep up with my flist and update occasionally while I'm away, but the likelihood of that actually happening is minimal at best. I always say I will, and then I get to the first night and it's 11 PM and I just want to go to sleep and then there's just too much to catch up on. And I don't know what sort of internet access I'll have, either. So I'll do my best, but no promises. I don't know for sure what my internet situation will be once I've moved in, either (there is internet, but no wireless, from what I remember Li telling me), so I'll have to figure that out.

Current Mood: busy

Well, I've been on Spring Break for the past week. I got home Friday night and then my parents and I went skiing in Mammoth from Sunday to Thursday. It was a lot of fun, and it sucks to be back now because I only have two days before I have to go back to school, which I'm not looking forward to. I didn't check my flist at all when I was in Mammoth and there's absolutely no way I can get through everything I missed, so let me know if anything huge happened while I was gone.

I watched season 1 of Buffy with my parents while we were in Mammoth, and they really loved it (they had never seen any of it before). It was so bizarre, though, because they had absolutely no idea about anything about the show. After the first episode, my mom asked me if Angel was really an angel, and I was so confused for a second because I thought it was just common knowledge that he was a vampire. And when we got through the episode Angel, both my parents were absolutely shocked when it was revealed. I have no idea what my reaction was. I saw the episodes out of order and it was so long ago that I just feel like I've always known that.

I've also been watching Bones. I like it more than I did the first time I watched the first few episodes. I'm up to around episode 17 of the first season. It's too bad I don't have time to finish it before going back. I guess I'll just try to watch episodes when I can (and hopefully not be idiotic enough to put watching TV before doing homework and studying and all that). But after watching season 1 of Buffy and Bones, I've gotten the urge to watch all of Angel. I own the first two seasons and have watched all those episodes, and I'm pretty sure I've watched all of season 3, but I've only seen a few episodes from seasons 4 and 5. I think I'll try to watch the entire series once the semester is over (only like 7 more weeks!) if I still have the urge.

Current Mood: okay

Ha my mom sent me an e-mail saying I got my first jury summons Monday. She was like "OK DON'T FREAK OUT, BUT..." Honestly, I just think it's kind of cool. Like, I know everyone dreads it and complains about it and stuff, and I'm sure it'd be really irritating after the first one, but it just kind of seems cool to me. Anyway, it doesn't even matter since I'm in Minnesota and they want me to come to a specific trial in February in CA which... obviously no. So I just have to be like "Yeah, that's not going to work." But I find it amusing that my mom is all like... trying to calm me down? And I just think it's kind of cool.

We had a fire drill last night. There's one once a semester, and it's really irritating. On the plus side, my dorm this year is a million times better about not setting off the fire alarm than last year. It was absolutely ridiculous last year. And this year I've been luckier in general as to when the drills have gone off. Last year for the spring semester drill, it went off WHILE I was in the shower. And so I went outside with wet hair and no winter coat and SANDALS in February in Minnesota while it was SNOWING. (I am still traumatized by that experience.) This time they actually caught me after I had taken a shower, so even though my hair was wet, I was at least able to put on proper shoes and a coat. And it wasn't snowing, even if it was pretty cold out.

uh, what else? My life is very boring right now. I'm liking all my classes so far and settling into a routine pretty well. I've been watching lots of TV, but I don't have much to say about any of it. I don't know. I'm going to go do homework now.

Current Mood: tired

My bad mood from Tuesday or Wednesday or whatever continued for a few days and I was going to make a post about things I was feeling bitchy about, but today was actually really great and it kind of bodes well for the rest of the semester, so now I'm going to make a post about things I'm feeling bitchy about and things that are making me happy:

( Things I'm Feeling Bitchy About )

( Things Making Me Happy )

I randomly feel like watching old Supernatural episodes. Mostly season 2, which is the only season I have on DVD and I haven't even watched it yet (I got it for Christmas). I also feel like watching season 1, though. And season 3, kind of. Ok, so I guess I just want to marathon it all! We'll see, though. I'm going to spend this afternoon cleaning my room (it is so ridiculously messy. It was a mess when I left and it's just gotten worse since I've been back) and then I don't know what.

