Weekends of wonder
Well, this weekend is almost over, but I want to tell you about last weekend and catch you up on this weekend as well. It's been VERY eventful over here!
I went to a LAN party. Okay, I hear you saying "Wait, what? You don't play video games!" (Actually, I think most of you said "What the hell is a LAN party?" Well, that's where nerds get together, hook their computers up in a network, and play video games all connected to each other.) I was invited, and initially I was thinking "Eh, WHY would I go?" but then it was revealed to me that Avi had rigged a PROJECTION SCREEN up to project DDR on the wall and we would be able to play it larger than life. Score! (Also: Food. Big plus.)
So. I made cardamom bread out the wazoo (three loaves to feed hungry nerds), and Eric drove me out there. It was SO nice to see Eric again. I hadn't seen him since Halloween! He's been about as busy as I have. I had recently finished reading his incomplete science fiction novel, and I surprised him with some comments on it burned to a CD. He was very excited, and I felt special 'cause he told me really not even his close friends seem willing to read the thing. Eh. (Ordinarily I won't read an incomplete novel, especially if it's not been peer reviewed at all, but I make exceptions in cases where people don't really have a literary support system if you know what I mean.)
Anyway, we went to the party and the food was all junk. Barbecue chips, regular chips, brownies, you know. Munchies. My sugar-dusted cardamom bread was probably the healthiest thing there (until someone brought out pita bread and hummus, but that was later). I brought my metal pad to help with the DDRing, and me and several other people danced the night away while nerds in the other room played other games. I got talked into participating in the Tetris tournament, too. But I lost.
Then Eric took me home and yeah, I was tired.
So! Big highlight of the weekend was Orlando. Mikey and I went.
I had got him tickets to Universal Studios for a gift last year, so we had to use them up. There were a lot of kerfluffles with regards to having an incredibly shitty map of the city (oh well, I tried), but we found Universal and managed to have a decent time in spite of the fact that 1. it was misting slightly, so we got a tad wet and 2. we belatedly discovered that our tickets were for one park only while there are actually two Universal parks, and we would have wanted to go to the other one actually if we'd known we had to make a choice. Despite that, I loved the Seuss area, and Mikey flipped off a dinosaur in the Jurassic Park area.
Tell us how you really feel, Mikey.
I also got to meet the Grinch. He told me I was short. In a very brusque way. Surprise! He's the Grinch! (Afterwards I heard him yelling at kids to "get in here!" with regards to the shop he was in. Hahaha.)
Let's see. Then we went to see Rent. That place was tough to find too, and then so was the freaking parking. But we managed, and things were low stress from then on. The play was fantastic as usual, and Mikey REALLY enjoyed himself! A lot of the original Broadway actors were in the cast. It was awesome. And then we drove toward home, ate at Village Inn (which my mom calls the best restaurant in the world), and actually went grocery shopping before returning to our apartments. It was groovy.
And then I had to go to work on Sunday. Which is a story I won't repeat here. ^__^;
This weekend I had a lot going on too! I had the company Christmas party on Friday night, and the next day I got up early and went to Mikey's because we wanted to hit Target before the crazy people got there. We mostly succeeded, and I bought a bunch of packing supplies for my gifts. We went grocery shopping, and after I got home I packed a bunch of the more time-sensitive gifts and sent them out, biking 'em out to the post office. I spent too much on postage.
Jessie, Stephanie P., Reeny, Brianne, Stacy, Cara, Eric--look out, here come your presents!
That doesn't even scratch the surface, dammit. Of the presents I have to send, I mean. Thirteen more packages have to go out this week. Fleh. Not to mention the holiday cards.
Note to self: Stop making friends.
I have hand-delivered a few prezzies so far. Avi's was early because Chanukah is earlier than Christmas, and I also gave to my dad and grandparents . . . which I will get into now!
After the post office, Dad picked me up to head out to the grandparents' house in Sarasota. There we met them for an early dinner (we ate at like 3:30 PM), and we did Chanukah stuff. My grandparents and dad gave me their gifts. I gave them mine. And I got to hear two stories I'd never heard before from them! One was told by my grandpa that my grandmother herself hadn't heard (which is amazing considering they've been married sixty years). He told a story about how when he was in grade school they made him do a drawing of a St. Bernard and he hated it and never drew again. o_O My grandmother also says she isn't artistic in that way. It's odd because their daughter Elisa is, and my sister P is also (and so am I to a lesser extent).
