Christmas is all around us

If I truly wanted to, I could tell you about everything that has happened since my last post and you could be sitting here for at least 10 minutes reading a very long, very entertaining story. Instead, I'll give you the abridged version, which will consist mostly of bullet point highlights (not in any particular order) and might only take you 5 minutes :)

• sending out the most awesome Christmas cards ever, that my friend Lisa made here
• introducing Meagan to dear friends at the brew brew (I love that my friends all get along, what an awesome blessing.)
• on a second excursion to the brewery with Colleen and Sandi, having the most precious waiter on his first night and also receiving the best drunk voicemail. ha.
• opening presents with tags like the one pictured at right
• seeing Raquel and the amazing Brace family and having a sleepover like high school. this of course included a trip to the tattoo parlor. not for me, yet.
• having brunch with Colleen at Arnies (also pictured) and going to the mall the day before Christmas. two firsts.
• installing a programmable thermostat successfully! go me!
• laughing so hard I cried at the Christmas Eve service at church. so good this year, and always so wonderful to see my long lost church family.
• watching all of my favorite Christmas movies
• snow
• a lovely though short visit with the Bordenkirchers
• two impromptu dance parties within days of each other with different people. what a blessing again that I have friends that dance.
• sleeeeeeeeping.
  
  

So that was Christmas and everything leading up to it. It's been a good end to a so-so year, which makes me hopeful for 2010.

a GLEEful week

What a week! I think I could write about something enjoyable happening each day but for the sake of you, my readers, I won't.

This week has been a lot different than last. On the outside it looks similar, but on the inside, it's so much different. These are things that brought a smile to my face this week that I won't elaborate on:

• Dexter with friends
• Mario on the Wii and we all suck, ha
• Sharing dinner and life
• Christmas party at work and my work family
• The girls from high school and our annual gathering!
• Decorating my moms' tree (pictured ---->)

Now onto my most enjoyable events of the week....

Wednesday, sweet Wednesday. I love you. You bring me joy in the form of days off, friends and Glee. This week you brought me a whole party, a dress up party. And it was glorious. I had a moment when I was getting ready to be Rachel Berry when I realized I have the best friends in the world. I mean, it takes a special group of people to dress up for a TV show.

And we went all out, as you can see :) So fun! I won't bore you with more about this though, onto the next: Friday and the point of this all, Martini Night.

So Friday I enjoyed a Christmas party all day at work and then after work I joined up with some friends to see Christopher Williams with Jon Troast at the Park Theater for a great, live concert. Great music and talented artists make for a wonderful experience. After the concert we traveled over to 84 East. I had forgotten how different going on a Saturday is compared to a Friday. The atmosphere is completely different, mainly concerning the DJ they have playing music on the makeshift dance floor. Buuuuuuttt, without said DJ, we wouldn't be able to call a song for the night, and once it's played go to that silly little area and dance. Which is what we all did, to Billie Jean. Though I never need a drink to dance, because I'll dance to anything, anywhere....well mostly, we ordered a shaker of Tropical Storm. An intense mix of coconut and pineapple that comes out blue and is actually quite strong. I'm giving it a low 6.8 only because this is the first drink that made me flush and since that's painful, it was potentially given a low score. On a better day maybe a 7.2, it's very tropical tasting.

So here's the Martini Night Recap:

persons in attendance: Amy, Katie, Jenna, Brian, Adam, Dwight and partly Jon

drinks had: Tropical Storm

favorite quote: "it's not dark enough to dance the way I want to dance..."

favorite moment: most awkward group dance ever

a category 5

just write about life. give a simple rating on a drink. that's all i have to do. yet sometimes, this seems so hard. i don't feel like a natural writer. i can talk about anything and nothing until i'm blue in the face but when i have to actually write it out, i draw a blank. since this is one of those days, where i don't really feel like doing this, and i just want to use small letters and no capitals, i'm going to compact all the love i have for this day into a short(for me) post.
a category 5 hurricane is nothing to mess with. it's an unfortunate occurrence. you can predict when it's coming and make preparations but in the end all you can do is bunker down and wait for it to pass. hope and pray that when you open your eyes things are recognizable. i feel like i've been in a lot of situations like this lately. i can think of three right now, and though they're over and i made it, and i'm probably even stronger and more confident after, it sucks when you're going through it. and my point of this rambling is to recognize that martini night is not about alcohol. to me anyways. it's about the people and the conversations. it's about having people in your life you can sit at a table with week after week and never run out of things to talk about and if you do, it's a comfortable silence. it's about sharing life with all the good parts and the hard parts. and being there when someone is going through their own "category 5". though i didn't pick it because of all this, looking back, the Category 5 was a perfect choice for this week. it's possibly too many things blended together so i'm only going to give it a 6.7 after really thinking about it. it doesn't stand out to me, but i know quite a few people that have enjoyed it, so i could be completely biased on this one...as opposed to all the others you know ;) so thank you to jenna for sharing an evening of easy conversation and also to the second waitress that has brought me my menu without me asking. milestone.