Always Anna

And, I’m back! Woohoo!

I spent the last week in the fabulous sunshine of California and Arizona - if you ask me, the whole “White Christmas” thing is way overrated. It was great to see my family and friends… but is it wrong that I enjoyed the warmth almost as much?

Anyways, I’m leaving early on Thursday for the hills - I rented a house in Vermont with 25 friends for the New Year’s weekend. Last year was crazy, so this year should definitely be entertaining!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday, and that you all have a happy new year! I’ll be back in action on January 2nd or 3rd, and will let you know about the ridiculousness of the weekend.

Peace!

I know, I know. I promised you a Top 5 list on Friday and didn’t deliver. Blame it on the Blogger Dashboard that wouldn’t let me in. I would say that I’ll post it this Friday, but I probably won’t….

I’m flying home tomorrow, to the glorious land full of sunshine and warmth. That’s right: California… California… Here I come! I’ll be spending the next week basking in the blessed heat, thanking god that I escaped the ridiculous cold of Boston. I will probably not be posting at all until I get back east - since I’d like to keep this little blog away from my parents’ attention, I don’t think I can post to it from right under their noses. But we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m all distracted, trying to plan out how to fit everything I need to do in California into a week. Does that sentence even make sense? I can’t tell anymore.

So, party people… Happy Holidays! See you next Wednesday!

I love toys - I’ve never outgrown finding joy in cartoon characters, bottles of bubbles, yo-yos, Cabbage Patch Kids or wind-up toys. Sadly, as an adult I have to confine my love to “appropriate times” (such as Alexis’ birthday parties)… but at Christmas, I have a whole new reason to buy toys.

I don’t have any specific little people to buy presents for - which I’m pretty grateful for, actually. The thought of my friends or sisters having kids is horrifying. But, the annual Toys for Tots drive gives me a great reason to haunt the toy sections.

Usually, I can contain myself to buying one present. But this year… I may have gone a little overboard. I bought beading kits and Barbies, and the cutest little Hello-Kitty castle. I found a darling Strawberry Shortcake music/jewelry box and a great set of My Little Ponies. It was awesome - I got to relive all my childhood memories, and sort of pass them on to other little girls. And thanks to Marshall’s low prices, I didn’t even break the bank. The cute little piggy bank I found.

On Saturday, I went to the infamous Holiday Party 69 (69 is the address - get your minds out of the gutter!) . And I was reminded of the first Holiday Party 69, which took place two years ago…

flashback

I was a mess. I got to the party around 8, and immediately started out with some Sangria. I quickly moved on to a bottle of Stoli Vanila, and mixed in a few beers. I remember screaming at my boyfriend from across the party (not in anger, but because I wanted him to take a picture), harassing a girl about dating a friend, and dancing for a while. Around 10pm, I went to the bathroom with Em, where I proceeded to fall over on top of her, knocking her backwards into the bathtub, tearing off the shower curtain in the process. I thought this was hilarious, and was laughing so hard that I couldn’t get up. After a couple minutes of trying to shove my flailing body off her, Em managed to get out. She then spent 5 more minutes trying to haul me out of the tub, but I refused to let her take my stilettos off, so feet kept sliding all over the floor. Frustrated with my ridiculousness, Em got my boyfriend to help get me out of the tub and into a bed. Em wisely fled the scene, leaving my boy to deal with me. I rewarded his efforts by crying and insisting that he didn’t love me anymore and was trying to get rid of me. I then passed out. At some point I woke up and wanted to go back to the party, so I opened a door, and shut it behind me. I then realized I was standing on the balcony. In the winter. In a tiny black strapless dress and stilettos. And the door had automatically locked behind me. After banging on the door for a while with no response, I ended up kicking down the door (there are still heel marks in the door) and immediately passing back out.

present day

Good times, huh? This year, I was determined not to repeat my ridiculousness - I’d never live it down if I passed out again. I arrived at the party around 9:30, sober, thus guaranteeing that I couldn’t be too drunk to function until later in the evening. And while I did drink half a bottle of Stoli Raz and some Sangria, and did a few Carbombs, I managed to stay awake and moving until 5am. How did I achieve this feat of awareness, you ask? Well, the platter of cheese and crackers that I inhaled helped. As did the dancing I did with my fellow dance-class veteran, Cori. And conga line that I started. And the 3 visits from the cops.

