i'm nothing but trouble, baby.

It has been a rollercoaster couple of days for me. However, there is much to look forward to in the next few days: The Office baby episode, Oscars, and the final two episodes of Numb3rs. Which, thanks to Spring Break, I will most definitely be back home for.

Also, it's that time of year again:

So NBC's official site for The Office has this little thing called "The 12 Days of Christmas" wherein each of the characters reveal what they'll be doing for the holidays. Andy and Creed's are spot-on in terms of characterization and Erin's is absolutely adorable, but I've really been waiting for the Jim and Pam one - they only reveal one each day. Sure enough, today was their day:

I'm pregnant this year, so this will be Jim and my last Christmas where it's just the two of us. Even though the baby hasn't been born, we couldn't resist getting a stocking and filling it with goodies. We don't know the sex, so it's filled with unisex toys: a ball, Big Bird raddle, and Raggedy Ann Doll (Jim's idea of unisex). We got a baby bulb too. It says, “Baby’s first Christmas”, and I added, “In my belly” with a sharpie. We’ve also taken a photo of our baby with Santa - we went to the mall and asked Santa to hold our ultrasound photo up while we snapped a picture - it’s going on the Christmas card.


At 6 months pregnant it isn't easy for me to move around, so Jim will have to do most of the cooking, cleaning and shopping. And he's taller, so it's easier for him to put up the Christmas decorations too. I'm still doing my share; I'm making the shopping list and writing the Christmas cards to my side of the family (featuring a photo of the ultra sound). It's going to be hard on me, but I'll make the most of it ;)

Adorable, right? Between this and the scene in the Producer's Cut of "Secret Santa", we are getting such great stuff - although I am disappointed it's not actually on television. COME ON, SHOW. (Also, I am perfectly at peace with Jim and Pam not knowing the sex, both from a character perspective and a show perspective. It provides an element of surprise for both them and the viewers of the show; gives the writers more time to come to a conclusion - helpful if the team of writers are in disagreement; and there's less of a chance that people will come out hating the chosen sex until the baby's already here. Though still very, very annoyed by the fact that the birth won't be shown until March because of the Olympics. That was a bad decision on all fronts.)

Ugh, I wanted to do a "Woo-hoo, I'm home, Happy Thanksgiving!" post while I was actually back home, but I was feeling so incredibly lazy during my vacation that I'm doing a post now - right at a time when I have to be anything BUT lazy.

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Thanksgiving break was good, incredibly low key. Watched all the football games on Thursday - although I had to give up on watching the Giants/Broncos game because a) I was getting frustrated watching it online and b) they were losing, and losing badly. I ended up watching The Office's "Niagra" on NBC in HD with Dad - it was a lot better the second time around, especially having someone else watch it with me. Dinner was great as well, being with just Mommy, Dad, Graham and Monica. Spent both Wednesday and Friday lounging around the house and getting nothing done - we didn't end up spending Friday with my aunt&uncle&cousins, but we'll see them for Christmas, which gives me something to look forward to after school finishes up.

And then on Saturday, I went with the rest of the fam (along with my uncle and my cousins Luke, Mark and Paul) to Graham's football game at Ford Field! They were playing in the State Championships, and even though I had never been to any of his football games, I figured I should go and support him and his teammates - he's a senior this year, so it's his last chance. Plus, it would probably the only chance I would have to visit Ford Field - I don't plan on going to a Lions game anytime soon - and even better that we watched the game from a suite right on the 50-yard line. What made the experience even better is that they won! We were all excited, because it's his school's first football championship in six years - and Graham being a senior, this was made even more special for him. We all got very emotional at the afterparty.

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Now that Thanksgiving break is over and I'm back at school, it's full speed ahead to the White House to the end of the semester in two weeks - which means all kinds of projects are due. I have my final project in Comm Research due Monday (Which I just realized this past Monday, and now I'm rushing to get it done even though I've had several weeks) and my content analysis project for Mass Media&American Politics due next Thursday. And then there's final exams the week after that, two each on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. So yeah, I've got a lot of work to do in the next couple of days - I'm surprised that I haven't had a total breakdown yet. And also disappointed that I won't be able to go to the football game this weekend - Grand Valley is on track to win another National Championship (they last won in 2006) and I'd really like to be there to experience it - although it'll be nationally televised on ESPN, so win-win-win? Ugh, I just hate the final weeks of the semester. So much stress before getting a vacation.

BUT. Numb3rs is a new episode on Friday, and that's always something for me to look forward to.

( This meme in no way makes up for the fact that I haven't done a real-life update in quite some time. )

Other things I need to post about besides real life things: the past three episodes of House and general thoughts on this season of Mad Men - which, sadly, is almost over. Where did the time go, you guys?

