Scrooged!

The only thing worse* than working on Christmas Eve is

(a) going to work on Christmas Eve in the rain
(b) going to work on Christmas Eve in the rain and not getting a seat on the subway because apparently a lot of people are going to work on Christmas Eve in the rain
(c) going to work on Christmas Eve in the rain and not getting a seat on the subway and having one's boss (the only other person, seemingly, in the building) say to one, "Oh, you don't mind staying till we close at three, right? I have to leave at 1:30."
(d) going to work on Christmas Eve in the rain, not getting a seat on the subway, having one's boss leave early, and then having one's boss EMAIL YOU WORK SUGGESTIONS--FOR TODAY--FROM HER BLACKBERRY
(e) all of the above.

*Obviously there are many things worse. Not having a job, for example. I'm not COMPLETELY insensitive. Anyway, it's Christmas! Happy holidays!

Trying not to become a wedding blog, but:

I developed a soft spot for these until Chris informed me he wouldn't have his wedding invitations looking like an Urban Outfitters poster. I see his point, but I can't help loving their elegant simplicity. However, considering that we don't need to send invites till July, and there are a lot (a LOT) of weightier and time-relevant things on the wedding to-do list, I think I'll postpone my browsing...but post them here for your enjoyment.

Chestnuts roasting...

I like being the little mama duck--my brother came to visit this weekend and the four of us tromped around Brooklyn and Manhattan, going to the subway museum (v. cool, btw), B&N, Trader Joe's, and every store in Soho on an exhausting Christmas shopping expedition. Then we all retired to the home fort to play board games, drink eggnog, and watch Monty Python episodes on DVD. Isn't family the best?

Wishing you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Year's...I will be here working for the most part (except for this weekend when I will be playing with my other family including two super cute kiddies), so comment away! Tell me your favorite Christmas present.

A rose is a rose is a rose.

I'm nervous to post about this but I can't not when I've been thinking about it for so long.

This was a thoughtful post, with many thoughtful comments, on the decision to change or not to change your last name when you get married. I'll be honest: I haven't made up my mind yet. I see pros and cons to both sides. But what hurts my feelings is when people assume there's no decision to be made--like with monograms. So what this commenter said really resonated with me:

"I understand the feminist issues with changing, or not changing your name when you get married, but I don't think the solution come from women making one decision or another, I think equality comes when we start asking men whether or not they're going to change their names."

Actually now that I reread it it's even more radical than when I first glanced over it--I thought it said "when we start asking women." I still agree with the even loftier sentiment, that equality will only truly arrive when we habitually ask the guy if he's going to change his name. But we're not even at the stage where everyone asks the girl . Whichever decision you made or plan to make, I respect that. But I think it is just that: a decision, and not a given.

Nutrageous.

After dinner on Friday night, Shelby left to go to a friend's birthday party in Manhattan. At 10:00 I got a text: "i am going.to the hospital right now. had some nut".

My sister has battled a nut allergy her whole life and is very accomplished at avoiding things that might potentially have nuts in them (she doesn't eat European chocolate because it has traces of nut from the kitchens; she turns down desserts all the time "just in case"; she doesn't eat Thai food or Middle Eastern food because the waiters don't understand that "pine nut" counts when she asks them if something contains nuts), but apparently this birthday cake looked innocuous. She only had one bite.

Her reactions to nuts are always severe but can usually be fended off by rapid application of Benadryl. Not this time. After she began to black out in the street, her friends put her in a cab for the New York Downtown Hospital. I'm especially grateful to her work friend Simon, who rode with her in the cab and waited with her in the ER until I could get there (luckily, we have a car, and luckily, the hospital was right across the Brooklyn Bridge).

I stayed with her until about 1:30 in the morning, when they let her go home. I've never seen a person's face be a literal shade of green, and I've never seen my sister so ill--convulsive shivers, an inability to speak above a whisper, a violent loss of stomach contents. I'm just glad I live in the city and was able to be there. Chris picked us up (he hadn't been able to find parking or would have stayed with us) and we installed Shelby on our sofa bed with lots of pillows, blankets, movies, and my stuffed monkey Ned, and she stayed there all day Saturday while we were at the bridal shower.

My public service announcement is this: if you must bake with nuts (which, why? Trust me, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, carrot cake, it ALL tastes JUST AS GOOD without the nuts. Flavoring with almond extract, grinding up nuts to give density to the flour--it's fine if you must do it but please warn people) please, please chop up some walnuts to garnish the item or somehow indicate that the product contains nuts. Nut allergies have increased in not only number but in severity in the last decade, and people DIE. Thank God my sister's body's reflexes are so fast and she could tell instantly that she had consumed something with nut. If she'd had one more bite, who knows what might have happened?

You hear a lot about peanut allergies (note: peanuts are not actually nuts, they are beans, and Shelby is, ironically, not allergic to peanuts), but nut allergies are just as severe, and I hope that this story will erase any impatience with food restrictions you may have previously rolled your eyes at.

"Gallows humor is the order of the day."--My boss.

I just looked at the invitation for the bridal shower I am going to tomorrow and realized it is slated to be four hours long. (The shower, not the invitation. Bad grammar, sorry.) Four hours! That's a long time to watch someone open gifts. Wow.

I can handle it as long as there aren't any GAMES. :)

Just kidding, I am very touched to be invited and look forward to getting acquainted with Chris's relatives. (Um, I'm paralyzingly shy without Liz there to squeeze my arm, so we'll see how this goes. But Chris spent an entire week on a road trip with my family, so I need to be more like him.)

Tonight my sister is coming over to see our tree and Chris is making homemade margaritas in the blender Dorok and Tara kindly got me a couple of years ago. Hooray for Fridays, especially Fridays following "Black Wednesday" in the publishing world...Basically every day I still have a job is going to be a celebration, woo hoo!

Cranberries.

I hope everyone had wonderful Thanksgivings--mine was nice and I was thankful for many things, not least of which was a smooth and peaceful flight/graduation/move/drive from Florida to Virginia. Oh, and my brother's winning honors and being one of only two riggers to have his demo reel shown in the demo reel exposition.

Today I'm home sick from work, battling the cold I inherited from my dad and brother. It started Thursday night and you'd think it'd be done by now. It's the kind of thing where I managed to get out of bed long enough to take a shower and then I felt so worn out I had to lie down for five minutes and the next thing you know it's two hours later.

My head hurts too much to find something funny to say right now :) I think I'll go take another nap.