Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Wah! i've just stuffed myself with a dinner of spare ribs, fried noodles, pineapple sauced redfish, bamboo shoots, chinese broccoli, and fried rice. oi, the chinese buffet-style christmas dinner. i hope your winter holiday is tempered with glorious gluttony. oh that sweet potato. I just can't get enough!
-------------------------
Oh, the creepy monkeys pictured there refer to some smashing flannel monkey pants that my sister gave me. Can we say, "Oook"?

Welcome to the Monkey House

(I went to the library today and read some stories by Kurt Vonnegut, one of which lent its title to the title of the anthology as well as the subject of my blog entry. He's got some small-town-soldier-come-home romance stories that are sooo sappy and yet sooo satisfying to read. Well, two is about all I can really take before I start to feel my cavities aching. )

So, I'm back in Houston. Yes. And intent on making this visit a positive one, where I can enjoy being with my parents, sisters, and granny without guilt, craziness, and too much frustration. So far, I've had some moments where I wanted to pull at my hair and hitchhike out of Houston, but that's more or less petered out into steely resolve to get through this visit with patience and--damn it--happiness. Mostly, I've been trying to clean out our accumulated 10 years of clutter. Kitchen, laundry room, refrigerator, bathrooms... I don't even know that I've really made a dent, but I think I need to feel useful and that I'm sorting out the chaos of my house. Ah. Maybe being in motion carrying out bags of trash will also do something about all the food I keep eating. A semester of eating hummus and sprouts completely wiped out by two days of steamed buns and pork bones. Damn it.

O Tennenbaum, O Tennenbaum!

Ai, amidst the craziness of trying to complete essays for school and be effective and competent at my internship I've been feeling extra stressed and anxious. I think only now do I feel like I have some perspective on what I'm doing and what my responsibilities are. This includes 3 finals that I need to get done over the next week. *Whimper* Ah, but I am very glad that my roommate and I went and got ourselves a Christmas tree! Yes, it is a little bare sitting on its white plastic disposal bag, but it is beautiful is it not? For lack of a variety of ornaments, it is decorated with some glass balls from Long's, origami birds, and stuffed animals. For lack of an angel or star topper, I stuck my black -woman -perhaps -Aunt -Jemimia -not -culturally -competent - but - very -interesting finger puppet from Peru.

I'm very much looking forward to going home this year. See the family and just be home (to be able to be with my family but not overwhelmed by them). See old friends and catch up. Run around Houston a bit and just relax. Mmm, some home-cooked Chinese food will not be bad either. One more week!