Visiting Jamie

I ventured down to Pittsburgh to visit Jamie. It was fairly easy to find, despite the fact that I missed one of the last streets due to a lack of a visible sign and had to call her for some last minute guidance. But eventually, I got there. She has a very cute little appartment. I'm not sure I could live in such a tiny space with someone else, but its very cozy. And she even has a bit of a yard, which makes me very jealous. Anyway, I got there and got the "grand tour." After the 5-second tour, she made me her homework and gave me a full body massage. It was spendid. Someday when I'm actually making money, I will definatly pay $50 a month to get one of those. I felt so good and so happy. Its funny how something like making your muscles physically happy can make you emotionall happy. But its true. I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as we walked down the street to the Thai resturant, where we went for lunch.

The Thai was very good, and then had the most incredible tea. As Jamie put it, it was like "drinking flowers." I couldn't agree more. It was Jasmine Green Tea. I'm going to have to find me some of that.

After lunch, we went back to her apartment where we watched the extended version of Narnia. I wanted to see if it was worth buying, since I have the theater version already. Its not. *laughs* I really couldn't tell which parts were new. All they did was add a few more seconds of walking here, and a couple more unneccessary words there. Not like LOTR, where entirely new scenes are added in. Naturally, its still an incredible movie, but if have the normal version already, its not worth your money to go buy the extended.

In any case, Paul came home during the movie and watched the second half with us. We ate some pizza for dinner and then Jamie and Paul tried to geekify me further by convincing me to give roll playing a shot. I did. I can see how it would be fun. But I found it mostly frustrating since none of my die casts let me succeed at anything. After that, it was begining to get late, and I had to find by way back through Pittsburgh in the dark, which ended up being an adventure. Pittsburgh is so terrible with signs its unbelievable. I passed 279 twice before I finally was able to get on it, and finding my way back to it each time was no easy task either. Luckily for me, I have a fairly good sense of direction and was able to find my back through the maze of curvy one-way streets.

In any case, it was a great day. It will be nice when we live closer together again and are able to hang out more together.

Christmas

A bit to my surprise, Christmas 2006 turned out to be a very good one indeed. On Christmas Eve, I went up to Steven's. After suffering through a very bad Steelers game, we exchanged presents. Now, all along, Steven had been saying things to the effect that he hadn't done very well this year present wise - that he just couldn't find any good gifts for me. To me, this was no big deal, especially since I was feeling a bit down due to my sudden lack in Christmas funding a week or so earlier. I enjoy giving, getting them in return is just a bonus. But all that really mattered to me was that I got to be home with the people I love for the holidays. In any case, the first gift he gave me was this little sea turtle puppet. It really is incredibly cute. In fact, I keep having to confiscate it from my mother. The second gift was The Muppets Christmas Carol. Apparently he got sick of me wishing for it play on TV. Now, by now I had given him all of my gifts, but there were still 2 under the tree for me. The hands me the larger one and says "Now...this was a risk. I don't know if you're going to like it or not." Okay.....so I unwrap it and suddenly freeze - questions racing through my mind that centered around the general idea of Is the item ON the box IN the box?? - that classic gift faux-pa where you make a big deal over whats in the box only to find out its a pair of socks. But I was assured that the box was indeed accurate and that their truly was a Canon Rebel xTi digital camera inside that box. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. The last gift was a photography book, which I knew immediately, from the shape as well as just knowing my boyfriend, who, by the way, did a very good job this year.

After our gift exchange and the excitement, we headed over to his mom and dad's house for the traditional Christmas Eve feasting and gift exchanges with them. (I got a very nice 'leather' jacket and 2 very pretty sweaters) The food, as always, was outstanding, and Steven's aunts and uncles, Tom and Linda, and Rick and Debbie stopped by. I was rather surprised that they remembered from me from Steven's cousins wedding which was a few years ago. They were fun to talk to. Uncle Tom immediately began seeking my scientific opinions on his well water, which I found to be rather amusing. It was a good time. Eventually I had to get back home, so we wished everyone a Merry Christmas and headed out.

