Yawn

Saturday was my third annual cookie and ornament swap. Pretty much my whole weekend revolved around that. Friday night was bake and prep. I really wanted to go over to the Old Town craft fair, there were a couple of things I wanted to pick up, but I had to get stuff done. Alas, the work of a hostess is never done. Saturday morning while I was taking my "pretzel things" off the cookie sheets they had cooled on overnight there was a loud knock on the door. Oh, yes, that's right. Saturday was also St. Nick's day. VonMom was standing outside my front door in the snow with St. Nick's bags for me and VonSis. The upside of having to see her so early in the morning was I got an invite to join my parents for breakfast at my dad's favorite diner down the street. I put down the spatula and put on some jeans and headed over for some pumpkin pancakes. So good. My cookie party people showed up around 3pm, all in their pjs, all ready to drink, eat and swap some cookies. I had about 15 ladies over. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time. There was a lot of laughing going on. VonMom ended up holding court in the living room for quite a while. I had to put the kibash on her filling in all of my friends on our gypsy heritage, and her idea that I have powers. Yes, she was sober. I ran into the room when I heard the beginnings of this story out of her mouth. She just kept talking. Sigh. I won't be able to live this down for a while. Quite a few of my guests stayed pretty late, until 10:30 or so. I was so tired I didn't have a chance to clean up 100%. I always like to clean up the same day of whatever party I am throwing, so I can have the next day to relax. Didn't work out that way this time. Sunday morning VonSis woke up with a hangover. Though I did dishes, and ran some errands, she stayed on my couch pretty much all day. It doesn't bother me too much. Sil1x told me that I am a good hostess, and that I threw a great party. She's a party-hostessing master, so those words made the cleaning meatball sauce off my wall, and scrubbing wine rings off the counter, and taking out 5 bags of garbage out in 15 degree weather all worth it. I can't wait for next year! Happy Monday.

C is for cookie

That's good enough for me! Two cookie related items: 1. Tomorrow is my third annual cookie and ornament swap. Generally a big hit. This year all guests are coming in pajamas, and they've requested more food. Ask and you shall receive!! There will be a ton of food. My annual party is a good time. A bunch of women get their drink on - we have peppermint schnapps and hot cocoa, vodka and cranberry gingerale, wine both white and red, beer - and bring a dozen homemade cookies and a wrapped ornament. They each get a festive tin and get to pick out a dozen or so different cookies to take home, and a new ornament. Yep good times. Am I ready for this at all?? Nope. Not at all. I'm lucky my house is decorated. I managed to bring the party tables into the house yesterday and mop the floor, but there's no food and no cookies yet. Sigh. It's going to be a looooong night tonight. 2. The Bake-Off is upon us!!! Team Chicago and Claire are eagerly awaiting your entries!! Valuable and super-awesome prizes await you!! Did I mention first and second place get to be the judges next year? Comment here if you'd like further details.....

Bleh

I would love to write something awesome for you, but that would involve me putting down my box-o-tissues and Vicks vaporub for more than two minutes. Bleh. Still sick.