Reasons why today has been awesome:

1. I slept in a extra hour from yesterday.
2. I wore my recently washed "Cookie Loves Milk" t-shirt.
3. I had frozen hot fudge sundae Pop-Tarts for breakfast.
4. I watched Modern Family on my break. Excellent show.
5. I ate a cinnamon sugar bagel from Einsteins while watching Glee.
6. I have no homework.
7. Richard Engel showed up on NBC Nightly News.
8. I had a cheeseburger&fries for dinner.
9. Keith Olbermann is wearing his normal glasses.
10. JIM AND PAM ARE GETTING MARRIED TONIGHT.
11. I've got mint chocolate chip ice cream to celebrate the PB&J wedding.
12. Project Runway. Enough said.
13. David Gregory is on The Daily Show tonight.

( I had an incredibly bizarre fandom-related dream last night. )

Relatedly, vaguest promo ever? I think so. Though I'm really excited that it's FINALLY coming next week and not, you know, months from now - almost a little too excited. And the fact the promo is incredibly vague doesn't help things at all.

I've only been home from the hospital for a week, and already I'm falling back into the old habit of sporadic eljay posting. Lack of energy, I guess. The doctors still don't know what's wrong with me - I had a post-hospitalization follow-up appointment on Wednesday, and since things still weren't back to normal, they ordered a study where I wear an oxygen saturation monitor while I sleep, without being on oxygen. That didn't yield anything, so the next step is to re-do the lung function test (if you recall, I passed out during it the first time around), which is our best hope at getting this whole issue resolved. But other than that, I'm feeling about as well as I should be at this point, which is awesome.

I was totally exhausted from the lack of sleep I got Wednesday night (I couldn't sleep in fear that my O2 sats would drop to 89%, the machine would alarm and jolt me awake) that I woke up in a fit yesterday morning around 9, pissed that I had missed the Emmy nominations. I'VE WATCHED IT EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Usually if I think I might wake up late that morning I'll tape it, but that wasn't an option this year because we no longer have a DVR. So I had to go to the Emmy website to look them up, and let me tell you, it was a painstaking effort - the televised announcement just lists the major categories that people actually care about, but the website lists EVERY SINGLE CATEGORY - and instead of listing them by importance (Outstanding Comedy/Drama, Outstanding Actors/Actress, etc), they're listed in alphabetical order, meaning I had to scroll through the entire list to make sure I got all the important categories. ( So here are some not-so-brief thoughts on the nominees. )

No, I still haven't processed TV things yet (and the fact that I just finished watching the Grey's Anatomy season finale isn't helping my thoughts along AT ALL). I did, however, happen upon this article from TWOP about showrunner switches that would be awesome - mentioning Aaron Sorkin taking over The Office, and it made me laugh (mostly because it's true):

Imagine Michael and Dwight pedeconferencing around the Dunder-Mifflin office in circles, picking up random characters as they all rapid-fire idealistic sentiments and literary/sports/historical/political references before dropping out of the parade and tagging someone else in, the lot of them taking breaks only for either some old-timey slapstick or melodramatic speeches about friendship, duty and loyalty. And they sell paper sometimes, but that's not really the point, is it?

I'm going to make blueberry pancakes now.

I've only been out of school for a week and a half, but it definitely seems like longer. I haven't really done anything major while on break: I make French toast, bum around on the internet, post reactions to the ridiculous things that occur on MSNBC via Twitter, watch Gibbs' daily White House press briefings, get entertained by other TV happenings in primetime, stay up until 2 AM and sleep until 10 the next morning. Rinse and repeat. It's this kind of behavior that makes me desperate to have a job so I'm actually doing something all day instead of being productive; I've applied to a bunch of places, and am now getting through the tail end of the customary week-long waiting period, since no one has attempted to contact me. I just need to go out and do something, before I bore myself to death.

( Thoughts on last weeks' AMAZING TV. )

Oh, and I watched the White House Correspondents Dinner! Which just proves how much of a political dork I am, haha. But it was really enjoyable this time around (I haven't watched since Colbert was the entertainment in 2006), as I recognized a lot more celebrities as well as famous newspeople - I was all "!!!!!" every time they showed someone I knew, which was A LOT. And Obama's speech was absolutely fantastic - he was able to make light of himself and his staff without being too harsh, something I really admire in any person, not just a person of power. I really didn't like Wanda Sykes as the entertainment (I was personally gunning for Jon Stewart, or even Hugh Jackman, doing a medley of political songs with a well-choreographed dance routine), and after her bit was over I couldn't help but wonder if it's somebody's job at the WHCA to look over the entertainer's routine to make sure there isn't anything that could be construed as offensive, especially in Wanda Sykes' case. And then I got mad at MSNBC for bringing in two unknown correspondents who took the idea that the dinner is jokingly called "DC Prom" literally by wearing actual wrist corsages and taking each other as dates instead of getting one of their ACTUAL NBC CORRESPONDENTS on the phone and asking them what it's like at the dinner. Oh wells. There's always next year, I guess.

I feel like everyone but me has seen Star Trek already. Which is sad, because I'd really like to go see it, but no one will take/go with me. Same thing with Away We Go premiering in a few weeks. BLERG.