tinsel toe!

i have relinquished the holiday blooz's. i packed them in their little car, made sure their seat belts were strapped, kissed them all goodbye, and sent them on their merry way. i'm sure they are cheerily singing their way through toll booths and traffic jams. you can't keep them down! they're irrepressible.

me, i made myself a hot cup of tea, smelled the soggy post-summer air that is gracing miami in the new common era of destabilization and discomfort (2006 CE is the year 1 CEDD), and went on a diet. i figured one month would be enough to fit back into my regular clothes, instead of li'l pony's (pretty) discarded ones. you see, my mom is coming in january, and i want to look my berry merry best.

also, i started reading the iliad. truly, it was a class preparation move, but i'm getting into the little mother. it's kinda nice. in italy, you read this stuff as if it were a foreign language you do not know. italian books of "literature" (vs., say, john grisham's mystery novels, which are enormously popular in the ol' country and conveniently american and therefore in no need whatsover of footnotes) have much more footnotes than text. here are a random couple of pages from my italian edition of dante's divine comedy:


it's impossible to read the iliad without a single footnote and not vibrate inside. this is fun! i didn't know it was fun! i can work out on my own who achilles' mother and father are! i can follow the story without worrying about k-n-o-w-ledge!

yesterday i went to the house of friends and helped them decide the name of their soon-to-be-born baby. not the first name. the last name. there were two options: 1) first name + mother's last name + father's last name, or 2) first name + father's last name + mother's last name. we tossed a coin and 1) won! how many people choose their baby's last name this way? no one does! secretely, i was a bit sad that 1) won, because this way no one will know that 2) could have been the case instead. if 2) had won, everyone would have known that 1) could have been the case, and how it happened that it wasn't. but the coin spake, and the baby will be a regular-sounding baby instead of a born-of-single-mother-sounding baby.

i have chestnuts in the refrigerator. this is good, because otherwise i'd never know that it's winter in the northern hemisphere, and that it is very, very cold. funny how it can be cold without your knowing it. this must be the reason why i can't sleep well at night: it's cold! silly jonie v., get yourself a cozy blanket!

here are some miami christmas photos. merry christmas y'all!