coastal christmas

merry christmas! am hanging out on the cape, waiting for my sibs to wake up. gone are the days where we had to wait until 7:30 to wake up mom and dad. now they have to wake up the kids to have christmas. oh the times have changed.

got to the cape on tuesday night - was able to catch a ride with one of the guys on my kickball team. his grandmother lives literally 2 miles down the road from my house and he drove me directly from nyc to the fox hole. talk about starting off christmas on the right foot.

have had a quiet couple of days, filled with reading (every time i come home i reread the harry potter series) and napping and quiet contemplative moments. the cape got hammered with a nor'easter on mon/tues, so there's a nice cover of snow on the ground, beaches and marshes. the cape is a pretty great place in the summer, but it's just as beautiful in the winter.

one of my sisters didn't come home this year, she's spending the holiday with her boyfriend in oklahoma. so it is not only the wake up call timing that's changed.

you may recall that last year at christmas my family had just gotten a puppy. she's much bigger this year, and she doesn't look as much like a bear cub, but the nickname has stuck (sasha bear) and i've changed the lyrics of 'last christmas' to reflect the fact she can now go up and down the stairs (last year we had to carry her):

'last christmas she couldn't go down [the stairs]
this christmas she goes all around [the house]'

that's as far as i've gotten.

been especially thankful this christmas for family and friends. not that i haven't been in the past, but as things change and people get older, it seems especially important to take the moment to recall the special people in my life, and know that even if we aren't together, i'm thinking of you and am grateful to have you in my life. (yes this means you!).

and last but not least, today is jimmy buffett's bday. happy birthday jimmy!

heavy fuel

'Last time I was sober, man I felt bad
Worst hangover that I've ever had' - Dire Straits

Tis the season of holiday parties, and this week was full of them. Tuesday got together ith the old coworkers to hit up Rudy's. Had a delicious beer with bourbon in it - winter's bourbon cask ale. the top of the tap was a snowman with sunglasses on - should be easy for interested parties to recognize. Have become friends with the bartender at Rudy's and he gives us food (pizza and banana cream pudding!) And takes away my bberry when I'm doing things I shouldn't.

Wed night mulley and I trekked to Battery Park City for vin's friend sam's holiday party. We loved the space and the view but not the hike from the UWS. Saw Vin's brother vik and discussed the questions that really matter - vibrators or sex and definition of a slut.

Last night I crashed a holiday party with the old coworkers at a warehouse in DUMBO (aka Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass). Kind of cool down that way with the bridges overhead and the water but I was afraid I was going to die as it was warehouses everywhere and deserted and i didn't know where i was going but i made it to the location and enjoyed the open bar for several hours, though they had run out of whiskey by the time i made it which isn't something that happens too often. usually you're stuck with beacoup left over bottles of jameson that no one wants to drink.

you may realize that this blog post is not entirely uniform, as i typed half of it on my blackberry while hanging out in chinatown waiting for my sister to get in on the fung wah bus. my 'w' key on my blackberry doesn't really work anymore - so if letters are missing it's most likely a 'w'. you wouldn't think that 'w''s are all that important, but as boxa and i liked to do in college, if you start thinking of words that start with 'w' you'll discover there are a lot. i present for your consideration the sesame street classic 'wanda the witch (brought to you by the letter 'w')'.

anyway - my sister (the youngest one) is here visiting for the weekend which i am quite excited about. she's never really been to nyc and we have lots of festive things planned including an afternoon of holiday decoration/nyc cliche activities (think fifth ave and 30 rock xmas tree) and then we're going to the nutcracker tonight. hooray for the holiday spirit.

also the five year anniversary of this blog was officially december 16th (first official post here.) seeing how the average lifespan of a blog is 6mths, that's a damn long time to have been publicly posting about my life. but as i've often waxed poetic, this blog is an outlet, an audience, and a chronology of events in the real world and i'm glad it's still something people want to read. here's to you sd4life!

that's the scoop! you heard it here first.

Christmas is

My grandmother has saved a lot of my thank you notes and letters over
the years. as I like to tell my mother - I was well brought up and
ALWAYS write thank you notes (don't you? If you ever come visit my
parents a thank you note is the surest way to be invited back). Anyway
- sitting here reading the stuff she's saved and found the following.

There's no date but its written in cursive so I must have been older
than 3rd grade at least.

