America's Next Top Has-Been? ANTM's first grand poobah alum Adrianne Curry can now be seen on ... VH1's The Surreal Life 4.

Meanwhile, I've been reading the blog of America's Third-to-Next-Top-Model (via season one). Check out Elyse Sewell's dispatches from China.
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The holidays have finally tapered off and the quiet started to ebb back into my life on Sunday night with a road trip around parts of Sac to check out the Christmas lights. We had Christmas music via Phil Spector & friends, Johnny Cash and the new John Waters holiday album. We also cookies. Oh yes and Jeff & Rochelle in the back seat to help navigate the trip. It was a delightful, sparkly two-hour trip --even when one of the houses we'd specifically set out to see turned out their lights right as we approached --at only 8:30 p.m. The saddest sight of the evening, however, was the poor Christmas tree that'd been dragged out to the curb, stripped of all its ornaments and tinsel less than 24 hours after Christmas had left the building. We contemplated dragging the tree up to the front porch and doing a doorbell ditch job but eventually decided the tree was probably better off going back to the earth via a compost pile than re-entering such a cold, cold house.

Sorry, but in my world you do not take down the holiday decorations until January 1. (And, of course, they do not go up until the day after Thanksgiving).

It's strange, I'm non-traditional and cynical about many, many things (too many things probably -- at least on the cynical count) -- but as tired and crazed as they make me, the holidays are not one of those things (at least they're never one of those things for very long).

Last night was the final holiday party of the season and can I just say that I'm very very happy to have scored both the
Partridge Family Christmas album (on vintage vinyl) and the Mary-Kate and Ashley 16-month calendar....so, so happy.

And now we approach New Year's Eve and I'm very happy that we're staying home. Just me and Cory and the cats and the rest of the Office, Season 2 on DVD and a Duraflame, take-out and cocktails. After a year of so many ups-and-downs that my head seems to be in a permanent spin cycle, this seems like the perfect way to approach 2005.

The Independent takes a step back from the tsunami disaster in a story called "The Lost Generation" to examine, however briefly, the cultural and social impact of losing so many children so quickly:

The cruelty was in the timing. Kapaliswaram, a policeman, described the scene: "There were kids playing cricket right out at the edge of the sea. Nobody round here knows who they were. No trace of their bodies has been found." Fishermen told how they had been swept away but had been able to swim back. The children could not. Nor could they run fast enough to escape.

The walls of water sent crashing onto the coasts of south Asia by the biggest earthquake in 40 years took a disproportionate number of young lives. It may have been as many as half of the victims - the toll stood at 60,000 last night. As the calmer waters return a steady flow of bodies, communities are coming to terms with a lost generation.

Mike Kiernan, a spokesman for Save the Children in Washington, said: "The death toll among children in these disasters is always high, especially in the poorest parts of the world - that is one of the tragedies. In villages such as Cuddalore in India we know that more than half of the 400 victims were children. There will also likely be many thousands of children orphaned." Waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera, as well as malaria, would take their toll on the youngest and weakest survivors, he warned.

Not to trivialize the reality or the impact, but in a strange, haunting way it almost feels as if the Pied Piper came and led them all away.

At a certain point it almost becomes impossible to comprehend and fathom the seriousness of the devastation and deaths in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Asia and eight other countries. An estimated death toll of 52,000 - a number that could rise even higher.

The figures just make me numb.

Here are some ways to help:


American Red Cross
International Response Fund
PO Box 37243
Washington, DC 20013
800-HELP NOW
www.redcross.org

Direct Relief International
27 South La Patera Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
805-964-4767
www.directrelief.org

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
PO Box 2247
New York, NY 10116-2247
888-392-0392
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Operation USA
8320 Melrose Avenue, Ste. 200
Los Angles, CA 90069
800-678-7255
www.opusa.org

Well, so there you have it. Christmas v. 2004 is officially over.

Officially? Cory asked me last night as we drove through the fog away from his mother's house.

Yes, officially. Because even though there are still some presents to be wrapped and unwrapped, all of the family Christmases (Parts 1-3) are now gone and with them went the stress.

I love my family. I do...but...well, perhaps you know how it is.

(Note to self: by Dec. 24 of next year you must own a small flask in which one may smuggle rum or whiskey to liven up the endless cans of Diet Coke consumed on Christmas Eve. It's a much better option than rushing to the grocery store to buy a four-pack of "emergency" Kahlua mudslides. OK, so the emergency grocery store trip was really about green beans. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

And do I have the best husband ever? Thanks for asking, why yes I do. Big smoochy thanks to Cory for my birthday surprise: two tickets to the Kings-Miami game that were handed out over my birthday sushi dinner. What a perfect way to spend the evening - with the spouse, away from all the holiday hoopla, screaming my lungs out (I was nearly hoarse by the end of the first quarter). In the end it didn't even matter that they choked in the last quarter and lost by two points.

Of course, what's really funny about this is that my surprise Christmas gift to Cory was two tickets to the Kings-Cavaliers game scheduled for next month. Do we know each other or what? We do.

Oh, and I know I'm going to hell for my "he's a little rascal driving his Little Rascal" comment last night. I'm sorry, but that's what I think whenever I see the Pope scooting around on his motorized wheelchair.

What may have been the highlight of this whole holiday rush so far: playing Legos last night with our three-year-old nephew Zachary -- building up dinosaurs and smashing them to smithereens. Bliss.

Coming up in the near future: highlighted Christmas v.2004 Talking Points from my brother. Holiday joy is being the polar opposite of your younger brother in every which way possible!

Happy everything to all of you....

P.S.
This Web site devoted to custom iPods is one of the few things that's made me laugh since Monday morning. I'll take the Ramones one, please.

