Joyeaux Noel

Currently I'm sitting on my parents couch in my pajamas, playing with the string of pearls my mom got me, which may or may not be real but I don't care because they're beautiful. I'm watching Sleepless in Seattle and eating red and green M&Ms. Later we're heading over to Nonnie's house for white elephant gifts and laughs. Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday and that Santa was good to you this year. Here are some lovely images to help you celebrate this day of peace. The last is a video Jason Mraz made a few years ago. He really got to the core of what Christmas should be: a season of giving and that means forgiveness.

Oh dear. Why didn't I think to decorate my tree in my brown body suite? Oh well. Next year I suppose.

Happy Holidayz from Jason Mraz & The Voices of Prayze from Jason Mraz on Vimeo.

{Photos from here and weheartit}

A Lovely Habit

I have this habit, and I'm quite sure I'm not alone in this. When I fall deep into a book, I always read right before bed. When my eyelids start to get heavy and I have to read sentences three times just to remember what's going on, it's like somebody's got me tight around the waist and I'm clenching as hard as I can to cover of the book. They're yanking me away when all I want to do is sit and chat with those printed names that are more like friends than characters. But eventually I give in to those persistent arms around my waist and fall asleep. It's here that the habit begins. Once those heavy eyelids get the better of me, I start to dream about whatever it is I'm reading.

When I was reading Harry Potter this proved to be a little scary at times. Voldemort and Draco were always after me and I generally had something very important I needed to do (to save the wizarding world, naturally) and yet never quite knew what that something was.

But now, oh thank heavens, I'm reading Pride and Prejudice. I've read it before but for some reason this time I am seriously enthralled. I think I "poo poo'ed" it the first time because Mr. Long Distance and I had just called it quits and I was questioning the existence of any type of love, especially a love like Elizabeth Bennet's and Mr. Darcy's, or even Jane and Bingly's for that matter. But now I'm positively obsessed with those two. It's messy and they're on the surface totally wrong for each other but oh how they love each other and in the end that's all they need. I'd much rather distract myself with their relationship than worry about one of my own. I've decided living vicariously through books will by my life's new path, when it comes to love anyway. It's so much easier, wouldn't you say?

{photo from here}

Let Me Tell You a Story

There once was a young woman, with fair enough features and a love affair with writing. She decided to try her hand at html and the internet and started her very own blog. She named it Hindsight because she found comfort and solace in being able to recount embarrassing and sometime painful moments in her life for a group of encouraging fellow bloggers. As her "followers" grew, her admiration for the blog grew as well. (And she would like to add how much she detests the term "followers." She is not the leader of a cult). Finally she had found an audience, albeit small. She was ever so thankful for those who visited her humble area of self expression.

But, as this young woman well knows and I'm sure you do as well, no story worth its salt is without conflict. Deadlines arouse, plane tickets for quick trips were purchased, and viruses and bacterial infections plagued her poor, defenseless body. She was left with aches, fevers and ears so full of fluid she could only sit quietly in restaurants, with all their background noise, and nod politely while everyone enjoyed lively conversation. And it was because of those ghastly distractions that her blog fell by the way side. Embarrassingly, she was hardly even able to read her dear friends' posts. The less she wrote and read, the less she thought about that virtual world she had created and the harder it was to bring herself to post again.

This particular young woman, however, isn't one to be defeated by finals, distractions, exhaustion, illness, or even the evil Sir Eliot. She rose above adversity (and got an A in Creative Writing by the way), pulled herself up by her high heels and sat down once again to type a cheerful greeting and regret of her prolonged absence to all of her beloved blogosphere friends.

She promises to visit more regularly, post lovely stories and insights into her sometime humdrum, sometimes exciting life and to update all of her friends of her goings-on. But not tonight, dear reader. Tonight, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are drawing our young woman's attentions elsewhere. And at that I, and our young woman, bid you adieu.