finding some holiday cheer

It seems that the holidays might not be lost after all. I’ve finally found some Christmas cheer.

Yesterday I received an unexpected gift from one of my professors. The gift was for helping out with things around the office and was a total surprise considering I only met this person a few months ago and certainly only helped him out a few times during that period. Yet he was thoughtful enough to give me a gift with a nice note expressing his appreciation. I was very touched.

Later in the evening Russell, 65 Maple Ave. and I also journeyed downtown to see the White House Christmas tree. This is one of my favorite things to do in Washington at Christmas, even though the tree gets uglier every year (see below). The national Ye Olde Yule Log also warms my heart as it warms my toes.

The really fun part is checking out all the state trees that surround the large one. I look forward all year to my annual trip to the Ohio tree where I smile proudly as I pose for a picture.

The holiday spirit lives on.

Photos of the tree from years past. Brace yourself for the 1980s.

that was fast

Yesterday I finished my thesis…

This morning I did my student loan exit interview…

and by this afternoon my loan repayment booklet was waiting in my mailbox.

I didn’t even get a day to avoid thinking about unemployment and unpaid bills.

I passed!

And to celebrate we had beer at 11:45 a.m.

Thanks to Russell and Dweebcentric for joining in the fun.

-Angel the Pig, M.A.

ten hours and counting

I’m presenting my thesis today!

she’s getting seat covers for christmas

This is from my friend, who shall remain anonymous so that you may one day ride in her car blissfully unaware of what transpired in the passenger seat. She can always make me laugh and is practically a saint.

I was taking a Special Olympic man home tonight and he took a dump in my car. Yes, a diarrhea-smelling, large dump. It was contained in his pants, but there was a brown residue when I cleaned the seat, and I worry that the lasting smell might somehow give me cancer.

Teachers are so underpaid.

to regift or not to regift?

Al Roker did a riveting interview on re-gifting this morning. Really, if you didn’t catch it, you’ll want to try to find it later on You Tube. Shame on me for thinking Al Roker was just a weather man. I completely underestimated his journalistic talents. My bad.

The passion with which he discussed the merits of re-gifting left me thinking about the practice and I wondered what my readers might think. I am generally okay with the practice. Re-gifting old junk, a la Creed from The Office (see 4:47 – 5:10), is not something I condone, but if it’s truly something someone else might need or enjoy, why not? I think we forget sometimes that gifts are, well, gifts – voluntary contributions. If I give you something I already own, is that not as much a gift as something I’ve purchased and then given to you? Besides, It’s the thought that counts, right?

I can only remember re-gifting once, and that was after our wedding. We got some really nice (too fancy) dishware with no receipts attached and no indication as to what store it came from. With no option to return them and get something more immediately useful, we were faced with two options. One, we could pack them away in a cupboard somewhere and hope they didn’t break before we actually got to use them, or two, we could give them to someone who might actually use them. I chose the latter.

A cousin of mine was getting married soon after who was older and had her own house. She was much more likely to be hosting dinner parties, so we gave them to her for her wedding, in addition to the money we had already planned on giving her. I felt good about passing them on to someone who might use them.

That feeling passed, however, when we later realized that we never checked the boxes to make sure that there was no card inside addressed to us on our wedding day. Considering at least one card and check went missing from our gifts, there’s a huge possibility that we had tucked some wedding cards inside gift boxes for easy transportation, leaving them there for my cousin to later find – proving that we re-gifted. I’ll never be sure this happened, but I’ll tread lightly around my cousin for a while just in case she doesn’t feel the same way about the value of re-gifting.

Lesson learned. Always, always check the product before re-gifting.

isn’t it a little early?

How early is too early for a telemarketer to call?  I was just badgered by a non-profit at 8:31 a.m.  They had a good mission, but I almost never agree to donate over the phone and I certainly don’t give to people who violate the tranquility of my morning routine.

who are the people in your neighborhood?

65 Maple Ave. just moved into the WordPress neighborhood.  Check it out.

the greatest thesis of our time

As my presentation date draws near I can now only focus on all the possible things that could go wrong. My chest already seizes up just thinking about it. There are only going to be four people in the room, my two advisors, Dweebcentric, and Russell. How this could be intimidating, I’m not sure, but it is.

When I get in situations like this I turn to one person for inspiration – Miss Bridget Jones. So what if she’s fictional? Nothing I do could possibly be as bad as her public speaking performances. As long as I refrain from calling The O “Mr. Titspervert,” things should be just fine.