Tidbits

1. Cold Medicine and Coffee: Yum. Doesn't that sound like a delicious combination? Because that is my diet these days (which is probably ok, considering I had about four Christmas dinners, and only one of them on Christmas). Cold medicine because Preston has graciously handed over to me the terrible headcold/flu lite that had been plaguing him all week, and it has decided that it never wants to leave my body. No matter how much DayQuil I take. Coffee because I have to cram a semester's worth of research into the next two days so that I can turn in my LAST seminar paper on Wednesday at midnight. Alas, since I'm taking NyQuil every night, I wake up with about as much energy as a recently sedated dental patient, which means that, three hours and eighteen cups of coffee after I wake up, I am SO ready to start working.

2. I Officially Take Too Many Pictures: Even my computer thinks I take too many pictures, apparently, since I now have mere megabytes of space available on my hard drive. These mere megabytes do not leave room for the hundreds of photos I have taken over the last week, so I will not be uploading/posting pictures until I have found a new and funtastic way to store all of my photos. Probably next week (I'm sorry! I lose.). There is one picture in particular that I am DYING to blog about (it involves Preston), so, internet, if I forget about it, you must remind me, because he is very much hoping that I will forget about it. Thus we must persevere together to make sure that Preston's hope is not fulfilled.

3. God Hates Me: The Mouse is back (actually, this is a much larger breed than we saw last year...they've been feeding, evidently. I'm tempted to say it's half mouse half RACOON, but really, half mouse, half very large gerbil is probably more accurate) . I saw it last night while I was on the phone with my friend Margaret, and I screamed so loudly that I'm pretty sure I might have permanently damaged her eardrum (love you, M!).

4. Our First Christmas: as a married couple is officially over. And thank goodness. Preston had custody of Christmas this year, so we were with my in-laws. I love my in-laws. I love Preston. I did not love this Christmas. I spent 80% of Christmas day either a) crying, b) trying not to cry, c) crying because I was so tired of trying not to cry and wiping tears and snot off of my face (you're welcome!). A large part of this is due, I'm sure, to the fact that a) I was running a fever and felt like poop, b) it was my first Christmas away from my family, and c) I am (and was that day) superstressed about this paper which means that lately, any time there is an opportunity to cry my mind says YES PLEASE. There were certainly external triggers that encouraged the all day cryfest, but out of respect for both of our families, I'm not going to discuss them here. Let's just say IT WAS BAD and I would rather rewrite my last seminar paper rather than relive Christmas Day 2008. That's right. It was that kind of bad. End of story.

5. Ladies who Lunch (+ Maury): The terribleness of Christmas day was very much alleviated on the 26th, when I had lunch with some old high-school friends and an old teacher, Maury (our honeymoon host in France), at one of my favorite Richmond restaurants, Can Can. We started drinking before we started eating (always a good sign), ate a ridiculous amount of probably overpriced but totally scrumptious food, and laughed our way through the whole meal. That lunch made going to Richmond one thousand percent worth it.

6. Six Years: December 31st marks not only the day when I will officially be through with one semester of graduate school (woohoo!), but also Preston's and my six year anniversary. Meaning that six years ago today, when I was a hugely awkward seventeen-year-old (a fact which makes me CRINGE--not the awkwardness-I'm totally still awkward-but the seventeen-year-old-ness...), Preston and I were still unattached--just sending each other flirty emails and sharing many long hours of instant messaging conversations...ah, the romance.