Christmas Update

Merry Christmas, one and all! I got a trip to the dentist because being responsible is sometimes no fun and a ticket to see Wicked because musicals are always fun. Also, the baby sister and I have been bursting into Wicked duets at the drop of the hat for the past month.

SCENE: AT THE DINNER TABLE
Brother: Don't make me laugh!
Baby sister: ♫ Think of celebrated heads of state, or specially great communicators! Did they have brains or knowledge ♫
Me: ♫ Don't make me laugh! They were POPULAR! Please! It's all about popular. ♫
Father: I was reading an analysis in the Wall Street Jounral...
Me: ♫ Don't be offended by my frank analysis! ♫
Baby Sister: ♫ Think of it as personality dialysis! ♫
Entire family: No seriously, we will kill you.
Me: Elphaba - why couldn't you have stayed calm for once, instead of flying off the handle!
Baby sister: ♫I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy now. I hope you're happy how you've hurt your cause forever. ♫
Me: ♫ I hope you think you're clever! ♫

We also made and decorated approximately seven million sugar cookies to give out as Christmas gifts. After the third hour of decorating cookies, my brothers and I tried to storm out, but we were snowed in and there was nothing but sugar cookies. Endless sugar cookies. I will admit, however, that the end results were pretty cool looking.


There are stores about the individual cookies here. (Scroll over the picture for the notes.) I made a Kirk and Spock cookies, because I'm a giant dork. Later that evening, I was reading while my parents were talking about the cookies and I heard my dad say, "...those two gay guys that Cait made." And then I fell out of my chair laughing. Oh Dad, if only you knew.

Life in a Norman Rockwell Painting

The storm has pasted, leaving us blanketed in a scene straight out of a Boy's Life cover. Saturday morning my sister and I built a snowman and hiked down the road to see how snowed in we were before returning home for fresh baked banana bread. We made hot cocoa in a pot on the stove and baked sugar cooked. Mom and I played card games, while my dad and sister made a Brio train track around the Christmas tree, then the whole family headed back out into the snow to go sledding. We had a roast chicken for dinner. And then Norman Rockwell came and threw up all over us because the scene was to picturesque even for him. (Granted, a Norman Rockwell painting never featured my brothers shouting about how I had to take pictures of them sledding down their snow ramp so they could have awesome Facebook photos of them catching air, but you have to allow adjustments for new technology.)

Today the whole family partook in the age old tradition of shoveling snow so we could get the car out of the driveway. The verdict: we are no longer officially snowed in, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to drive on our one lane snow and ice covered dirt road, especially not since my dad fish tailed the entire way to the main road. At least we have power again. It still looks like this outside, so I guess I'm okay with being a homebody for the next few days:

Appalachian Snowfall

Good News: It snowed today!

Bad News: It snowed *a lot* today and down here in the Land of Cornbread and Dixie, we are not exactly equipped to handle lots of snow, even in the mountains.

Good News: At the last measurement, we had six inches of snow. I've never seen this much snow in my life!

Bad News: Snow on trees means trees on power lines. We lost power around noon.

Good News: We have a generator!

Bad News: Of course, the generator can't power the entire house. We don't have lights in half the house and the oven, washer/dryer and microwave don't work. We also don't have heat in the upstairs (where the bedrooms are), but that matters less since we're going to turn off the generator at midnight to save power. It's going to be cold tonight.

Good News: At least we have enough power to have a Star Wars marathon this evening. (Oh Han Solo, BE MINE!)

Bad News: While we still have some power, the nearby jail does not.

Good News: This might mean our power will be fixed in the next few days, instead of the current wait time, which is "indeterminate".

Bad News: The JAIL has NO power. I guess those people in orange jumpsuits aren't from the power company?

Good News: The weather is perfect for playing outside. It's not too cold and the snow is light and fluffy, which means we could stay outside for hours without getting frozen.

Bad News: A game of snow football gone awry resulted in my brother and I colliding and banging heads.

Good News: There were lots of cold things to press against the instant goose egg that appeared.

Bad News: My head still aches, bad enough that I can't chew and can only eat soup, and I'm not allowed to go to bed due to a possible concussion.

Good News: It looks like this outside:




The full set of photos are here, with more to come tomorrow once it stops snowing.

Mini East Coast Tour: Washington DC (Part 1)

I'm home from my mini-vacation. I actually got home a week ago, but considering it took me a MONTH to write about getting home from Korea, I think I'm doing pretty good. Ages and ages ago, back when I was still in Rocky Mount, Pru told me that if I ever wanted to visit New York, I could crash on her couch. I always meant to take her up on the offer, but first I was working, then unemployed and broke and then I moved to Korea, which effectively ruled out weekend trips to New York, but I'm back in the US and after living at home for a month, I was ready for an adventure on my own.


