Author Archives: Jen

About Jen

Jen isn't quite sure when she lost her mind, but it is probably documented here on Meditatio. She blogs because the world needs her snark at all hours of the night... and she probably can't sleep anyway.

Note To Amtrak

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Attention Amtrak administration/workers/whoever does the website:

Given that your automated system “Julie” is incredibly frustrating to work with as it cannot recognize simple pronunciation of words, could you please put the train status option on the website?Â? I mean… it would make the lives of web-savvy people for whom you are the most convenient travel option a lot easier.

Oh yes… did I mention that “Julie the automated agent” is the spawn of Satan and I hate that it cannot decipher whether I want to stop in Fremont, California or Pontiac, Michigan when I say the words “Everett, Washington”?Â? Just checking.
Snuggles,
jen

Christmas 2006: The Good, the Bad, and the Presents

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The Good
[-] Getting to fly up to Seattle a few days early
[-] Time with my godmother and some of my mom’s other college friends
[-] Time with my family
[-] Time with my brother’s girlfriend
[-] Emily, the calico kitty
[-] Teaching my younger cousins how to play Uno
[-] Midnight Mass — it was worship nirvana in most ways
[-] Seeing longtime people at my grandparents’ church who recognize me
[-] Christmas Eve dinner with 14 people last night
[-] Being part of helping Pisco celebrate his first Christmas

The Bad
[-] Having to be away from Jon
[-] Having to leave at 3:30 am for the airport
[-] The laptop bag I have (not a backpack so no even distribution of weight)
[-] Sea-Tac’s luggage handling abilities (it took a freaking hour to get my parents’ luggage)
[-] Seattle traffic
[-] Finding out that my box of presents got left at the airport (AVIS thankfully found them and is holding them for me)
[-] Stores on Christmas Eve
[-] The first Christmas without my grandfather
[-] People having to go home

The Presents (Thus Far)
[-] Some money
[-] The Song of Songs in Hebrew and English with notes
[-] A River Runs Through It on DVD
[-] A nice calendar
[-] Foodstuffs from parishioners (especially homemade jams and jellies)
[-] Chocolate-covered cherries from one of my favorite people
[-] Gifts of sheep from the Heifer Project

My To Do List For Tomorrow

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Let’s play “See If Jen Can Update Her To Do List”! I’m flying to Seattle on Friday morning at the crack of dawn so I have to get a ton of stuff done tomorrow.

-cut blanket to be tied
-laundry
-pack box with Christmas schtuff (books, blanket, afghan schtuff)
-take Irish coffee pie to J’s house
-pack suitcase
-put airline confirmation and train ticket in a safe place
-pack up laptop and LSAT book with sock stuff
-pack meds in laptop bag

Yesterday

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My day yesterday…

0830: Get up and make fruit tray. Ask Freya how many paws she is allowed on the table before telling her to get off.Â? Have lovely breakfast of leftover fruit and peanut butter to stop hiccups. Explain to Edda that black cats don’t eat peanut butter. Get dressed.
0915: Arrive at Church #1 with Jon. Watch kids put on Christmas program. (It was cute.)
1000: Brunch! Socialize with daughter of parishioners who has a 6 week old baby. Find my fruit tray decimated when I finally get up to the food. I guess it was popular? Socialize with people and eat some ham (OK… quite a bit actually but I wasn’t getting dinner until 6:30), fruit, and half a cinnamon roll.
1230: Get home and shower. Convince Jon to eat some lunch. Do hair and make-up and dress for performances in town. Realize that blouse isn’t going to work. Toss on wine-colored Old Navy stretchy shirt instead.
1400: Nursing home service. I drop Jon off and go to Pamida to find something to wear over my shirt. Find weird sweater thing. Get lipstick too and apply it in bathroom at nursing home.
1500: Arrive at church in town. Find that lipstick job is crappy. Re-apply and check with conductor to see if I should just take it off. Wait for things to start.
1600: First performance of “Carols Round the Table”. All goes well until I jump the gun on my reading. Oops! Pregnant silence while we figure out where we are. (Oh yes… the candle also refused to light.)
1700: Help serve food. Apologize to conductor who laughs off my mistake. Help clean up after people leave.
1820: FINALLY get to eat. Have bowl of chicken soup and a roll with some punch. Someone gives the choir people some “cherries in the snow”. Quite good.
1900: Second performance. All goes well with the music and my reading. Plum pudding refuses to stay lit, causing the pastor to joke that “we’re out of fuel”.
2000: Conductor tells me to sit down and eat with Jon (who came to see me sing). Help clean up while Jon socializes.
2100: Head home. Arrive home and jump in the shower to unshellac my hair and get the make-up off.
2200: Check email and have IM conversation with best friend from childhood even though I want to go to bed.
2230: Tune into COPS and curl up on the futon where I try to convince Edda that Mommy needs her panther. Fall asleep while cats are playing tag.

My Week at a Glance

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(HT: Dreama!)

Monday!
-recover from Sunday
-work on presents
-taebo off the plum pudding (which was icky) and “cherries in the snow”

Tuesday!
-coffee (where I’ll work on presents)
-mail presents for Sean and Jeanette to Washington
-taebo off Christmas gifts from parishioners (everyone gives us candy of some kind and it’s ALL good)
-go see kids in Christmas show at elementary school

Wednesday!
-therapy
-taebo off Christmas gifts from parishioners
-possibly Bible study where I’ll work on presents

Thursday!
–work on presents (if not done)
-figure out music for Christmas Eve w/ Jon
-taebo off Christmas gifts from parishioners

Friday!
-laundry for trip to Seattle
-taebo off Christmas gifts from parishioners
-finish gifts (if not done)

Saturday!
-wrap presents for trip to Seattle
-acquire rest of ingredients for Irish Coffee Pie
-taebo off Christmas gifts from parishioners

Sunday!
-worship at the prison
-make Irish Coffee Pie
-service at 3 at church #3
-service at 5 at church #2
-dinner with super-wonderful parishioners who are adopting us (and feeding us lutefisk)

Monday!
-service at 10 at church #2
-taebo off Christmas gifts from parishioners
-pack for trip to Seattle
-print out cat care instructions for the furry ones
-get the heck out of Dodge on the first Amtrak train west!

Oh yeah… we should also put up and decorate a tree at some point?

Braindead Saturday

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As we got the car back yesterday (complete with a nice new fuel pump), I was able to go to choir practice today.Â? It went well — apparently I have a couple of the pieces memorized.

Afterwards, I hit up Subway for lunch, Pamida for some Christmas stuff, Town Pump for gas, Albertson’s for fruit and some Irish Coffee Pie ingredients, the local quilt shop for fleece, the local coffeeshop for a gift certificate, a parishioner’s house for something Victorian looking for tomorrow night, Pamida AGAIN for barrettes (my bangs aren’t long enough to stay pulled back), and Albertsons AGAIN for spray gel.

Herbal Essences is evil.Â? They took away their normal spray gel and replaced it with regular stuff.Â? Their spray gel was the best thing on the planet!!!Â? Evil company!!!!

Tomorrow is the Christmas program at church and then Carols Round the Table in town.Â? It should be crazy busy but that’s the nature of this time of year.