Current Mood: good

So, yesterday was kind of exciting, unfortunately not in a good way. My mom fell down a few steps and broke her finger. What happened was that we went to see Milk and when we were coming out of the theater we were talking about the movie and my mom wasn't watching where she was going and she just fell like in a nosedive down the concrete steps in front of the theater. Luckily the steps were shallow and there were only like 4-5 of them, because it could have been way worse. I was in shock when it happened. I kind of just stood there and kept asking her "Are you ok? Are you all right? Are you sure?" I was afraid that she would have a concussion (she kind of hit her head on the ground) or that she'd broken her leg or ankle or something.

She actually got right back up immediately and we didn't think anything was wrong, but as we were walking back to the car, she realized that she couldn't straighten out the top joint in her left hand ring finger. I honestly thought there was no chance it was broken. I've never had any broken bones or seen any but I was just like "That doesn't look broken!" But we figured she should get it checked out just in case. We went to Woodbridge Walk-in clinic and it took like 1 1/2 hours for them to see her. By that time, her foot had swollen up and it was really hurting her which it hadn't before, so then we started to get worried that she had something wrong with her foot too. They looked at everything for like 2 seconds and then sent us across the building to get x-rays. Her foot was fine, just swollen and bruised, but apparently she fractured something in her finger and a ligament there had torn which was why she couldn't straighten her finger. (Or something. I know nothing about medicine or biology or anatomy so I didn't really understand what he was saying.) So she has to have her finger in a splint for a few weeks and get it checked on again in a week. She's actually pretty lucky, though, because it could have been way worse.

Anyway, Happy Inauguration Day! :D Ah I felt like this day would never come. I woke up at 8 to watch it and made pancakes with my mom for breakfast and have been watching it all day. I think I'll keep watching it for a little while.

Current Mood: good

I spent the past two days reading all four books of Shadow of the Templar. Ugh so good. I was not expecting to get hooked like I did, but those books are so addicting. Now I want to buy the actual physical copies of the books (although the fourth isn't out yet). Jeremy Archer is one of my favorite characters ever right now. But even without him, the books are really great. I wasn't expecting to care much about anyone but Simon and Jeremy, but I ended up falling in love with Simon's entire team. Yes, anyways. Very good. Of course, now I'm sad I'm done with them because I want more!

I finally got my grades yesterday, and I got straight As. I feel like I should be more excited about this. I guess it's just because this semester, I was kind of expecting straight As. It says way more about the classes I chose to take than my study habits, though. God, my study habits this semester were total crap. I really need to work on this next semester, because my classes should be harder. It was nice having a semester where I really didn't have to work that hard, save for a couple nights (and mostly then only because I procrastinated ridiculous amounts). And one where I didn't have to write any real papers.

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve already. It totally doesn't feel like it. Mostly because I'm not actually going to do anything different tonight. My family is really small, so we don't do anything Christmas Eve. My aunt will come over tomorrow afternoon, but that's it. My parents are going to a party tonight, though, so I'm probably just going to sit at home and maybe watch some movies or read a book or something. Anyways, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! Hope you have a wonderful holiday! :D

Current Mood: good

Ugh. Ants are invading our house. Well, not the whole house, thankfully, but it is really annoying. Over the summer they took over my bathroom for a few days (which was really gross and not fun at all) and somehow they're STILL HERE. Although not in my bathroom, thankfully. But they are in the laundry room, which gets annoying. I went out to do my laundry and found ants in the little pull-out tray where you put the detergent. They're also in the bathroom that shares a wall with the laundry room. I thought they were gone from there because we sprayed ant poison stuff in there a few days ago, and I didn't see any, but when I went to wash my hands, there were tons crawling on this electrical outlet. And then today, when I was eating my lunch, I found an ant crawling on my pasta. eck. I'm not afraid of ants when they're outside and leaving me alone, but when they're swarming various areas in my own house, it is very creepy and freaky and I do not approve. :(

I have successfully gotten Christmas presents for my parents! Ugh it's hard to figure out what to get them, especially my dad. Which reminds me, I still haven't given my dad his birthday present yet. Ugh. I fail as a good daughter. The thing is, I was giving him a CD of songs I thought he'd like, but I didn't have any CDs at school, so I had to wait until coming back home to burn it, and I don't really have an excuse as to why I haven't given it to him this past week except that I still haven't burnt it because I keep forgetting and whatever, he has a trial right now so he's barely ever home because he's always at work. But yeah, I should maybe give that to him before Christmas. Anyways, now I just need to finish getting stuff for my Secret Santa.

