different things

firstly, merry christmas to you all. i hope this day finds you surrounded by family and friends. i am so thankful to have you in my life. and boy do i love christmas.

in sadder news, this article was in yesterday's oregonian: 41-year-old michael egan, a downtown resident with known mental health problems, was shot and killed thursday morning near pioneer courthouse square, after an altercation with another portlander. i thought this christmas we might all say an extra prayer for him and for those we served in portland.

with that, i must get to bed. big day tomorrow. a spokanite just led the responsorial psalm at the vatican's midnight mass. weird.

much love,
anthony

merry christmas, mr potter

on my way out to a gonzaga u basketball game with the family, but i just wanted to alert you all that the new harry potter book is scheduled to be published on 16 july 2005. YAAAAAAAAAY. we'll have to schedule our reunion for 2 weeks after that so we can all talk about it.

all my love,
a
x

what a day!

well, let me first say, i love the monkey picture. it is the new backdrop on my computer. fantastic!

what else is going on? well, it is not quite 12:30 and i have already had quite an eventful day here in burlington. i just sent my final paper in last night, and now i have my first real day of freedom. my freedom started last night with indian food, "chasing liberty" and "love actually." very nice indeed. then, my first real day of freedom started with a 7:45 am phone call from suz saying she had been in a car accident, that she was ok, but her car was undrivable. so, in this lovely, balmy, snowy, -8 degree weather, i cleaned off the car, and picked my darling, unhurt sister up and brought her to school. then i stopped to pick derek up from the tire place, where he dropped his car off in a timely manner for new snow tires.

after a quick kibbutz with jennie, in which she showed me the hideously ugly pink and green comforter my mom had bought for suz for christmas, i ran back to suzanne's to pick up her little three legged pup ella. ella was soundly sleeping in bed still, and we were ready to start the day.

then, as we were about to leave, i realized that ella had chewed the hell out of my ipod cable-bad ella. then i realized that the lovely indian food from the night before had not only stained the counters, but had leaked all over my new fleece coat. ugg. so, i went to the restaurant to ask them to double bag take out from now on and to inquire if they knew of any good cleaning mechanism for curry (that was still greasy on my coat!!!). they said bleach. BLEACH!!! that won't work. they were not helpful at all.

so, i headed to jennie and derek's for some solace, when jennie called to say they were taking baxter to the doctor cause his face was all red. thankfully they left the door unlock, as i swaggered up to the house carrying a bag full of greasy coat, ella's bag of goodies, my backpack and ella herself, the little monster. i wasn't in the house for more than 5 minutes, when duncan began attacking little ella and wouldn't let up. what a friggin day!!! i'm ready to go to sleep, but i've yet to get my christams shopping done. aye yie yie ( i have no idea how to spell that).

ahh, but i feel a bit better after that little rant. i guess i'm going to try and enjoy my break now.
hope you all are well. i'l talk to you soon.

shannon, sorry i haven't called you back yet. it was a busy weekend. hopefully we can catch up soon. i'm heading ot malone tomorrow, so some down time is on its way.

love, grumpy julie

latvia is the new estonia

hello, my friends. thank you for all the kind birthday wishes. i did, in fact, have a very good day. i was in denver with my parents to watch my sister play basketball. denver: kinda sucks. i know there are mountains and all, but the city itself is so flat. and boring. but it's always good to see becky. i even saw her get a minor concussion during one of her games. and we met her boyfriend and his parents, who are very nice, but very suburban.

J & S: I really feel for you this finals time. I was in the Gonzaga U library yesterday working and everyone looked so run down. I was well rested and relaxed, but so hungry I almost ate a microfilm.

G: thanks for the IM. How's Shannon's pick-up advice working out?

B: glad to hear you're still alive. i will track you down sometime soon.

to finish, please enjoy the picture below. this is its caption: "A detail of Chris Savido's "Bush Monkeys," an acrylic on canvas portrait of President George W. Bush made of monkeys, is seen at an East Village gallery in New York. The painting caused so much controversy at an art show at the Chelsea Market that the president of the market had the show shut down. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) (December 14, 2004)"

A (possilbe) success

Well, the date went off without a hitch. Em reported that there was good conversation and that he was just as cute or more so than his picture. And then, at the end of the date, he asked for her number, and as she stumbled for a pen in her purse, he whipped out his phone and said, no worries, i'll just put it in my phone.

so, there you have it! her number is in his phone. but now what? it's saturday and there has been no more communication. plus, em went on the onion personals today and saw that peter had been on line this morning. does this mean he's still looking for that right someone?

Help! she really likes him, but what if he doesn't call? is it a good, bad, or indifferent sign that he put her number in his phone? would he really have done this if he didn't intend to call? was he just being polite? is his diffEQ final exam on thursday causing any conflict here?

looking for answers, but not wanting to know the truth...the HEN project.

more dating advice needed

well, this little blog support group is now being extended to friends who have internet dating concerns and who have questions they need answered. please help (shannon).

em, my roommate, is a laid back, jeans kind of gal. she has recnetly been perusing the onion personals and is meeting peter for coffee tomorrow evening at a hip local coffee shop. peter works in finance, but does not define himself by this. he is currently working on a green engineering degree and at one point owned his own carpentry business. and he is hot-t-t-t-t-ttt (at least from his on-line pics).

so, after a busy day of work, what should emily throw on to meet peter in the early evening?

thanks,

from the HEN project (Help Emily Now)

one more thought

this is an important one, although i'm sure not a problem for greg, shannon, or bern:

do talk to strangers

(ps thanks for the finals package shan. i love sarah harmer. i haven't gotten to listen to the mountain goats yet, but i know i'll love them. i mean come on, it's mountain goats)

"get all of us a hot piece of ass"

hmm, well, here are a few things that are of importance for all of us to remember when it comes to attracting members of any sex:

1) do not shave your head, no matter what your friend tells you
2) make good eye contact, but not too good or it could get creepy
3) be friendly, courgal, thoughtful in conversation, but not in a machismo way. if you were walking her out to a cab it's to be friendly, not for safety, if she seems the type let her hail the cab, feel the situation out.
4) um, do you all remember that this is me writing. when was the last time I "got ass?" oh right, in a tent where it was mutually decided that there was just "nothing, not bad, not good, just not exciting." right, pretty sure i should be the one getting advice, not giving it. so please include thoughts for me. here are a few i can think of

-don't write papers until 11:00 on both friday and saturday night
-don't wear old, grey hoody sweatshirts out to the bar, yes it's comfortable and i love it, but come on, it's like bringing your blanky with you on an overnite-just not cool
-do get a haircut so a mullet doesn't ensue, and spend more than $10 on it
-do pluck eyebrows more frequently than once a month
-do shave legs ( i haven't done this yet, but i think after three years, i might be ready)
-do buy new clothes once in a while that will go out of style with the season, it's fun to have fun, chic things
-do find young, fun friends, not 30 year old grad students who don't go out
-do stop eating so much chocolate when studying, don't want the freshman 15 to happen again, once was bad enough
-do have a weekend without visitors so you can go out with friends in town


umm, ok, maybe not quite as exciting as shannon's list, and certainly not as ridiculous, but it's a start for me. it's my list of things to work on next semester. i'm not sure if that helps greg-o, but perhaps a critical appraisal of someone else's troubles will help you identify your own.

one more thing, did we just create a support group?