Christmas Break!

Yes! This extremely busy day is finally over and Christmas break can begin. I would recount all of the busy happenings of the day, but that would just make me go *whew* and fall asleep in my exceptionally comfortable chair. Instead, I'm going to list my "favorites" of the Christmas season. This post will probably be followed by a post from Matt, so I'll try not to make it too long. Speaking of which, Matt needs to read my blog . http://walkawayrene.blogspot.com/

FAVORITE CHRISTMAS . . .

Childhood present: Harry Potter lego set (or any legos, I was obsessed) and my N-64
Not-so-childhood present: Europe trip (my parents paid for half of it)
Carol: O Holy Night; nothing compares
Weather: about 5 inches of heavy, good packing snow on the ground and heavy flakes coming down all day
Over-commercialized symbol: Christmas trees. There is little in this world as wonderful as walking into a dark room with a lit Christmas tree.
Meal: Prime rib, along with other traditional holiday foods we serve in my family
Church moment: Midnight mass at my old church was AMAZING. The chamber orchestra used to play midnight mass and I loved watching them when I was little.When I got older, I played with them and it was twice as fun. There is something so holy and sacred about midnight mass. It's hard to describe, but it's the sort of thing that gives me shivers.
Touching Memory: Two years ago, my family's friends were at mass with us. They had a son who had been in Iraq and was back on leave. His wife had died giving birth to their daughter and so it especially nice for the little girl to be with her only parent on Christmas. Before mass, the priest had asked him to give a small speech about thankfulness, which he did. It was the most beautiful speech I have ever heard. After his speech, the priest blessed the man and prayed for his safety. It was so . . . honest. It really put things in perspective. I was crying, and it takes a lot for me to cry. *sniff*

I could go on and on about my favorite Christmas things, but I won't because I'm tired. Christmas has a special aura around it. There is nothing else out there like the feeling Christmas gives. And Christmas is coming on Sunday!!!!!

A Weekend Post!

Last night, Matt and I discussed cool things we could do with this blog and we decided that it shouldn't be limited to just Wednesday Writings. So I've decided to post the first ever weekend post!

So, we saw chronicles of Narnia last night after the basketball game. It was AMAZING! They stuck to the books very nicely and the scenes were all very well done. The white witch was super creepy and had neat dreads. What amazed me was how close the scenery was to how I pictured Narnia in the books. Me gusto mucho. I'm pretty sure Matt liked it too, although we spent the whole movie making fun of the characters, lines, ect. I make sarcastic comments with almost every movie I see, even if I really like it, so this wasn't out of the ordinary for me. I think Matt might have this tendency too, because he was a willing participant when we saw I Heart Huckabees and Narnia. What else happened? Let's see . . . Matt felt unmanly because I paid for him (we didn't know we were going to the movie tonight and he didn't have any money with him) and gave him a ride. I secretly thought it was funny but was just happy he could go.

While we were at the movie we saw my Half-cousin Danielle. She freaked out when she saw us together and I'm pretty sure she thinks we're dating now. We arn't of course, but it's hard to stop people thinking that after a rumor has been started.

As we were driving back to the school to get Matt's car, we talked about the movie and getting drunk with a mutual friend. When we got back to the school, we had some fun playing around with the parking lot lights (which are timed, not sensor activated as we originally thought) and running around like idiots. At about 12:00 we finally left.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun. Lately, when I hang out with Matt I feel like I need his approval. This is a new feeling for me because I don't really seek approval from people. I mean, everyone seeks approval in some areas of life, but this is different. It goes much deeper then just wanting him to like me. I used to think it stemmed from residual thoughts that he hated me, but I know that's not it. I don't feel tempted to change or to do or say different things to get it, but it bothers me because I don't know what causes it. To quote Pride and Prejudice, "I cannot bear to think that he is alive in the world and thinking ill of me". This pretty much sums up how I feel, though the context of the quote isn't very helpful because the reason Elizabeth feels like that is because she is in love with Mr. Darcy. Point being, last night I just felt relaxed and happy instead of tense about the whole approval thing and I had a good time.

Well, I have to go do some Christmas shopping, so I must be off. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Mandarins . . . Fruit of the gods

Hello!

My name is Sarah Zora, and I am the other half of "Matt and Sarah's Weekly Wednesday Writings". Matt was right in his earlier post, we are rather freakishly alike and I don't mind having my last name posted. :)

So, Matt and I decided last night that we should write down everything we talk about on Wednesday nights because . . . well, we have some interesting conversations. Also, I personally think it will be cool to look back later on at what we talk about. I didn't think Matt would start the blog that night, but he did, and here I am. Anyway, about last night . . .

