The Hierophant

So I have pneumonia. [Every time I type that word I hear my father's voice say "pee-new-monia," which is how I remember which way to spell it.] Turns out I was sicker than I thought. The doc, who I finally got to today, gave me a stern talking-to for waiting so long, and then prescribed some horse pills to kill off the bugs in my chest. They took x-rays, blood, the whole works - I actually find all those things fascinating, i.e. watching my own blood fill up a vial or taking in a deep breath for an x-ray. I am fascinated by my insides, the silent mechanisms that move my fingers and aerate my brain. Don't you agree that, whether God made them or not, they are equally miraculous either way?

A big hurrah to Jessie! She completely obliterated her Praxis test, scoring somewhere in between Wonder Woman and Marie Curie (including a perfect score on her essay... I love a girl who can write). And here she was worried she'd failed. I simply laughed, acknowledged her completely unfounded self-doubt, and proceeded to feel crazily proud of her. Her school district is lucky to have her, and any one she applies to should have to ask extra nice. I forgot to ask her what her essay was on. I'll need to remedy that tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, Jess and I are heading to the Hotel Hershey, a five-star hotel in Hershey, PA (yes, the candy bar place), for a "Holiday Spectacular" package that includes a couples' massage, fancy dinner, Christmas lights, a swanky hotel room, and breakfast. It is going to be insatiably romantic and I'm so glad it's going to work out that we get to go. There was some doubt around my Apple schedule, so to have it all work out is a treat. We need a night alone.

Apple is going well. The other thrust (mmm...thrust) of this entry is days 2 and 3, both of which brought new challenges as well as cool experiences. Day 2 was a 10-hour monster after which I was seriously considering knee surgery. They had me stationed on iPod Express, which is basically a setup Apple has in the middle of the store specifically designed to sell iPods. The trick is the payment method, a device called an "EasyPay," which is hand-held and allows you to painlessly pay with a credit card. Well, see "painless" is a relative term - I find it rather annoying and slow, personally, but people love it. What I really like about it is the conversations you have while waiting for things to process. I made it a habit of finding out the status of people's Christmas shopping. One person could tell I was sick and recommended I check out "Z-pack," which sounds like either a medicine or a quantity of beer. My other favorite place to be in the store is in the "Etc." section, where they keep all there peripherals and goodies. If you need an FM Transmitter for you iPod, I know what to recommend.

I'm liking it so far. Keeping my mental commitment to a minimum, by which I mean I don't think about it when I'm not there and as such feel like I still have a life outside of it. It's also curbed my late-night habit of wandering eBay and Mac websites obsessing over their computers. On Wednesday Mat and I got together for a spot of dinner and some Christmas shopping. I only have Dad left to shop for now. I wrapped all of my other presents tonight, and now have quite a pile under the tree. If I got a pile this size for Christmas, I would be screaming like that kid in that BMW commercial. It's cool to think I can create this kind of thing for other people now, and am not just the receiver of such things.

Speaking of receivers, I just made an amazing purchase at Jerry's Records of "The Empire Strikes Back" LP. It's in great shape, and I had a blast last night playing it, sitting in front of my record player and enjoying the music. Sure, I have the whole thing on my iPod, but there's something so cool about having the music made right there in front of you, all that magic and mystery of a needle and a groove. That and I love the cover art, how the size reminds you of when you were a kid and everything was big in your hands.

Anyways, I must anon to bed. If I could have a Christmas wish, it would be for some snow, something to get me into the season. It's been so hot outside that the frigging grass is still green. In December. Global warming, woo. And here I wanted to go skiing this winter (you in, Jess? haha!). Hope you are getting into a Christmas mood and have something special planned for Monday.

yours,
m