LolaGeek

Last week my friend Sandy at work showed me that there was a tropical storm with her name. “Maybe I’ll become a hurricane!” Well, she did! As I wrote on Saturday, we were pretty well prepared with gas, cash, and food. I went out on Sunday to do some “regular” food shopping, in case our power didn’t go out this week and I needed to cook dinners. This was like noon on Sunday and the supermarket was not at all crazy.

On Monday morning, both our offices were closed, and I thought it would be a good idea to get some more D batteries. We had flashlights and and a lantern, but no spare batteries for the lantern, and none to run a radio. We went to Walmart, then Wegmans, and neither had anything other than AA batteries. Also, it was raining pretty hard. At Wegmans, we ran into a guy GG used to work with who now works there, and he said that none of the stores or supermarkets around had any batteries, but he thought Toys R Us might. They didn’t open for another 30 minutes, so we sat in the parking lot for a little while, but eventually I said we should just go home, they probably wouldn’t have batteries either and they weren’t an absolute necessity. So we went home and waited for the storm to hit.

Meanwhile, I charged everything I could think of. Our computers and phones were never unplugged. I have two external battery chargers that could be used for cell phones, so I had both of those fully charged, plus one extra phone battery. Our MP3 players have radios, so we charged those. And we charged our cordless power tools. GG made room to put my car in the garage, and he parked at the top of the driveway. I attempted to work from home, but there was really not much going on. 90% of the e-mails I got were about storm preparation and people’s cell phone numbers. GG and I mostly spent the day on the sofa, enjoying electricity. It got to be dinnertime, and since we still had power, I went ahead and made one of the actual cooked meals I had shopped for on Sunday.

The rain continued throughout the day and night, and the wind got pretty crazy. At one point, it sounded like something hit our house, and GG thought it sounded like metal, so we thought maybe we lost a gutter or downspout. The lights dimmed periodically, so I decided it would be a good idea to turn the TV off in case of a power outage. We watched movies on Hulu on GG’s laptop. I was nervous about a tree falling into the house, plus the wind sounded way worse upstairs, so we slept downstairs on the sofa. Even though or sofa is huge, it’s not really built for two adults to sleep for the whole night, but we figured out a way to fit. The cats kept waking me up by throwing up and stuff (they’d been acting really weird since Sunday night, obviously they could sense the weather). Finally morning came, and my mom called before my alarm went off, then my alarm, then my mom called again. So basically, I slept terribly. But every time I woke up, I saw that the power was still on. Plus I’d been checking the basement the whole time, and it was completely dry!

My office was closed again Tuesday, as was GG’s, but since the power was on I could still work from home. We took a walk around the house outside, even though it was still raining. There were tons of branches everywhere, and almost every leaf from every tree in the yard, but no damage we could see! (I don’t know what that metal noise we heard on Monday night was!) Weirdly, the leaves had blown in sort of a striped pattern. A lot of my friends lost power, at least for a little while, and I saw lots of pictures of flooding, and trees and branches falling on or near houses and cars, so I know we really lucked out. Some people are probably going to go several days before they get their power back. My company is opening up the showers at the gym for employees without power, and people can get water and hot meals to go. And watching CNN and looking at pictures like these, you can really see how good we had it.

Our town has rescheduled trick-or-treating for Friday, but kids around here are actually going to make out really well, because there are towns holding trick-or-treat tonight, Friday, Saturday, Monday (if they go to New Jersey), and next Wednesday – so an enterprising kid could potentially get five Halloweens! I’m not buying extra candy, so I plan to put a sign on the door tonight and hand out candy on Friday (which is more convenient for me anyway, as I have band practice tonight).

Last week (Friday through Thursday), GG was on a cruise to Bermuda with his parents and brother. (I could have gone too, but cruises aren’t really my thing.) It was weird, because GG is usually a very communicative person, but there is no cell phone service in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So it was definitely the longest period in the last ten years that I hadn’t even spoken to him on the phone. It was a very quiet week. He did send me a couple e-mails (internet on the ship was like $.65 a minute!), and they were hilarious! I could definitely tell that he was having a great time, and it was probably a good thing that I didn’t go, because I would have just been a wet blanket.

Instead, I surprised him by organizing his closet, and did a bunch of other stuff around the house I’d been putting off. I also entertained myself by going to see The Master, and taking my grandmother out for dinner (she shocked me by suggesting a Mexican restaurant, initially complaining about how exotic the menu was, but then enjoying her shrimp tacos). The time actually went pretty quickly. They were home Thursday morning, and I took the afternoon off work so I could come home early and see GG. I enjoy my alone time, but it was nice to have him back :o)

On Saturday, we went out to Harrisburg for S’s 30th birthday party. He decided last year that he wanted a roast for his birthday, and GG, being his only friend with comedy/roast experience, was the default MC and headliner. So GG and a few other friends performed, and I think everyone did a really good job! We were all laughing through the whole thing, it wasn’t like there were any awkward, uncomfortable silences. But the funniest part was completely unintentional: one of his friends couldn’t attend, but recorded a rap song to be played at the party. So they played it before the roasting started, and used the DVD player to play the CD. When the song ended, the DVD player was turned off but the TV was still on, and it was this scene from Star Trek: TNG with Picard playing some weird flute! Maybe you had to be there, but the timing was perfect. For the rest of the night, we all agreed that the best part of the performance was Picard on flute.