I finished Merlin on... Monday? Or Tuesday? I think? (The days are kind of blending together. Ah, winter break.) I don't feel like doing a huge post about it, but I totally love the show and now I'm sad that it'll probably be forever before the next season airs. At least there's going to be a second season, I suppose. Since then, I've spent the week catching up on my favorite webcomic ever which I always forget to read during the school year. I'm almost done with that (it's been going on 6-7 days a week since 1997, so it takes awhile to get through everything). Not sure what I'm going to do after that. Probably watch some more movies? I'm down to 10 now! Oh, and I think most of my friends are supposed to be back home this weekend, so maybe I'll see them? That'd be nice.

Current Mood: good

So I'm doing Secret Santa with my friends from home again this year, and I was really looking forward to it until I realized today I have absolutely no idea what to ask for. So now I'm stressing about this. Ok, not seriously stressing, but I just don't know what I want! It's like, there are loads of things I kind of want, but nothing that I really, really want. I could always ask for books because there are always books I want, but I have so many books as it is that I haven't read and I know I'll get more from my parents for Christmas that it feels stupid asking for a book. There are DVD sets I could ask for, but our limit is $30-40 and I think most of the DVD sets I want would be more than that. I do want more winter clothing, but I don't really want to ask for clothing because my size varies so much that I wouldn't know what size to ask for because it really depends on the specific article of clothing. I could ask for gift cards, but that's kind of boring, and I'm sure I'll get some from my parents again anyways, and in any case, I still have gift cards left over from last Christmas/my birthday. There are a few specific movies I could ask for, I guess, but I don't tend to rewatch movies, so that feels kind of pointless. Seriously, I feel so bad for whoever got me, because I am totally useless this year.

I'm thinking I'm just going to ask for a scarf. It's what I asked for the previous two years, and I like scarves. But I don't really NEED more scarves like I did last year or the year before that. I don't know. I'm so useless. I might just give them a lot of options and then they can get me whatever.

Also in a present-related theme, my dad's birthday is today and I don't know what to get him. I mean, I don't have anything for him right now because obviously he's in CA and I'm here, and since I'm just going to be home on Wednesday, it wouldn't really make sense for me to send him anything. For awhile I've been giving my parents mix-CDs of songs I think they'd like (and they've given the same to me, usually, and to each other. It's kind of a dorky tradition between us). But I feel like I've given him almost everything I have that I think he'd like. I don't know what else I would give him. And I feel like I should start getting my parents real presents and stop being cheap. But then I feel weird about that because I didn't give my mom a real present for her birthday (which was in July), and then that would mean I'd have to give them both real presents for Christmas and so that's just one more gift I have to come up with, and yeah, I'm clearly a terribly daughter, but apparently I really suck at gift-giving. Maybe I'll buy him a hat from school. He loves going to the campus store and buying stuff and he's obviously barely here so he doesn't have much stuff. Or course, I don't know what stuff he does have already. ugh this is too hard.

Anyways, I didn't get as much schoolwork stuff done as I planned yesterday, unfortunately. My Research in Psych homework took forever for some reason. It was kind of ridiculous. I don't have much the next few days, but I have so much stuff the week after Thanksgiving, so I really should be getting stuff done. Of course, I say this, but I've already watched last night's True Blood (ugh I don't want to have to wait until the summer for the next season! That's so far!) and right after I post this, I'm going to watch last night's Dexter (although I might do math/German during it! So, you know, I'll be somewhat productive!). sigh.

I can't believe I'm going to be home in just two days. I can't wait. I'm so excited for Thanksgiving. I've been craving turkey and mashed potatoes, too. And, you know, seeing my family and my birds and all that will be fun too.

Current Mood: blah

I am so happy last week is over in terms of school work. I'm kind of amazed I managed to finish that paper. The presentation went all right. Hopefully since we're the first group and we had only 2 weeks to do it, she'll grade more easily on us. I ended up getting a 29.25/30 on the first test in that class, which... yeah. I thought I was going to do way worse than that. This is why my study habits are becoming so terrible; even when I procrastinate like crazy and do a half-assed job, I still end up doing fine. It is positively reinforcing my terrible study habits! At a certain point, though, my studying is going to get so bad that I really will fail spectacularly. At least, in theory. I'm going to try not to test this anymore.