Better late than

AAAAchhoo! Yep. I am sick. Wicked sick. Major head cold, I think I am competing with Shannon for most tissues used in one day. Bleh. So, my blog is a little late. Black Wednesday didn't turn out quite as I planned. I wanted to go out and get my drink on. I went to my parents' house for dinner, where I told my parents I planned on going out. That was my biggest mistake. My dad - the ONE person who I listen to pretty much all the time, no matter what - had an opinion, a Strong opinion, about me going out that night. Sigh. I tried to argue my point: "I'll take a cab, dad." "I'm going out with old friends - people even you know! Yes, guy friends, who'll look out for me!" "I'll go out early and come home early!" He would hear none of it. My good ole' Catholic guilt kicked in, so I went home and didn't go out. Plus, I kinda fell asleep on the couch for a bit, and when I woke up I really wasn't feeling it anymore. Damn me, being all old and stuff. I ended up texting TheMarty for a while, and going to bed pretty early. Turkey Day itself? Not bad, not bad at all. I was watching the hugely lame Chicago parade when I remembered 'Hey, there's a way better parade on some other channel!' and flipped over to the Macy's parade. Sure, I hate the Macy's machine for taking over the State Street Marshall Fields, but they throw a kick ass turkey day parade. I giggled and clapped. I even caught the RickRoll first hand. Good times. I went to EldestStepSis's house for a bit. (again, my dad recommended I stop by. Sigh) It was fine. I got a lot of extra hugs as this was the first time I saw the steps since Charlie died. StepBrother E was late, big surprise. Oh well, while we waited for him we had some Champagne - Score!! We were seated at a too small table, but the food was pretty ok, and they conversation didn't suck. After a couple glasses of a decent red wine, I headed over to Chris' house. Unfortunately, my goddaughter was in a crappy mood. It got to the point where I was pretty much ignoring her, just because I didn't want to deal with the whining and the crabbiness. All of the adults were pretty annoyed with her. Other than Lizzie's pissy mood, Chris' house was great. She had all of my favorite Thanksgiving foods, and she is an awesome cook. We had a good time, and I ended up staying there until 9pm or so. I took home some leftovers and "Hellboy II". That was a pretty good movie. Friday I woke up feeling a little sick, but it was time to decorate!! It took about 5 hours, maybe a little more, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I don't decorate exactly the same every year, I like to change things up. Last Christmas I got a lot of new decorations, and I got some stuff from my mom for my birthday this year. I will get some pictures up soon. By Friday night I was full on sick. Saturday I got my Christmas cards all filled out and mailed. I met Shannon and TheMarty for dinner. I love love love how I always spill food on myself. I'm awesome like that. After dinner I volunteered a show at Old Town. Hot Tuna!!! Woo hoo! A whole lot of groovy going on! Sunday VonSis, Sil1x and I went to brunch - Fabulous!! While we were getting our eat on, it started snowing. Pretty at first, then annoying. Bleh, I hate winter. Sunday night I went to John and Toni's. Toni made her famous and killer chili. We watched football and ate chili and ate chili and watched football. After dessert I headed home. I don't understand how a LONG weekend can feel so very short! I'm going to go take a nap now. I'd like to make some effort to get better so I can go to work tomorrow.

Giving Thanks

Top 10 things I am thankful for: 1. My job. I'm no idiot. Every day. Every day I am thankful for the job that I have, and the wonderful company and people that I work for and with. I am so very lucky. I know what things are like out there, everywhere. Not only am I thankful to have a job, but I am thankful to have a great job. 2. My apartment. Even though I don't own it, I am thankful that I have a warm, cozy, cute place to live. I can paint it however I like, have a great backyard I can entertain in. 3. I'm thankful for my name. I know, it's a little weird. Let me explain. Up until the last 5 years or so, I hated my name. I don't know why I changed my mind, but now I really love it. It's unique, and allows for nicknames a plenty. I'm thankful my mom forgot what she was actually going to name me - Yvette, I am certainly NOT an Yvette - and bestowed on me the awesome name that is mine until the end. (p.s. - for those of you that don't know, my real and actual VonMom given name is Yvonne) 4. I am thankful for the 15 months and 1 day that I have not smoked a cigarette. You can do it MenD!! 5. I am thankful for the fact that I have not one but two places to go tomorrow. Sure, I bitch about the stepfam, but they like me a whole lot. So does my goddaughter, who is so excited about me coming back this year that she was hopping around the house last Saturday. I might even be NICE to the stepfam. We'll see. Ido plan to stay late at Chris' house and hang out with my awesome goddaughter. I'm thankful for her, too. 6. I am thankful for the Old Town School. I love it there. I feel my absolute best when I am there. After three years volunteering there, it never gets old. I love the music, the staff, the other volunteers (ok, most of them), the way I'm treated there. They really appreciate us there. No politics, no b.s. 7. I am so so so thankful for my friends. Old and new. Chicagoan, Bostonians, Internets, etc. Those I've known 20 years are just as valuable as those I've known less than 1 year. I am blessed to know all of you. I love all of you. I would not be the person I am were it not for you. You all make me a better person. 8. I am thankful for my family. Family is a relative term, especially in my life. Germans, Canadians, actuals, step, Sil1x, etc. 9. I am thankful for iTunes, my iPod, my laptop and Netflix. All of these things will get me through my long weekend. A little materialism is okey dokey in my book. 10. Finally, I am thankful for carbohydrates, without which I would never enjoy Thanksgiving. Ah, sweet carbs, come to mama. Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. Eat well, sleep in, have a drink or two.