I think we’re now busy every weekend for the rest of the year, or close to it. I just want to nap!

There’s been a bunch of stuff I’ve wanted to write about, and I just never get around to sitting down and doing it. It also doesn’t help that I’m so busy that I feel like I’m always just catching up with the internet – I’m so behind on reading blogs and stuff, I can barely keep up. I should just keep a running list of topics or something. Enjoy, I think this post is going to be all over the place…

1) Rhapsody in May: Our band concert was last weekend, and it was amazing. I think it was our best concert ever. The feature of the concert was that we played “Rhapsody in Blue,” which has always kind of been a dream of mine to play. As of concert day, we had still never actually played the whole thing all the way through! I have to admit, I was nervous. But everything went so well. The soloist was great, and we all got a standing ovation. I had been saying all along that after playing that, I could safely quit band or die or whatever, and I’d feel like I’d accomplished a life goal. But on the way home from practice the other night, one of the women in my carpool said something about playing “An American in Paris,” so… new life goal? (I do love me some Gershwin.)

2) The Shops at Target: I was kind of “meh” about these mini-collections when I first heard about them, but I happened to be in target last week and they happened to have a bunch of enormous signs all over drawing attention to The Shops, so I briefly checked them out. The Webster, I just walked past, it’s not really my style. I also didn’t look at the Polka Dog Bakery, since I don’t have a dog and even if they had cat treats (I don’t know if they did), we are very well-stocked on treats and toys for the kitties. The Cos Bar display was neat, but it was just like soaps and nail files, and as Target Addict mentioned, you can get fancy wrapped soaps and things for less at places like TJ Maxx. I just looked past The Candy Store, some of the things were cute, but I had no need for special candies at the time. The Privet House collection looked nice; I didn’t look at the prices on the serving pieces and things, but I liked them. However, they had this set of blank notecards with rubber stamps to decorate them (like “thank you,” “you’re invited,” etc.) and it was like $12 or $15, which I thought was a bit much. I’m kind of interested to see how the fall round of Shops does. I’m interested in the Curiosity Shoppe and Kirna Zabête; it’ll be nice to have something for the guys with Odin; and I already like Patch NYC, so I’m excited to see what they bring to Target.

3) Mother’s Day: I went out with my mom and grandmother for lunch on Saturday to celebrate Mother’s Day early. I got them both the same gift, a Scentsy warmer and some bars, and I think they really liked them, so that’s good. Lunch was good, and then we went to Charming Charlie’s, which was really fun with them, we are all big fans of accessories :o)

4) Fringe Finale: I was a week behind on Fringe, so I got to watch both parts of the finale in one sitting. It was kind of a weird turn for things to take, but they wrapped everything up at the end. (I may have shed a tear. Just one.) This show always seems to be up for cancellation and it keeps coming back, but honestly, if this were the last season, I’d be ok with it. I think they ended in a good place. But it did set things up to be where we need to be for that flash-forward episode from a few weeks ago, so I’d definitely be happy to see the show continue and finish up that storyline.

5) Get Offended Comedy Show: GG performed in a comedy show last night with the Get Offended guys. I went to this show, for once, because it was at a restaurant that was non-smoking. Well, the show started like an hour late because they were waiting for restaurant patrons to finish eating so they could clear out the area where they’d be setting up the stage. The last guy there was actually the restaurant owner, who was lingering over dessert with, apparently, his teenage kids. He finally moved to a different spot so the show could get started, and things were going really well. There was a good crowd of fans, and the comedians were good. Then this one guy cut his act short because three little kids walked into the restaurant. Who brings their kids to a bar for dinner at 10:30 at night? I don’t know, but apparently the fact that there were children there was enough to derail the show. Some of the other guys just got up and started singing. I prodded GG to go sing, which he did, and in between he made loud comments about the young visitors. I guess that finally got to them, because the dad in the group told someone that they didn’t realize they were interrupting a show, and to please continue. I don’t know if he knew what he was getting into, but the show did go on! GG was the headliner, he did a thirty minute set, and he was a big hit!

