Another year, another chapter.

Well, I'm staring at a rough draft right now, but I suppose the final version will not be done until next year. Actually, there are a few of them that look like that now, so it's going better than some people may have expected, though as always not as well as I had hoped. That's all I have to say about the dissertation for now, otherwise I'll probably get distracted again...

Here we are at the end of December, and it is beginning to look like I've posted too many times in the past few weeks. Fortunately, I haven't run out of nothings to talk about! Obviously, the Christmas holiday is one of the many subjects of this post, but there will also be a bit in here about my guitar, and maybe something about how we won't be celebrating the New Year like everyone else we know.

First off, the most exciting thing to have happened in the last two days is that I finally got my guitar. Yes, that's right, my guitar is finally here, in my very own home, sitting quietly (for now) in its sad little cold room. It's not allowed into the "hot" part of the house just yet, because I'm convinced it will explode the instant warm air touches its fragile wood frame. See, I've even given it our guest bed, at least until we have company. Some of you will remember that the guitar was supposed to be here a few weeks ago, but such are the cruelties which I daily face that I was forced to send the original back to the manufacturer due to numerous miniscule imperfections in the finish around the guitar's shoulder. That was a sad day for me; I had been able to try out the 7c and the 5c after many weeks of patient waiting, and I had even decided that I much prefer the 7c to its less numerically impressive sibling (mostly because the shop clearly took a lot more time putting together the 7 than the 5--I can't guarantee that they sound substantially different, but I do believe that the action and scale on the 7 are marginally superior), only to discover the flaws that would force me to reject the chosen guitar and wait another uncertain period for the arrival of a more perfect instrument. I was very happy yesterday to determine that the replacement is far better than the original, and I can now finally get on with my life. Hopefully that will end the guitar saga.

Alicia and I were able to take some days away from home to visit another home, Portugal, with our friends Mariana and Alex. We ate food most of the time, but we also drank coffee, watched movies, explored certain parts of Lisbon, and hung out with some friends. All in all, we had an awesome time, but I think all four of us were left with the feeling that it would have been nice to spend at least some time with family during the Christmas holidays. After all, we graduate students spend little enough time with the family as it is, and moving overseas for an extended period like this certainly doesn't make that situation any better. On the other hand, I don't think I could have bought a Spanish guitar in the U.S. for even twice what I paid here, and then of course the coffee in Portugal is reason enough to justify a few months in Iberia. Oh, and the dissertation, that's a good reason too, the main reason, even...that's right.

As for the New Year's festivities, it doesn't look like we're going to have much of a celebration on that front. Maybe there will be some grape eating, though frankly I don't see the fascination of that particular tradition, but that's about it. Our friends (at least half of whom are named Paco these days, for real!) have invited us to the bar "Claca" or "Claka" for a celebration, but the tickets they had showed a price tag of 55 euros/person, which is about what I'd pay to see U2 here, but definitely more than I can justify for the right to sit in a very smoky bar and watch people get drunk. Thus, it appears quite likely that we'll wander the streets tomorrow evening and see how rowdy things get in a laid back provincial town before retiring to our home, where we'll probably watch a movie and get ready for a day of work on the 1st. Anyone jealous yet?

There you have it, my last blogging fit of 2008. Maybe I'll resolve to write more interesting things in 2009, but I might also resolve to only write when interesting things happen! Happy 2009 a day or two in advance!!!