1. The Christmas gifts I bought for everyone. I don’t know if y’all know this about me, but one of my best skills is buying gifts. I am good at buying gifts and it is also one of my favorite things to do in all the world. I feel happy whenever I think about the gifts I have bought for everybody (except Mumsy; I don’t feel good about my Mumsy gift this year) and how pleased they will all be to receive them. And just Christmas gifts in general. Legal Sister is (probably) receiving a particularly excellent gift, and I want to tell y’all about it because I think you need to know but I can’t until after Christmas. Remind me, though. It’s a good gift. Y’all are going to want to hear about it.
2. Adorable videos starring Drew Brees. Drew Brees is one of my favorite people in all the land. He loves New Orleans, is gracious and courteous, and throws the football with more accuracy than an Olympic archer. Whenever I see his face I remember the glorious, glorious day on which the Saints won the Super Bowl. Anyway, here he is with his baby, whose face of course also reminds me of the glorious glorious day on which the Saints won the Super Bowl, and here he is measuring Elmo with a potato, thereby maxing out my brain from all the adorability.
3. I don’t talk much about work on this blog, because I like to compartmentalize, but I do really love my job. I just cleared one work project off my desk, I’ll have another off my desk by the end of January (God willing), and I have been given a project that I really, really wanted. It’s a massive project and is going to be a crazy nuisance but I’m excited to have it. If you do not currently have job satisfaction, I recommend trying to have it. It is awesome. All the things I miss about Louisiana are not awesome enough to make up for the everyday awesomeness of having a job I really like.
4. RadioLab. Gosh I just love RadioLab. RadioLab introduced me to this, which is a machine that you can feed a bunch of Bach pieces to it, and it will analyse the musical patterns and produce a new piece that’s Bach-ish. RadioLab also taught me the useful-for-tax-fraud fact that there are more numbers in the world beginning with 1 than with any other number. Every episode is full of interesting people and information. If you don’t know about RadioLab, I advise you to get on that straight away.
5. Christmas carols. The Roches’ We Three Kings and Peter, Paul, and Mary’s A Holiday Celebration are two albums that fill my heart with joy. The latter includes my favorite Christmas carol since I was three, “Hayo Haya”; it is very depressing, is in a minor key, and is not about Christmas. Baby Jenny used to listen to it over and over again on cassette. Present Jenny does the same but without the boring nuisance of having to rewind. Thanks, digital technology! I’d link to it but the internet barely even knows about it.
6. Apropos of nothing except that I suddenly remembered they existed the other day, the Krewe of ‘tit Rex, most adorable Krewe in all the land. They make teeny weeny little floats (teeny pictures here). I know Mardi Gras isn’t until February, but I sure do hope the rotten killjoy Krewe of Rex doesn’t shut the Krewe of ‘tit Rex down forever. Oh Louisiana.
7. Paul Robeson. Paul Robeson! How is he so insanely great? For your delectation and delight, here are “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel”, the final monologue from Othello, and Paul Robeson talking about Othello. Here also is Paul Robeson singing “Ol Man River”, and if this doesn’t make you a smidge teary you must not have even a little bit of a soul.