6) Pen Organizer: This is barely blog-worthy, but ever since we lost our kitchen “junk drawer,” we’ve been keeping our pens, scrap paper, scissors, chip clips, and other assorted items in a big cardboard box. This was hard to get into, hard to find things in, and generally stressed me out with its disorganization. I’ve been looking for a while for some kind of organizer thing with pen compartments, slots for paper, and drawers for our little odds and ends. Today GG and I were getting ready to go to the supermarket, and I sketched him a little picture of what I was looking for. We stopped at Michael’s craft store before food shopping, and I swung him through the scrapbooking department to show him these organizers I’d seen there that are similar, but not exactly what I was looking for. Guess what – in addition to those close-but-not-quite organizers, there was another item that was pretty much exactly what I had sketched! And it was 40% off! I was so excited! I have all my pens and stuff organized in the kitchen now and it’s making me smile every time I walk past :o)

Not too much new is going on since last time…

• We got some new furniture that is amazing for relaxing and watching TV. The sofa is huge!
• We had Easter brunch with my family at a new place, and it was fabulous. The food was great, and it was less expensive and more casual than the place we usually go. It was not busy at all, and we did not feel rushed (in fact, the waiter was MIA for a while when we started thinking about leaving, so we couldn’t even get the check). I would definitely go back.
• I went on another business trip, but this one was stupid short – we left at 6 AM Monday, and I was home by 11 PM Tuesday. While there, I was in a workshop for two days, had a team dinner, and met my work twin’s new boyfriend (I approve).
• I got a smartphone! I felt like a huge moron at first because I could just not figure out how to do anything, but I quickly got the hang of it. My next concern was battery life, because this thing dips frighteningly low compared to my old phone, but I’m getting the hang of managing that too. Want to play me on Draw Something?
• GG and I went to see a show some of his comedian friends put on. There were about 12 people in the audience, and all the comedians knew him, so they were all picking on him (and me). The main topic, of course, is how a guy like him could get a girl like me. Thanks, that makes me feel really great about myself, too. (Sarcasm.)
• We watched a couple movies. First we saw Fireproof, which surprisingly GG wanted to see because he heard Kirk Cameron had an internet porn addiction, but they didn’t really show much about that. I had a lot of problems with this movie (too many sterotypes, of all kinds, not to mention the horrible acting), but the next door neighbor was great. Then we watched Timecop – I have a lot of problems with this movie, too. They got in a special car to time travel, but then popped out in the past without the car. Why did they turn up in a different location every time; wouldn’t they just appear in the same location they’d left from in the future? Or if they could control the location, why would they choose to arrive over a lake or in the middle of a highway? After the past and future versions of the bad guy touched each other and imploded, why didn’t the bomb disappear? Wouldn’t anything his future self had done at that point cease to exist? I could go on…

So then we come to that week between Christmas and New Year’s, where you’re basically just waiting for the year to end. GG and I started out with a completely free week, and then our schedule slowly filled up.

Monday: As I mentioned, we’d planned to go out and pick up supplies for our project of the week, but then we both ended up being lazy and besides doing laundry and changing the sheets on our bed, I didn’t even leave the sofa.

Tuesday: We went out and got those supplies. Then I think I went and did a couple more errands (using Christmas gift cards!). Then we went out to Shady Maple for dinner, where we met up with GG’s brother and his girlfriend, and their old family friend and his wife and in-laws, who live in that area, and who they were visiting for the week. Mostly it was important that I go because this guy never believed that someone would marry GG, and we had to prove that I existed. It was pouring rain, and everyone was running late, bla bla bla, but eventually we got in and ate way too much and hung out for a while and then came home.

Wednesday: The day of my much-anticipated big haircut! An old friend of mine is a hairdresser and said she would do the chopping for me. GG came with me, so they finally got to meet each other. I think they would get along really well, so we’ll hopefully all do dinner or something together soon. Anyway, I am super excited about my hair, and she didn’t have to cut off as much as I’d thought to get to the 8″ requirement, so it’s actually not as short as I was thinking it would get. It’s super cute. And I mailed my ponytail away to the wig people, so I’ll probably do that from now on when I do my big hair choppings.

Thursday: GG and I made our annual trip into Philadelphia to see the holiday display at the Comcast building. We took the train into the city, and that was quite a ride… We sat down in a nice quiet area, and then this kid and his mom sat behind us. He would not shut up. And he had a comment about everything he saw out the window, as well as everything inside the train car! (Funny example: there was a poster for the musical Jersey Boys, and he said to his mom, “Do you like the Jersey Boys? I don’t like that band. I think they’re heavy metal.”) Another amusing moment was when he started commenting about the graffiti we were riding past, and saying “graffiti is bad” and all that and the mom goes, “You shouldn’t say that too loud, what if someone on this train painted that graffiti.” Anyway, the kid never shut up, but at least we got off the train a couple stops before them. (Oh also, there was some random delay that caused the conductor to call all the train guys up to the front of the train, and then we drove backwards for a bit, and just sat for a little while. But we were only like 5 minutes behind schedule when we got to our stop.) We arrived right as the show was starting, and I was semi-disappointed to see that the show was pretty much the same as last year’s (and the year before, and the year before that…), they had just filmed a couple new scenes but they were pretty much the same thing. The new twist this year was that at the end, the audience is showered with foam “snow” spraying from above. Then we walked a couple of blocks to DiBruno Brothers for lunch. We went to the upstairs cafe, where we had sandwiches and a gorgeous charcuterie board. I could have eaten just that – it was a lot of food. Then we went downstairs and sampled some cheeses with a really friendly cheese expert. And bought a couple. Then we got back to the station just in time to catch the next train home (the return trip was much more pleasant). So it turned out to be a nice day out.

