Mood:
lazyNow Playing: One Life to Live
I never got to my blog during Christmas 2010: I'm a Facebook person now!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500105468
Over the past few years I did manage to give most of the Wish List stuff to my family, with one notable exception: Ken took Rachel and me, along with Becky and maybe a couple other people, to the John Lennon exhibit on its last day at the Museum of Rock and Roll Annex--also the Annex's last day. Rachel also ran into a former high school classmate working there. I did eventually get Rachel the book Pepperland.
Right now I'm sitting in Elena's apartment using Brandon's computer and watching One Life to Live. Yesterday was my 55th birthday.
Monday night on the Q27 bus as I sat in the foremost seat and stretched over to insert my Metrocard, the card flew out of my hand and apparently flew out the crack beneath the doors. The card had one week to go, expiring December 26. Fortunately I had enough money in the bank to add $10 to my regular pay-per-ride card. The following day at work we had our office holiday party, with a spelling bee, which I won! Cash prize, too! Coincidentally, the previous night I entered a newly-reopened grocery store in my neighborhood. They were selling poinsettias. Looking at the sign, I said, "That's spelled wrong." My winning word in the spelling bee: poinsettia. (I believe they actually spelled it "poincetia".)
I got a generous slab of leftover cake from the party, and a co-worker named Christina helped me carry the cake to a cab I hired. I rode over to Elena's house, getting into a interesting conversation with the driver, who wants to persue his Ph.D. in psychology.
The following day, December 21, I took a cab to Brandon's high school to pick up a confiscated IPod, then walked to the bank, the liquor store (checking on mead prices), the 99-cent store, then finally the supermarket where I spend the rest of my winnings. Among other things I bought ingredients for two different recipes for butterbeer.
That night Angela made herself a sandwich with the rotisserie chicken, and I had chicken and salad and brown rice. Only Angela was with me when I took out the cake and she sang "Happy Birthday" for me. Oh--Joanne and Leila had come earlier, and went off with Joanne's laundry and two rolls of Christmas giftwrap. Brandon, who turned 18 on December 12, went to help a friend and his mother move. I made the butterbeer with a recipe involving vanilla ice cream and apple cider. Unfortunately, no one else wanted to have some yet.
I've had varying degrees of knee trouble since I had a trick knee as a teenager, but over the past couple of weeks I've had knee pain so bad that I had to skip work. I've been moving extremely slowly. Earlier this week--or was it late last week?--I ran errands around the neighborhood, including returning a two-month overdue copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I left home at 5:30, thinking a normally two-hour trip around town might take an extra hour or two. I didn't get home until midnight! (Well, I did stop at three restaurants because I had to rest my aching legs.)
I've bought most--perhaps all--of the gifts for my "immediate" family. I also sent three shoeboxes last month to Operation Christmas Child of Samaritan's Purse via a Korean church in Flushing. That same month I was in the chorus of the Free Synagogue of Flushing's production of Hairspray. My knees were pretty much behaving themselves during that run. Thematically, the three boxes, or two of them, were influenced by my Halloween costume this year: Bellatrix Lestrange of the Harry Potter stories. The boxes contained silver jewelry, including a black-and-silver owl necklace and ring, black clothing such a scarves, and a stuffed owl. Of course, it couldn't look too "witchy" or the more conservative minds at OCC might alter the package. They might anyway, for all I know.
I bought some glucosamine tablets a few days ago, and I think my knees have been better for it.
I also this past Sunday attended a concert of the Gotham Rock Choir, which I dropped out of because of Hairspray. They sang, among other things, the Quincy Jones arrangement of the Hallelujah Chorus--my idea!
I don't usually enter into my Christmas blog in May, but I hadn't heard from Operation Christmas Child about my trackable boxes, so I wrote to them a couple of weeks ago. They told me my three boxes went to Zambia. 
blue
crushed out
Model black Chevrolet 2010 Camaro, or Hot Wheels or Matchbox version
I also gave Vistaprint pens, personalized, to my nieces and nephew. Amazon.com says I ordered an Aaron Neville Christmas album, and I probably gave that to Becky. To Ken I gave a book of Christmas crossword puzzles. I noticed that he often likes to fill in the crossword puzzles in AM New York and Metro New York, our free weekday newspapers. I also gave everyone a Beanie Baby, though I don't remember who got what. For Elena's boyfriend William I gave, along with the calendar, one of my last copies of the CD mock-up of 60 Years--although I didn't get it to him until July, when Elena's friend Arlene threw a picnic in honor of Elena's birthday. That same day, after the picnic, William and his brother and I drove to Citifield and sat outside for about an hour listening to Paul McCartney's concert.
I also assembled a shoebox for the family in memory of Elena--a sort of gift to her--including a few toys that memorialized things in her life. There was a cheerleader pen, with a figure of a brunette cheerleader in green on top; a little woolly black lamb which I got at Bath and Body Works; a blue toy van which resembles the one Elena drove, which I got at a Walgreens or Rite-Aid or Duane Reade in Bayside; a mini Beanie Baby of a gray Huskie that I'd gotten from McDonald's year before, because Elena had temporarily gotten a husky and named it Rocky, but had to give it away.
chillin'
special
So Becky and I got there in time, and Ken and Margie got there later. 
suave
sad
