A festive survey

Here are my Christmas questions you've all been so anxiously awaiting.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

Hmm...I do enjoy wrapping boxes, but let's be honest--I usually end up in a hurry and use a gift bag. Sorry msk(s). However, this year, yours IS in a box with a bow! Proud?


2. Tree--Real or Artificial? Love the smell, not so sure about the hassle. We had a real one every year when I was little, but most years we had a fake one. It was just as Christmasy both ways.


3. When do you put your Christmas tree up? Right after Thanksgiving


4. When do you take the tree down? I prefer to take it down the day after New Years Day.

5. Like egg nog? I like it, but don't prefer it. I'm with you msk(S), I love a mug full of marshmallows.

6. Do you have a nativity scene? No, but I hope I do not too many seasons from now.

7. Favorite gift received as a child? There are several I remember getting dangerously fired up about--a record it yourself alarm clock on which my mom had pre-recorded Clifford singing the San Fransico song and a collection of brightly colored wigs, to name a couple.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad, by FAR.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Easy--Yaya.

10. Worst Christmas gift? I can't remember anything bad--a student last year gave me a half used bottle of hotel lotion, but it was so heartfelt that there's no way I can count that. I still have it. (It was the student I posted a video of who told me I needed to take a vacation to Japan)

11. Mail or email a Christmas Card? Real mail


12. Favorite Christmas movie? The (original) Grinch, A Christmas Carol, and Elf


13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually start slow and end in panic the week of Christmas. However, this year, I was 85% finished by Thanksgiving and finished the second week of December. A record.


14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I can recall...


15. Favorite food to eat on Christmas? I LOVE cheese grits on Christmas morning.


16. Clear or colored tree lights? I prefer clear


17. Favorite Christmas Song? "O Come, O Come Emmanuel"


18. Travel during Christmas or Stay home? I like staying home, but travelling is fun too. I just don't like to travel ON Christmas day.


19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? yes.


20. Angel or Star on tree top?
I love Angelina, the angel doll that has hung daintily from the ceiling above our family's tree since I can remember. I love her. But I like glittery stars as well.


21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning?
Morning! Me, Sammer, and Hailey used to open the presents we got each other on Christmas Eve.


22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
AFA emailing me thrice daily whining about Lowe's referral to the Christmas tree as a "family tree" in their catalog. I truly believe that they think boycotting and nitpicking is going to solve the world's problems. Don't get me started.

Victorian revelry shall abound

Once again, I'm blogging after a loooong day of work when I should be sleeping. However, once I do get home, it usually takes a few minutes before I can calm down enough to actually fall asleep, so why not blog?

It's been a hectic week. The reason (previous post) I was scouting boys' scarves and plastic battery operated candles at the Dollar Tree is because on Friday my seventh graders and I are having a Dickensonian Christmas party. They read and watched A Christmas Carol, researched the Victorian era, and have taken on the persona of one of Dickens' characters for this shindig, which is being thrown in honor of Scrooge's new outlook on life. They have to talk, walk, behave, and breathe like any young child of Victorian London would have. Parlor games, traditional Victorian music, decor, and revelry will abound in a matter of hours.

The problem is, they (and I) are incredibly unprepared for this. It's amazing how much I assume my students know that they just don't. And when they saw the movie, they asked me where the black people were. I said, "in this room." I told them THEY are responsible for portraying the black version of all the characters, and Scrooge is counting on them to do so.

Don't you wish you could be there? I'll take pictures.

Last night I went to the Behold the Lamb of God concert, which was INCREDIBLE. It's a yearly conglomeration of singer/songwriters who come together for a concert of songs to tell the story of Christ. The songs tell the story of the Old Testament up to the birth of Jesus. It is beautiful. Last year, Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken were two of the people there; this year Bebo Norman and Sara Groves lent their vocals along with regulars.

If you've ever read the blog I write on about school, teaching, and my students (it was part of my final thing for grad school) you know that I am obssessed with Sara Groves, as I wrote bits of her lyrics on the blog ALL the time. Many of her songs have pulled me through tons of very hard days since last August, and last night I got a chance to tell her that. Lo--she was a middle school English teacher! I knew we had a kindred bond. I'm glad Jimmy nearly made me talk to her, as I am not one to leap at the well known. However, it was a very non-awkward, heartfelt conversation, and I didn't stutter. She even gave me a bit of valuable teaching advice. Anyway, I bore you.

More stories and pictures later. Goodnight!

At long last

It's been forever since I've blogged, I'm making my big comeback with little to say that is of any real importance. All I do is work now pretty much, as apparently I was smoking crack when I decided to work a second job. But I've already said that on here, haven't I? What was that? Twice? Sorry to repeat.

The social life has suffered a smite, but the stories still abound. You know what I've found? You may find this hard to believe, but of the two jobs, the people at Anthropologie are weirder. Customers, that is. I really do want to write a book. Your assumption is probably that my students would be a little more out there than the customers of an outlandishly expensive clothing/home store. Right? Wrong. Read the following facts and BELIEVE THEM AS TRUTH.

1. Today a lady I checked out came to the register wearing EVERYTHING she was buying. She held out a handful of tags for me to ring up, and yelled at me throughout the whole process (a complicated one, I assure you, as she was covered in those hard sensors that you have to remove on the counter with a magnetic thing) She left, only to return a minute later for the dress she'd come IN wearing, which she'd handed to the fitting room attendant as she fled. THEN, after she left a second time, we found her UNDERWEAR in the fitting room. Yes.