Train tracks through Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I took this picture a year and a half ago when I lived there.
I spent the first half of the trip in Washington DC. I took Amtrak from High Point (with a quick stop in Winston Salem to see my brother which, because it was my family, ended with him caressing his ass in front of a Baptist minister from my mother's family's home town, OMG my life). The train wound its way east, stopping in little towns as it went, including Rocky Mount. Every time I was in downtown Rocky Mount (which, admittedly, wasn't often) I would go down to the train station and wish like hell I was on the next train out of town, so there was something fitting about finally leaving town on a train, albeit over a year after I moved away. Also, I was able to see the library and the YMCA, the two places I went most often. The train also past by Halifax and I looked up from my book long enough to make a rude gesture as we barreled past. I also read a book and a half on the train ride alone. Sure, I'd read the books before and I read fast, but that's still 600 pages in one sitting. And that, my friends, is why I always run out of books on vacation, no matter how many I take with me. It's also the reason I've read the 1,000 page Lonely Planet Southeast Asia On A Shoestring travel guide cover to cover.

I love Washington DC, mostly because of the Smithsonian Institute. A lot of people say they like museums, to which I always respond, "No, I *really* like museums." I spent almost my entire four days in Washington at various museums, part because I'm a GIANT NERD and part nostalgia from working in museums for a year. I was staying in a hostel near the Mall and every morning I would walk past the Natural History Museum and duck in because hey, what the hell, I might as well take in the Hall of Paleobiology since I'm in the area. And then hours would past and I would stumble down the steps and realize I'd just waste four hours in the Natural History Museum. AGAIN!

I did, however, take time out of my busy schedule of attempting to visit the entire Smithsonian in four days and accidentally went on a date with a married man AND got kicked out of my hostel. See, I'm not completely lame. In my defense, I didn't know he was married until the middle of the date. I met the guy at my hostel one morning and he invited me to lunch later that day. We met that afternoon and while we were walking to the restaurant, he asked if I was married. I thought it was a strange question, but I told him no and, casting about for something to say, asked if he was married. He responded, "Yes, but my wife is back home in India," and suggested we eat at a restaurant that was so fancy they probably wouldn't have let my jean-clad self in the front door. He continued to court me for the rest of my stay, mostly trying to get me drunk in the evenings, despite my increasingly strong refusals.

Married Dude: Tonight I will take you to a club. Do you like to drink?
Me: Go away.
Married Dude: Don't worry, I will pay for your drinks.
Me: I find you creepy and unattractive.
Married Dude: I will pick you up at 9:00.
Me: GO AWAY!

I also had a chance to meet up with while I was in Washington. Siobhain is one of my closest friends from Korea and I hadn't seen her since September. We met for lunch, ended up spending three hours at a burrito joint catching up and then went in search of a yarn store, which is pretty much par for the course with us. Then we went out to dinner and a bar with her friend Julie, who lives in Washington. Julie offered to let me spend my last night in Washington at her apartment, which turned out to be a helpful offer since my hostel screwed up my reservation, gave away my bed and left me with no where else to spend the night. Of course, I was in such a snit packing that I left my cell phone charger and a pair of shoes and had to stop by the next morning and go all angry southern woman on the front desk so I could pick them up.

Part II: New York City coming soon soonish. Maybe.

Back in the US(S)A

So, hi! I'm back in the States. I've been back in the States for a month now, but first I was jetlagged and busy seeing family and friend, and now so much time has passed that I'm not really sure what to say other than, yeah, I'm back in the US. The first week back was surreal and I kept pointing out mundane things like not being given a wet napkin at a restaurant or people speaking English and going, "That's so weeeeeird!" When I first got back to the US, still in the airport at San Fransisco waiting for my connection to Charlotte, I got so flustered by the rampant use of English around me that I had to retreat behind my headphones, but for the most part I've re-acclimated to life in America.

I haven't done too much since I got home. I've been exercising like a fiend (I'm trying to run a few miles five days a week), playing tennis (for the first time in nearly a decade) and playing an obscene amount of Wii Mario Kart (my new goal in life in to beat the snot out of my brother at least once before I die). I've visited friends in Chapel Hill and Knoxville over weekends and seen my brother in Winston Salem a few times. I'm also constantly reading everything in sight. After a year of not having a library and having to methodically plan how fast and how much I could read so I wouldn't overshoot my book budget, I'm reveling in the ability to read a book a day and be able to get more, for FREE, whenever I want.

I also got to watch the leaves change (including one veeeeery long road trip through the mountains during the peek weekend), which I missed last year.


I'm currently in on a proper vacation to visit a friend in New York. I took the Amtrak to Washington DC yesterday and I leave for New York on November 4th. I will say traveling is substantially easier when you can understand the language.


It's good to be home!