Electric Lib

Chapter Two

Chapter Two Of My Vacation: With the festivities of Christmas mostly done with, I am now preparing to enjoy a week of pretty much nothing. And since my plan is to do nothing (except maybe a little shoveling), I guess I don't really have anything to tell you now.

Sinter Klaas

Santa really out did himself this year; along with some fabulous presents, he celebrated diversity by bringing me Hanukah chocolates in my stocking! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Trees

I was curious and looked it up, check out the history of Christmas trees.

Christmas Eve

I had/am having a very pleasant Christmas eve. My mom and I attended a wonderful church service with the Sease's (leaving the rest of my heathen family at home). The end of the service was really nice, we lit candles and sang silent night. Now, I'm sitting here, waiting to grow weary so Santa can rush down my chimney and lay my presents beneath the tree! I watched the second half of a really interesting program on the history channel the other day about the history of Christmas. I felt like some of my school work had paid off when I recognized the name of 19th century cartoonist, Thomas Nast, who had in fact been the first to draw Santa as we recognize him today (I knew of him from school as the man who revealed Boss Tweed in all his corruption). Also, I had been unaware before that that popular poem "The Night Before Christmas" was the first to suggest that Santa had a sleigh with reindeer and entered your house through your chimney! I was disappointed however to have missed hearing about where the Christmas tree came from, all I know is that the idea came from the Germans, why I don't know. Anyhoo, to all of you who celebrate Christmas, merry Christmas! That's all for now.

Spooky Songs

Josh mentioned some song playing on his computer randomly which reminded me of a story. Two summers ago (I can't believe it was that long ago), when Alice, Molly and I were in Costa Rica we had a simliar experience. Alice and I were in our room just tidying things up when all of a sudden the Beatles started playing really loud from one of our cd players, and it was that song called something like "You Like Me Too Much," or something and it was pretty funny. We had no idea how it got turned on.

Also, on a totally different note, it's Christmas Eve! And I'm being mopped into a corner... (My mom's mopping the kitchen floor and I'm sitting at the counter, thinking that I ought to get out soon before I have to walk over a wet floor and get my socks all wet.) Meanwhile, my father is hard at work making paklava. That's all for now!

Junk Mail

Gosh darn you junk mail! My wonderful little email address has finally been discovered by annoying junk mail. It isn't all that bad, just a little annoying. For instance, I received this email from some poor child trying to write to Santa Clause:

"Dear Santy Claws, mys nam is, ahem....uhh.. Albert. I aint too good at writin', but somehow im rilly good at typing. anyhoo, this yer, fer crismus, i wuz wunderin' if you could do a lil' somethin fer me. see, ive gut this frend, and hes been wantin' something real bad for quite some time now. hes made of wood you see! and all he's ever wunted was to be a real boy! oh gosh santy, if you could see his poor wooden face! he says he dusn't rilly care, but i know he does (cuz his nose grows when he lies). anyhoo, so could you make me, i mean... my frend into a real boy this year? yers truly, 'Albert.'"

So I hope you realized pretty quickly that I didn't actually receive that as an email, but that doesn't mean it isn't a true story. That's your Christmas update for the day.

He Knows When You Are Sleeping...

He knows when you're awake, he knows when you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake! And yes, I'm talking about Santa Clause. With only a few days to go before Jesus's big day, it's just now starting to feel like Christmas. I was thinking this year, instead of a tree and stockings and all that, I'd just bake a cake for jesus and make a few sacrafices as gifts for him... Yeah, just kidding, the tree is up and all decorated, broken ornaments and all. A few things are different about Christmas at the Daghlian/Ripley's this year. First of all the tree is in a new location (still the living room, just the other side) and more importantly, I'm actually prepared this year! I've purchased quality gifts for all the members of my immediate family!

While my presents are always wrapped with love and affection, it's not always apparent in the gift itself. For example, I don't know that I really conveyed my love for my brother (Emmett) that one year when I made a box out of printer paper and put a penny in it. I got a little closer last year when I made a scrapbook for my parents, that for the most part reminded them of what a wonderful youngest daughter they had. While the cost of the present had been modest, the message certainly wasn't. Anyhow, I'm finally old enough to actually be able to afford to buy presents. So now my love will be measured not in the time it took to make, but in the money I spent! (Which is why I got everything on sale.... Haha, just kidding!)