Friday: MB and A came out for the day. A wanted to show GG his new guitar pedal, so after we all exchanged Christmas gifts, they camped out in GG’s music room while MB and I made our way to the Brandywine River Museum with baby R. We were like halfway there and R was just super fussy. So we stopped at a mall and MB and I had some lunch and she fed R. Once she’d eaten, she became a delightful little girl again. We continued on to the museum, and when we got there we pulled her stroller out, got her all situated, rolled all the way up from the back of the parking lot, and came to a sign, “No strollers.” Would have been nice if that information were on the web site, which I checked in advance… So we rolled it back to the car and then took turns carrying baby R around. You know what? When you are carrying a baby, people hold doors for you, move out of your way, and generally smile more. And R is a nice baby to carry. We saw the whole thing: the doll collection (crrreepy), the model train (crrrowded), the Andrew Wyeth exhibit, the landscapes, the still lifes… Then we went out to the courtyard where they were selling hot apple cider, and walked to the river while we drank. Then baby R had to eat a little more in the car. We came back to the KoP Mall where we were going to meet the guys for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory to use up some of the many gift cards we’ve been collecting. When we got there there was an hour wait for a table, so I put my name in and told the guys to be there in 45 minutes. Then MB and I started rolling down the mall with baby R. She was very cranky, so MB lifted her out of the stroller and found… a wet spot. Back we went, to the bathroom for a diaper and wardrobe change! Then we were off again (after getting stopped by a cleaning lady exclaiming over what a beautiful baby R is). We walked to the other end of the mall and started heading back, but had to take another quick break to feed R a bit. Then it was time for dinner, and we were in a very dark corner of the dark restaurant, and there was a lot of food. At MB’s suggestion, I got the chicken lettuce wraps, which may be my new favorite meal there. After dinner, we said goodnight and everyone headed home. The moral of this story is, I love MB, and R is still my favorite baby, but babies are very time consuming.

Saturday: After running a couple errands, I spent the day napping in preparation for New Year’s Eve festivities. We had a very low-key celebration planned. We met up with another couple at this Greek restaurant for dinner, then returned to our respective homes to watch the ball drop on TV. Dinner was at 6, and we were there for a couple hours. We split a plate of hummus/baba ganoush/feta/etc., and then each got an entree (I had beef kabobs, GG had lamb, the other couple each got this seafood over pasta thing). Then the bill came. I wouldn’t usually write about something this mundane, but this was really a ridiculous situation and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Since we’d all gotten about the same type of stuff, we decided to split it in half. Including tip, it came out to $63 per couple. GG put in two $20s and three $1s, and I put in a $20, and that was our half. The other couple had a $50 that they wanted GG to break, so he took care of that, and then they put in their portion and we counted it up at the end. They said they had put in $70, which actually would have put us $7 over, but instead we kept coming up $6 short. Since GG’s and my $63 was definitely accounted for, obviously they had just mis-counted or not put in what they had intended. And they just sat there looking at the pile of money. I counted it again – nope, definitely $6 short. They just kept looking at the money like, “Well, I don’t know what happened.” Finally, I just pulled $6 out, threw it on the pile, and stood up so we could leave. It was so weird. I have never been in a situation like that before. I don’t know if they didn’t have the money, or didn’t believe it was from their side that it was owed, or what, but it was really awkward. If I hadn’t done that, who knows how long we would have been sitting there, counting and re-counting. We were home by 9 PM, and put on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. GG and I rang in the new year in our pajamas, with ginger ale, and went to bed shortly after midnight. It was the best New Year’s Eve ever!

Sunday: I’ve been working on little bits of my home project throughout the week, but today I did the major part of it, which took me all morning. I’ve spent the rest of the day relaxing. Tomorrow will be major part 2, and hopefully that’s it for home projects for a while. Maybe I’ll leave the house tomorrow, too… It will be my last day before going back to work, and I can already tell this is going to be a rough month…

My last week of work was crazy. People were trying to get stuff done by the end of the year, and what they don’t realize is that I am the last stop for a lot of stuff, and I need to do work before something is “ready,” so I was very busy trying to keep up with everyone’s requests. I actually was in the office most of last week, including Thursday, which was the last day my site was open. I’m technically off now until January 3, but I do have to check e-mail daily to keep up with stuff. Except Christmas – I did not check my work e-mail on Christmas!

