This I Accomplished This Week (ish)

I often feel like I don't do jack, ever, but making these lists makes me realize how productive and brilliant I truly am. Hence:

1. Discovered that I can drive in four-inch platform boots.
2. Downloaded the GLEE CHRISTMAS ALBUM! (Suck it, haters!)
3. Watched this Harry Nilsson documentary. It was tops.
4. Found and purchased my daughter's Christmas dress. Red corduroy with smocking, sigh.
5. Almost, nearly finished my Christmas shopping.
6. Made both apple AND zucchini muffins.
7. Found adorable pink cameo earrings on super clearance that will prob fall apart ASAP but will also look super cute next week with JEANS AT WORK! Yes, it's happening...a Christmas miracle, thanks to the volatile real estate market (both residential and commercial).
8. Got my mitts on some LE (that's limited edition, to you sane ones) cosmetics for super cheap. Including Revlon Demure, oh it's going to be a lovely Spring!
9. Rocked out to Kate Bush in my car almost every morning.
10. Ordered my Warby Parker sample frames. Look out for pics and even a chance to VOTE!

Damn! I really need to pace myself.

Don't Worry, I'm With Friends this Christmas

I could be remembering this wrong, but I think my first listening of this song probably went something like this: sophomore year of high school, my best friend's older brother brought home the Erasure EP "Crackers International" and we listened to it on the stereo in his room, which was attached to their house but had its own separate entrance, making it our hip little hideaway. We would hang out in there listening to the latest 4AD releases and Sisters of Mercy 12-inch singles and figuring out what to wear to Pink Caddy.

This is a really sweet and underlooked song. Captures that wistful, wishing sadness and regret that Christmas can bring. I wish I'd been able to find a better video or live performance.

Listen to Erasure, "She Won't Be Home"

photo cred: amazon

Maybe I'll Clear My Junk, Maybe I'll Just Get Drunk

I am not one of those people who complains when she first starts hearing Christmas music in stores...I am a person who smiles when this happens. I LOVE Christmas music. I know it's mostly nostalgia for childhood memories and happy hopefulness for that mythical and elusive "Christmas feeling" but I have no problem with that!

Not all of my favorite Christmas songs are jolly and joyful, though. This one is very dear to me: Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton. I first heard this on her RCA greatest hits collection and I had no idea until recently that it was written by someone else for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I guess the girls get together and sing it, which I suppose is fitting since it's a song about regrets and trying to move on, things I imagine working girls (especially those in a musical) ponder quite a bit.

"Maybe I'll dye my hair/ maybe I'll move somewhere/ maybe I'll get a car/ maybe I'll drive so far they'll all lose track/ me, I'll bounce right back." Yep, it's a Christmas song and I think its touchpoints are really accurate. Another year is coming to an end, you're thinking about all you've done and haven't done and how you could change everything. "I'm barely getting through tomorrow/ but still I won't let sorrow bring me way down."

This song really complements Dolly's "Light of a Clear Blue Morning." I think I have the album it appears on, 1977's New Harvest...First Gathering, on vinyl. Doesn't she look gorgeous on the cover? If you haven't heard either, you should indulge yourself in both.

30 for 30: Twelfth of Never Edition

So, I've been kind of off and on with the 30 for 30 Challenge. Hot and cold. Hit and miss. Today I think I'm wearing all 30 for 30 pieces.

This is a vintage beaded necklace with a bit of my pink office Christmas tree peeking out from the bottom of the frame.

My problem lately is that I have a lot of ideas for posts, and I start drafting them, then never come back. Oh what my blog could be! But I'll get to them. Soon.

Tune in tomorrow for the start of my Favorite Christmas Songs Countdown!