The End of 2008

You know, I can't really say I'll miss 2008. It wasn't one of my better years - though admittedly, cool things happened - got involved in the dance community and can now swing and blues dance. Salt the Holly turned a year old AND is well over 100 pages. I learned how to use PhotoShop and GIMP to color and enhance the comic AND launched SaltTheHolly.com! I was the emcee for the 2008 Drunk Duck Awards, too. Good times.

So what's to come in 2009? There will definitely be more dancing and more Salt. I'm hoping to make more regular blog-ish appearances as well to keep you abreast of my probably kinda boring life. Otherwise... I'm interested to just sort of jump into the river and see where it takes me. Woo!

Double Standards

Oooh, another post! I've thought about this exact example before, but since one of the songs just showed up on my playlist, I thought I'd blather about it now: one of the double-standards in dating as proven in songs.

Exhibit A is Carrie Underwood's song "Before He Cheats." Basically, she's singing about how her now ex-boyfriend cheated on her, so she absolutely destroyed his car - bashed out his headlights, ruined his interior, slashed his tires, etc. Everyone who hears it is like, "Hell yeah! Go Carrie! That guy is a jerk!"

Now.

Exhibit B is Bowling For Soup's "Two-Seater." He's singing about how his now ex-girlfriend cheated on him, so he destroyed her car - took out the backseat, stole the radio, keyed it, etc. People react to this song differently: "Wow, that guy is such a jerk! I can't believe he did that! He's such a psycho - he should just get over it and move on."

Hmmmm. Personally, I think property damage is a really poor way to react to infidelity. You just cut your loses and run. At least, that's what I do.

Christmas? Already?

The onslaught of Christmas music has begun! Well, it actually started promptly after Thanksgiving... and in some cases, I heard Christmas songs as early as October! Yuck. Now, I'm specifically talking about secular Christmas music - I actually don't mind the religious, sung-in-Latin ones. That's probably because my mom really likes this type of music (think Handel's "Messiah" or just about anything by Libera), and I grew up listening to it pretty much year-round ^.^

It's also the time for Christmas decorating. Case-in-point, I set up the office Christmas tree. I had forgotten that all the ornaments were doused in glitter (I didn't choose them - don't blame me!), so by the end of the decorating, I was pretty much covered with sparkly red bits. *sigh* I'm not girly enough for glitter! Rar! Also, we don't have a tree-topper like a star or angel... so I put my ugly plastic pineapple at the tope and am waiting for people to notice. Out of the 40+ people who work here... three have seen it ^.^

You know those tree skirts? They're usually circle-shaped with a slit on one side so you can wrap it smoothly around the base. Well, our particular tree skirt didn't have a slit, so I was sitting on the floor hacking at it with scissors, and one of my coworkers passed by and said, "Now you see, this is why we can't have nice things."

Holiday Mess

I'm a bit erratic about my posting, but I am choosing to blame the holidays! It's a crazy time for everyone, to be sure, as I'm sure you understand.

This Thanksgiving was probably the oddest one I have ever experienced due to the circumstances. Robert and I went to the Dallas area to visit our parents as usual (though last year, we stayed in town and had pot pie and beer). We drove up there on Wednesday, and the trip took about twice as long as it should have due to insane amounts of traffic. We got to the parents' house at around 8pm and had Thanksgiving dinner THEN. This was because both parents had to work on Thanksgiving proper. We got to see them for a bit in the evening, and then we saw them for a couple hours on Thanksgiving day after they got off work, and then we drove home Thursday night. It was a really short visit, but it was pleasant and fun. We watched "The Little Shop of Horrors." Feeeeeeeed me!

On Saturday, I got to hang out with Lindsay for a while - that was good times - saw her painting-in-progress and even knit a fun, floppy hat that afternoon! I think I made it a bit too large, though. Oh well. It is wonderfully soft, and really, that's all that matters. Saturday evening was a last-minute blues house party thrown by Zarina. Got to dance on the marble floor in my socks for hours - that was a really good time, and I keep feeling as though I'm improving each time I dance. There were a couple new people there as well, so yay! New faces!

Sunday, we saw "The City of Ember" at the dollar theater! It was actually a really cool movie ^.^ Now I want to read the book.

Quote of the day time!
The set-up: I was talking to a coworker about having a package for him, but he was hoping for a reimbursement check.

T: I want a package of money!
Me: Um, sorry?
T: It's okay. I'll slap a face.
Me: As long as it's not mine, I don't care.
T: Don't hate; participate!
Me: I don't want to participate in you slapping my face. For some reason, that doesn't sound fun to me. Dunno why.
T: Think of it as me high-fiving your face.