Winter Night.

Meg's boyfriend Andrew is staying with us for Christmas so we went out to a tree farm off Sorghum Mill with him and his beautiful camera to pick out our own real, live, smells-really-good tree. He deserves all photo credit.

I learned that the process of getting a real tree wandering around a farm at dusk while sipping complimentary hot cider is far more preferable to assembling a fake one or picking one up at Walmart.

I also learned that the "Christmas Trees" grown in Oklahoma are stringy and odorless - Firs don't grow here because of the hot summers. Needless to say we are phonies and the tree we picked out had been shipped in from Oregon.

Free, Cat Power.

Nothing Ever Hurt Like You, James Morrison.

Comfort You, Van Morrison.

Trying to slow down time,

Repeat the sounding joy.

twentysomething.

after years of expensive education
a car full of books and anticipation
i'm an expert on shakespeare and that's a hell of a lot
but the world don't need scholars as much as I thought
maybe i'll go traveling for a year
finding myself, or start a career
i could work for the poor, though i'm hungry for fame
we all seem so different but we're just the same
maybe i'll go to the gym, so i don't get fat
aren't things more easy, with a tight six pack
who knows the answers, who do you trust
i can't even separate love from lust
maybe i'll move back home and pay off my loans
working nine to five, answering phones
but don't make me live for my friday nights
drinking eight pints and getting in fights
don't wanna get up, just have a lie in
leave me alone, i'm a twentysomething
maybe i'll just fall in love
that could solve it all

philosophers say that that's enough
there surely must be more
love ain't the answer, nor is work
the truth eludes me so much it hurts
but i'm still having fun and i guess that's the key
i'm a twentysomething and i'll keep being me

(jamie cullum).

Best of 2009.

Images via Flaming Lips last New Years and Tumblr.

Best Thing to Do After Graduating: move to washington, dc and work at a think tank.

Best List Other Than This One: new york times magazine's year in ideas.

Best Time to Graduate: a recession.

Best Thing to Come Out of the Recession: no more circuit city, a totally unnecessary big box store.

Best Thing About Graduating: making (a little) money. not being overwhelmed by the mountain of homework that used to await me every sunday night. regular eating schedule.

Best Musician/Band to See Live: bruce springsteen and the e street band!

Best Super Secret Special Club to be Initiated Into: the yaya sisterhood.

Best Decision to Make When Suddenly Faced With How Much Reality Costs: buy a new car.

Best Way to Get a Guy to Fall for You: sing karaoke. terribly. really, really terribly.

Best Thing to Do Immediately After Work On a Summer Friday: jazz in dc's sculpture garden + sangria + emily solon + freak rainstorm.

Best of Television: jeanine's final solo on so you think you can dance. liz lemon. glee.

Best Discovery That Makes Life Better: the "request copy" feature of public libraries. lala.com. that 99.9% of the way people interact with you has absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do with themselves - and vice versa. netflix.

Best Place to Narrowly Escape Murder: graceland too.

Best Trend: cupcakes. pomegranate. plaid.

Best Twitterer: john mayer.

Best Place to Live: treehouse.

Best Movie: eh.

Best Drinks: grapefruit juice. riesling. diet dr. pepper. water.

Best Eats: lobster roll in cape cod. truffle salt on cherry tomatoes. tapas. philadelphia rolls. talapia tacos at big truck. the salsa at trader joe's.

Best Thing I Wish Was In Oklahoma: a trader joe's.

Best Thing I Baked: lemon sour cream cake.

Best Interesting International News: iranian protests over the summer.

Best Purchases: black jeans and faux leather jacket from forever 21 - so cheap. blush in taos and deep throat by nars - not so cheap.

Best Worst Purchase: all ipod adapters fail miserably. gre class.

Best Place to Run: past the lincoln memorial.

Best Place to Dance: rooftop. beauty bar.

Best Saying: i beasted it. (as in dominated).

Best Celeb Sighting: sonya sotomayor, complete with leg cast.

Best Music: the yeah yeah yeahs, it's blitz! the avett brothers, i and love and you. noah and the whale, the first days of spring. kid cudi, man on the moon. phoenix, wolfgang amadeus phoenix. and as far as singles played nonstop on the radio go - jason derulo, whatcha say.

Best Worst Person: that scalper at acl. the person(s) that stole my purse. teabaggers + any moron who thinks sarah palin is qualified to be a presidential candidate in 2012.

Best Worst Decision: giving in to the hoopla and reading the transcripts of tiger's texts. uggggh.

Best Person: paul krugman.

Best Thing Heard On the Radio: this american life - episode 286, mind games.

Best Job To Have: planning a city.