My grandmother's interesting story was about lighting Chanukah candles. My dad asked if they still do candles every night and my grandma looked surprised and was like "of COURSE" and said Chanukah candles are always, always something she has made time for. And she told a story about how when she was on tour (my grandmother was a Broadway actress/singer and sometimes she had to tour) she had no one to have Chanukah with and no menorah, so she stuck candles in a grapefruit and sang the blessings!!! That is so hilarious!
When we wanted to go out for dinner my grandma was nervous about leaving the candles burning, but my grandfather refused to put them out because "you're not supposed to, it's bad luck," he said. So he picked up the menorah and put it in the sink so if the candles tipped nothing would catch on fire! (My dad's camera was out of batteries and he was wishing he could take a picture of it, so I took it.)
My grandmother sort of made fun of him a little bit but said she didn't mind because she knew what she was getting into when she "chose him." You don't marry a cantor and not expect them to be pretty serious about their religion, right?
We ate at Outback, and I did my famous "can I order a cheeseburger with no burger?" thing, and then we went home and I was really tired so I ended up going to bed at 9 PM.
I've spent today catching up on my phone calls and baking four kinds of holiday cookies so my still-waiting pals can get cookies in their packages. The whole process was made a ton more arduous when I found FLOUR MITES in my flour! So I had to dump the flour and open the new bag I had in the cupboard, and I had to do a thorough cleaning of the area because there were a few of the mites crawling around in there and I read on the 'Net that you have to really flush them out. (I cleaned with a bleach cleaner and I'm letting it air out before I put anything back in, and from now on I'm keeping flour in the fridge, darn it.) Scared the shit out of myself when I lifted up a container of something in the pantry and there was something that looked like a DEAD WORM under there--I was ready to expect anything by that point after finding the bugs--but then it became apparent quickly that it was a crusty old snapped rubber band. ;)
And that's about it! This post is long enough so I'll end here.
I went to a LAN party. Okay, I hear you saying "Wait, what? You don't play video games!" (Actually, I think most of you said "What the hell is a LAN party?" Well, that's where nerds get together, hook their computers up in a network, and play video games all connected to each other.) I was invited, and initially I was thinking "Eh, WHY would I go?" but then it was revealed to me that Avi had rigged a PROJECTION SCREEN up to project DDR on the wall and we would be able to play it larger than life. Score! (Also: Food. Big plus.)
So. I made cardamom bread out the wazoo (three loaves to feed hungry nerds), and Eric drove me out there. It was SO nice to see Eric again. I hadn't seen him since Halloween! He's been about as busy as I have. I had recently finished reading his incomplete science fiction novel, and I surprised him with some comments on it burned to a CD. He was very excited, and I felt special 'cause he told me really not even his close friends seem willing to read the thing. Eh. (Ordinarily I won't read an incomplete novel, especially if it's not been peer reviewed at all, but I make exceptions in cases where people don't really have a literary support system if you know what I mean.)
Anyway, we went to the party and the food was all junk. Barbecue chips, regular chips, brownies, you know. Munchies. My sugar-dusted cardamom bread was probably the healthiest thing there (until someone brought out pita bread and hummus, but that was later). I brought my metal pad to help with the DDRing, and me and several other people danced the night away while nerds in the other room played other games. I got talked into participating in the Tetris tournament, too. But I lost.
Then Eric took me home and yeah, I was tired.
So! Big highlight of the weekend was Orlando. Mikey and I went.
I had got him tickets to Universal Studios for a gift last year, so we had to use them up. There were a lot of kerfluffles with regards to having an incredibly shitty map of the city (oh well, I tried), but we found Universal and managed to have a decent time in spite of the fact that 1. it was misting slightly, so we got a tad wet and 2. we belatedly discovered that our tickets were for one park only while there are actually two Universal parks, and we would have wanted to go to the other one actually if we'd known we had to make a choice. Despite that, I loved the Seuss area, and Mikey flipped off a dinosaur in the Jurassic Park area.
