Big Christmas update
It was nice to get back to Philadelphia for Christmas.
Rosemary came up Christmas Eve morning, waking me up. It was nice to wake up to her showing up, and crawling in the bed for some snuggling. Seeing Rosemary two weekends in a row is definitely a good idea, and I hope we get to do more of it.
We opened some presents at my apartment that day, and then I went to work. They let me out at 8, so we were on the road to Philadelphia by 9:30 and rolled into town at 1 a.m., listening to Christmas carols all the way. It was neat to drive through the country in New York and see a house illuminated with Christmas lights standing out from a dark hill. We got back and enjoyed my much-needed Wawa hoagie, and then some much-needed bed.
We spent most of Christmas Day at my parents' house, where I spend most of the day with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend. We got a surprise visit from my dad's nephew, a cousin I wasn't even aware of. My dad called him "my first son," and he looks more like my father than I do. Later on my sister finally showed up with my brother-in-law, niece and cousin. And as Rosemary and I were about to leave, my dad's friend Cheese showed up -- who knew my dad's nephew!
As always my mom made a delicious spread of turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese, greens, sweet potatoes, carrots, cole slaw and fresh rolls from the Jewish bakery. And Rosemary and I both took naps while watching basketball.
After my parents' place we visited Rosemary's parents, and exchanged gifts. Then it was home for snuggles, sleeping and lovin'. And to all a good night.
Speaking of gifts, here's the haul:
Abacus by Fossil Wrist PDA from Anne aka lormagins. That's right, a watch with a Palm Pilot in it! When I opened the box, I was totally shocked. I repeatedly said, "What the fuck is this?!?!" It's very nice. Anne, you really went above and beyond. I had not expected a gift so extravagant. It is a very sexy watch, and one of these days I'll have a life awesome enough to program into the thing. But for now adding a shopping list will work!
Atari Flashback 2 from Rosemary. It looks like the old Atari 2600, and has 40 games built into it. From "Pitfall!" to "Pong" to "Asteroids" and "Centipede," they're all here. Unfortunately, it doesn't have some of the old ActiVision games like "Pole Position" and "Pac-Man," but I can get those. The greatest part of this gift is that, as babyraven posted about her Wonder Woman record and book set, it brings back something lost from my childhood. I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid, and my dad put it away when my brother and I fought over it like kids naturally do. We never saw it again. And now it's back, right here in my apartment. And these games, simple as they are, are great to play, and still hard.
A bottle of Absolut Vodka that Rosemary brought from a printer who gives them out at Christmas.
The "Sin City" graphic novels set I was lusting after a few weeks ago, from Rosemary. I haven't cracked them open yet.
Designer shirts from Michael Kors and Ted Baker, from my brother Mike. These are stripey and metrosexualicious.
Three wrinkle-free shirts from my parents.
Two of this year's hottest jazz CDs, from my parents: "Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall," and "One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note" by John Coltrane. Both these CDs come now after finding long-lost, by-chance recordings of these legendary concerts that people had thought were lost forever, and now were found 50 years later.
Gift cards to Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, from Rosemary's parents. The Best Buy one will put a nice dent in a Web cam or cordless phone or photo printer.
And the other fun thing about Christmas, of course, is buying things for yourself while all the sales are on. Last week I got some bedsheets, a hand mixer and some other goodies from Bed Bath and Beyond, and a bunch of clothes at Kohl's. And while in Philly I got this awesome Batman statue on sale. And today I replaced the 512MB memory stick I lost at the airport last month with a 1GB stick on Buy.com for less than I paid for the 512MB one at Best Buy. Fuckers.
The day after Christmas was pretty busy. We went to my uncle's McMansion in Newark, Del., to say hi. Unfortunately we got a little bit lost, so we had only an hour or so to hang with my uncle, aunt, cousin and grandmother. But it was a good visit, and I hadn't seen his house in about 10 years, before they called them McMansions, and before a million other developments sprang up around him. We then doubled back to NE Philly for Christmas dinner at Rosemary's parents' place with her brother, sis-in-law and nephew. Delicious food, fun times, and more presents for Rosemary.
We then met up with babyraven, scattereddark, deviathan, Bobbi and Fred at Ten Stone. It was nice to see everyone, especially since though I'd met each of these awesome ladies before, they were chance meetings, and since I moved we're in touch more through the Internet than from actual life. And it's always fun to see my wild child Bobbi and the non-stop scoundrel Fred whenever I can.
Tuesday I spent napping at my parents' house, and then hanging with them when they got back from downtown. I went in the city for shopping and touring, and then met Rosemary at her job before heading home. We then went with Mama D to visit her former pastor Laurie Ann, and her two boys, Raymel and Jesse, whom Rosemary baby-sits. We gave them Christmas presents and saw their haul of stuff. Jesse had a really cool dress-up Spider-Man suit that he put on, and Raymel showed us a new Star Wars video game. And, as usual, Rosemary got to talk with Laurie Ann while the boys took me away for playtime.
That night we snuggled up, and I dreaded going back to Connecticut.
It was a good visit, but too short and hurried. I look forward to going back for my first Sex Dwarf in half a year, which I'll be able to do because I'll have weekends off under my new shift.
