I Suck At Annamas

Yesterday was December 25th... the day our lord and savior and my friend (Anna) was born. Happy birthday Anna! I hope you enjoyed your day, Anna. Of course, it's probably hard not to enjoy December 25th. After all, the day is a national holiday.

December 25th, which I will refer to as Annamas in honor of Anna (our lord and savior)... was a good day. Unfortunately, I suck at Annamas. Luckily for me, I was on Santa's good list this year.

There were not many things on my Annamas wishlist this year. I have found that after a certain point in life, coming up with ideas on what I would want or need gets tough... and pretty much not worthwhile in the grand scheme of things. I would be happy enough wishing for Karen to reach May 2nd with her pregnancy. That would be good enough for me.

But since people like to receive an Annamas wishlist, I figured I had to try and think of something. The main thing on my list this year was the Worm Factory. Interestingly enough, Santa did leave one for me under the tree. I was pretty excited... well... as excited as one can be to play with worms. Go worms!

Of course, now I just have to finish renovating the bathroom on the first floor so that I can keep the worm factory inside our garage during the colder seasons. (Karen is against having the worm factory in the same vicinity as our washing machine and dryer.) And lo' and behold, Santa also brought me a reciprocating saw... which I need to work on the first floor bathroom. So, I have a funny feeling that there was a theme this year to get me motivated to finish renovating the bathroom.

Anyway on Annamas, my parents came over for breakfast. As I have such a small family (which consists mainly of just my parents), I feel the need to at least spend Annamas with them... if even for a brief time. So, I made omelets (with ham from the previous night) and waffles for them before exchanging gifts. My parents were thrilled with the presents they received. We had contacted my brother too, who currently resides in Texas, but we received his answering machine.

Following breakfast, Karen and I headed over to my favorite sister-in-law's (Janine) for Annamas dinner. This year was interesting. Karen's father's car had a warning light come on in the early morning. So, I went to pick up Karen's parents (and drive them back). And as usual, the food at Janine's was delicious. My favorite brother-in-law (PJ) made a rolled pork that he had learned from the weekend he spent at the Endicott House.

I ate... so much. I was pretty stuffed by night's end. Among the other highlights of the night (aside from my gourging), was the breaking of the traditional gingerbread house, and the playing of Family Feud on the Wii. (For anyone curious, it was men versus the women... and we ended up splitting two games.) All in all, it was a great time at Janine and PJ's.

At the end of the night, Karen and I even finished watching another one of Karen's movies that was on her Netflix queue: My Life in Ruins.

(The video below is a trailer for "My Life in Ruins".)


The movie was surprisingly good. I enjoyed it. It was a nice way to end the day.

Anyway, Merry Annamas everyone!

I Still Suck At Celebrating My Friend's Birthday

today, our savior was born... my friend (anna). happy birthday anna! too bad i still suck at celebrating my friend's birthday.

for anyone curious, the savior known as jesus (and not anna) was not actually born today. christmas was originally a pagan holiday called saturnalia. according to my friend wikipedia, "Christians in the fourth century assigned December 25 (the Winter Solstice on the Julian calendar) as Christ's birthday (and thus Christmas) because pagans already observed this day as a holiday."

i imagine it must have been interesting having a birthday on december 25th. after all, i wonder... did anna get birthday presents in addition to christmas presents... or did she get a present for both occasions?

whatever the case, i hope anna has a good day today. i've known anna for quite some time... since middle school. in fact, anna has the fine distinction of being the inspiration for my inaugural fantasy football team this year. (i used her name for my team.) unfortunately, my fantasy football team was absolutely awful and did not even make it to christmas... so maybe i will need to rethink the whole anna/christmas/good luck angle next year.

anna also has the fine distinction of receiving a smooch from yours truly... a result, i believe, of the first and only time i have ever played "spin the bottle". i suppose depending on how you look at it... my lips could either be a curse or a blessing. it's probably more of the former because i remember anna freaking out when i had to kiss her. (what can i say, i have that affect on women...)

now before i get too carried away, i should clarify that my succulent lips never touched anna's succulent lips. had i been my friend (cass) at the time, i'm sure there would have been some lip locking as cass was quite the man in middle school. (in fact, i coined the term "casslings" in middle school because cass had such a following...)

anyway, i forget the actual circumstances surrounding the spin the bottle incident. (so i guess the kiss could not have been too memorable.) i have a feeling that there was a party at anna's house or someone's house. and with any party in middle school... a lot of people got invited. being the wild and crazy middle school kids that we were, we decided to play spin the bottle. i spun... the bottle pointed to anna... anna was obviously mortified (again, because i have that affect on women)... and so i ended up kissing her forehead.

that was the first and only time i have played spin the bottle. in the years since, anna has asked me to model her clothes. i should clarify that... by "model her clothes", i mean model the clothes she designs... not model apparel from anna's personal wardrobe... because that would be odd.

a long time ago when we were in college, anna was thinking about going to fashion design school and naturally she thought about asking her doughiest out-of-shape friend to model clothes. of course, i agreed... although i'm hoping she does not design speedos, because that could be bad. anna ended up getting a degree in something "business-y"... and only recently has thought about going back to the fashion world... in which case my modeling services would be needed again. and yes, she's still holding me to my word that i would model for her.

anyway, that's a whole other story. today is anna's birthday. happy birthday again, anna! hope you have a great day.