tonight we're going to set this record right

today's title comes from george stanford's big drop. it's one of the many things i've been listening to this month. you may (or may not) have noticed, but i've been on a self-imposed exile from the internet since finals ended. i could try to explain why, but...well, it'd take too long and i'm beyond tired right now. the important thing is, a rachel without the internet is a very productive rachel indeed. i've been reading everything i ever wanted to. my To Read list is actually shrinking! that hasn't happened in...actually, it's never happened. normally it just grows (and grows and grows). i've been writing a little, too. it's...strange. strange even for me. if you're interested, shoot me a comment or a facebook message or an email or something. and then be prepared for strangeness. i really can't emphasize this enough. i've been watching a little too much british tv lately (it's like the one thing anyone in my house can agree to watch - thank you, doctor who) and reading too much postmodern poetry, because everything i write lately is either foreign or dystopian or both.

it's been a relaxing month, though. we went to see ice! at the national harbor (it's dr. suess themed and wonderful), saw just about every different light show in the greater d.c. area, visited the christmas village at busch gardens, went to the wizarding world of harry potter (crowded, so very crowded - and wonderful. i totally want to retire there) and, best of all, found my One True Ornament of the year. this is it, along with all the others (the momster and husband number three):

i'm the gold piano. isn't it pretty? oh, and that peacock you see? it's supposed to replace my dearly departed One True Ornament from last year, but the momster got the wrong one. it's still pretty, though, so i guess it counts.

ophelia the ipod has finally been replaced. her successor is now named beatrice, a departure from the six (!!!!) ophelias which preceded her. i've finally given into the fact that naming my ipod after a suicidal fictional character is probably not the best omen with which to begin her electronic life. i'd include a picture, but i'm tired and therefore lazy.

that's basically all that's happened to me in the last...however many days it's been since i last turned on my computer. there's nothing like the internet to put your life in perspective, right?

we roll our jeans up (a post about mixtures)

today's title comes from chugjug by family of the year. check them out. no, really, do it. their digital downloads? 100% free, although you can donate if you want to. i actually think i'll ask the parentals to buy the cd for christmas just to support them, since they're pretty good.

anyway, today's post features a lot of mixtures. to begin with, i'm drinking my own improvised version of a peppermint mocha. it involves adding 15 white chocolate candy cane hershey kisses to half a large cup of bold blend coffee and adding a splash of plain creamer or heavy cream. it's wonderful. my nails are a mixture, too - one coat of here today, aragon tomorrow; one coat of cuckoo for this color; and one coat of bring on the bling. the result is a perfect forest green (for some reason i can't find this color on its own - it's always a green with a shimmer or a hint of blue or yellow. why do nail polish manufacturers hate forest green? right now it's my ideal nail polish color) overlaid with gold sparkles. i think it's kind of perfect for the start of the holiday season. my music is a mixture of my own purchases and s-la's, too. right now i'm listening to daylight by matt & kim, gleaned from her during our long overdue music day last week.

all in all, i think mixtures are pretty good things, don't you?

i'm in a very christmassy sort of mood right now. we decorated the house today. well, the tree and stockings and in-house decorations are all up, anyway. we're putting the lights up tomorrow. i had some bad news yesterday, though - my annual christmas ornament purchase broke last year. apparently lulu knocked if off the tree and the momster thought she could replace it before i found out but forgot. everywhere i turn - secrets and lies. i was quite annoyed. i mean, look how pretty it was:

we went to the christmas light show in gaithersburg today. i love that place. it's so pretty. they added prism glasses this year. basically, they give you little paper glasses when you drive in and everything is extra shiny and bright and multiplied by like a thousand and if i were ever to try drugs, i think that's what the world would look like.

in other news, i jumped on the netflix bandwagon today. i was going through our dvd collection and realized that i spend way too much of my pocket money on movies. so far, netflix is amazing. why didn't anyone tell me that they have, like, every movie and tv show ever? it's wonderful. and they have an ipad app! it's like having a tiny, tiny tv with me wherever i go!

