Flying on a 747
So here I am two hours into a four and a half hour flight and I’m finally getting some peace and quiet! I think that besides the safety rules and emergency information, airlines should dole out the following rules:
1. Respect the people around you. Nobody wants to hear all about your life, especially at the ass crack of a Monday morning.
2. Check with the person behnd you before you abruptly shove your chair into a reclining position. That person may be working on a laptop.
3. Be kind to those sitting on the aisle. We already have limited space and everytime you walk by, an elbow or foot gets run into. At least excuse yourself!
I know I’m probably sounding like a whiny little brat, but since I try and follow the “golden rule” (you know the one we all learned in the second grade…) and it’s a pretty easy thing to do, wouldn’t everybody follow it!?
There is a seven month old across the aisle from me who has been asleep since we took off! And a four year old behind me who only sang to herself quietly for about ten minutes.
Well enough of my mid-flight griping. The Simpsons are on. 
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Monday morning I need to be at the airport by 5am. I’m traveling to Salt Lake City, Utah for the week to meet up with my boss (who works out of Atlanta) and the rest of our team (who all work in Utah) to discuss our product, projects and clients. I’m exited and nervous about this trip. This will be the first time I’ve been out there in over a year and I’ll be meeting new colleagues that I’ve only “met” over the phone.
The last few times I’ve gone out to Utah, colleagues have flown with me, but since my boss works out of Atlanta, she is obviously flying separately. I don’t have a fear of flying, per se, and I have flown alone before, but I’m not a fan of taking off and landing. Something about the speeding up and leaving the ground at that speed, the rush of pressure in my chest and the tightness of my breath really freaks me out. It also doesn’t help that the flight is close to 6 hours. What does one do on a flight that is 6 hours long?! I’ve packed two books and my iPhone will be charged, and I’m still debating weather or not I should bring my DS with me. Too many electronic devices to keep track of these days! Knowing myself, I’ll probably end up packing it.
Here’s to hoping I have a non-turbulant flight and the on board movie doesn’t suck ass.
Happy Christmas
Since I was raised a Russian Orthodox Christian, I follow the Julian calendar and celebrate Christmas on January 6th. This day is also known as Epiphany or Three Kings Day. Growing up, this never phased me. We just didn’t celebrate on December 25th. As I got a little older and started exchanging gifts with my friends, I still kept the two Christmases separate.
I always saw it like this; Christmas in December was the “Santa” day and Christmas in January was the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Since the Julian Calendar is about 2 weeks behind the Gregorian Calendar, Saint Nicholas Day usually falls close to December 25th. That’s when we’d have our Christmas play at church and have our St. Nicholas dinner. It just made sense to me. My friends would tease me and say I shouldn’t get to have their Christmas off from school if I took an extra day off later for mine, but it really didn’t phase me that much.
Once I met J and we moved in together, I started celebrating Christmas with him and his family in December and then with my family in January. I don’t think this takes away from my thoughts on the holiday at all. J’s parents are non-practicing Catholics (have been for as long as I’ve know him) so the celebration with them isn’t of the religious nature. We drive down to his parents on the 24th after visiting a few friends to celebrate with along the way. Then on Christmas morning we open gifts and have breakfast. Christmas dinner is usually around 7pm and we’ll spend the night and come home the next day.
This year I wasn’t expecting a big Christmas since we only got married five months ago. I was in for a pleasant surprise. J (and the cats) bought me a Wii. I had NO idea, and I’m usually the one who snoops around for hints of presents! My in-laws added on to that gift with the Wii Fit Plus. I don’t have to say that we’ve been playing Wii Sports and Wii Fit ever since! I also got a pie server, dish towels, a wine decanter, Macy’s gift card and a basket of bath goodies. I was pleasantly surprised.
