It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

1. We are in a blizzard warning. Like everybody else in town I need to get to the grocery store to stock up on milk and bread...but really, I have NO milk OR bread.

2. I should have a package arriving from Amazon today. I spent a Christmas gift certificate--thank you, Allison & Jeff!--and have the following goodies coming my way:

Patty Griffin: Children Running Through
Nora Jones: Not Too Late
Lily Allen: Alright, Still
Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook by Debbie Stoller

3. (And here we depart from the Christmas theme--though this was like a gift to all who were there--ha) I sang karaoke last night at the bowling alley bar. Dolly Parton's "9 to 5."

4. I have secured my second letter of recommendation for grad school. I emailed another professor who, bless his heart, did not remember me. I tried to make him remember me, but he could not. BUT, he said, "Why don't you tell me about who you are now?" He asked me all sorts of questions about myself. It was fun to have a moment of self-reflection. I wrote back an email/essay and he said he would write the letter and asked if he could read my email/essay to his senior thesis class. I couldn't believe his generosity. He would have been 100% within his rights to say (and most other people would have said), "I have no idea who you are. Sorry. Good luck." I will post what I sent him later.

5. I have been doing two things everyday: math & yoga. The math sucks. It sends me back to grade school when, out of carelessness or some sort of undiagnosed learning disability, I often wrote the wrong answer down for no reason. I go back and check my work. It is correct. Clearly I know the material. But for some unknown reason I have written something entirely different on the answer sheet--C instead of B. I did part of a practice test yesterday and according to the answer key I got 6 out of 15 wrong. But, when I went back and looked at the pages on which I had worked the problems out--I only missed 3. WHY? WHY IS THAT? And the standardized test people will not care what is on my scratch paper. Grrrr.

The yoga is good. I went to my class on Wednesday, taught by my beautiful friend Jen who is the yoga master. We did some killer stuff--the plank with one leg up--the side plank. I decided that should be my Lenten discipline: some sort of exercise every day. I dread the workout before it begins, but I enjoy yoga so much once I'm doing it.

6. Britney Spears? The shock of the bald head has worn off and now I just think, "poor kid."