Pictures!

I found my camera cable, so here are some pictures of life from the past month. (By the way, the Woman of the Incredibly Teased Hair didn't turn out well on my cell, so you'll just have to imagine the highest hair you've ever seen and triple it.)

Here's Matt's dad cutting down our Christmas tree in the woods. It was small, but it had character. And little pine cones.

Christmas and Elway, together at last.

Here's a dresser I got secondhand, which I jazzed up with fancy paper, drawer pulls, and a cat.

Here I am right after my blue belt test, still drunk off the blood of my enemies.

And here's a bruise I got in class that I'm particularly proud of. It transformed from a greenish blue into the lovely mauve you see now.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Evvvverywhere you go! I don't care if you're tired of Christmas music; I still like it. :p Well, I was going to include a picture of our Christmas tree, but I can't find my camera cable, so I'll just describe it. John Elway, old fashioned candy, the Death Star, a hula girl, a Romulan warbird, baby's first Christmas 1980, and the lunar lander.... It's the merriest tree you could ever have. Tonight we're going to my mom's to drive around and look at all the lights in the "country club" district. (Number of lights: 1,000,000 Number of houses NOT decorated by hired professionals: 0) Tomorrow, my mom's hosting Christmas Eve brunch and then Christmas Day will be at Matt's parents' house. I'd tell you all the cool things I got Matt, but he might peek, so I'll have to update you later. Then I'll also report whether or not there really is a pony under the tree for me.

In random news, I saw an old woman at the mall whose hair brought new meaning to the word "tease." It was literally standing on end, straight up in the air. And judging by her unashamed expression, I believe it was actually intentional. I had to take a surreptitious picture with my cell phone, but unfortunately, I can't put that on here either. You'll just have to trust me.

I'm learning my tunes!

Gravel Walks:

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Da New Rigged Ship:

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That's only about the first half of each song, but I'm getting there!

Saints be praised!

All right, all right, I'm back. That's sweet, I didn't know that many people cared if I updated or not. So Merry Christmas everyone!

One of the most exciting things that happened to me recently is that I got my blue belt in karate. It's a huge turning point, a year and a half in the making, and it means all sorts of new, fun, challenging things to learn. It's also proved to be very stressful, though. All of a sudden I feel quite inadequate, since the expectations upon me have jumped but I'm still the same person I was just a couple of weeks ago when I tested. I know that's the way it goes, that's how I improve, by raising the expectations and working harder to meet them. But at the same time, it's disappointing to try hard and still be bad at something, by the very nature of working to become good. But that's life, isn't it? That's how character is built. So I should just swallow my pride and work as hard as I can to get good. But it's still humbling.

In the same vein, yet another Irish pub in Denver has an open session, but I STILL haven't gotten off my curvy butt to learn a good set of songs. I know... *counting* ...maybe 5 songs I can contribute, and since half of them are Scottish, they probably won't even show up in the session. So I have a list of tunes to learn, but I just never get around to taking the time to learn them. Even after two Fiddle Camps and multiple self-promises to do it.

Moral of the story? Common thread? Work. Struggle. Discipline. No easy way out, except through real effort. And I'm a lazy slug, so there you go. I need to shut up and do the work required to be a karate master and a swingin' fiddler, because the rewards are worth it.

There. Would you still have hassled me for an update if you knew it was going to be self-indulgent ramblings on my failings as a human? All right, I'll give you something fun.


NAKED KAREN!!!!!