Christmas time is here...

I got to write a story for my cousin's 3rd grade class about my favorite Christmas memory, so I'd thought I'd share with my readers...

My Favorite Christmas Memory
By Taylor Bradley

My favorite Christmas memory comes from when I was young; before Christmas Day, even before Christmas Eve. Every year in early December it came time to put up the Christmas tree and decorations. My family would start in the morning and unload the Christmas tree and boxes. My dad would put on a tape of holiday music and start the fire, and my mom would make spiced apple cider. Today we have a realistic fake tree with lights put on permanently (you’ll soon see why), but back when I was still in single digits we had a plastic tree. It was constructed in such a way that one had to take plastic branches (labeled A1, A2, etc) and find their corresponding branch hole on the plastic trunk. While my father was sweating through this Christmas tree jigsaw, my mother would start sorting and organizing the ornament boxes. The sorting was tedious because my mom would have to throw away the ones that had been broken, the ones bugs had gotten to, and the ones that were just past their prime. My dad would finish with the tree after lunch and start untangling and hanging the tree lights. Usually by this time I had found all of my favorite ornaments: the train ornament that plugged into an outlet to make a little train go around inside, the miniature Santa sleighs, reindeer, and Santa Mickey Mouse doll; oh and I almost forgot the bird chirping ornament that would chirp ad nauseam until you unplugged it (my dad threatened to throw it in the fire every year). I would play with these off and on until my dad finished with the lights and went to hang Christmas wreaths outside. When he finally did finish it was sometime after dinner- my mom would still be sorting through ornaments and getting ready to hang them. At this point during the process I started on what I felt to be the most important part- building my tree fort. Because it was placed in the corner of our living room, my mom would let me crawl behind the tree under the premise that I was going to help hang some ornaments on the much neglected backside. For me there were ulterior motives. This was the perfect place to view all of Christmas. From here I’d be able to see the people, the tree decorations, and most importantly- the presents. I could reach, feel, and shake almost every present under that tree. I built walls out of pillows and kept a good stash of Christmas toys and ornaments to hang and snacks to sustain me. This was truly Christmas paradise. I would stay here for hours until finally the tree was one step away from completion. The last step for every Christmas tree we had was to place the top ornament. Ours was a wire frame angel with a porcelain head and white robes. My dad would lift me or my baby brother up to put the angel on the top branch, everyone would clap, and we would admire the tree and talk about Christmas lists until bed time. The reason I loved this time every year was because I got to spend an entire day with my family anticipating spending even more time with them during the greatest time of year- Christmas.

poll dancing II

I'll let you decide...

What kind of dog would Taylor be?
	chihuahua
	wiener dog
	pit bull
	golden retriever
	basset hound
Free polls from Pollhost.com

"break a leg..."

my friend told me as I crutched over to the trumpet risers of the jazz band set. Hardy har har har! Flash back to Sunday, November 7. The QB takes the snap and drops back then pitches it to the runningback who breaks right to go outside. The middle linebacker and the left side linebacker read the play and rush to intercept. They dive at the same time and end up pushing the runningback out of bounds as they fall. The middle linebacker hits the ground with a twisted ankle and then the left side linebacker lands on the twisted ankle...CRRRRRAAACK! An hour later I'm looking at a completely fractured fibula, a process broken of off my tibia, and most of the ligaments connecting my my ankle to my leg- broken and hearing the words "You need surgery right now." Flash forward to today. I've got a plate and nine pins in my leg and have been on crutches for a month now.

For all of you people that think playing with my crutches for three seconds is fun, I'll agree. Playing on crutches for three seconds is fun. Climbing up three flights of stairs to your apartment and then another flight to your room two to four times a day isn't fun. And that's just the beginning. It was cool to be the center of attention for a while, but it's really just a hassle. Hopefully I'll be able to post my x-rays on here somehow. As it stands (no pun intended) I'll be able to walk without death sticks, I mean crutches, after my appointment on Tuesday.

I've had to look for the silver lining in all of this and realize that for a band kid, having a serious sports injury is rare and should be cherished. Also it's nice to have girls open doors for me for a change. Oh and best of all, I have handicapped parking for the university and the state until the end of spring!

_______________
Oh and by the way: for some reason I had a draft of a post laying around so I published it. I guess I forgot about September the 7th. There are a lot of grammatical mistakes, but I didn't feel like fixing them. Comment as you will.

sneaks in to blog hoping no one's noticed his absence

So it has been several months since I blogged last, I know. I know there will never be an excuse as to why my life isn't in print for some other bloggers, but things really did get busy for a while. I do have some stories and news to tell, but I'll add those as separate posts I think- for now, just the basics.

Alice and I are doing great. We've been dating for over 2 years now and it still seems like I met her just yesterday (::sigh::). Her dad is getting remarried this weekend, during exams. But I was able to move my exams around so that I go to Dallas this weekend and come back for a Monday exam and a Tuesday Dr. Appointment (see next post). I'm really excited for Lee; his fiancee, Margaret, is a really great person with whom everybody loves to spend time.

Band is going really well actually we have a pretty great January coming up. We get to go to the Rose Bowl and we get to play in the Inaugural parade in D.C. for Pres. Bush!! Beat that? No, you can't. I would also report that the trumpets climbed their way to another stunning LHB football tournament victory, but well, see the next post.

School is going well. I'm gonna get an A in all of my music classes, and will get good grades in Bios as well (yet to be determined what # grades). I've registered for 18 hours next semester. Don't freak out yet! I've still limited myself to 12 academic houses a semester. I'm taking organic chem (3), medical and scientific terminology (3), music theory 1B (3), and vertebrate physiology 1 (3). My non-academic classes are trumpet lessons, some ensemble, and piano. I'll just be busy.

Everything is good at home as well. My brother is in advanced jazz at the middle school and already playing bagpipes with the high schoolers. My mom and Joan (Alice's mom) are still working together on Joan's house and my room- and loving it.

Recently (last night in fact) LHB had its Holiday Party. I played in the Jazz band, which was fun. We played like 20 something songs with only two rehearsals- good to be a music major. I then went over to play some poker with some people. I'm really starting to like poker. I played a couple of nights ago and my winnings from that night payed for this game ($10 buy-in). Last night, however, lady luck had not followed me to the table, but instead my friend Travis whose money had I had taken several nights before. Still, I'm about where I started.

Hopefully I will at some point earn the privilege of being a link on other people sites. Sorry for lack of updates, it just fell by the wayside.