Peace out, 2011!

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Mica

It’s only 9:17 as I’m writing this, but I have to go to sleep soon because…

Tomorrow, the boyfriend’s parents are driving us to the airport at 4am, and our flight departs at 6am. (It’s an hour-long drive to the airport.) On one hand, this gives us all day in Boston. On the other hand, we are supposed to stay up up until at least midnight so we can ring in 2012, Boston-style. I think an afternoon/early evening nap will be in order.

This year, I’m going to shake things up and make at least one New Year’s Resolution. Are you going to make one? Please share! I’ll share mine and the boyfriend’s in the next post.

Post-holiday Post

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Mica

Christmas 2011 was quite a success! In fact, the festivities lasted much longer than one day, so there was very little let-down on the 26th. Not only did I receive really useful and thoughtful gifts, I got to spend quality time with family. And with Mom/Steve, Dad/Pat, and the boyfriend’s families, that’s a lot of people! I am quite lucky indeed.

Brett explains a local brewery, while Neville passes out in the background:

Mom and Steve received some good-smelling pepperoni:

Hipster flannel!

…and warm woolen mittens!

And I cradled a jug of real Vermont maple syrup like a baby. (I tried out the red-eye reduction feature on my camera, but it looks a little funny to me.)

Bodger has certainly made himself at home while staying with Mom. He and Neville get along pretty well:

Richmond is full of friends! I serendipitously ran into Monica, a long-time family friend, at dinner last night with Dad and Pat.

The last two mornings, I’ve been running with Lora, one of my friends from middle school and an occasional reader of this blog. Our parents live pretty close, so we got to catch up while covering some miles together. Best of luck with Semester II of Med School, Lora! You’ll go far, I know it!

The boyfriend and I are spending the next two days in Urbanna, VA with his parents before we head out to Boston for New Year’s Eve!

Sharing is caring: What are your NYE plans?

Merrily on High

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Mica

Merry Christmas Eve! I’m going to try to bang this post out and get to sleep before the clock strikes midnight and it’s actually Christmas day!

I did my long run today. Nine miles in the books, which gave me plenty of time to check out the beautiful Richmond scenery:

9:47
9:38
9:32
9:22
9:33
9:37
9:43
9:24
9:18

Christmas Eve was celebrated at Dad and Pat’s house, which is always a joyous and irreverent affair.

Josh brought his girlfriend Erin, who was a lovely addition to the festivities.

This year, Sam was able to join us! We look pretty much the same as we did in high school…

This year, Uncle Rick had the biggest box to open. (It was yard art.)

Dad and Uncle Dick gave each other the same present…or something. I wasn’t quite sure.

Here, Aunt Kris is holding a book about Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond that has a picture of my grandfather’s grave in it. Steve, on the other hand, is holding Monkey butt powder.

And what would the holidays be without a serious photo?

Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends!

Should old acquaintance be forgot.

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Mica

It was a busy Christmas Eve Eve today, full of reunions and happenings. To kick it off, I ran five and a half miles, though my Garmin kept trying to tell me that I was running both farther and faster than I really was. (Does this happen to anyone else?)

9:39
9:43
9:39
9:28
9:40
(O.46 – 4:11)

In the morning, I had a reunion with girls from my middle school, most of whom I hadn’t seen in ten years.

I can’t believe how “old” we are now! Perhaps it would be better to say I can’t believe how adult they are now. In comparison to their exciting lives and impressive achievements, I felt very…young. In any event, it was nice to catch up!

Later, we met up with friends of the family: Brenda, Paula, and Jennifer. This is a tradition we’ve been doing for as long as I can remember, though the venue changes. Today, Paula hosted us at her fancy downtown apartment. Very nice!

And tonight, the boyfriend’s parents took us to the “Garden Fest of Lights” at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. We got there a bit early, so it wasn’t quite dark when we started walking:

We went inside the conservatory and saw all kinds of giant plants:

Eventually, it was dark enough tosee the lights!

Perfect timing for an obligatory holiday couples photo:

I’m going to try to run long tomorrow…Christmas Eve! I hope you have a great one!

Love and Joy come to you

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Mica

In September, the boyfriend’s parents moved east, to Urbanna, VA. Today, the boyfriend and I poked around the historic part of the city:

Meanwhile, back at Mom’s house, Bodger and Neville (gray and white) have made friends. Gryphon is still prickly and now, with more laser eye! (Can you spot all three pups?)

Mom and I dug out Grandma Patsie’s handwritten fruitcake recipe. The results were questionable:

When in doubt, baste it with brandy!

From now until Christmas, things are busy! Fortunately, my shopping is finally done! Wheeee!

Merry and Bright

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Mica

The boyfriend and I got into Richmond last weekend, and I have since been running errands and catching up with friends and family.

After three weeks of separation, I was reunited with Bodger:

He’s having so much fun at Mom’s house that I don’t think he missed me…at all.

