Thursday Ten, Two Weeks Til Christmas Edition

1. As I type this, Chris at Rude Cactus is up to 208 comments. So, over $100 to charity so far. If you haven’t yet dropped him a comment, remember, he’s donating $.50 per comment to charity (read his post for details). And, yes, you should still read him tomorrow and beyond that, because he’s funny.

2. My guitar lesson went so well today. I walked out and was unbelievably giddy – because I just felt like some things I had been struggling with (mainly bar chords) were finally coming together. I played one well – thought it was a fluke, and then went through the rest and almost consistently, they were coming together. I have been having THE WORST time with them- basically because it takes finger strength to do them, and the only way you can get that kind of strength is by (hey!) doing them. So, yeah – you have to play it like crap a whole lot of times until you’re strong enough to play it less like crap. And I hit that today and I’m happy.

3. Oh my god I have eaten so many cookies. Does anyone want to send me Chex Mix or Cheetos?

4. And since I’m asking, does anyone want to come over and make dinner for my family tonight because I looked in the fridge and there’s not much there. Looks like we’re having yogurt, gingerbread cookies and Cheerios. Yum.

5. I have been sleeping horribly this week, and so that’s been difficult. I’m fine once I fall asleep – it’s the actually FALLING ASLEEP part that I’m having trouble with. Any ideas?

6. I have to go to a baby shower this weekend for my cousin’s wife. I am in charge of getting the gift. I haven’t looked at her registry yet. I haven’t been to Babies R Us yet. I am doing a pretty crappy job with this gifting thing for her. This is their first, so I’m kind of curious as to what they registered for. I’m sure I did moronic registering when I was pregnant for The Princess. Typical clueless first time parent who thinks you really need a wipe warmer or a bottle warmer that plugs into your cigarette lighter (used once, I think). I am told their registry is 19 pages long, so I’m hoping that means there is still some stuff left to choose from when I finally get to the store.

7. New music this week – still pretty slow, musically. A friend of mine is a country music fan and had me listen to “Stay” by Sugarland and then the freakin’ song got stuck in my head so I bought it (thanks). I have a huge list of new music – but I also get to feeling a little guilty buying things for myself at this time of year.

8. My mom sent out her family Christmas letter and a card with a collage of pictures of everyone in our family. There are six grandchildren, five kids (us and our stepbrothers), three significant others, my mom and her husband… AND WE ALL LOOK LIKE CRAP IN THE INDIVIDUAL PICTURES. What are the odds that NOT ONE PERSON looks good? Well, we hit the photographic jackpot. Everyone looks like hell. Merry Christmas. (Though I do have to say the part of her family Christmas letter that talks about my family is the best part of the letter because I wrote it).

9. Do you love or hate getting people’s family Christmas letters? My mom is known for sending them – but I hated getting other people’s letters when we were kids. Hearing all these fantastic things their kids were doing, all these amazing places they were travelling. It always felt like “hey, read the 101 ways our family is better than yours”. Or, maybe I just have a complex.

10. I have to break my dry spell on music buying. Tell me what you’re listening to these days?