So I was talking to my sister because I was bored and my Aunt Cathy was up visiting and she suggested that I cure my boredom with Blogging and I think I will...
The weekend was good.
I made it through the day at work on Friday. The day lasted five years until I got out of work, and then the evening flew by. I got home from work and was going around lighting candles because Molly had obviously just made a deposit in the litter box when my buzzer rang. I wasn't expecting anyone right away, so instead of just buzzing whoever was at the door in, I took a peek outside and found Beck and Dodi standing in the front hall waiting to be let in. I let them in and we hung out for a bit in the living room telling each other about our Christmases. Beck informed me that Alex was offered an extra four hours at work, so he'd be working until at least six and then would have to go home and try and fix the taillight on his car before he'd be able to come up so they invited me to dinner at Friday's.
We had bad luck at Friday's... We were buzzed in to get seated only to find that they weren't ready for us yet and so we had to stand in everyone's way while they searched out a table for us. Then our waitress apparently forgot to put our food order in because it took forever to get our dinners, which was very strange because we all got simple items: I got a baked potato and soup, Beck got a salad, and Dodi got chicken strips. There were two girls at the table next to us who were celebrating a birthday but were strange because they kept giving us evil looks. When the restaurant crew sang happy birthday it was extremely difficult to not laugh. They sang the traditional birthday song, but at the end of each verse they'd yell out the birthday girl's name. But none of them seemed into singing, so it sounded like a bunch of extremely unenthusiastic people singing, "Happy Birthday to you... Julie! Happy Birthday to you... Julie!" It was too funny. So yeah. So we had a good time at dinner and afterwards Dodi drove Beck home and I headed back to the apartment.
So I got to the apartment and immediately started to bake. I'd planned on making the last of the cookies I needed to fill in my little gift boxes to bring to my family in PA as soon as I got home from work so that I wouldn't have to be doing it when Alex came over. But I happily had other distractions, so the baking needed to be done immediately upon my arrival back to the apartment because it was already after 8 and I didn't want to be baking all night. I made integrated chocolate chip cookies, because I had all the ingredients to make Toll House Cookies (the only kind I can't screw up) but I only had a half bag each of white and dark chocolate chips. So I decided to just go with it and have politically correct cookies. The cookie making commenced and aside from a few frustrating moments with my hand mixer went smoothly. The cookies came out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.
Alex called as I was finishing up with the cookies, around 10. I was pissed. I mean, no one should be kept waiting until 10 when the plan was to meet up after work. He'd worked late and then went home to work on his car only to find that he wasn't able to fix the taillights so he wouldn't be able to drive down after all. I got upset and let him know that he should have called me earlier. He pointed out that I hadn't called either. Ok, I admit, I could have called. But I was being a girl and playing that game where you don't call because you want them to call because you want to know that they would call you if you didn't call them. But that wasn't the point. He apologized for not calling earlier and I said that I'd come down and pick him up even though it was late because I didn't want to have to do it in the morning before we left for PA (and also I really wanted to do Christmas with him).
So we did Christmas when we got back to the apartment. Alex really seemed excited about the Game Cube. So that rocks. I love when a gift goes over well! :) Alex gave me this very cool Guinness mirror (just like in pubs!) that I plan on hanging above my liquor cabinet (as soon as I get one... I have the spot in my apartment all picked out) and a Guinness pint glass with candle poured in to look like a Guinness. I stuck it on my one side table in the living room next to a picture of Beck and me at the Guinness Storehouse Gravity Bar holding our pints of Guinness. It's perfect! I totally needed a candle to go on that table, and that one is just too cool and fits right in there. Alex wanted me to light it right away, but I like it too much! I don't want the candle to go away! He also got me the Indiana Jones boxed set, which is extremely cool. All three movies plus a bonus disk of extra material. We put Raiders of the Lost Arc in right away (but fell asleep while it was on and woke up at 2am to hear the theme music blasting because it had played through the movie and returned to the main screen... I felt bad because I bet my neighbors could totally hear that playing for like an hour at least...). He did excellently with gifts for me! :) He rocks.