A quick follow up

Thanks, all of you, for the support. (I seem to keep thanking you all, for many things, but you all are awesome) A quick follow up: Ok, sure I am still charmingly chubby, but I'm cool with it. I have enough self-confidence for me, and for all of them. I have no pimples. I am no longer dishwater blonde, but expensively and expertly Blonde. I AM Irish enough. Not only do I immerse myself in all things Irish, but I also play and sing Irish music, and well. Tin whistle? Check. Bodhran? Check. - I doubt they even know what a bodhran is, or how to pronounce it. It took me a while, I'm embarrassed to admit, but my parents neighborhood is beautiful. Not only is their house gorgeous and huge, but their neighborhood is awesome and close knit. I wouldn't have wanted to grow up anywhere else. Keep your Sauganash and your Lincolnwood - Forest Glen suits me just fine. And Lauren had a great point. My trip to Boston was fantastic. There's nothing I would rather have been doing that weekend. My new Boston friends are genuine, and awesome, and good people. They make me laugh. Even though I have known them a short time, I hope to be friends with them and the people that introduced me to them for many years to come. Hm. I think I am starting to feel better about this......

I need a hug

I wish I could lie and say I was popular in grammar school. The truth of the matter is I wasn't. Not by a long shot. I was the chubby dishwater blonde girl with the pimples and the bad perms. I wasn't Irish enough. We didn't live in the right neighborhood. I coached basketball instead of played it. I got good grades, and stopped trying to impress the popular crowd by mid-7th grade. Could it be all of these reasons that I didn't get invited to my 20th reunion party? No, oh no dear readers. I'm not kidding. I wasn't invited. After I left the evils of QAS behind in the fall of 1988, I knew that I was destined for better and cooler things. I threw myself into activities. I lost a little weight. I discovered Medusa's. I also discovered that it's much more awesome to just be myself, than try to fit in. Strangely, when I did my own thing I made friends. Lots of them. All different types and shapes and sizes. My high school years were fantastic. My couple of college years were awesome too. Every year after that (and there have been a few) has been better and better. For the most part, I really like myself. I love that I do a lot of different things, and that I know a ton of people. VonMom likes to say that I am like my dad in that no matter where I go, I always run into someone I know. This is true. I know a lot of people. Friends, acquaintances, people I have volunteered with/gotten drunk with/made music with/learned with/lost with....these people are everywhere. I love people. - Ok. I really do. As long as they aren't lame annoying people. All of this is a direct result of who I was, the person I was beaten down to, when I left eighth grade. I left those people and they way they behaved way way behind me. True story: While at a party my freshman year at NEIU, I ran into one of the guys that tormented me the most in grammar school. I wasn't exactly sober. G looked at me, I gave him the finger. Drunk as I was, I knew exactly who he was. He finally figured out who I was. I ignored him as best I could, but the party wasn't that big. He kept being around. I was my usual self, trying to make people laugh, having a good time. A few days after the party I ran into G at school. He stopped me and said "I wanted to apologize to you." I stood there, waiting for some asshole comment or other. Then he said "I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you in school. You're pretty cool, and I'm sorry I didn't see that before." I saw him a few times after that (he was friends with my to-this-day very good friend John) and I hated him a little less. Still, what he said made me glow a little. The reason I am writing this blog is that I'm pissed. Frustrated, mostly, with myself that those people that I went to grammar school still affect me so much. I found out about the reunion party when I talked to JL, the one person I reconnected with from QAS. JL is good people. I found him on myspace early in 2007. We got together had some beers and we made each other laugh. I think we are friends again, which is great. Anyway, we were talking on the phone, and he mentioned that he had run into another one of the QAS people somewhere, B. B told JL about the party. JL hadn't gotten actually invited either. JL told me. He asked if I wanted to go. That ended up being the weekend that I went to Boston, so I had an easy out. I don't think I would have gone anyway. JL went. I haven't had the chance to hear how it was, I'll need to call him to find out. A thought: Really? Did they even try to locate everyone? I mean, my parents live in the same house we lived in when I went to school there, so it's not like they couldn't find a mailing address. Assholes. I really feel that they invited the same people that they hung out with 20 years ago. I'm assuming that reflects on how little they have changed or matured as people. I looked at some of their facebook pages, and I found a couple of pictures of myself on their pages. Do they look at these pictures and not even realize that there are other people in those pictures beside them and their friends? Why am I even in those pictures? I have no memory of this. I am really mad at myself for being so affected. Fact: I would not have gone had I been in town. Fact: I don't really want to ever see those people again. These truths being said, I don't know why I am so upset about this whole thing. Maybe I wish it had been my option to not go. For all of the strides I've made, I feel like this whole situation has knocked me for a loop. I know that I do make fun of myself quite a bit, and it is because I do it before someone else can - this is one piece of baggage I carry from grammar school. I just need to remind myself that all the good that I am, all the fun, and the cool, are also a result of them. I worked really hard to never be that girl again. I do still like myself a lot. This is a speed bump, a minor set back. I haven't thought about them in years, and I want to get back to that, I don't want to be thinking of them now. I just needed to get that off my chest. QAS people suck.