Christmas is:
Families decorating a tree with ornaments and lights. It is a time for
caroling parties and candles in the window. It is a time for families
to be together and to have your grandfather read you 'The Night Before
Christmas'. Christmas is a time to go to church and hear bells ringing
and to go to your grandparent's house after. It is a time to bake
cookies, pies and gingerbread men and to hang stockings. It is a time
for people kissing under mistletoe and presents with bows. Christmas
is stars in the sky with very light snow. It is a time when Santa
comes down the chimney. I love the way we have Christmas.

--
Sent from my mobile device

back to the (other) island

i've sat down to write this post several times over the last few days, so i'm just going to hammer something out and you're going to have to deal.

the other island would be the island of manhattan. am back for a brief couple of days before heading down to dc this weekend and florida next week. had a lovely, long thanksgiving break on the cape - headed home last tuesday night and worked remotely on wednesday. (by remotely i mean from the movie theater while watching 'harry potter 7'). my brother and sister didn't come home, so it was a quiet holiday overall, but it was nice to sleep in and catch up on bondathon and the 'airplane!' and 'naked gun' movies (RIP leslie nielsen). even caught a ride back to new haven with a friend from high school on sunday so the trip back was less painful than anticipated. i reconnected with this friend during the high school cross-country alumni run on saturday at our old xc course. we've been doing this alumni run every year for the last couple of years, and it's always nice to revisit old memories and see people, but i am still sore and recovering. darn power line hill - they don't have hills like that in manhattan.

back on the other island, i'm trying to get things taken care of in the office and for the holidays as there's a lot to do and not a lot of time left to do it. vin is in nyc this week and staying with me, so we've been doing dinners and catching up. last night i went to dinner with some of my former coworkers, who i am happy to say have truly become friends, something i feel incredibly fortunate to have be the case. i loved the restaurant we went to - 'bobo' in the west village - and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a cozy spot for a hot toddy.

speaking of hot toddys, it's strangely mild in nyc, but the christmas tree stands have appeared on the sidewalks. in manhattan vendors set up to sell christmas trees every couple of blocks, so every couple of blocks you walk through a little forest with the smell of balsam in the air. kind of unique to nyc, and quickly puts you in the holiday mood. it's one of my favorite things about nyc. i'm actually looking forward to the holidays this year for a change and december is one of the best times to be in nyc. :)

ring christmas bells across the snow

a belated merry christmas post. didn't bring my computer home and it's hard to find a computer for blog posting at home. that is to say, i like to keep this blog under the radar.

my favorite christmas quote this year was:

heap on the wood!-the wind is chill;
but let it whistle as it will,
we'll keep our christmas merry still.
- sir walter scott

there was lots of whistling wind at home on the cape, thanks to some snow squalls and a rain storm last night, plus there's pretty much always wind on the cape, but had a cozy, lively and merry christmas, thanks to the new puppy - sasha (aka sasha bear) - the kitty and logan, who was doing his best to be the senior pet in a scenario that often involved sasha chewing something, the kitty baiting the puppy and logan protecting his sticks. sasha had a squeaky carrot toy that we nicknamed 'mr carrot' that was v. helpful with the chewing and prompted a lot of references to 'veggie tales' and 'there's a party in my tummy' of 'yo gabba gabba' fame.

went to services on christmas eve at 5 pm at an unheated church in hyannisport. how much more new england can you get? my mom played the organ, we sang hymns in the dark, a 90-year old man recited 'twas the night before christmas' pretty impressively and there was plenty of time for reflection. not sure when i stopped believing in santa clause (sorry for any spoilers there), but i know that i'm still impressed with the magic of christmas. i knew santa didn't exist a long time ago, but my mom still does an amazing job of making christmas feel like magic. i remember being sick with the flu on christmas eve when i was 8 or so, and even with my mom giving me ginger ale and holding my hair back while i threw up, she still managed to have empty stockings one minute, and presents the next. and she still keeps it up, only now instead of my parents instigating a 'no waking up parents til 7 am for present opening' on christmas morning, the kids have to say 'no waking us up until 9:30 for present opening'.

as december winds to a close we have to mark the 4th anniversary of the blog, which technically occured sometime in mid-december. 4 years is a long time to have chronicled something, let alone my life, but i find i still have things to say and people who (pretend!) to want to read them, so it's something i'll keep doing.

