you say goodbye, i say hello.

another year is here. 2010. i am not usually one to wax on endlessly about the wonders and delights of new years, and that won't change this year, because for some reason i am not at all sad to see the end of 2009. it was an odd year. felt less like a journey and more like a float.

so goodbye to 2009.
goodbye to...
george w. bush. 42¢ stamps. my yucky boss who finally retired. michael jackson. life before my iphone. john & kate plus 8. our houseplants. our magazine subscriptions. my favorite slippers. my master's classes.

hello to 2010.
happy new year!!!

the hairy truth.

i dye my hair.

there i said it. maybe you've never noticed, but i've been doing it for years. i am not exactly sure when it started, but i am not counting the time when i was sixteen and had two skinny braids dyed green by kool-aid (who knew kool-aid was so powerful?) nor am i counting the times i did crazy colors for halloween. nope, for our purposes i gonna say that it all started when i was visiting a lovely lass, who at the time was stationed in germany. after a day spent wandering her quaint snow-covered town, what better idea than to dye hair? being employed by the u.s. army, she opted out of the adventure, as they tend to frown upon rebellious hair colors, but i having become recently unemployed and headed for a stint in the u.s. peace corps, felt no such inhibitions. we went with red. kind of a bright red.

these days i dont do anything quite so drastic, but the color is definitely not the natural hue of my tresses. at this point i am not exactly sure that i could tell you the official color of my hair in its natural state, but it is something along the lines of mousy brown. now, i ask you...would you rather have hair the dull shade of mousy brown or the luscious shade of dark mahogany brown? right. hence, i dye my hair.
my bottle of choice? revlon colorsilk #32. it's lovely and costs less than $3. super! although the do-it-yourself part can sometimes get a bit scary. i typically end up with spots on my ears, neck and shoulders, but those rub off...most of the time. generally the process is uneventful, but i do occasionally miss a bit of hair, which leaves the locks looking a bit strange. luckily my sense of beauty does not seem perturbed by my helter-skelter hairdos. so yes, as we countdown the end of 2009, the mister is snoring away the eve and i am ridding myself of an unseemly line of mousy-brown roots.

identification, if you please.

every time i travel i am in the same quandary. how to announce to the world that the glorious hot pink suitcase belongs to me? thanks to the airlines insistence on charging hefty fees to take care of my luggage for me, i have joined the masses who carry all of my possessions on board the aircraft to be stowed in the overhead compartments. it seems that since my luggage never leaves my person, it is slightly unnecessary to affix luggage tags. however, being the neurotic lass that i am, i of course require a method to identify my bags as belonging to me me me.

simple, right? uh huh. sure. put on a luggage tag. but where do i get said luggage tag? when i was a wee human my parents took care of this for me. as i grew older i borrowed their luggage tags of unknown origins, because mi casa era su casa. but now that i am grown i dont seem to have any tags. you know the fancy ones that look pretty and are durable so you can use them for years and years? how do people acquire these tags? do people actually BUY luggage tags? if that isnt a silly thing on which to waste money, i dont know what is. since i was unwilling to buy a tag, i needed some organization to give one to me just because. apparently i hobnob with the wrong crowd, because none of the freebies hoisted in my direction are luggage tags. why why why? in the absence of real luggage tags, for the last fourteen years i have been using the cheesy paper ones provided by the airlines. ridiculous isn't it?

but last night i had a revelation. why on earth haven't i MADE luggage tags? i make everything else, i cant believe i didnt think of this sooner!! thats right kids. i sewed some tags. it was easy as pie - well actually i dont find pie-making to be particularly easy, but you get the picture. i thought about embroidering my contact information onto the tags, but that seemed a little overkill, so i wrote it on with a permanent marker. i am almost certain that i am now in possession of the cutest luggage tags EVER. i cant wait to see the looks of jealousy from the other passengers who are stuck with the little paper doohickeys from the airlines.

the silver screen.

the movie mania on television during the holiday season is dazzling. i find myself trying to decide between three, sometimes even four, fabulous movies. i want to watch them all!! for some reason that i cannot understand, it is thrilling to find a favorite movie on television. even when i own the movie, i still catch myself watching it on the boob tube. perhaps i am a glutton for commercials. top 10 list of movies shown during the holidays...

the most important movie of the holiday season???

• it's a wonderful life - donna reed and jimmy stewart TOGETHER. thats all that needs to be said. christmas aint christmas without this movie.

and rounding out the rest of the holiday season...

• national lampoon's christmas vacation - this movie induces fits of hysterical laughter and helps you realize that your "crazy" family maybe aint so bad.
• a christmas story - i triple dog dare you.
• the holiday - admittedly a total chick flick, but it's a keeper.
• love actually - adorable. even dudes like this one!
• the last holiday - sort of a random addition, but queen latifah is kinda awesome and this movie is surprisingly uplifting.
• miracle on 34th street - hard not to believe in santa claus after this one.
• the polar express - for children yes, but the animation is astounding and it is a lovely story.
• elf - a wacky movie, but funny.
  
• the santa clause - i know i know. but it IS a cute movie.