Alice looks tough. She also looks very clear. Maybe I should have kept this camera (the Sony).

Yesterday, I got an invitation and the note said, “If you already received this through your husband’s email…” #^$@%&*! What?! (That’s not profanity, in case you missed it. It’s shock and confusion - you know, like when Charlie Brown’s mom speaks.)

I was surprised.

Mostly because I’m not married. And then I was a little offended. Maybe I was a little offended first. I’m not sure why for the offense, maybe it was more like a blow to my gut. A tender point.

“I already sent this to your husband’s email. Oh wait, you’re not married. Why aren’t you married? You should be. What’s wrong with you?” Woah, back off.

So, I returned the Sony. Did I say that before? I picked up the Casio instead. I’m still not convinced on either account. I don’t know what to do. It was so much easier when my paternal Kodak grandparents would buy me a camera every few years and I wouldn’t have to think about it.

Also got Savannah a Hello Kitty digital camera. And this is why:

I’ve already mentioned I’m not a gracious gift receiver, but the one time I opened a present and was truly shocked, no one was there to see me. That is unfortunate. Do you want to know what it was?! One of the partners at my workplace handed me a small bag and said, “I got everyone else champagne, but I didn’t know if you were twenty-one or not.” It was an iPod Shuffle! Now, I don’t need an iPod Shuffle since I purchased a full sized version through Pleo Marketplace a year and a half ago. But how much better is a Shuffle than champagne?! A lot.

Anyway, it spurred a gift idea for my mother. Yes, I finally thought of something to get my mom the night before Christmas Eve. [Paden|paden] and I got her a Nano! It’s red, so it matches all of her farm stuff, and I had it engraved. (I like to engrave stuff.)

Unfortunately, it made my mother’s computer explode. But, after spending a while in the freezer, Dad was able to get the hard drive working again. (The hard drive was in the freezer, not Dad.)

Also unfortunately, I spent the majority of the holiday ripping Mom’s CDs to my computer so when her iPod arrived, I could load it right up. While working on that project, I noticed that my own music library was sustaining duplicates and everything was really weird. So I deleted everything off my hard drive. Only then did I realize iPods work one way.

Bah.

So I bought a MediaWidget license. Good purchase. I recommend it.

That’s what I got. It’s amazing. Amazing is an understatement. A Kitchen-Aid mixer should be in every home. It is …it IS. And if you’ve ever picked one up, you know what I mean.

I usually use Moleskine notebooks. But two years ago, [Jenni|jennileigh] got me these other colorful notebooks that I’ve been using instead. I pretty much put anything in them. They stay in my purse and are used for whatever I need to jot down (I actually used it to make notes for writing this post). These notebooks (as well as the Moleskines) are the perfect size for exactly one year. On December 31st, I wrote in the last page. (The outline for this post.) Crazy.

The kittens are figuring out they’re too big to climb legs now.

I thought that my hermit crabs were all dead. I’ve been trying for the last couple of weeks to get rid of them through FreeCycle and Craigslist. Apparently, though, they aren’t dead. In fact, they’re thriving. Two have just molted, one for the second time since I got them in August. Now I think I might get them a bigger tank so it will be easier to take care of them.

In my extensive reading of CNN.com, I’ve discovered the NerdBlog. I don’t have much to say about it other than it’s entertaining. Thanks, NerdGuys.

I’m pretty irritated that on both Christmas and New Year’s, I got the day off, but not the day after. So I’m off Thursday and I have to go back for Friday. What’s that about?

Also, from CNN.com, I learned about Saturnalia. It’s the actual pagan holiday that coincides with Christmas. It’s the holiday that someone decided to put Christmas on top of. The most popular of Roman festivals. Multi-god society aside, I’d like to live as a Roman for a year.

I had two small portions of my hair dyed black on Tuesday. It was supposed to be navy, but my hair wasn’t taking the dye. Oh well. I like it, but …I guess my hair is a lot like my teeth: resistant to change. So if I have it done again, I think I’ll make them bigger.

