When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie!

Hahaha! This is why I love the Italians (clicky)! You gotta love a society that literally has nothing better to do!!

Caroling Caroling

Over the weekend I put my Christmas tree up, along with a few minor holiday decorations. Since no one is coming this year, I'm not going whole hog on the decorations - no evergreen garland on the porch, no bows and mini wreathes on the bannisters - just enough to be cosy for me.

The part of the season I enjoy the most are my Christmas CD's. Usually every year I favor one over the other. The last couple years though I've favored the same one - Dean Martin's "Making Spirits Bright" Who can resist "Baby It's Ccccold outside!" or the DeNiroesque, "Rudolph." It's the best CD to listen to by the lights of the Christmas tree and fireplace, sipping a martini and munching on a crudite plate or better yet - fondue!

Anyway, I was trying to think of what my top five Christmas songs are and I came up with this list:

5. O Little Town of Bethlehem
4. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Judy Garland
3. White Christmas, Bing Crosby
2. Baby It's Cold Outside, Dean Martin
1. O Holy Night

I had to think carefully about all those, with exception of Baby It's Cold Outside and O Holy Night. Speaking of which, I'm going to see the Candlelight Processional at Epcot on December 23rd with some friends. Jim Caviezel, the actor who played Jesus in the Passion of the Christ, is the reader and he did an outstanding job last year. Maria is going to make me go line up very early so it's a good thing I have a half day off that day. As part of our ticket/dinner package, we're going to the restaurant that is clearly becoming a Christmas tradition for me - Epcot's German Biergarten. This place is a fun place to eat - it's essentially a big soundstage simulating outdoor Oktoberfest, complete with smorgasbord and big, big steins of bier. The food, I can testify, is very authentic to what you get in Germany. In fact, I can't find flaw with any of it except to say their brotchen could use a little help and the Rouladen is a tad tough. But, the salads are just incredible and very authentic.

Deadbeat Club

Today's drive in with XM Radio was a blast from the past. The morning started out with Eric Clapton's Unplugged version of Layla. Followed by Boyz II Men's Motownphilly followed by the B52's Deadbeat Club.

When people remember the early 90's and its music, I know that the ideal image is that of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins (grumble), Alanis Morrisette, (sonic) U2, Oasis and who knows what else. But there's no amount of Teen Spirit, Jeremy or You Outta Knows that will take me back to the late 80's/early 90's like a little MotownPhilly.

It was a bit surreal listening to that as well since I have since worked extensively in Philly and the song has different images. I used to think only of Sir Charles "Gomez" Barkley and for some odd reason, Rick Mahorn.

I hear that stuff and I just want to put on a pair of rayon palazzo pants with a african print on it, toast my hair with a curling iron, spray some Salon Selectives, throw on a gold necklace, canvas shoes and my hemp backpack and go buy a Bulls poster.

Savvy?

Oh I saw the best, best, best little gem on Entertainment Tonight this evening!
They will be showing a big preview of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest this Wednesday. They showed a preview of the preview and I just cannot wait!!

Arggh, Savvy?

Tis the Season

...for movies!

There are so many good movies coming out that I want to see:

1. The Ice Harvest
2. Pride & Prejudice
3. Walk The Line
4. Duane Hopwood
5. Paradise Now

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

Turner Classic Movies today is playing a bunch of good movies, and today I watched Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

It's got a really weak cast (sarcasm alert!), Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier, but otherwise is very good.. It's basically the story of the parents of a white girl who brings home a black man she is engaged to. It's a very honest, smart movie that could not be made today even though they have tried to re-make it. The Politically Correct police would have never allowed this movie to be made because it's so honest.

It's very quotable, the most oft quoted passage seems to be Sidney Poitier's speech to his father,

"You tell me what rights I've got or haven't got, and what I owe to you for what you've done for me. Let me tell you something. I owe you nothing! If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you're supposed to do! Because you brought me into this world. And from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another. But you don't own me!"

