Thanksgiving

I've just spent the two days on detox from Thanksgiving. It was a good time, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to sit in silence for a few days after being around extended family. The highs were, of course, spending time with my brother. Our drive up had NO traffic, which was amazing. (Not amazing? Me accidentally taking the wrong exit for the Mass Pike with a 16 mile detour. Oops!) And, we even did our bi-annual stop at Friendly's where we ate disgusting (read: amazing) sandwiches with BBQ-drenched fried chicken, bacon and cheese on fried bread. (Although, my body was definitely rejecting the honey BBQ delight; I could feel it in my throat for a few hours. And, yes, that's also what she said.) We both "ran" the 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I'm proud of my brother for running the whole thing, even though he's been sore ever since. That's what happens when you never exercise and your diet consists of Centrum Silver (it's on sale!) and Spaghetti-O's.
Another high was seeing a friend of mine from college on Friday night. We went out in Portsmouth, NH to a brewery. We didn't stay there too long as it got really crowded with bros. By then, I guess you could call it a BRO-ery – ha! (Please click here.) Besides the bros, there was also a girl who was negotiating with the bartender about putting more vodka in the TWO vodka cranberries she had ordered for herself. Part of the negotiation process involved leaning over me, too. But, sadly for her, it didn't work. Unrelated: is anyone else REALLY excited about the Jersey Shore House TV show that starts this week on MTV?
On actual Thanksgiving, my aunt and uncle had some friends for dinner along with my grandma. When they arrived we were in the middle of watching a photo DVD which had pictures of my parents before they were married, my grandparents when they were younger, me when I was adorable, me when I most definitely was not (light-washed jeans, hairsprayed bangs and braces? AT THE SAME TIME?!) I figured when their friends arrived, my uncle would turn off the DVD, but no such luck. They had to sit through quite a bit of the 45 minute DVD, poor things. At this point in the slideshow I had, um, gone through my developmental stage. So, there was one picture of my sister and I where I was wearing a V-neck dress and leaning over. My grandmother then blows up my spot and says, "Wow, look at that crease!" Thanks, grammie! That's the closest thing to a compliment I've gotten from her, and it was all about my boobies.
Overall, it was a good break, but I'm always happy to be back home in my now supremely-organized apartment.

Reason #24,895 I Love My Roommate

My roommate - a performer/real estate agent - sends me text messages like: "I just rented the apt upstairs to a 28 year old single nerdy guy! He’s cute and tall and makes 100,000 a year. Hehe. Thought u might like to know about our new neighbor."

She always has her nerd-feelers out there for me.

Nesting

I'm either seven months pregnant or just getting ready for the upcoming "hermit" season because I spent (almost) the whole weekend organizing my apartment.
I hadn't cleaned my room in over a month and it was bad. I even took a picture as a "before", but was so disgusted by how I was living that I couldn't bring myself to post it. As a Virgo, I'm supposed to love living in an orderly way, which is true in the common areas of my apartment, but definitely not in my room. I was living out of a laundry bag, and since everything in there was clean, I HAD to put the dirty clothes on the floor. For weeks I was walking on top of my clothes, including a bridesmaid dress that I ripped off as soon as I got home from the wedding last weekend (mostly to get out of the worst invention in the world - a strapless bra - as quickly as possible).
When I was done with my organizing, I had filled an entire duffel bag full of clothes that I'll be donating. Not just a small duffel bag either, but a gigantic one - one that I fit inside (as I've confirmed. It was a lonely weekend, I needed to be entertained somehow). I took everything out of my dressers and re-organized them. I took everything out of my wall o' bookshelves and reworked it. I pulled all of my shoes out of the closet and placed the shoes I never wear towards the back, shoes I feel guilty for never wearing towards the front and the shoes I always wear, on top of those.
This was not enough. By Sunday I organized all of my spices, which included creating a make-shift shelf to put the spices I use most (garlic, cumin, oregano) up front and the ones I use the least toward the back (nutmeg, curry, chicken seasoning (?)). Then, with everything organized there, I decided I needed to bake for the upcoming Thanksgiving trip to northern Massachusetts. I made a pumpkin chocolate chip loaf. While that was baking, I cleaned out all the flour/sugar jars and cabinet above the oven. Did my roommate need to hold onto that white chocolate Easter bunny still? Probably not, as it's been there for at least the last year and half I've lived there. How about that maple syrup that expired in 2007? Nah.
When the loaf was done (and deliciously un-poisoned, as one should always check), I made apple turnovers. Then jalapeno corn bread. Then dinner.
After dinner, I knit for a few hours before I fell asleep listening to Tracy Morgan's audio book (which I highly recommend!).
So while I could have found more exciting things to do this weekend, I'm really happy that I spent the time cleaning, organizing and knitting because I'm going to be gone for a lot of December (traveling for work/going home for the holidays for an ungodly amount of time).

Moving Day: Update!

The day I helped my friend move, I met another friend of hers who lives right across the street from her new apartment. He helped transport some of her "goods". We realized that we work for companies that are related to each other, so we've been emailing for business and friend purposes. He sent me a box of goodies yesterday that he just had "lying around" the office. I want to work in an office that has these items just hanging out:

Star Trek shoes by AIRWALK
Star Trek "Warp Speed" Clock The complete I Love Lucy Series, which is my FAVORITE show ever. I already own this, so this may make its way to an online retailer!

And, not pictured, the entire Beverly Hills, 90210 series which I promptly put in my bag and took home last night to watch! He also sent some America's Next Top Model gear (which had me smizing!) and the entire Twin Peaks collection. I will gladly port around 10 pogo dicks to have such a great present show up in my office again!

Moving Day

When I moved back to New York from Los Angeles in 2007, I decided to drive my car east. It was my boyfriend at the time's idea, so we could drive to see his family in Queens and drive to see my relatives in Northern Massachusetts. Well, we broke up two years ago, but I've still held onto that car. I'd like to get rid of it, but until then, I'll use it for the powers of good including: Target, the beach, visiting relatives and helping friends move.
A few weeks ago, I drove into the Lower East Side to help a friend move to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I hate driving in Manhattan. As a pretty nervous person to begin with, it really stresses me out. But, my friend promised me a burger and sweet potato fries, so I overcame.
The friend I helped move was someone I used to work with at my first job out of college. I love her because she has this amazing life outside of work, which seems to be rare in the corporate world. This "amazing life outside of work" includes writing musicals, painting and even reviewing sex toys for a Web site.
When I got to her apartment, I amazingly found a parking space and went upstairs to help her grab some stuff. I went for this large black Tupperware because I figured I could pile stuff on top and minimize the number of trips. As soon as I grabbed it, she said, "Careful, that's filled with sex toys." I'm not entirely prude, but I do get teased quite a bit for not wanting to talk about sex very much. It was a little awkward.
It got even more awkward when I grabbed some steel bars and heard, "Oh, that's my sex swing." Even more awkward still, when grabbing a pole with the top half covered in a black trash bag and feeling something squishy at the covered end. What could that be? A pogo dick.
That sent me a little over the edge because I had been trying to manipulate the "object" to get it to fit into my car. I didn't realize the object was a rubber penis.
I don't know if I'll ever have a more unique moving experience, or a more delicious burger that I know I earned.