December 26
Lunch/Clearance

Listening to: Still the Christmas stuff

Reading: Jewels of the Sun Nora Roberts

Weather: 37, sunny

Trivia:What's the tallest island on Earth?

The tallest island is New Guinea, in the southwest Pacific just north of Australia. Its highest point is the top of Mount Djaja, at 5030 meters (16,503 feet). New Guinea wins the title hands down, towering 825 meters above the next tallest island, Hawaii. New Guinea is not only the world's tallest island, it is also the second largest (Greenland is larger), measuring 885,780 square kilometers (342,000 square miles). It is mostly covered with lush tropical rainforest containing almost 9000 species of plants and 700 species of birds. New Guinea also is the most linguistically diverse area on Earth. Over 700 languages are still spoken by the native Melanesians,Papuans, and Negritos. In some remote sections of the interior, headhunting and cannibalism are still practiced.

Cool word: harbinger [n. HAR-bin-jer]

Someone or something that indicates or foreshadows a future event is a harbinger. Near synonyms include portent, precursor, herald, and omen. Example: "We did not know it at the time, but that windy, rainy storm was a harbinger of the devastating winter that was on its way." In the twelfth century a harbinger was an innkeeper, someone who provided overnight lodging. In the following century, the meaning shifted, and the harbinger was the person who was sent ahead to seek lodgings, often for a group of royal or military travellers. In the 1500s, the meaning shifted again, to the more abstract modern sense of a forerunner of upcoming events.


I met Cathy for lunch today, and it ended up being fine. I guess she was just in a mood when I called last night.

She talked and talked about her ex and how she’d finally made peace with him and that they were in a comfortable place now, and could have normal conversations and not feel so much pain.

This past week was the ninth anniversary of their son’s death and I guess they had lots of communication between them that seems to have eased Cathy’s mind.

I’m glad she’s finally gotten to that point.

I can’t say that lunch was ver eventful or interesting. Sadly it just felt like one more duty that is now accomplished.



From there I toddled to the stores. First Border’s as there was a stamping book I wanted and that no one gave me for Christmas, and I also needed a calendar. I usually get several calendars for Christmas, this year nary a one. But that was fine. It always seems stupid to me to pay twelve bucks for a calendar before Christmas when you can get them for half price the day after Christmas.

I found two that I liked. One is a Victoriana calendar, and that will go next to the phone in the dining area. The other is a crazy series of paintings of New York City, which one will get put up near the computer.

I also got the 365 Cats desk calendar for school.



I also went to the craft stores to see what Christmas things were left. Not much. Nothing worth buying at least, just a few stickers. I don’t know what I was hoping to find, but there was nothing that interested me.

Then I went to Barnes and Noble in search of a magazine, but it wasn’t in yet. Michael’s magazine was there, though, so I sat and read his two latest articles.

I might not ever hear from him these days, but I still have to read his thoughts.

It’s a sad state of affairs that I’m in.



Now I’ve decided that I’m getting a cold, which is fairly typical for me. I get a vacation – I get sick. I’m really irritated about this so I’m sucking down vitamin C and zinc. Anything to ward this off.



I wrote my resignation from the emcee committee tonight and sent it to the director and committee chair.

I also wrote a very lengthy letter to the director explaining my reasons and expressing the disappointment and hurt that I feel because of the way things have been handled.

I called Dee and read it to her, the hit the "send" button before I could change my mind. It was a fairly strong letter and it may cause some ripples. Or not. The director is not one who seems to care about people’s feelings.

But it’s done.



I think I’m going to journey to my stamp store tomorrow. I didn’t get any stamping stuff for Christmas and I need a fix.

For now I’m going to take a shot of Nyquil and hit the sack.

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