back in nyc for a couple days of work and preparing for new years festivities. it's the end of the year, but it's also the end of the decade, which i'm having a hard time remembering. last time around it was a much bigger deal with the y2k nonsense and such. i spent new years 2000 babysitting for a family friend's kids. rang in midnight outside by myself with some grape juice and fleetwood mac's 'songbird', which is a beautiful song if you've never heard it. it's crazy to think 10 years has gone by - tail end of high school, all of college, and a couple of years in the real world. in the words of 'meet joe black' - 'don't they go by in a blink.'

walking in a winter wonderland

hi everyone! just woke up from an amazing nap. we got hit with the massive winter storm that traveled up the east coast this past weekend. i was glad i wasn't trying to get home b/c, like the storm that hit this same weekend last year, i don't think it would have happened.

had a busy week this past week and a great weekend. had dinner on wednesday with dax, megh, and kjb at 'commerce', a cute little restaurant in the west village. we were celebrating, belatedly, katie's engagement. very much looking forward to her wedding in september, which will be my first dartmouth wedding believe it or not. should be a good time. thursday was our office party, which was at 'automatic slims' in the west village. i walked in and discovered that one of the bartenders was a girl i went to middles school with on the cape. small world eh?

friday night i played basketball and then headed over to megh's to visit with colin, who is back from overseas, newly into harvard bschool, and heading to hawaii for the next couple months. had a couple drinks at megh's and then went downtown to 'blackbear lodge' with dax for what ended up being a late night.

saturday vin had set up a bunch of apts to look at as we continue our efforts to prepare to move. saw a couple of great apartments in great locations which made us very sad that we weren't looking to move on jan 1, but we reminded ourselves not to 'name the puppy' and keep our fingers crossed that there would continue to be good apartments on the market come february. we stopped at 'astor wine and liquors' to inquire about buying a case of andre for new years, and was informed that we could go check out the spirit tasting event upstairs, which turned out to be pretty neat. sampled chocolate flavored tequila, pisco, and huckleberry vodka from idaho.

sat night mulley hosted a cocktail party, and boxa was back in town for more med school interviews. we got a little dressed up, grabbed some bottles of wine and headed over as the snow started to fall. by the time we were ready to head downtown it was snowing really really hard. cabs were impossible, so we traipsed down to the subway and began singing christmas carols along the way. continued singing on the train all the way down to canal street. the nyc version of caroling of sorts.

hit up mulley's brother's party in tribeca - not sure they knew what hit them - and enjoyed some eggnog and cookies, before heading around the corner to 'm1-5' for yas's birthday party. the whole night had a sort of 'last night of the term' kind of feel to it. nothing really to do tomorrow, some people around while some folks had already gone home and the snow coming down reminded me of the night kevin, kjb, boxa and i took a picture in front of the christmas tree in hanover. boxa will be back for the new years festivities.

today i played the first game of football i'd played since probably 6th grade with charlie and his roommates. there was a good 6 inches of snow on the ground which made it really fun to play. my less than stellar performance may mean i never get invited back, but i really had a great time playing.

getting ready to head home on tuesday for the holiday. found out today that my parents got a new german shepard puppy (sasha!) and were planning to surprise me when i got home. how cliche right? parents getting a puppy and surprising the kids. apparently she chewed through the christmas lights and has eaten the baby jesus out of the creche, but i am so excited to see her! now that i know my mom sent some pictures. so CUTE!

no peeking til christmas

seems to be a rash of folks losing cell phones lately. vin both lost and found two over the weekend. one randomly - no idea where she got it - and the other her own. left it at hook during disney pong yesterday and fortunately they still had it. you'd think people would lose cell phones more often. it's the one thing you don't leave home with out, which you would think would make it the one thing you lose the most. hmmm.

ridiculously delightful weekend filled with fun, friends and festiveness. kicked it off on friday night with a reunion with my old coworkers. we joshed and caught up on old times, and then i made a grown up decision to go home and go to bed. that was smart.

sat vin and i checked out a couple of apts in anticipation of the pending move. it's been 2 years since we looked for apts and lots has changed (hi lehman brothers) so it's a different scenario than we remember. we're optimistic that we'll be able to move downtown and have a little more living space without paying through the nose, but who knows what it will look like come feb 15th.

we then joined some of vin's friends from hs for the tail end of santacon. santacon, as we learned, is not a bar crawl, but a convention, of folks dressed up like santas, reindeer, christmas trees, bacon (?) and assorted other costumes moving from place to place to drink. i don't know - sure sounds like a bar crawl to me. crazy to see tons of santas all over the place. if i had had more to drink not sure i wouldn't have known what was real and what wasn't.

