The 6th Day of Christmas

It feels like Christmas is well over. Wal-mart is full of Valentines Day candy, and they're already out of chocolate oranges, much to Joy and my dismay. Christmas trees are on the curb and all the christmas socks are on sale. Being born of the Feast of the Epiphany, I feel like my feast day will, yet again, be totally ignored, even by many Catholics. Now that my finals are over, and I have all this free time, I'd love to get into the Christmas spirit, sing some carols and bake some cookies. Unfortunately, I have a whole lot of work to do, fun work, but work all the same.

I may or may not have just realized that I will be heading to Italy in exactly, um, exactly... 20 days. (I did just check my itinerary to make sure I actually knew what day we're leaving). If you want to know exactly how I feel bang your head on your keyboard and then read the resulting word. You get my meaning.

Although I have been out of the country many many times, I'm still a little nervous. This will be my first trip abroad without my parents or grandparents. And did I mention it's a five month trip. Yeah, no big deal, just living in a country I've never been to with a language I don't speak. Yeah. Yeah. No. If you need me I'll be curled up under my bed, shaking with fright. But seriously, this is really nerve-wracking. I have to figure out what clothes I need, where else I plan to travel, heck, I even need to apply for summer jobs. Ahhhhhh!

I keep seeing all these pinterest-picture things that say, "I would gladly live out of a suitcase if it meant I could see the world". While that is a touching sentiment, I always think, "depends on what's in the suitcase..." I am not one of those people who can just throw something on. I am, and have always been, very picky about my clothes (sorry, mom), so I tend to over pack... A lot.  I am also a firm believer in blending in, so my best pal and I have been looking through European clothing sites going, "uh huh, uh huh, yeah, we have stuff like that. Yeah, we can pull this off."So European and comfortable. Uh huh. No problem. You know what? Perhaps I just won't pack at all. Perhaps I'll just sit here and think about packing until the world ends (unless it already has, and I managed to miss it).

I am also not looking forward to dealing with toiletries. I have curly hair that requires a lot of, shall we say, taming. The whole "Curly Girl" system has been a lifesaver for me, but I'm not really sure that I'll be able to find my special conditioner and various other products abroad. So I'm afraid I'll have to stock up. I love having beautiful, silky curls, but buying a three month supply of products in one fell swoop is slightly terrifying. I'd just give up on it all, but I'm afraid my hair would poof and take over the entire country. So for the sake of all those poor Italians who would otherwise be crushed by the great ginger frizz, I will make the sacrifice.

Finally to keep us all in the Christmas Spirit despite what the rest of the world is doing, I'd like to introduce you to my absolute favorite Christmas carol sung by my absolute favorite choir! It just doesn't feel like Christmas here in the King household without Lessons and Carols from King's College Cambridge! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

   From Our Family to Yours

Communists, Firemen, and Mustard

Well, the book arranging went well. Everything is well organized, and my little OCD freak out is over.

We got and decorated our Christmas tree several days ago; it seems like it shouldn't be so close to Christmas, but apparently it is. While we were decorating I noticed that my smaller siblings were putting many ornaments on the same branches, so when they weren't looking I carefully redistributed them around the tree. Catching me in the act, my fifteen year-old brother said, "Pip! You're a Christmas tree communist!" I sure thought it was funny.

Speaking of my fifteen year old brother, he had a rather interesting run-in yesterday afternoon. Since he's acquired some really dangerous jogging habits, he is now required to wear a reflective vest while running. Anyway, he likes to run, and today while he was out running, he saw several fire trucks parked outside a house in our neighborhood. So, there he was, in his reflective vest, rubber-necking, while a line of cars slowly formed beside him. After several minutes he realized that they seemed to think he was a fireman in charge of directing traffic. Greatly embarrassed, he waved them on. By that evening, however, he found it extremely funny and told the story with great glee.

Also, in recent King family headlines: We won a vacation! Okay, my family has absolutely awful luck when it comes to raffles. The last time we won something in a raffle, I was in brownies, and we got a box of, are you ready for it? Bath Mustard. Weirdest thing ever, right? So, we'd pretty much given up on winning things in raffles, but on Wednesday my dad won this vacation in a raffle at work. Definitely a step up from the Bath Mustard.

Anyway, I shall be back later perhaps with a post containing pictures. Perhaps, I'm not making any promises.

11 O'Clock PM

I always get my brightest ideas late at night. That's also when I get my motivation. Tonight I decided to rearrange my books. Seems pretty sane, right? Well, I've decided to arrange them from favorite subject to least favorite and to alphabetize them. I'm still plowing through the Literature section. Next comes the History section, but then there's the problem of Historical fiction... Oh dear. This could take a while.

And on that day the Lord spake these words, "Thou shalt not listen to Christmas music until the time I have ordained." The wal-mart employees took heed, and on that day they were delivered from eternal damnation. 

If there is one thing I absolutely, positively cannot stand, it is unseasonable Christmas music. Black Friday is not the first day of Christmas! Everyone knows that black Friday is the day we all recover from our food comas. It's the day we sleep in, eat pie for breakfast, and then spend the rest of the day watching cartoons with our family. That is the sole purpose of black Friday, and there is absolutely nothing at Wal-mart that can't wait until at least Saturday.

