Ugly Sweaters

So ugly sweaters are a major theme during the holidays, I recently just went to an ugly sweater party. It was great; we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and did a Yankee Swap, I came with chocolates and left with better chocolates.

I don’t pay a lot of attention to Holiday traditions so I began to wonder, how many people actually own ugly Christmas sweaters? Why are those sweaters even made? What constitutes as ‘ugly’? And I determined that the sole purpose was entirely for the ugly sweater parties.

But then it becomes like the question of the chicken and the egg, which came first, the ugly sweater or the ugly sweater party? And where did the first ugly sweater come from? How ugly was the first ugly sweater?

Personally, I don’t own any ugly sweaters so I ended up going to the ugly sweater party in a sweater of decent appearance; someone scolded me for it too. I should probably work on attaining more ugly sweaters to avoid awkward situations at any future sweater parties.

Finally, Does anyone else deliberately wear ugly sweaters during this season? Or attend any parties of the theme? As someone who is new to the trend I’m slightly curious as to how many other people actually participate instead of making jokes or references to it.

Christmas Endings and Beginnings

It really doesn't feel like Christmas now. There's no tree up this year, and the weather is surprisingly warm, so all of the usual signals that it's Christmas are absent. I'm just about done with my gift making/wrapping and have tried putting on Christmas music to get myself in the mood but it feels a little forced.

I'm hoping that getting down to the new place - which is decorated and Christmas-y - will help get me into the spirit, as will having a lot of time with family over Christmas and the following week; I get to go visit my boyfriend's family, my sister and new nephew, and finally come back to the city for New Year's Eve.

While I wouldn't necessarily wish it on anyone, it's kind of nice that my family's all broke because there isn't a large expectation for presents. I think the consumeristic Christmas bubble broke last year, when I spent the holidays stressing out because I couldn't afford both to buy all the things asked of me and afford food, and one elder sister was having trouble coming up with money for bills but didn't tell anyone.

The only thing I'm nervous about is one particular present this year. I've felt really hurt by one of my siblings who has inexplicably given me a hard time for making presents and expressed the expectation that one day I'll grow up and buy more things (this is inexplicable because she also makes some presents, isn't exchanging gifts with me this year, and just listened to me have a conversation about what to buy with my present partner).

I'm sending her a package filled with handmade gifts (well, except for the customary lotion-as-stocking-stuffer).

I'm not being passive-aggressive, I promise! I made sure they were all things that suit her tastes and needs, and I'm hoping to make the whole thing into a joke to ease some of the tension. But I realize that it's a tricky line to walk and that this could all blow up in my face, so I'm still trying to figure out whether to call or leave a letter in the package, bring the gift with me when I visit or send it in the mail, etc. It's tricky.

Wish me luck, nerdfighters, and DFTBA over the holidays! I'll see you guys just before the end of 2011.

My Christmas

I feel quite strangely un-festive this year. We’ve only had a small amount of snow this year, which never last that long, only a day or so. And I don’t finish college until the 23rd which doesn’t leave much time for me to kick back and relax and watch a lot of Christmas TV.

I think TV on Christmas day is probably one of my favourite parts of the day, the BBC is by far the best with great movies and Christmas specials. I’m fairly sure the TV is on all day on Christmas even if no one is actually watching it. And of course theres the Doctor Who Christmas special which I always look forward to every year.

And food too is massive part of my Christmas, I think I spend the majority of the eating even after I’ve finished our big Christmas dinner. I just stuff myself with cheese and cake and chocolate and whatever is laying around. It’s obviously not the best thing to do but I really can’t help it.

Really I’m not bothered about the gift giving part of day at all, like I really don’t care about it at all. I’m much more happy to just spend my day with my family watching TV and stuffing my face full of crap. To me that’s really what Christmas is about.

Making Christmas

I love Christmas.  I love everything about Christmas.  I love Christmas decorations, and Christmas food, and Christmas music.  I like the weather here around Christmas - refreshingly cold but not freezing, with just the right amount of snow.  I like family get-togethers, and I like all the time spent baking and cooking and getting ready, and I like the general cozy and cheerful atmosphere of Christmas.

This year is kind of odd in that it doesn't really feel like Christmas yet, even though it's less than two weeks away.  This year is actually the latest that I've had to do exams since high school, so I haven't been able to indulge in Christmasness as much as I usually do.  And the fact that we've had an abnormally mild December and only got one snowfall, back in November, really hasn't helped.  Also since I live with strangers I don't have a ton of Christmas decorations like I always did at home and when I had an apartment with friends.  I do have these two little friends on my windowsill though:

I also tried to make a TARDISflake during a study break earlier, but I gave up because I didn't have anything that was sharp and small enough to cut out all those fiddly little windows.  Here it is anyway:

I am listening to Christmas music now and it's helping a little bit.  Plus on Saturday I'm going to see the Nutcracker, so if I'm not in a Christmas mood after that there must be something wrong with me.

