Things I’m Looking Forward To

Exactly one month from today, I will be heading home to PA to get ready to leave for mine and Darren’s vacation in Jamaica!  After having it booking since February, I can’t believe it’s only a month away, so pumped.  I’m even more pumped that after we get home, I don’t have to haul ass back down to Virginia and head back to work, and instead get to enjoy another 9 days at home.  You can hate me, it’s ok.  I would hate me if I wasn’t me.  I suspect it’s going to be slightly challenging to pack for 8 days in the Caribbean and 9 days in Philadelphia in December all in one suitcase.  I see a lot of shoes being needed.

Yesterday at work my computer was held captive by IT for 3 hours, so that was fun.  With nothing else to do but sit and play angry birds, I dragged myself across the street for a workout.  It was a typical Monday workout, which means I phoned it in on the elliptical for 35 minutes while watching House Hunters.  Whatevs, better than nothing.

In other news, I am desperately trying to not get sick.  For the past week I’ve woken up with a sore throat, and it is not cool.  I got sick right around this time last year, post half-marathon, and am really trying to avoid being sick on Thanksgiving again.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I’m looking forward to going home and hanging out with my sister for the long weekend.  Specific things I’m excited for?  Breaking Dawn Part 1 movie date with my sis (yeah, yeah Twilight, blah blah) but I’ve invested a lot of time in reading the books and watching the movies and I like them.  Give me a break.  Putting up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving!  With being preoccupied with packing and moving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving last year I didn’t get to do that with my sis, and it’s always one of my favorite days of the year.  Turkey day in general, bring on the mashed potatoes and green bean casserole!  Then obviously the fact that I’ll be home again 11 days later.

Pumpkin helping put up the tree in 2009

That reminds me, I need to make a Christmas wish list :).

 

 

My Favorite Time of the Year

One of the very few times I miss high school, and Catholic school in general, is the day after Halloween.  It being a holy day of obligation and all, we ALWAYS had it off from school.  Well, unless you were the “brother” school down the street from my school.  They had the day off taken away from them because too many were caught drinking, suckers.  Anyway, it meant you could go out trick or treating, have sleepovers with your friends, and watch scary movies well into the wee hours of the morning without worrying about waking up the next day.  It was great.  We should bring that day off into the adult world, I am still Catholic after all, even if I haven’t been to church in a while.

So, happy first day of November!  I suppose that means it’s officially the holiday season, although Starbucks did roll out their holiday cups over the weekend and that is my real basis of things.  Just kidding.  Sort of.  No gingerbread syrup yet though.  Gingerbread lattes ruled my life last year, so good.  Don’t tell me calorie count, I don’t want to know.

The trick or treaters last night were adorable and aggressive, and we ran out of candy before we ran out of kids to give it to.  I felt bad turning off the porch lights, blowing out the candles in the pumpkins and hiding inside, who knew three giant bags wouldn’t be enough.  My favorite was when the kids would just pull open our door without knocking and scream “TRICK OR TREAT” at us, haha.  I think they wanted to come inside and hang out.  Favorite costumes were a little baby dressed as a unicorn and the kid dressed as poop.  Well done kid, well done.  I’m actually kind of glad all our candy went, because now there are no leftovers for me to hoard and make my thighs fat.  39 days until vacation after all.

I hope you all had a lovely Halloween filled with cute trick or treaters and fun costumes.  Time to start saving up for holiday shopping!

 

Christmas Eve!

Happy Christmas Eve!  After the most horrible drive home in the history of the world yesterday, I finally made it back to Philly around 5 pm.  A drive that should have taken three hours, took five, I was not a happy camper.  I had about an hour to relax and freshen up before it was back out the door and in the car to head over to a family friends for dinner.

Lan and Beth were our neighbors in our old neighborhood when we first moved to PA from CT, so they have literally watched me and my sister grow up and we always try to get together when both of us are home.   We enjoyed appetizers, champagne, wine, a salad with homemade crab cakes, and a delicious sweet and sour chicken with rice.  No pictures, but everything was amazing.  After a dinner that lasted until about 11 pm, I came home and got to see an old friend.

 

Darren and I

 

Remember this series of posts?  Well after not seeing each other since 2006, The German (Darren) and I finally had a chance to hang out and catch up, and it didn’t even feel like four and a half years had passed. We stayed up talking until almost 4 am and finally called it a night when I could no longer keep my eyes open.  It was really nice to see each other and catch up, and I hope we can get together again before I head back down to VA, because if it took him three years to finally come back East again, who knows how long it could take next time.

After my late night, I had a glorious nights sleep and didn’t get out of bed until 11 am this morning!  Seriously unheard of for me lately, and now my sister and I are relaxing on the couch watching Lifetime :).  I think mad Christmas Eve prep is about to begin soon though, as the family is expected to arrive around 6, so I’m not sure how much longer my relaxing morning will last.  Enjoy your Christmas Eve!