1-1-11!

Honestly, I was worried that I'd forget to post today, thereby BLOWING the whole 365 thing. But I remembered! I'm so proud of myself.

It's been one of those rainy, dreary, curl-up-and-read days over here, so (of course) I gave into my inherent laziness :) My dad was in the den installing a wall mount for our TV, and I hung out in there for a massive part of the day. One of my puzzles is in there, and I brought a book or two in there and chilled out between the times he needed me to lift things or fetch him red Sharpies or whatever. My kinda day.

I finished one of my Christmas books today, a little nonfiction bit called The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. Let's see what Amazon has to say about this little beauty:

At age 34, Bailey was stricken with a mysterious virus while on a trip to Europe. Her healthy life had been full of activity, and now just the thought of getting up to get something was exhaustive. When a friend found some violets and brought her one in a pot, she also added a live snail below the violet’s leaves.

Bailey wondered why she needed a snail, but after square holes began to appear in a letter propped on the violet’s pot, it occurred to Bailey that the snail needed food. She put a withered flower in the saucer below, and when the snail began to eat, Bailey realized that she could hear it eating—it was the sound of someone very small munching on celery.

Soon the author realized she was attached, the snail providing an oasis of calm for her frantic and frustrated thoughts. She worried that the snail’s world was too artificial, so her caregiver created a woodland terrarium. Not only did the snail have a new home but Bailey had a new game: hide-and-seek with a snail.

She began to read about snails, learning from scientists, early naturalists, poets, and writers, and found herself beginning to understand a snail’s world. And when her snail began to lay eggs, Bailey discovered that she might be the first person to record observations of a snail tending its eggs.

This beautiful little book will not only make snail lovers of its readers, it will make them appreciate the small things in life.

Not the most well-written review, but it's better than anything I could have come up with. The book's so sweet, and I really loved Bailey's little insights into things we can learn from a snail. If either of you would like to borrow it, I'd be more than happy to pass it on :)

Anyways, so I finished that book, made some headway on my puzzle, messed around with my new Christmas iTouch a little bit (I'm still figuring everything out, but I looooove it.) Around 6:30 we picked up my grandfather and swung by a friend's house to visit their little New Year's/football party, then we met Aunt and Cousin for sushi downtown. My adventure of the evening - trying octopus, which definitely still had little suckers and everything. It was actually pretty good - super chewy, but it tasted a bit like calamari. Which would make sense, I guess, haha.

You've probably noticed by now how much time I spend with my family, at least how much time I've spent with them over break. Our little dinner/outing group usually consists of the four of my immediate family (Mom, Dad, Sister, Me), my dad's brother's family (Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin), and my dad's father (Grandfather, believe it or not. It's just easier to refer to them by titles so you don't have to keep track of who's who.) Uncle is hunting in Texas, so he's been missing out on our little holiday shenanigans, and Grandfather missed NYE bowling because he was eating out with "people his own age," but normally we're all together. My grandmother was also an integral part of the group, but she passed away in early September. We definitely miss her.

Anyways, I'm just chilling out now, finishing burning Em's CD (yusss) and Eller's copy of the Tron soundtrack that I promised her. But I hear some peppermint ice cream calling me from the kitchen, so I may be running off to do something else shortly ;)

Quick note: I'm not going to go into super-detail right now (peppermint ice cream calls loudly), but I had a little self-victory tonight at sushi-dinner. My family tends to get me more anxious than anyone else, especially when we're all eating out, but tonight I didn't let it get to me when I felt tension building. I took a deep breath and accepted the fact that I was frustrated and ticked off and anxious...and it actually worked. I mean, I was still f/t/a, but I didn't feel like I was about to claw my skin off. Score for Louise :)