A Rainy Christmas Season

Hi everyone. It's four days before Christmas and it's raining buckets here in "sunny" California. It's been raining fairly consistently for five days. It's driving me nuts. I don't like rain AT ALL. Rainy weather makes me feel sleepy and depressed. Plus, having to get carts from the parking lot in the rain is NOT FUN. They have a poncho for us to wear, but it's useless. It's somehow gotten torn on the bottom and the hood won't stay on. Plus, I have to put my hair down in a ponytail in order to get my head through the head hole of the poncho, and risk having my hairtie slip off. (It actually did the first time I wore that poncho. I had to put my hair up with a rubber band for the rest of my shift, which does work but hurts a lot when you try to take the rubber band out). To top it all off, I'm quite certain I left my umbrella - the nice one I JUST bought - on the bus this morning. I'm going to try to track it down at the bus lost and found, but that's probably not too promising.

At least I'm off tomorrow. I have to finish Christmas shopping, but as my mother said we were going to not buy as many gifts this year (since none of us has a ton of money), I don't have a lot to get. I bought the rest of the stocking stuffers today - all stuff from my work. (Grocery stores are resourceful places for things if you really look around. I remember a challenge on HGTV Design Star - I think it was the infamous "White Box" challenge - where they had to only use stuff they could get at a grocery store as decoration, minus the provided paint, furniture, and tools). Now I just need both of my dad's gifts for under the tree and one gift for my brother for under the tree (I bought the other one already). Then I need to wrap the stuff going under the tree. Nothing I bought is super huge except this one gift I bought for my mom. (I'm purposefully being vague about the gifts in case anyone in my family reads this blog). Plus we have quite a lot of wrapping paper so I don't really need to buy more, plus I still have gift tags left over from last year that I added to our storage bench full of gift stuff. Other than shop - which I can probably do all at two stores - I'm going to return a few library books and also probably go get my umbrella if Lost and Found does happen to have it. I just hope it doesn't rain too hard - my iPod weather thing is now saying it's going to THUNDERSTORM tomorrow. Dang. Scary.

Speaking of weather things, did anybody see the lunar eclipse this morning? It happened on the day of the winter solstice too, which is really unusual. Astronomers say it's very rare for that to happen. Just watched an AP video about it - the last time a total lunar eclipse happened on the winter solstice was in 1638! That was 372 years ago. Wow. I admit I did not see the eclipse. I'm not the sort who gets up pre-dawn to see eclipses and meteor showers and the like, though I do like astronomy. I would have to go to the mountains to see this stuff anyway.

Fortunately, I am no longer required to call the number for my federal jury duty instructions. I had rescheduled my service to this week, but when I called last night, I got this message: "Your jury service is over. You are no longer required to call this number." Just verified this online as well. Kinda weird, but a nice surprise for Christmas at least. I don't know why they would have on-call jury service to begin with.

I've been reading bits and pieces of magazines when I come down too early to clock in for work or from lunch. I read some of Nintendo Power (whose latest issue's cover is devoted to Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded), some of Sparkle World (a magazine meant for girls ages 3-8 that has stuff from the Disney Princesses, Rainbow Magic, Polly Pocket, etc), and some of a special edition magazine made about Prince William of England and his new bride-to-be, Kate Middleton. I admit I have sort of been following their story through the magazine headlines and such, maybe because I used to have a crush on Prince William. Also, I watched a documentary about "Wills and Kate" (as they're called) that my mother recorded.

I've found you can follow a news story simply from the headlines on magazines at the grocery store checkstand, because with the stories that make the cover of People, OK!, Life & Style, etc., nothing is truly exclusive. You will see some variation of the same headline on every one of those magazines. Like this week the news is the new Teen Moms, the supposed budding romance of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (Edward and Bella in Twilight), and the miracle pregnancy in the Kardashian family. Oh and Tom and Katie appear to have "separated." (Good for them).

Speaking of Twilight, I finished reading the second book in the series (New Moon) - which I finally was able to get from the library after months of checking - not too long ago. Despite New Moon being 563 pages long, I finished it in like 3 days (about the same time it took me to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). It was more fast-paced than book one, which helped the story along immensely. Also, it was nice to see Bella on her own for a good portion of the book. I like Bella. Edward I don't care for. As my friend Jessica said to me recently, he's intense. But Bella I can relate to - I mean, you should see how much this girl talks about literature. It's actually cool. Bella Swan is a very smart girl. She could totally go on to college and have a successful life. And yet she wants to become a vampire and stay a teenager forever with the intense, a-bit-too-perfect Edward? Is she out of her mind? I mean, granted, she loves the guy. He loves her too - after all, he goes and tries to get permission to die when he thinks she's thrown herself off a cliff. But honestly?

Fortunately, Bella is a bit more sane in New Moon, and I think this is largely due to the increasing role of her childhood friend Jacob Black. He's a cool guy who likes Bella for who she is. Bella seems actually like a normal person around him. Granted, Jacob turns into a not-so-human character later on in New Moon (I'm not going to spoil that), but for some reason I'm more ok with that than with Edward being a vampire. Maybe because I already encountered that in Harry Potter with Professor Lupin. And as Jacob says in the Eclipse trailer (which, thanks to TV spots, I think I've seen at least 50 times), Bella wouldn't have to change who she is if she went with him rather than Edward. I would like that better.

So, basically, I'm "Team Jacob," as the Twilight fandom calls it. Though I'm not completely anti-vampire - I like Alice and Carlisle Cullen quite a lot. Just not Edward. Maybe cause Alice and Carlisle are more controlled? I mean, Edward seems so...passionate I guess, like you know that at any moment he could totally bite Bella because gosh darnit her blood smells so dang good (but of course he's afraid of sentencing her soul to eternal hell). He should just take some of that synthetic blood stuff they take on True Blood, for goodness' sake, or the blood pills the vampires take in the anime Vampire Knight.

The Volturi were interesting. I'm kinda curious as to what the heck Jane's power is. In the scene with them we learn that Bella's thoughts are immune to even the power Aro (the head of the Volturi) has. (We already know she's immune to Edward's telepathy).

Oh dang, it's midnight already. I'm going to stop here and get some rest.