The New Year by Mark Strand

It is winter and the new year.
Nobody knows you.
Away from the stars, from the rain of light,
you life under the weather of stones.
There is no thread to lead you back.
Your friends doze in the dark
of pleasure and cannot remember.
Nobody knows you. You are the neighbor of nothing.
You do not see the rain falling and the man walking away,
the soiled wind blowing its ashes across the city.
You do not see the sun dragging the moon like an echo.
You do not see the bruised heart go up in flames,
the skulls of the innocent turn into smoke.
You do not see the scars of plenty, the eyes without light.
It is over. It is winter and the new year.
The meek are hauling their skins into heaven.
The hopeless are suffering the cold with those who have nothing to hide.
It is over and nobody knows you.
There is starlight drifting on the black water.
There are stones in the sea no one has seen.
There is a shore and people are waiting.
And nothing comes back.
Because it is over.
Because there is silence instead of a name.
Because it is winter and the new year.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

O Rejoice! Rejoice! Heaven sings tonight
O Rejoice! Rejoice! The Lord is come!



Note: This is NOT a real picture of the 2007 Happy Birthday Jesus Love, The Shaffers cake. It is nonetheless remarkably similar to HBJC cakes past, so let's use our contented imaginations.

Kind of Existential

As many of you know, I had kind of been dead set on moving to Minneapolis and working on the upcoming RNC Convention in September. I started reaching out to them last May hoping to figure something out for a move this fall. After a few calls with one of the lead staffers, I kind of pushed it out of my radar because they were not yet poised to hire the me's of the world. A little disappointing, admittedly.

Well-- they called last week about some job possibilities. If they had called three weeks earlier and I may have been freezing in Minnesota all winter :). Is it not so interesting to think about different instances in your life where timing was absolutely everything? I'm frankly relieved that these calls didn't come while I was campaigning for the new position in the office. It would have seriously complicated my discussions and decision making. It's never a bad thing to have opportunities on the table and options to chose from, but I think I may have taken that plunge to move and try something completely different. But I would have missed out on relationship-building and experience-gaining with the boss... continuing as a part of my work family and being a part of my colleagues lives as they get engaged and pregnant and other wonderful things!... staying with my DC fam for another year... my fabulously sun kissed peach room... being here for when the Administration heads up and moves out... exploring options for 2009 with the experiences from 2008 under my belt.

I think more interesting than anything is my contentedness and lack of regret that these calls didn't make it to me three weeks earlier.

A Christmas Carol in SF

Made it home for Christmas! Slept for 17 hours from Friday to Saturday... 4 on the plane, 8 overnight, woke up for 2 for eggs and Band of Brothers with Pu, and apparently needed another 5 for a nap. No such thing as a bad nap I say.

Mu treated Julie, Taylor, Jacob and I to dinner in the city at Houstons and then we were off to A Christmas Carol at the ACT.

Highlights:
-Julie and I vetoing mom's idea to go to the Macy's food court for dinner. The second I heard we were thinking about that, I knew it was not going to happen.

-Julie refusing to ask our waitress for bread because she thought she'd say no. Seriously Julie? Seriously.

-Taylor in his first button down Abercrombie shirt. Apparently the 5th graders in Danville are ALL ABOUT ABERCROMBIE. I actually remember when this phenomenon happened to the Stanley 6th graders in Lafayette. I still wish I had those cool forest green warm ups with the light blue stripe on the side. Those were so cool.

-The ghost of Jacob Marley at the show. That guy was pretty rad. When he first came out of Scrooge's bed he spit out all these gross wormie things out of his mouth. I had my binoculars poised and ready to capture this impressive moment of the stage. Binoculars. Ha!

-The gingerbread castle in the St. Francis. It weighed like 1200 pounds and took something like 120 man hours to make. Sweet. (woo hoo pun!)

-Union Square's decoration-- Sax looked gorgeous with a bunch of snowflakes all lit up, and the Macy's tree was neat too. There were carolers! Since when is "For He alone is worthy" part of Joy to the World? I like it, I do. I'm just wondering about the authenticity of it you see.

Snow in DC!

A little behind on these pictures, but we had our first snow of the season at the beginning of December... I was not expecting it at all and saw it out my window that morning and was like WOO HOO SNOW! I was in a joyous mood watching it from my office window for the rest of the day :)

Christmas Hero

C is for...

CHRISTMAS COOKIES!

Amongst the many Christmas parties last weekend, our neighbors Ty and Mignon hosted a Christmas Cookie decorating party. My inner child came out in the form of goopily frosted snowmen, ornaments, and candy canes heaped with sprinkles. Some prettier than others, but all equally delicious.

America's Game : Army Navy 2007

This year's game was in Baltimore so Liz, Brennan, and I got up at the crack of dawn to get there for ample tailgate time. We met up with Big Steve, his brother, and Steve "Big Guns" Allen's sponsor family. We were in charge of mimosas and Don and Linda were doing bloodies. We got all set up and ready to go and Don's like... oh CRAP I forgot the vodka and took off to find the nearest liquor store at 9am on a Saturday morning. He did manage to find one and get back with impressive turn around.

Big Steve, Chris, and Don starting us off...


Liz couldn't decide between mimosas or bloody marys...


Brennan REALLY wanted a "cool picture of him sipping his bloody mary with his fork stirrer."


The three of us trying to stay warm and ready for very loud cheering.


Went to visit the Mids and although we didn't find me a husband, we ended up with some cute pictures :)




The beginning of the game was AWESOME! They did a bunch of jumps and flyovers. Had Roger Staubach and Pete Dawkins there to accept awards. Good old Lee Greenwood was there at halftime for the appropriate "Proud to be an American" rallying call. Liz and I swayed and sang. Loudly. You're welcome.





As expected, Navy ended up winning 38-3. Navy has won for the last six years now, but who's counting? All jokes aside... who is counting, really? I found myself at the quintessential rivalry game feeling like we were all there for the same team, which to me is the core of why this game is special. Rivals today, comrades tomorrow. More than just a game, indeed.