"What could be more American than spending Turkey eating day in New England?"
And thus, I set off onto I-90 East and headed to New Hampshire to visit my cousin and her family (See Flickr link to the left for pics) Little did I know that Mapquest was going to put me on a interstate throughway and spit me onto a 1 lane backroad intrastate route. Freakin' Go@*@*@$mn M%&her%fu!#in' website. While I did get to see much of Vermont and New Hampshire's backwoods and small towns on Rte. 7, I would've rather spent the extra hour and a half of driving with my cousin's kids. In fact, I'd have rather spent that hour and a half sitting in a bucket of molten lava or twisting a coathanger into my eardrum. Oh well.
The weekend was great actually, we spent much of it shuttling the kids around, eating, thinking of where/what to eat, and bundling and unbundling the kids. There was at least 5 minutes of hilarity when my nephew Ryan looked like the kid from "A Christmas Story", unable to bend any joint in his body b/c of the massive amount of padding surrounding him. My cousin Renee made a huge feast fit for 10 people..(Turkey good... mmmmmm), granted there were 3 of us and 2 kids. Suffice it to say, we had leftovers. My great accomplishment was teaching my 18 month old nephew to say "Hiiiiiyaaaa" with a little kung-fu action chop.
Anyhow, it was great being there. The drive home was much less adventurous with 300 fewer curse words running through my mind.
So...here we are, with a week and a half left of the winter quarter. Then it's Winter break for a month!!!
****moment of silence for all of you who are working and don't have a month off ****
****done swearing yet?****
I'm planing to kick it around here for a week or so before I go back to SF for a month. Once there, I plan to golf, eat some tasty homecookin', schmooze, play w/ my nephew, bask in the balmy 60 degree heat (don't laugh....that's 40 deg warmer than it is here)....the possibilities are really endless.
Food of the moment: Caesar Salads (no idea why...they're just good right now)
Song of the moment: Johnny Cash, "Boy Named Sue"
All for now.
Ciao,
-T
"Sunny skies. High 82F, generally clear."
"Mostly cloudy with scattered snow showers mainly during the morning. High 37F. Feels like 27F"
Guess which of the above forecasts are relevant to the frozen tundra in which I live? Yep, snow fell for the first time yesterday. Things are still busy here at school. Classes are going, projects are being done. I'm trying to help my friends with their job searches through any contacts that I may have. Other than that, a lot of thought and research is going into the companies that I want to work for come June 06. Hopefully the stars align and things work out. As much as I like Grande Lattes, I don't want to be ringing you up for one come July 06.
If the snow signals anything to me, it's a sign of change in the air. Recently, I found out something about someone that I care for a great deal. Things have changed. In virtually every facet of my life, I've always been able to help or point someone in the right direction for help. I don't do things in expectation of recognition, I just do them. Now, I feel more helpless than anything and it leaves me empty. As a dear friend recently told me, sometimes there's nothing to do but be there for those who need you. Sometimes you gotta just stand there together to face things.
So here I stand, waiting for more snow to fall.
-T
As a transplanted Californian, this concept of "different seasons" is strange to me. It seems that places outside of Southern California experience changes in temperature!!! It's not just 80 degrees year round!!! I'm beginning to wonder if this is some sort of global temperature shift that I'm not aware of*. In LA, "Fall" and "Winter" meant that you had to put on a longer pair of shorts to play golf. Here in upstate NY, "Fall" and "Winter" means "it's REALLY F$#K&*G COLD and you're insane to even think about playing golf you nutbag"!!! To answer the question you are all thinking - yes, I do play in 40 degree wind and rain! GORE-TEX BABY!!! (I am unquestionably a total nutbag - would be the response to what you're thinking now.)
Given the short, cold days around here, my friends and I have decided to throw a good ol' fashioned Chili Cookoff!!! The 3 competing division - Dante's Inferno Chili, Vegetarian "Meat is Evil" (those of you who know me, know that this was not by my choosing), and Meat-a-licious! Awww, yeah!! Tune in next week to see who is the Iron Chef of chili!
BTW - I'm trying to figure out what to do for the upcoming school breaks. If you've got a good suggestion, let me know!!!
Music of the moment: Kanye West (sampling Dave Brubeck is cool!)
Food of the moment: PHO (hot and delicious!!!)
All for now...
Chow,
TC
"*" denotes extreme sarcasm