2. A lady came in once, went to the fitting room, and the came walking out rather quickly--we later found a trail of poo (apparently she was sick and it'd been running down her leg) from the fitting room to the door outside. Who needs to drop bread crumbs??!!

3. Someone once left a nice pile of doo in the corner of a fitting room. Now, THIS has happened in my classroom (last year). That was a 6th grader, this was a grown woman.

That's all for now. I'm sure there will be more. I need to go to bed, as it's absurd that I'm even awake right now, much less crafting fine literature. A contact fell out of my eye today at the Dollar Tree while I was picking up several young boys' scarves and plastic battery operated candles (which I will explain in a post yet to come), and I've been crosseyed ever since.

Hope everyone had a good Monday--four more to go! Goodnight unto all.

Welcome to the world, Emily Kate Butler!

Seriously, what am I doing awake right now? And blogging? Rediculous. Hope this isn't asking for it this week.

Got some good, good news, though! My dear friend Kelly (Flowers) Butler had her baby girl, Emily Kate yesterday morning. She is 6 lbs., 14 oz. and both are doing great. I was going to post the picture in the email Michael sent out, but I don't know if Kelly wants her new baby girl broadcast in the blogosphere just yet. I'll definitely take pictures when I meet her and post those.

Congrats to Kelly & Michael!!

Name them one by one...

In the spirit of my second favorite holiday, I'm following suit after MSKS and LT in making my list of a few things for which I'm grateful. There's a current drought for blogging material and lack of time for blogging, so this is a good reason to sit down and make a cheesy, yet honest, list.

1. cold weather

2. a sweet family

3. transportation

4. pumpkins (the wonder veggie)

5. fireplaces

6. many best friends

7. books

8. a job and approximately 100 ruffians that I love

9. Patty Griffin

10. a house to live in and three spectacular roommates to share it with

11. Maggie

12. coffee

13. grace

14. alarm clocks

15. the CHI (I'm with you Swart)

16. opportunities

17. email

18. rainboots

19. Dayquil

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Satan personified

Post title got your attention? Read on.

Those of you who've met James L. Entrekin, Jr. will find this especially funny, but those of you who haven't will still chuckle. He's in New Orleans this weekend working with Redeemer Pres. to help demolish houses in order for the next group coming in to rebuild. Last night, I got quite the dramatic phone call letting me know that despite deadly threats like asbestos and black mold (they have to wear masks), he's hanging in despite a recent waltz with death. Did he breathe in the black mold? No. Did he get asbestos poisoning? Nope. All good. Did he saw his arm off while cutting down a tree? Absolutely not.

What happened, then, you ask? He was attacked by...a caterpillar. Yep. You read that right. My response, after laughing hysterically, was "aaww, that's kind of cute! You got attacked by a cuddly caterpillar!" to which he quickly replied, "Claire, it was Satan personified."

This morning I had the following email in my inbox, with an attached picture of the thing, officially called the Lo Moth, which he googled, just for me:

Cuddly?? You try and cuddle with that thing and see what kind of explilatives come from your mouth!! That thing is a venomous demon! The story: I was chopping down a tree, it fell on my arm, latched onto me with its octopus like suction-feet, and stung me with its over 100 poisonous quills... my arm began to immediately swell as the poison began rushing through my blood... I began to notice some of my normal functioning being affected...for example, I noticed I wasn't as brilliant as I usually am... Gray, who was wearing gloves, had to pry it off with both hands as the suction created by the demon's talons was strong. He had to act fast because the chainsaw in my hand was about to cut the beast open, and possibly sever my arm!

Anyhoo... the only medic-like substance available was some Purel hand-cleanser...so I cleaned the wound with some of that...which likely saved my life.. because a few minutes later, the swelling began to go down, and my immune system was able to begin repelling the poison flowing through my veins. I have a very strong immune system ("cough, cough").

Anyhoo... I'm off to see what other adventures await me today!

James, the brave.

Yes, he says anyhoo, and just for clarification, the "cough, cough" at the end of the email is a reference to Southpark's Cartman's trademark hacking noise. Nice.

Soooo...if you see this beast, learn from James' traumatic experience and go the other way, or you may be in for a battle with Satan himself.

Just when I'd started to worry...

about "The Office" writers' ability to continually produce new material to match or surpass the former brilliant episodes (let's face it, we all have our limits) they bust out with Michael in the wilderness with his ripped apart and duck-taped together suit pants, eating lethal shrooms to survive. Brilliant.

However, Friday I learned of The Office's indefinite season halt, as in a couple of weeks they will go to reruns until they resume production. This is due to the Writers' Guild strike that I'm sure many of you are aware of. 24's season premiere is also indefinitely postponed. I'm sick to my stomach. At first, I was floored. How could anyone let things get to this point? Leave it to unions to react like this, too.

But then it hit me--these writers are young folks in the workforce just like myself, and producing BRILLIANT material for network TV. It really is a disgrace for them not to receive royalties from DVD sales and such. If not for them, we'd get awfully tired of watching a steady stream of The Bachelor, America's Next Top Model, VH1's I Love New York, starring Juan McCullum (this is another blog post entirely) and all the other gosh awful reality shows they'd be forced to come up with without these writers.

The central issue: How should writers be compensated for their work? No doubt they should receive royalties for DVD sales (which, correct me if I'm wrong, they are receiving little to no percentage of), but what about digital platforms like the Web? Is the internet arena still too big and too new to establish a payment formula? Someone is profiting. Definitely a sticky dilemma-interesting to see how it'll all pan out.

In the meantime, Dwight, I miss you. Jack, I don't think I'll make it through the winter without you. Hurry back.