Busy Holiday Fun Time

Wow are the holidays busy. But mostly in a really fun way. I haven't cried over them at all so far. Woo. Though I did almost sob with joy and love on Saturday. Which is different than tears of frustration.

Thursday was lovely with Vader coming over. She wraps most of my Christmas Gifts each year for which I am eternally grateful. And all I give her is dinner and TV and company and cookies. I feel I get the better deal. Because she also now watches my telenovella with me and translates. And listens to me swoon over the boy I think is cute on the show. God help me. And her.

But, it was great hanging with her before the holidays AND getting all my gifts wrapped.

That day at work was a mixed bag though. Comp day. And one guy in our group who is just a mess got promoted. No one, except probably the 2-3 guys involved in promoting him, can understand WHY he was promoted. Over other people. It makes no sense. That combined with lackluster bonuses for most folks made things a little less happy. But our group did our Secret Santa Holiday party so there was sugar and egg nog and gift giving. Always a plus. I got a Barnes & Noble gift card which is nice, but I think sillier gifts are sometimes fun for work secret santas. That may just be me though.

Friday was a mess. But I expected it to be a mess. I was at work from 8:20AM until 11:30PM working on our Friday report. And I barely had time to pee. Comp day the previous day upset one of our team so much she refused to do much work. Which was sad as it punished me and Lovey more than anyone actually responsible for the dork's promotion and this girl's lack of good bonus. But, Lovey helped out a ton on the year-end report and saved my butt. So I adore her completely this holiday season. She and I also exchanged gifts and both loved what the other got us so yay! And I got to watch Alien at the office and eat dinner and take a car home on the firm's dime. But, that was about it for Friday.

Saturday I was up about 7:30AM so I could finish packing up all the boxes of Christmas presents. Went off to drop off my laundry and then off to the UPS Store to pick up my mail and send out 11 boxes. Luckily I timed it right (though not perfectly) and wasn't there too long. The longest part of my time there was getting all 11 boxes mailed rather than waiting in line. The people behind me hated me though. Whatever. Holidays!

Then off to meet Buzz at Galaxy in Chelsea for brunch. And then to see Kinsey. Which I loved. I thought it was well done and interesting and fun. I kept giggling the whole way through. Which I haven't done in a movie in a while. I also got excited Every Time they mentioned IU or Bloomington because I come from a long line of Hoosiers. And a fun Amanda fact: Mom told me this weekend that my grandparents actually participated in Kinsey's study. How awesome is that? My grandparents' naughty bits influenced the survey in some tiny way. Rock on Nana and Grandpa John. Mom said that Nana claimed to have giggled a lot in her interviews. I just think that's darling. But I loved that the movie and had a great time catching up with B.

Then home for errands and the like.

That night I went over to Muffy and Steph's to meet them and Charlotte and PimpDaddy for holiday drinks and dinner and gift exchanging. I brought my big pile o' gifts and wanted to give them out but Muffy made me wait. Everyone opened all of there stuff and there was cheering and an Ed's Shirt photo op and then Muffy gave me a giant box.

Y'all, my friends (and Mom) got together and got me TiVo. I have no words. It's even the fancy schmancy TiVo/DVD recorder. How cool is that? Seriously. I almost cried. And not just because it was TiVo and I love TiVo. I was just amazed that so many of my friends got together and were so generous and thoughtful like that. I mean, my friends are ALL awesome and that's not surprising. But I get all into birthdays and Christmas more than most and my friends kinda just humor me and enjoy the ride and all. But this was all sweet and Christmasy and required organization and too much money and all that. And it was lovely. And I adore them all. THANK YOU.

And for those who want photos of me petting and hugging the TiVo, I think Muffy has a few. I even made PimpDaddy (sitting next to me) pet the TiVo. Sadly, I did not find the time to set it up that night. But I'm thinking I'll do it on the 30th. Come home and spend all of the 29th clearing the current TiVo and then going mad setting up new TiVo. :) Yay!

Anyway, after that we drank lots of wine and finally got up the courage to try Sam's on Court Street for dinner. It's always looked a little interesting to us. Kind of like there might be certain connections with the restaurant, if you know what I mean and I think you do. But it was fun and I had tasty baked ziti and lots more wine. Woo. Then more wine and then home with my new boyfriend TiVo (with a convenient handle).

That night I stayed up all night cleaning the catbox, washing all my dishes, tidying, packing, setting old TiVo, clearing out email that had to be dealt with, finishing last minute Christmas chores and getting all ready for a week and some change in Hawai'i. I headed to bed about 8AM on Sunday. And then up at 10AM to get ready for my car at 11AM.

The flight was fine. Watched Elf and didn't like it as much as I thought I would. But it killed some time. Got all my veggie meals though the dinner had lots of melted ice on it and was soggy in parts. Awesome, yes? Bah. And I slept about four hours. Even got some Christmas Cards done. Quite a productive 11 hour flight.

