Christmas Recap

While I've been in Moscow, I have had absolutely no motivation to contact old friends. Well, one of them. But this is very irregular for me. I'm usually the guy contacting every person in my old phone list and organizing rides and stuff. But, now, I don't really feel like talking to anyone. It's not that I don't want to see them; I just don't want to organize it. One night, though, I did go out with two of my cousins - Lindsey and Mike. Mike recently turned 21, not that that should be construed to mean he's green. I picked up Mike and we met his sister at the hot spot of Scranton. We wandered around it, looking for Lindsey. Mike saw a good number of people that he knew and talked with them. I saw a good number of people that I know, and I avoided their gaze. Part of me wonders if they recognized me anyway. But then when we finally found Lindsey, one of the guys in her group said he knew me from my high school. I did not recognize him. But he was short, bald, and jacked. I'm guessing that in high school he was only short. He seemed a little bothered by the fact that his name was not familiar to me at all. Luckily I had not had much to drink or I may have pointed out that I was well known in high school and he probably wasn't. (Not that I want to fall back on high school class structure but I was always speaking in front of the school and I was a leader of half a dozen clubs. I was the Oracle of the Dead Language Society, for Zeus's sake!) I convinced my cousin's to go to a different bar down the street. I knew that some friends of mine would be there. We'd be able to sit down. The band would be quiet enough that we could talk. And the crowd would be a little older. I'm happy that we went. I met Carrie's fiance and we talked about meeting each other when I'm in Washington D.C. next month. I mentioned to Jim again that forestry is a booming industry in Wisconsin - because it apparently isn't in PA. I saw Ed, who went to Greece with me before our senior year of high school. We were never close friends, but we'll always have that tie between us. It's still listed as the best week of my life. Another classmate of mine was there - Alex. I haven't talked to him since graduation, but it was nice to see him again. He kept reminding me of elementary school. Why didn't anyone ever tell us during those second grade lunches, that the social skills we honed there would someday be useful at a bar fifteen years down the road? My cousins and I left the bar at a reasonable hour. I drove them home and we had a good conversation about our family. It was good to get their opinions on things that Kelly and I talk about like our parents and grandparents. On Christmas, my aunt told me that they had had a good time out with me. They then teased me by telling everyone how sloppy I was and how I'm a talkative drunk. I was reminded of how serious my family thinks I am and how most of them don't understand me. I hope that my time with my cousins has at least convinced them that I'm not a stiff bore and that we'll continue to go out whenever we're all home at the same time.

From Moscow

Sometimes my mom makes comments like, "Why aren't you staying in town longer?" or "Why don't you use more vacation to come home?" The highlight of my day today was watching the Sumo World Championship on ESPN2. I didn't know that white guys compete in stuff like that. The Bulgarians were kicking butt.

Ugly Christmas Sweater

I crashed an ugly Christmas sweater party last night. Christie brought me along to a coworker’s party. Lucky for me though, she had spent the day scouring the Goodwill for sweater that I could wear. It was actually a sweatshirt. It had a large bear in Christmas-wear on the front. And then on the back, was the back of the bear. It was sweet. The sleeves only came down to three quarters of my arms. I made the finals in the sweater-off, but the guy in the woman’s candy cane sweater and Santa troll pin took home the prize.

During the party, Christie and I were talking about holiday plans and whether or not we’d be going home. Another party guest overheard us talking about Moscow, PA and was interested to hear more about our hometown. It turns out that he knows someone in Moscow and has been there a few times. We quizzed him on places and names and it turns out that he really had been to NEPA. What a strange coincidence.

Wisconsin is cold. Seriously, when the temperature reaches the twenties, we all talk about how warm it is. And there are no traces of sarcasm.

Fields

This past Sunday I went to Chicago with my new friend, John, and his girlfriend, Kate. We wanted to check out the city in Christmas-mode. Our first stop was Marshall Fields - specifically the Walnut Room, which is supposedly the place to eat when doing your holiday shopping. We had to wait in line for an hour, just to get a pager. That was at 11 o'clock. They told us they could seat us at 2 - probably. So, we wandered the downtown, went to eat, looked at the windowfronts and shopped a little, while we waited for our table. Yes, we ate, while waiting to eat.

At a quarter to 2, we went back to the Walnut Room floor. They had not paged us yet but said that we could get in line anyway. We still had to wait another 45 minutes to get a table. Then when we finally sat down, we realized that half of the tables were not even set - they were trying to create the heavy demand! This pissed us off, but we stayed anyway.

