warming up to Christmas

I haven't posted in forever. Whoops. I'm living with my parents and searching desperately for broadcasting jobs for next year. I went to Dallas to interview for a bunch of minor-league positions, but most of them are seasonal and as the No. 2 broadcaster, which usually means home games only and only 3 (of 9) innings play-by-play. So we'll see what happens in mid-January.

Anyway, I went to a wedding in North Carolina last weekend which should've made for some great blog material if I was Derrick or Alana or Eric or somebody funny. Unfortunately, I'm not, so I'll just tell you that I made awkward small talk with a lot of people, caught up a bit with the groom and his brother, who I hadn't seen in 5 and 10 years, respectively, and generally felt closer to the wedding's inner circle than I had any right to feel. It was pretty fun; the drunk adults at the reception were especially entertaining.

I go to a lot of hockey games here at home while running my ever-popular New Jersey hockey web site. It's cold, but I make money via Google ads (click on them! I make more money) and doing the scoreboard for some games. It's been butt-cold here, and I even got in a minor accident ($59 worth of damage that was the other driver's fault) on some slick ice one night. But it's up to 50 degrees during the day as we lead up to Christmas. WTF is up with that?

My sister arrived Wednesday, my brother Thursday, and my cousin Irene from Dallas on Friday. So we have four 20-somethings in a house with one shower. Brilliant. But it's great to have everybody home so far. We went into the city (Jenny called me a snob for using that phrase, so I mean New York) last night and saw the Broadway show "Avenue Q". It was hilarious and awesome and y'all should definitely see it if you're in New York (or Las Vegas, its other locale). My favorite songs: What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?; If You were Gay; Everyone's A Little Bit Racist; The Internet is For Porn; You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Making Love); and I Wish I Could Go Back to College. If that doesn't sound like a good time, I don't know what does. Oh yeah, and most of the characters are puppets.

So my siblings woke me up this morning by yelling at me in puppet voices and I got dragged (with my assent, it's true) to a brunch schindig with coworkers of my mother. More unenthusiastic recaps of "yeah, I'm a baseball radio broadcaster looking for a job for next season. I had a three-month job last summer, but I'm looking for one for the full season next year." and that about sums up the small talk unless they're a baseball fan.

I love having my brother, sister, and cousin here. It's weird being grown up, since we're 22, 24, 26, and 28, and yet my brother and I still have the occasional pillowfight in a store that embarrasses my sister. Shrug. Some things never change. My brother still takes up most of the kitchen with his stuff, even if he's only actually in the kitchen for five minutes. My sister still depresses me with stories about the kids she works with. And Irene inevitably completely misses something because she's from Texas. It's a good time.

Hope everybody has an awesome break from whatever they're doing (or not doing) and gets to spend time with cool people.

I'm DONE!!!

I finished my first semester of grad school! Nine semesters of college under my belt with only nine more to go. Excellent.

Anyway just a quick update of stuff that's been happening in my life:

• I'm going home tomorrow. You know how that's always a mixed blessing.
  
• I got a field placement in Houston so that's where I'll be this summer. I will live solely on cheap texmex and margaritas. My address is the intersection of 59 and Kirby.
  
• I threw a little Rice shinding in Ann Arbor. I know I'm shocked how many people are here, it's kinda creepy.
• I studied a lot and now I'm done.

That's about it. Someone post! I guessing at least one person has an embarrasing miseltoe experience. Or how about those company Christmas parties? Come on people, I have a bland life, you gotta let me live vicariously at least.

No, I didn't get the house. The lady's idea of a "counter offer" was to offer me list price and move up the closing date by two weeks. That's a definite no go. I feel sort of silly now, because I was so excited about the offer. Ah well, there will be other houses.

I'm in Houston for the rest of this week and all next week for training, so all you Houstonites, give me a call!

Carley