To do:

• Finish holiday shopping


• Pick up ingredients for Christmas dishes to be made for Friday


• Ignore intermittent dizziness due to congested head


• Sleep?


• Birthday


• Brace for excessive amount of quality family time


• Prep/wrap presents


• Cook holiday dishes


• More holiday baking?


• Sleep? Please?


• Coffee

One of these years I'll take my mother's advice and schedule my birthday for June 23 instead of December...in the meantime, it's the usual pre-Christmas breakneck speed countdown...in a weird way I love it, but I swear it's going to kill me one of these fine years.

Goodness, there is nothing more that I want right now then to just be able to sit in my pajamas, sipping hot coffee and eating cold cereal as I watch bad TV.

Dec. 26th --what will soon go down in history as the Greatest Slacker Day EVER -- is just around the corner.

I like that I'm the third-ranked result for this Yahoo search:

how do you know if you're having a nervous breakdown

I mean if I'm going to be an expert on anything...As such, I believe that I am now currently in the throes of a nervous breakdown. At the very least, my body is finally rebelling against me. I keep telling it that post Dec. 25, it can do whatever the hell it pleases - get the flu, break out into hives, melt into a puddle - but no, it's got other ideas. Started getting a head cold last night. This is probably due, at least in part, to the fact that I'm only getting about six hours of sleep a night (and I'm a strict eight-hour type of girl).

Also, I don't think I've stopped moving since Saturday. Between baking and shopping, party stuff and, oh yeah, work (which is busier than ever, go figure), I am just going, going, going. And pretty soon, I'm afraid, it might all be too much and I could just be gone.

Poof.

I may just disintegrate.

Oh yeah, and I've had this awful carpal tunnel pain in my right arm that requires plenty of anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers and a charming wrist brace --it just flared up out of nowhere. Like I said, my body? It's rebelling.

And you should see my toe. Well, maybe not. Stubbed it the other night (1 a.m., finally on the way to bed). Stubbed it hard. It's now swollen and about three disturbing shades of purple.

But the good news is that we've finally got sone holiday decorations up and some closets have been cleaned out and about half the shopping is done and I am, for now, still standing.

Oh my god, it's not New Year's Eve without Dick Clark. Pray to the TV/pop music gods for Clark's swift recovery because I'm certain that 2005 will not arrive without the aid of the America's oldest teenager.

Also, I do remember where I was when I heard about
John Lennon's death: watching the news at home. We lived in Austin at the time. The carpet was orange shag, I was 10 and the news made me really sad as I'd just "discovered" the Beatles.

The next few months were spent learning as much as possible about them, Lennon in particular. At one point my grandmother in Dallas bought me a copy of a quickie John Lennon bio (published merely weeks after his murder) entitled "Strawberry Fields Forever." At least I think that was the title - I can't seem to find any evidence of it online. It was a cheap paperback novel bought at a corner drugstore --if anyone knows anything about the book, please let me know. I'd love to get another copy.

Tonight, I think, some John Lennon tunes are in order.

Say it isn't so, is CNN's Rudi Bakhtiar jumping ship Fox News?

She's certainly been MIA from my Headline News fixes as of late...

I realized today that the reason I haven't really been full-blown sick this season is because I've been willing it away. Today in the car on the way to SF for an interview I started to get the sniffles. I was already tired after a night of lousy sleep. But I just told myself not now, I can't get sick now. Which is what I've been telling myself since basically September. Everytime I get flu-ish or stuffed up, I take a lot of drugs and start admonishing my immune system.

I think somewhere around Jan. 1 I'm going to have a complete physical breakdown. Y'all should come watch, should be fun.

Sunday was my mini graduation ceremony and other than the part where the 'special guest speaker' didn't show up --it was quite lovely. Of course the weird thing is I still have school this week. I've graduated, but I have class...

It's been a flurry of days and I've barely had time to watch the news or read through the paper or scroll through various Web sites....I'm hoping for a weekend of relative quiet (maybe just holiday baking and cleaning) will allow me time to catch up with the world beyond Julia's twins and Lindsay Lohan's awful album. Sometimes I can't believe I get paid to care about these things. It's not a bad gig mind you...just strange, that's all.

Yes, it's true - I've gone over to the LiveJournal dark side. No, I'm not giving up this blog, I just decided to finally cave and get a LiveJournal so that I could keep up w/ certain friends-only accounts - thanks to M. for that. Anyway, if you're interested, it's here and is basically just a foodie blog -- recipes, food talk, etc--probably mostly of the sweets variety. Who knows, maybe not, maybe there'll be "real" food too. Maybe some crafting talk as well...because this is just what I need in life, another online journal. This makes--well, I'm not going to tell you how many this makes because some of them are so super-secret I'd have to kill you and your loved ones if you found them.

Anyway. Turned in my thesis and had my last class. Now, other than a tiny graduation ceremony (Sunday) and a class potluck (Thursday), I am done. I have my MFA. I reached my goal and got my master's before I turned 35 (but just barely)....and now....and now what?

Everyone keeps asking me that: now what?

I don't know. I really don't know. Work, I suppose -- at least I already have a good job so there's no worries about money. Keep writing, I hope. I'd like to start a local writing group and, maybe eventually, a reading series similar to this New York-based one. I think that's my main, post-holiday goal: to get into a writing routine that's fairly disciplined (which will be tough at first, I imagine, as there'll be no deadlines looming) and also get more social/involved in the local literary scene.

....it's a nice day today...sunny and cold but not as icy as it has been....mind you, I like the icy, I like the cold....but I also like the crisp, sunny days...all around everything is good even if I am suffering from a bit of post-MFA depression. Hopefully that will pass sooner rather than later. At the very least, hopefully the holidays will make me too busy to think about it.

I got the new Lindsay Lohan CD. I know you are jealous.