Sindie's Blog

Monday, December 19, 2005

Today was a good day. :)

I don't imagine work will be busy this week, plus it will be short, since I'm not working on Friday. Then I'll be off until Jan. 3! Definitely something to look forward to.The weekend was good, too. We had Erik's dad, his dad's girlfriend, and my sister-in-law (Beth) over on Friday evening for cake for Erik's dad's birthday. Saturday was spent lounging around and doing a lot of reading since I was still nursing a cold. We went to a Christmas party at a house of one of the couples at our church that evening. It's nice to have established our own sense of belonging to a church this past year. We had a nice time. Sunday was more reading and then going to see the late matinee of Narnia.

Good movie. The girl who played Lucy was cute. Visually very stunning, and the Ice Queen (Jadis) gave me the shivers. She looked truly evil. It was so obvious to be the parallels to the Bible, what with Aslan's sacrifice on the Stone Table and all. I've read the entire series, but it's hard to remember everything. It makes me want to go back and read them again. Lewis was a genius, just like Tolkien and Rowling in the way that he created a world world.

I felt much better as Sunday progressed and am pretty much back to normal today. Work was light, and my boss gave me two books for Christmas: Moby Dick and Ivanhoe. I've read the first couple pages of each and love the way they are written. The quality of writing in a book has become just as important to be this past year as the plot and characters. Reading Jane Eyre has given me a really high standard by which I judge writing. That book is the best book I have ever read and the most beautifully-written. How something can be so incredibly poetic and full of uncommonly used words and yet flow so naturally is beyond me. Not much the writing-style itself, but the characters, Jane and Mr. Rochester, are absolutely amazingly real to me. A truly romantic story if I've ever read one!

Speaking of reading, wow, have I outdid myself this year in the department! I can't even begin to count the number of books that I've picked up this past year. I plan to continue to do that next year and so on and so forth.

We got seven Christmas cards in the mail today, which made me very pleased! I'm anxiously awaiting that wondrous day of Christ's birth. Alleluia! Amen!

posted by Sindie 7:43 PM

Monday, December 12, 2005

It's been a while since I really sat down and wrote anything worthwhile in here. I've been pretty busy lately. :)

I have been working on getting my poetry anthology together for this year, as I like to give them out as gifts. I have also done a lot of scrapbooking while watching old Christmas home videos. The oldest one is from 1989, and I can't believe that was 16 years ago! I was just a little girl of 10 and was quite childish in them, but it's neat to see those old memories played out before my eyes. What is especially endearing is seeing my grandma opening presents with us on Christmas morning. It has been eleven years since she spent Christmas with us. My dear grandma passed away in April 1995, but her memory lives on. Also, every Christmas morning, I would hold my kitty, Cally, and would open her presents with her. As many of you know, she died this past July. I got teary-eyed while watching both my grandma and Cally, as I know they will not be there this Christmas, but I do believe that pets, like people, go to heaven. Christmas would not be Christmas if we didn't stop to reflect on the past and even feel a little sad over those loved ones we have lost.

I am reading Cornelia Funke's newest book, Inkspell, right now, which is the sequel to Inkheart and part of a trilogy. It's quite good. I would highly recommend anything by Funke to others. She's German, so only a few of her books are translated into English.

I desperately need to write more for my Harry Potter story, as it's been nearly a month since I updated. Busy, busy, busy with other stuff, though!

This weekend Erik and I went to a Cav's game (basketball) on Friday night, to my brother's for dinner and then to a Christmas production at a church on Saturday night, and out to lunch with another couple from church after service on Sunday. I had two hours of choir practice on Saturday morning, as the choir was singing our "celebration" for the season both services on Sunday, which meant getting to church at 7:45 on Sunday morning! It was a lot of fun, though. I really love singing, and I have improved my range since starting choir. I can reach the high A above the staff now.

Well, today was back to work, though. :p I have a busy day. Our lab is going out for lunch tomorrow, and the departmental party is Wednesday, so that means less time to work and more to do today. I'm definitely looking forward to being off in a week and a half. I'm taking off from Dec. 23-Jan. 2.It's been snowing a lot here, which I love. In fact, it's snowing right now. I just love Christmas so much! I wish I felt this good the rest of the year! Merry Christmas!

posted by Sindie 8:38 PM