Happy Christmas!

Ahh..good ol' Minnesota...as expected, it is very weird to be home. I wish I had a better word for it; "weird" is overused and not very creative, but it's the best word I can use. Bizarre, maybe. I got home very, very late on Thursday night, immediately picked up Max and started playing with Millie (yay for cats and dogs!). I crawled into my warm and comfortable bed (with a REAL mattress, mind you) and depsite all the comfortable familiarities of home, I was completley unable to fall asleep. Why? It was too quiet. Where were the honking horns, the shouting people, the random crashing sounds that had lulled me to sleep for the past four months? So I'm at THAT point...that point where I actually do have 2 homes. Some things I prefer there, some things I prefer here. It seems frustrating, but it's really nice, because I love being in both places now. I have two homes, and I can be so happy and comfortable in both places.
I love driving. That's one thing that just makes me smile to do here. I could just drive around the highways and greater metropolitan area for three weeks and be completely satisfied with the way I spent my time. I blare Cities 97 and sing. It's quality.
Christmas is tomorrow, isn't it. Wow. That came quickly. It was really fun to see family yesterday at the Schmidt Christmas. Not coming home for Thanksgiving made it seem like I hadn't seen my aunts, uncles and cousins in forever...I suppose for many it had been since June or so. It was fun for me to be able to actually say that I love New York and am happy there...and really mean it.
It feels good to be home.

Eyes on the prize...

Wow, I cannot believe that I'm going home Thursday night! In 48 hours, I will be at the airport, reading bad tabloids and drinking an overpriced latte while I wait for my flight with my million pounds of luggage. As excited as I am for this, and as long as I've waited to go home, this also means that in 48 hours, I will be done with my three finals. That's where the stress comes in...I'm not exactly worried for the finals in the sense that I feel unprepared, because I've gone to every class and taken really good notes, but I still don't 100% know what to expect. So, I'm probably not going to study a ton for the finals, but I still have that nervous anticipation and general butterflies for these tests...I just want to be done. And then it's Relaxation City for three weeks! Woohoo! I'm really looking forward to just being back home and seeing everyone again. I'm sure everyone has some hilarious and crazy stories to tell...I definitely do.
I went to SNL AGAIN last Saturday, and it was, by far, the best episode of the season. We sort of expected that. Justin Timberlake was the host and musical guest...we assumed and sort of knew beforehand that Jimmy Fallon would be making a cameo appearance for a Barry Gibb Talk Show sketch. So THAT was exciting. I also got to sit with my favorite ladies; Chelsea, Heather and Natalie. We weren't in the best seats, but I could still see a lot, and I was happy. Kristen Wiig, my current favorite cast member, had a lot of great characters in the show...like the Target Lady!!!...so that was fun, too. I also went to Asssscat on Sunday, and it was a great cast, with Rachel Dratch and Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers and John Lutz and Jack McBrayer and Rachel Hamilton and Miriam Tolan...we were all pretty happy about that. I'm going to miss Asssscat while in Minnesota, but I'll have Stevie Ray's and Brave New Workshop to fill my improv void. :)
Ugh I have to : start packing, maybe do laundry, wrap gifts, buy MORE gifts (ugh) and study. I should get on that...

