so.pretty.

For christmas, I wanted gift certificates to sephora so I could get all new makeup. I got some, and yesterday was the big day! I brought *ja* for support (plus she wanted to get some application tips) and got set up with ayana at the chestnut hill store. This girl was great! She sat me down and ran around the store grabbing things she thought would look good on me. Then the makeover began. I thought I knew how to apply eyeshadow and liner, but it turns out I was doing it all wrong. The same goes for foundation, and lip stuff. I was excited to end up with the spray foundation that carmindy used on "what not to wear." The coverage is great, and makes everything nice and even. In the end, I had an entire new stash of makeup and brushes, and even with the large sum of gift certificates, was still out $100. All I have to say is thank god (and all of you who got them for me) for gift certificates. There's no way I'd pay $324 for makeup if it was all out of my own pocket. Here's the finished product (many hours and glasses of wine later!)

old.friend

I'm excited about tonight. I'm meeting up with *ja* and one of our favorite high school friends *ba* whom we haven't seen in probably seven years. He lives in western massachusetts now, but is back in acton through new year's. I'm not quite sure how we fell out of touch, but at least we're working it out now. We all thought he'd be at the ten year reunion, but he couldn't make it, and that's when we started trying to catch up again. We'll see how it goes.

home.movie.

My dad made us one of the best christmas presents ever; he took two years worth of vhs video taped home movies, converted them to dvd, and edited them into a hilariously funny and wonderful movie. It starts on the day my sister came home from the hospital with my mom, and covers birthdays, piano "recitals", school visits, my littlest brother's arrival, funny faces/horse rides/eyebrows, and a walk through of our old house (something we all thought had been accidentally taped over long ago). Not only was it great to relive memories that had faded long ago, but it was wonderful to have video of my grandmother who died two years ago. She was the first person I knew who died, and it was much harder than I could have imagined. Being able to hear her voice and see her again was priceless.
I'll leave you with a picture of my 7 year old self making the scariest face I have ever seen. I literally took a picture of the television, thus the lines and grainy quality.

happy.birthday.j

Today's *j's* birthday. She's twenty-two. Happy birthday! We went bowling again. Two times in less than twenty-four hours. I think it's a record. I was hanging with the girls, with nothing to do, and I was still so excited about bowling last night that I suggested we go today. They were game, so we called my siblings, and they were up for it too. We played candlepin since the girls wouldn't be able to handle the heavy balls. For some reason, I'd always believed that candlepin was easier. Sure, the balls are tiny and pins narrow, and this combination makes it tricky to knock anything down, but you get three balls, and the knocked down pins stay in the cage area to be used as spinning helpers. Turns out I was wrong. Seriously wrong. We had the bumpers up in my lane since I bowled with the three girls, and while I bumped off of them several times, I still lost to the six year old. Embarrassing. I'm now a believer in the "big ball" bowling.

holy.s**t.

We had a great family night tonight. First we drove to a hole-in-the-wall pasta place in malden that was delicious. Then we went bowling at lanes and games in cambridge. I love bowling. Normally, we do some sort of family night as part of our christmas present, but it's always been dinner and a show in boston. That's great, but bowling is much more interactive. We decided on the big-ball bowling (10 pin), got two lanes next to each other, and split into a group of three, and a group of four. I was on a team with my dad and *j*. Everyone did much better than expected. We had a bunch of totals over 100. The big surprise was *b* in the last game. He got four strikes in a row, for a total of 162. Even he was surprised, and texted friends back in austin right away. I was impressed.

new.years

What's everyone doing for new year's? I think I want to go into boston this year. I hadn't been to fanueil hall in a long time, but went to a bar there for my reunion, and had a blast. I'm thinking north end for dinner/drinks, and then a bar afterwards? Not sure yet, but let me know if you're interested.

snip.snip.

