Christmas in the Air

I remember going to WalMart last year and being appalled because they already had Christmas stuff out. 

It was the day after Halloween.

It still makes me mad, but there's nothing I can do about it.  It's commercialized holidays.  Blech.  I prefer holidays for their traditions.

Everyone has their own holiday traditions.  At Katie's house on Thursday, we listened to a song called "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie during Thanksgiving dinner.  They have listened to it on Thanksgiving for forever, I guess.  Talking about their family traditions made me think of my family's day after Thanksgiving tradition.

For many, many years, the day after Thanksgiving was reserved at our house for Mom going Black Friday shopping with Lori in Fargo while Dad, Stacey, and I went and found a Christmas tree.  Oftentimes, we went to a tree farm and cut our own.  Once we had it home, in the house, and on the stand, Mom and Dad would  put the lights on.   Then, Stacey and I had the job of putting on the ornaments, of which there were hundreds, maybe thousands.  Mom's philosophy was that there is no such thing as too many ornaments on the Christmas tree. 

Sometime after I went to college, we stopped cutting a tree, and Mom bought a fake one, so it's not quite the same.  And I haven't been home for two Thanksgivings now, so I can't help decorate.  It's kind of like the first time I wasn't home for Halloween and missed having homemade pizza.  The traditions are slowly dying...

I came home last night to find my apartment decorated for Christmas, and it made me downright depressed.  Christina and Jedd had set up a Christmas tree, hung stockings, and put out other decorations.  I, on the other hand, didn't get to decorate anything for Christmas: not my house at home and not my apartment here.  I never really realized that I valued the traditions.

I'm sure that someday, I'll have my own family, and we'll have our own family traditions.  Until then, I'll either have to make my own...  (or continue writing ridiculously sad blogs about what I miss about home)  ... LAME-O!

Thanksgiving x2

Shockingly, I didn't write yesterday.  Or the day before.  Or the day before.  Don't worry, today will make up for it.

There were lots of questions about what Raissa should do for Thanksgiving.  After I decided to stay here, there were tons of options, but I had decided to spend it with Kenny.  When the Rudy's told me he couldn't come with us to Nancy's house, I was determined that he would not spend it alone.  After much deliberation, he decided to go home to Idaho Falls to visit his mom.

On Wednesday, Katie Ryan called to tell me that she and her Cowboy were headed to CO to surprise her parents for Thanksgiving.  She invited me to their house.  As much as I was looking forward to dinner with the Rudy's, it was more exciting to spend Thanksgiving with people who I know and am more comfortable with.

I ended up going to 2 Thanksgiving dinners.

I got up early (for me) this morning, and headed up to Windsor to hang out with Katie and her family.  We walked around the neighborhood, hung out at home, and ate a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal.  I then had to rush back to Boulder for Thanksgiving meal #2 with the Rudy's. 

During the trek up to Nancy's house in the mountains, the Rudy's were explaining to me what each of the people who would be there do/did in their lives.  All of the people are rather well-to-do, and have all of the luxuries one could possibly want in life.  They all grew up in the city, and are socially prominent in Boulder.

Upon arriving at the mountainside house, we had the pleasure of helping to put out a fire.  Yes, a fire.  The centerpiece got a little too close to the candles, and the fire department called to make sure we were all alive.  We all mingled for a while, and I now know how international students feel when stupid Americans ask them questions about their own cultures.

To the guests at the party, being from a small town is like being from a different country, and some of the questions that they asked me offended me a little bit.  I understand that they just don't know what it's like to live in a small town, but they wanted to know how I survived in such a place, without seeing ballets and operas, and having to travel somewhere else to go clothes shopping.  I did my best to explain, and obviously I did survive, even thrived, coming from a small town, but was still a little miffed by the experience. 

Dinner was all made-from-scratch by an ex-opera singer.  We had butternut squash soup, rolls, parsnips and spinach, dressing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes made with celeriac, and a turkey (of course).  It was traditional with a twist.  And delicious.  Table conversation focused around the music school and my upcoming performance during the opera scenes program on Tuesday night.  (Stephanie invited 50 people and asked if it would be okay to throw roses onto the stage for me.)

All in all, the night was good, and memorable, and great.  But it's not the same as Thanksgiving with family.  And I didn't like some of the food, which would never happen at home.  Looking forward to Christmas meal.  Mom, get ready.  haha...

Random happenings...

Still no time to write a real blog.  Instead, you get snippets of what's new and exciting in my life these days:

I offically have a work schedule for my work study job at the Center of the American West as a Student Assistant.  Basically, I do whatever they want me to do: ship stuff, copy, database, answer phones, etc.  Definitely not hard.  I can only work 6-7 hours a week because of my work study status, but that's fine.  It's decent money, so I like it.

I've officially been job searching for another part-time job for a couple of weeks now with no luck.  Six hours a week just isn't going to cut it.  Wish me luck.

Today was Honors Convocation.  I got 2 little certificates explaining my scholarships.  Yay for scholarships, but boo to the Convocation that took way longer than it was supposed to.

Tomorrow night, I'm singing in a talent show for my church.  By singing, I raise $100!  Yay!  Cody Guy Garrison, who went to school with me in Jamestown and now is going to dental school in Denver, is coming up to accompany and then we're going out for a few drinks.  Yay!

Katie Ryan is in CO visiting her parents, and I get to see her on Saturday!  Yay!