But enough talk about presents, this day really belongs to our savior, Jesus. I'm just so grateful for that silent night, that holy night when Christ was born to save us all from satans power. And all the shepards watched their sheep, the merry gentlemen brought their gifts and Rudolph saved the night. Dear Rudolph, sweet Rudolph, thou hast saved our precious gifts! How thy worked up but the courage with which to fly unto the white and snowy night, to every chimney of every child everywhere! Oh wait, sorry, Jesus time. Thank you lord, for helping me to wash my sins away, oh happy day, oh happy day. Lord, you overwhelm me with your power to fogive, thank you for forgetting about that chemistry grade I just got, and where would I have been without your helping me quit my job last year? I hope Santa didn't see that... Whatever, Christmas is about Jesus and Jesus loves/forgives us all, so looks like no coal for me this year. Woo hoo!

No, I really don't know where that all came from right there. Just a rambling joke I suppose. Not my fault, Jesus made me do it. It must be my many years of surpressing my truly regilous side. (There are many sides to Lib, incase you didn't know). Anyhoo, I think Jesus just felt a little ignored on his birthday, never a good feeling, so he made me write this entry praising him. As if having your own relgion weren't enough, sheesh. So if this entry has intrigued you on my views of Christianity (which I hope it hasn't, it's not a very stimulating entry), I'll just leave it a little vague. Some people are a little sensitive about religion and I wouldn't want anyone to come burn down my house because they disagree with me. I'd have the believers on one side and the atheists on the other both telling me something was wrong with my entry about Jesus. But eventually they'd all have to go home and bake their Christmas cookies. Because Jesus or not, Christmas just isn't complete without cookies.

First Ski!

I was absolutely thrilled that I was able to go skiing this weekend (with Tyler and Adam) at Sugarbush! It was my first ski of the year and took a few runs to really get back into it. The conditions were actually pretty good with the exception of a few icy spots. I hope to get out a lot this year, and I had better - since I plan to go to both Sugarbush and MadRiver.

On another note, I went to a hip hop class tonight with Chris which was awesome. I've been wanting to take hip hop for a while so it was a lot of fun. Chris definitely blew everyone away with his dancing, so it was also a lot of fun to see that.

Mm, so the chemistry test is over, I got to go skiing, I'm taking a fun dance class, life doesn't get much better... Till Christmas that is, Yay.

Left Out Of Family Fun

Well I must say, there's nothing that makes you love school more than sitting all by yourself in some rigid, wooden chair trying really hard to concentrate on railroads and industrialization but being constantly interuppted by the rest of your non school attending family sitting in the kitchen laughing and having a jolly old time. However, once it's just your parents left in the kitchen and you're sitting in the dining room, still working away at labor unions and Rockefeller and all that good stuff, then the new activity becomes eavsdropping. I'm not a complete dirtbag about it though, I let them know I'm doing it by periodically yelling in to them to speak up because I didn't hear that last thing they said. Sheesh, to think parents would even try to have their own private conversations. Just kidding though, I suppose parents are entitled have conversations without children asking "wait, why?" "who?" "what are we talking about?" every two seconds. But annoying family members (in a cute manner, so they can't really get mad) is half the fun of being in a family.

ABC

"A" is for alphabet because this is the alphabet entry (but only the first three letters of it).

"B" is for Bennington students (Martha and Chris) invading my home.

"C" is for the chemistry test I have to take tomorrow, arg!!! Now I must get back to my studying.

Bad Weather

We got let out of school early today (therefore saving my from double period chemistry, yay!) because of the rain/ice that was supposed to come later (and is here now). Of course I drove to a friends house and ended up driving home from there in the rain and ice which is exactly what the school wanted us to avoid, oops. But alas, I drove slowly and carefully and made it safely home. That's all for now.

Magazine

So I'm in the middle of this project for interp right now that is sort of our final project for the feminist unit. The project is a collection of adverstisements from magazines that use stereotypes or sex appeal to sell their products and our comments on these ads. When I looked through the magazines and found so many examples of these kinds of ads I thought I can't believe how much money advertisers make by objectifying men and women Then I thought hey, I should try that! So I decided to make my own magazine. I've included a little sample below of some of the headlines of stories that will go in my magazine. I want to really inspire people and make them feel good about themselves, like a lot of fashion magazines do. So check out my headlines!

LIB (that's the name of the magazine)

"Why Are You So Ugly? See page 50"

"There's Something Wrong With You, 50 Tips and Products to Help You Fix It, Page 321"

"Which Handbag Best Describes You? Take the Quiz, Page 156"

"How To Get High Self Esteem, For Under $250! See Page 100"

So that's the basic idea of my magazine. I think it'll be really good for women. This feminist unit has really taught me a lot!