The Value of College

Since there's no other posts here this week, I thought I'd post something I've been thinking about for a little bit.

As tuition rises everywhere, and unemployment increases, I've heard a lot of talk about whether college is worth the time and money that it requires. For awhile I've been of the impression that, aside from certain fields (I'm not sure what to call them, but things like lawyers/doctors/therapists/etc that require a significant knowledge base and training that would be unavailable or incomplete without a post-grad education), the main value of college is getting to hold up a piece of paper to an employer and point out that you managed to get through 4+ years of school competently (or as a really good faker).

Over Thanksgiving break, my boyfriend drove both of us down to be with his family for the holiday. With a long car ride ahead of me I worked on a knitting project, and about half way through the ride realized that I'd made a mistake. We got into a conversation about whether or not I should go back and redo it, and he commented that after all of his work in applied computer graphics he'd learned that it is far better to go back and start again when there's a mistake than to try to fix it halfway through and get a shoddy product.

That got me thinking about things that can be learnt in college that are either not the emphasis of the major being taken, or that can be applied to many things outside of it. This is layered with some thoughts I've been having about the sustainability of my job, since it seems that most people in my position either go back to school to move higher up into positions that don't currently appeal to me, or move on to something else.


So here are things that I learned as a pre-credential teaching student that are still applicable even though I'm not a teacher:

• how to either plan out everything wisely, or deal with crunch time to get them done (I'd say the former is healthier than the latter, but without at least one of these I wouldn't get anything done).
• how to deal with conflict in a professional setting - even though I don't like it - by being clear about my own intentions and expectations, and working with someone else on what can be done better next time or to prevent the situation at all.
• that I don't have to only rely on my own creativity and knowledge. Google is my friend, as are blogs dedicated to niche subjects. In school, I used this to look up lesson plan ideas; now I use those same skills to troubleshoot technology, figure out how to make something, or find creative ways to engage the kids I work with.
• that there are always going to be people that I have to work with even when I don't want to. Whether it's a client's parent now or a slacker group member in school, I've gotten significantly better at seeing things from their perspective to be able to get through the interaction (and sighing a breath of relief when it's over).
• how to correct mistakes. I was lucky enough to have several teachers that, after grading our papers, handed them back to us and had us revise them. As annoying as this was at the time, it helped ensure that I wouldn't keep making the same mistakes. While I'm not writing a whole lot of papers now, this makes it easier to adjust when I receive feedback or procedures change at work.
• how to write in a formal tone. This is helpful for resumes, work emails, or trying to sound smart if I'm with someone I want/need to impress (I still write clearer than I speak, but college has helped).

That's all I can think of for now, but I think that's a list that alters my life significantly. (And just so we're clear, I also learned a lot of specific knowledge and skills related to teaching, and while I don't use it, having that stored helps me make connections when I learn something else that is relevant to my life).

What have you learned so far through college? Do you think it will still be applicable outside of college, or if you end up on a different career path?

Thoughts from Nostalgia

I've been feeling pretty nostalgic lately as I'm getting ready to move since I've lived here my entire life. It's a fairly bipolar feeling, since I end up being excited to move to a city one day, and freaked out and sad the next because I don't want to end up leaving my friends and the only place I've ever really known.

I have a bucket list of sorts, people to see, places to go, before I leave. On Friday it happened that the person I was meeting up with got delayed, and so I got to cross something off my list that I didn't think I would have the chance to.

I wandered over to a local ice cream and candy shop that I haven't been to in at least a decade. I ordered a simple sundae and sat on a bench outside to eat it as I watched the wind rip through the street and the miscellaneous passersby.

There's nothing inherently special about that place, but it immediately brought me back to long summer evenings spent with my family out on those benches, eating and laughing before going home after a long day and falling into bed. Of course the memories are blurry, just like most memories, but comforting nonetheless.

Yet as much as I want to cling on to these places, I think it's probably time for me to move on. I've realized that a greater and greater portion of my conversations are about the past - people that used to be friends, shared experiences from years past, etc. That rapport is great to have since the common experiences create a foundation for other communication, but I can't help but think that I should be looking forward too, not just back.

The things I'm nostalgic about and that I'll miss the most are really all about the people attached to them and not so much the thing or event themselves. When I'm feeling optimistic, I think about the fact that I'll now have all sorts of room to create new memories with new people. And, there's always the bonus that I haven't ever really been able to experience the feeling of going away and then coming home to a familiar place, since I've never left.

So please pardon me if my next few blogs are sappy and/or overly nostalgic, I'm assuming that's just part of this transition and that as I settle in and create new relationships and memories it will start to lessen.