visions of sugarplums and other thoughts dancing through my head

- i'm finally doing my christmas shopping. i only had one afternoon to go shopping in LA (where incidentally, i saw adam brody and rachel bilson on the street), so now i'm frantically trying to think of gift ideas and manuever my way through the hectic holiday crowds.
- grazing at home is so much better than grazing at our apartment in LA, because the food is kind of gourmet and a little more healthful. today i found japanese seaweed salad in the fridge and snacked on that :)
- you know those old english paintings that depict ducks, hunting dogs, etc.? well, the mood evoked by those paintings is exactly what great falls feels like. the heart of great falls sometimes is so snooty. there are farms, but they're the kind of farms that have a great big house and raise elegant animals, like horses or alpacas. the other day we were driving around and i saw a beagle sitting in a field, as if he were ready for a foxhunt. kind of ridiculous, but i do love the sense of age in virginia. nothing seems very old in california, and the statues there are of settlers and pioneers, not of colonists or our first presidents. the weight of history is what gives virginia a sense of permanence for me.
- thanks to suz, i'm a little obsessed with television without pity. i can't get enough of the scathing, hilarious, and honest commentaries on the shows we hate to love, and love to hate. i was even tearing up at the RECAPS of grey's anatomy's episodes. my goodness, i need to get a life...
- the best thing about driving my mom's car is not the smooth handling, nor is it the seat-warmer. it's the fact that the ABBA gold cd has had a permanent place in the cd changer for about five years. so if i want a break from the 24-hour holiday tunes on 97.1 WashFM, i can sing along to some awesome 70s pop.

get excited for the holidays! and i hope that those of you who aren't on vacation yet aren't working too hard!