But today another passage really caught my attention. It's a quiet scene where Sidney Poitier's mother is talking openly and honestly to Spencer Tracy -

"What happens to men when they grow old? Why do they forget everything? I believe those two young people need each other. Like they need the air to breathe in. Anybody can see that by just looking at them. But you and my husband are -- You might as well be blind men. You can only see that they have a problem. But do you really know what's happened to them? How they feel about each other? I believe that men grow old. And when the -- when sexual things no longer matter to them, they forget it all. Forget what true passion is. If you ever felt what my son feels for your daughter, you've forgotten everything about it. My husband too. You knew once...but that was a long time ago. Now the two of you don't know. And the strange thing...for your wife and me...is that you don't even remember. If you did...how could you do what you are doing?"

Now Key Largo is playing - I could just sit up all day watching these movies.

Oh it's such a perfect day!

Our weather here this weekend has been just awesome. I have all the windows open and am just enjoying the breeze running through the house. I have to say that this has been the happiest Thanksgiving weekend I can recall in quite some time.

So I have several things to do today, all of which I'm procrastinating under the pretense of being unwell. Well, I am slightly on Project Status today. My project today has been uploading pictures/albums to Flickr, an online photo sharing thingie that most bloggers seem to use. It's quite easy but less secure than the Kodak one I've used. So, generally speaking I don't plan on uploading pictures that are too personal or whatever. I'm going to try to stick to the theme of online scrapbooking of travels. It's already turned out to be a rather serendipitous activity as I found the rather pricey Citizen watch I thought I left in the Yacht & Beach Club resort hotel room almost 2 years ago. It was sitting in a box full of CD's I had burned of Jpegs and other nonsense. How it got in there is really quite beyond me.

I was able to upload a couple pictures from Italy and London, but it primarily are photos from Germany mainly because it's the first major trip abroad where I took 100% digital photos. I've had to hand-scan the pictures from Spain and eventually I want to get a few of my pictures from Switzerland in as well.

So if I manage to sort out how to upload a link to the sets here, I will. But I'm feeling mildly bass ackwards today.

update at 12:21pm - I figured it out!

So go ahead and check out my Flickr albums!

Syncopation of a One Horse Open Sleigh

It's the end of the autumnal season and we've roared right into Tis The Season, Have Yourself A Merry, and Chestnuts Roasting et al. I've successfully stayed out of the shops, including the grocery store, all weekend and am happy to be happier for it.

Despite the term "Black Friday" it is nonetheless Thanksgiving weekend. And there are still many things I can be thankful for. This weekend my friends became my family and though no one can replace those you grew up with and raised you, sometimes the family you choose is exactly what you need as well. Last night I had a fantastic time, oddly enough. One of the IT heads at work, whose team is responsible for a testy bit of software that caused me and two others to work on Friday morning so we could recover data loss, went to dinner with us last night and we took the piss out of him all night. He's actually quite hysterical and my face hurt by the end of the night. We went to MGM and Magic Kingdom - which started out being insanely crowded but within a matter of an hour dissipated and we walked on to a bunch of rides.

Today then is my official shopping day. Going with Disney Cast Members is nice because they get a very healthy holiday shopping discount. I of course can't say what I plan on buying because of little spies that read this journal, but I'm looking forward to fulfilling some gift ideas.

So I'm running behind on my things to be thankful for so I have to summarize here and I'll do it quickly (notice, on days I have to go to work I procrastinate by writing lengthy summaries...now that I'm on my OWN time I'll abbreviate!).

Thursday's Thankful List
1. My sister - It's always a good idea to have a sister to share friendship and family with. Sisters are a good idea, period, and I'm thankful to have one that understands why I think of Ray Liotta's wife everytime I put leftover turkey into a toaster oven. And understands why I think Josh Lucas looks like Coug.

2. My Grandmother - When you're a little girl and your mom passes away, you're left wondering who is going to replace that maternal role in your life. The sisters my mom had live on the other side of the world and that her mother was unknown to me, my dad's mom - "Grandma" - stepped into that role when her own life was in chaos. Besides losing her daughter in law, my grandfather had just had a massive stroke the year before and she was caring for him. It's a lot to deal with two tween girls, but she did it and at 93 still does.