i'm now off to marathon torchwood and rewatch doctor who and drool over pictures of boots i'm too poor to ever own on the internet. woe is me, &c. &c.

unwrapped

so today has been a little crazy. it began with a flailfest in the morning because i thought my ear was falling off - basically, i woke up and there was blood all over my face/the pillow and a giant cut right where my ear connects to my head and...yeah. i'm barely functional at best in the morning, so to wake up to a face full of blood lead me into Panic Mode (not to be confused with panic! at the mode), which got my mother to wander in and also start freaking out. and since i'm anemic and my blood doesn't clot very well, my stupid ear wouldn't stop bleeding (although, seriously, how did i even manage to cut myself in the first place? i was asleep. lulu must've wandered in and tried to exact revenge on me for all the bitter blogs), so we went to the doctor and now my ear is no longer bleeding and i have super!iron vitamins to take. they're huge pills and pretty nasty, so i don't know if i'll actually stick to that unless i'm, like, bleeding to death or something.

well, after the traumarama of the morning, the momster and i decided to take the day off and indulge in some happy holiday times. we went to mount vernon and did some christmas shopping in tyson's and after that we hit all the christmas light shows. which lead to us having dinner in alexandria at ten in an empty (but amazing) restaurant. it was pretty cool. we'd never been there before and the owner and the last waiter, who's her daughter, just came out to talk with us and we got free dessert.

the best part of today, though, was getting the ornaments. see, the momster and i have a tradition where every year, after we've decorated the tree, we spend the run up to christmas keeping an eye out for one perfect ornament for each of us. it's pretty fun, mostly because there's nothing i love more than christmas ornaments. it's a rule on our tree that each ornament has to have a story - it can't be one of those generic out-of-the-box deals. we've spent a lot of time trolling christmas stores, and now we have a stockpile of good ones, plus the Ornaments of the Year, which always make it on the tree. here's this years, from the christmas attic in alexandria:

mine was the peacock and mom's is the little bird clipped to the edge of the box. this year we amended the tradition a little and got cookie and lulu ornaments. in case you couldn't tell (check the cookie is a wookie and lulu labels for proof), the ornaments look just like them, mostly because the store had one of those walls of dog breed ornaments. and, well, they were just so cute we couldn't resist buying them.

so since Certain People have informed me that they hate my doting musical review posts, i'll refrain from fangirling too much (but, really, it's not too much until you're parked outside their house with binoculars, right?), but i've been obsessed with arcade fire and the format lately. i've always sort of liked arcade fire, but was mostly put off by their hipster-pitchfork association. then the day before yesterday one of their songs came on shuffle while i was college apping and it just seemed so perfect for writing to that i put on the rest of the album and then the one after that and then bought their itunes-only eps and tracked down their live sessions and b-sides and covers and then found interviews and band member profiles and...yeah. this is basically what i do whenever i find a band i really like, actually. of course, those steps are also like checkpoints for if i still like them or not. to use kings of leon as an example, i stopped at the interview step just because, well, the followills aren't really nice people, what with the cocaine and alcoholism and womanizing and other fun stuff like that. and sometimes i work backwards, like i did with panic! at the disco and the format. other bands i like will mention them or i'll come across an interview in a magazine or something and decide they seem nice and maybe i'll give their music a listen and things will spiral from there. in other words, my obsessions are mercurial yet intense (points if you can name where that reference came from without googling). also, i just realized that i just went off into a long-winded, totally unnecessary, musical tangent yet again, but...well, they have some relevance. i mean, both band just cracked my itunes top 25 after only three days of solid listening (knocking out don't stop believing from the glee cast and crazy by ray lamontagne).

so it's late and i have a vocab quiz first thing tomorrow, so i'm going to sleep now. you probably should too. or, you know, put some arcade fire on and relax, because they really are just ridiculously atmospheric and perfect.