After work today, I had to stop at the grocery store to figure out something for dinner (note, please, that the "figure out" part of the equation hadn't happened, because I had absolutely no idea what to do for dinner, and Andy's working late). I heard a commercial for the annual production of A Christmas Carol at our local theater, and instead of thinking, "I should see how much tickets are! I've always wanted to go see that," I found myself thinking, "Damn, who has time to see a three-hour play between now and Christmas?!" That's when I realized I was somewhat overwhelmed with my holiday season.
We do have a lot going on. I just got back from four days out of town. We are watching my parents' pets while they're out of town, starting tomorrow and lasting through Sunday. I have to knit one-and-one-quarter hats and half a sweater in twelve days. We have invitations to several holiday parties this weekend. I haven't even thought about sending out cards. My sister and her husband are coming into town on the 22nd (RIGHT, KID?) and staying with us. And on top of all of that, we're giving unconventional Christmas presents - baskets of our homemade preserves and jams and jellies and stuff - which were a fuckton of work and cost probably slightly more per person than the usual gifts we exchange, but I worry that we're going to look like cheap weirdos or something, so I'm stressing about making sure they're JUST RIGHT - like, compiling a list of recipes and ways to use the stuff in each fucking jar - before I can relax about it.
So I got to the grocery store, and instead of figuring out a real meal, I got makings to make myself a kick-ass cheese plate. And I stopped next door at the liquor store and got a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. And I made myself a super fancy, carefully presented cheese plate, which I ate at the kitchen table with a real napkin while I read the L.L. Bean holiday catalog. Because I needed to settle the fuck down.
I think it helped. I feel a little better, and I only had one glass of wine.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Home again, home again
I hope at least one human being reads the title of this post and immediately thinks "jiggety jig."
I'm home! I came home to a clean house and pretty flowers (Andy always gets me flowers whenever I go out of town. It's a very sweet thing). I had a seat to myself on the train both on the way there and the way home, which is pretty great. I may be causing myself tennis elbow (again) and/or carpal tunnel syndrome with my knitting - my wrist was doing an interesting tingling thing on and off while I was knitting - but I more than doubled the amount of my mom's sweater I had done, and I completed about 90% of Andy's hat, so I'll still count that as a success.
New York was fun, as always. I really like visiting that joint, particularly Brooklyn. Brooklyn's weird. I'm never the one dressed funny, or being too loud, or whatever, when I'm in Brooklyn. If you happen to be there any time soon, check out the Richmond, a bar coincidentally located on Richmond Street, and get an Old Tom Collins. Very well made and very delicious. Or, if you're more in the mood for a dive and some ski-ball, try Redd's on Grand Avenue. Their Tom Collinses are less well made, but I didn't let that discourage me. And it turns out that $5 gets you 18 songs on the jukebox, which all play in a row. That's more than enough to force the other guests to listen to all of Alanis Morisette's Jagged Little Pill in a row (and yes, for some reason they have that).
What's your favorite thing about coming home?
I'm home! I came home to a clean house and pretty flowers (Andy always gets me flowers whenever I go out of town. It's a very sweet thing). I had a seat to myself on the train both on the way there and the way home, which is pretty great. I may be causing myself tennis elbow (again) and/or carpal tunnel syndrome with my knitting - my wrist was doing an interesting tingling thing on and off while I was knitting - but I more than doubled the amount of my mom's sweater I had done, and I completed about 90% of Andy's hat, so I'll still count that as a success.
New York was fun, as always. I really like visiting that joint, particularly Brooklyn. Brooklyn's weird. I'm never the one dressed funny, or being too loud, or whatever, when I'm in Brooklyn. If you happen to be there any time soon, check out the Richmond, a bar coincidentally located on Richmond Street, and get an Old Tom Collins. Very well made and very delicious. Or, if you're more in the mood for a dive and some ski-ball, try Redd's on Grand Avenue. Their Tom Collinses are less well made, but I didn't let that discourage me. And it turns out that $5 gets you 18 songs on the jukebox, which all play in a row. That's more than enough to force the other guests to listen to all of Alanis Morisette's Jagged Little Pill in a row (and yes, for some reason they have that).
What's your favorite thing about coming home?
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Hooray!
My computer is fixed! Just in time for me to go out of town for several days!
I'm heading to New York City in the morning. I'm super busy getting ready tonight, so the plan was that Andy was going to pick it up while I was out of town. Instead, he surprised me by getting it on his way home tonight, just to be nice!