The rest of the weekend was good. My parents came up on Thursday. We shopped some. I ended up getting The Office Season 4 on DVD (I'm kind of amazed that I didn't already have it, because with season 2 and 3, I got them basically the second they came out), so I'm going to spend today watching them while I do my homework. Thankfully this week is way less busy than the last two (which doesn't really make sense because midterms are supposed to be these two weeks, but whatever). I also saw Burn After Reading with my parents, and I really liked it. I know the reviews are mixed about it, but I thought it was good. It started off slow, but it got better as it went on. Brad Pitt was absolutely hysterical. And the scenes with JK Simmons I thought were the funniest of the movie. It's no No Country For Old Men, but it was still worth seeing, I thought.

Fall Break is only a week and a half away. It's so weird to think that I'm going to be home in just, like, 10 days or so.

I have so much TV to catch up on from earlier this week. I will try to do this at some point.

Current Mood: tired

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it! My mom gave me Urinetown the book as an Easter present (although it's more that she saw it and knew I'd like it and Easter is just kind of an excuse to give me something) which is pretty kickass.

Anyways, yay for Spring Break! I was really starting to need it. I plan on relaxing and doing nothing until Thursday, and then from Thursday to Sunday I'm going to San Francisco on a band trip, and I'm really looking forward to that.

I watched Doctor Who last night and it was really awesome. ( Doctor Who 3.02: The Shakespeare Code )

I think I forgot to mention this, but I got waitlisted at Amherst. I'm actually pretty happy about that, though, because I expected to get rejected. So that left me to decide between Tufts and Macalester, but I've been pretty much decided on Macalester for like a week now. I'm actually really excited about going there. I'm staying on the waitlist for Vassar, but if I don't get off it, I really won't be that disappointed.

My aunt's coming over this afternoon for like an hour I guess kind of for Easter, but more kind of just to talk to my parents. I haven't seen her since Brett died, so I'm kind of... not looking forward to her coming, I guess? I know that sounds bad, but I just won't know how to act around her, and I won't be able to say the right thing, and I've never been at all close to my aunt, and... I don't know. My mom said I don't have to stay out with them the entire time, but I feel weird her being here and me just sitting in my room for an hour. But then again, I'm pretty sure they're going to be talking about what she's going to do now without him and other stuff that... I can't really help with and blah. I don't know. =/ Oh well. I'll figure it out.

Current Mood: good

Brett, the guy my aunt's roommates with and possibly dating but it was never really made clear to me, I think I mentioned him here before. He died last night of a heart attack. It's kind of hard to figure out how to react. I'm pretty sure he's younger than my parents (who are 57) and as far as I know he's been healthy, so it's a really huge shock. I feel terrible for my aunt, but at the same time, I only saw the guy twice a year, at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I think he only started coming around 10 years ago, so I've seen him maybe 20 times in my life? I don't know. I just feel very weird about it.

Haven't been updating much recently since nothing much has been happening. Right now I'm pretty much just waiting for the end of March to get here so I can find out about college acceptances. I think it needs to be spring break already.

Current Mood: weird

Today was a pretty great day. :) We had a Pep Assembly between 4th and 5th period but Pep Assemblies are always so pointless, they just have the councils do dances and since this is the Winter Sports Pep Assembly, all the winter sports people would go up and say "I'm ___, the captain and senior, these dudes are our other seniors, these are our juniors," and so on and then the cheerleaders would do some sort of thing and blah. So boring. And they always play hideous music. So instead, me and a bunch of other people just went to the band room and played mafia. And we were afraid that Mrs. Bentley would come back in and make us go to the pep assembly and we thought she wasn't in there, but it turned out she had been in her office the entire time, but then she came out and was all "...fine."

Also, I finally worked something out for tomorrow. Going to see Brokeback Mountain at 12:30 with Emma, Galaxy, Soan, maybe Jessica, and I think Zi? I'm not sure. Because I think Galaxy asked me if he could come and I was like "Of course, it's totally fine" and all that, but I don't know if he is coming. And then afterwards we might do something, but I'm not sure right now. But yeah, I'm glad that's all settled, and I'm glad I actually have plans for tomorrow now. Wheee, I can't believe I'll be 17 tomorrow! I feel so old, which is ridiculous, since I know there are people in my friendslist in their late 20's, but, well, it still seems old to me. Plus, my birthday is one of the earliest of my friends (probably the earliest of all my friends who are in my grade), so yeah. And in a year I'll be 18! So bizarre.

