Good Old Northwest Welcome

On coming home we've been welcomed to the Rose City by presents, sparkling lights and ... snow! Well... a little snow. On our way home from church it snowed just enough to cover the road and dust the trees - and make me rather giddy. Snowboarding trip Saturday! Eeee!

Snow, SUVs, and Airplanes.

Tomorrow we arrive in Portland, where we will spend the remainder of our wonderfully long Christmas break. It's been snowing in Portland recently, we've heard, so we attempted to pack accordingly.
It will be a rather long day of traveling starting with a two hour drive to Charlotte. We'll probably drug ourselves up with caffeine. I certainly will have to if there is any hope of me staying awake, or, more importantly, being a nice person. Modern transport is amazing: we can somehow have a long day of travel and still plan to arrive in Portland at noon.

Side note: we too Mom and Dad Schreck rock climbing today and they did awesome! It was so fun.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Sports Center

The longer I live in the South, and the more time I spend with Josh and at his house, the more I know about sports. Of course, all the talk for the last few days has been steroids. We're getting a little tired of it, but I thought this quote was funny.

Jon [Stewart]'s theory on steroid usage in baseball: "In this country, a man is innocent until proven guilty. Everybody - whether it's the young, wiry Barry Bonds of 1986 or the current Barry Bonds, who looks like he ate two of the first guy."

Christmas in 307-A

With all of us being gone over the actual holidays, my roomies and I didn't make much efforts at making our apartment festive.

Here are some of the snowflakes I decorated with:

And my little "tree":


Some of the packages I've received have also added to the general cheer: a cute Christmas mug from my mom, chocolate advent calender from Rosie, and Christmas card from my grandparents.

Gothic.

I'm having a bit of a Gothic evening:

Coffee
Making art
Candlelight
Mozart's Requiem
Washington Irving











It's quite lovely.

/train

I am so excited for the Timberline expansion! It feels like years since I've hit new terrain. My only question is what the new lift is going to be nicknamed. The Jeff Flood Express Chairlift is a bit of a mouthful.

And Now for Something Completely Different.

Jacques-Louis David.
We learned a bit about this man today. We learned how he was a political chameleon and how that saved his life, how he was the nephew of Boucher, all that important stuff. My professor was humorous, as usual, but he really didn't even need to bother - the images are funny enough. Usually when I think of David, I associate him with the masters, appreciate his skills, etc. But today it was just funny.

Here is his self-portrait, painted during his brief stay in jail after the Revolution. I'm pretty sure this is where Zoolander got his look.
This piece is called "Paris and Helen". It was commissioned by a count someone or another, brother to King Louis XVI (I'm getting really good with keeping my Louis straight these days), is a mythological story and all, but that doesn't really interest me so much as what Paris is wearing. Sandals, scarf and gnome hat! WHAT in the world! Seriously, it kills me. I just sat in class and laughed.

Candycanes are Yummy.

Well. I suppose I ought to make an attempt to welcome December and the Christmas season and all. It is a lovely time, but I am doing my best not to think about it. That is, until finals are over. I would love to only think about Christmas - read Isaiah and Luke, sit in front of the fire and the tree, bake cookies and wrap presents. But for now I'm going to write write write until my fingers are callused, my brain is numb and my back is cricked.
My hope comes in half hour breaks I allow myself whenever I've almost accomplished something.
I'll be glad for a time that I am not thinking about Latin American conquest, teaching methods and Woolf.