Let us have a moment of silence...for my printer. It lived a full life, starting back in 1999 when it was part of a high school graduation gift from my parents. Kyle mocked it the first time he saw it because it's such a dinosaur. But it has worked great all along! Well, it started going downhill a few weeks ago. And then yesterday, it finally choked on its own disintegrated belt and died. Alas.
[mourns]
We got a clock!
Ok, ok. I realize that statement is probably not very exciting without explanation. Mom had asked me if there was anything in particular we'd like as a graduation/wedding/Christmas present. We thought about it and we need things like nightstands and a dresser and such, but felt like it'd be nice to have something less utilitarian—something classy, traditional, nice, and would be with us for awhile. We thought it'd be nice to have a key-wound chiming wall clock. Growing up we had a chiming clock in the living room which was nice. So I mentioned this to Mom and on Christmas morning one of our presents was a list of clock options (so we could pick one in particular that we liked).
Later in the day we sat down and went over the list several times slowly whittling it down. We eventually made our selection and Mom put the order in. Then we eagerly awaited its delivery.
It was shipped in a box within a box:
It was made in Germany. Apparently the Germans are the only ones who still make nice fully mechanical clocks like this.
Here it is in the box. The first language on the instruction manual was German, not something you see everyday.
And here it is on the wall:
We like it. I appreciate the level of skill it must require to build a clock like this. I think if I lived before the era of computers I might have become a clock maker, putting together the gears and stuff is like programming but with metal! Though, there is the problem that if I lived during a time without affordable eyeglass solutions I would've had an issue.
Here's a video of the clock chiming:
(In case you were wondering the title of the post is from "My Grandfather's Clock")
Today's a big day for me: it's been one year since my second surgery! I've decided that Jan. 12-26 shall hereafter be a two-week celebration that I AM ALIVE! And not, y'know, in the hospital or anything. Kyle thinks the big day should be the day I got out of the hospital (the 26th), and I agree that that's a good one. But I think the really big one is today, since that was the surgery that saved my life. But I'm not against celebrating both.
Anyway, in case anyone's wondering how the recovery's going, I guess my strength and whatnot is all back. And my scars have really faded a lot. They're basically the same color as the rest of my skin now (well, except the one on my back; it's still fairly dark). The only real lasting damage seems to be my right side. The skin is still numb there (they cut some nerves to a small area over my ribcage), though I hardly notice it anymore, and the muscles get stiff and hurt sometimes where they crammed in a bunch of drainage tubes. But yoga helps with the stiffness a lot, so I try to keep doing that. Oh, and I have a slightly increased tendency to choke on my own spit, which I blame on scar tissue around my throat. But it could just be that I'm a bit of a spaz. Y'all knew that, right?
I've been rather contemplative lately, between the new year and this anniversary. I can't quite get over how crazy this last year was. Starting last January, I got sick, had 2 surgeries, got engaged, quit my job, got married, and moved to California—and none of those things were anticipated at the beginning of the year. Well, actually, all those things happened in the first 6 months, I guess; the rest has just been recovery and adjustment? Still, although "eventful" isn't normally what I go for in life, and I think 2009 has to have been the most eventful year thus far, I think I've come out ahead. 😀
Megan and Chad came to California after Christmas. With three Dickersons within a hundred miles of each other we reached critical mass and a bowling trip was induced.
Megan and Chad drove down from Sacramento to our apartment on the 31st. Jess, however, had a migraine that day which wasn't responding to medication so she got to stay home and be miserable. Megan, Chad, and I drove down to Sunnyvale to meet Mike and Tina. We pulled up while Mike was out walking the dog! We found it quite comical, I tried to take a picture, but discovered that the batteries I had brought were dead.
We went to lunch at Country Gourmet, which was kind of like eating American food at a restaurant in another country—mostly what you'd expect, but not quite. The food was fine though.