One of my best friends lives in Brooklyn, so I am going to hang out with her and pretend I'm in Home Alone 2 for a few days. We will be doing touristy things like seeing the tree in Rockefeller Plaza, window shopping, eating at the Carnegie Deli, and doing our best to thwart a pair of bumbling robbers slash would-be child murderers.
And to any other would-be robbers out there, Andy can't get the time off from work, so he'll be home guarding our house. Don't get any bright ideas, because he is fully trained in the use of Micro Machines, paint cans, and acetylene torches for home defense.
My keyboard is making an interesting clicking noise any time I have to delete something. Looks like this is a good time to slow down and type things correctly the first time, or to learn to love that it sounds a little like there's a tiny tambourine under the backspace key.
What shouldn't I miss when I'm in New York? Share!
I'm heading to New York City in the morning. I'm super busy getting ready tonight, so the plan was that Andy was going to pick it up while I was out of town. Instead, he surprised me by getting it on his way home tonight, just to be nice!
One of my best friends lives in Brooklyn, so I am going to hang out with her and pretend I'm in Home Alone 2 for a few days. We will be doing touristy things like seeing the tree in Rockefeller Plaza, window shopping, eating at the Carnegie Deli, and doing our best to thwart a pair of bumbling robbers slash would-be child murderers.
And to any other would-be robbers out there, Andy can't get the time off from work, so he'll be home guarding our house. Don't get any bright ideas, because he is fully trained in the use of Micro Machines, paint cans, and acetylene torches for home defense.
My keyboard is making an interesting clicking noise any time I have to delete something. Looks like this is a good time to slow down and type things correctly the first time, or to learn to love that it sounds a little like there's a tiny tambourine under the backspace key.
What shouldn't I miss when I'm in New York? Share!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Exciting evening
I don't know if I've mentioned this, and I'm still on Andy's computer which takes forever so I'm not going to bother searching for it, but Andy plays drums at a local church for Christmas Eve every year. He has practice at the church tonight, so I'm going to take my pants off and really buckle down to some knitting and some Christmas-movie-watching. I don't know how I'll be able to handle the excitement.
My computer is getting fixed, so posting should resume some sort of regular schedule next-week-ish. I just find my netbook so much more convenient and easy to use!
Oh, one more exciting thing: I'm planning to try to import two books on CD into itunes so I can listen through my ipod. I've never done this, so wish me luck that I don't accidentally delete all my files on there or something. I've been told there's a way to rip them so they take up less space, so I'll be poking around on the internet trying to figure that out. Good times all around tonight!
My computer is getting fixed, so posting should resume some sort of regular schedule next-week-ish. I just find my netbook so much more convenient and easy to use!
Oh, one more exciting thing: I'm planning to try to import two books on CD into itunes so I can listen through my ipod. I've never done this, so wish me luck that I don't accidentally delete all my files on there or something. I've been told there's a way to rip them so they take up less space, so I'll be poking around on the internet trying to figure that out. Good times all around tonight!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Feeling festive!
It's December 1, which in our house is Christmas Decorations Day! I just finished setting up the tree. This is by far the biggest pain involved in decorating our house for Christmas, as we have my parents' twenty-year-old seven-foot monstrosity. I like to get it set up before Andy gets home so we can start in on lights and ornaments while we watch a Christmas movie. This year it's Elf, which has just given me yet another reason to love it: if you leave the menu up without selecting anything, THE MUSIC STOPS PLAYING after one loop! This is so great!
I have a big pot of chili on the stove ready to go, and I'm going to put up the garland and lights we loop over the weird bannister thing we have.
The one thing I am still working on for this year is a good pine-scented candle. Last year I just got one at Wal-Mart, and it was fine but not spectacular. I think I'm going to try one of the Balsam Fir ones from Bath and Body Works, as I've been assured it smells just like an actual pine tree instead of like gross chemicals.
What holiday set-up traditions do you have?
I have a big pot of chili on the stove ready to go, and I'm going to put up the garland and lights we loop over the weird bannister thing we have.
The one thing I am still working on for this year is a good pine-scented candle. Last year I just got one at Wal-Mart, and it was fine but not spectacular. I think I'm going to try one of the Balsam Fir ones from Bath and Body Works, as I've been assured it smells just like an actual pine tree instead of like gross chemicals.
What holiday set-up traditions do you have?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Late November scurrying!
Hello, internets! I hope you all had a lovely holiday and that being back at work today wasn't the absolute worst. Our Thanksgiving was as smooth as these things tend to be: we had one startling moment where some squash we were warming bubbled over, causing the oven to fill with smoke; Andy's uncle's girlfriend (who made the sweet potatoes for me last year) remembered that I had mentioned that my dad's a diabetic, so she made the squash and her amazing cranberry relish with honey instead of sugar, so it was slightly better for my dad; Andy's dad only made one overtly racist comment; my homemade pies were very well received. Overall a smash hit!