I got my first birthday present today, from my uncle. He sent me a box thing of like... bath stuff. And I don't care about the bath stuff and all, but I do really appreciate the gesture. He's been totally like... out of family contact since his and my dad's mom died (like... 3 years ago now, I believe) and he has seen my dad like once since then, but he always remember to send me a birthday present. And the bath stuff came in this box, and ugh, it's so awesome. It's just like... really beautiful, I think. I might post a picture of it later. I really love it.

I feel like watching random episodes I love of various TV shows. It's weird, but I don't know. I might do it.

Current Mood: excellent

Christmas was very nice. :) My aunt and her boyfriend/roommate (I'm not entirely sure which. Each time I think I have their relationship figured out, someone ends up confusing me again) came over and my aunt gave me a nice gray fleece sweatshirt. Dinner was very good too, although I ate entirely too much of it.

Oh, and I totally forgot to mention in my earlier excitement that one of the presents my dad got my mom was one of those robot vacuum cleaners, like what Lucille got to replace Lupe on Arrested Development (in fact, when my mom opened it I mentioned to them that what it reminded me of at first was when they first get it and it goes near Buster and beeps and he's all "Oh, you're hungry" and feeds it like... some sort of snack"). It's so amusing. My dad says we should name it, and I want to name it Buster, but it is my mom's, so she'll probably end up deciding.

I've watched Monty Python and Nightmare Before Christmas (both of which I really like, but I already knew that) and listened to both CDs I got (the one my mom made me is actually really good. She has good taste in music) and started the book of Weekly World News (which is so far very amusing), so I think now I'll watch Moulin Rouge. I'll start Dead Like Me either tomorrow or Tuesday. And tomorrow we're going to start looking for a car! wheee, so excited. :D

I hope everyone's day was excellent, whether they celebrate Christmas or not. :)

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Get it Faster - Jimmy Eat World

My parents go out to movies... not every Sunday, but many Sundays. Today they were planning on seeing The March of the Penguins, and they know I love penguins, so they asked if I wanted to come and I did.

Baby penguins! Baby penguins' huddle! Baby penguin crowdsurfers! After the movie my mom started talking about how it was such a stark example of survival of the fittest and other things that required some thought, and I was just all "...uh. The baby penguins were really, really cute."

But, uh, hi. You don't get to show me the adorability of hundreds of baby penguins and then switch to a dead baby penguin in the snow and the mother penguin finding it and poking and prodding it to try to make it come back to life somehow and yeah. That's just not ok. If I wanted angst, I would not have gone to see a movie about penguins.

Came home for an hour and a half after that and then went to have dinner with my parents, my aunt, and her boyfriend for my aunt and my mom's birthdays, since they're both in July. It was ok. Kind of boring for most of it, but not too bad. In the car on the way back my parents and I somehow got started talking about random things. Oh, I think it was my dad saying that he's started getting people into Arrested Development at his work. Hee, that's awesome. :D Then I told them that AD's second season DVD (because they've only seen the first season, when we watched the DVD during spring break in Mammoth, and that was like right before the end of the second season) was coming out October 11th and managed to sneak in that so was the season 1 DVD of Veronica Mars, and goddamnit, I am getting them into VM no matter what. I mean, they watched Wonderfalls and liked it a lot, and I told them that VM is the same quality-wise as Wonderfalls, except better. And I loved Wonderfalls. They are seeing it whether they want to or not, and they are loving it. I also mentioned the new Doctor Who and said that I liked them a bunch, and that my mom would probably really like them because she's a science fiction and fantasy writer and loves that genre and all. My mom said she watched the old series when it was on, too, so she probably would really like the new ones. I hope they come out on DVD too, so I can make her watch those. Ah, it's so fun to force my favorite shows on people. :D

Another diagnostic test for SAT class tomorrow. There's the one tomorrow and then there's one in two weeks and then it's over (until the actual SAT, of course). blah. It sucks because when I don't do as well as I hoped on these sorts of things, I feel horrible, but when I'm actually taking them I just don't care and so I don't really try. And plus, this takes out a huge chunk from the day that I could spend doing SAT hw. I really should do that tonight, but I doubt I will. Oh, crap, and I have a tenor lesson tomorrow. I always forget until the night before, and then I just don't care. Not as if I remembered during the week, I would practice, but still. blah.

( Two random images. Well, one's a random friends only banner. )

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