On Thursday night, we were invited to hang out with a couple friends who are home visiting from Arizona. They invited a bunch of people to meet them at their favorite BBQ restaurant here (this place catered their wedding). Too bad GG was getting blood drawn the next morning and had to fast for 12 hours! It would have worked out fine if we’d been home for the evening, but it was torture for him to sit in the BBQ restaurant, which smells fabulous, and only be able to drink water! Then we all went out for ice cream afterward, which also smelled delicious, and which he also couldn’t eat. Don’t worry, I made up for him and ate quite a lot :o) The BBQ was delicious, but even better than the meat was their mac & cheese – I would go back just for that! And of course it was great to see our friends! Apparently they hadn’t told their families that they were coming home for Christmas, and surprised them by showing up on their doorstep. I wish they had taped that!

Friday was my day to do my final shopping to prepare for Christmas lunch (did I mention I had volunteered to host my family on Christmas?). There weren’t going to be a ton of people, and I had a little menu planned, but my mom kept asking if there would be enough food, so I sort of panicked and got a bunch more stuff. Then GG and I went out to dinner and picked up some more food while we were out. So I was definitely prepared for Sunday. On Saturday I did as much cleaning and advanced food preparation as I could – mixing up dips, chopping things, etc. Then Saturday night was Christmas Eve dinner at GG’s grandmother’s house. Dinner was good, and it was nice to hang out. Also, her enormous orange cat came out of hiding (he usually hides from strangers) and let me pet him (he usually growls and bites strangers). When I got home, I did a little more food prep before bed.

I kind of hate the actual day of Christmas. All the preparation and build-up, and then it feels like such a wasteful day while it’s happening. I make charitable donations for everyone as gifts, but then I feel bad that they won’t have stuff to open, so I get a bunch of little things, which feels like a waste. And I feel inadequate, like I didn’t spend as much on them, but really the bulk of the present budget went into the donations, that’s just not a tangible gift. Which is all to say… I was kind of unsatisfied with what I gave everyone as gifts this year. Except GG, I got him exactly what he wanted: a huge wide-screen monitor for his music computer. He’s so happy with it! And he says it’ll increase his productivity while he’s recording, because he can fit everything on the screen at once, and won’t need to switch between programs.

After we did our own presents at home in the morning, GG went to his parents’ house for breakfast while I finished cleaning and preparing for lunch. He got home around noon and helped me a little bit, then people started arriving at 1:00. Almost everyone had either been somewhere else already that day, or was going somewhere else afterward, but we all had a nice visit for a few hours. And there was way too much food! My main entree was a pasta salad, which I was really worried about because my mom kept pushing for sandwiches. But everyone loved it! And I made about three times too much, whoops. We also had a couple kinds of dips, with veggies and crackers; delicious crostini, which looked very festive with roasted red pepper on a white cheese topping; my grandmother brought potato salad; and my mom brought sausage balls, baked brie, and a couple of pies! Plus we had a wide selection of drinks, from beer to eggnog. Overall, it was very successful – despite the stress of preparing, I do enjoy having people over. I loved hosting Thanksgiving a couple years ago. I’d do this again.

After we had things pretty much cleaned up, and the food packed away (despite sending everyone home with something, there is still a lot of stuff left in our fridge!), it was time to head to GG’s parents’ house for more gifts and dinner. This was the Christmas of Scotch, that was all GG and his dad and brother exchanged with each other. There were also lots of jokey gifts, as well as lots of food items (GG’s parents know at this point that I don’t like getting “stuff,” so they always give me food and snacks, plus my mom gave me lots of fancy soup and dessert mixes, and GG gave me a bottle of white truffle oil).

So besides checking work e-mail and eating leftovers, we’ve got a full week of plans for our vacation. Today I was supposed to go do some shopping, but that didn’t happen. So on deck for the rest of the week is: the shopping that I’d planned to do today, having dinner with an old family friend of his (who apparently doesn’t believe I exist, because who would marry GG?!), my big haircut, our [somewhat] annual train trip into Philly to see the Christmas display at the Comcast building (plus lunch somewhere in the city), a visit with MB and baby R while GG and A play guitar for the day, and for NYE we’re having an early dinner with another couple and then going home to ring in midnight from the comfort of our own sofa. Plus there’s my home improvement project that I’ve planned for this week (because don’t I always plan a project for when I’m home from work over a holiday?). Hopefully I get everything done that I want to do.

Lots to talk about…

Thanksgiving: The holiday was nice. We had an earlier dinner with my family, followed by dinner with GG’s family. For the first time ever, they didn’t even set us spots at the table because they figured we wouldn’t really be hungry by then (they were right). But we pulled up some chairs anyway. Then we hung out and watched videos of this crazy guy who used to go to school board meetings and complain unintelligibly about taxes.

