Xmas

Merry Xmas! And a belated Happy Channukah to all our Jewish and fellow honorary Jewish friends!

This is my first, actual day off in a long, long time. I can't complain though. This has been a great December. Many fantastic occurrences. It all started on Dec. 3rd when Magdalene and I saw Owen, then hung out with Mike Kinsella for the night. This you may remember from my last blog. Since then, I survived the semester, receiving an A- in each class. Not too shabby. Also, I won an essay contest in my Methods I class. We had to write an essay as if we were going to submit it to the Teacher-to-Teacher column in the English Journal. The essays were submitted to an undergrad class sans names, and my class received the undergrad class' essays. Both classes selected their favorite essays from the other class and three winners were chosen from each class. Mine was one of the Graduate level essays chosen. I was shocked, I assure you. I, also, won a sales contest at work for selling the most Pumas in my region (I believe that's what happened). My prize was a $125 Puma computer bag. I was surprised at how nice the bag is. These are the first times I have won anything big since the jelly bean contest at the Dowling College Easter Egg Hunt when I was 10-yrs-old. I hope this doesn't mean a heap of bad events will befall me now. My fingers will remain crossed for a while.

Sean was quite surprised by his Xmas present. A bunch of his friends and I got together and bought him a brand new, Martin electric/acoustic guitar. It took a lot of work to get everyone to sign the card without Sean finding out, but it was worth it. Sean's a great friend and deserved to have this done for him. I'm sure Celia feels the same, especially now that Sean has proposed to her. He did it in a really sweet way, although he set the bar rather high for everyone else with the way he did it.

I watched Cars this morning. That was fun. I'm going to watch The Benchwarmers in a minute. I have some time to kill before my brother and his fiance, Donna, stop by so we can have Xmas here. These days, we do Xmas late in the afternoon, since no one else lives here, except me & my parents. It's ok though. I like the lack of pressure. And it delays the celebration so it builds up the anticipation.

Also, I donated $100 to the Callum Robbins Family Fund. This is a fund set up to help Callum Robbins, the son of J. Robbins (Jawbox/Burning Airlines/Channels), who was diagnosed with Type 1 SMA, or Spinal Muscular Atrophy. I figured, J. Robbins' music has been a big part of my life for many years, and has influenced me in many ways. The least I could do was donate to the fund set up to help him and his wife with medical bills for their child. If you're interested in donating, go to Desotorecords.com and you'll find a link.

Yesterday at work was fun. I have great co-workers, so it's not so bad having to work all the time. Frank and I even bought each other the same present. A Patron Anejo gift box. Too funny.

Ok, I have a movie to watch. Later.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Death Cab For Cutie - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

The day after

My 29th birthday just ended. It's weird to think that I'm 29-yrs-old. One year closer to 30. Now that I think about it, this has become a countdown of days until my 30th birthday. With every minute that passes, I am moving closer to "months before," then "weeks before," soon after comes "days before," then "hours before," which quickly turns to "moments before," and then I finally reach it. The big three-oh. Well, so be it. Who am I to fight against the inevitable forces of time and aging?

Funny thing about aging: Mike Kinsella was surprised that I was almost 29-yrs-old. He told Magdalene I looked like a baby. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we hung out with Mike Kinsella (aka: Owen) at the Maritime show @ Southpaw. We were talking with him at his show @ Irving Plaza and mentioned that we were going to see Maritime. He was jealous because they are friends of his, so we offered to let him come with us. He was surprised by the offer, and asked how he would get back, so we said we would drive him back afterwards. He wanted to come, but felt weird leaving his own show. In the end, after Appleseed Cast played, he decided to follow us in his car, since he didn't know how to get to Southpaw. Then he bought us drinks. We tried to buy him drinks, but he wouldn't let us. We chatted off-and-on during the night. It was a really amazing experience, since we are big Owen fans. Hanging out with Mike Kinsella made us see him as more than just the guy who is "Owen," who's CD's we listen to and enjoy. Now he is also just Mike Kinsella, a really cool guy we befriended. Such a good night.

This week is rough for me. I have a ton of things to do before the semester ends. I have work tomorrow morning, then two seminars at night. Friday is work, then Brand New. Saturday morning I take the LAST, then I work until 11pm. Sunday is work, then tons of work for my Monday class. Monday morning I'll do more work for my Monday class, then I'll go to class, then I'll work on things for Tuesdays class. My Monday morning class meets again on Wednesday, and I'll have more projects due. See? I'm even worn out from typing this. Ugh! Moving on...

Oh, this past Saturday, we went to a moustache party @ Austin & Virginia's apartment in Bushwick. What a hilarious night. I actually grew a dirty-stache for the event. Everyone had either a real or fake moustache, or they had a unibrow. The party was to celebrate their birthdays, since they are so close together.

Ok, it's late and, as always, I have work in the morning. Goodnight.

-Sergei xo

Song of the Day:
Owen - One of These Days