My parents invited my boss over for Christmas. :) It sounds strange, but it wasn’t bad. They played Wii.

I went to use my work toothbrush on Monday and discovered it was moldy. That was disgusting. I’m really pretty freaked out about that. How can I keep a toothbrush at work and keep it from mold?

Betsey Johnson is coming to North Park Mall in 2010.

There were three pairs of shoes at Steve Madden that I planned on buying. However, the sales guy there ignored me for a good 15 minutes, and then helped another patron before even looking at me. So I walked out.

We got another second yesterday. Did you know? I thought it would be at midnight, but Dad said it was at 6PM. Midnight GMT. Bah, I missed it.

Listen, I saw this story on Palin pardoning a turkey. From what I gather, this is a traditional thing for political figures to do. Are you kidding me? What a colossal waste of time. Get a life.

I like Ashlee Simpson. I do. But, she’s named her kid Bronx Mowgli. What was she thinking? Jungle Book?

I’m rather fond of Twilight, but I’ve got to get something off my chest: “And so the lion fell in love with the lamb,” is the most idiotic line I’ve ever read. It’s lame. It’s other things, too, but lame about covers them all.

Also gleaned from CNN.com - tainted milk (in baby formula?) from China is giving babies kidney stones. Further pressing the question: Why are we still trading with China? What else needs to happen?

I saw a t-shirt line that read: “This person is a dead fish.” I immediately thought it referenced a dull person. Nope - the real story is far more funny. Beth Nudelman, an Illinois Democrat was dismissing accusations of voting fraud after her deceased goldfish, Princess, received voter registration info. “This person is a dead fish.” Hilarious.

A kid named Lin walked next to Yao Ming (basketball player) at the Beijing opening ceremonies. Why? During the last big Chinese earthquake, Lin carried his unconscious classmates to safety. His reasoning? He was the hall monitor, it was his job. Awesome.

And to the pregnant man, I say: Idiot.

I looked at my paycheck the other day and came to the following conclusions: Why am I paying for Medicare when I have medical insurance? Why am I paying for Social Security when I’ve been solicited to participate in a retirement program? Why is America being forced into a “mandatory” retirement plan? And Income Tax?? Do I even have to say anything about that?

This is my cousin, Carly Grace. I’ve never seen her in person, but there were tentative plans for me to be her nanny, and she is quite adorable.

Stay tuned for another racial revelation tomorrow. There are numerous political agendas I’m passionate about and would be an advocate for/against, however racism is a gray issue that really gets under my skin. Income Tax, Social Security, and the Federal Reserve Bank are black and white issues, but racism is ambiguous.

me: “Does this match?”
mom: “I can’t see it, but since when do you care about matching?”
me: “… You’re probably right.”

me: “His car is there, even when he’s not!”
dad: “He has four cars.”
later
paden: “A Prius? What kind of lawyer drives a Prius?! Is he eco-friendly?”
me: “He has four cars. And the others are not Prius.”

woman: “Oh! I didn’t see you there! You’re so small. You look like a little girl over there.”
meagan: “Great.”

man: “You doing anything for New Year’s?”
me: “Probably not.”
man: “Wow, that stinks. Oh. Sorry.”

josh: “Are you bringing a date to the rehearsal dinner?”
me: “Why would dates come to that? And uh no.”

Seriously, do people usually bring dates to rehearsal dinners? I don’t know.

>I don’t like Christmas, but I’m not a Scrooge. The reason for this feeling is tri-fold:

1) I decided, just today, that I may be the mother on the block who doesn’t allow presents on Christmas. Work at a soup kitchen, buy presents for poor kids, send care packages to the military… I’m all about the Christmas tree and decorations. But not the presents. Maybe my kids will get, like one. Of course, this realization came while I was scouring the picked-over toy aisles in Target and screaming children were on all sides of me, repeatedly pointing to different objects and declaring, “III’m getting this for Christmas!” Oh, I long for children who value other things. (As a side note, I also may not allow them to watch tv. These are both in the early stages of development in my head.)

