Turkey time!

I've arbitrarily decided that it is now appropriate to turn ON my Christmas music playlist. 99 wonderfully holiday terrific songs to get in the spirit. Oooh, that means holiday shows are going to be on soon. (I'll confess that I watched Merry Madagascar last week. It was pretty bad actually.)

But before I jump the gun, Thanksgiving is coming first. So excited to be getting away for a few days. Heading to Atlanta to see my mama and her new place. She has also not hidden at all the fact that I will be going through the "boxes and boxes and boxes of books" among other stuff that she has in storage. Since I've been in Philly, she's been sneakily adding random stuff to care packages, things that I usually have no desire to have anymore or even remembered I owned. Such as a pink winter hat that barely touches the tops of my ears, a Monopoly shoe paperweight, and my collection of cds. On that last one, I called my mom and I was like I have iTunes with all of those on there.. but I fibbed and said I would put them in my car to make her feel better. They have since sat forlornly in my closet, gathering dust. So hopefully me going through it will stem the random mail flow. Plus, maybe a few goodies will be uncovered. :)

I was also reminded about traveling during this time of year, and I am so thankful not to be making the Gainesville-Boca-Gainesville drive. Stressful, harrowing, boring, long, frustrating, uggh. The Sunday after Thanksgiving and the one after Spring Break are the two WORST days to make that drive, hands down. I always felt so bad (and nervous) about all the college kids in those clustered pileups. A group of 3 cars, another 2 like a quarter of a mile later, on and on and on. ::Shudder:: I'm not even going to keep talking about this. Oh! But I am reminded of the endless drive with Ali and Dana freshman year. Classic 8 hour drive for what should have been 4 hours, but lots of fun nonetheless. (Ali, I still have those Thanksgiving drive mix cds you made in my car.)

And since this is going reverse chronologically apparently, this weekend was super lowkey. Read (and read and read). Watched Up! which was really cute but also somewhat sad. The little wilderness scout kid was cute. Love animated movies. Got pho from the Vietnamese place down the block. Amaaaazing. I had been there once with Pancho when I first moved in and at the time we were ravenous and just devoured it because we'd been moving and unpacking all day so I guess I hadn't noticed just how big the serving was. Yesterday I got it take out and so brought it home and realized I didn't have any bowls big enough. I used my Pyrex casserole dish and it just barely contained it. Insane! But made for yummy lunch leftovers today.

Has anyone seen the new Target commercial about "Nancy" who is planning for her first Thanksgiving? I've seen it more than a few times, and I love it every time. Although it terrifies me for the distant future when I will probably need to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. yikes. But its really cute how she practices serving the table and has like paper cut-out drumsticks. Just watch it.
It also triggered some sort of holiday shopping switch in me, but then I realized that not only do I not have any money, but I also just shouldn't buy anything for holiday decorating. a) I have so much crap as it is and b)all the moving around --of which I will be doing again next year--- has me hyper-aware of all the stuff I have. Feeling very conflicted about consumption. I also just read The Consumers' Republic for a class about how post-WWII basically the American Dream was now to be able to buy all the middle-class goods (refrigerators, tvs, cars, toys) that hadn't been in production during the war years. and it all essentially was wrapped up in this language of citizenship and democracy all benefiting the economy and making the U.S. prosperous. It has warped my thinking about why we buy things. and this is deeply saddening seeing as I love(d) to shop. lol.

Some things I like this week/lately...

• Cobra Starship- Good Girls Go Bad. Pancho has liked this band for awhile and I suppose they're okaay, but I just really like this new song. Leighton Meester shamelessly plugged it on Gossip Girl a few weeks ago AND it was on Greek as a dance skit. Very catchy.
• Speaking of Greek, Cappy and Casey are back together. I finally got to catch up on the episodes and I was sitting here smiling at the computer. Oh, I love good romantic-y tv.
  
• NPR podcasts make my walks to/from school so happy (and funny/liberal/informed). Wait...Wait..Don't Tell Me literally has me laughing out loud as I'm walking, grinning from ear to ear and probably looking like an idiot. Sometimes I wish I had a real commute so that I could listen to more.
  
• I've gotten some class papers back. and I'm feeling a little more secure. Don't think they're gonna change their minds and kick me out. at least not yet anyways. !
• Pancho was here last weekend. It was awesome and really made me eager for when we're living together again. Turns out I do like sharing meals with another human being. and snuggling. I miss that, too. Although I get absolutely no work done when he's around so... perhaps its a good thing right now.
• Yay, Gators! (Enough said.)
• Although I think its too early to have the red cups out, I thoroughly enjoyed my Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks today. Officially become an espresso fiend. Occasionally the thought occurs to me that my grad student habits are probably taking time off my life. but then, there will be time to deal with that later, right?
• Tomorrow is Friday! but seriously, it was JUST Friday. Time is going too too fast. I'm planning on having some girls from my class over on Sunday to have waffles. I haven't made any in awhile and I figured it'd be sort of piggy to eat them all myself so.. good reason to be social. The gift that keeps on giving. Thanks, Ali & Walfies! :)