We're making serious progress on the nursery in our spare time these days, which explains much of the silence up in this joint. And we finally dropped my computer off to be fixed on Saturday, which explains the rest of it!
Are your Christmas preparations in full swing? I'll be putting up our tree on Thursday when I get home from work, and we'll decorate it together when Andy gets home - our tree always goes up on December 1st. I'm knitting like crazy trying to get everything done, and I'm something like 3/5 of the way done with the awful lace on the sweater I'm working on. Hooray!
How was your holiday? How's your Christmas prep coming?
We're making serious progress on the nursery in our spare time these days, which explains much of the silence up in this joint. And we finally dropped my computer off to be fixed on Saturday, which explains the rest of it!
Are your Christmas preparations in full swing? I'll be putting up our tree on Thursday when I get home from work, and we'll decorate it together when Andy gets home - our tree always goes up on December 1st. I'm knitting like crazy trying to get everything done, and I'm something like 3/5 of the way done with the awful lace on the sweater I'm working on. Hooray!
How was your holiday? How's your Christmas prep coming?
Monday, November 21, 2011
Deep calming breaths
Today it felt like the universe was conspiring to piss me off. You ever have a day like that? I had my boss point out some errors I had made, of the sort that will be caught if the people who touch my work after I do are doing their jobs, which left me feeling like every other function in the building has built-in "making mistakes is part of being human" room, whereas my job is expected to be perfect on the first try. It probably didn't help that I hadn't had any coffee yet when I had this conversation with the boss, so my whole day was set up to be frustrating before it even really got started.
After a singularly irritating morning, which spilled over into a ravenously hungry early afternoon, I decided I'd splurge a little and order myself Chipotle for lunch (where I come from, $10 for a burrito is a splurge, ok?). I placed my order online, as I always do, and hit "submit" blithely. Only after I had submitted my order did I realize my burrito would be ready to pick up IN AN HOUR. And I had already paid for it, so tough cookies.
I arrived at Chipotle in an interestingly roundabout way, thanks to construction, which took forever. I walked in and didn't have to wait in line, and then the soda machine spit out exactly the right amount of ice on the first try! I wondered, "Could it be that my day is turning around?" As if in answer to my question, whatever nondescript soft rock song had been on ended, and FUCKING INI KAMOZE started playing! Yes! Maybe the day was salvageable!
On my way back to work, I got stuck in a traffic jam because a tow truck was being towed by another tow truck, so my Chipotle trip took twice as long as it should have. Then I got back to my desk and discovered that my beautiful burrito bowl, lovingly crafted and the same goddamn thing I order every time, HAD DISGUSTING CILANTRO-WHATEVER RICE IN IT. I'm one of those lucky people who thinks cilantro tastes like soap, so my awesome, day-saving lunch tasted like asshole, but was too expensive to ditch. So I ate it, and was grumpy.
Now I'm taking deep calming breaths and planning to go to Target with my husband. If that doesn't work, some homemade fudge and a bottle of wine will have to do the trick.
After a singularly irritating morning, which spilled over into a ravenously hungry early afternoon, I decided I'd splurge a little and order myself Chipotle for lunch (where I come from, $10 for a burrito is a splurge, ok?). I placed my order online, as I always do, and hit "submit" blithely. Only after I had submitted my order did I realize my burrito would be ready to pick up IN AN HOUR. And I had already paid for it, so tough cookies.
I arrived at Chipotle in an interestingly roundabout way, thanks to construction, which took forever. I walked in and didn't have to wait in line, and then the soda machine spit out exactly the right amount of ice on the first try! I wondered, "Could it be that my day is turning around?" As if in answer to my question, whatever nondescript soft rock song had been on ended, and FUCKING INI KAMOZE started playing! Yes! Maybe the day was salvageable!
On my way back to work, I got stuck in a traffic jam because a tow truck was being towed by another tow truck, so my Chipotle trip took twice as long as it should have. Then I got back to my desk and discovered that my beautiful burrito bowl, lovingly crafted and the same goddamn thing I order every time, HAD DISGUSTING CILANTRO-WHATEVER RICE IN IT. I'm one of those lucky people who thinks cilantro tastes like soap, so my awesome, day-saving lunch tasted like asshole, but was too expensive to ditch. So I ate it, and was grumpy.
Now I'm taking deep calming breaths and planning to go to Target with my husband. If that doesn't work, some homemade fudge and a bottle of wine will have to do the trick.
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