2) But that shouldn’t surprise anyone, I’m never about the presents. Well, maybe the extreme to which I took the “no presents on Christmas” bit is surprising. I don’t like holidays that involve gifts. I am not a gracious gift receiver, and I have never been. It’s not in my mental make-up to be excited about gifts.

That’s not true. I love gifts! The problem with Christmas and birthdays it that they’re forced gifts. Even if people swear up and down that they’re honestly caring about you and thought of you with this gift… whatever. There’s an expectation of gift giving/receiving on these two days and I loathe it.

It’s much more impressive, thoughtful, and/or endearing to be given a gift on a random day. That shows someone was thinking about you. “I saw this and thought, ‘This looks like Meagan’.” Of course, it’s valid to get that thing and save it for Christmas. Maybe some people do that. I generally can’t wait to give a gift after I’ve obtained it, though.

3) I’m hesitant to say that I wish America would stop celebrating Christmas. America is anti-Christ enough as it is. But the thought of people who don’t act like Christians getting up one morning, heading to church, and then going home to stuff their faces with ham irritates me. Signs that say, “Don’t leave Christ out of Christmas” irritate me. And Christians who say, “Sure Christmas is a secular holiday, but it really makes me think about Christ and I think that’s wonderful,” irritate me, too. Every single day of your life you’re to think about Christ. Every single first day of the week we’re given opportunity to physically honor His sacrifice.

So what I say to you is, “What in the world are you doing the rest of the year?”

As I was leaving the farm today, Mom said to me, “Oh, when I was last at the house, I noticed the back door was open and there was a wet spot on the floor by the rug like someone had stepped in with a wet shoe.”

I said, “Thanks, Mom. I don’t use that door. And I’ve been living in the house all week without that knowledge. Thank you for letting me know someone has broken into the house!”

She said, “I just couldn’t remember if I’d opened that door for some reason.”

I replied, “Well I didn’t!”

So let’s hope nobody else is living in my house, because I sure wouldn’t know.

Also, everything in the house is breaking! I would have thought that since most stuff isn’t being used, it would just sit, untouched and fine. But, that’s why we have phrases like, “Use it or loose it,” and why God clearly illustrates that if we don’t use parts of ourselves, they atrophy and die. Somehow this is happening to things all over my house, and it’s bothersome.

I’m excited that I have two days to work, and then I can go back to the farm. Of course, I have to drive back to work on Friday, but then I’ll head back east that afternoon. :)

I made puppy chow tonight. I’ll make special oatmeal cookies tomorrow.

I left Dad with my new camera for an hour. When I came back, I asked him what he thought of it. He just shrugged, so I had to pry for answers. He finally admitted, “I couldn’t do anything with it.” I said, “You know it’s a touch-screen, right?” He smiled sheepishly and said no. “So, remember when you said you were getting fingerprints all over the screen and I said, ‘That’s okay, I do, too’? That’s because it’s a touch screen!” Now I need to figure out the deadline for returning that camera so he can study up on it and use it again over Christmas.

I should just get the Casio. That’s what my heart really wants.

I think I’m wearing my mom down. I think she’s going to let me get an animal. I told her I had a dream that I got a lot of animals from the shelter and said, “I don’t care what Mom said, I’m gettin’ these!”

Woah, and I found Bella’s ring on some link Stephenie has and I’m so crazy about it.

Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine

When I got to the farm, my grandparents were there. Grandpa said he got two of my thank you notes. :) He said that when they received the second, they originally thought, “Oh, she forgot she sent one!” Then they noticed it had been placed in a plastic baggy with a note of apology that it was damaged.

:)

Awesome.

I may drop mail in the street more often.

I forgot that Larry’s graduation was today. When Terra mentioned that he was graduating this Saturday I thought, “Oh, the party must be another week…” I thought it was like, the 19th or something. But, when I got to the farm with only my Sunday dress and some raggitty (raggidy? raggy? What is the word…) farm clothes, I decided I’d have to wear what I wore to work Friday. Nice. And sort of uncomfortable. Whatever.

