rebecca_in_blue: (worried eyes)
Rebecca has no life, so she spent her New Year's Eve visiting her sick grandma, then baby-sitting for some friends who do have lives. Yeah, I know what you're all thinking: "Someone asked you to baby-sit? You, who not only has no experience with kids but also hates them? What idiot did that?" It turns out it's actually a little creepy spending the night in a strange house with a dog and two sleeping kids. Especially when the house makes strange noises. I kinda felt like the baby-sitter in Paranormal Activity 3.

I hate to start 2012 on a depressing note, but on the last day of 2011 (yesterday), I got the worst news I'd heard all year. I had accepted that, barring miracles, 2012 would almost certainly be the year that Sable and Grandma both died. Like a naive fool, I had hoped they would go in that order. Now, that doesn't seem likely.

On New Year's 2011, I made the mistake of listening to Mairi Campbell's cover of "Auld Lang Syne." It's SO beautiful, but it's also depressing as all get-out, and it sent me into a bad funk for most of January. This year, I didn't want to go through that again (January will be depressing enough without any help!), so instead I listened to George Harrison's "When We Was Fab." George wrote it in the late '80s, looking back at Beatlemania. The Beatles were a huge part of George's life, for better and worse, so what amazes me about the song is that it's neither nostalgic nor bitter. George doesn't pine for those days, nor does he regret they ever happened; he's accepting. Long time ago, we was fab. Now, those days are over. Life goes on.

One thing I will say about Mairi Campbell's "Auld Lang Syne," however. She sings Robert Burns's original old Scotch lyrics, which most singers don't do because they include hard-to-understand lines like, "We twa hae rin aboot the braes and pud the gowans fine." I was geekily proud of myself when I understood every line perfectly the first time I heard the song. JM Barrie wrote most of his early novels in old Scotch, so I had to get very familiar with the dialect to read them.

If absolutely nothing else, 2012 should at least have some good new episodes of NCIS in it! (Although the returns of EJ and Ray this month do not have me excited. Ugh.)
rebecca_in_blue: (happy smile)

Calvin: Wow, it really snowed last night! Hobbes: Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand new! Calvin: A new year ... a fresh, clean start! Hobbes: It's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on! Calvin: A day full of possibilities! It's a magical world, Hobbes ... let's go exploring!

I hope to have my 2008 Book Awards posted soon. As with the 2007 awards, this year seems to have no clear-cut winners for Best and Worst Overall.

2008 was my first full calendar year on LiveJournal. So here's my year-in-review: the first sentence of my first post for every month. I've actually been looking forward to doing this. *geek*

January
For me, the best thing about a new year is giving out my book awards!

February
I can't remember how we got on the subject, but one day Marlene and I were talking about how stupid President Bush is, and I joked that I could do a lesson with my students of correcting his grammatical mistakes.

March
The weather forecast on CNN International says that a cold front is moving across Europe, and believe me, Rebecca is feeling it.

April
In the hurry I was in posting that last entry, I forgot to mention another un-funny Chinese Sara Moment (it goes a long way in explaining the comments she made about Tibet).

May
The weather has been bizarre today, which I'm beginning ot think is normal in Villers-Cotterets.

June
The last few days have been absolutely shit-tacular.

July
Tagged by my sister.

August
We're still house-sitting.

September
Part One: This excerpt from Julie Andrews's autobiography, Home, which I'm currently reading: "I was offered the title role in Cinderella at the London Palladium."

October
The days are getting shorter now, and I've started riding my bike at night.

November
More foodstamps were given out for Hurricane Ike, and since I had gotten some for Hurricane Gustav, I automatically got more when they were reissued.

December
We've got our heating on one week and the air conditioner on the next.

rebecca_in_blue: (dropped jaw)

I used part of my Christmas money to buy myself a flash drive. (But ironically, I didn't buy it at my own store, where we have an entire endcap of flash drives in all colors and styles.) I don't know why I didn't get one sooner, because it is so hella convenient.