Got in a little early and grabbed my folks and my luggage, and got a pretty green holiday lei. Then home for some giggling and hugging and an early bedtime.

Monday I got up early and got to work on my Christmas Cards. I also persuaded my Daddy to make me coffee and waffles and had a nice breakfast with him. Then I got a bunch of cards done before Turnip came to pick me up. We're both here for nine days, but sadly only two of those days overlapped. So, she kinda got dibs on me for Monday and Tuesday. I don't think Mom was happy, but she dealt with it.

Turnip and I went to meet Zig and a couple of their friends for lunch at Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch and Crab. It was fun seeing Zig again after about 10 years. But mostly Turnip and co caught up. Which was fun to see.

Then off for some late afternoon beach time at Magic Island at Ala Moana Beach park. So nice to lay in the sun and giggle. Mom called me at one point to see what was up and all. And about five minutes after I hung up, Turnip's mom called her to see what was up. We laughed at that. And felt a little younger than 28 and 30.

Then home to shower and change and chat with the 'rents. Mom made veggie sausage balls for me again this year so we had those and some artichoke things, read Pumpkin's Christmas letter, talked for a few and then headed out to dinner.

We hadn't been to Old Spaghetti Factory in a million years and it was a common dinner spot for us in high school. The wait was long and for the first time ever we waited in the bar with drinks!!!! Very exciting. I really am 30. I KNOW it doesn't sound like it most of the time, but I am. I've been an adult for ages. Really! Anyway, chilled in the bar upstairs. Where I had actually never been before. We finally got our tables and got the standard spaghetti with mizithra cheese, garlic cheese bread and Italian Sodas. Good times. Though, we forgot to take our Italian Soda glasses with us when we left. Alas.

Then it was off to Waikiki for some fun shopping. David & Goliath and Lush BOTH have stores down there. And D&G only has like two locations anywhere. And Turnip doesn't have a Lush near her so we had to go. Got a couple fun things for us and for others and then headed down to Duke's to see a friend of Turnip's that she's been catching up with a lot lately. We grabbed him and then decided to harass Pumpkin's brother who also works there. I did NOT want to do this. Just so y'all (especially Pumpkin) know. He did not recognize us (of course!) and then did not seem happy to see us. So we left. And Turnip took my tired butt home so I could sleep.

Tuesday I was up doing cards again. Also more waffles and coffee with Daddy. Sadly this has not become a routine. Turnip came for me around 11 and we set off on a Circle Island Tour of O'ahu. It was cloudy most of the day and raining hard for a good portion. Which was sad. We got some cool overcast beach photos of Kaneohe Bay though. And had lunch at the Crouching Lion Inn complete with Guava juice and Macadamia Nut Cream Pie. Yum. And then another photo op for the waves at Shark's Cove. Very cool crashing on the rocks.

Turnip hadn't gotten much sleep the night before so in the afternoon we parked it on the beach by Kaena Point so she could nap and I could look at all the planes flying in and out of Dillingham Airfield. Plus huge wave watching. And watching the strange man peeing in the bushes down the way. Strange, attractive man... Then off to her place to shower and make pretty.

We had dinner at Chiang Mai because I love that place and apparently, TURNIP HAS NEVER BEEN!!! Went there a lot in high school and college as well. Good Thai food. Too much Thai food. Then off to Murphy's for drinks with some other friends from high school like jello girl and Goober. It was fun catching up and telling stories and all that. The high school folks left fairly early and Turnip's friend showed up right then. So back into the bar for two hours of shop talk. I almost took a nap at one point. They seemed really into the conversation so I tried very hard to not be an asshole but wow was I bored. She finally looked at her phone and saw the time and wrapped up that conversation pronto.

Then off to Eggs 'n Things in Waikiki. It's kind of like a Denny's or IHOP but ONLY serving breakfast food. And more often than not you'll see a long line to get in. It's a strange phenomenon to me. But there was no line and it was 12:30 and we had been drinking and eggs and pancakes sounded AWESOME. And they were. Plus it's just a fun kinda local place. After that we said goodbye to Turnip's friend down the block and headed home.

Wednesday was mellower. My folks humored me as I spent all morning finishing my Christmas Cards. And now, they are DONE!!!! Then we watched the previous night's episode of Amazing Race. Dad had a hard time with my pure non-spoiler policy of the show (do not even speak to me of a single detail that I have not yet seen or feel the wrath) and left early on. But Mom and I screeched our way through the whole thing and loved it. Such a good show.

Then some hanging. My family spends a LOT of time online. The whole family. But with only two computers I am often the odd woman out (hence this long ass entry now). But they do try to give me some online time. Which is nice. Anyway. We wrapped the day up with dinner in front of the TV watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. An excellent movie. But depressing. We snarked a little through it, but it's so good. And Elizabeth Taylor is so my girlfriend. Too bad she seems a loon these days because she was such a brilliant actress if you ask me.

And that's that for now. Sun is out so maybe I can hit the beach.