(no subject)

[chelseagirl]

Last night was the Christmas concert I sang in; this is a festival-of-lessons-and-carols type thing. We did well; the Bach chorale at the end was, I think, a bit off, but as usual we all walked out with warm fuzzy feelings and nobody minded. Since, as previous years' readers will recall, Clement Clarke Moore was the original developer of Chelsea and founded the church it's held in, they read Twas the Night Before Christmas as part of the event every year. Last year's reader was Ethan Hawke, which gave us a higher than usual glitz factor but not such a fabulous reading; this year it was Brian Murray (not the one related to Bill), who's mostly a theater actor and gave a marvellous reading. I saw him as Dogberry in 12th Night at Shakespeare in the Park a few years back and he was fabulous. Amazing, though, how quickly the event always goes after weeks and weeks of rehearsing. Time should slow so we can really savor it.

Havng done that, it feels like it should actually *be* Christmas and rather than sitting in my sunny flat getting ready to go to work, I should be waking up at my parents' house surrounded by snow.

To further that feeling, the night before I saw the NYC Ballet production of the Nutcracker with my aunt -- lovely staging and the child-dancers were tremendously impressive.

The only thing that's lacking is holiday cards. We decided not to do them this year (except for the one I've got to get off to an old roomie with whom this is my annual contact), but as we sent them last year we ought to have been in everyone's good graces, but in fact we've received many fewer than usual. *sigh* Nobody loves us. Or everyone's as hectic as we are, which I prefer to think. ;-)

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Everyone I know is saying how few Christmas cards they're getting this year. Whatever it is, it's epidemic.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

That's comforting. The trickle has sped up a bit towards the end, but we're definitely down from other years.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_tweeter_/]

So sorry, not sending out anything this year. :(

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

But your magnets from last year are stylishly ensconced on our refrigerator door!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_tweeter_/]

I'm so glad you like them.

I ended up buying cards and hope to send them out by tomorrow... but they'll serve as my New Year's card.

[mortalwombat731.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling moderately ho-ho-ho-ish (finally) now too, due to seeing the Ballanchine Nutcracker myself yesterday!

Of course, as i am conferencing with underprepared student writers whose prose makes my eyes bleed and my brain hurt, I am having a hard time holding on to those warm fuzzy holifeelings.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should put it down to the transit strike, but I have *five* students who have not handed in work (out of 40) and it is now officially 24 hours past the deadline. I emailed them all one last time, but pretty soon they're getting zeroes.
Ironically, the kid who could not shut up in class all semester owes me three (of four) assignments and will fail the class despite the fact that he did all the reading. It's just not fair to the students who did the work to pass him.

[caras-galadhon.livejournal.com]

*cough* Send me your addy, and I'll send a card your way. ^_^ Mine haven't quite made it out yet.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

But you probably have now. (Got a bit distracted by the semester's end.)

[caras-galadhon.livejournal.com]

What, sent them out? No. That's a major project for today. And tomorrow. Eheheh. I am Queen of Procrastinationville. ^_~

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

OK. Emailing it then. :-)

[silme.livejournal.com]

We sent out a batch this year. The last ones just went in the post this morning, mostly domestic ones. We've received some cards this year, not lots and lots, though. But there's still time.

[silme.livejournal.com]

What I have spaced out is the birthday card. Sorry!! :(

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

S'okay. I mean, you still have time and all. ;-) But I'm dreadful about sending out b'day cards myself. I do write b'days in my date book every year, thinking one year I will be organized.

And yes, more have been arriving. But still less than other years.

[silme.livejournal.com]

I'd better get to the post office soon, though, or you'll receive it very late.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Hey, since all my holiday-ing comes within two days, I kind of like it when birthday stuff trickles in late. :-)

BTW, when you asked in another post about A Feast for Crows, I was assuming you were familiar with the George R. R. Martin series. Have you read them? Let's just say that if it's high fantasy and I'll still stick around through four long volumes, it's got to be good.

[silme.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not familiar with that series. I mistook the title for something else. Is it that good? I've not been able to stomach high fantasy for a long time.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Put it this way, pretty much nobody could be more negative towards high fantasy than I am. But I let myself be persuaded into trying the first book by queenofthorns, who explained it was really like an alternate war of the roses and focused on the politics and personalities, not silly quests or whatnot. And they really are good -- the characters have depth, the plotting gets quite intricate. There's a little bit of magic, and one subplot has dragons, but even they are handled in a way that I didn't find them precious or cliched. So they're now officially my Other Exception Besides Tolkien.

But yeah, this wasn't crows in a mystic sense or anything.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Okay, an alternate War of the Roses sounds intriguing.

[karentoe.livejournal.com]

I hardly sent any one. I was going to do email cards, but I haven't done that either. I'm so bad. :(

It's cold, the ground is covered with snow, but I don't feel Christmas-y either. Never was my favorite time of year.

[kittyjosephine.livejournal.com]

Did you get mine?

[kittyjosephine.livejournal.com]

I meant Chelseagirl, did you get mine?

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Yes, thanks!

BTW, my friend at work saw Chris Noth at the Astor Place Starbucks the other day. I thought of you. But she also said he looked like a hungover homeless person, so I didn't think it was worth a workplace emergency alert. :-(

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

You guys get so *much* winter there. I'm taking M. to Buffalo this year just so he can get some actual winter in, instead of just chilliness and occasional slush.