I’d never been to a graduation before. So when the commencement speaker started talking about political apathy, I leaned over to my mom and whispered, “Is this how they usually go?” and she said he was probably just trying to make the students aware. I had this image in my mind about Bill Cosby making funny jokes and it being all about how this is the beginning of your life and stuff. But no.

Then I leaned over and said, “He must not know Larry. I’m sure he’s made half the student body more aware.”

And then I said, “Dad’s going to meet this guy afterwards.”

Sure enough.

After the speech, my dad shot up into the air like he was spring loaded and started exuberantly clapping. He was standing alone for a good 5 seconds (which seemed like forever) before Uncle Mark stood up and then the rest of us relatives dragged ourselves up as well. That started a chain reaction in the auditorium that eventually made its way down to Larry on the front row.

Betcha didn’t know Uncle Tom was responsible for that forced standing ovation, huh? (Well technically you did because we talked about it later. But, at the time…)

You kinda can’t be the only one sitting during a standing ovation.

So yeah, I didn’t have lunch til about 2 because Dad had to go meet this guy. I sent him a text message, “Round it up. Invite him to lunch,” but the only time Dad ever left his phone in the car was today.

N E Wayz, he thinks the Second Depression will be coming sooner than thought.

You know how WW1 was just called The Great War or whatever until WW2? I wonder if my grandkids will be talking about D1 and D2. Or living D3.

I wonder if Obama will be shot. I wonder if Laura’s government class predicted that, too.

I’m really trying to take advantage of not having to go to bed at 10 while I’m at the farm… but I’m just so exhausted from all the nothing I did today. All I’m guilty of today is sitting in a car, sitting in an auditorium, sitting in a resteraunt (I’m not even going to look up how to spell that word. I’ll never be able to do it. Wait, did I get it right?? It’s not underlined in red! Wow), and sitting in an apartment. Yet I wanted to go to bed at 5:30.

Let It Rock by Kevin Rudolf

There was lots of talk, as usual, over Thanksgiving. Not so much old family stories talk (that apparently some non-family members hate a lot). But, that could just be because I took some long naps and showers at night (prime time… er, for all of it). But, here’s what I want to know:

There was brief discussion on Sunday about “Liberal Brethren” and if that’s an appropriate term. If they are liberal and therefore we can’t worship with them, they are not brethren. Most of the time, I find myself lumped with the “Conservative Brethren”. However, there are two cases I’m familiar with where I feel… *shudder* liberal: 1) Down the street from the WA church there’s a “one cup, no class” church; 2) The only church around the farm (i.e. “franch”) that holds services on Wednesday is also “one cup, no class”.

And I’m prompted to ask… Am I “Liberal Brethren” to these groups? If so, what does that mean for me?

I’m going to throw three things out there that I’m not sure about. 1) I think that “one cup” is gross and unnecessary, but I don’t think you’re doomed for observing that way. 2) I think “no class” doesn’t have a good argument. 3) I think the church needs to reevaluate how they appropriate their funds.

Also, were it not for the gross factor of the “one cupping” (??) at said E. TX congregation, I would be worshiping there on weekends. While I would appreciate a class atmosphere, this church seems to tingle with aliveness. Is it vain of me to not want to put myself in a situation where I have to drink after people? I’m not sure, but I think so.

The career woman. This woman is someone who thinks she’s the man. She’s the breadwinner, the provider, and the do-it-all girl who doesn’t need any one. I want to make a point to say that I don’t think that on the whole this is a Christian woman. However, if you took offense to what I said… it probably is you.

If you’re a Christian woman and you work outside the home or have a career, I don’t by any means think you’re a heathen. That’s ridiculous. But I want to know what this woman is really thinking and really trying to do.

I don’t believe in equality. When God created people, he didn’t make one better than the other, but he made them right for each other. Each has a purpose. The purpose of a woman, by and large, is not to put on a business suit, scheme and deal, and work her buns off to beat the boys. It doesn’t matter what your business is or how you do it, if your children are suffering, you should be at home.

Who can deny most of the world’s children are suffering?

