I’m in such a bad mood. Part of it is the family being obnoxious; my brother felt it appropriate to tell two really horrible racist jokes at Christmas breakfast. While I asked him to shut up and stop being an asshole, he just talked louder and louder over me. And kept repeating the joke to amuse himself and laugh about it.

My sister got on my case for using the word “efficacy” - “why do you have to use words that no one else knows?”

What? Efficacy isn’t some strange word from the lexicon of, I don’t know, neuroscience or anything. Effectiveness and efficacy are the same thing, but I happen to like efficacy better as a word.

So, I’ve sequestered myself away from them in hopes that it will improve my mood.

My friend Vin called me a few minutes ago to tell me to turn on Spike TV (James Bond marathon) since (he said) the villain looked like my dad must’ve looked about 30 years ago. He was pretty on-target, though my dad had wavier hair than the villain. Still… my father bears a resemblance to a James Bond villain (in “Never Say Never Again”).

Anyway, let me outline the spoils of the holiday (since everyone always asks and it was the first question from my friend - “how’d you do?”):

• books - Sky Burial, Illustrated Zuleika Dobson, the Yale Book of Quotations and The Little Black Book of Tea
• waterproof suede boots from L.L. Bean (in black currant - nice shade of deep purple)
• gift certificate for Harney & Sons Teas
• gift certificate for Sephora
• gift certificate for Marshall’s (you know how I love the bargains…)
• black leather purse from Monsac (similar to this one, but a bit smaller)
• a new watch (silver, Betsey Johnson)
• the special edition DVD of Pride and Prejudice (A&E miniseries) (10th Anniversary Limited Edition, apparently)
• new brushed metal iPod case from Belkin
… and certainly NOT least…
• haven’t gotten it yet, but I will be getting some help from my parents in the new year with putting a down payment on a new car - a Mazda 3. I’ve been doing my best to pay off my debts and have paid over $13,000 towards school and credit cards in the past year and a half, so I haven’t been able to save up for much of anything. My father commented a while ago that I must be feeling like a second-class citizen being the only person in the family who doesn’t have a brand new car (which is, actually, the case - nobody else’s car is more than 2 years old…) and that’s not how I feel, but I hate not being able to accelerate on the highway with an underpowered old car.

So, at some point in the next few months, I’ll have some new wheels (in the metallic gray color shown on the product page). Like this:

And finally a place to slap up my NYU alumnus window sticker. And plug in my iPod.I’m not letting myself get too thrilled about it until it actually happens. So much can change over the course of a few weeks. Right now, I’ll remain cautiously optimistic.

And if you are in possession of a digital camera, here’s something that might interest you… Post-it’s new line of sticky photo papers have a mail-in rebate for any product purchase of up to $15. So you can try them and not have to pay. Expires on March 31, 2007.

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