3. My Dad - Building on the thoughts about my grandmother, a lot of dad's would send their kids off to live with Grandma or an aunt and move on with their career and life. My dad respected my sister and I as equals in the household and often treated us as peers and lived a crazy life as we tried to figure out life without a mother. I can't imagine being young with two children and sticking it out when society never really expected him too. Most of my friends who lost their mothers had fathers who dumped them off with relatives or remarried within months, presumably to help raise their children. My dad never did that and I'm thankful for that because the most important role model a young woman can have is a man who doesn't run away from his problems or his life. It showed my sister and I what being a real man and a real father means.

4. Coffee - Actually this is something the rest of the world that has to deal with me should be thankful for!

5. 2 Round Trip Business Class Tickets Waiting For Me - I have two round trip Club World tickets on British Airways I've been savoring for years. Or it could be four regular coach tickets but what fun is that?

Friday's Thankful List

1. Friends that are Family - Janet joked with me once about taking a cruise and calling it a "family reunion with the family you choose." I'm very lucky to have not only friends that I can call family but when we are together, they become families together. Janet, Paula, Marie, Linda, the Kid, Patricia, Rich, Lenora, Kim, Lucy & Ethel - they've made me a part of their own families and I have a million 'nieces and nephews' and that's why I go broke at the holidays. But I love them all.

2. Living in Celebration - Besides having to have the strength of character to say, "I live at Disney World", I do love it here. Sometimes when I wish I lived in a place where I could hang purple aluminum blinds, I'm thankful that my neighbors cannot. I love the bike trails, the turkeys, the deer and the fauna. I love the swamps and the brick streets, the small parks that are vignettes of greenery in an otherwise urban setting. I grew up half in the corn and half in the city - Celebration is the perfect marriage of urbanism and the back forty. I love that most people don't even realize that.

3. Knowing How To Cook - I was cooking components of Nam Tok when I was ten (little did I know my mom was just pawning off the tedious part to me). She bought me a small skillet as a birthday present once and I learned how to make eggs and hamburger patties. I've been cooking since I was a little kid and I've accepted I will never, ever be a baker. But everyone has the one thing they are good at and have confidence in - this is my skill and my confidence.

4. My "A Room With A View" DVD - I love watching this movie while having brunch. It's just a little tradition I've had all my life. It's not even my favorite movie but it's one that I can say is the perfect companion on a quiet, lonely Sunday morning.

5. U2 - What would I do without their music? Everyone has the music that speaks to their soul and none does this more for me than U2. It's the soundtrack to my life and in that, I can't say anymore about it because the music speaks entirely for itself and in some cases, for myself when I can't find the words. Even now, when thinking of giving thanks, I find myself reciting these lyrics:

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage that you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind.

The Osbourne Spectacle

It's quite funny, everytime I mention going to the Osbourne Spectacle, everyone assumes it's some strange Ozzy Osbourne family thing. But what it actually is is the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Lights.

The Osbourne family did this spectacle at their home somewhere in Kentucky or something like that and essentially got into a lot of fuss with their neighbors and county so Disney offered to move this incredible light rig to Disney MGM Studios. The result is more people get to enjoy the lights without creating a nightmare for their town and neighbors. I used to never be interested in going. That's because I didn't understand that it really and truly is a spectacle. The first year I went, my jaw dropped at the display and it's now become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition. I went last night with a friend and we just felt like little kids, walking through the faux city streets, watching the "snow" fall. We're both former city rats so we had a sense of complete departure of Orlando, the cold air felt like November in Chicago or New York City - or even London as one of the streets depicts.

