First off, I’m very glad that I have so many pages to respond to, that the Halfway House has been busy just like the old days! Whoo hoo! Way to go, siblings!
The St. Olaf Christmas Fest was so beautiful. The only drawback was that they didn’t have candles at the end like they usually do. It really made a difference. That last song is so peaceful and the choirs are all spread out around the auditorium and usually the singers are each holding a candle. Not sure why they changed – must have been a fire marshal thing.
Report on Reader’s Reaction to my Memoir – She said she was amazed at how brave I was, going on all of those adventures and that it was a good lesson to her for her life right now because she often just assumes people aren’t interested in getting together with her if they don’t respond right away. She admired my perseverance. She said it was a very fun read. I was so emboldened by her reaction that I’ve given it to another person at work to read! (This is a hard copy because that’s what my first reader wanted.)
Naterpie– Welcome to the Halfway House!
The only requirement here is that you admire our hero, Robert Pattinson.
Ashley – I’m sorry you’ve had such a horrible start to the new job. Wow. I hope it is going much better now.
Sean – Yep. You did the right thing getting a haircut! I think it is great that you’re writing again. Do you think I’d understand it, or is it necessary to understand animae? Sorry you’ve been feeling ill lately.
Sarah – I like The Office, but it often is much too cringe-worthy, too much like real life and it’s hard to watch. I love your enthusiasm for helping people find gifts at work. You have such a good attitude. You will be very busy in the coming weeks, though.
Suzan – I’m so sorry you had that horrible interview experience! Maybe the big picture purpose of that experience is that it solidifies your goal to do that work – it is making it even more important to you. You probably have this “I’ll show them!” attitude that will force you to come across stronger. That woman was sooooo insensitive and rude to you. If you still really want to do it – go for it. I do recommend that you check out a Toastmasters group. It’s an international organization and it’s geared to help people with speaking. There are people there who need tons of help and people who are already accomplished. I’m having so much fun in my group. Check out this book:
QUIET The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking By Susan Cain It might make you feel better.
Or the video
Keep me posted on any HHH Plans. Daughter Dear is doing well. She has lots of friends there and people taking care of her.
Lynne – Your son counted the number of sleeps until the Christmas tree? Now he’ll be counting sleeps until Christmas. Do you have an advent calendar? I got a cute German one this year – just a paper one – for me to enjoy, just me since my kids are both gone. It’s fun. That must have been very satisfying to add your own book title to the online cataloguing sites!! You must have had a proud smile on your face.
Ginnie – Awww! That was so sweet. We love having you come back! That’s great that you got a part time job at a bookstore – very fitting indeed. BD2 7-8 times? That must be a record for you, right? Good for you. Thank God for that 10am showing. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear about that other medium…
Songbird – Congrats on the successful birthday party. I saw the pics on facebook. Fun! The cake was beautiful. It sounds like your still overachieving in the kitchen again, though! The St. Olaf concert was all 5 choirs, which means 4 directors, and then the director of the orchestra. No Rene Clausen isn’t one of them. I think it is so cool that we have so many singers here at the HH – you, Lulu, Caryn, Tracy
Mel – How did you find out about the twist before you saw the movie? I’m glad you had fun watching other people’s reaction. Bella’s eyelashes. I suppose that is the easiest way to show how vampires are a more beautiful version of the human.
Caryn – I just wanted you to know that I could really feel that group hug you gave us. It’s better to pop in with a quickie than not show up at all. I love seeing that blue font….
Sean – Love your take on the BD2 – Can’t put any coherent thoughts together to join in the discussion at the moment, though! Enjoy your new tablet. I don’t have one.
Marielle – Hooray for getting all of the finances settled for buying your new house! I can certainly understand why you were so upset. I would be too! That’s so nice of your parents to help out. Your question on my memoir – I’m three chapters away from HHCON. I’d love to see your pics. Ideas for publishing? Yes, I plan to submit it somewhere. I’ll have to see what Alphie and Pel advise – they’ll get to read it first. It makes sense to submit to Little Brown first. What am I doing for Christmas? Going to my parents’ house about 40 minutes drive away, but it’s in the country. They have 85 acres of property.
Jaclyn – What happened to your spare room? I promise I didn’t do it! New fridge broken? That’s REALLY bad consumer relations. I hope they were very accommodating about replacing it. What a pain. Yay for the fun Christmas lunch thingy for work!! Yay for snow! Today was a record breaking mild day: 54 degrees F (12 C) Usually we’re frozen now. It’s all that global warming. We might get some snow on Sunday, though.
Desiree – Regarding my memoir, remember when I asked you to choose a pseudonym and you chose Serena? That was a long time ago, so maybe you thought I hadn’t followed through on the writing. That’s great that you are getting some good experience volunteering at your kids’ school. When do you think you’ll be able to go back to school yourself?
Amanda Beth – I know what you mean – no more Rob and Kris on screen together. Well at least they left the party while they were still having fun.
Tracy - I so understand your need to be sneaky, but not outright dishonest with your husband. I’m the same way! Most of the time he doesn’t even ask what I’ve been doing! And like your hubs, mine doesn’t understand why anyone would see a movie more than once! In my old age, though I’ve pretty much told him I’m going to do what I want since the kids are gone. I’ll take the upstairs bedroom because I assume that’s the spare room. I’d hate to kick you and your hubs out of your comfy room. I can be upstairs with the kids like Mary Poppins.
Lulu – Awww- You are too sweet! Thank you so much for your kind compliments about my memoir. I’m lucky to have all of you too! We both had Choral experiences this weekend! I’m envious of your caroling. It makes me want to organize something here. Too bad Daughter Dear is gone – we make a pretty good family quartet even though we are 2 baritones and 2 sopranos! Next year…. I love the idea of your neighborhood facebook group. Very good for community.
Brenda – Good luck getting the pet issue sorted out. My hubs never wanted a dog because of the cost of the upkeep. Congrats on getting the triplet dolls. You have so much more to get done for Christmas than I do with 4 kids! I mailed off Daughter Dear’s box of little gifts already and Sonny Boy just gets lots of little things too since he gets $8,000 for Spring Semester tuition.
New Twi Friend!!! My local Starbucks Barista – she must be a TwiBarista! She even went on a pilgrimage to Forks and La Push. The only problem is – She’s a huge JACOB fan. As much as we are Edward fans. I don’t think she’ll be joining our little group anytime soon. I still like her, though. We’re facebook friends now and are planning a BD2 viewing for next week.
Whew! Sorry for the extra long post today!!
See you tomorrow!