SusieJ's Advent Calendar: December 9, 2007

The recipe: Glüwein

In the Fall, Glüwein is the most popular recipe on this site, and I must say, y'all have excellent taste. I love having a hot cup of wine in cold weather, especially at any of Germany's many outdoor markets and celebrations.

The surprise: Getting a good photo

Everyone has a digital camera now. And they all seem to have more features than you can use, but the pictures are just as good (or bad) as the ones you took years ago. But, if you know what you are doing, you can take a good Christmas photo, even of something tricky, like Christmas lights.

Pre-Christmas Break in Powelton Village

December 19, 1987, Gena and I moved into our first apartment, a one bedroom (bath off the bedroom) across from Drexel University's dorms and fraternities.

We were both on the waiting list for the dorms (she number 87, I number 300-something), and decided it was cheaper and better to rent our own apartment. We'd have our own fridge and bathroom! So, six days before Christmas, we moved in.

We had big plans: first, we would decorate the apartment all in black (difficult with a beige carpet). We would throw parties (one a term). We would go to parties (I can still see them making a trashcan full of heavens knows what at Stan and Andy's). We would cook for ourselves. We would put up Christmas lights. And we would stay up late over break.

Not much happened in West Philly (that we knew of) over break. Most of the students including our friends were home. We didn't really know anything about West Philly's punk scene. The "cities are dangerous!" myth made us afraid to go anywhere but downtown or within a few blocks of campus.

So we stayed up late, talking, and some nights about 2:00 a.m. we'd decide to "do tea!" We spent a night at WKDU, where Gena DJing an overnight slot; I twisted my ankle to "Go" by Tones on Tails. PBS showed a special Red Dwarf/Black Adder overnight marathon; we watched the whole thing and became student members that year.