If you're in Orlando during the holidays and you want to feel like an innocent child again, in wonder over a something so simple, I highly recommend this experience. Here are a few pictures I took:

This is the Big Tada view:


This is the London Street:

Conan O'Patel

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=eDPZPbzxosI&search=india

Wednesday's Day of Thanks

It's another morning and I have found that I look forward to this activity every morning. Lots to write about so lets cut in -

1. Love of Words - I don't believe a child is born with a love of reading or can appreciate the crafting of words. My father cultivated that love and appreciation in me. While other children were put to bed with Dr. Seuss rhymes or childrens books of 1, 2 lines per page, my father read my sister and I poetry. Some of it childrens poetry like,
The water came up so very quick
It couldn't have been quicker
I should have brought my hat along
I should have brought my slicker!
That would just slay us every night. But usually it was a made up story about the Beaver & The Otter but more often it was Robert Louis Stevenson. From there I grew up enjoying E.B. White and Louisa May Alcott as a young child and then moved right onto other classics. My mother even thought Robinson Crusoe would be a good gift for me on my 9th birthday.. Every year my father would try to get me to read John Updike and I just couldn't manage it. I remember by the time I was about 23 I could finally manage it without the dictionary on my lap and that felt like graduation for me. But I found through the values of my family the love of words. Just words as a stand alone mean a lot to me. Some of my favorite words... Beguile, Phenonmenon, Ephemeral, Actually, Linger, Azure. It's made my life a lot richer, made me more successful at work and unfortunately made me a bit sharp tongued at times.

2. Love of Words Foreign - If my father is responsible for giving me my love of written English, my mother is responsible for the gift of being multi-lingual to an oh-so-limited degree. I'm not big on grammar by any means, but I am thankful that I have been able to learn enough of other languages to get by than just english. Somewhere rolling around in my head is Thai, which according to family folklore I spoke relatively well. But I lost that at a young age. But my mother used to throw words at me in French, Italian and I would guess the meaning. From there I took six ans of French in school and university. Besides being able to converse, read and write in French, I know enough Spanish, Italian and German to get by comfortably. I also speak British and Scottish English. Scottish English involves liberal amounts of the 'f' word so you will only hear me speaking that in extreme anger or in Edinburgh. Usually the latter inspires the former, though. My favorite foreign words are: Entonces, de rien, arsed, hauptbahnhof, escribe, molto bene, va bene, prego (natch!!), apfelsaft, pero, et puis, bollocking, quinze.. I could go on!

3. The Daily Show on Comedy Central - Thank goodness for this daily dose of piss and vinegar! I love sarcasm and this show is steeped in it. If you want to only see the partisan view, you miss some of the bipartisan truth of the matter. It's a smart, funny show that is not funny if you're completely ignorant. Every morning when I have my cuppa, I watch the Daily Show and get myself edumacated.

4. XM Radio - Who is the wonderful soul who created XM Radio? It's the perfect invention for the Princess with ADD. If you want what you want, and you can't stay on one station when the commercials come on and have to flip around mericilessly until your stations comes back to playing music..well, XM Radio is for you. No commercials, themed stations and an opportunity to hear news, music and even TV shows from the US and all over the world. It's absolutely a brilliant thing to have though playing around with it can be a bit distracting in your car. My favorite stations on XM are U-Pop (Euro music), Frank's Place (Frank, Ella, Tony, etc), 80's (obvious), Mix, and Lucy (alternative rock).

5. Where I Was on 9/11 - I hadn't had this on my list of things to be thankful for until this morning when I woke up to the 5am news. The usual report from the airport day before T-Day was the lead story and they reported about the security measures and mentioned 9/11. We all knew where we were on 9/11. Most of America was at work, getting out of bed and eventually watched the horrible events unfold on TV. I was on an American Airlines flight from Chicago to Philadelphia and the whole thing happened while I enjoyed a second cup of coffee somewhere over Pennsylvania. That night when I finally was able to comprehend what had happened while I was suspended in air, I was unnerved to realize that my flight was among their options that morning. And I was utterly thankful and felt guilty that when the United and American Airlines schedules were perused, mine was not included and someone else's was. Thousands of flights left and landed safely that day, I reminded people of that who were scared to fly after that day. I keep my 9/11 boarding pass as a reminder of what almost happened, could have happened and didn't.

So there we go for today. Off to work I must. Today is a big day, I have a lunch with one of the executives and I have no idea why. I assume you don't get taken to lunch to get a bollocking but we'll see.

