Messin' with the exposure settings on el Nikon.

"I set a personal record on Christmas. I got my shopping done three weeks ahead of time. I had all the presents back at my apartment, I was halfway through wrapping them, and I realized, 'Damn, I used the wrong wrapping paper.' The paper I used said, 'Happy Birthday.' I didn't want to waste it, so I just wrote 'Jesus' on it."

-Demetri Martin

Merry Friskmas!

Happy festivus you guys!

Also: why did no one tell me about this sooner?

1. Five-then-four canceled flights
2. Many buckets of tears
3. Anguish
4. Parental freakouts and loving advice
5. The missing of my Grandparents' annual Christmas partyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
6. An extremely awesome mod/urban hotel to stay in (totally kicks Holiday Inn's ass) for 1 night and 2 days: NYLO <3
7. A mall (mainly TARGET <3) right across the street
8. A lovely wonderland of snow from the overnight freak snow blizzard and therefore my most extreme snow experience
9. Easy Mac, Ramenesque Noodles, Crunch N' Munch, oatmeal, Lunchables, and TACO BELL for my meals
10. Extremely awesome NYLO employees who drove me to the train station even though they weren't supposed to because I was stranded and desperate and the taxis were NONEXISTENT
11. My first smooth and awesome train experience (SO relaxing and smooooth and I got to go on the nice train instead of the old one because the counter guy waved me forward) which led to safe transit and arrival
12. Free WIFI at this airport

The following, as summarized by my angry late tweets, is a recap on my journey to TRY and get home.

So I am currently at Boston Logan Airport, waiting for the baggage checking kiosk to open (not until 3:30 am), in front of Au Bon Pain and desperate for hot water so I can make my Quakers To Go Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal Cup. These things are delish. I'm contemplating on whether I should sleep at the table right now...I'm kind of used to staying up late since the majority of my RISD days usually don't end until at least 2 am but I'm actually happy. I've got free WIFI and a hard drive full of movies and a wonderful (albeit sucky) snow outside. It's kind of awesome. And there's this guy in one of those cleaner airport trucks nearby and he's turning in circles...I don't think he's cleaning anymore because he's been driving in the same spot for like, ten minutes. He is clearly having fun doing the job.

Anyway, I just have to say, I was extremely bitter starting from Friday morning at 7:45 when the curt woman from Continental Airlines told me that the majority of all flights, until further notice and mainly Monday, were canceled. Me: "MONDAY?!?!?!?! WTF!" At first, I was speechless. Then came anger. Then came despair. Then came the hysterics. As I am a pretty sensitive wimp of a girl, I burst into tears (well...not BURST as I cry quietly and shamelessly) and called my parents wondering why the hell my first independent trip to the airport was coming out to be a total bust of a trip.

My parents, being the problem-solving people that they are, kissed my anguish away as much as they could and then told me to shape up and stop crying and focus. So I did. Er, tried. I handed the phone to the Continental lady and after a few minutes of debating, I got a flight. For Monday. At 5 am.

This was, obviously, my back up flight because there was just no way in hell I was waiting to go home FRIDAY and lose a precious practically 3 days from my already stinged-up vacation because RISD only gives us 2 weeks when Brown gets like, 500 years. I was panicked because a) I was going to miss my friend's birthday party who I REALLY REALLY miss (shut up, it's not shallow) and b) I was not going to be able to see my mommy and daddy and brother and sister and house and sleep in my bed. I MISS HOME. I didn't think it was dire until I realized how many people were staring at me while I sat to the side and pitifully cried for my bad luck and tried to make some desperate phone calls to friends in Boston or something. I don't feel like recapping on the next series of unfortunate events but in a nutshell, I booked 3 more flights only to have them cancel on me an hour later. It was an extremely frustrating experience and the cherry on top was the ridiculously long line (like, 60 or so people) I waited in twice. For nothing.

At any rate, the fifth one, THIS one that I'm about to board in four hours, was canceled when I checked online. I had a freakout AGAIN because then THAT would mean I wouldn't get home until Tuesday or Wednesday and maybe not even frickin' CHRISTMAS but the page refreshed a few minutes later and I was golden. I was lucky in that my dad found an amazing hotel for cheap. When I say amazing, I MEAN it. One of my favorites. NYLO. Go there.

In essence, this was probably one of my worst and best Christmas experiences. Nothing like this has ever happened to me. At first I contemplated karma and maybe I have done something terrible or a lot of LITTLE terrible things and it added up into this bomb of a weekend.

However, I was able to stay in a great place, meet great people, have my first train experience, and overall just have a little solo rendezvous. I didn't get mugged (though maybe I did get ripped off by my taxi guy). I didn't get hurt. I didn't lose anything. I'm in the airport FINALLY and I'm so glad but I wouldn't have, as the cliche goes, traded the experience for anything.

Okay, yeah. I just went super-cheesy. You can go throw up now.

All I have to say though...is that I am so ready to go home and tear through some presents (as my sister informed me) that I have waiting at home. <333 It was an unfortunate experience, but it's all good now, whether karma did just kick my ass or luck was not with me. I definitely had many silver linings and bright sides so...yep. Just keep swimmin'. It goes on.

Everybody, have a Merry Christmas. See ya.

P.S. These LJ Best Buy ads are annoying me with their 3-second no-closing period. I don't want to see you Best Buy employees in your little blue shirts singing to me about your prices.

P.P.S. PINA, YOUR DRAWING IS COMING. I definitely promise. ;) AND ANNIE IS BACK. YAY.

P.P.P.S. Joe is the voice of Jessica Alba's dog. Way to shoot for the stars, man.

Final critique day for my Design class. The assignment was to, in essence, find photos, copy them onto illustration board by hand with gouache as accurately as possible yet with your own twist, and eventually end with a minimum of 7 panels (tchhh, we ALL did the minimum here) arranged in a linear or cubed fashion that, hopefully, achieves a sense of depth, connection, gorgeousness, and light. I did not understand the purpose of this assignment as it is pretty stupid to re-copy images. Pbbbth.