Christmas Time Is Here Again

I love buying gifts for people, but for some reason this year for Christmas I've been more successful at finding things for myself. I tend to call all purchase I make for myself during the month of December "Christmas presents for myself" (much like all purchases make in August are "birthday presents for myself"). I usually leave all of my Christmas shopping until the last minute anyway because I get excited and want to give the gifts right away. I basically have no self control where gifts are concerned (or in general, really).
Oh! And I also managed to get my hands on a copy of the vinyl of the Wassailing Song, which I'm super excited about! I've been listening to it non-stop!

Dinosaur days

Work has been pretty slow lately. Probably because most people have sort of checked out for the holidays. I've made a lot of paper snowflakes (some with dinosaurs on them) to decorate our office and have been drawing a lot of dinosaurs. It makes it look like I'm busy with paperwork when I'm not.

Wear Me Down

Guess who's sick again. Or possibly still, since I may not have every really gotten over pneumonia from this summer. So basically I've been feeling worn out all the time and haven't been working full days (edit: which my work has been super jerky about. So apparently it's fine for everyone to take a million years off for the holidays, but when I work from home in the afternoon because I'm sick, it's a big deal. Sorry, I just had to include that rant here, because my work is making me crazy and bitter.). It's also been super cold lately, although it might just be that I'm cold all the time because I'm sick. The last several days have involved a lot of blankets, a lot of listening to music, a lot of reading, and attempting to do Christmas shopping online.

Celine cries over Crow Sit on Blood Tree

Could it be? Is it already time for another installment of Celine cries over music? (I haven't been up to much lately and I'm home sick with a cold, so despite my earlier intention to spread these out so that people wouldn't have to deal with my gushing over music too often, I don't have anything else to post about.)


Crow Sit on Blood Tree by Graham Coxon (2001)

As difficult as it was to choose one Beatles album, it was possibly even harder to choose my favourite album from Graham's discography. If I'm honest, I could write a post for each of his albums (and who's to say I won't...). But this, if not consistently my favourite, is always a contender. I can't even properly articulate what it is about this album that makes it a favourite. On the whole it's rather melancholy and quiet, although there are some rock-ier numbers. It just feels honest and sincere, which is what I love most about Graham's music. He always seems to mean it, if you know what I mean. And the guitar playing is, of course, awesome.

My top tracks (without commentary because I've already gushed enough):

- Empty Word (This is one of my desert island discs. I love everything about this song. I love the lyrics; I love the slow build from the quiet start to the rock out at the end.)
- Big Bird
- Bonfires

Awkward

I may or may not wear this sweatshirt and Marimekko shirt all the time.

Two things (because my mind seems to work in lists):

1. I've come to realise I am pretty much incapable of not being awkward in photos. I don't really like taking my picture taken because I don't like smiling for the camera. I don't know why. I don't like smiling if I don't feel like it or something like that. So if I'm forced to pose, I usually make a face and ruin the picture and/or end up being super super awkward. Hands clenched into fists, pulling at the legs of my jeans, or just playing with my fingers.
I carved pumpkins with some friends for Halloween and we took pictures with our creations and for some reason I had fit of giggles and couldn't get it together. It took an embarrassing number of attempts in order to get one where I wasn't ruining it for everyone.

2. At the class I took last weekend, there were a bunch of teenagers and the instructor was talking about how when you're young you have to miss out on all these cool bands that play at 18+ or 21+ venues and he was like, "You guys know what I'm talking about" and pointed to me and the young kids. Um...too bad I was probably one of the oldest people there and am well over 21. Nothing awkward going on there. Just like the time a couple months ago when someone thought I was in the 7th grade.

Good times

Today consisted of: sleeping in, watching Harry Potter while eating cheese-less pizza, taking a long nap, listening to the thunder and rain outside, and turning up my music to drown out the sound of the rain. Not bad.

In possibly more exciting news:
1. Last weekend I went to a concert in a partially finished cathedral.
2. I got a skateboarding Spongebob in my cereal box. Except I didn't remember taking it out of the box and found it on the kitchen counter and then got confused as to who might have put it there. Weird, huh?
3. I found a limited edition box set of 13 at Easy Street. I already have one, but this way I figured I could hang up the poster without worrying about messing it up since I now have two! (It made sense to me at the time...)