Yahoo 360

Yahoo has just come out with a new and very tempting way to do a Blog on steroids and it's called Yahoo 360. It's very tempting for me to consider migrating over to that since you can do everything from a blog such as this, to creating photo albums, lists, create and publish reviews and even get an RSS feed of your Netflix queue. It's an interesting idea and one I might play around with. I quite like Blogger and worry that a big site like 360 may be overwhelming to maintain.

I don't know why I think I can do more online - I still need to go and punch holes in my 3 million printed out recipes I've been trying to organize. Oh, I lead an exciting, exciting life.

Wrigley Field EXPOSED!

My sister sent me this link and it makes me sick to see it. It's sort of like going backstage at Disney World or realizing the truth about Santa:

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/photogallery/pr/year_2005/month_11/day_11/cf1267613.html

Yay! Yay! I'm going home at five AGAIN today! I'm really doing a good job extricating myself from the day to day stuff here. If I had no class I'd go into how much the s--- hit the fan today but I won't. But things are definitely look way up.

Tuesday's Day of Thanks

What a great morning!!!! The house is cold (I left a window open and it got into the low fifties last night), the coffee brewing fragranced the entire house, I've got Ella Fitzgerald playing and am in my jammies.

Right, it's the week of Thanksgiving and my goal this week, all week is to list at least five things I am thankful for. And I really don't plan on everything being a really high brow, introspective or noble thing to be thankful for - just things I am feeling good about.

My Black Harrod's Bag - This is such a superficial thing to be thankful for but as most of you know, I have a serious bag fetish. The longevity of my love and practical and whimsical use of this bag has made it a companion to me as much as anything else. It came into my possession illegally however. I was working in London at least six or seven years ago around the holidays. I got carried away with Christmas shopping at Heathrow Duty Free and needed a bag to put my loot into. I had been chattering away with the Harrod's shop girl, paid for my loot and she put it into the bag I picked out - a plain black Harrods shoulder tote with patent leather straps and a discreet marcasite (sp?) Harrod's logo (not one of those garish green and gold vinyl things). Once on the plane back to Chicago, I was doing my customs card and realized my Harrod's receipt seemed awfully low at only 35 quid. Turns out she forgot to charge me for the bag which was about £30 in and of itself. Nothing I could do about it - I couldn't go back to the store since I was over Greenland when I realized the mistake. The bag truly has been the best I've ever had. I use it to take my lunch, carry papers, gifts, - everything I need. I love it - the best impulse buy I've ever made.

Clarity of Self - This is vague I guess, but something I'm very thankful for within myself. I suppose it could be described as the ability to look after myself emotionally and how to recover from setbacks. I used to be the type who would shutter herself up and wallow in self-pity when things don't go the way I wanted. But I ended that when I was in my late 20's because it's such a waste of precious, living days. Rather than cry and shout over the failed expectations, I take it as a time to listen to myself. When I was working 20 hour days in Zurich and my life was falling apart on every cylinder, I sat there in that conference room in Oerlikon and listened to my heart. It told me to make a fresh start, in a new city and begin the process of removing myself from Consulting. That was a big, huge insight but they are on smaller scales too. This week has been disappointing for me but it reinforced my goals and also put me back on track to continue to pursue my interests that I gave up a long time ago. The two big interests is getting back into reading the paper (and I mean the NY Times or something more than the Orlando Sentinel), books and working diligently towards going to Roma next spring. Which brings me to my next item of thanks.

Fearless of Travel Abroad: So many, many, many people are afraid to throw themselves out of their comfort zone and miss one of the most absolute experiences of a lifetime: feeling like a 3rd grader in a phone booth. Where else in life can you get three or four engineers into a phonebooth and not figure out how to make a local phone call? Rome! Not everyone enjoys that vulnerability of course, but I do think it's the leveling of one's self and seeing what you're really made of when you're without country, rights and the ability to communicate definitively. My sense of self-assurance comes from small events like standing in a petrol stations in Poggibonsi using four words of Italian to get directions to an obscure place in a large town. It comes from figuring out how to unwedge a car trapped between three houses in a Frontera town in Southern Spain. It comes from the car locks working when an insane Algerian comes screaming at you. It comes, yes, from buying bananas in Madrid. Of course, my trip to Roma next spring has less to do with being daring and more to do with being a slug in piazzas since Roma has ceased to be an adventure for me. But I so love it there.