We started off the evening by going to Safeway for some food. I personally think that going to Safeway at 9:00 at night is super fun, but then again I have no life. Matt and I go to safeway often on Wednesday nights and I'm sure the clerk who is ALWAYS there thinks we are freaks. I can't say that I blame her. We usually buy really weird stuff like breath mints and mandarins. We also have odd conversations or look for the lowest unit prices of non-perishable goods, which can't help things. As we were passing the ice cream case we decided to buy a new flavor of Ben and Jerry's next week. I'm pysched.

Hmmm . . . So, while we were at Safeway, Matt told me that he had told his voice teacher he was hesitant to spend time with me. At first I was a little unsure of how to take it, but he explained a little more and I wasn't mad. I wasn't really mad to begin with, just curious by what he had meant. I've been trying really hard lately not to get prematurely angry or defensive because while I'm pretty controlled most of the time, sometimes it does happen.

So, while eating some delicious goodies from safeway, we talked about people who are elitist and how uppity this year's freashman are. I felt immensly vindicated afterwards and then the topic of conversation turned to jean buying. After that, we were planning to go to Matt's car to listen to his ipod, but the minute we stepped outside, we were inspired to take a walk.

It was an absolutly magnificant night. The moon was so bright the mountains were clear like they are right before dawn. Soooooooo pretty. It was almost the best thing ever. You just can't fight the moonlight. On our walk, we practiced sliding on the streets because there weren't any cars, though Matt totally schooled me because his shoes were better . *sniff* Then, we practiced skipping really high and silent walking/running like spies. It was very fun, but in the end we had to go home because our parents would worry.

All in all, last night's conversation was not nearly as "deep" as our usual ones, but I had a great time. When I got home, I was in a giddy, almost high mood which I can almost describe as being totally happy, despite the fact I still had to finish a lot of homework. The again, Wednesday nights have been very happy lately.

Oh! I almost forgot. Kudos to Matt for:

-his excellent science fair project idea.It sounds amazing! I'm very interested to see how it turns out.
-Tom Cruise-like sliding skills
-taking a walk with me at night (because night walks are the best thing EVER!!!!)

12/14/05

Hurray! Hooray! The first post! Such an important time for any fledgling blog!

Tonight we went to the store and bought candy (Sarah a Cookies & Cream bar and myself Nestle Turtles), a sub sandwich for my hungry self, and some mandarins to share.

Earlier tonight, the Hamilton High School class of '06 made heroic efforts to win the food drive, so after donating to them, I was curious about low unit prices ($/lb), so we went around and found the lowest price items. If you're having a food drive, keep this in mind. Here are the top four, cheapest first:

1. Generic flour
2. Generic sugar
3. Generic fruit cocktail
4. Generic hominy (either golden or white)

Yeah... the generics are both obvious and redundant. In this case, it was Safeway.

We returned to the car, ate our goods, and went back to the church. We still weren't quite done talking, so we went on a walk. On the way, we had some fun sliding on the ice and admiring the beautiful night. My shoes were Doc Martens and I had some fun sliding. Hers had better traction and made sliding tougher. We skipped, jumped, and got back. My mom called, worried about me, so I went home.

Let's see... we talked about how alike we are... I shared that I felt a little weird hanging out with her because we are so much alike that I keep seeing minor inconsistencies in my behavior (through her behavior) I thought I had fixed, so it's always a little disappointing to discover such unfortunate things about myself.

She shared with me the complicated process of how women buy jeans and we talked about "fashionable" people and unfashionable people at our school.

Anyway, I need to update my own blog, and she'll be updating this soon too, so laterz!!!!111 (jk).

Intro to us

Hello!

My name is Matt Lyons, and I'm also writing on behalf of Sarah. I'm not sure she would want her last name posted... actually, we're freakishly alike, so she probably wouldn't care, but just to be safe I won't post her last name until later.

Just to give you a little background--she moved here this year from Denver and we are involved in a lot of the same things, one of which is the St. Francis Singers choir at (amazingly!) St. Francis Catholic Church. Each Wednesday the choir practices from 7:15-9:00 p.m., and afterwards it has become our tradition to have discussions. Sometimes these discussions turn into trips to the grocery store to buy chocolate or mandarins or sub sandwiches, sometimes we go on walks, sometimes they're just talks.

Today we decided to start a blog for our walk... the title is a little misleading, because the talks are definitely talks, not writing. But... we are going to be writing about the talks and what we talked and did and thought about. We can understand each other better that way and also maybe it'll be entertaining to someone who's bored and surfing Blogspot.

For the record--no, Sarah and I are not romantically involved. We're just friends who have started this tradition.

Also, we may start posting Kudos to each other (or to ourselves =D) to congratulate each other on whatever we may have done lately. They should be totally independent posts, so I'll retroactively give myself some Kudos after posting this.

Anyway, this is an intro. To follow is my account of tonight's talk.