how can i leave this

just this morning, i was out walking macy and trooper and a blue expedition pulled into the driveway. i thought it was someone new on our road, because there is someone new on our road, but it was actually a car full of four jehovah's witnesses. i have just finished reading Awake! magazine about how God will make no more sickness and The Watchtower Magazine, about Man and Woman: the Dignified Role for Each. Honestly, those people drove 20 minutes outside of town to find us and give us pamphlets. Then the lady asked if I was married. When i said, "no, i'm only 22," she was like "well, you should think about getting married." hi, hello, i'm all set. thanks, though.

oh lord, i love it

well, the new (long awaited) episode of the office was amazing. finally saw pam really break down. i think that's the kind of emotion that's going to motivate her to actively try to get jim in her life. every once in a while, there's a show that really takes a hold of me and i get so obsessed i have a difficult time remembering that it's all make believe and that it's not real. this is one of those shows. they formerly have included: queer as folk, grey's anatomy, and many movies. i cried tonight while watching the office. and i have had many dreams over the past two weeks in which i am part of the office cast, sometimes as pam and i manage to win over jim from evil karen. i've also become acustomed (is that how you spell that word?) to reading two fan blogs about the office. lame, but: officetally and life in the office.

my time home has been interesting. wyoming has not been immune to the crazy effects of global warming. it oscillates wildly between being frigidly cold and blizzard-like and 50 degrees with the sun shining. last night, when i took macy out for her nightly relief, the sky was so clear and the moon so bright, the only proof that it was winter was that there were some patches of snow on the ground. the air temp reminded me of an early spring afternoon.

oh my god. my dad did the funniest thing the other day. he usually doesn't shave over christmas vacation. anyway, emma and i had made dinner and we had also invented a pretty sweet-ass trivia game, but we gave my parents like 20 minutes off from family time while we cleaned up the kitchen. we began playing our great game and about 20 minutes into it my mom goes "YOU SHAVED A GOATEE." my dad had used his 20 free minutes to shave a goatee. a goatee. my dad with a goatee is unbearably funny. he's not really a facial hair guy. he's not in to fantasy football poker night with the guys, both things that i think of when i free associate with "goatee." but he wanted to experiment with a goatee, much like a teenager wants to experiment with dying their hair black, even if they're not a goth. it was probably the funniest thing that he has ever done. i have to tell andrea.

ok, that's it.

i deserve an award

for serious. so, after going to two of emma's orchestra concerts and one of her chorale concerts, i also went to the community production of the 'christmas carol' and was in the church christmas program. that's it. i win.

i went to billings, mt, the shopping mecca of the region, on thursday with an old pal hilary and completed shopping. i had to shop for a gift for a kid who i don't even know. i picked his name off of the giving tree at church. let me tell you: it is challenging buying clothing for someone you don't even know. i have no way of knowing if his coloring will be complemented by the articles i picked out. and i wanted to chose accessories but my friend hilary said that that would probably get him beaten up. apparently 11-year-old boys don't really wear accessories.

i've gotten back into reading since i graduated college. i think i just had to read to much for class to be interested in reading on my time off, unlike my good friend katherine, who reads all the time. anyway, i'm currently reading a really good book called the memory keeper's daughter by kim edwards. it is very good. you should read it.

macy is getting very large very quickly. we surmise that the things that are cute right now, while she is still relatively little, are going to be dangerous when she is a large dog. for example, now, when she jumps up, her legs only reach like maybe mid-thigh, or right above the knee. when she is full grown, she will kill someone when she does that. she is also biting a lot and starting to run away if she's not on her leash.

ok episode of the office on thursday. i bought it on itunes because i missed it on tv and watched it through twice completely and then watched little parts over and over again, searching for clues. well, i think that jim has realized that karen is nice and fun "but at the end of the day you're left thinking about the girl you really like, the one who broke your heart," as he says when he is counseling michael about rebounds. there was a good pam and jim moment over dwight's cia assignment. i love this show.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH

today, i had to go to the dentist because i broke off a ginormous chunk of my tooth. lady dentist says that i have to get a crown. today, they just put a pin (A PIN!) and filling in it. it hurts now even though it didn't hurt before. my left jaw is sore as well as like my chin area. they had to dig out a lot of tooth because there was...gross...decay. so, my sermon today is on the utter importance of dental hygiene. flossing always seems to be a challenging thing for me, but i will probably be better for a while since i just had a huge cave dug out of my tooth and it is all hurty and stuff.

i also went to work today. i "temped" for my mom and my dad's office. it was easy and all the patients know me and stuff. i got to play mom for a day and take emma to school and pick her up and take her to basketball practice. then my dad and i had a sushi-making party. it was mucho fun and my mom said we should have taken a picture, but we were too busy making and eating sushi. the sushi rice, once again, was a challenge, but it went much better than last time, when i just went to the chinese take out place and bought some sticky rice. it was fun and my dad had never rolled before, so i got to teach him a new skill. we even got emma to roll and eat some sushi.

i bought some fleece today at the fabric store to make a dress-up coat for macy. i'll post pictures when i get them. she's so cute!

baby, it's cold outside

well, obviously i've been listening to tons of christmas music because, well, that's what i do from thanksgiving until christmas. i love that song "baby, it's cold outside." well...LOVED. when you actually listen to the words of that song, it's like, "yo, dean martin (or whomever), the answer is no. no means no." i still like it though, i guess.

i finished the final book of the series of unfortunate events. i love those books. i always get sad when i get to the end of things, though. like how i cried hysterically at the final show of friends even though i never liked or really watched that show. today, i watched some clips on youtube.com of the office, which i am certifiably obsessed with, and i cried for pam and jim. i really hope they reconnect. this karen chick needs to get lost. for serious. i also love that ed helms is on the show now. i just realized that he used to be a correspondant for the daily show, and he was very funny on that. he's pretty much hilarious.

ok. i have a busy week: i have to shop for homeless kids and deliver cookies to shut-ins. typical day in the life.

this is what i want for christmas:

those, and basically any kitchenware. i am so so excited for a little apartment of my own.

!!

ahhh

well, i survived my first ever cross-country trip. i drove from boston to albany to pittsburgh to chicago to rapid city, sd to sheridan wyoming. i drove police-free for four days and finally got a ticket 15 minutes away from home. my first ever time getting pulled over. i was a little miffed. little jetta treated me well and kept my butt warm with the seat heaters.

we got a little puppy! a weimeraner-doberman (the father was an albino doberman), macy gray joins us as the newest member of the hall family. she's very good about peeing only on her pee-pad and makes poopy outside. she has this funny little fleece-lined coat that looks like a PFD (PERSONAL FLOATATION DEVICE). she's very very cute. she's sitting on my lap right now. here is a picture: