One late night, one early morning

I've stayed up many a late night over the past six months, but this one outdoes them all. It's 7:09am and I am still up and, as you can see, blogging. I think my body is in a bit of a shock for all of the sleep it is getting, as I normally starve it to death. And so after a fourth day off, it protests the normal hours of sleep. But I will surely nap at some point today, maybe even numerous times throughout the day. We'll see how it goes.

The day after

I L-O-V-E love Thanksgiving. Love everything about it, the food, family, friends, the long weekend, it's all great to me.

The day after Thanksgiving, however, is laced with things I hate. Here's my list:

1. Those blow up Christmas thingys start appearing in everyone's front yard.
2. People say "Happy Holidays" to you everywhere you go, even when you check out from the pet store.
3. The only music, if you can call it that, which can be found in any eatery or shopping venue has to do with Frosty, Donner and Blitzen.
4. Airline ticket prices automatically go way up.
5. All of the neurotic secretaries in my office come out of the woodwork to plan their Christmas parties with me.

So I am sorry that all of my angst about the day after Thanksgiving revolves around Christmas, but people are out of control!

The Hen Party

This is Fun-Neee...

Nair

I am surprised that I have not told you all that Nair is my new best friend. I was getting tired of shaving and getting razor burn. It didn't matter what I did- steamed in a hot shower for 10 minutes, exfoliated, used shaving cream, I would always get red bumps. I went to the drug store bought a can...and will likely never shave my underarms again. Nair it is.

I sleep like this

It's a funny thing, how we all sleep. I conducted a survey one time at work after an argument with Person A about how people actually sleep. As you can see above, I sleep with my legs turned completely out with my feet flat on the bed. Most people, I have discovered, lay on their backs with their feet sticking straight up in the air. I feel badly for those people. When I lay on my back, I can completely dis-engage all of the muscles in my legs and actually be relaxed. People- if you are laying on your back with your feet sticking straight up in the air, you are holding all of the muscles in your inner thighs. How can you keep those muscles engaged and attempt relaxation? I just don't get it.

If you think this is crazy, try conducting your own survey with those around you. You can post the results in the comment section of this post. Suggestion- don't tell people why you are conducting the survey, this ensures accuracy in the results. Of course it can be difficult convincing people to lay on the floor in a relaxed state for no apparent reason. People are so self- conscious.

The Moveable Feast

Cherie, Heather and I concocted a Progressive Dinner for our Thanksgiving Day activity. Our group started with eight and grew to 20 quickly when we started sharing the news of what we would be doing. We became the popular kids for Thanksgiving and everyone grew jealous of our idea and the people who would be joining us.

We started out at my place with appetizers, soups and a multitude of homemade breads. For appetizers I took apples and figs a schmeared them with goat cheese, wrapped them in prosciutto and then drizzled them with a honey-pumpkin glaze. I made two homemade soups- butternut squash and turkey and dumpling. I hired out Travis to bake all of the breads including strawberry bread, pumpkin bread and jalapeno-cheese-bacon cornbread. Then I made a honey-whipped butter and a garlic butter to go with it all. I haven't cooked in so long, it felt good to be in the kitchen chopping and stewing, preparing a table and then people coming over to enjoy it all. As we were finishing up the first leg of our trip, I made everyone play my obligatory Thanksgiving game. We passed around a basket and everyone dropped two corn kernels into the basket and named off things they were thankful for this year. My top choices: my health and my new found happiness. The live footage can be seen here .

We then moved to Cherie and Walter's house for the main meal. We all pitched in to place the finishing touches on the meal. It was all the usual suspects- turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberries, bread, and gravy.

After taking a stroll to work the food down out of our stomachs, we moved on to our third and final destination- Heather and Farzam's house. They had the difficult task of preparing dessert. It is rough you know...pumpkin truffles, chocolate cheesecake truffles, pumpkin pie, chocolate caramel brownies, coconut cream pie, fruit tart, and an assortment of pound cakes served with pumpkin butter and cinnamon spice butter. It was a ridiculous scene, and we were all stuffed, but of course had to partake in tasting everything.

At the end of the day, Heather, Cherie and I were so impressed by the plan we had concocted and how smoothly it was executed. No one was over burdened, everyone was welcome and a wonderful time was had by all.

Bad news for Double B's

I was already planning a trip in December...

I'm not sure how we should handle this.

Julia's Harem

Last night we VIP'd it at a bar where an extremely famous DJ was playing. What a freaking nice change of scenery. Not only on the club front, but on the people front. Well...the people as a whole. Thinking we would not see anyone we knew, we were sadly disappointed that all the usual cast of characters a.k.a. the three ring circus were present:

1. The Anchor Man
2. Chommas
3. The Hurricane Companion
4. The Pers

These four make up the recent members and were all in the same place at the same time. I am always impressed with her poise in handling such situations. It is quite impressive.

And as for me, I managed to pull out an appearance from The Land of Oz. Must you be everywhere that I am?

The weekend with Gold Reeves

So after I banged out a phenomenal weekend with Tripple M's, Gold Reeves flies in for a few days of the shenanegins. Because there is just wayyy too much to post, I shall make a list (previously agreed upon by both she and I):

1. A weekend of no sleep and very little food does a body good.
2. Why smoke one large cigar when you can smoke 3 large ones in a row?
3. Great purchase Golds

4. A cell phone stolen provides hours of entertainment.
5. Oh hot dayam, this is my jayam, keep me partying til the aye emme.
6. Blue Label is classy, but Escobar is where it's at.
7. Glad you got perspective into the Land of Oz.
8. How did that work clothes shopping go anyway?
9. Bahaim activities are good for the soul.
10. Did you bring any fruit flies back in your suitcase?


I will forever wish that we lived in the same place again because hanging out with you is so great. I love spending time in your space. I love you.


*an oldie but a goodie

The Raccoon

I was awakened abruptly at 5:59am this morning to a phone call from Julia's eldest daughter. My thought process went something like this: why is my phone ringing, where am I, do I have to work today, wait...it's Camille, it's 5:59am, why is she calling me, something has happened to Julia, OH MY GOD! Then Julia's voice came over the line "Jen...there is a raccoon in the house, what do I do?" And her voice was seemingly calm. And so I responded "well, call animal control," just as calmly. After the fact, it cracks me up that we had such a calm conversation about such a terrifying thing.

I was reminded of course of my first night sleeping in Boulder, when we left the back sliding glass door open and I walked into the kitchen to see a raccoon standing on his hind legs eating dog food out of the cabinet, dog looking on hoping to play with this creature. Instead of waking up my dad and handle the situation, I decided I would scare the raccoon and chase him off. Luckily it worked and both the dog and I were unscathed. But what was I thinking!?

So finally the police came, beat the creature into submission and released it outdoors. Turns out it was a possum, not a raccoon.

Stay tuned

Please stay tuned, I have 6 drafts in progress that will be released soon!

My Day

I always (ok, so it's only been one year since I started this blog) write a post about my special day. I have always loved my birthday, as it is the one day a year I get completely selfish and only do what I want. I take all measures to make sure that what I want to happen, happens.

This year, The Big 30, was no exception. There was no expense spared, no detail overlooked, no one not invited. We turned 5502 Beverly Hill into Club Beverly Hill. We had it all: casino, club dj, hookah lounge, food, full bar, the best cake you can buy in this city and on and on. We were the hottest thing going on in Houston on Saturday, November 1st.

People were in and out all night. This camp was packed with a melting pot of people. There were people everywhere- people dancing, people playing craps and screaming, people smoking hookah in the hookah lounge that I set up on the front porch.


I could not have asked for more for my birthday. The cops even came because of the noise level and the traffic out on the street. At one point I looked out and it was like the freeway during rush hour.

I would like to thank MMM for flying down to celebrate with me. It was her 30th as well, and we did it up!