I had such a crappy night's sleep last night. A lot on my mind, I guess. But I woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland!



Happy New Year, everyone. I can't help but think this snowfall and the good movie yesterday are good omens.

I just saw It's Complicated and was surprised by how good it was. Sure, the script faltered a bit sometimes, especially in the beginning of the movie, but overall, it was funny and sad and poignant. I thought everyone did a great job - Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski.

I'm not sure how to sum up 2009. It was a strange year in some ways. We spent the first half of the year crammed into a one-bedroom apartment as we waited for a two-bedroom. We finally got one, and it was beautiful. The living room is big, though we have no terrace. Frankly, I was relieved not to have one. It seems like a big hazard with a baby.

A couple of good books I read this year were Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger and The Great Man by Kate Christensen.

Did anyone come up with an interesting New Year's resolution?

The ghost of Christmas...snafu.

It feels so ILLICIT to blog on Christmas! But here I am...

As it turns out, we never did catch a train to Boston. Ended up in a car. Which we might do from now on, anyway. The train doesn't seem to be working out.

Tempers were running high in Penn Station, as train after train was delayed, canceled or "combined." Combining two sold-out, late trains is a recipe for disaster. One woman crumpled to the floor in front of the ticket counter, screaming, "I KNOW I HAVE A TICKET! I JUST CAN'T FIND IT! THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!" Four cops surrounded her, each with a gun, but they seemed more amused than anything. Poor woman.

It does seem like one of "those" Christmases. My present for my sister failed to arrive on time. E woke up in the middle of the night, wanting soy milk, and got upset when D accidentally gave him whole milk instead. He decided to stay up till 4 (am) as punishment. I am allergic, as I often get in Massachusetts (maybe because there are more trees than there are in NYC?) and bloated from overeating last night.

Anybody want to take a nap with me until January 2?

Today was one of those almost humorously bad days. I guess sometimes you have to laugh. This morning, I lifted E out of his crib and bent my knees to lay him down on his diaper-changing pad, all the while supporting his 27-lb weight; you could almost hear my back snap. I've done this move about a million times, but I must have done it too fast today. For a moment, I lay on the floor, unable to move. Then I dragged myself into the tub.

Next up: the train to Boston was due to leave at 12:03. I got to Penn Station, only to find that all the trains were delayed. Someone near me said that her mother called Amtrak and was told our train would not get to Penn Station until 2:15 (at the earliest). The board just said "Delayed" across the board with no estimated arrival times. I figured the girl had no reason to lie, and she left the station. I did too. Bad judgment call...the train ended up arriving around 12:47 (as we found out later). We missed it.

So now we are taking a 7 pm train, which will not arrive in Boston till 10:49. Hopefully E will hold up well on this unusually late night (for him).

As I type this, E is chatting into my iPod. He seems to believe it's a phone.

Recently, I discovered Kate Christensen. Of course, I'd seen The Great Man in stores many times, but I was put off by the fake New York Times article at the beginning of the story. Once the actual narrative starts, though, it's great. I'm glad I finally gave it a chance. The main characters are all at least 74, and portrayed very differently than the elderly usually are.

After I finished The Great Man, I started reading Trouble by the same author. And after that, I hope to read In the Drink (her first novel).

Tomorrow I hop on a train to go to Massachusetts for Christmas...anyone else traveling for the holidays? I hope you have a good one.

So I've made a dent in my Christmas shopping. Now I just have to get gifts for my sister's three boys, aged 17, 13 and 11. I haven't a clue what to get them. They are all into sports, and the oldest one wants a car. Unfortunately, that is beyond my means.

I revived my Netflix membership, which I had canceled after I had E. I saw Firelight, which a friend recommended and I enjoyed. It was sort of a mix between Jane Eyre and The Piano (without the gruesome elements of the latter). I also saw An Education in the movie theater. It was about a 16-year-old (who turns 17 in the course of the movie) and gets mixed up with an older man (who looks to be all of 38). I liked it right up till the ending. Instead of a happy one, it was of the punch-in-the-gut variety. The screenplay was written by Nick Hornby and it was intelligent and nuanced...but oh, that ending.

May I mention that I hate New Year's? It's got to be my least favorite holiday of the year. There's just something artificial, not to mention sad, about marking the passing of another year.

I do like Christmas, though. Aside from the shopping. Particularly Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Maybe there will be coffee cake...

I can't believe it's December already. As a high school friend said on Facebook, the dreaded "holimonth" is now upon us. And I have the stress of selecting 8500 presents for my immediate family. Did I mention that I hate shopping? And I'm not good at it? I'm hoping to do it all online. My sister and I already agreed not to exchange, unless we see something that is really suited to the other. But that is just a drop in the bucket. I would love to eliminate presents altogether...but I fear that is Communist.