Funniest quote of Thanksgiving:
GG’s grandmom: “There’s five different kinds of turkey. There’s Organic, Natural Select –”
GG’s uncle: “…Jive”

The rest of our long weekend was spent doing a big home project. We actually did go out on Black Friday to Home Depot, not for any sale shopping, but because we needed supplies. It took a little longer than I’d expected (because I had to wait for things to dry…), but I got the entire project finished by Sunday night, which was ultimately my goal.

Work: Last week was seriously crazy. As has been the case for the past several years, the first of the month is always a crazy day for me. But this time it was especially crazy. But I’d been planning for weeks to take a vacation day on Friday, the 2nd. There was a big project that was announced to me kind of last-minute, that was also supposed to be done on the 1st. No problem, I figured, I’d get it done and still be free to take the next day off. Well, it turns out that things didn’t get approved until like 5 PM on the 1st, and then all this work had to be done, and of course I am the only person who has the ability to do these things. So I left work on Thursday, came home, turned my computer back on, and continued working until 10 PM, at which time I was nauseous and headachy. It was not a good day. Stuff continued coming in over the weekend and even today, but for the most part, the project is done. In the end, it’s maybe not a huge deal, but I like things to be done with a certain level of quality, and with a certain level of speed and service, and I felt like, for reasons I could not control, I wasn’t able to deliver that. I shouldn’t stress about things like this, but I can’t help it, I like to do a good job.

NYC: The reason why I took the day off on Friday was because… GG and I finally coordinated our schedules and made plans to go up to New York for the day! We left things pretty open-ended for a while, but eventually decided on a nice agenda for the day:

• We drove to New Jersey and took the bus over to the city, as we have done the last several times. This is definitely my favorite, most cost-effective, time-flexible way to get there now. we left around 9 AM and were in the city around 11.
• First I wanted to go to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree. I’d never seen it decorated before. It was a big tree, but the decorations were not as magical as I’d hoped. (I understand the area looks more magical at night.) Also, anywhere where you’d have a good view of the tree, they had these fenced-off Kodak photo op areas where you could pay for them to take a picture of you in front of the tree. Blah.
  
  
  
• Then we went to Shake Shack for lunch. We’d gone there the last time we were in NYC, and GG was looking forward to going back. I liked it, but after a second try, I think Elevation Burger is better.
• We went to the MoMA. GG and I had never been there together before, and I was looking forward to seeing it with a fellow artist :o) It was nice, except for GG getting a stern talking-to from a guard for railing against Cy Twombly. (Yet for some reason, he has no problem with Jackson Pollock.) We started at the bottom and worked our way up to the 6th floor, and by the time we reached the top we were just beat! But we did go across the street to the MoMA Store – if I hadn’t had a full evening of walking and stuff planned, I could have done so much Christmas shopping there!
  
  
  
• We had been thinking for a while about where to go for dinner, but in the end decided to try someplace totally new and unknown to us, and went to Stecchino, which I’d found online. It was great! We were pretty much the first people in there for dinner, but by the time we left, the place was completely packed. Our waitress was super nice, and dinner was delicious. GG had their appetizer special, which was basically meatballs with cinnamon and spices, served with a tomato sauce, and I ordered the cheese plate (which GG helped with a lot). For dinner, I had their beet salad, which I was worried wouldn’t really be enough food, but with the appetizers, it was plenty. And GG had the lobster ravioli, which was not what he was planning to order (he’d looked at the menu online in advance), but he made a last-minute decision and was very happy with it.
  
  
  
• Our final stop was Carolines, where we saw Richard Lewis perform. GG was excited for it and seemed to have a good time, but I was miserable. 1) I was super tired, 2) the room was freezing cold, even with my coat on, 3) they had a terrible and ridiculous system of getting people into the room, 4) our seats were terrible, 5) to comply with their 2-drink minimum rule, we each had 2 (small!) Cokes, and our bill was $22(!). Also, I was just not into Richard Lewis. GG described his style as “stream of consciousness,” but it wasn’t even that, he never even finished one story or joke before moving on to the next thing. I didn’t laugh at all. And really, he wasn’t getting big “laughs” from the audience, which is the first time I think that I’ve ever seen a professional comedian not really make people laugh.
• We booked it out of there and speed-walked back to the bus station. For the first time ever since I’ve been taking that bus, not only did it show up on time, it was actually early, and sitting there waiting when we got to the gate! Then we drove home and went to bed (oh, after I checked my work e-mail and did a little work at midnight/1 AM, see above).