The big attraction of the Walnut Room is the giant Christmas Tree in the center of the dining area. Sure, it was nice, but I don't think it's worth waiting 4 hours for. Plus, you can see it from the furniture department directly above the Walnut Room. Another drawing point of the restaurant is the Fairy Princess. This is a woman who goes to all the dining tables and sprinkles fairy dust (actually just mundane glitter) on all the children. She's dressed up in a fancy dress and she has a wand. I'm sure she's magical to little kids. Anyway, the father at the table next to us pointed out how great it would be if "the big kids" at our table were sprinkled with dust too. Kate full-heartedly agreed and John and I agreed too, but not nearly as emphatically. It made for some great pictures and, if Kate gets them to me, I'll send them along to you. The princess fairy took a great deal of liberty when sprinkling John and me. John's hair looked white with glitter. And hours later I was still shaking loose pieces off of my head. It wasn't until I went swimming the next day that I finally lost all of it. Even the pizza guy at dinner asked us, "Dude, what's with all the glitter?" It's fairy dust, buddy, and it makes me fly.

At one point in our shopping, Kate suggested that I buy the fancy chocolate from Marshall Fields, which is called Frango. She and John insisted that it's good enough that I should bring some home to my parents for Christmas. Though not wanting to sound too snobbish, I declined, explaining to them that my hometown has it's own chocolate provider, Gertrude Hawk. I went on about Moscow (as I tend to do) and talked about the recent fire at the chocolate factory and how Mr. Hawk is a volunteer firefighter with my sister. Kate and John listened politely, but still said that I should pick out a small box and try it. I looked around and then discovered that each box of Frango's chocolate was stamped with the message: "Manufactured by Gertrude Hawk Chocolates, Dunmore (football team rival of Moscow), PA." The parenthetical information was not stamped on the box, but it should have been.

True Story.

BONYE 2006

It's official. I'll be in Boston for New Year's Eve. I plan to be there from Thursday night until Sunday night.

Late Night with New Friends
Candle Burning from Both Sides
Early Morning Swim

Christmas Party

I survived the "Holiday Party." But I'm wondering how my coworkers did. Amazingly I think I was the most sober of the bunch - even though my guest was my flask of Jim. And noone helped me drink it! The party was held in Kohler, Wisconsin, known for its toilets and bathroom fixtures. There were a couple of office parties being held in the same ballroom so there were a bunch of tables though we only took up three of them.

This morning I managed to wake up at 9. Actually someone had called my phone, though the number was "unknown" so I may never know who it was. I made a quick sweep of the continental breakfast and saved the stash in my room. I bundled up and headed out to the sports center and gym. It was a full-fledged salon and spa, but only affiliated with the hotel. I had to walk past a frozen lake, on which there were ice fishermen. The gym had 2 lap pools. The showers had three showerheads. They had real soap. And towel service! It takes so little to impress me. It was great.

The extra money was definitely worth staying in a nice hotel over night and the peace of mind of not having to drive home or watch how much I drink.

I should also point out some highlights of the night. Scanning the crowds for bad hair pieces with a new coworker's husband. Dancing with the new guy's cute girl friend. A lot. Not being punched by the new guy. Telling the manager, flabbergasted by discovering the latest office romance, that there's a lot more that goes on in the office that he doesn't know about. The electric slide.

Phone w/ Adina

Last night I talked to Adina for quite a long while. That's not the important part of the story.

During the night I had a dream about our conversation. I dreamed that Charley had somehow got his hands on a written transcript of the conversation and was upset over things we had said. Then I was transported to a BU dorm and I had to talk to one of my residents because she was upset over the written transcripts of our conversation. But I wasn't back in the dormitory, I was an RA in a frat house. Everyone was getting ready for a dance as I talked to this girl and then I was pulled away because people were complaining about a naked guy in the kitchen.

I rarely remember my dreams. And when I do they normally have nothing to do with my life - current or past. I don't know why this one was different.

Like college, but without the books

This will be my third straight night of drinking (with no end in sight).

Two days ago I went out with the new transfer to the Milwaukee office. We went to a small pub - the new guy, his girlfriend, the guy from church (whose girlfriend I met on Sunday), and Ann (whose parents' house I went to for Thanksgiving.) It wasn't the best night out ever but that was because everyone was meeting each other for the first time and there were a good number of introductory-type conversations. But it was a pleasant enough night that I did stay out until 12:30. This was also the same evening that Christie and I went to the Walt Whitman poetry reading. The best line from that event: "Whitman was not afraid of expressing his manly love."

Last night I went to dinner at one of those family-style Italian restaurants. Ann organized it but she was sick and didn't show up. That left four diners which was just barely enough to make the large meal worth it. The new girl at work came with me. She's new to Milwaukee. Her husband still lives in Chicago and she goes back there every weekend, so I don't get many chances to invite her out. We all ate a ton. And the bottle of wine was good too.

Tonight Jake comes home. He's been in Chicago all week. And last week he had been back East for the holiday. We were in the apartment at the same time for about an hour on Sunday, so we caught up a little. He's already called me as he's driving back. Maybe I'll have the Creepy Daves prepared for when he arrives.

Tomorrow is my office holiday party. This year I have reserved a room at the hotel so that I won't have to worry about driving home. Everyone has asked me if I plan to bring my flask again. The office manager wanted to know if my guest will be Jack or Jim.