Hello again, DW. I was almost going to abandon you for more than 4 days... So, this is my first post of 2011. This new year doesn't feel radically different as 2010. It's not supposed to, but you'd imagine with all the wild celebrations humans involve themselves in that the new year would reciprocate somehow. At 11:56 pm on New Year's Eve, my mother promptly commands me to open all the windows and doors as she chases bad spirits out of the house with her new-found mirth. This operation will almost always result in a confused father awakened from his slumber and a very cold house, as well as the potential of a psychotic hippie to run through our opened door and murder us all. (Only the confused father would understand the joke behind the last statement or if you know anything about Charles Manson.) This New Year I realized that I quite like hearing people cheering in my neighborhood, as long as it is greatly muffled by a comfortable distance. Standing in the midnight darkness of my back porch, I listened to the kazoos and hollers punctuated by a few juvenile fireworks. We are all oddly jubilant about the changing of numbers for a sliver in time. The New Year was off to a riveting start, as I walked around the house to close all the windows and doors. I think one of my neighbors may be in the hospital because at 12:10 am, I heard an intense firework detonate.

As for little Tweet-like updates for today: It took me 3-4 hours to box up all the indoor Christmas decor. I realized how much I dislike the duty, and I still have newspaper ink on my fingers. Oh, and I begun watching FlashFoward, which Mary had recommended to me a while back. Its storyline is nonsensical yet alluring, which is just what I need to ween myself off of six seasons of Lost.

I finished watching Lost this in the wee hours of the morning. I was crying uncontrollably! I love how the afterlife was portrayed, even with some of its ambiguities. It's all I could ever hope for after I die, to be reunited with the people who were significant in my lifetime. I'm going to miss having unwatched Lost episodes, but I'm actually considering sitting through the first season again before winter break is over. Sleep will be sacrificed, but I don't mind. 

Later this morning, I continued cleaning my room for coming New Year. Earlier this week I made an even bigger mess trying to organize everything to point that I couldn't even sleep in my bed. There are still a few things I need to fix and store properly, but I'm going to wait until this weekend when my dad and I install a second shelf in my closet. Basically, my room is perpetually out of order.

I felt bad for not doing anything special for Sweeney's 3rd birthday on Dec. 28th, so I took her out on a little adventure today. I seriously need to make an effort in bringing her out for car rides and walks more often, because she gets so anxious that she starts to shake like a fuzzy maraca. I picked up Albert and we got a late lunch at In N Out and brought it to the park next to EHS. We ate our burgers there while Sweeney kept encircling us with her leash. We decided that it was too darn cold to be outdoors (even with 3 layers), so we ended up taking an early leave back to my house. We watched (the ironically named) Some Like it Hot (1959), via my Netflix subscription. I viewed a segment of the film in my Television and Film Critical Analysis class, and have been wanting to see the full feature since then. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are absolutely hilarious, and of course, Marilyn Monroe is quite ravishing. This is the film Ms. Monroe film I've ever seen, and would like to see The Seven-Year-Itch (1955) next, which features her famous billowing skirt scene.

Decided to make the big blog move yet again. I found out that WordPress requires users pay to customize CSS, which is a shame because I really liked the fluidity and professional look of the Dashboard. I'm going to leave the two blogs I posted for memories; I may use it again in the future and I like the username I nabbed. I also really love the account names I have on Dreamwidth now, milliways and heartofgold. Both Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy related! Win.

Christmas was pretty nice yesterday, minus the unavoidable bickering between my mother and I. I helped skin and slice up some potatoes and make some weird creamy sauce for the pork chops. After eating dinner we opened the presents, well actually, Sweeney tried to open up everyones' presents. She was just on the attack! I love what my parents gave me and it was more than what I expected. I'm really excited to read the three Stephen King novels my dad bought for me, which are his favorites: 'Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (1977), and Misery (1987).

Lately, I've been burning through Lost Season 6, I'm currently on Ep. 10 - "The Package". The entire season so far has been making me so emotional! But rolling back to Ep. 4 - "The Substitute", I finally got to see Mr. Linus as a history teacher! I'm glad there was more to that storyline that I didn't read spoilers about prior. I'm not surprised, but I'm glad Dr. Linus made the decision to not expose the principle and give Alex the opportunity to go to Yale University. (And goodness, what I would do to have a class with Dr. Linus!) Also, I love seeing old faces and all the candidates meet and intertwine in this alternate reality. I'm scared to finally finish watching Lost, I'm going to miss it. I wish I could erase it from my memory and watch it again.