Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I think the students apperciate it when I get down verbally

And I'm back to getting down verbally. Work is going well, I'm really enjoying working in the lab again. And I'm getting around the area pretty well. I had a good (but very short) visit back to the farm for Christmas. I flew home early on the 24th and was picked by my mom at the airport and got the chance to visit my aunt and cousins in Indy for about an hour (which was my only chance to see them) before helping mom with last minute wrapping before Rachel and family drove down from Ann Arbor. And I got to make the traditional Maddox egg casserole for Christmas morning. We opened most of the presents (and stocking) on Christmas day and Lucy got me an awesome quilting book (for jelly rolls) and a jelly roll, as well as a nice weekly calendar, and most importantly donated a flock of chicken to Heifer international in my name. And my mom got me a great laptop lunch box, which was my only request for my mom. I'm packing my lunch for work everyday, and the lunchbox is about 1000 times nicer than the Target plastic bag I was using. It is a nice laptop lunchbox which I got used to packing during my six months living with Rachel and family in Vermont (after the first 2 months, I think that I was the exclusive lunch packer). Bridget and family arrived on the 26th so I was able to spend some time with them all including getting to read Emmet "The Adventures of Lowly Worm" which was one of the 3 books that I got for him for Christmas. Although my visit was short, I really enjoying it. I had time to play with all my nephews (individually for a little bit at least) and enjoy delicious meal of chicken cordon bleu (made by Lucy and Josh, with a tiny bit of help from me) as well as the key component of any Christmas/New Year's celebration in the Maddox household, doing a jigsaw puzzle (however, I was only there for piecing together the outside of the puzzle, so I missed out on Rachel's sound effect for placing a piece in the right place). And mom drove me back to airport (after one delay) only to find out there was another delay, but I was able to get back to Regan a little after 9pm and got back to my apartment before 10pm. The rest of my holiday time was pretty low-key and I did spend New Year's Eve watching Jane Austen movies, in order of publication of the books except I saved Pride and Prejudice for the end so I could actually watch all the of the rest and there isn't an adaptation of Mansfield Park that I really like. I guess that I will just have to wait for Andrew Davies to get on the stick and adapt that one (see awesome adaptations done by him of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Wives and Daughters). I have Martin Luther King Day off and I will be attempting to visit Carol in PA, but the trip will depend on the weather in PA, but I hope it won't be too bad and I can see her (for her birthday!).