Holiday Countdown

For some reason, the holiday season - no matter how much I look forward to it and want to be all cheery about it - brings me down. To me I suppose the holidays are much more about family and less about gifts (maybe because my family has never been affluent enough to really get me much on Christmas; or maybe it's because no one knows me well enough to know what $10 item I will go nuts for). This year though, I want to force myself into some Christmas cheer. I haven't decorated my own tree in at least 3 or 4 years, I don't have a single Christmas CD and it's been far too long since I've gone to see the Nutcracker ballet or any Christmas event for that matter.

So this year I am going to push myself to get into the Christmas spirit. It should be good for morale, since this has been a long year with many challenges and changes. So here are my holiday season goals:

1. Send out Christmas cards: I do this every year, but I want to be sure and do it again.
2. Buy a fresh-cut tree and decorate it with 100% new/color-coordinated decorations: This will be my first tree with my boyfriend (we didn't get one last year), so I want it to be OUR stuff that goes on it.
3. Listen to Christmas music: I like Trans-siberian Orchestra and some of the more classical Christmas music like Handel's Messiah. The Twelve Days of Christmas? Not so much...

I also have thrown myself into the volunteer ring to help with my work Christmas party. I am the talent coordinator and so I have to find an hours worth of acts, write a skit for the managers and likely MC the show. It ought to be fun since I like using my planning skills to put together events. My worst fear though is that people will be bored!

To finish out my holiday post, I'm going to do a short-list of my most coveted Christmas gifts (mostly so my boyfriend can get the hint-hint!).

• Kodak EasyShare Camera - $89.99 at Best Buy
• Apple® - iPod® nano 8GB MP3 Player - Black - $149.99 at Best Buy
• Lion King the Musical Tickets - $25-80 per ticket
• Gift cards for Borders, Barnes and Noble, Ikea, Target, or Macy's

Time to wash the election off and get back to my true love: NOVEL WRITING!

I'm actually right on target with my Nanowrimo novel. As of this very moment, I have 8,225/50,000 words, which means I technically only need to write another 20 or so words today to stay on the pace of 1,667 words per day.

Everything is actually coming along smoothly and plot is appearing in all sorts of places. And since I am a little bit ahead with my word count, I'll take a little bit of leisure time to introduce some fun elements I am using in my story.

Aurora - Idina Menzel has the exact look for what I want Aurora to look like. True, Idina is a bit old to be playing a teenager, but you get the idea. There is a certain exotic, unique beauty to her and both a feminine and strong side to her.

Aurora's castle - This photo of Torrechiara castle in Parma, Italy is similar to what I envision in my story.

Enrian's Ring - This is how I envision her father's ring that is used at the beginning of my story for the fortune teller to use as she reveals to Aurora the truth about how her father died.

Box of divination treasures - It's pretty much a cigar box filled with cool divination stuff!

Scrying mirror - Kinda like a crystal ball, only a lot more portable. This was in the box.

In a state where we favor our chickens over our gays

I am both woefully depressed and wildly ecstatic about the election results from last night. I hate those days when I'm so ambivalent that the very act of not being able to decide my mood is exhausting.

The call has been made and Proposition 8 has been passed. That means that once the election is certified, gay marriage will no longer be allowed in the State of California. Now, whether the gay marriages that were already performed will still be honored is a question yet to be answered (I hope yes). Ironically enough, Californians voted overwhelmingly in favor to give farm animals more room to roam around. More rights for chickens, less rights for homosexuals. The logic of it all is maddening!

I am deeply saddened that the choice of Californians was to ELIMINATE a civil right from a group of people. What troubles me further is that the majority of these backers are people from the Mormon church. I am ashamed that I once attended a church with such an ominous group of intolerant people. This, unfortunately, pushes me even further away from my family and friends who are still true believers in Mormonism. I guess I just can't believe that God would be in favor of oppressing those who are different from us or taking away someone's choice to make a decision for themselves.

At least there is a silver lining to this that should eclipse this woeful defeat of equal marriage...

THANK FUCKING GOD Barack Obama has won the presidency. He's going to be an amazing leader. Hope and change are on the way!