This post, obviously, comes to you from Pittsburgh, from the lovely home of Bob & Rosie (and Joe & Jack & Bennett & soon-to-be Mackenzie).  Right now I’m sitting in a light blue plaid chair with Bob’s MacBook in my lap while listening to a) a Christmas Pandora station  b) the three cutest little boys in the world decorate the rest of the house for Christmas.  Bennett literally just ran around singing “Santa Face Santa Face Santa Face” while swinging some door handles shaped like, you guessed it, Santa’s Face.

Last Wednesday I began my travels, which were much needed and anticipated.  I was getting restless for a trip anyway, and, as I’m sure most of you know, was driving myself crazy with how much I missed my family.  So Wednesday, immediately after leaving work, I drove to Raleigh to Beth & Shaloot’s house.  Unfortunately the visit was all too brief, but needless to say it was good to catch up with them a little.  The next day was Thanksgiving Day, and while Beth made awesome time at her Turkey Trot 10K, I flew to Pittsburgh to visit the PA Family Contingent (sidenote: the airport was surprisingly not crowded…).

This is where it gets a little hectic.  And by hectic I mean this is where I start eating absurdly large quantities of incredibly delicious food.

The plan was to have the Thanksgiving dinner at 6:30pm, so from roughly 1:30pm until 6:30pm I ate hord’evours.  Lots of them.  And drank wine.  We had amberjack fish spread & crackers, STUFFED MUSHROOMS, fried oysters, and Smithfield (aka extremely salty) ham.  Did I mention these were only the hord’evours & had nothing to do with the actual Thanksgiving meal?  My meal was: turkey, rice with gravy, sweet potato casserole, asparagus casserole, ham, herb & vegetable stuffing, and cornbread & oyster stuffing.  I was actually only able to eat one plate before sneaking upstairs to pass out – I mean, go to sleep – in Bennett’s bed.  Thankfully Joe woke me up so I could come downstairs and continue socializing.

Friday was the day of the Rosie’s baby shower at Anastasia’s house, so Rosie and I went over to help do some prep in the morning.  Now…this baby shower…was extremely nice.  It was a champagne supper, and Anastasia did all of the food herself, as well as the decorating.  It was outstanding.  We had crab bisque, chicken & steak skewers, bow-tie pasta, green beans with roasted almonds, shrimp cocktail, caviar, and then assorted desserts that I can’t even get into.  Also the champagne was quite tasty.  The decorations were beautiful – of course, I just love Anastasia’s house in general.  About 40 people came to the shower and everyone was extremely generous with presents.

Saturday morning we hung out a bit in the morning before saying goodbye to los padres & Andrew, and then we headed over to Rosie’s brother & sister-in-law’s house for their second niece’s 1st birthday – which was incredibly cute.  And which included the ever simple, but still horrible for you, pizza and ice cream and cake (and cake).  That night Bob went to the hockey game (Penguins win!) and Rosie and I watched some movies.  Finally on Sunday, Bob & I took the two older boys to The Star Wars Symphony…which is basically exactly like it sounds.  It was actually pretty cool!  And when we came back we watched The Steelers game – which was disappointing.  But oh well.

Today’s been fairly relaxing: playing with my nephews, psycho-analyzing the world with Rosie, and STILL eating far too much.  But how can I say no to Bob grilling steaks, portabello mushrooms, and asparagus tonight?  Tomorrow I fly back to Winston, and it’s back to work…and exercise.  Truthfully I have missed yoga; and I’m sure my family is sick of hearing me talk about it.  So best to get back into practice   But all in all, it’s been a wonderful Thanksgiving break.  Pittsburgh continues to feel like my home away from home, and it’s so very easy to slip into the routine with the kids and Bob & Rosie.  While we’re all waiting for the arrival of little Mackenzie, it’s still nice to hang out.  I hate to leave, but it’s time to head back to life…there is so much to get organized…

But for now, I’m off to enjoy my last evening in the Steel Town

Despite the fact that 2009 is, as I have stated many times, a bitch, life is actually quite full and pleasant at the moment.  I wasn’t so sure about this whole November thing – we got off to a rough start.  That plus the on-set of true winter weather (cue my SAD) had me a little leary of how this year and I were going to part ways.  Yet November has pleasantly surprised me.  Perhaps it’s the yoga, or perhaps it’s the super-awesome co-workers, or maybe it’s the sheer excitement I happen to have for the holidays this year (which is seriously a little unprecedented for me).  But regardless, I’ve been enjoying myself.