Jettie Wold, a friend from Medora, is coming down next weekend during ND Teacher's Convention.  Yay!!!

All of my friends are really busy this week, getting ready for the opera performances next week.  Kind of sad...

Oh!  My piano teacher told me on Monday that I should have tried to test into a higher class.  I looked at her like she was crazy because I've never had a piano lesson in my life.  It was exciting. 

I think that's all of the random information I can cram into one blog.  Keep checking back for a "Quote of the Day," probably something about the talent show and Katie visiting, and information on Studio Classes.

A weekend of suprises...

Should I be blogging now?  No.  But when it gets to the point that my own Mom asks me why I haven't been blogging, I take it as a sign that it's time.  I have SOOO many things to write about that I can't even remember them all when they pop into my head.  Seriously.  I'll do my best to catch you all up now that my week is a little less hectic.  Be warned, this is going to be a looooong blog.

It all starts this summer, in my favorite place in the world, Medora.  (Yes, I like it even more than Boulder.)  One of the kids who I met there is Keith.  Keith is from Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh to be exact, and his role in Medora this summer was not only pizza boy extraordinaire, but also a chaplain with the Christian Ministries in the National Park (CMNP). 

Keith and me in front of the Painted Canyon

At some point during the summer, one of the people in the national office for the CMNP came to Medora and met Keith.  As I understand it (though I could be wrong), he basically offered Keith a job with the national office as a recruiter beginning this fall.  The home office is in Denver, which most of you know, is only about 30 minutes from Boulder.

Keith and I have kept in pretty good touch, mainly via text, since I've been in Boulder, and he has been telling me about his upcoming interview in Denver for weeks. His interview was scheduled for the weekend of the 15th of October, and we planned on hanging out while he was here. (My good friend Katie Ryan is coming that weekend, too!  WOOOT!!!!)

I was planning to attend a conference at my church on Friday evening and Saturday day, and Keith had texted me to tell me that our friend James, who works in Medora in the summertime and in Arizona in the wintertime, was swinging through Boulder to visit his brother who lives here on his trek to his winter home.  I was pretty excited to see James, because he was one of my favorite bartenders this summer.  Later that afternoon, James texted to tell me that he would be arriving at about 9:30pm and mentioned drinks.  I was totally down, and the conference was scheduled to end at the same time, so it was perfect.

I went to the conference, and it started late, so it wouldn't end until about 10:00.  I was a little worried about keeping James waiting, until he texted and asked for my address, saying he wouldn't be arriving until 10:00.  Again, perfect.  I replied, telling him that I don't really have an address because I live in a dorm and heard nothing back from him.  So at 10:00, when the conference ended I called James, but he didn't answer.  I left a message with a description of where I lived along with the best way to get to my apartment, and asked him to call me.

I got home at about 10:15 and still hadn't heard anything.  I was just hanging out, waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  I even considered putting on my PJs.  Then, at about 10:45, he texted, asking me for my address. 

I thought to myself, "Seriously?  I've told you twice now that I don't have one, and have given you directions.  What more could you want?"  I replied, saying that I don't have an address, but gave him the street name that my apartment is on and asked how long it would be.  He said he was just going to plug my address into the GPS and would arrive momentarily.

So I waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Finally, I got a text saying, "Meet me outside."  I thought that James was here here, so I quickly gathered my stuff and went outside to find James.  I didn't see his car anywhere, on any side of my building.  So I texted back, "Are you here?"  He said, "No, I'm still in the taxi."

Wait.  What?  Taxi?  Why?  James drives.  He has a car.  Confused, I asked, "Why are you in a taxi?"  I also texted Keith saying, "James is picking me up to go out in a taxi?"  Nothing was making sense at this point.  Keith must have agreed, because he called me and said, "What?  Why is James in a taxi?"  I suggested many potential reasons: he was drunk, high, tired, dead.  I don't know.  Keith was also a little confused by the situation and he asked if I was outside.  "Well, yes, I'm outside.  He told me to wait outside.  I've checked out every side of my building and can't find him." 

Keith said, "Well, maybe you should turn around."  I did.

And who was standing there, but Keith himself.  I shouted some expletives that won't be repeated here, because it was such a surprise to see him.  And because I was expecting James.

Keith explained that there wasn't anything going on in Medora, and James was migrating, so he called CMNP and asked if they could move up the interview.  They agreed, so he hatched this plan to surprise me.

He succeeded. 

So we went out on the town, to my favorite place (so far) in Boulder: The Dark Horse.  We had a few too many teas, called a taxi, and made plans to have breakfast or lunch the next day.  Unfortunately, Keith left earlier than planned, and we didn't get to dine on Saturday.  But he may be coming back if he gets the job, so we can do it then.

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Yet another surprise:
In the past few weeks, Christina has been planning Jedd's 30th birthday party.  It was actually Tuesday, but they planned on celebrating the Saturday before.  Then, Christina's aunt died, and she headed home for a week, sincerely apologizing and telling Jedd that she wouldn't be able to be back for his birthday party on Saturday. 

She lied.

Her plan the whole time was to come back Saturday and surprise him.  So when she got back on Saturday, five of us headed down to Jedd's town to surprise him. 

And boy did she ever.  It was cute.  The night culminated in one too many long island teas (again) and dancing with one of Jedd's drunk friends.

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That, kids, along with the two tests and papers I had due this week, is why I haven't blogged in a while.  More blogs to come.  Soon, I hope.