Thursday, December 31, 2009

Checking it twice

For those of you wondering if I was a good boy in 2009, here's a brief report on what Santa and his helpers brought me on Christmas morning.

My wish list was mostly composed of themes, categories, etc.; I only asked for four specific items, and I got them all:

--A new watch. I used to wear a watch all the time, and felt kinda naked when it wasn't on. But I've been using my phone to tell time since my last watch broke about five years ago. But now, I spend a lot of time in places (the temple, work, my primary classroom) where it's helpful to know what time it is but I can't have my phone out.

--A new wallet. I got my first "big boy" wallet in junior high, and have been using it ever since. The final plastic picture holders fell out recently, which is fine, since I haven't had any wallet-sized photos for about a decade. This new wallet is thinner, which I like, but it's wider, so it doesn't fit as well in my front pockets. I'll still cram it in there next time I'm in New York, though. It's weird--from the time I first started carrying a wallet, I've always been paranoid about it being stolen. I'd be walking through the halls in high school between classes, and I'd feel for my wallet every two minutes to make sure it was still there. I must have been really worried about losing my lunch tickets.

--Season 12 of The Simpsons on DVD, the most recent release (they're on season 21 right now). This season includes such classics as the one where Homer becomes the mayor of New Springfield, the one where the Simpsons get a tennis court, and the one where Bart joins a boy band and is mentored by *NSYNC ("those whack invertebrates will sting you old school"). When I get the DVDs, I've already seen the episodes many times, so I like to watch the episodes with the commentary on and see if they talk about the jokes and moments that I liked best, but they usually just make fun of the people who critique the show on the Internet.

--The Book of Basketball, by Bill Simmons (my favorite sports writer). It's quite an opus--over 700 pages long, weighs about three pounds, and while promoting it on a TV show back in October, they showed that it will even stop a bullet. But you need that kind of space to discuss important things like the 33 biggest "what-ifs" in NBA history (no. 7: what if Julius Erving played with Pete Maravich?) and who the 95th best NBA player of all time is (Jo Jo White). In other words, probably less than 2% of the people who read this blog would be interested in reading this book.

Add in the '80s edition of those "Scene It" DVD games, a zip-up BYU hoodie, and a book of puzzles based on New Yorker cartoons, and it was merry Christmas for Jeff.

How about you? Did y'all manage to stay off of the naughty list?

4 comments:

Janelle said...

I got the things I asked for, but not the thing I really wanted. I really wanted a new camera, my first dSLR, but we can't afford it right now. I asked for it, but I knew from the get-go that I wouldn't get it, so it doesn't really count.

I did get a game I asked for, a set of serving dishes, and a new cell phone.

David M said...

I got a month and a half of underground parking from my wife at the building we moved into. My parents chipped in with an extra month which will take me through February.

It's currently -10 degrees F outside, so it was probably the greatest present of all time.

jeff said...

If only our Tempos were still around. They could've shared the spot.

angelalois said...

sorry I'm so behind on my blogs. we had a good christmas: new mattress, oreck vacuum, office chair. super boring grown up adult stuff. I guess that means we're getting an x-box for the hub's bday in march...