Terra Incognita

Christmas to all . . .
Here's a bit of Christmas trivia for you all: What is the last line in the staple of all Christmas books, The Night Before Christmas? The answer will be at the end of this post.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. Mine was great, very relaxing and some good time spent with the family. Ally's big present was being told that Mom and Dad are taking her to New York City this summer. Mom said that I don't get to go since I'll be in Columbia for the summer. But I figure that it would be a missed occupational opportunity, since NYC is one of the major magazine centers of the world. So I have to figure out a way to convince her that I need to come out for a few days at least. I'm sure that I could pick up a few hours of someone else's shift at whatever job I get and missing one or two classes wouldn't hurt me...right? I think I need to go. It definitely has so much that I want to experience: magazines galore, wonderful dance (one of my ballet teachers danced with Alvin Ailey out there for a while!), amazing theatre (hello, Broadway). NYC is number two on my list of cities I need to visit before I graduate. Number one is Chicago, and I'm going to be able to cross that one off my list in 13 days.

the countdown
13 days! I'll be there for about a day and a half with my friend (and tour guide) Erin Patterson. I'm so excited to get to spend some time in Chicago. I don't know why, but I feel a certain affinity toward the city. While New York is appealing and I'll deffinitely apply for jobs/internships there, I could only see myself there for a little bit. Chicago, though, I feel like I could live there for a while. I really don't know what it would be like living in a big metropolis (while hometown Manhattan, KS bears the name of the Big Apple, that's about where the similarities end) and NY seems more intimidating than Chicago for some reason. I'm excited to live in London for a semester. I look forward to getting accustomed to city life with the safety net of the Missouri-London Program set to help me. Only 15 days until I'm there!

you idiom!
According to my British phrasebook, Shakespeare alone is credited with adding 2000 words to the English language, in addition to hundreds of everyday idioms such as: poisonded chalice, one fell swoop, foul play, in my mind's eye, cold comfort, and cruel to be kind.

. . . and to all a good night!
The Night Before Christmas ends with this line, "Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!" What happened to "merry"?