I'm back!

The Hobgoblin and I returned yesterday, and we're mostly settled back in. It's nice to get away, but just as nice to return home again. Yes, I know, it's a very cliched thing to say, but I feel it strongly anyway. I like seeing my family, but unfortunately, it only takes a few days before I begin to return to my irritable, annoying, obnoxious, I-can't-stand-the-world-and-my-parents-drive-me-crazy 13-year-old self. Will that self ever die away? I'm beginning to doubt it.

I had a very nice trip, all irritability aside. I got to see 4 of my 6 siblings, one brother-in-law, one sister's boyfriend (or ex-boyfriend? I can't quite figure it out and didn't get a chance to ask -- to ask my mother, of course, as I wouldn't have asked my sister. That would be awkward), and some acquaintances at the Christmas Eve service. I was able to keep up my tradition of complaining bitterly about the awfulness of the Christmas Eve service, as it was suitably awful this year. Sometimes it's awful in a "let's have a birthday cake for the baby Jesus" kind of way, but this time it was awful in a "let's draw on as many offensive gender stereotypes as we can, even if they are irrelevant to the sermon" kind of way. I made sure not to ride home from the service with my parents, as I wasn't feeling irritable enough at that point to want to offend them and hurt their feelings. Traditions are nice, aren't they?

Christmas itself was nice, and I got a lot of cool things -- the Hobgoblin gave me a copy of Michael Dirda's Book by Book, which I've now read a little in, and it promises to be interesting. It will feed my current interest in books on books and reading. My mother-in-law gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card, so we went there on Tuesday, and I found Lawrence Weschler's Vermeer in Bosnia, which has been on my TBR list for a long time, and Jeffrey Robinson's The Walk: Notes on a Romantic Image, which will feed my other current obsession with books about walking. I was happy to find some good nonfiction books; I love novels, of course, but often the books that get me most excited and fuel multiple long blog posts are nonfiction ones. And Christmas isn't quite over yet, as I know I have a box coming from a friend who always sends me books. Yay!

The Hobgoblin also got me a new pair of cycling shoes, which are black and very cool looking:







Oh, and he also got me a sticker with my new "photo" or avatar or whatever you want to call it:









A couple of people have asked where it comes from -- it's from one of my favorite novels ever, Tristram Shandy; it's the narrator's rendering of his story's plotline -- very digressive. I like the picture because I love the novel, of course, and ... I like digressions.

I read a little bit, more in Proust and Richard Holmes's Footsteps, and a little of the Dirda book, but mostly I sat around and did nothing. I needed a few days of that. I sat around and did nothing, and I also watched a lot of episodes of "The Office," which was great fun; as we don't have TV, we miss a lot of crap but also some good stuff, and I was happy to catch up on some of the good stuff.

So -- I'm happy to be back reading your comments (thanks!) and catching up on blog posts and posting once again myself. I hope to do some goal-setting around here soon, and maybe some more summing up of my year, and definitely some more raving about Footsteps, and I might finally get around to beginning Buddenbrooks.

Nerves

I've been trying to post for a while, but I can't because I've got a job interview today and I'm completely distracted by it. I keep telling myself I feel ambivalently about the possibility of getting the job -- it's not exactly what I want -- and that's true, but it doesn't keep me very calm. My semester has been over for a couple days now, but it won't feel over until I finish up this stupid interview.

Back later.

Update: the interview went fine. Thanks for your kind comments everyone! I think I did okay, although I have no idea how things will turn out. I feel like I can charm an interview committee pretty well, but I'm not entirely sure they bought all my answers. I did do one stupid thing -- I left my coat in the interview room, and by the time I figured this out, they'd begun the next interview. I had to interrupt them or wait around for an hour before I could get back in there, so I interrupted them and felt like an idiot. Oh, well. Now my holidays can begin.

Post in which I reveal that I'm a little bit of a scrooge

Sorry! If you're way into the Christmas spirit, don't feel that you have to read this. So why am I doing this Christmas meme if I can be a bit of a scrooge? Because that's what scrooges do! Actually, it's not so bad. I'm only a little bit of a scrooge, not a full-blown one.

I'm not sure who began this meme; if it's you, let me know and I'll give you proper credit.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. I don't have much experience with egg nog. I'm open to change, but I doubt I'll develop a taste for it.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? I wrap them. Or sometimes I make the Hobgoblin do it.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? None. We don't decorate. Now there's a reason for this -- it's because we almost never celebrate Christmas at our place. We travel to my parents' house and stay there for a few days, so it doesn't seem worth the effort to make the house look festive.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.

5. When do you put your decorations up? We don't.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Um ... pie? My mother makes delicious sweet rolls for Christmas morning -- that's my favorite.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Trying with my six other siblings to wake my parents up so we can open presents right away.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes. Since the Hobgoblin and I celebrate Christmas at my parents', we sometimes open a gift privately on Christmas Eve, away from my family. I don't think this has quite become a tradition though.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I don't.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Dread it. Most years we drive to western New York state where my parents live. If you know anything about winter weather in western New York state, you know this is a very bad idea.

12. Can you ice skate? I did it semi-successfully a time or two when I was a teenager, but not since then. So no, not without some time to practice.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Books, always.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? A break from school -- whether I'm taking classes or teaching them. It's lovely to hang out at my parents' place and do meaningless things like extremely difficult sudoku puzzles for hours on end.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Christmas cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Attending the Christmas Eve church service with my parents and then complaining to the Hobgoblin about how awful it is.

17. What tops your tree? Nothing.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? I'm supposed to say giving, right?

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? No Christmas music, please!

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Well, I'll eat 'em. But I prefer Christmas cookies.

There. Now I'm in the holiday spirit!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My day will be quiet; the Hobgoblin and I are staying home and having Thanksgiving dinner all by ourselves -- well, with Muttboy, of course, who will get his share of the food (although not nearly as much as he'd like). Our closest relatives, my parents, are five hours away, and while such a drive is possible, we don't usually make it on Thanksgiving, largely because we're too swamped with school work to take much time off. Yes, unfortunately, my Thanksgiving weekend will be spent grading. I still haven't decided whether I'll grade today or not; it sucks to work on a holiday, but it also sucks to have even more work on the remaining days because I took one day off. Yes, the glamorous life of the teacher.

Even if I do a little work, though, I'll still have plenty of time for other things: eating, of course, and maybe a bike ride if it doesn't rain all day, and I may even have time to finish Proust's In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. I'm about 30 pages from the end. Or I may rush through The Polysyllabic Spree, just because it's so much fun. I'll surely read at least one more Alice Munro story, and I may even read a few poems from Jane Kenyon's Otherwise, a book I've neglected lately.

At any rate, to American readers, enjoy the holiday! To others, have a great day too!