Tell us how you really feel, Mikey.
I also got to meet the Grinch. He told me I was short. In a very brusque way. Surprise! He's the Grinch! (Afterwards I heard him yelling at kids to "get in here!" with regards to the shop he was in. Hahaha.)
Let's see. Then we went to see Rent. That place was tough to find too, and then so was the freaking parking. But we managed, and things were low stress from then on. The play was fantastic as usual, and Mikey REALLY enjoyed himself! A lot of the original Broadway actors were in the cast. It was awesome. And then we drove toward home, ate at Village Inn (which my mom calls the best restaurant in the world), and actually went grocery shopping before returning to our apartments. It was groovy.
And then I had to go to work on Sunday. Which is a story I won't repeat here. ^__^;
This weekend I had a lot going on too! I had the company Christmas party on Friday night, and the next day I got up early and went to Mikey's because we wanted to hit Target before the crazy people got there. We mostly succeeded, and I bought a bunch of packing supplies for my gifts. We went grocery shopping, and after I got home I packed a bunch of the more time-sensitive gifts and sent them out, biking 'em out to the post office. I spent too much on postage.
Jessie, Stephanie P., Reeny, Brianne, Stacy, Cara, Eric--look out, here come your presents!
That doesn't even scratch the surface, dammit. Of the presents I have to send, I mean. Thirteen more packages have to go out this week. Fleh. Not to mention the holiday cards.
Note to self: Stop making friends.
I have hand-delivered a few prezzies so far. Avi's was early because Chanukah is earlier than Christmas, and I also gave to my dad and grandparents . . . which I will get into now!
After the post office, Dad picked me up to head out to the grandparents' house in Sarasota. There we met them for an early dinner (we ate at like 3:30 PM), and we did Chanukah stuff. My grandparents and dad gave me their gifts. I gave them mine. And I got to hear two stories I'd never heard before from them! One was told by my grandpa that my grandmother herself hadn't heard (which is amazing considering they've been married sixty years). He told a story about how when he was in grade school they made him do a drawing of a St. Bernard and he hated it and never drew again. o_O My grandmother also says she isn't artistic in that way. It's odd because their daughter Elisa is, and my sister P is also (and so am I to a lesser extent).
My grandmother's interesting story was about lighting Chanukah candles. My dad asked if they still do candles every night and my grandma looked surprised and was like "of COURSE" and said Chanukah candles are always, always something she has made time for. And she told a story about how when she was on tour (my grandmother was a Broadway actress/singer and sometimes she had to tour) she had no one to have Chanukah with and no menorah, so she stuck candles in a grapefruit and sang the blessings!!! That is so hilarious!
When we wanted to go out for dinner my grandma was nervous about leaving the candles burning, but my grandfather refused to put them out because "you're not supposed to, it's bad luck," he said. So he picked up the menorah and put it in the sink so if the candles tipped nothing would catch on fire! (My dad's camera was out of batteries and he was wishing he could take a picture of it, so I took it.)
My grandmother sort of made fun of him a little bit but said she didn't mind because she knew what she was getting into when she "chose him." You don't marry a cantor and not expect them to be pretty serious about their religion, right?
We ate at Outback, and I did my famous "can I order a cheeseburger with no burger?" thing, and then we went home and I was really tired so I ended up going to bed at 9 PM.
I've spent today catching up on my phone calls and baking four kinds of holiday cookies so my still-waiting pals can get cookies in their packages. The whole process was made a ton more arduous when I found FLOUR MITES in my flour! So I had to dump the flour and open the new bag I had in the cupboard, and I had to do a thorough cleaning of the area because there were a few of the mites crawling around in there and I read on the 'Net that you have to really flush them out. (I cleaned with a bleach cleaner and I'm letting it air out before I put anything back in, and from now on I'm keeping flour in the fridge, darn it.) Scared the shit out of myself when I lifted up a container of something in the pantry and there was something that looked like a DEAD WORM under there--I was ready to expect anything by that point after finding the bugs--but then it became apparent quickly that it was a crusty old snapped rubber band. ;)
And that's about it! This post is long enough so I'll end here.