Technically I should be doing homework on my break, but I'll leave to your imagination the actual amount that has been accomplished (Imagine a lot, ok?). I have actually chosen a topic for the 12 page research paper that's due in two weeks. It's progress, right? I also tried working on the short story for my English class, but I've actually managed to bore myself with my own story, so I've still got a lot of work a head of me. In her column, Home Life, Alice Thomas Ellis once wrote about writers and deadlines. She said that if she were locked in a room to finish an article by the deadline, she'd try to get out, rather than actually sitting down and writing. That's about how I feel. Nothing dries up the creative juices like a professor cracking the whip and bellowing, "Create!" I promise I'll do homework tomorrow. I promise, I promise! Which is not what I said yesterday (yeah, right).

But what I've neglected in the homework department I've made up in the housewife-ly department. I actually made pie crust for the first time, and, yes, they turned out great. Not one single person in our house died after eating them, thank you very much. I've also baked a batch of Ginger Snaps (now totally devoured) and a batch of those-cookies-with-choc chips-walnuts-&-coffee (delicious, by the way). I'm not letting my family near the latter because I promised everyone back at school that they'd get some cookies too. Tomorrow, after I finish all my homework, I'm going to make Lebkuchen, a traditional German cookie!

Well, it's past midnight, and I'm still up, even though I told myself to go to bed hours ago. So I think I'd better call it a night!

Thanksgiving & First World Problems

Everyone has that friend, right? No, not the one who does awkward, embarrassing stuff in public (although, if you're lacking one, I have plenty). No, I'm talking about that friend who can and will say anything to your face. Well, that friend and I were sitting around on day, and he turns to me and says, "Y'know, Pip, you have a really whiny personality." My first instinct was, of course, to punch him in the face, but once I had restrained myself, I thought, "Maybe he's right. After all, what do I have to complain about?"

I have the greatest, albeit weirdest, family in the world. I am so thankful that, no matter what, they will always be there for me. I am also very thankful that I get to spend this holiday stuffing my face alongside them. I'm  thankful to be with people who truly understand and share my bizarre humor. I am thankful for my mother's love and patience in educating me. I am thankful for my father's humor and hard work that keep our family together. I'm thankful for my little bothers and pester... I mean, brothers and sister, of course. Even though they drive me crazy sometimes, I'm so thankful for their goofy, little selves. And, of course, I'm thankful for the dog. I'm really thankful that he didn't eat the entire turkey as he is wont to do.

I'm so thankful for all the opportunities I've been given, particularly the opportunity to attend my college. I'm thankful for my parents and professors who have always encouraged me to succeed and challenge myself. I am so glad that they have never given up on me!   I'm thankful for the friends who have become family over the past year and a half. I am also thankful for everything that is going to make my trip to Italy next semester possible!

I am thankful to be a very small part of the Catholic Church, and I give thanks for all those who aided me in my conversion. I am thankful to Fr. B for being such a great inspiration of holiness of life to all of us at St. Agatha's. I am also thankful for the freedom to practice my religion openly, may that freedom never be jeopardized.

I am very thankful for the opportunity to be an American citizen, and I thank all those who have given their lives to keep our country free. I'd also like to remember all those members of my own family who are in the armed forces. Thank you so much for your service to our country!

In the midst of all the general drudgery of everyday life and work, it's often hard to remember how blessed we are. But I think we would all do well to celebrate Thanksgiving everyday (minus the calorie intake, perhaps). So next time I lose my cell phone or have a bad hair day or get the wrong things on my burger, I'm going to try to remember what I'm thankful for before I complain about the things I don't have.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Perseverance

This was taken my senior year of high school, right before one of my orchestra concerts. I've been playing violin for about ten years now, and it's one of the few things I have really persevered in, but recently I've really been questioning my motives for putting so much time and effort into what is now such a minor part of my life. Why would I add two extra classes to my already intense workload? Why on earth did I agree to perform a new piece on Monday? 

The only reason I can think of comes from something my teacher from back home once told me. He said that when you first start playing your interest goes up and up and up, but once you reach about eighteen you fall into a violin rut, and you want to quit. But, he said, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Frankly, I don't want to regret anything for the rest of my life, so I've kept playing. 

Senior year, violin was my life. Practicing gave me such a rush; it was amazing to feel my fingers beating out such complicated patterns. It was amazing to hear the beautiful melodies I could make, but all this changed Freshman year of college. I was too busy to practice, and my new teacher and I didn't exactly see eye to eye, so I let I pretty much let it lapse. 

This year, however, I was determined to get back into it. So I auditioned for a new teacher as well as chamber ensamble. I have to say I'm still not 100% sure this was the best idea ever, but my playing has improved a lot much since the beginning of the semester. It was hard, really hard, but it's been worth the effort. At the beginning of the semester, I was ready to quit violin for good. I hated chamber and my lessons required way more effort than I really wanted to give them, but it has been well worth the effort. I practiced last night, and once again I knew that I could make beautiful music.