Then we headed over to Google so Megan and Chad could get the tour. It was at this point that we started using my phone to take pictures. We discovered why Google is so powerful—it's because they have these:
Mike showed us what he spends his time doing. This involves complicated tasks like walking up the building supports:
and getting Nerf darts to stick to the ventilation ducts:
Apparently it is these highly developed skills that cause Google to pay him the big bucks.
Megan and Chad needed their picture with the Android statue and his pastries:
At this point we headed off to bowling in hipster central, Cupertino (home of Apple Computers). They're so hip, in fact, that their malls don't even need stores, just hallways to walk through and be seen by other hipsters. We walked through a good 100 yards or more of indoor mall hallway without a single store or commercial presence. The bowling alley itself turned out to be more of a club which happened to have a bowling alley in it. While there were families there with kids, I would have bet it looked different 6 hours later as New Year's parties were gearing up.
There wasn't enough light to get any worthwhile pictures at the bowling alley, but if I remember correctly, I won with a score of 153. Wii Bowling has really been paying off, apparently.
Alright, let's see how much I can remember from Christmas...
First, a roll call of who was present: Kyle's parents, Evan, and Mollie were all there. Evan's friend Laurel was also there, with her son Paul (who is approximately 3 and adorable). Oh, also Kyle and me. So we were missing Mike, Erin & Bryce with their sons Will and Sawyer, and Megan & Chad.
On Christmas Eve, Kyle's family always does a short "program" in which everybody either reads a short story or plays a song. I like this tradition. Kyle and I read How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I read the narrator's part, and Kyle did the voices), Mollie played carols on her flute, several other stories were read, and we sang a bunch of carols as a group. I don't know how they kept this going through the years, but I thought it was a lot of fun. After that, it was time to open the gifts from siblings. (There was some talk of opening all the gifts on Christmas Day, but it was decided that Tradition must be upheld! (Even if it's slightly weird.)) We actually only did the gifts of siblings who were present, though, saving others for tomorrow when we could do it over Skype.
Kyle and I had the interesting opportunity to do stockings for the first time this year. We really enjoyed being Santa for each other, but we were kinda tapped out for stocking ideas. We ended up going to Walmart a couple days before Christmas and basically picking out our own candystuffs. Kyle realized that what would really make his Christmas perfect was an assortment of pastries only available on the east coast: Devil Dogs, Funny Bones, and imitation Pick 'Em Ups, so I filled his stocking with those and he was good. Oh, and a meat tenderizer. My stocking was mostly candy, but also a box of crayons (for my Sunbeams class) and some tasty white cheddar shells and cheese I never buy b/c it also happens to be organic (and therefore crazy expensive). So our stockings were a little weird.
But I get ahead of myself. So Christmas Eve we put out stockings (pretending that we didn't know what was going into each other's) and went to bed. Paul came and woke us up early Christmas morning, and I think he got our names right. (Usually, if you asked him what Kyle's name was, he'd say that he was a duck. Then if you asked him what my name was, he'd say it was Kyle.) Then it was time to open presents! This was a great deal of fun, but I'm not sure what the highlights were. I really enjoyed watching Kyle open the gifts I'd picked out for him and seeing if he actually enjoyed them as much as I'd hoped he would.
A lot of the rest of the day was spent, of course, playing around with what we'd received. Kyle got me a GPS, so that had to be charged and set up. And the books from my childhood that he'd found on eBay all had to be looked at. That sort of thing. There were Skypes with Kyle's absent siblings. I called my parents and got the lowdown on my family's Christmas. If you can believe it, they actually had a white Christmas in Dallas. Without me. Jerks.
We didn't have much longer in Cromwell: we left on the 27th. This was a very long day. Kyle's parents drove us to New Haven, where we took a train to Grand Central in NYC. From there, we took a bus to JFK. Our plane was a very long but uneventful ride back to San Francisco, where we took a couple of trains to Sunnyvale. (We'd left our car with Mike, but he was on call and couldn't come pick us up.) Finally, we we got into our car for the final drive. And with that, we were home!