Friendship in Crisis - One of my friends is going through a particularly rough week just as I have. Having friends to commune and laugh with when things just are hard is one of the greatest blessings in my life. Last night I realized how thankful I am for that. I left work at 5 on the nose (I'm not staying late this week - I've already talked to my bosses about it) and joined a friend for dinner and what should have been a movie. But we ended up having such a good time, and such a good laugh that we blew off the movie and spent the evening talking. There are a lot of people in the world who suffer and are friendless. That condition of life is not uncommon and for me to have not only one but many friends who are with me when I suffer is probably one of the greatest blessings I could ever wish for. It's what makes me able to keep persevering - boat agains the current.

My Job/Not Being In Consulting Anymore - Yes, I dislike my job and everyone knows it so it may be a surprise that I'd list it as something to be thankful for. Those who knew me when I was in consulting, however, know just how much I am truly thankful for where I am at now despite appearances otherwise. My job has provided me with one thing I always forget when I bad mouth it - good friends and the ability to meet new people. My life before this job was very bleak, lonely and unfulfilling. I was never home, I never could cultivate any relationship and I had to go through a lot of fear to get on that plane every week (long story short - a near collision in LaGuardia and then being in flight on 9/11 over Pennsylvania really screwed my previous love for flying). But now, I have a home life, I have really been able to dive into my cooking hobby and I've met so may wonderful people who have become true and dear friends.. My job has facilitated quite amazingly the ability to turn my house and my city into a home.

So that's it for today. This was a great exercise and I'm really looking forward to seeing what silly things I'll be thankful for tomorrow!!

And, oh, baby it's ccccccolllld outside!!!

Beautiful city

I'm home sick for Chicago right now. It's been cool and damp and knowing it will turn cold in a few days is very heartwarming and exciting for me. When the weather turns cool, I naturally turn to different things. I enjoy my bike rides tenfold, but I also enjoy memories, introspection, scrapbooking, as well as the cliches of a roaring fire and hot chocolate. Though it's not as cliche as it sounds because I in fact prefer a fire in the morning when I first wake up along with a hot cup of joe.

So to achieve a 'virtual visit' of my hometown, I decided to use Google Images to find scenes of winter in Chicago. There are literally scads of them. Here are a three that spoke to me.

The first one is pretty obvious why. But I have these very tactile memories of getting off the El and deliberately walking AROUND Wrigley Field to go home. I had these brown boots with a knitted wool lining. The damp mush on the ground would seep in (I was poor and couldn't afford boots that actually did what they were supposed to!) and my toes would start to grow numb. But I had to walk around my beloved ball park.. I love this picture because it's got soppy, urban ground.

And what says BRRRRR more than this picture? This reminds me of Sunday mornings when my neighbor Beth and I would get into our parkas and my expensive (!) boots and take a brisk walk in the sub zero morning. We'd eventually make our way to West Egg or Cambridge for breakfast and try to stop the inevitable nose runs. We'd talk about work, career, condo association, men, clothes and travelling. Beth, incidentally, looked and talked exactly like Miranda from Sex & The City and acted exactly like her too.

But once I moved on and started consulting, this was the snowy Chicago scene I was most used to:

Nothing like the view of a snowy, miserable O'Hare Airport. Coming from the lush tropical green of Orlando, the stark whites and greys of an urban prairie winter always gets to me. It's in the shades of grey that most of my memories of this tough city live.

But if we take an artist's eye and the most romantic memory of Chicago in winter, it would look like this.. Perfectly still, cold and glistening - this is the view of which I grew accustomed to seeing from the backseat of taxi cabs, racing over black ice and draw bridges on Columbus Avenue taking me home.

(Please, Chicagoans, don't be so pedantic to point out to me this wasn't take from Columbus anyway. You who have taken that cab ride from Jackson & Columbus to Illinois St know the flat canyon view I'm talking about!)