True, the children/work have been just a teensy bit stressful (and by that I mean my job pretty much guarentees birth control because after working with these kids I don’t doubt that my body is actively rejecting the thought or possibility of having children.  I estimate it will take about 5 years after the PTSD has settled down for me to start functioning normally again.  If ever.).  But it’s all ok because I’ve developed the ultimate coping skill:  DANCE PARTIES.  The great thing about dance parties is you can have them pretty much anywhere.  The bad thing is that I look like a complete and total fool.  But by that point in my day, I’m usually so frazzled/braindead that I don’t give a hill of beans about what I look like.

Aside from my sporadic dance parties (in the car, in the office, in my kitchen…) the best thing in my life has easily been seeing people I adore.  Last Friday I was lucky enough to lunch with Marcus Keely, and then spend time with Ms. Carley Rudiger pretty much all evening while she volunteered with my kids.  Saturday night I went out with the ever-delightful Jamie Lee, and Sunday I gorged on Barnes & Noble (just on food, I resisted the urge to buy over-priced reading material) with Amy before catching up with Peter at the grand ol’ ZSR, and ended the evening over wine with Lauren & Adam.  Monday I attended a slightly awkward but still fun book club with Megan (after splurging at Ed McKay’s on some totally unnecessary books…I had to reward myself for resisting the magic of B&N, right?) and then spent the rest of the evening playing Scattegories with Keegan & her parents.  All in all a pretty busy yet relaxing weekend.  I’m still amazed at the people in my life

This weekend should be excellent as well.  And then this time next week…I’ll be in PITTSBURGH!  With the majority of my family (altho I will, of course, desperately miss Sister & Brother-in-law Dearest).  I can’t wait.  But while I try to pass the time, I’ll keep shaking my groove thing and let the dance parties continue

PS While I’m not sure whether or not she still reads this, I feel I have to give a shout-out to the ever-lovely Jenny Simowitz to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Love & miss you dear.

Is it just me, or has time really gotten out of control with how quickly it’s going by?  And while I gained an extra hour with Daylight Savings Time, I’m pretty sure I’ve lost around 3 from debaucherous activities this month.  Meanwhile, I desperately need to get my life organized.  Car insurance biz, grad school, cleaning my apt, student loans, budgeting…all the fun things in life.

But instead, I’ve been playing around with some crazy friends from work.  It’s been good.  When I haven’t been doing that, there have been a lot of lunches with a lot of wonderful people from various Wake Forest institutions.  Or reading.  Or watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.   These are all good things.  (Speaking of reading, I have updated my Books to Read list to include the plethora of books I’ve bought but haven’t read yet…check it here.)

So for the most part, life continues to roll along smoothly.  Work is…crazy.  Oh children.  Mostly, I’m just looking forward to Thanksgiving, when I get to fly up to Pittsbrugh, PA and visit with the family.  And attend a classy baby shower.  And play with small children.  Overall, it should be great

If you get some time (aka have some time you’d like to kill just in case it isn’t passing by quickly enough for you), check out my other site for random findings on the internet.  And have a good day!

PS   Lately while I’ve been being boring and hanging out in Winston-Salem (slowly tranforming into a townie) my incredible sister dearest has been having all sorts of adventures.  You should read about them at her blog.

Surprisingly, I have actually completed some of the items on my 101 in 1001 List!  Most of the things I marked off as completed were tasks that were “in progress” but that I maintained for 2 months or more, and so now can check off.  Here’s the update:

#7 – I’ve been attending a weekly Discipleship Bible study at Green Street, which I’m really enjoying.  Unfortunately, with my schedule change, it has been harder to make it to the meetings…but it has been a very good experience.
#12 – I think I am improving at contacting my family members on a regular basis and staying up-to-speed on their lives.
#14 – The same…altho I guess with the caveat  that I have become a bit more selective and am attempting only to stay in touch with those people who reciprocate the effort.  And I gotta tell ya, it feels very nice.  Once again, can I just say how blessed I am with the people in my life?
#15 – Somewhere along the way I made some excellent Winston-Salem friends.  Some are co-workers, some are friends I’ve met through co-workers, some are friends from college, some from church…all and in all, I feel very at home here and love the people around me.
#18 – I pretty much stick to chicken and turkey nowadays.
#79 – I have been limiting the eating out and cooking more at home, which is very exciting.  That’s also helped wiht #18.  Now if only I had the resources to really practice becoming a good cook…

So, that’s that.  I feel pretty productive!  As for a more detailed post on how life is going, look for that sometime in the next few days.  Also look for some page edits on Books to Read & Movies to Watch; I need to update those lists as well…have a great week!