So the next morning we got a late start and then decided to go to Quintessense for breakfast so we didn't get on the road until about 11. But the ride was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect so the 4 hour ride was over before we knew it. We arrived at my Aunt Karen's house in Pottsville around 3. We hung out for a bit with my Mom and RJ. We took a ride with them in my Mom's new Chrysler Pacifica up to the mall and then to Wal-Mart to pick up salad greens before we headed back to Karen's for dinner. Everyone was there: Karen and Bobby and Sherry (of course... Ryan wasn't there though, he was out...), Nana and PopPop, Aunt Denise and her husband Bob and their sons Ian and Evan, Aunt Diane and her husband Joe and their kids: Zach, Jacob, Rachel, and Sarah, Mom and RJ and Alex and me. It was a full house. We had dinner and did the gift thing and chatted and I was exhausted by the time everyone left. Alex was tired too, and we sat on the sofa and watched "Boomtown" and then talked a bit with Mom and RJ and Karen and Bobby before everyone headed off to bed. Alex and I were just about to turn in when my cousin Ryan came in. We talked for a bit about his new car, a 2003 20th anniversary edition VW GTI. It's so very cute. A 180hp six speed with lowered sport suspension and stock 18" alloy wheels. So very sweet. They only made 4200 of them, and 200 went to Canada and 4000 came to the US. His is number 3070. It's "jazz blue." So awesome. So we were talking about the car for a bit then Ryan decided that he was hungry so he said that he was going to "Hit Sheetz." We thought he meant "go to bed" but apparently Sheetz is a convenience store that's open 24h. So he left, and when he came back he threw a wrapped sandwich in front of us and said, "here's a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit if you want it. I just hit a deer." I was like, "Oh my God! Are you ok?" and he said, "yeah, but my car's not." It was so sad. I saw the car the next day when we were leaving. If it was my car, I would be in tears. I mean, he's only had the thing for 3 months, and we were just talking about how awesome it was, and then some buck jumps out onto his hood... Here's a picture that I took with my phone's camera attachment:
So yeah. That sucked, but at least he wasn't hurt or anything. And Marc, our in-house appraiser at work, said that it didn't actually look too bad. So Alex and I left by 12:30 the next afternoon because Alex had to be back to ride with the Ambulance in Clifton Park that evening. We had an awesome ride back and stopped at Dobb's Country Kitchen in Great Bend, PA for a late lunch/early dinner. My family used to stop there all the time on our trips to PA, so it was fun to go back there and have an open-faced hot turkey sandwich with fries and gravy all over it like I used to get. The road trip was so enjoyable, that I was kind of sad when it was over... We got to Clifton Park around 6:30 after a quick stop at the apartment so Alex could help me unload my stuff and pick up his Game Cube. I decided to get my laundry done since I had to drive up to CP anyway, and ended up watching Final Destination with my brothers while I was doing the laundry and I wanted to stay until the end because I'd never seen it before and left much later than I wanted to and didn't get to bed until midnight. I completely overslept this morning and was ass-tired at work. I was going to go up to CP to hang out with Dodi, but I didn't feel like driving anymore and just came home to the apartment and now I'm sitting here in my pretty flannel jammies from Vicki's. I would have gone up to CP had I known that my Aunt Cathy was up... Ah well. My sister and Eric and Ryan are possibly going to come over and we'll watch Indiana Jones or Donnie Darko and play The Game of Life. I'm so excited to just have a quiet night in. Does that make me old?
The family is coming up tomorrow evening to hang out and view my tree. Dad said that he wants hors d'oeuvres... I hope they bring them, 'cause I've got no food and no money to buy any either. Not until Wednesday when I get paid. I'm thankful that I'm getting paid Wed, because that means that I can go out to the Macaroni Grill and possibly The Big House or Jillian's with Dodi and Tristan and possibly her cousin and her boyfriend and Beck and Kevin and possibly their friend, Dave. That seems to be the tentative plan right now. I hope it works out! I'm sure Alex'll be very busy at work that night, but maybe I'll be able to bring him some Macaroni Grill takeout or something at least...
So yeah. Good times. Gotta clean the apartment a bit for tomorrow's family visit... morelater... but if not before Wednesday, "Happy New Year!"
