Saturday, December 30, 2006

Sayonara, 2006!

For the record, I am not getting married in three weeks.

That was simply a ruse to a) mock the silly chain-blogging thing and b) make me feel better about myself, because seeing the words "I'm getting married" typed made me believe that it actually might happen someday. KIDDING!

Today was fun.... 'twas a day spent in Westphalia with lots of Schmitz's, delish food, and lots of memorable times spent down on the farm. Our family Christmas party was originally supposed to be on the 17th, but because my Aunt Linda was so sick, we had to postpone it until today. I think I have to be the luckiest girl alive to be born into a huge family like mine... they're loud, quirky, German to the core, and the sweetest, most down-to-earth people you could ever hope to meet. They make me happier than a bunch of kids chasing a leaky cow.

Anyway, I'm positively exhausted and Scrubs isn't on tonite so I'm going to read and actually hit the hay early. EARLY, as in 1:00 am. Goodness, for the love of Oprah, when did that happen? How I miss the days of going to bed at 4:30 am like I was doing earlier this fall... I was never more engergetic and enthusiastic about life!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Golly gee damn

Ohh Rye-Bread, I completely agree with you in this "tag blogging" extravanganza that someone from the CCM realm started (Bridge, was that you!?) and we all feel compelled to complete. I was going to "accidently overlook" the fact that everyone else did it and just go about my merry blogging way, but because Ryan did point out that we all will be living together in Chi-town for three straight days (in ONE WEEK!), I'm going to avoid any ostracization and get this over with.

Three things I got for Christmas:

1. A dashing man (P.S., I'm getting married in three weeks.)
2. A spankin' new truck (A black 2007 Chevy Silverado 1500 to be precise.)
3. An all-expense paid trip to Europe (Schweizer Alpen, komme ich her!)

Three things I wouldn't want for Christmas:

1. Any sort of animal/pet/living creature (With the exception of a herd of cows.)
2. A cell phone (I hate mine with a fiery passion and am tempted to throw it against the wall on multiple occasions, when I'm not ignoring it and pretending it doesn't exist).
3. A trip to Florida (The most volatile, boring state in the entire U.S.)

There you have it! In all reality, I did have a positively delightful Christmas with all the normal, regular, humble toys from Santa Claus (Claus... Klause... is that German?)... DVDs, books, games, clothes, lots of "You live in the U.P. so you must be freezing all the time" scarves, slipper socks, union suits, ect. 'Twas a delightful Christmas. Despite the fact that it was December 25th in Michigan and it was warm enough to um... okay, not snow. My Dimaggio-streak of not being able to say anything remotely witty is really kicking in tonight.

On a side note, I positively LOVE the show Scrubs. I might love it more than I love Amish people. It is the goofiest and most hilarious TV show in existence... I'm currently watching it at the moment and I just had 4 laughing attacks in the span of 30 minutes, and I always wonder what my brother is thinking when he hears me laughing through the wall in the middle of the cotton pickin' night.

I can't wait to see all of you for our big city adventure baby! Time to hit the hay... I'm off like the black on Michael Jackson.

Monday, December 25, 2006

"God Bless Us! Everyone!" -Tiny Tim

I hope everyone has a beautiful and blessed Christmas... enjoy the time with your family, don't eat too much fruitcake (What IS fruitcake anyway? I swear it's nothing but a lump of dough and Skittles) and go outside and play in the snow, I mean mud. Happy and merry!

See everyone in 2007!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

It's ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

Heeeelllooooo my sweet ones!

I would just like to first congratulate my baby brother on his audition for High School Musical, in which he tried out for a background role and ended up winning the lead role as Troy Bolton, the wicked talented basketball star- turned Broadway-bound, shaggy-haired, Gabriella-woo'ing singing wonder of sixteen-year-olds everywhere. He is going to be like, the Donny Osmond of 2006. Sans the baby blue polyester pants. (Editor's note... to any American who has not seen this movie yet, it is imperitive that you rent it now. It is not only delightfully wholesome and entertaining, the songs are as catchy as bubble gum in shag carpet and you WILL end up singing them for three days straight. Mark my words, baby. Mark my words.)

Oh- speaking of SONGS in my head... Oh my Land o'Goshen! Yesterday I decided to retire the Christmas muzak for one day and bump and groove to another genre on the 20-minute drive to work. (20 MINUTES! Golly I miss the 10 minute, (8 if you're lucky) drive to the dairy!) ANYWAY. I put in a CD that I burned over Thanksgiving break but haven't listened to since... it's mostly Johnny Cash, but I also discovered a delightfully PLEASANT song called the 1913 Massacre tucked in between slightly happier songs on the CD, courtesy of folk singer Woodie Guthry. And if anyone knows Emily, you know already that this song isn't just about any old massacre in 1913... it's about the ITALIAN HALL DISASTER in CALUMET, MICHIGAN. (God Bless their dear souls.)

THE U.P.! It's about the Upper Peninsula. As in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. AS IN MY HOME! Good ol' Woodie... singing and plucking his guitar strings along to lyrics about our Finnish and Italian and immigrant friends gone before us right here in our homeland... it's so dreadfully depressing but so strangely intriguing too! And as sick as THIS is, I was humming along to that song all pecking day long! I mean, really. It's not really a light, happy, pleasing "la la la" song you want to be pleasantly singing under your breath all day, but it like, got the best of me. No, I didn't shed tears, but golly gee, you can't help but REFLECT ya know? The following is a real scenario that took place at the Cracker Barrel in Brighton, Michigan:

Em, happily wrapping Woolrich slippers for a middle-aged man: "Taaaaake a trip with meeee to 1913... to Caaaaalumet, Michigan, in the Coppeeeeer Country... I'll take you to a place called Italian Haaaaaaaalll.... where the MiIIIIIIners are having their big Christmas baaaall..."
Middle Aged Man: "Dear, what ARE you singing?"
Em: "The 1913 Massacre. Do you know it?"
Middle Aged Man, smile disappearing from his dear sweet face: "Massacre? Oh, um, no. I can't say that I do."
Em: "Very well... I guess it's a Yooper thing. 'You'll ask about copper, you'll ask about pay.... they'll tell you they make less than a DOLLAR a daaaaay....'"

As it turns out, not only did my middle aged friend get his Woolrich slippers wrapped for the very low cost of NOTHING, he walked out that day with a very valuable history lesson about the state of Michigan and the U.P. happenings of 1913. And I am sure that, my friends, was the real highlight of his day. I just hope he comes back. Which he probably won't.

Hey, remember that Christmas movie with the Olsen twins called "To Grandmother's House We Go?" Circa 1992, starring the pre-anorexia, pre-bad clothes, pre-bad movies Olsen twins we used to know and think were adorable? Yeah, that's the one. I bought that last year and still haven't watched it, and I'm trying to pace myself at one Christmas movie a day. Yesterday was Home Alone, the day before was Three Days, the day BEFORE was The Santa Clause, and the day before that was Prancer. I have ummm, four days till Christmas and oodles of classics to watch still, i.e. Elf, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (The one and only CLAYMATION version of course!) Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (Ummm.... I really like when they ice skate and I LOVE when Ernie sells his rubber ducky to buy Bert a box for his paper clip chain okay?!) and A Very Brady Christmas, where Mike Brady gets trapped in a construction site and Carol and the kids have to sing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" for him to gain enough courage and energy to break free! Ohh, those Brady's. They get me every time. It's a tear-jerker, lemme tell ya! Ha ha ha

All right, this girl's gotta hit the hay... hopefully with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. Happy and merry!