And, bugger..what I wouldn't give for a snowy day and a new Mike Royko column today.

"So if you visit Chicago, enjoy the many great courses, the Midwestern friendliness, and the cities other amenities. But if a stranger with a goofy swing wants to play for more than loose change, take a pass. It's a long walk back to your hotel in bare feet." -Mike Royko

The Night Was Moist.

My subject header comes from the incredibly stupid movie, "Throw Momma From the Train." My originally subject header was to be, "It was a dark and stormy night.." but then I remembered that line.

The weather is starting to cool off here but the humidity has been really high. So high, in fact, that I woke up with curly hair. It rained really hard for awhile and I had the windows open. There was something very peaceful about listening to the rain hit the grass and trees. It felt like springtime.

So Thanksgiving is coming up - one big poultry hassle. I had some unconfirmed invitations to go to some friend's houses but none have been formalized since their plans were unformed as well. So, I decided this weekend to not be a Holiday Victim and got a turkey and the fixings. I have a friend who might join me because her family is going a long distance and she doesn't feel up to the trip right now. Either way, I don't mind making my own solo dinner. I love to cook, I love turkey so what's the problem? I also am hoping to go see "Walk The Line" as well on Thursday. I think cooking a turkey and then going to see a movie sounds like a nice day.

Work and personal life have been very tough this week. I don't believe in going into personal details about the debacle at work, nor do I believe in detailing my personal woes. But I learned a few lessons from this week. In Corporate America, they will push you until you won't be pushed anymore. CEO's and CFO's are people who pushed back in the right direction. I decided last week that I won't be pushed like that anymore. I made a critical decision when I left Consulting to come to a local desk job that I was doing it for me, for my life and to cultivate time and energy for myself and my goals for a family and personal happiness. I've gone right back into 15 hour days, being bullied and bribed. It's not worth it and I am going to have to deal with it sooner than later.

This week my goal is to be less of a whinger and to really think about the things I am thankful for and not dwell on the the things that's I'd rather kick in the proverbial ass. Lofty and noble, after all.

Sign of the Times

In the mail today I got an Amazon.com "At Home Catalog."

How did this little upstart get into my snailmail box? Amazing how things grow and change.

All That You Can't Leave Behind

As most everyone reading this blog would know, I'm a U2 fan. I love going to their U2 shows relative the general populace. Relative to U2 fans, I barely go at all. I have tickets to Atlanta and Tampa and I've not used either set. I gave up my Tampa tickets last night (sold them for face value, dear FBI) because I am under the weather, over worked and found out it would take me approximately 3 hours to get to the venue through bumper to bumper traffic. I couldn't face that and I couldn't leave work til 6 anyway.

The funny thing is... I don't care. I am taking my $100 and going to put it towards the birthday money I got and buy myself something I can enjoy for quite some time. The thing is, I have such wonderful memories of other U2 shows and so missing this concert just frankly isn't painful for me. Everything becomes a memory, "the only baggage you can bring" and whether I have a precious set of smaller memories or a wide collection of them, they don't get richer with more volume.

So will I regret I missed the Vertigo tour? No, of course not because I missed it mostly on purpose. If I had missed it because I didn't know about it, or put myself through the ringer to get to it and failed, that would be bad. Perhaps today I will get the concert DVD (or next week - whenever it is) and see the concert I missed. I think I don't care as much as I used to because my life is filling up in other ways. I don't have singular interests anymore and therefore no one event is the MUST DO of the year. I think, as well, missing the concert in Dublin when my grandmother had her stroke put a lot of things into perspective. That was very hard, because I had never been to Ireland, I was looking forward to hanging out with Heidi and seeing Snow Patrol, Athlete and U2 just sounded like the perfect vacation. But life is funny like that.

A small surprise today came via DirectTV. I'm sick of watching TV and I thought, "I wish I had XM radio in the house because I want to listen to the 'Frank's Place' channel." Lo and behold, I go to the DirectTV music channels and it's been converted to XM radio and I'm listening to Tony Bennett.

