Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Things I Am Sooooooooooo Over

13.  Sex and the City

12.  Panic attacks


11.  Grey's Anatomy

10. Students who don't bother to purchase the required books for their classes

9.  Students who don't bother to read the assigned reading in their classes

8.  Students who e-mail at 11:30pm the night before an assignment is due and request that I respond ASAP

7.  New England winters

6.  Students who open emails with "Hey"

5.  Lindsay Lohan

4.  Lame-ass excuses

3.  Emails written without caps or punctuation

2.  Students who don't follow directions

1.  Sarah Palin

Thursday Thirteen: The Day After

It's Friday, so this is a rather belated T13.  But on this, the day after Thanksgiving, I wanted to do another list of thankfuls.

1.  I'm thankful that I spent yesterday with such dear friends.

2.  Oh, and the food was delightful.

3.  I'm thankful to have had apple pie for breakfast this morning.

4.  I'm thankful to be sitting inside watching the snow come down.

5.  I'm thankful for the pellet stove that keeps me nice and warm while I'm inside watching the snow come down.

6.  I'm thankful for novels by Diana Wynne Jones.  Today I'm reading one titled _The Lives of Christopher Chant_.

7.  I am, of course, thankful for the dogs.

8.  I'm thankful that I enjoy cooking.  Pasta's on the menu for tonight.

9.  I'm thankful for bubble baths.

10.  I am thankful that I enjoy sewing and crafting, although I've not been devoting much time to these lately.

11.  I am thankful to have a job that I enjoy most of the time.

12.  I am thankful for this blog, silly as it may sound.

13.  I am thankful for all of you!

Thankful Thirteen

In light of my recent insomnia / general feeling of malaise / horror over the state of humanity, a Thursday Thirteen seems in order, one that helps put things in perspective, or at least balance out the ickiness.  So, although Thanksgiving is a week away, I'm embarking on a Thankful 13, inspired by this list from my BFF's blog.

1.  The dogs.  Yes, I'm daily, even hourly thankful for Guinnie, Polly, and Fenway and even Gollum who is no longer with us.  I really feel like there's so much we can learn from our pets.  Fenway wakes up each morning, blinks his sleepy eyes at me, then accepts a kiss and expects to have a good day.  Each day, it's like he expects good things to happen in his life.  And he's happy because he has such a happy attitude.

2.  My kitchen.  It's not large, and it's not fancy, but it's mine.  And I love spending time in it.

3.  Family, especially brothers, neices, sister-in-law, and cousins.  Thanksgiving time makes me think of them all.

4.  Crafty projects.  I just had a brilliant refashion idea--watch for more in the coming weeks!

5.  Words, words, words.  Aren't they simply magical?  I am especially thankful for books, of course.  I'm tempted to order the entire Twilight saga, by the way, for holiday reading.  I feel like I can't resist for much longer!

6.  DVDs.  I really love Netflix.  I do!  I'm especially fond of all the TV series that are available, with british stuff being my very fav.

7.  Journals.  I love writing in my journals, and yes, I keep more than one.  I mean, I need several different notebooks for different parts of my life.  This makes sense, right?

8.  My vehicle.  I have a 1998 Ford Explorer.  I plan to drive it until it's a "death trap."  And then I plan to purchase another Explorer.

9.  Pie.  This time of year, my thoughts turn to pie.  *sigh*  I'm craving apple just now.

10.  Taco Bell.  Requires no explanation.

11.  My job.  First, I get to teach super fun stuff.  Second, I have super fab colleagues.

12.  Fabric, textiles, fibers!  What could be finer?

13.  Simply being alive!

Ah, this feels like a truly joyful T13--just what I needed!

All I Want for Christmas Is. . .

Ok, although it's Friday, I'm going to do a better-late-than-never Thursday Thirteen. I mean, I'm only one day late, right? So, yesterday, I was browsing Blu-Ray (spelling?) players online. And it got me thinking about Christmas gifts. If money were no object, what would I buy myself for Christmas? Here's a list of thirteen potential Christmas gifts I'd love to give myself.

1. A tattoo. I'd really like a Celtic trinity knot between my shoulder blades. It might look something like this.  Or maybe like this. 

2.  MAC eyeshadow.  Again, this is representative of my basic vanity, but I adore MAC eyeshadows lately.  However, much less expensive and of similar quality are the eyeshadow palettes from Coastal Scents. 

3.  This Judith Ripka bracelet.

4.  A Kitchen Aid stand mixer, preferably in pink!

5.  A LCD television.

6.  A Nintendo Wii.  Seriously.

7.  And while I'm at it, how about a Nintendo DS.  You know, I think I need to be working on the brain age and Zen "games" that they offer now.

8.  A nose stud.  As many of you know, I've had my nose pierced in the past.  And I really, really loved it.  In fact, I cannot remember why I got rid of it.  And I'm feeling so frumpy looking lately that a new piercing seems in order!

9.  A fresh coat (or two) of paint in my bedroom.  I've been meaning to do this since I moved two and one-half year ago.  Again, I think pink is in order here.

10.  "G" from the Harajuku Lovers line of perfume.  Isn't the packaging too cute?

11.  A serger machine.

12.  A trip to Kripalu for a Yoga retreat.

13.  A big shopping spree at J. Crew.


So OK, I realize that talking about gifts to myself really misses the entire point of Christmas--I get that. Still, it's fun to dream.  And this is like an "in my dreams" kind of wish list; with the possible exceptions of a tatoo, a nose stud, and new paint in the bedroom, I don't anticipate that any of these is likely to happen any time soon.  Still.  A girl can dream, right?

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Movies I've Never Seen But Feel Like I Should

Ok, so on the way to work, I got thinking about all the classic or brilliant or wonderful films I've never seen. I'm embarrassed to admit some of these. But you have it: Movies I think I should know about but have never seen (or have only seen portions of). Let's see if I can make it to thirteen.

1. Thelma and Louise. I've seen parts of this one, notably the end. And I feel like I know why it's supposed to be significant or whatever (and I don't think it's Brad Pitt that makes it important), but I've never seen the whole thing.

2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Now that I think about it, is Thelma and Louise a sort of reworking of this one? Again, I've seen the end but haven't see the movie in its entirity.

3. The Austin Powers movies. I've never seen any of them (are there three?), and in this case, I think I'm OK with not having seen them.

4. Close Encounters. Yeah, I've just never gotten around to this one.

5. Cool Hand Luke. This is supposed to be really great, right? I've never seen it. I guess I should.

6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. So the other day, one of my colleagues was saying how he liked this one; I've never seen it that I can recall.

7. Deliverance. I'm actually interested but seem to have never had occasion to watch this one.

8. The Return of Spinal Tap. OK, I've seen This is Spinal Tap, but I've somehow missed The Return of.

9. Children of Men. I'm kinda interested, as it's based on a novel by P.D. James, but then again, it looks depressing. According to my brother, it's "pre post apocalyptic." I'm not sure what that even means.

10. Apocalypto: This is the Mel Gibson one about the fall of the Mayans. It think it sounds interesting, but then I hear that it's super gory, and I don't think I can deal with that.

11. The entire Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween franchise. Does this require comment?

12. Talladega Nights. Will Ferrell just kills me. Seriously. But I've not seen this one.

AND

13. Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I really dislike Brad, and I don't like Angelina much better. And knowing that they're making this movie while committing adultery on the side really turns me off.