Mirror, mirror...

Thanksgiving reflections:

• Thanksgiving was great--family time, food time, what more can you ask for? Instead of dessert, I had seconds. Heavenly.
• I spent more time with friends this time than I usually do when I'm home. I liked it for the balance--I've always felt so rushed just being home for just the weekend that I can't justify spending a lot of time away from the family.
• I even got to visit the main street bar, The Water Tank, on the night before Thanksgiving with my Jenny, my Devin, and Lori. I tried not to make eye contact with any of the locals, but they still shouted (hollered) "girls, girls, we've got some girls here now!" when we came in. What an entrance.
• The morning after Thanksgiving, instead of shopping, the immediate Wells family went to see Walk the Line, which was AWESOME. I never really knew a whole lot about Johnny Cash, but he definitely has an interesting, drama-filled story. And I mean...he looked like Joaquin Phoenix when he was young, so I'm a fan. And, even though it was pretty dysfunctional, his and June Carter's relationship seemed, from the movie, like a real love story. Neither of them was perfect, but they were perfect for each other. So there's hope, right? I will hope.

Reflections on my return:

• Driving back to DC from SC is no fun the Sunday after T-giving. But it could've been worse. I finally broke down and bought a VA map, at least. And now I know that Hwy 11 parallels I-81, and connects to Hwy 320, which leads to I-64, which goes over one of the most beautiful mountains in VA (in the dark), and ends up on Hwy 29, which leads to DC. Whew. I enjoyed what scenery there was before it got dark, though. And I like secondary roads better anyway.
• I've got so much Christmas shopping to do. Maybe I won't buy presents this year. Maybe I should do the environmental thing and just buy some rainforest land in the name of my family and friends. Somehow I don't think that's quite as exciting for them as it might be for me. (Would it really be exciting for me, though?)
• Things are getting slow at work, which would usually mean time for a sigh of relief...but in reality it's almost more nerve-wracking than having tons of work, because at least then you have billable time. Now, I practically have to beg for things to do so I can bill my time, get in 40 hours a week, and get paid. Such is the life of a consultant...much like that of a lawyer--and I certainly didn't sign up to be a lawyer.
• In unrelated, way more positive news, I saved $12 with my Safeway card at the grocery store today! It was like almost everything I went in there for was on some sort of special. Ah, the domestic delights! So now I have about 10 cups of yogurt and 3 lbs of cheese...

I think I'll be done now, even though there's always more I could say. But perhaps another day.

Heroes and anti-heroes

I am afraid I have been gone too long! I must apologize for my absence. It has been a while and I have been busy. (That's always my excuse, isn't it.) Busy doing the things about which I blog but just not having the time to blog them!

I went to the best party ever last Saturday with my book club friends. It was at a cool apartment and we had Mexican food and a pinata! I got the prize! My favorite part, though, was that there were enough people that you didn't have to sit around and talk to the same ones all night, but not too many that it was overwhelming or claustrophobic. Just right. I liked it a lot. I want more parties to be like that.

Then on Monday night, instead of book club we went to an anti-hate concert for free at the Kennedy Center (which is amazing and HUGE by the way). They recognized 4 heroes at the concert, all of whom were actually there in the audience. Great experience. One was the guy who helped the "woman in the mask" during the London Underground bombings. Another was the Iraqi who helped rescue Jessica Lynch from the POW camp where she was held--he risked his life like 3 times crossing enemy lines and fighting off rebels (I feel like that's not a PC term but I can't think of a better one...go English major skills--out the window!). The last was the lawyer who reopened a case against a preacher who helped orchestrate the murders of three civil rights activists in the 60s.

The most incredible hero story, though, was about the man who survived for two years in a concentration camp and came to the U.S. and signed up to be a soldier to repay the Americans who saved him. He went to the Korean War and ended up a POW and imprisoned again, but this time for 2 and 1/2 years and all the while he escapes every night to break into a Korean storehouse to steal food for his fellow inmates. I mean, who does that?! Only the bravest. It is both heartening and discouraging to hear a story like this. Heartening because it is nice to know people like this exist, but discouraging because I don't think enough of them do. I mean, what would I do if I were in that kind of situation? I'm pretty sure I'd curl up and cry.

Although, it does feel like a war-zone around here sometimes. I had a rough day today and did a lot of thinking. One of the major things I realized is that I don't like having to go around trying to please people all the time (at work, at the house) when I don't feel appreciated or respected. I would do almost anything to keep my friends and family happy, but I've gotta draw the line somewhere. I'm not really going to go into details because you never really know who will read this...but I will write up a form letter and whoever wants it can ask. Haha :-).

Speaking of family, though, I'm going to be at home for Thanksgiving in less than a week!!! I can't wait! I'm so excited to see the family and some friends and hopefully some remnants of the fall leaves. And to smell the crispy warm wood fire in the stove and the deliciousness of turkey and dressing in the oven. I. Love. It.

Fall skies and tall spires

My sister came to DC!
She got to hang out with me!
We had lots of fun
and she sang beautiful songs
but we missed our dear Abby!

(Erin came to DC with the Winthrop chorale to sing at the NATIONAL CATHEDRAL.)
(She got here Saturday morning so we did tourist and non-tourist stuff all day and she sang this morning.)
(Abby is cool and can recite pretty much every line of Napoleon Dynamite.)

And it is FALL! Since daylight savings time is upon us, I've been in the office almost all the daylight hours (how disgusting) and I didn't even realize until this weekend how beautiful it is! I love fall colors. I love all colors. I'm a color-lover. I'm a c-lover. Clover. Erin says the leaves haven't turned in good old C-lover yet. Maybe I can catch them at Thanksgiving.

But if you never try then you'll never know...

Sorry I've been gone for a while. Just when I think things are slowing down I get all busy again.

A big nice thing: I went to a Halloween party with Sam on Friday in Charlottesville, VA and met a cute boy who has played the guitar for 11 years and is studying music and loves Savannah and we talked all night. The party was at a really amazing cabin in the woods, down a long windy road with much foliage and shrubbery on the edges that looked perfect for a haunted trail, and the sky was clear so I got to see the stars. Ah, my beautiful sparkling stars... And I woke up underneath a skylight in the cabin in the woods and saw my trees, like I was sleeping underneath the leaves. And all was green-gold and happy.

The rest of my weekend didn't quite compare to that moment of waking up happiness, but it will do. Things right now seem disjointed and strange sometimes and it really helps to go outside and be back in rural areas so I can remember I'm just a country girl at heart and that doesn't have to change even though I'm in the big city.

I ended up not going to the Rufus Wainwright concert last night because I'm house-sitting with Rachel (who has a fractured foot courtesy the wet Metro escalator steps) for the next two weeks and we had a last minute Halloween party instead, involving Rachel, Roslyn, and me. LoL. We watched A Clockwork Orange, which was really weird and pretty offensive, because none of us had ever seen it. And now I'm okay with not ever seeing it again, honestly. But that's ok...we had some really cute Trick-or-Treaters come for candy so that was entertaining.

I'll be house-sitting for the next couple weeks, actually, so I may not be updating for a little while. Don't be worried. Just give me a call!