We had a fun and productive weekend. Jen kind of mentioned to me at work on Thursday that she was planning to paint at her house on Saturday, and I volunteered to help. After confirming with GG, I let her know that we were definitely on for Saturday. On Friday I worked from home, which is going to be part of my regular schedule now – yes, I will only be in the office three days a week now, woohoo. So Friday was a nice relaxing day at home. GG and I decided to see a movie Friday night, so we went out to PF Chang’s (he’d never been there before, so he had nothing to compare to when I made my version of Chicken Lettuce Wraps!), and then to see 50/50. The movie was really good. It wasn’t what I’d expected it to be like, but it was very funny and sweet. We laughed a lot and may have cried a little…

On Saturday morning we went out early to make the final payment on our new furniture, which will be delivered this week! GG wrote a check for the balance, and then we went to this diner because I really wanted some pancakes. I don’t like going to this diner, but I made an exception because I wanted those pancakes. After sitting there for 10 minutes without so much as acknowledgement from the waitress, let alone having our order taken, we got up and left. Just as well, because something happened with GG’s check and it was declined. So we went back, he paid with debit card (same account, somehow that method worked!), and we headed back home. On the way, we decided to try this other sandwich place, and guess what, they serve pancakes! But the menu is tjust this giant board of writing, and I read it wrong and accidentally ordered three plate-sized pancakes! And GG ordered two. So we had quite a few pancakes between us. There were some pancakes taken home.

Around noon we headed up to Jen’s place and somehow, the GPS took us some way we had never gone before. It was totally crazy, though it took the same amount of time. We got there, made an emergency trip to the hardware store for some more supplies, and then the four of us got to work and repainted their whole family room and adjacent hallway a nice beige color. Good thing I brought GG, we needed his height! We were also entertained by the three kids, who even GG enjoys. We had lots of fun, I really do enjoy painting, even more so when it’s not my house and I don’t have to do all the prep and clean-up myself :o) Plus, Jen made us a delicious Mexican dip for a snack, and we had pizza for dinner. After dinner, we had a little fire in the fireplace. I was getting pretty tired, plus getting a headache from the paint, and had an hour-long drive back home, so we left probably around 7:30. GG and I both fell asleep when we got home and pretty much missed SNL. I woke up for about 10 minutes of it, but pretty much gave up. Don’t worry, we caught up by watching the recording this morning.

Today I did a bunch of chores, food shopping, etc. I have lots of good dinners planned for this week. I set a goal of using the crock pot once a week, and so far that is going well. GG helped me take care of a big project in the house that I’ve been putting off for a long time, so that felt like a big accomplishment. I think I did everything I set out to do this weekend.

This week went by too fast. I’ve been very busy with band, work, and fun stuff. I’ve been listening to a lot of Jets to Brazil this week, which GG thinks sounds too sad for my taste, but I still really enjoy that band (and there is enough happy stuff to keep my interest).

We had some work done at the house. It was noisy and expensive, but I think it’ll be a huge improvement. I haven’t seen it in the light yet, but so far in the dark it looks nice :o)

Tonight was our quarterly Girls Night Out dinner. Since it’ll be the last one before the holidays (though we may have a holiday get-together at someone’s house), I thought it would be fun to do some sort of gift exchange. We decided to do a “favorite things” exchange, where each person brings one of their favorite things (under $10) for each other person. So everyone leaves with one favorite thing from everyone else. It went so well! It was fun going around the table as we unwrapped each person’s gift and they explained what it was and why they chose it. One of the funniest things was that Jen gave everybody two different colors of her favorite lip gloss. The colors I got were Peach Moonstone, which I decided sounded like a p0rn star, and Rich Garnet, which sounds like her male co-star (and is also a nice color, I tried it when I got home!).

This weekend we were planning to meet up with friends at my alma mater for Homecoming, but that trip has been canceled, due to the impending snowstorm! The way it’s been messing things up already, we’d better actually get some snow in this storm! I’ve heard everything from half an inch of slush, to 10 inches of snow. So we’ll see what we get. At least I bought new snow boots just in time!

I had a bunch of vacation time to use up (still do, actually), and not much going on for the last week of September, so I took a week off work. Luckily, I didn’t actually go anywhere, since apparently I can just never take actual time off work. During this week I had to check e-mail every day, do a bunch of emergency stuff, and have another phone call with the people we’re training in China! I guess it’s good to be needed, but I need to train some back-ups, too!

Sunday: I’ll say my vacation started on Sunday, when GG and I went out to the PA Ren Faire where we met up with L, S, and E. We also saw J, who works there. It was a great day. I thought for sure it was going to rain, but it actually turned out to be warm and occasionally sunny. We saw a lot of shows, including acrobats, the mud show, the falconer (GG volunteered to be in one of the tricks and got slapped in the face by a Red Tailed Hawk!), a funny singing group, a cool band, and the human chess match. We also ate a lot, and the guys drank a lot, too. It seemed a lot better than the last time I was there, I think in 2002.