What's I'm Looking Forward To In 2010:

meg brings andrew home for christmas! (technically still 2009).

moving in with colby to her new house in oklahoma city.

a birthday present brought back from argentina.

presenting my thesis at a conference in hawaii.

australia and new zealand in march. oh gosh, the sartorialist is there now taking his beautiful photographs that make me restless with anticipation.

beach trip with my best friends.

mystery trip with kelly and paige.

weddings!

seeing how it all pans out.

Dedication.

So, in honor of 2009 coming to a close, I just began reading the year's Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.

I'm 162 pages in and can't put it down. Such good writing.

But I loved the book from the very beginning, when I read the dedication on the first page:

For my mother

who can make life magical

and is the best storyteller I know

...what wonderful, wonderful qualities to possess.

I think I'd like to aim for that.

Now the first of December was covered with snow, and so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston...

Photos via Flickr and DesignSponge and Casey.

Sometimes I think it would be nice to ditch all the hoopla and wrapping paper and head to Norway or Capri or Cuba (...soon enough) for Christmas. I'm all for simplicity.

But then I start to feel that warm, tingly holiday spirit.

It all started when I saw my favorite Christmas song performed live: Bruce Springsteen's version of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, complete with deep throated, reverberating voice projecting immeasurable jolliness.

Or maybe it started sooner than that, when my boyfriend inexplicably had Christmas Wrappings, by The Waitresses playing in his car: the exact song my sisters and I had spent close to an entire lifetime searching for after hearing it as the faint background music in a Gilmore Girls episode and mistakenly believing it was by The Bangles. Truly a Christmas miracle.

Or maybe it was that redemptive final home victory for the Sooners.

Anyway, scattered thoughts to keep in mind in the weeks ahead:

I want to put genuine, personalized thought into my gift-giving.

However, my own "what-i-want-for-Christmas-list" is looking a bit uninspired at an age where you either pretty much buy what you want yourself or you want something too expensive to be put into consideration:

• dress pants for work.
• polaroid film (...if you can find it).
• a replacement blackberry.

...is it ever appropriate to just ask for cold, hard cash from your relatives?

I want to read a little bit of The Prophet every night this month. I always have the best intentions to do so, but it's gathering dust on my night stand.

I had a brief anxiety attack the other day while standing in line at the downtown Quiznos with a bunch of dowdy women with disinterested, bland faces, imagining the countless, repetitive jobs they hold that are required on every floor of every building in the entire world.

I know this is extremely judgemental of me - and my saint of a sister Meg (can't wait for her to come home!) would totally call me out on it. I am too judgemental. These women are complete strangers to me, and for all I know they lead important, meaningful lives: wonderful mothers, cut-throat attorneys, tireless volunteers, world travelers, knitting champions, CEOs, etc.

And if I've learned anything in the span of college, it's not to judge other people's life choices as good or bad, right or wrong, black or white. Somehow, it all turns out right.

But I did realize that, for me personally, doing a job to just make a living and get by may be my very worst fear.

You know how you reflect on the past and laugh or become deeply embarrassed or homesick, etc. Well, my reaction every time is: Man, I really really didn't need to worry so much. Seriously, every time.

Learn from that.

And this article.

...and a vow not to indulge in quarter-life crises and self-pity. Waste of precious time.

Fun, festive party clothes.

So many better options over Elf: It's A Wonderful Life. Nightmare Before Christmas. Christmas Story.

Decision to, finally, put my money where my mouth is.

Funny:

I love it when all of the end of the year lists come out - just another excuse to buy more magazines. Look for my own version here soon.

Citrus in season. Helllllo blood oranges!

How good the suns are without Shaq! Told you so.

Continually count yrrrrrr blessings.

Set the Fire to the Third Bar, Snow Patrol and Martha Wainwright

Creeping In, Norah Jones and Dolly Parton

Sweet Baby James, James Taylor

Blessed is the season that engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

- Hamilton Wright Mabie.

It is good to be a child sometimes, and never more than at Christmas, when its mighty founder was a child Himself.

- Charles Dickens.

What A World, What A World.

You're The Only Ten I See.

Trip Essentials:

Surviving the road with licorice, sunsets, a lone meteor, musicals (Evita) and Coke breaks.

Bruce Springsteen set lists.

William Faulkner trademarks: Yoknapatawpha County, Caddy, Dilsey, Addie, Thomas Sutpen, alcoholism, the Southern Gothic, texture, stream of consciousness...

The Patterson House: Nashville. Coolest bar I will ever go to in my life. Period. (Nondescript website proves it - so cool they don't even have to try).

Pancake Pantry: Nashville. Sweet potato pancakes, yummm.

Reading Invisible Man at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives.

Rolandos: Fort Smith, Arkansas. On the way home.

Wonderful and hospitable friends/family to stay with in Oxford, Nashville and Memphis.

Graceland Too. The most off-beat, creepy destination.