i wanna walk down the hit parade
I hope all of you had as great of a Thanksgiving as my family and I did! For the first time in, uh, ever, I'm the only one of the 4 siblings not dating anyone. The brothers spent Thanksgiving day with the families of their girlfriends, the sis is in CA and not home until Christmas, so I had my Mom and Dad all to myself. We had a really great day - appropriately lazy and filled with great food. Mom and Dad remain in charge of the turkey, so I was on point for potatoes, dressing, and cranberry sauce - similar to this recipe. I decided that we needed a vegetable of some sort since things would be really beige otherwise, so I roasted a butternut squash with some butter, fresh ground nutmeg, and cinnamon, then finished it with some brown sugar. It was delicious! Even my Mom, who doesn't like squash, had seconds and leftovers. Woo! Man, I love Thanksgiving!
Mom, Dad, and I did a bit of shopping on Friday (the first time either of them had shopped Black Friday) and my brother, Matt, drove up with his girlfriend that afternoon. We spent Friday evening drinking, eating more food (surf and turf!), drinking, and playing cards. Dad also helped me hang 3 pieces of artwork I'd gotten matted and framed back in August, and everything looks SO fantastic. I need to take and post some pictures. We got plastic on my upstairs windows and I forget what a world of difference having the windows covered makes. God bless 3M.
And! Erin and I finally got to meet Miss julieoh a week ago Saturday when she was in town for a conference. We took her to MN's shopping mecca, the Mall of America, and we all had a very productive afternoon. Our haul included: make-up (all of us), a cute sweater (Julie), cute maternity clothes (Erin), and new jeans (me). It was so great to finally meet Julie after years of knowing her online! :)
This post is currently being brought to you from the W Lakeshore Drive in lovely downtown Chicago. Lake Michigan and Navy Pier are outside my window and for once, a hotel has better than usual TV channels. I have the Food Network! (Can someone help me understand why no hotel I ever stay at has Bravo in their lineup?) Anyway. The reason I'm in Chicago is because I'm going to India for work for 2 weeks. I leave on Saturday, the 1st, and return sometime on the 15th. The process for being approved to work overseas never ceases to amaze me, and the process and processing time to get a Visa for India is far longer than what I needed for Brazil. After finally getting my invitation letter from my colleagues in India on the 16th, I frantically made phone calls last week to see how long it would take to get my Visa processed and mailed back to me. I got answers ranging from at least 5 business days from date of receipt to 10 days - and with the holidays thrown in, I lost 2 days of processing time. My best bet was to show up to the Consulate responsible for MN and apply in person. I changed my flight to be in Chicago on Monday and made sure I had my paperwork and passport pictures packed and ready to go. As I'm checking out the Visa Agency's website, I realize, with HORROR, that I left my passport at home. At home, people. In MINNESOTA. I almost lose my shit, but before I do, I call my parents. Without blinking an eye, my Dad offered to take the day off tomorrow to drive up to my house, grab my passport, and FedEx it overnight to me in Chicago. Isn't he the best? It means things are pushed out at least a day, but I'm looking forward to spending another night in Chicago. PLEASE keep your fingers crossed that everything works out, k? Note to self: find someone near you to keep one of your house keys, or find a place to hide one!
I have other thoughts to share with you all about TV and my re-introduction back into the dating world, but that'll have to wait for another time. Right now I need to go think happy thoughts about Visa processing.
Mom, Dad, and I did a bit of shopping on Friday (the first time either of them had shopped Black Friday) and my brother, Matt, drove up with his girlfriend that afternoon. We spent Friday evening drinking, eating more food (surf and turf!), drinking, and playing cards. Dad also helped me hang 3 pieces of artwork I'd gotten matted and framed back in August, and everything looks SO fantastic. I need to take and post some pictures. We got plastic on my upstairs windows and I forget what a world of difference having the windows covered makes. God bless 3M.
And! Erin and I finally got to meet Miss julieoh a week ago Saturday when she was in town for a conference. We took her to MN's shopping mecca, the Mall of America, and we all had a very productive afternoon. Our haul included: make-up (all of us), a cute sweater (Julie), cute maternity clothes (Erin), and new jeans (me). It was so great to finally meet Julie after years of knowing her online! :)
This post is currently being brought to you from the W Lakeshore Drive in lovely downtown Chicago. Lake Michigan and Navy Pier are outside my window and for once, a hotel has better than usual TV channels. I have the Food Network! (Can someone help me understand why no hotel I ever stay at has Bravo in their lineup?) Anyway. The reason I'm in Chicago is because I'm going to India for work for 2 weeks. I leave on Saturday, the 1st, and return sometime on the 15th. The process for being approved to work overseas never ceases to amaze me, and the process and processing time to get a Visa for India is far longer than what I needed for Brazil. After finally getting my invitation letter from my colleagues in India on the 16th, I frantically made phone calls last week to see how long it would take to get my Visa processed and mailed back to me. I got answers ranging from at least 5 business days from date of receipt to 10 days - and with the holidays thrown in, I lost 2 days of processing time. My best bet was to show up to the Consulate responsible for MN and apply in person. I changed my flight to be in Chicago on Monday and made sure I had my paperwork and passport pictures packed and ready to go. As I'm checking out the Visa Agency's website, I realize, with HORROR, that I left my passport at home. At home, people. In MINNESOTA. I almost lose my shit, but before I do, I call my parents. Without blinking an eye, my Dad offered to take the day off tomorrow to drive up to my house, grab my passport, and FedEx it overnight to me in Chicago. Isn't he the best? It means things are pushed out at least a day, but I'm looking forward to spending another night in Chicago. PLEASE keep your fingers crossed that everything works out, k? Note to self: find someone near you to keep one of your house keys, or find a place to hide one!
I have other thoughts to share with you all about TV and my re-introduction back into the dating world, but that'll have to wait for another time. Right now I need to go think happy thoughts about Visa processing.