pain and suffering in various tempos

Coldplay - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Enjoy!

For 12 December:

Thurl Ravenscroft - Mr Grinch

Man, I'm bad at keeping promises sometimes.

For Saturday, 8 December:
Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby

For today:
Josh Groban - Little Drummer Boy (featuring Andy McKee)

Song for December 4: Angels of Venice - Carol of the Bells. My favourite version of this song.

Now, a poem, in honour of the season:

CHRISTMAS IN CALGARY
by ashinae

JESUS
CHRIST
IT'S COLD



The end.

But I didn't. Today's offering:

Enya - Oíche Chiún (Silent Night)

Merry Christmas to all those on my flist who are celebrating.

I missed lannamichaels's birthday on the 21st -- happy belated.

I received a lovely postcard from esteven, a lovely card from savageseraph, and a little stack of virtual gifts for my profile from discord26. Thank you.

I'm swimming in gift cards from family (Chapters, The Keg, Starbucks, Best Buy, and Staples); a new cell phone, a lantern, some chocolates, a purple lantern for power outages, penguin pj's and Stargate SG-1 seasons 3 & 4 from my parents; Sharpe's Challenge DVD and a wee fairy for my keychain (though it looks far too delicate for that) from deerdancer; a mini stuffed giraffe, a set of Pooh Bear stamps and a Raphael (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) pez dispenser from sara_elf.

And a really nasty migraine.

Hope everyone's day has been lovely. I think I'm gonna curl up in bed again.

Happy Christmas to all.

My computer is fubared.

Enjoy the rest of the holidays and I will see y'all when I see you.

PS - Why is it nobody ever, ever listens to me when I suggest something may be going wrong, or that something shouldn't be done, or that...

Sigh.

Got together with sara_elf and deerdancer this afternoon. Exchanged gifts, and watched Serenity, which deerdancer bought on Tuesday, but sara_elf and I aren't getting until Christmas day as gifts, and, eek, how could we wait until Sunday?!

One of the funny things about deerdancer and me is that we both have a tendency to write massive massive letters in our Christmas and birthday cards.

This year, I forgot about the Christmas cards! I bought them, yes, but I forgot to write anything in them! So that's what I did as we sat and waited for Sara to arrive. Silly me!

Both of them knew what I was getting them: Firefly DVD set for Sara, and Due South: Season 4 for deerdancer.

From deerdancer, I received Lynne Truss's new book, Talk to the Hand and a tub of the Body Shop's vanilla body butter, yum!

sara_elf drew a picture of Jayne (Firefly) for me. Framed and everything, it's wonderful. But the utter bloody awesomeness of it? She drew it over the summer whilst she was in England, and then went to one of the sci-fi cons here in Toronto when she returned here.

Adam Baldwin was there.

Why, yes, folks, he signed the drawing of him as Jayne. Says "To Jenn, Serenity, Adam Baldwin".

*SQUEE*

I'm unemployed again!

... Agh. Yeah. I mean, I was told that the position was seasonal, and that I might get to stay on beyond the holiday season. But I was supposed to work Tuesday thru Friday this week, and then yesterday, I was told, "Oh, the district manager is coming in Thursday and Friday, so we won't need you. This'll be your last day." Argh. So back at the drawing board again.

I pimped whereangelsfear a few days ago, but I'll pimp it again. It's an RPS AU that I'm writing with rahalia_cat. Paul/Russell and vampires. C'mon, you know you want to read it!

I rather randomly found several puppy pictures on my digital camera, which I will post later. The puppies are, yes, all gone -- the last two went to their new homes last Monday.

( and how Ash got spoiled for Christmas (includes one picture) )

11 days.

So: is AIM being totally wonky for anybody else? For the last few weeks, I have uninstalled it a ridiculous number of times, and it's still having bizarre errors all over the place when I try to log on, and not alerting me when people are online, and not telling me when people get kicked OFFline. Whatsupwiththat?

My Christmas CD:
Trans-siberian Orchestra featuring Metallica - Carol of the Bells/Christmas in Sarajevo
Sting - I Saw Three Ships
Bing Crosby & David Bowie - Little Dummer Boy/Peace on Earth
Loreena McKennitt - White Christmas
Enya - Silent Night
Bare Naked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Charlie Brown Christmas - O Christmas Tree
Loreena McKennitt - Snow
Tracy Chapman - O Holy Night
U2 - It's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
The Ramones - Merry Christmas
Christ Child Lullaby (a very lovely Celtic instrumental piece)
Charlie Brown Christmas - The Christmas Song (piano)
(because it can't be avoided!) Alvin & the Chipmunks Christmas song
Enya - What Child is This
Barenaked Ladies - Green Christmas
Mackenzie Brothers - 12 Days of Christmas

Much thanks to everybody who gave their suggestions -- I may not have been able to find everything, but I found a LOT of really great stuff while I was looking. Stuff I'd forgotten entirely about.

Is there anyone else out there, who works in retail hell, who finds that the Christmas season makes them all jaded and bitter? I mean, the blatant commericalism of all Christian holidays really bothers me, but this one in particular. The decorations, the endless Christmas music in malls and stores -- it is NOT about holiday cheer, my friends, no no, it is about blackmailing and manipulating you into spending money. Trust me, I have had this conversation with my mother many times and I doubt it's that different anywhere else. It may get hidden behind a "Whee! It's Christmas! It's time to decorate!" facade, but really, it's all about getting everybody to spendspendspend.

It makes me sad. This time of year is supposed to be about peace and joy and yet everybody is so bloody bitchy this time of year. It's unbelievable. I haven't witnessed any of it on my friends list, but reading cruisedirector's post this morning made me feel all icky, what with all the negativity and fighting and whatnot that's going on. It's probably a mirror of what's actually happening out in the real world: people are really frelling CRANKY and they're taking it out on everybody here. I know pretty well what is going on in regards to a certain movie and all the other things that generall do go on in fandom, but everybody always seems to blow everything way out of proportion this time of year.

I've been sitting in a horrid funk for a few weeks -- which I blame on the drastic changes in weather, the crankiness being shoved in my face, and a particular instructor I have -- but this, too, shall pass. And hopefully all the anger and negativity will pass. Repeat after me: it's just a few weeks/it's just a story/it's just a movie. Take a deep breath, cope, and go balance your chequebook (checkbook for our American friends *g*).

In the spirit of This Special Time of Year, I'd like to take a quick moment and add one last thing, and maybe everybody should share this and we can spread some joy around:

The best Christmas present I ever received.
I am, without a doubt, very spoiled. Youngest in the family and all that. While I have received some really awesome toys and gadgets as gifts, there is one present I will cherish much, much more than any of these expensive toys.

The drawing of Boromir that hangs above my dresser, that sara_elf gave to me last year. Framed and everything, and it is just so indescribably lovely. She didn't have to frame it, but she did -- had she not framed it, it wouldn't have really cost her a penny save for whatever bits of pencil crayon she used and the paper.

This is the most wonderful gift ever. She put time and effort and heart and soul into it, and that, above all else, is why it is precious to me.