Christmas Indulgences

I received so many wonderful Christmas gifts.. a North Face jacket and NF fleece to wear under. A beautiful little Asian dining set.



Sephora gift card, PJs, scarves, lotions, candles, lottery tickets that won me $5.

Christmas Eve night I drove myself to the church play that my dad’s kids were in. I had to work until 4:30 and then I had to leave home by 6pm to make it there in time. So I had 1 hour to shower, wash my hair, wrap some gifts, and iron my pants. I didn’t end up washing my hair but that was okay because I had to stop on the side of the road to put some transmission fluid in my car on the way. I was kind of lost and I almost cried but it was Christmas and I was on my way to a function so I kept my shit together. I made it in time, go me! When I got home tonight that red bad boy was smokin’ but I will worry about that craziness tomorrow.

This is (from left) my dad’s wife, my dad, their kids, me, and my dad’s parents. You can’t even tell I had to be a mechanic less than 30 minutes earlier.



Today I went to my grandparent’s house. The older I get the more I appreciate these types of traditions.



Whatever this peanut butter chocolate powdered sugary chex concoction my cousin sent me home with is- and this hoodie from my grandmother- and good company – and some Holiday beverages :) have made my Christmas evening quite delightful. I will clean this wrapping paper mess up later when I worry about my smoking car.

A good good day

Wednesday morning I was digging through a bag full of bags in the bottom of my closet and upon yanking something out a single copper penny flew into the air and in slow motion came down and landed right in front of me as if it fell from the sky. So there I was. Sitting on my knees in my closet staring at this penny and a lucky feeling came over me and I said to myself: “today is going to be a good day.”

And a good day it was. I went to Fresh Market and bought some Christmas cards and Wild About Wasabi Mix which is sooo delicious. It has cashews and almonds and wasabi peas and all of the wasabi spice gets on the cashews. It’s good.

So needless to say I wasted much of my morning but if I hadn’t then I wouldn’t have been in the right place at the right time to formally meet (we waved to each other at a gas station once) my one-day adoptive father ROY WILLIAMS!!

While Christmas shopping in the Barbie aisle in Target I saw Marcus Ginyard and I was just like whatever because he is everywhere. Really. I saw him at the movies last week. And on Franklin St. almost every day during school. And at the grocery store. And eating breakfast in Panera. Everywhere. And then I noticed that I couldn’t get down the Barbie aisle because there were giants everywhere, which is when I realized that it was the UNC men’s basketball team. Still not really caring too much, though. Until I saw Roy. He was standing behind a rack of clothes talking to a Target stocking employee and when he saw me coming he knew what it was about. Yes. A photograph. He asked Coach Whoever to take our picture and told me that I had to instruct them on how to use my camera, which was on my iPhone. Roy listened in on the instructions and I was very strict and serious about holding the phone so still so it wouldn’t be blurry.



I was too embarrassed to ask him to adopt me and I knew the timing was inappropriate with us being in Target and all. ...And he’s recovering from his surgery and the guys were charity shopping.

I even did laundry in hell at the Laundromat at 6pm yesterday and came home still in a good mood. Now THAT’s a good day!

Budget Tree

I bought a tiny little live tree from a Christmas tree lot on Monday. I love Mondays. I would not change my Tuesday-Saturday work schedule for anything. I never have to deal with the Sunday night blues. And I get to spend Monday alone all day doing fun things like drinking an entire pot of coffee in the morning and scrounging around for cute stuff for cheap.

The guy at the tree lot tried to charge me $20 for this little thing because it came with a stand. I had to bargain with him. Twenty dollars for a twig tree is ridiculous. We settled at $10.

It only needed a string of 100 lights. And I wish it was more fragrant. It only smells like a Christmas tree if you wrestle with it while decorating… then your hands smell Chrsitmasy.


It looks happier in real life.

The tree top is just two ornaments.



I listen to Stephanie Miller every single day from 9am-12pm. She and her two giant Great Pyrenees just moved to NYC. She’s been talking every day about walking them around Central Park. It makes me wonder if she really walks them or if she has a dog walker. I liked seeing the dog walkers with 6 dogs in Central Park. I want to run into her in NY with her dogs so bad. She is so funny and smart and entertains me at my most desperate hours of the day. I make mental notes of her TV appearances but the TV is often hi-jacked for basketball watching. Boo. I only care if UNC is on and winning.

If nothing changes, nothing changes

Ebi is getting so big. He's 65 lbs now. We go to the vet every 2 weeks because he's allergic to grass and takes pills every day. When i put him on the puppy plan at PetSmart they made me start alllll over with his necessary-for-life shots. Now that he has everything he needs hopefully they will stop torturing me. Taking him to the vet is always hell. He doesn't understand that he is so big and wants to play with all the little 6 lb dogs that are there for their grooming.

For the most part he is really good but when he is bad, he is BAD. He has done some terrible things.. Like lock me out of the apartment. The bolt lock lays parallel with the floor when unlocked and he jumped up after I left to run outside REALLY QUICK (he stays in the crate during the day) and locked me out. Of course I embarrassed myself believing that there was a burglar inside who had locked me out and was stealing my... laptop and cereal?

If he were human he would wear glasses. I just know it.

In October I went to NY and that was really exciting. Chris and I ate dinner at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant and it was so delicious. They charge you a crazy amount of money and feed you probably about $7 worth of food. Chinatown was the most fun I had. It felt like a different country in some parts.



And next to Chinatown is Little Italy where we drank beers at 2:00 in the afternoon. I heard someone recommend a restaurant called Lee's Shanghai in Chinatown so next time I will try to find that because the place we ate at was terrible. I think Fall is the best time to travel to NY. It's not too hot or too cold and Central Park is so pretty.



Thanksgiving was a beast. When I was a kid I would watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV while my mom cooked. Our house would smell like brown sugary pecans as my mom hosted Thanksgiving at our house for my dad's entire family each year. It was always a lot of fun except for the part where she made me help her crazy-clean the house before their arrival and that one year she made me dress up as a Pilgrim and wear a bonnet.

Anyway, this year my ass was up at 5am snapping green beans. I made food to take to my Grandmother's house, ate lunch there, played hide-and-seek, came home, and went to Chris' co-worker's house for dinner. We were invited and could not turn it down because it was promised to be quite the festivity. And it was. We were participants in the annual pie-tasting contest that was a nightmare because they were all sweet potato pie. But it was really serious and there was a cash prize and a crown involved. My favorite person was the guy that knew his "baby was gonna win because she googled her recipe".

Today I am going to find a little Charlie Brown-ish Christmas tree and bring him home and decorate him. Ebi better not eat him. He loves wood and fragrant things so he will be tempted.