i couldn't hang out for very long, as i had to go meet my cousins and assorted family friends for a chinese dinner in midtown. to be fair, it was near where they were seeing a play, but i don't usually go to midtown for chinese. good to see those folks, and then we attempted to wander over to 30 rock to see the tree/window shop on fifth avenue, etc, but it was jam packed with people and it just wasn't a pleasant shopping experience. festive, but not particularly pleasant.

came home for a bit of a rest before boxa and mulley came over to pregame before heading out. boxa is in town this wknd and next to interview for med school residency - here's hoping nyc extends her an invitation (ala rush? maybe. are there poorly crafted snakes with glitter?). headed down to meet up with linsalata at a duke party for a portion of time before all the d kids decided beruit sucks and headed to hook.

at hook i ran into a kid i'd been interested in from a few weeks back, and i am pleased to say it didn't take much to close that deal. there was some making out outside the bar, making out on the sidewalk, making out in cabs, etc. meanwhile, vin had given linsalata our keys but neglected to tell him where we lived, which made it v. difficult for him to use said keys to get into our apt. fortunately he did not have to sleep on the street.

sunday the pong kids had been working all week on constructing another pong table to set up at hook to use when playing large social games of pong. like on tuesday me and hearn went to home depot to buy the wood and the stain and we stained the tables in between pong games. we managed to get the table set up around 1 on sunday and commenced playing disney pong, a game we made up kind of like world war 2 in that everyone is a different character and has different rules. i was belle, so had to drink whenever the beast drank and was also on team 'princesses' so we were attempting to win the game. there wasn't really a way to lose b/c you could five in five to get back in, and things deteriorated quite rapidly. eventually had to leave b/c linsalata and i had dinner plans and then were going to see the rockettes, but i hear the game continued for a few more hours, leading to some serious hangovers this morning.

linsalata and i capped off the weekend with some delicious lobster mac and cheese on the les, before going for a ride on the times square toys r ferris wheel (LOVE that thing) and then the show at radio city. thoughts on the rockettes: some parts were ridiculously cheesy, the precision part was very cool, it was not non-secular at all - they don't call it the 'christmas spectacular' for nothing. glad we went, a fun way to close out a crazy weekend.

in other news plans are in full swing for vin and i to host our new year's party - this year at olverson's apt. olverson is an '06 from duke who plays pong with us. if you want in let us know. me, ceppos and cody also successfully registered to run the 'covered bridges half marathon' in woodstock, vt the first weekend of june. this is pretty much the only thing i really want to do in life right now (well this and drive cross country) so figured might as well get on it. plus - three weekends in a row in nh/vt in june? pick me.

tgif (thank god it's festive)

'important' questions linsalata has asked for my opinion on in the last month:

q: would you advocate a pong table at your wedding reception if it's a dartmouth wedding?

my a: YES. particularly if it's a dartmouth wedding. one of diana's friends got a pong table (painted of course) as a wedding present. remember, i'm classy. low classy. and i know what people like to have fun.

q: at what age does it become inappropriate to pass out drunk on somebody's couch for the night? and relatedly, at what age does it become in appropriate to allow people to pass out drunk on your couch for the night?

my a: mid-thirties if you're not married, a year into your marriage if you are. sometimes passing out somewhere is the most responsible thing you can do (but i frequently have to leave events b/c i'm done. so maybe that's not true for everyone). in the words of a recent ggmm: 'the drunkest" is exactly the same as "the most popular." or at least that's what I tell myself.'

kicked off the holiday season this morning by standing with my colleagues on the 30 rock rink and singing 'we wish you a merry christmas' 20 times (literally) for the local tv station holiday greeting. it wasn't too cold, was a very cool view, apparently i have a good singing voice and it was a fun, festive thing to do, but i never want to hear 'we wish you a merry christmas again'. look for me on your local nyc tv channel in the upcoming weeks.

christine is coming down to nyc for the weekend. lots more festive activites are in store, particularly since she's never been here to do the touristy thing (only the drinking thing). there will be some of that as well - it's dana's bday party tomorrow night - but we hope to get in some fifth ave, times sq and 30 rock in between the drinking and dentisting. ceppos will also be in the city on sunday night for a last minute brief trip. hooray for good friends and good times.

i work in midtown and this time of year i like to walk home along fifth ave. sometimes it's cold, and there's always tons of tourists milling about, but it embodies the holidays (commercialism?) and it's fun. :)