Saturday, December 29, 2007

Back in NY

and it's a minor miracle. Yesterday there was quite a blizzard in Chicago and tons of flights were canceled and delayed, but amazingly my flight to NY was on time. Earlier flights to NY were canceled/delayed, but mine left on time. My luggage even made it safely to NY. Travel karma was SO on my side.

My holiday was good, got lots of books, clothes and one of those fancy digital photo frames that is really cool. I also cashed in a gift certificate and bought myself the first season of House and then promptly spent the next two days indulging myself with a Hugh Laurie marathon.

Now that I've gotten my relaxing in, it's time to start on the errands and chores I want to get done before the new year. My last days off will be spent bill paying, filing, shredding, closet cleaning/purging and organizing. I also hope to try out some new recipes as well.

What were everyone's favorite holiday presents?

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Season's Greetings!

I can't believe my holiday break is half over. I'm heading back to Chicago from my parents house tomorrow to spend the night with friends and will fly back to NY Friday afternoon. After a 4 day weekend at home I'll return to work on Wednesday.

So far I've spent my break with my family, eating too much, working out too little and watching tons of movies. In the last 3 days I've watched the Godfather parts 1 & 2 (again), Little Miss Sunshine and Walk the Line. I also re-read book 7 of Harry Potter. My time here has been a good mix of old traditions and new, but for some reason this year I've been more aware of how fragile time is and how (nearly) all traditions eventually end or change. I'm trying to learn to enjoy things while I have them. A good lesson for us all in 2008

I hope Santa was good to you all. Let the post-holiday fast begin!

Friday, December 21, 2007

I'm off!

I have the next TWELVE days off! Whoo hoo! I'm flying to Chicago tonight and will stay there through Christmas and then I'll come back to have five days at home, getting my apartment in order to start the new year. I plan on doing a massive Winter deep cleaning when I return.

Safe and Happy Holidays to you all!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Cooking Disasters....and other randomness

Shortbread seemed so easy to make: flour, sugar and butter. In practice though, mine turned out awful! I don't know what I did or didn't do, but it's crumbly and tastes plain. I hate to waste it so I think I might bake some cinnamon apples and use the crumbs on top. I think I'll stick with Pepperidge Farms Chessman to get my shortbread fix.

I've come down with a bit of a Winter cold. Right now it seems to be more of a sinus thing. I'm hoping to sleep it off this weekend and be better by the time I fly home on Friday.

I'm officially DONE with all my holiday shopping. I just had to get one last thing for my dad and I ordered it from Amazon this week! Going to Chicago last week and doing the bulk of it really worked out well, I just may do that every year from now on. It's so much easier than paying for shipping and then having to wrap everything as soon as I get off the plane.

My beloved cell phone died this week. It's slowly been having problems connecting to the network and it got to the point where it wouldn't even let me send a text message anymore. They don't make the model I had anymore, so I took the plunge and upgraded to the Blackberry Pearl. It took a few days to get the settings the way I like, but now I am so in love with this phone. I can see how people get addicted to having constant email and internet access at their fingertips!

Off to crawl into bed and try and sleep this cold away!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Recipes!

Per a request, here's the SUPER easy method of making the pasta salad I threw together yesterday,

1 large package of the original Purdue Chicken Shortcuts
1/2 box Bowtie pasta
1/3ish a bottle of Paul Neuman's Raspberry Vinagrette with Walnuts dressing

Throw it together and eat. It's THAT easy and so good!

Tonight I also made my favorite brown sugar cake from Purple Kangaroo's food blog. It's highly addictive if you top it with whipped cream while it's still warm.

Happy eating!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Guilt is.....

listening to your mom complain about the weather in Illinois...

...while you are also IN Illinois (experiencing said weather), but didn't tell her you were in town.

Back where it's warm...relatively

Back from Chicago. I feel good, my holiday shopping is done and wrapped, I did more than a little retail therapy for myself and spend time relaxing and getting good sleep.

I lied at work and said I wasn't coming back from Chicago until today, so I have the entire day off to watch bad daytime TV, catch up on Tivo and do some things around the house. I'll probably also sneak in a nap and make it the perfect day off.

I'm also going to try a new pasta salad recipe I found, bowtie pasta, chicken cut into strips and red wine vinaigrette dressing! Yum!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Setback

As I got my suitcase out tonight it hit me. I'm not packing to see Tennis Guy. Instead of packing t-shirts and skirts for a warm beach holiday, I'm digging out the snow hats, gloves and my warmest coat. A wave of sadness washed over me yet again and even though I have been feeling better, I started once again to miss him.

Last night I posted a few photos of me at our office holiday party on one of my photo sites. Not 5 minutes later he had posted a comment to it, "I always said you were beautiful. It looks like you are having fun. I'm not nearly as drunk as I should be". I stared at the words for nearly 30 minutes last night. A part of me wishes it was a cryptic way of saying he missed me, but I know in my heart it's not.

I know setbacks are ok and they are bound to happen, but as I continue putting sweaters and wool socks in my bag I can't help but feel more and more sad and alone.

It sucks that it takes this long to get over one person not wanting you.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Healing

I'm here, slowly but surely healing a little bit more each day. After a lot of thought (and a lengthy discussion with a Continental Airlines customer service representative), I got a credit for the plane tickets I had purchased months ago to see Tennis Guy this upcoming weekend. Since I already asked off work on Monday I've decided to go to Chicago instead for the weekend. I'll do a little shopping (both for Christmas and myself!), spend some time with friends and some time just relaxing away from home and will hopefully be able to recharge and regroup. It's a little insane to try to fly to Chicago in the middle of winter, so any extra good travel karma you might have to spare please send it my way.

Thanks to you all for your comments and thoughts! It's nice to know I'm not alone in the big bad blogosphere!