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It's 30 below and I have to go to work. For 3 1/2 hours. I'm not sure why the manager thought that shift would be a good idea. In any case, now I'm stuck with 4:30-8:00PM on Christmas Eve at 30 below zero. Humbug. The store actually closes at 6:00, but I have to stick around and get the store ready for the after Christmas sale. Just in case people actually show up for it.

I am, in spite of today's silliness, really looking forward to tomorrow. We'll be at R's brother's house with all of the screaming kids and mountains of wrapping paper everywhere. I'm excited to give R the thing I made for her. I hope she likes it. And I'm a tiny bit excited to see what I got, but mostly I just want to give my gifts away.

Have a fabulous and relaxing holiday, wherever you are. Enjoy your family or enjoy the fact that you don't have to see them for too long. Whichever makes you happiest. And have a nice nap, too. Merry Christmas!

Presently engaged in hand to hand (or hand to paw) combat with the cat. He's feisty this morning, which really means he feels like biting the hell out of me for no reason. It's so nice having a pet.

All I've got left for Christmas is wrapping (R did most of it, bless her), baking, and some very minimal stocking stuffer shopping. I made small sized stockings so it wouldn't be so hard to fill them (they're maybe 12 in long), but instead it's made it impossible for us to fit anything in them at all. Damnit. I'm not sure why all of my projects must go awry like this.

Last night I laid in bed and read, with R asleep on one side of me, arm around my waist, and the cat asleep at my feet. I'm looking forward to a peaceful Christmas, aside from the fact that I'm working on the 24th and the 26th. (I think every day how glad I am to have a degree and prospects other than retail.) Wouldn't this time of year be so much better if we could all just sit around with a cup of coffee and a book, and not concentrate on the pressing deadlines and impending poverty? I do like the cold and the dark and the quiet. Summer feels sort of frantic around here– it's so short and you're trying to use up all of that daylight. Winter, though. Winter is dark and lazy and full of long nights to fill. It feels…unhurried. Being a bum by nature, I enjoy that.

I did get a job for the spring. I'll still be subbing, but I'll be in the same school every day doing one thing or another. This means having steady hours and being able to go to the same place every day, and also no more 5:30 am sub calls. Yahoo for that. The school that I'll be at is currently being rebuilt, and may need some teachers to fill their fancy new building in the fall. Wouldn't that be nice?

I can hardly believe it, but all my Christmas hats are done, including hat and scarf sets for R and I, and a tiny Santa hat for the cat. Our matching pajama pants are done, too, and folded up with their matching tops and a pretty bow tied around each set. I've learned form previous mistakes in making pajama pants, and doubled and pinked all of the seams. (So as to prevent seams ripping out at the back an in other unfortunate places.)

I'm halfway done with my Christmas cards (I do actually write quite a bit in each one), and nearly done with the damn mini stockings. I think I'm squeaking in under the wire here, but so it goes.

These are some pictures of things I've been working on for Christmas. Nothing looks too spectacular now that I see it on screen. Ah, well. I had fun with all of these projects even if I have sworn off all crafting until next year. I'd also like to post a picture of R's big present, but I won't give it away.

Meme thingy I found.

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I'm home today because I have, yipes, two interviews this afternoon. One for an in-house substitute position at the Montessori charter school. (Not the one I worked at last year, but a K-8 public school.) The other for a 3rd grade long-term substitute position. If given the choice between them (hey, who's optimistic!) I'd go for the long term sub job, as it seems more likely to lead to an actual teaching position for me. I've not had the best success with actually being hired for jobs lately, so we'll see what happens. However, both of these schools sought me out, so that's good. We'll see, we'll see.

The (7 foot, colored, pre-lit, fakey fake) Christmas tree is up, but ornament free. The lower branches are rigged with pop cans full of pennies. That's to scare the crap out of the cat if he tries to climb it. He's been pretty good so far, but I doubt he'll be able to hold back in the face of dangling shiny ornaments, no matter how high up on the tree they are.

I had a really sketchy and generally odd sub position earlier in the week. I subbed for a teacher who was filling in for the principal. But, rather than just having me run his classroom while he did the principal's job, he came in and out at odd times and also had me doing some of the principal's duties. She apparently does an hour and a half recess duty every day. That's saying something, since kids here go out until it's negative 20 or colder. I only did an hour duty, but it required many abominable snow person-type layers of clothing, a distinct waddle, and pocket hand warmers and toe warmers.

This job was also strange because of the teacher's blatant disregard for the whole lack of religion in the public schools thing. He had several tiny ceramic churches decorating a shelf in the room, undeniably Christian music playing in the background, and had the kids singing things like The First Noel. It was sort of appalling. On the days I led the morning singing time I had to really hunt through his materials for songs that were neither Jesus related nor asinine– and ended up with Up on the House Top. I really could have done better.

Have a lovely weekend and start writing those Christmas cards!

My van, Velma, is understandably sad about the long, long drive to Fairbanks and following winters of 45 below and colder. She gets back at me by having a feeble and pathetically sad heater, and ice-encrusted wipers that don't so much brush snow away as smear it all over the window. She also makes sure that the radio never quite works. There is a short in it somewhere, and it will unexpectedly turn from sound to static. I can usually make it work again by tapping or hitting it with my hand, but occasionally it requires a swift kick. Or five. This is a problem when I'm driving down the highway. That's when I turn on the cruise control and kick away. I am sure that the other drivers find this bizarre.

Most of the time I listen to NPR, as long as it's talking of some kind. I don't really care for music on NPR– way too esoteric– but I can pretty much listen to anyone talk and be interested. Even, and this surprised the heck out of me, an interview with Jerry Falwell. He turned out to be fairly articulate in spite of the whole Tinky Winky debacle. Not that I believe a word he says.

Yesterday I heard the strangest thing. In between news stories on NPR they play some sort of strange instrumental music. Yesterday I found myself humming along with it but not able to place the piece. I finally realized it was Nirvana's "Come As You Are" arranged for string quartet. Odd.

Today: More Christmas tree hunting, Christmas bazaars, work and hopefully an episode of "Car Talk" along the way.