Blatherings of an Extroverted Bookworm

Well, our apartment is clean, roast pork, arroz con gandules, and macaroni & cheese are ready to be eaten; chicken is roasting in the oven. My family should be trickling in soon, with their crazy Puerto Rican ways :P. Hopefully the drama will be low. Oh, and a Christmas miracle! My borderline agoraphobic mother will be coming. Wow. Tomorrow, fings and I have to haul ass to the train station in Hoboken to take the train to Raritan so we can spend tomorrow with his side of the family. Christmas craziness :). But in a good way! A Very Merry Christmas Eve & Christmas Day/Yule to all who celebrate!!

I received a new camera for Christmas! I got it about a week and a half ago, and I finally had fings set it up for me; a Canon A720IS. YAY, 8 megapixels!!!

I will report more Christmas loot tomorrow :).

The Raven
A long time ago, the Raven looked down from the sky and saw that the people of the world were living in darkness. The ball of light was kept hidden by a selfish old chief. So the Raven turned himself into a spruce needle, and floated on the river where the chief's daughter came for water. She drank the spruce needle. She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, who was the Raven in disguise. The baby cried and cried until the chief gave him the ball of light to play with. As soon as he had the light, the Raven turned back into himself. The Raven carried the light into the sky. From then on, we no longer lived in darkness.
From "Northern Exposure", season 3 episode "Seoul Mates," as told by Marilyn Whirlwind.

*******************************************************************************************

A Tlingit Tale:

In the beginning there was no moon or stars. Raven was the most powerful being. He had made all of the animals, fish, trees, and men. He had made all living creatures. But they were all living in darkness because he had not made the sun. One day, Raven learned that there was a chief living on the banks of the river who had a very beautiful daughter who possessed the sun, the moon, and the stars in a carved cedar box.
The chief and his people protected her and the treasure. Raven knew that he must trick the villagers to steal their treasure, so he decided to turn himself into a grandchild of the great chief. Raven flew upon a tall tree over their house and turned himself into a hemlock needle. Then, as the needle, he fell into the daughter's drinking cup, she drank the needle. Inside the chief's daughter, Raven became a baby and soon the young woman bore a son who was dearly loved by the chief and was given whatever he asked for. The stars, moon and the sun were each in a beautifully carved cedar box which sat on the floor of the house. The grandchild, Raven, wanted to play with them and wouldn't stop crying until the grandfather gave them to him. As soon as he had them Raven threw them up through the smokehole. Instantly, they scattered across the sky. While the chief was unhappy, he loved his grandson too much to punish him for what he had done. Now that he had tossed out the stars and moon, the little grandson began crying for the box containing sunlight. He cried and cried and would not stop. Finally, the grandfather gave him the box. Raven played with the box for a long time. Suddenly, he turned himself back into a bird and flew up through the smokehole with the box. Once he was far away from the village he heard people speaking in the darkness and approached them. "Who are you and would you like to have light?" he asked them. They said that he was a liar and that no one could give light. To show them that he was telling the truth, Raven opened the ornately carved box and let sunlight into the world. The people were so frightened by it that they fled to every corner of the world. This is why there are Raven's people everywhere. Now there are stars, the moon, and daylight and it is no longer dark all of the time.

Just got back from seeing a private advance screening of the Sweeney Todd movie. My friend Chris and I got to sing like loud & obnoxious assholes along with the movie, we were the only ones in the theatre---it was heaven! We LOVED the movie. ( Vaguely, possibly but not really very spoilerish ) OK, it's way to fucking late, goodnight y'all!

I won the husband lottery! When I got back to bed after my last post, fings "talked me down" (basically, he gives me a guided relaxation) like he often does when I have trouble falling asleep and it worked. Didn't sleep as much as I would have liked, but the sleep I did get was good and got me through the day :).

My alarm is set to go off at 7:30am, and I have to be at the day care center at 8:30am where I'll be in charge of 4 kids between the ages of 4 and 17 months until 3:30pm. Fuckarama. I've had a long day of doing chores and I'm exhausted. So why am I not sleeping? Wish I knew. Goddamn insomnia. Well, I'd better go and try again for some zzzzzzzzz's.

Oh, historical fiction--how I love you <3.

I have been drinking WAAAAAY TOO MUCH FUCKING SODA lately. Yeah, I suck. Dammit.

I just realized that one of my celebrity "crushes" bears a strong resemblance to someone I dated 5+ years ago. How the HELL did I not notice that in all of these years? I feel kinda weird.