I struggle to see why a Christian woman would join those ranks. Even if your children aren’t seemingly affected by your independent schedule, why look like a worldly woman?

Lastly, I strive not to offend you all, but may very well by saying that I don’t believe for a second that you’re winning souls for Christ by working in the corporate world. I don’t believe that’s your goal, either. I know it’s possible, because my dad can’t talk about income tax without talking about Scripture, but, um… brought anybody to church lately?

(That was harsh. I know it was. Some do make a difference - Thanks. Isn’t it irritating that I have to apologize for this in my own post? I guess I don’t have to.)

I’m also interested in what makes a business man think he’s accomplishing something. Pushing paper? I’ve always felt it a little bit, but I think the farm has pushed me over the edge. I don’t think we need cities, and skyscrapers, and Wall Street. I think that if you had a big bushel of zucchini in your garage, you’d understand why. You might not agree, because then you’d have to hitch up a horse instead of rev an engine, but you might understand.

Don’t be mad. I’m just 25. What do I know?

Supermassive Black Hole by Muse

Joining Sagittarius ranks: Kip

My babies live in the barn. I’m fairly mortified.

I acquired a dishwasher full of Depression glass on/around/throughout my birthday. Thank you Mom, and First Monday. For future reference, I’m sticking with Amethyst and Pink glass. I’ll probably insert some white and tealish dishes in there so it’s not so girly. I think that’ll be nice with the overwhelming amount of gray I’m going to have when I get my own place.

I’m 25 now. I feel like I need to be doing something else with my life. But what? I probably just need a dog.

And just so everybody knows, Savannah is awesome, and my noise is crooked.

Also, if you want to be annoyed with me and think I’m an idiot, read the post below. Some day I’ll clarify my view on the working woman (right now I’m trying to bypass personal vendetta). Then stay tuned for my unorthodox view on the marriage ceremony. However, who knows when that’ll be since the Internet at my shell-of-a-house is going off tomorrow!

I better move, and quick.

Funnyman by KT Tunstall

I’ve spent my whole life waiting.

…for whatever I think is going to happen.

Tonight on the way home from church, I stopped at a coffee shop and got a solo short, no whip, half inch of room Signature Hot Chocolate, and ran into a good friend. I sat down for a minute and he told me that he was just reading one of his friend’s blogs who wrote about the neon sign that everyone has above their head. You know, what your presence is saying to the world.

Mine is, “Is it over yet?” or, “Are we done yet?”

Over the years, this has meant a lot of different things. Recently it’s been meaning 1) “Am I done with this ridiculous job yet?” 2) “Isn’t this election over yet?” and 3) “Hasn’t the economy crashed so I can move to the country yet?”

This is probably not a good way to live my life, but I’ve never lived in the moment. Oh well.

grandma: “Do you remember the calves? We had sheep, too, but that was before you were born. April only had them one at a time. Can you still call them sheep then? You can’t call it a shep… Sheep doesn’t sound right.”

I went to Kabab for lunch! I haven’t been since Uncle Keith’s meeting. I walked in and this strange man tried to seat me. I gave him a funny look, then walked to my usual seat. Then I saw the owner’s son and asked about him, and he said this guy has been around a while. I guess I just haven’t seen him.

That was kind of a boring story, huh?

But gasp! I ate there by myself, and read my book. :)

I’ve been watching a new Dugger Family special on TLC tonight. That family’s so neat. Going on 18 kids, I believe.

6 Degrees of Separation from the Dugger’s: me, my dad, Edwin Viera, Meredith Viera, The Duggers!

This weekend (among other things I did) I fulfilled life-long dream #2 (#1 being the 4th of July thing) of going to a haunted house! I’ve never been because my lame friends won’t go with me. (That’s right, lame, like an old horse.) But James did, and it was awesome!

Not so much scary, but fun. I think I want to be in one next year. I wonder how I can pull that off.

(Okay, so I went one other time at FC, but that doesn’t count because FC is alternate reality.)

Wii Music! Neat!

ps. I’m sorry, Jenny. I, uh, meant to call you. But I, uh, drowned my phone. That last part is true.