Drama

Okay, so, I know I write a lot about SNL-related issues, but this needed to be discussed.
My friends Heather, Chelsea and Natalie and I planned on having a tent party in the standby line last night because of how cold it was (with windchill, I think it was supposed to feel like 15 degrees or something like that). So Chelsea bought this 4 person tent, and we got to the line at like 7:15pm last night so we could set up and start our little party! The tent was like a miracle. None of us could believe how warm (no coats or shoes) and how happy we were. We started watching "Love Actually" on Chelsea's laptop, and we were all cozy, and all of a suddent this guy is like banging on our tent and yelling, "Anyone in there! Get out right now! Come out with your hands up!" And we thought it was some jerk just messing with us, so we're like "Go away! Leave us alone!" And then this guy unzips the tent and it's a Rockefeller Center security guard. So we get out, and he just starts telling us that we can't have a tent, and that we need to take it down immediately, or they're going to call the real police on us...I admit, I got a little bit belligerent. Maybe it's from living in New York, it's probably from living with Mallory (most aggressive person I know), but I was really angry at this faux-cop. He kept threatening to call the real cops on us. I kept asking him for a reason why we needed to take down the tent, and he said it was "a 9/11 thing" and I believe I said that that must be a convenient answer for him to use in many situations nowadays. Haha. I...could've gotten arrested. Oh well. We ended up having to take the tent down at like 11, and luckily we were still really bundled up in layers and I had my sleeping bag, so it was tolerable. More people tried to cut in front of me this morning, and I had to tell the NBC page. Soo much drama. One of the girls who caught started taking off her coat, saying she was going to beat me up? It was ridiculous! She kept yelling, "No one gets between me and my Gwen Stefani [the musical guest this week]!!!" And I told her she should've gotten in line earlier if she cared so much about Gwen Stefani. I was probably a little too ballsy on a couple of occassions, but whatever. My passive-aggressive, Minnesota Nice is fading a bit.
Anyway, here are pictures of our fabulous tent fun and then when we're sad and angry and cold after getting evicted. That guy in the second picture is just some random guy, I have no idea who he is, he jumped in the picture. Haha.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

but no snow. Not yet, at least. I think the forecast calls for light flurries on Friday (when I'm on the street, of course). The days of December leading up to Christmas are probably my favorite days of the entire year; Christmas ads start playing frantically on TV, wreathes and lights go up randomly around the city and if you peek into windows, there are cozy fires and Christmas trees decorated with keepsake ornaments. Egg nog goes on sale. It's that time when you're not sick of Christmas songs yet. For some reason, I always associate the holiday season with big cities. This is probably because ever since I was a baby, I've been going to my grandparents' house in Chicago, and all my holiday traditions involved being away from Minnesota and near the big city with its store windows and sidewalks packed with shoppers. So, despite all my finals and papers and oncoming cold, I'm doing my best to enjoy this time of year. New York is beautiful. Today, the weather was cold (49 degrees is cold here right now), but the sky was cloudless and sunny, that sort of winter blue and muted sun. Even though I had to walk 12 blocks to Middle Eastern Cultures, it was pleasant, and it really reminded me that Christmas is actually almost here.
A pleasant sidenote about walking to Middle Eastern Cultures...I was deeply involved in my iPod when I hit Bleecker and Mercer, until suddenly a lady started telling me to get to the other side of the street. Being the obvious New Yorker that I now am, I yelled at her that I had a class to get to ahead and that I didn't want to cross. She was very adament about it, so I gave up and finally crossed the street. Then I noticed the large group of people and orange cones situated right the path I would have been on. A group of us gathered across the street to figure out what was going on. Then we noticed they were filming a movie! WITH DREW BARRYMORE AND HUGH GRANT! Right outside the book store I pass every other day, in the building next to the NYU Mercer building where I have class twice a week. It was really cool to see, and, clearly, I took some pictures. You can vaguely tell it's Barrymore and Grant. I expect a similar photo to be in People or some other magazine, seeing as many paparazzi were standing and snapping right next to me. It was a fun excuse to be late for class.
I can't believe I'm coming home so soon! I've taped my travel itinerary directly above my laptop to urge me to work. Departure : LGA, December 21, 7:40 pm. Arrival : MSP, December 21, 9:41 pm. Yay! So soon! It's stressful at the same time, though, because by then, I will have completed all my work, finished all papers and taken all my finals. When I put it that way...ahh!!! No time! I'll get it all done, though, I always do. I'm not promising I'll actually sleep...but sleep is overrrated, I learned that in high school.
Speaking of work...I should get on that. I took a looong nap AGAIN today (when I woke up, I thought it was sunrise, and I just about had a panic attack). Enjoy this photo, and see if you can spot Drew and Hugh!

PS ~ I got into SNL again last Saturday (7 for 7!) and saw Matthew Fox/Tenacious D. It was a mediocre episode...this weekend should be interesting (Annette Bening/Gwen Stefani). At least I'm sleeping in a tent for standby!