That's nice! Ash on my tomatoes!

New Year's Eve is one of my least favorite holidays. I feel like there's too much pressure to do something really fun, and I'm just not a fun-party-stay-up-all-night person. Yet I always feel like I have to try to do something.

Past New Year's Eve celebrations:

• (199-something) Babysitting the neighbor kids, watching the ball drop in Time Square at 10 pm, letting the kids bang pots, telling them it really was midnight and then making them go to bed.
• (2005) Tagging along with Jill's friends, buying hair supplies at Wal-Mart,playing musical chairs at some random guy's house, then sitting in the Smith's parking lot while Jill's friend drank a frappacino in the car.
• (2006) Playing card games at my grandma's house then watching my cousins chug entire 2 liter sprite bottles at midnight and throw them up 2 minutes later. (That was actually pretty fun.)
• (2007) Going to a movie and then playing Guitar Hero with Jill, Carly, and Carly's really obnoxious high-school aged friends. (I forced them out of my apartment at 12:01, while yelling "You kids stay off my lawn!")

So this year, Jill and I decided to embrace the lameness and do what we really wanted. I made a turkey dinner and we ate it while watching a Lord of the Rings extended edition marathon. We lasted to the end of disc 1. I'm stuffed, but there are a ton of left overs to look forward too.

I have a theory that has held up pretty well since 2000. Odd years are always much better for me than even years. 2008 wasn't so bad, just unremarkable. I am very much looking forward to 2009. Happy New Years!

Need some motivation?

I remember crying during way too many of these moments.



"They may take our lives, but they'll never take our Independence Day!" [Insert Free Willy epic jumping here.] The last 15 seconds are the best.

Better than CliffsNotes

Read Pride & Prejudice through facebook updates.

You've probably seen it before, but I thought it was cute. (I also liked Facebook Hamlet.)

The Ghost Lady

Yesterday, my supervisor at work confessed that she enjoys standing in other people's wedding family photos. She does this at Temple Square. When a big family is standing on the temple steps for a wedding photo, she stands along with them. Moves a little to the right when the photographer asks. Everyone just thinks she's on the other side of the family.

She's hoping to start a Mormon myth of the "ghost lady" in the temple picture. Years later (when the bride and groom actually know most people in their spouse's family), they'll both ponder at that wedding photo and wonder "who the heck is that?"

This "performance art" is an interesting object lesson on how Mormons tend to marry rather quickly. If a random stranger can spend a day at temple square inserting herself into family photos, I suppose that says something. Though it probably says more about that random stranger.

Is this woman in your wedding photo?