Rosemary came up Christmas Eve morning, waking me up. It was nice to wake up to her showing up, and crawling in the bed for some snuggling. Seeing Rosemary two weekends in a row is definitely a good idea, and I hope we get to do more of it.
We opened some presents at my apartment that day, and then I went to work. They let me out at 8, so we were on the road to Philadelphia by 9:30 and rolled into town at 1 a.m., listening to Christmas carols all the way. It was neat to drive through the country in New York and see a house illuminated with Christmas lights standing out from a dark hill. We got back and enjoyed my much-needed Wawa hoagie, and then some much-needed bed.
We spent most of Christmas Day at my parents' house, where I spend most of the day with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend. We got a surprise visit from my dad's nephew, a cousin I wasn't even aware of. My dad called him "my first son," and he looks more like my father than I do. Later on my sister finally showed up with my brother-in-law, niece and cousin. And as Rosemary and I were about to leave, my dad's friend Cheese showed up -- who knew my dad's nephew!
As always my mom made a delicious spread of turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese, greens, sweet potatoes, carrots, cole slaw and fresh rolls from the Jewish bakery. And Rosemary and I both took naps while watching basketball.
After my parents' place we visited Rosemary's parents, and exchanged gifts. Then it was home for snuggles, sleeping and lovin'. And to all a good night.
Speaking of gifts, here's the haul:
Abacus by Fossil Wrist PDA from Anne aka lormagins. That's right, a watch with a Palm Pilot in it! When I opened the box, I was totally shocked. I repeatedly said, "What the fuck is this?!?!" It's very nice. Anne, you really went above and beyond. I had not expected a gift so extravagant. It is a very sexy watch, and one of these days I'll have a life awesome enough to program into the thing. But for now adding a shopping list will work!
Atari Flashback 2 from Rosemary. It looks like the old Atari 2600, and has 40 games built into it. From "Pitfall!" to "Pong" to "Asteroids" and "Centipede," they're all here. Unfortunately, it doesn't have some of the old ActiVision games like "Pole Position" and "Pac-Man," but I can get those. The greatest part of this gift is that, as babyraven posted about her Wonder Woman record and book set, it brings back something lost from my childhood. I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid, and my dad put it away when my brother and I fought over it like kids naturally do. We never saw it again. And now it's back, right here in my apartment. And these games, simple as they are, are great to play, and still hard.
A bottle of Absolut Vodka that Rosemary brought from a printer who gives them out at Christmas.
The "Sin City" graphic novels set I was lusting after a few weeks ago, from Rosemary. I haven't cracked them open yet.
Designer shirts from Michael Kors and Ted Baker, from my brother Mike. These are stripey and metrosexualicious.
Three wrinkle-free shirts from my parents.
Two of this year's hottest jazz CDs, from my parents: "Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall," and "One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note" by John Coltrane. Both these CDs come now after finding long-lost, by-chance recordings of these legendary concerts that people had thought were lost forever, and now were found 50 years later.
Gift cards to Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, from Rosemary's parents. The Best Buy one will put a nice dent in a Web cam or cordless phone or photo printer.
And the other fun thing about Christmas, of course, is buying things for yourself while all the sales are on. Last week I got some bedsheets, a hand mixer and some other goodies from Bed Bath and Beyond, and a bunch of clothes at Kohl's. And while in Philly I got this awesome Batman statue on sale. And today I replaced the 512MB memory stick I lost at the airport last month with a 1GB stick on Buy.com for less than I paid for the 512MB one at Best Buy. Fuckers.
The day after Christmas was pretty busy. We went to my uncle's McMansion in Newark, Del., to say hi. Unfortunately we got a little bit lost, so we had only an hour or so to hang with my uncle, aunt, cousin and grandmother. But it was a good visit, and I hadn't seen his house in about 10 years, before they called them McMansions, and before a million other developments sprang up around him. We then doubled back to NE Philly for Christmas dinner at Rosemary's parents' place with her brother, sis-in-law and nephew. Delicious food, fun times, and more presents for Rosemary.
We then met up with babyraven, scattereddark, deviathan, Bobbi and Fred at Ten Stone. It was nice to see everyone, especially since though I'd met each of these awesome ladies before, they were chance meetings, and since I moved we're in touch more through the Internet than from actual life. And it's always fun to see my wild child Bobbi and the non-stop scoundrel Fred whenever I can.
Tuesday I spent napping at my parents' house, and then hanging with them when they got back from downtown. I went in the city for shopping and touring, and then met Rosemary at her job before heading home. We then went with Mama D to visit her former pastor Laurie Ann, and her two boys, Raymel and Jesse, whom Rosemary baby-sits. We gave them Christmas presents and saw their haul of stuff. Jesse had a really cool dress-up Spider-Man suit that he put on, and Raymel showed us a new Star Wars video game. And, as usual, Rosemary got to talk with Laurie Ann while the boys took me away for playtime.
That night we snuggled up, and I dreaded going back to Connecticut.
It was a good visit, but too short and hurried. I look forward to going back for my first Sex Dwarf in half a year, which I'll be able to do because I'll have weekends off under my new shift.