Usually, J and I will talk about how much we want to spend on each other, but he never told me squat about what he was thinking about buying. I felt like my gifts were a dud, $100 gift card to one of his favorite tool stores (ReTool) and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Christmas Special. Even if he assures me that they’re not! I guess I still have 2 weeks to get him something as awesome as the Wii.
When we celebrate with my family, we go to Christmas Eve service (which happens to be my favorite service*) and then come home and open our gifts. Then on Christmas Day, we go to the church service and then come home, have a big lunch and wait for the carolers to come. Every year, the choir from our church will go to house to house throughout the parish and sing Christmas carols. Then the hang out for an hour or so, having food and drinks and it’s just great. We always have a blast and drink a lot of vodka!
As usual, my ADD has taken over this post and I’ve gotten off track…anyways, I still have 2 weeks to get J a great gift…Now to see if he made a wish list and hid it somewhere.
Falling into Homeownership
It’s been a little over a month since we’ve moved into our new home. We had a successful Thanksgiving dinner and now I’m moving into holiday mode. I have four candles in my windows (one in the front bedroom and 3 in the living room) and a wreath on the front door.
Yesterday I put up our “skinny” Christmas tree. First, I moved our blue “Poang” Ikea chair & footrest into the bedroom and started on the tree.
My mother gave me this tree three years ago, and we both appropriately named it the “skinny tree”.
First, I put up the tree and strung the white lights. This always takes the longest because I always string them too close together and there is never enough on the bottom. Then I start fixing it from the bottom to the top.
Next, I start with the ornaments. Over the years, I’ve acquired a lot of ornaments from my Mom and Mother-in-law. My favorites are the old wooden ones and I tend to put those on every year. This year, instead of different colored balls, I just used the silver ones. Then I put on all of the wooden ornaments. Then, I added some Santa decorations.
As you can see, my 7′ “skinny” tree is close to the ceiling, so I cannot put a star on the top. Right now, I have a Santa up there, but I’m going to get a bow and have it stream down the tree.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with my decorating and I know the cats both love laying under it.
Thanksgiving Recap
Our first Thanksgiving was a HUGE success! I believe I was well prepared, didn’t stress out and was excited to host our first party!
Last Saturday I went shopping and got all my ingredients for the big day. I didn’t want to be shopping the week of Thanksgiving, let alone, the day before! Sunday, I mixed up the bacon herb butter that I would be rubbing all over the turkey and chilled it. Tuesday after work, I picked up our fresh, local 18-pound turkey, whom I named Lester. Lester, was missing a wing, bizarre, right? LOL. Wednesday night, after J and K got here, she helped me as I rubbed the butter between the bird and the skin. She took some pretty funny pictures, I hope to post them soon. We went to bed around 12:30am and I was up at 5:30! I was so excited to start my first Thanksgiving in our new home.
After showering & making coffee, I got to work. First I chopped up the vegetables that the turkey was going to sit on. Then I diced the onion and celery for the stuffing. I also started the base for my turkey soup with the neck, heart and gizzards. Around 9:30 I mixed up the stuffing, stuffed the bird and put him in the oven. I started it out at 300 degrees for two and a half hours. At noon, I turned the oven up to 325 and let it cook until 3:30. In the meantime, I cooked up the bacon for the potatoes, and diced, boiled and mashed the potatoes.
My in-laws arrived around 3pm and I got all the appetizers out. My family arrived at 3:30, just as I was taking the turkey out of the oven. We sat down to eat the feast around 5pm. The turkey came out fantastic, the herb stuffing and bacon mashed potatoes were fantastic and my apple pie turned out amazing. My Mom made two vegetables, green beans almondine and carrots, her famous New England pork pie and spinach dip. My MIL made mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry jalapeno sauce and a pumpkin pie.
All in all, we had a great time and having our family together really makes me happy. I think having everyone bring something definitely takes the stress off the host preparing all of the food. Also, waking up early and getting all my food prep done, takes the stress off of the moms asking questions and telling me how they would do it.
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