I’m still recovering from my exhaustion. I need to go find some coffee.

So I’ve been working on a tough Top 5 list for the past couple days, but need a few more to get it done, so it’ll be up next week. In the meantime…

I’m sitting at work, looking at the blizzard out the window, and wondering how on earth I’m going to walk for 5 minutes outside to get to the T. It’s madness out there! I was telling some guys in the office about how slippery it was outside, and remembered an Archie comic that I read about 15 years ago.

It was a really wet & snowy day in Riverdale, and Archie & the gang tracked a bunch of slushy dirt into the school. Mr. Weatherbee flipped out (obviously - good old Weatherbee!), and demanded that all of the students take their shoes off. While they were in class, he had Svenson, the janitor, mop and wax the floors, to bring them back to their pristine glory. But when the students came out of class in their stockinged feet, they slid all over the place! It was crazy! Then Archie had the brilliant idea to put on his golf shoes, with their cleats, to get some traction, which caused everyone to get their cleats (I have no idea why everyone in Riverdale had golf shoes in their school lockers, but whatever). The cleats created a ton of marks on the newly tracked floors, so Weatherbee called it a snow day and sent everyone home. Ah, good times.

Is it weird that I can so clearly remember an Archie comic from 15 years ago, but can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday?

In keeping with my love of the holiday season, I made my boyfriend go see “White Christmas: The Musical” at the Wang Theatre last night. It was amazing - the set was gorgeous, the singing was phenomenal, and the dancing was incredible. For the grand finale, they even created snow inside the theatre! I laughed, I cried, and I tried to figure out to finagle the time and money to go see it again.

I have to watch the movie tonight.

I read a brief article in Newsweek yesterday, “Seen, and Not Read.” The article brings up the idea that some books seem to be purchased just because they look good, not because people actually enjoy them. Since I am an avid reader - I’ll read just about anything - I found this pretty interesting. Are there people out there that buy books just to put them on a shelf, whose main goal isn’t to actually read the book, but to impress people by implying that they have? Who are these freak shows?

Jason recently blogged about a related idea - buying books because it has been turned into a movie. Like me, he’s embarassed to admit that a movie may have been the reason he bought a book. I refuse to buy books that have movie photos on the cover, because I hate the idea that Hollywood could make me buy a book. I don’t think this kind of snobbishness is the same thing as buying a book just to impress people, but it did make me wonder - am I a snob too?

I’m still working my way through “Guns, Germs and Steel,” although I have broken it up with a couple of Nora Roberts books. So, I don’t think I am a book snob - if I admit I read romance books, I can’t be, right?

I am, quite frankly, brain-dead this week. So brain-dead, in fact, that I couldn’t even think of something to make a list about. Weird, huh? Anyway, today you’ll be treated to a list of the top 5 things I’m thinking about this week:

5. Will Nick remain famous now that he and Jessica have split? I really hope so - I think he’s so sweet! I read that he has a sitcom in the works, which I would totally watch. Or at least, I would support it in theory. And I’d download a couple of songs off his next album. On another note - I’ve never been happier to learn that a woman refused to sign a prenup. Go Nick!

4. What on earth makes people think that it’s okay to litter? Do these people walk down the street and think, “Gee, you know what I really like to look at when I’m outside? Trash! There’s just not enough of it around! So I think I’ll just drop my Dunkin’ Donuts cup on the sidewalk!” Or maybe, “Well, that’s enough of today’s news. Hmm… there’s a trashcan 3 feet away, but that’s really too far for me to walk with this thing. I better drop it here.”

3. Who will go see the new Harry Potter movie with me? The only friend of mine that likes the books, Nicole, already saw it without me! ARGH! I don’t have a problem with going by myself, but it’s so fun to talk about how the movie compares to the book afterwards….

2. When will Alexis’ blog be up and running normally again? I’m dying without it!

1. You know how in the movies, mall Santa Clauses have fake beards, and inevitably some child pulls it off, causing chaos and stampedes? Has that ever actually happened?