What’s that weird holiday buzzing? Oh, just my dad and his kazoo:

Run away!

Mom and I went grocery shopping today. Check out this eggplant:

And this evening, Tina was my date for dinner and the Richmond Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker. I hadn’t seen it since I was in high school, so it was a great way to get in the holiday spirit. The music, costumes, and dancing were really fun and enjoyable. The child coughing in our hair behind us? Not so fun.

Holiday photo with my Spooning Buddy:

Tomorrow, I start the holiday baking, and I will finish my shopping! I will! I will!

At the Christmas Party Hop

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Mica

That’s a tray of sea-salted caramel-filled cookies that Jessica and I made last weekend. Nice!

The boyfriend and I had people over last night to celebrate the holidays. This was excellent motivation to finish my grading and to clean the apartment. In addition to cleaning, I also had to hang up about seven pieces of artwork that had been propped against the wall for six months. Oops…

Jessica made this peanut butter “cheese” ball. Normally, cheese balls gross.me.out, but this one was delicious!

Oh, did you think that was all? I decided that I wanted to have a classy holiday affair, so in my mind, that meant baked brie and small bread rounds. Jo contributed a monstrous spinach dip inside of a bread bowl.

Not to be outdone, the left side of the kitchen had peanut butter cup rice krispy treats, cookies, and Kayla’s delicious red velvet brownies:

As well as Ryan and Joe’s rum for eggnog. Gross!

How many people did all this serve? About 10:

In lieu of a holiday sound system, we played the OnDemand pre-set holiday Christmas scenes. This one was “cookies and milk” and featured Santa’s legs and hand:

Do you send out Christmas cards? I sent out 22 this year, but only three people have acknowledged receipt of them. I don’t expect a card in return or anything big, but I want to know if the cards arrived at their intended destinations. When I receive a Christmas card, I try to let the sender know that I got it. I mean, Facebook, e-mail, and phone make this easy, right? What are your thoughts on this? (Actually, I think Caitie is the only other person who sends out cards, so this question is for you, lady! By the way, USPS said 10 days for the card to get to the UK.)

Let it snow!

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Mica

Big final project due tomorrow at 1pm, yikes! However, I wanted to share some snowflakes that I made this past week and weekend.

I have a hard time imagining mirror images, as evidenced by the following snowflake. I tried to make it say “HO HO HO,” but instead, it says “HOOH.” Oops.

This one spells out “ESL.” Can you see it?

Christmas trees!

Me? Procrastinate?

Also, I ran eight miles today:

9:38
9:42
9:37
9:31
9:37
9:33
9:35
9:33
(0.38 miles in 3:22)

Tomorrow: Finish project! Grade my brains out! Go, go, go!

Need a little Christmas now

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Mica

Yesterday was the last day of classes for the fall semester, so Finals Period has officially begun! I have been trying to strike a balance of work (classes and grading) and some fun, particularly holiday festivities.

On Tuesday, Kya and her new puppy Charlotte came over to watch Love Actually.

An escapee! Apparently, Charlotte did not care much for British Christmas films….

I also baked a ton of m&m cookies for my students and classmates. You know it’s the end of the semester when the TA office looks like this:

I planned to give some of the cookies out during my two-minute presentation in Korean class about my hobby (baking). However, as always happens during end-of-semester presentations, people do not respect the time limit and end up talking too long. 18 student presentations AND course evaluations in a 50-minute class? Nope, not happening. I didn’t get to present, and I was so grumpy about it that I ended up giving the cookies to my friends and officemates. Long-talkers don’t deserve cookies! (Though many students did respect the time limit.)

Seriously, though, why is this such a problem? Do people not understand the concept of a time limit? Giving a decent presentation while respecting the time limit is such a neglected skill in higher education, and we really do our students a disservice by allowing (some of) them to blather on like idiots, wasting everyone’s time. When I assign student presentations, I hold up a “one minute” warning sign and make it clear that I will cut students off mid-sentence or reduce their grade by ten points for every minute that they go over.

Rant over.

Speaking of students, here’s a class picture of me and my students. The class breakdown was three Koreans, two Vietnamese, seven Chinese.

…Also, can we talk about how busted up my classroom is?

Tonight was all about studying for my Korean final tomorrow night and…preparing to mail 20+ Christmas cards. (Also, you can see my attempts at making paper snowflakes and a pomander ball.)

This year, I’m taking Christmas seriously.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Mica

Pat and I used to open an advent calendar when I was in elementary school, but this tradition sadly fell by the wayside. This year, however, the boyfriend and I purchased a nice advent calendar with chocolates behind each door. Because I am mature, I suggested that the boyfriend and I switch off each day on eating the chocolate, which is a little hard…

Last night, we continued celebrating the most wonderful time by making gingerbread houses at Cassandra’s apartment.