gifts – marginalia and such

Pink Domo says Happy Valentine’s

It’s going to be a very rushed Valentine indeed as we prepare for the Canadian invasion… an unplanned for visit from some of the Cuban ex-pat relatives fleeing the arctic chill for a week.

The new job is going well, but it seems I’m never home long enough to get anything done, so prepping for this visit has been somewhat er… haphazard. I just barely managed to get all the supplies I needed for yesterday’s pre-Valentine’s baking experiment, so the “made from the heart” part of my gift for Bunny is covered, with the surplus going to the fam as “sorry, can’t afford proper gifts right now” offerings.

I need a nap. A proper one. My free Friday was not the least bit restful and I’m in for a long week.

And now I’m off to go hide things in my car’s trunk to make our place seem neat and tidy. But not before posting some gratuitous baking pictures…

a mid-week week in review

So Monday was all sorts of hell. Lots of things went awry.

Tuesday signaled the beginning of an awful lot of unusual happenings on campus, or maybe not unusual… but unexpected?

First, there were the half-naked firemen. Yes. Half-naked firemen. ‘Nuff said.

Then, there was the return of Scary God Man (as I like to call him). A super-ultra-conservative preacher who turns up around finals week each semester to make with the smiting (he threw a Bible at a student once). He has a sign. Actually, he is a sign. He wears an outfit covered with random lines about why God hates everyone but him.

The irony, while scary God man was raining down the fire and brimstone, the hot firemen were taking pictures with giddy girls.

With Wednesday came the on-campus Green Market and Scary God Man part deux. Green Market 1, Scary God Man 0. The allure of exotic veggies, smoothies, and free green bags drew all the crowds away from SGM.

Plus, there were coconuts. There was a guy climbing the palm trees by the library and tossing down coconuts. Sadly, no coconut water (or yum yum coconut meat) for me; the lingering sense of confusion and annoyance caused by Monday‘s happenings made me forget that the market was going to be held, so I had no cash on hand.

But today was happy mail day! Making up for all prior mishaps.

I arrived home from work to find two packages waiting for me:

1. The beautiful cameo locket that I ordered from the Spellbound Wings Etsy shop

I realized it was big when I saw the measurements on the site, but I never imagined it would be so big. It completely exceeded my expectations and I could not be more pleased 🙂

2. I also received my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. With all the thesis madness, I forgot that I had pre-ordered this, so it was a nice surprise. Probably the last Harry Potter related book I will ever buy 😦

Amazon’s packaging was great, I especially love the instructions.

i love mail

My birthday is in two weeks and my gifts have already started arriving (See the cute little Pinku doll). However, the sad truth is, I always end up buying my own gifts 😦 . My family seems to think that I’m too hard to shop for because I “have everything”. Which makes me sound very materialistic.

The fact is, I don’t have “everything”.

What I do have is a lot of books.

I like books. I love to read. There’s a reason I’m a Lit major. A gift card to any bookstore would make me pleased as punch (and it would show that my relatives know enough about me to realize that I like to read). As usual, no one agrees with me. There will be cards–despite my recent ban on cards after I realized that I had saved hundreds of cards over the years and they had taken over an entire drawer. And there will be cash. Appreciated, but kind of a downer.