So I took today off and have a very healthy list of things to be accomplished today. I guess I better get cracking!

Design on a Dime

I took a picture of my 'rehabbed' bedroom. It's the first time I've updated the bedding and art work in 15 years or so. In fact, the old Eileen West set I had is one I cut a picture out of a design magazine when I was high school. So, the update is long overdue. It's amazing how a small investment can change the whole look of a room.

The Big Catch Up Post

It's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to journal mainly because things and life have been full and hectic personally and professionally.

We have been very busy at work going live with our systems. It's been one go-live every 2 to 3 weeks. The days go by quickly, which is good, but the long hours do eventually start to catch up with you. The part of it all that has been frustrating is the existing management (i.e., the replacements for my old job) are not savvy with the change in software and process and have not learned or adopted it well enough to take over. Today will be the largest volume of work to date and the existing managers I don't believe quite "get it" yet that this is THEIR process and that the team I am on is pulling away and no longer managing what does and does not get done. Yesterday I informally expressed that I don't plan to stay late helping put production work through unless the existing managers are there as well. It's a symptom of wanting their cake and eating it too. If they want to be included in everything and be a part of it all (as they've whinged to their executives), that doesn't mean just hearing about it. It means DOING IT. As Bo knows: Just do it.

This crazy go-live schedule was broken by a nice trip to the Bahamas via Disney Cruise Line. I went with my sister for a week long vacation. We stayed at a resort in Disney and then went on the Disney Wonder. It was perfect for relaxing and I came back well rested for the first time in months. The best part of the cruise was the Cabana Massage. It was a blustery day in the islands and it felt more like seaside Maine or Mass than it did the Bahamas. Rather than a blown out flip flop feel, the Cabanas felt like whitewashed slat shanties on the east coast and I got an hour long massage there. Massages are great for my back, but the sublime feeling of a cool breeze, a stormy sea and birds fighting against the surf turned the massage into an extra special event. I loved it and found a lot more peace in the stormy day than I would have on a chirpy bright morning.

Then my birthday came and went. It was a hard day for me, as it always is. I truly feel that birthdays are truly for mothers and without mine it made the day more bitter than sweet. But, I was reminded all day long how loved I am by all the phone calls, cards and attention that kept pouring in all day. My old staff (who now realize I wasn't as bad as they might have originally thought) contributed to a giftcard to the mall for me which was wonderful so I could redecorate my bedroom. When I get a moment I'll take a picture of the new bedroom ensemble - it looks wonderful. The next day, I had a birthday party for three of my friends that I share this birthday week with and we celebrated at Columbia and at a street festival. My house looked like Christmas, I got so many birthday presents I was embarassed. But no matter what, the joy of being with good friends was the best gift of all.

Now that all that is over with, the Christmas carols in the mall and the ads on TV for the Time Life Treasury of Christmas reminds me that the holidaze are nearly here. I even bought an evergreen air freshener that is making me think of molasses cookies and roasted turkeys.. I don't plan to do much this year since I have no idea where I'll be at Christmas except I know I won't be home. It's Chicago, Virginia or Clermont. I will put up my tree and a few decorations (Little Penny MUST go on the mantle, natch). Linda is hosting a cookie exchange party soon and that will probably be the extent of planned festivities though the girls talked about bringing their kids to the Celebration snow festival stuff.

I got my Williams Sonoma catalog today (drooooool) and they are selling the Raclette grill.. Oh how I must resist. But I still have birthday money left over.. There was a page of holiday traditions that I found utterly fascinating and thought if I WAS hosting Christmas this year, I'd buy one of each and have an international party of it. The Traditions are:

Moravian Ginger Spice Cookies (yum)
American Fruitcake (ok)
Piedmontese Torrone (never had it but looks gross)
Christmas Stollen (Jawohl, baby!!)
English Christmas Pudding (yum or yuck, it depends)
Italian Panettone (Salute!)

Stollen is my favorite. I'm such a Kraut!

So that's the big catch up. I miss journaling and hope to do more of it soon. Happy Holiday Season, all!