We just hired two new people at work, and that means my hours are getting cut back. I'm worried about my money (especially after my foodstamps expire), so I'll have to start looking for temporary work I could do on my days off. It's frustrating, because otherwise I like my job, except for one manager who I'm certain has some sort of personal vendetta against me. I still have four other managers that I like, so it isn't that bad, but I'm going to try to arrive earlier, smile and talk more (I'm really quiet at work) in an effort to impress him. I guess that's one of my new year resolutions.

I have a few other resolutions for 2009, but I probably won't be posting them here. Last year I made so many resolutions and followed through on so few of them that it was embarrassing. But yesterday I followed through on something that I had almost backed out of doing, so I'm proud of myself for that.

Sometimes I think my grandma is getting crazier with age. Yesterday she said she wanted the recipe to my pecan pie muffins and said, I quote, "Do you have any paper at your apartment? Do you need me to give you some paper to write it down on?" And no one who knows my grandma should even be surprised.

Must go do laundry now.

rebecca_in_blue: (Sable & Me)
For me, the best thing about a new year is giving out my book awards! But I think my book awards for 2007 might be harder than usual. For previous years, there have been obvious choices for Best and Worst Overall, but this year, no books really stand out as obvious choices for anything. I am going to look over my 2007 list very carefully and try to post the awards in a few days. Until then, I’m posting my New Year’s Resolutions, in the hope that if everybody knows what they are, I’ll feel more obliged to actually do them.
  • This year, stick to your resolutions past the first two weeks of January.
  • Be more open to new experiences, and try things that you’ve never done before. Look into learning to cook or knit or some other productive activity that you could do in your spare time.
  • Write more – in your paper journal, your LiveJournal, and in your fiction. Look into participating in NaNoWriMo in November.
  • Make a serious and conscious effort to get along with all members of your family, even the ones you piss you off.
  • Sometime this year, buy five different members of your family a nice gift for no reason at all.
  • Exercise more, and start riding your bike regularly again. I fell out of this habit after I moved away from Baton Rouge and it’s beautiful bike path on top of the Mississippi River levy.
  • Don’t be so cheap. I’ve gotten better at this while I’ve been in France, but I still have a long way to go before I feel comfortable spending large amounts of money (and for me, large amounts are anything over ten dollars).
  • If you can, find some volunteer program to get involved with in your spare time.
  • Spend less time on the Internet, and more specifically, spend less time on YouTube. I think this one is going to be very difficult, because I’ve gotten so spoiled here in France. The lycée’s computer room is open 24/7, and we assisstants have almost 24/7 access to it.
  • Address people by their names more often. This feels a little awkward, because usually we only use people’s names when we want their attention. But I heard on John Tesh’s radio show that using people’s names when you don’t need to – Thanks, Marlene. See you later, Heather. – makes them feel acknowledged and appreciated.
  • At no time, during 2008 and for the rest of your life, never again get your hair cut in a style that looks like a combination of Hillary Clinton and Madame C. It doesn't matter how many relatives tell you it looks good, or how many wigs Locks of Love can make out your old hair. Just don't do it.
rebecca_in_blue: (2006)
Harry: What does this song mean? My whole life I don’t know what this song means. I mean, "Should old acquaintance be forgot." Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happen to forget them we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot them?
Sally: Well, maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something.

Well, it’s the last day of 2007, and how has Rebecca spent it? First I went out and printed some photos of my trip to London to mail home. Then I went back to the lycée, labeled every single photo, filled out some postcards, carefully arranged them in a box with all my souvenirs, addressed it, and sealed it shut. Then I went out again, only to discover than the post office is closed today. So it looks like my box will have to wait until January 2 to be mailed.

On a similar note, if anyone is mailing me a package anytime soon, I would really appreciate it if you could include any of the following items. (If you can only send one, please send it in this order.)

1. Dental floss. Any kind. I have been unable to find any in France.
2. Arrid Extra Extra Dry. This is the only deodorant that works for me. There are deodorants in France, despite rumors to the contrary, but they just don’t cut it.
3. AIM toothpaste. The toothpastes here are okay, but this one has always been my favorite.

P.S. Shame on YouTube! Benazir Bhutto is assassinated, and they don't even feature one video about it? Britney Spears's death (which will probably happen any day now) would have gotten more coverage.

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