Christmas day, was the usual. Gifts with my Mom and Dad and then animals at home, breakfast, then over the river (French Creek) and through the woods to Grandma's for the whole family gathering. Christmas morning and home couldn't quite cancel out the fact that it was still, after all, a Monday morning. Since the animals were immediately interested in their packages, we decided to give them all a gift first. Radar got his catnip dogfish and was quite happy rolling around on the floor in the middle of everyone. Then Riley got his talking Parrot and the beagles were unwrapping their toy rabbits. Well, Suzy decided she should have both of them and started a tiff with Annie, stepping on poor Radar in the process. Each parents grabbed a dog, and Radar took up, hitting my coffee mug and sending coffee everywhere. Suzy got timed-out in the bathroom for the rest of Christmas morning (bad time to get a time out) and I went off in search of Radar after cleaning up most of the coffee. I found him sitting the in the hallway looking very disgruntled. I reached down to pick him up and his whole underside was soaked with coffee. Well, we got him cleaned up, along with the house, and eventually Christmas morning went on without any more incidents. Everyone made out pretty darn well. My parents got me an Ipod Shuffle, the Limnology text book I wanted (I know, I'm a huge geek), a tree field guide, an old Betty Crocker cook book like my mom's, treasure boxes, a couple dragon fly things, my mom made me some awesome pottery pieces, and some shirts.

Grandma's was the typical deal. A huge delicious dinner, lots of talking, and more presents, followed by more eating and talking and everyone trying to fight off the desire to lay down and sleep. I truly love my family get togethers. My family is awesome and quite funny. I got even more cool presents, like a super soft blanket, hat and scarf set knitted by my grandma, a goose down throw, candle warmer, and some other small things.

Before we knew it, another Christmas had come and past. I never did get my Christmas snow, but despite that, I really have nothing to complain about. It was a very nice, cozy Christmas. I hope everyone had a Christmas that was equally wonderful.

When a girl misses you....(I thought this was cute)

WHEN A GUY:
When a guy calls you, he wants to be with you.
When a guy is quiet, He's listening to you.
When a guy is not arguing, He realizes he's wrong.
When a guy says, "I'm fine, " after a few minutes, he means it.
When a guy stares at you, he wishes you would care about him and wonders if you do.
When you're laying your head on a guy's chest, he has the world.
When a guy calls you everyday, he is in love.
When a (good) guy tells you he loves you, he means it.
When a guy says he can't live without you, he's with you till your done.
When a guy says, "I miss you," he misses you more than you could have ever missed him or anything else.

WHEN A GIRL:
When a girl bumps into your arm while walking she wants you to hold her hand.
When she wants a hug she will just stand there.
When you break a girls heart, she still feels it when you run into each other 3 years later
When a girl is quiet, millions of things are running through her mind.
When a girl is not arguing, she is thinking deeply.
When a girl looks at you with eyes full of questions, she is wondering how long you will be around.
When a girl answers, "I'm fine, " after a few seconds, she is not at all fine.
When a girl stares at you, she is wondering why you are so wonderful.
When a girl lays her head on your chest, she is wishing for you to be hers forever.
When a girl says that she can't live without you, she has made up her mind that you are her future.
When a girl says, "I miss you," no one in this world can miss you more than that.

Yay! Snow!

Today was the first real snow of 2006 - for me at least. We actually had some accumulation. Those big fluffy pancake flakes that explode when you step in them. I love snow, so the snow today made me happy.

I guess I have posted for a while. I'm way behind, I suppose, but really, but not a whole lot has really happened. There was Thanksgiving, which was very nice. My Uncle Paul, Aunt Deb, Grandma, and my dad's stepdad all came down to my parents house and we had a nice feast. My uncle is a laugh a minute, so it was a pretty good time. And while I was home, I got to spend some time with my sweetheart. We did our typical Black Friday trip to Sharon and went to Kranaks and Pat Catan's. We ooed and awed over the cool christmas trees and got lots of ideas for our future trees. We also put up 'our' tree at his place and decorated it while watching Christmas Story and Charlie Brown's Christmas. It was cozy. We also went to see 007: Casino Royal - which was completely awesome. Probably one of the best Bond movies I've seen. And yes, Bond was hot, which always helps a bit. :-P

As far as my thesis goes, I think I'm nearly done with the analysis part, which means I start writing soon, which is exciting. Its starting to get to the point here further analysis is like trying to squeeze water from a rock. No matter how much I want that water, i.e. reasons, they're just not going to come from what I have. Its frustrating in a way, but my advisors seem okay with the few answers I have, I guess I can me okay with them too.

Kristen defended her thesis last week, and passed of course. It was exciting. Although, she's going on for her pHd, so its not a huge change for her, but its still exciting none the less. We went out and celebrated on Friday, and it was a good time.

This last weekend, I didn't do a whole lot. I slept in, cleaned, watched 8 hours of LOTR (which still rocks), played the piano, ran errands, and other such things around the apartment. I really miss having big movies, like LOTR to look forward to around Christmas time. Spiderman III and Pirates OTC III both look incredible, but other than that, there isn't anything big coming out that I can't wait to see. It would be cool if they came out with another Narnia movie or another Dirk Pitt (Sahara) movie.

Anyway, time to do other things. I can't wait for Christmas break!!!!

So True....