I cut my sister's hair today. She started out doing it herself, but cut it shorter than she wanted. I was brought in to make it even all the way around, which I did a decent job at. Then she put layers in to spice things up a little. I walked into the bathroom while she was doing this, and it was pretty amusing. She wasn't pulling pieces out like I would have, but just moving the scissors back and forth around her head while snipping. She did it this way before when she got a bad haircut (no layers, just straight across at the shoulders) and she was happy. Quite frankly, I'm amazed that it turns out as well as it does. It almost makes me question the large sum of money I pay my guy. Almost. Not quite.

our.day.out

Here's a picture of the four of us (*b*, *j*, *k*, me) on the world's smallest suspension bridge in the public gardens. We took it yesterday with my camera and little tripod on our day in boston. We all like it, although *j* thinks her eyes are closed. I told her that they aren't closed, just narrow, and that's what they usually look like in pictures. I asked her if she even knew what she looked like. She said that people like themselves in the mirror better than in photos.

happy.happy.

Happy christmas everyone! Today was great in our house. Everyone got along, dinner went well, and we even squeezed in a few games of mad gab, a game I like a lot more with six or more people. Our youngest brother's girlfriend *js* came for the day. He's been dating her longer than any other girlfriend he's had so far (in his twenty years), and apparently is the only one our sister likes. (She's very protective of our baby brother.) Since *b* and I no longer live at home, nor visit regularly during the summer or college vacation weeks, we'd yet to meet her, although the pure fact that she had never been camping before, but asked to go, made me sure she'd be great (which she is). Along with *js*, our cousins *kk* and *ek* came, so we had a group of seven youngsters total. We played games in the family room while the grown-ups chatted in the living room.*b* also brought his wii which he picked up from target. Apparently he got there at 4:15am. Insane. It was pretty neat though- using the controls for bowling, boxing, baseball, tennis and golf was fun. We seem to be in a pattern of *b* exposing us to new video games every christmas. In 2004 it was karaoke revolution (karaoke rocks!!), in 2005 guitar hero, and this year is wii. We'll have to wait and see what happens next year.

lost.baggage

My brother flew in to boston from austin saturday. He didn't take a direct flight, but flew through dallas and as luck would have it, they lost his luggage along the way. Poor kid. The four of us spent the day together walking around newbury, and he was a little nippy since he only had a light "coat", and the wind was whipping through downtown. After lunch, he called the lost baggage number to see if anything had been found, and after speaking to a rep (since the automated system consistently tells you it hasn't been located) learned that it was on its way to acton. Good news! He'd be able to wear his nice clothes to church at 6. After some more poking, we headed home around 4, only to arrive to find that nothing had been delivered. After another call (and staying on hold for 40 mins) he was told that it had been picked up, but could be delivered anywhere between 3 and 9pm. Luckily, he had bought a button-down and a casual blazer on our shopping excursion, so he wore those with his jeans to church. Upon arriving home to no bag, he called the info line again, (and stayed on hold for another 40 mins or so) and was told that it had been picked up by the delivery company at 8pm. What? He asked for the delivery company's contact info, but they wouldn't give it out, so the woman called the company herself, and connected them 3-way. Apparently they were short drivers, so while they had the bag, it wasn't going to be delivered until tomorrow. *b* wasn't happy about this- especially since all his christmas gifts were in there waiting to be wrapped. He said as much, and the guy told him he had a driver coming in who could take it out, but that it wouldn't show up in acton until 12 or 1am. *b* ensured the guy this was fine, and the guy said the driver would call *b's* cell when he was on his way. We'll see what happens.

*Update (9:47am, 12/25/06)*: By 12:45am, no bag, no call, so *b* phoned the info line again (and stayed on hold for 25 mins) only to end up unable to contact the delivery company. After swearing to kill several people and their families, he cut his losses and went to bed. Hopefully it will show up today, but who knows at this rate. The ridiculous thing is that if they hadn't told him the bag had already been picked up when he called after lunch, (which it hadn't been) we could have swung by there on our way home. We were downtown already, and could have made it there in 15 mins or so. Hopefully he'll get some money for the stuff he had to buy in the meantime.

*Update 2 (2:58pm, 12/26/06)*: He called the airlines again on christmas morning, and talked to a much less understanding lady. He explained the situation- how he had been told it would arrive by 1am, and it never came- and she snapped back at him, "What's done it done. The drivers are having their christmas dinner, and it will get there when it gets there." Obviously she wasn't happy to be working on christmas (who would be?) but seriously...the amount of crap that he had to put up with throughout the whole ordeal should have gained him some apologies, however insincere. The suitcase arrived around 4pm, with all the presents in tow. Part of my mom's present was broken, but some super glue took care of that.