Pickles on sticks – my new favorite snack!

GG and the other volunteers with a hawk flying past!

A very cool acrobat couple

Relaxing on a rock with a drink and some snacks, watching the human chess match, was a nice way to wrap up the afternoon

Monday: I slept in a little on Monday, but not for too long, because I had a big day planned. GG and I were planning to go to this huge furniture outlet on Tuesday to look for a new sofa, so I wanted to go to all the local furniture places on Monday to see what styles were out there and get an idea of prices, so we’d know if we were getting a good deal at the outlet. I had four places on my list, but actually only ended up going to three, because one I’d checked out online and knew they were expensive and didn’t really have what we were looking for. The first place I went had a couple nice things, but when I made it clear that I wasn’t buying anything right that moment, the guy gave me this sob story about how he works only for commission, bla bla bla. I hate that pressure. At the second store I went to, they pretty much told me outright they didn’t have what I was looking for. The last place I went seemed to have a lot of nice things, but the saleswoman who grabbed me was utterly clueless (to be fair, the place had only been open about a week), and seemed fixated on this one designer line of furniture. I told her we were going to look at one other place the next day and then would be back. That afternoon, I had to pick GG up from the place where he’d dropped his car to get fixed. It was rush hour and I had a very limited idea of where I was going. By the time I got there and found him, I was hot and had a headache. I felt awful for the rest of the night, as I slept it off. I don’t think I even ate dinner.

Tuesday: This was the big day – GG had also taken the day off work, and we planned to drive out to the Morgantown Outlet Mall, basically a huge mall selling nothing but furniture, mostly sofas. That’s where we got our last sofa set, as well as our dining room table and chairs. You can spend all day just trying out sofas, and when you pick the one you like they will ship it to you. We got there, and huge banners announced that the whole mall was closing! To be replaced with an auto auction, we learned! All the remaining stock had been consolidated into just a couple stores. So even though there were some good deals to be had, we didn’t really see anything we liked. However, GG found a cabinet that was perfect for his scotch collection. He’d been looking for something for a while that would hold the tall bottles, his little glasses, and match our dining room furniture. So the trip wasn’t a total waste. Also, we went to the Sonic out there for an early lunch. But, they mixed up our drinks and I drank half of his low-cal cherry limeade before we realized that he had my strawberry limeade! (I thought the drink was just really bad…) On our way home, we stopped at the furniture store with the clueless lady again. This time, she came around with us while GG and I examined Every. Sofa. In the. Entire. Store. And guess what – we found exactly what we wanted! We were torn between the Summer Day line and the Coral & Sage line, but in the end went with Coral & Sage because the pieces were slightly larger, we liked the sofa cushions more, and the fabric choices were better. We’re getting the sofa, armchair, and ottoman in a tan microfiber. So excited! They should be here by Thanksgiving :o/ Then we went to pick up GG’s car (this time less stressful, since I knew where I was going), and went out to dinner, and then GG went to practice with his new (old) band while I stayed home for my second and final teleconference with China.

Wednesday: I went out to brunch with my old friend M. The last time I’d seen her was last summer, when she was pregnant. This time we were joined by baby J! (He is a good baby, and very cute.) We caught up over some nice french toast at this diner she’d always wanted to try. On my way home, I went to the outlets, where I picked up a bunch of clothes – so if I start complaining that I have nothing to wear, someone remind me of this! Then I came home and caught up on a little work before band practice. It was sort of weird going to band, since it was like the one thing I did all week that was part of my normal routine.

Thursday: I’d had nightmares since ordering that sofa on Tuesday that we chose the wrong color. I wanted something kind of similar to the color of what we have now. So when the furniture store opened in the morning, I went over with one of the pillows from our current sofa, to compare it to the fabric swatch. Yes, the tan color we’d picked (“Honey”) was kind of bright and yellow-y. The next shade lighter was way too light. But the next shade darker (“Coffee”) was almost the exact color of the pillow I brought. It took going through three different people, and calling back later in the evening to confirm, but I was able to change our order – phew! I am much happier with this color choice! After that trip, I picked up some food and went to my grandmother’s to have lunch with her. (I’d wanted to take her out, but she couldn’t leave since she was having some work done at the house.) We had a nice visit. Then I did a couple other errands before heading home.

Friday: After doing some work, I headed back out to the outlets to return something I’d bought on Wednesday. I justified the trip back there by also getting cheap gas at the new Costco next door. I picked up some lunch on my way home, then spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofa… working. That evening, GG and I headed out to see TMBG! That concert needs its own post, suffice to say Their weird fans have wrecked yet another show for us. A nice couple standing next to us helped restore my faith in Their younger followers, but maybe from now on we will stand somewhere other than directly in front of the stage, as that seems to be prime real estate for all the insane people…

Saturday: Heading out soon for Octoberfest with MB and A..!