I'm Back!

This is me, officially taking my blog off hiatus! I have finished my fall semester and I am still alive! (Just barely it seems like...) Jury is still out on my grades, but any good ones will be celebrated here!

Just to warn you, this post will probably jump topics all over the place, since I haven't consistently blogged for almost 4 months...

I made peanut brittle today for the first time. It's not too bad! Although when I was breaking it into pieces after it had cooled it cut me on the first and middle fingers of my right hand. So now I'm trying to type with a band-aided finger.

Other things I want to make over the holiday:
Popcorn balls
A Gingerbread house
Fudge
Sugar Cookies

I also need to:
Hem 2 pairs of pants
Make Christmas presents
Send out Christmas cards... maybe?

What else...

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is one of the cutest movies I've ever seen! Along with Enchanted and August Rush. Brilliant, brilliant movies! :-D I saw Golden Compass on Monday and that was pretty good too, but like always, the book is better. I can't wait to see Sweeney Todd!

Leah gave me a Pirates of the Caribbean alarm clock for Christmas and it is the coolest thing ever! :-) It plays the theme from the Disney ride, sings the song and then chants "Dead men tell no tales" which is something I don't want to wake up to (because it's one of the alarm options) but still, it's ridiculously awesome! She also gave me super fuzzy pajama pants and the movie Rat Race.

Our roommate Christmas party was awesome! We exchanged gifts, had pizza and sparkling grape juice, then friends came over and we watched The Polar Express and then went out and played in the snow. We made snow angels and ran around and took pictures of us coming through the giant fir trees like we were entering Narnia. Then we played the board game Jessica gave me for my birthday: The Worst Case Scenario Game of Surviving Life. (Yes, like the awesome books.) You have to go across the board and answer questions like "How to politely accept a business card from a Japanese colleague" or "What should you do when confronted with a herd of angry kangaroos" or even "How to make a temporary tooth filling." If you answer the question wrong you loose a body part on your game piece, and once you loose both arms, legs and your head you get sent to the graveyard, which is exactly like Jail in Monopoly. Anyway, we ended up playing that until almost 3 in the morning. Then the party disbanded and we went to sleep.

Sunday was spent studying for finals. I had finals Tuesday and Wednesday and a final paper due Thursday. I'm not going to go into the gory details other than I was about to cry almost all through my conducting final. Thank-you Allison for keeping me sane and my suite mates and Rachel D. for putting up with my literal crazy/scatter-brained-ness.

Over break, in preparation for my May Term trip to England, I have a bunch of reading to do. Mainly, Ivanhoe, Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights. My winter schedule won't allow for me to take British Lit as the prerequisite for the England Trip so the professor is letting me read the material on my own. I'm 2 chapters into Ivanhoe and I'm not bored to tears yet, so that's good. I also checked out some Sherlock Holmes and Chaucer for good measure. I also checked out a CD music by William Bryd and a CD with Peter and the Wolf narrated by David Bowie. Which are both MADE OF AWESOME!

I am in love with my Muppet Christmas Carol vocal/piano book, even though I can barely play it.

Three movies that I want to see (aka rent) over break are: Amadeus, Impromptu and Immortal Beloved. Any one in the area interested? Otherwise Jessica, (even though you barely read this) whether you know it or not, you are going to watch them with me! :-D No matter who sees them with me I expect there will be some music major swooning and some bits that render me indignant with historical inaccuracy... Just to warn you...

Things on my Christmas list:
A ukulele
A book about how to play the ukulele
The soundtracks to Mr. Magorium, August Rush, Stardust, and Legally Blonde the Musical
The DVDs: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Stardust and No Reservations.

But really, a ukulele would be awesome. :-) The rest I could just buy for myself.

The Doctor Who AdvenTURE Calendar makes me really happy! :-D I can't wait to watch Voyage of the Damned (illegally... ha) when it gets released on Christmas day.

Okay... I'm off to bed! Night!