January 5, 2011 9:25 AM Rochester Time

Alright, so here’s my next update (yeah, still behind, but I think I’m catching up).

On Thursday the 16^th, I went to a holiday party with Margie. Jersey, Tony, Urug, and the rest were there, in addition to many Physics majors I know. Margie and I took pictures in front of the Christmas tree they had there since we didn’t have a big one in our apartment. Their tree was decorated with shiny ornaments and candy canes, and we pretended that it was ours, posing accordingly. This made the hostesses laugh a bit.

Friday, most everyone went home. After acing my Biochemistry test, I took care of a few club activities and made a ‘nest’ on the couch in the living room. At four o’clock, the boys dropped by to say farewell before they headed home. After that, it was pretty uneventful. I watched TV and ate.

Saturday and Sunday were spent watching TV and eating (except for a small section of Sunday when I cleaned the apartment and packed my suitcase). On Monday, I got up and cleaned the apartment once last time after breakfast. I went to work, and a co-worker drove me to the airport after work.

I arrived home (Houston, Texas) at around 10pm local time, and I was exhausted. I spent most of Tuesday lying around the apartment and going shopping for food with my mother.

Over the next few days, I went to more grocery stores, had a dentist appointment, a doctor’s appointment, and went to the library. I got to eat dinner with my family every night – last year I prepared separate vegan meals. This year, my mom has made vegan food every night – with the option of meat for the others.

On Christmas Eve, we spent the day preparing food and relaxing. Christmas Eve dinner is called kucios (spelling varies, though there should be a line above the u and an upside down ^ over the c). It’s a meatless day (abstinence and fasting happens the day before a religious holiday), and there are generally 13 dishes for dinner, including smoked fish, cooked fish, beets, poppy seed milk, boiled potatoes, and the ‘host’ bread they serve at church.

Our menu this year included (with a * denoting vegan options):
Smoked Salmon (I had a piece about half the size of a credit card – it was very salty)
Hummus with Homemade Tortilla Chips (not salted)*
Grilled Korean Eel (I had two pieces totaling to about the size of a credit card – it was very good!)
Boiled Potatoes*
Bread Balls with Poppy Seed Milk (vegan since no milk is used in the process)*
Pickled Herring (I had a piece about half the size of a credit card – very vinegar-y)
Lithuanian Bread – Dark Rye, Pumpernickel, and Rye with Nuts (all were vegan)*
Baked Mahi-Mahi
Tossed Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette*
Sliced Cheese (a variety)
Mushrooms Sauteed with Onions and Garlic*
Whitefish Salad (comprised of a creamy sauce, cabbage, and a lot of whitefish)
Potato and Apple Salad (traditionally made with sour cream sauce, but vinegar was used instead)*
Fruit Compote (boiled down fruits seasoned with spices like cardamom and cinnamon)*

Dinner was superb, and I could tell my family really went out of their way to make sure I would have ‘enough’ to eat – you know, since everyone has to over-eat like crazy on kucios.

Christmas morning, I went to church with my parents, and then we emptied our stockings on the floor. I had quite a few peanuts and small pieces of candy. I also got a small bag in the shape of Totoro – an animated fuzzy character from one of my favorite children’s movies My Neighbor Totoro, which is about Japanese children playing with forest spirits. I got some fancy vegan dark chocolate, a large apple, and an orange. There was a sketch pad and three varieties of tea.

Then we made breakfast (a tradition in our household is to drink hot chocolate before the stockings and eat breakfast before the actual presents), and I scrambled some tofu and ate it with salsa in tortillas. Everyone took a little of my tofu to taste it, and I didn’t mind since I had made an awful lot. They agreed that it had the texture of eggs, but tasted more like a spiced sausage. And it kinda smelled like cheese.

I’m not going to run through all of my presents, but I did get two watches, some clothes, and a stuffed weasel. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the presents I got them, though my parents were a bit put off when they saw what I got them (mostly they were worried about the price I had paid). But I think it was worth it to make up for refusing to come home the past year. And I haven’t gotten them birthday presents in forever.

I have spent most of my time reading recipe books and in the kitchen. My mom has mentioned several times that I am addicted to food, and its kinda true. Well, food and fantasy. I started reading some of my old stories that I wrote in high school – some of them are better than I remembered. I started to write a new one, but didn’t get far before writer’s block popped up. I ended up rewriting an old story instead for several hours on Monday.

I couldn’t find half of the old stories I had, which is a bit worrisome because they were the terrible ones. I probably threw them out in a rage a year ago or something, but I can’t remember doing that. I did manage to find some old papers I wrote for school, and my senior year of high school, we had to write something every week about ourselves and turn it in. Most of them were just about my favorite songs, pictures, etc, and I started reading those. I don’t remember writing half of them, so it was like reading someone else’s work and thinking – man, I could really relate to this girl!

One of the poems I wrote was supposed to be about a trial I had to go through and overcome. I wrote about auditioning for Region Orchestra (which was quite competitive in my district since we had three of the top fifty high school orchestras in my region – one of which was mine). Here’s a few excerpts:

Daughter of ***** and ****, sister of *****,
I come before you to play this most challenging piece.
This sorrowful, sweet Mazas etude
Decreed by these fair judges to be
The audition material on which the decision comes
On which lowly soul will be honored with
Making Region Orchestra.
……(skip to the next part)….
It is the fruit of
Seven years of toil on this auburn viola.
My partner and sole companion, bought by a
Mother’s love and a Father’s paycheck,
Is the instrument on which I will
Play these treacherous pieces for you;
And no other will suit me.
……(skip ahead)…..
In short, Auburn, for that is what I have named this
Mellow bringer of song and sorrow,
Will be the weapon I choose to
Play this piece for you.
And without any further ado,
Mazas I will bring to you.

It was a completion grade and had to be over thirty? Forty? Fifty? lines long. I have no recollection of writing this, but it clearly has my name at the top – dated October 4, 2007. It’s not even that long ago… wait, that’s over three years. Man, how time flies!

Right now (Tuesday December 28?), I’m typing this on my laptop to save. I don’t have Internet right now, so I’ll probably add onto another post later about the days that will happen between when I post this and now. Basically, I’m either reading cookbooks, making my own recipes, or reading old things I wrote years ago. Or food shopping with my mom – I’ve been in grocery stores at least 6 times in the past week.

I hope you’ve spent your holidays relaxing and avoiding your homework like me! (Actually, I’ve done about half of my take-home exam, but I don’t want to finish ‘cause I left the hard stuff for the end).

Take good care of your body, and eat some nuts and dried fruit!