G: Okay, by
now the rest of the trip to FL is a bit mixed up in my mind. But, here
are some things that happened. Mom and I got pedicures together, and I
got a manicure too. It looked very nice. The pedicure is holding up,
but the last couple of days there I worked on painting a mural on the
bedroom wall and had to scrub my hands off a lot, chipping the nail
polish. I can't keep my nails nice anyway, working with clay.
I did a little shopping at the mall, using TomTom to help me get back
to my parents' house. Also, I had used it on the trip to Tampa,
ignoring the Google directions. It's just easier to do what TomTom says
and even though it might not always be the best way, it will usually
get you where you want to go.
On the day before Xmas we needed to go a bit further away from Winter
Haven (not much there) to shop a bit, and we all went to Lakeland. We
stopped in a Barnes & Noble (or, of course, it could have been a
Border's, I don't know or notice the difference and they should just
merge already). Grant bought books for Mom and Dad there. Then we
stopped by the Guitar Center and we picked up Mom's present for Dad. I
don't know if Dad noticed the big box we brought out, but he only asked
if Grant got what he needed (Grant plays guitars so it's not too
unusual). Then we ate at a Thai restaurant called The Lemon Tree and my
food was
really good. I think everyone else just thought theirs was okay. It may
have been that night that we were going to play Uno but couldn't
find the deck from last year and ended up playing Yatzee, which was fun.
On Xmas day in the (sorta) morning, I got $$ from Dad and Mom and Grant
ordered me a ipod docking station online. Dad got a mug and a
sweatshirt from me, books from Grant, and a ukulele from Mom. Mom got a
Magellan GPS from Dad, a mug, a pretty, carved cardinal (bird)
ornament, and the mural from me. Grant gave her two vegan cookbooks
(Veganomicon and an Italian cooking one) and did many chores around the
house for her. Grant got a bowl that he traded with Mom for the mug for
his girlfriend Catherine, a handmade clay coaster that a fellow artist
made the mold for and I glazed (it has a cute drawing of Einstein on
it), and a leatherman juice like John's that I had sent to his house so
he wouldn't have to try to get it through security to get it home. He
also got $$ from Dad and a little remote controlled helicopter from
Mom. We had a lot of fun playing with it the next couple of days. Oh,
and the day after Mom and I went back to the mall to see if we could
get another helicopter for John, but the kiosk was GONE. Mom got me
some cuticle nippers there, and I got her some more cute little
cardinal sculptures, dirt cheep (cheep!). We also picked up an Uno deck
and played that night. Alas, I did not emerge as the undefeated Uno
champion this year. I don't remember who won. But maybe Mom.
We made our traditional dishes for Xmash dinner, chestnuts and
mushrooms over rice, and nut loaf. Mom also made the vegan pecan pie.
It was a very yummy meal. The rest of the time I worked on the mural,
Grant and I played tennis once more, and we ate out at Ruby Tuesday's
and a local seafood place. I had several side dishes there. I didn't
quite finish the mural. Mom wanted something Egyptian so we picked out
a landscape scene with the pyramids from a magazine. It was a muted
photo and she wanted something more colorful. I was using her acrylic
paints, which are pretty colorful and I wasn't sure how to mute them a
little and get more natural looking colors, so it came out kind of
garish. I'm not much of a painter and I'd never painted a landscape
before, so I was pretty worried about it the whole time. But I got it
to a point where I felt I could leave it and Mom could put the
finishing touches on it.
Grant and I had flights leaving near the same time, so we all went to
the airport on Thursday. An uneventful flight, but the airport was busy
when I got to Baltimore. I had checked my bag instead of doing it carry
on because I had bought some lotion and had those cuticle nippers. We
try to never check bags but the last time I had to it went very
smoothly, my bag showed up faster than I'd ever had a bag show up. I
guess that was advanced pay for this time. I found John and we went to
baggage claim. The baggage carousel with my flight on it had many other
flights ahead, so after waiting right by it for a while we went and sat
somewhere where we could still sort of see it. We waited and waited,
and went back over there but the flight from Orlando never started
flashing and we never saw my bag. There were some announcements being
made, but we could barely hear them, and although John thought one
mentioned my flight, we assumed it was just saying it would be up soon.
So we waited almost an hour when the flight disappeared from the board.
Incredulous, I got in line at the baggage service area. Other people in
the line seemed to have a similar complaint, but none were form Orlando
and I found that strange. I waited for my turn which took another 15 or
20 minutes, and told the nice young lady there what happened. She went
away to check it out, and I stayed right there so as not to lose my
place. She came back after a while and said she didn't know what
happened, and started a missing bag claim form. I said I'd look through
all the bags they had stacked up in there. I went from the front of the
room and back again to no avail. Maybe they brought it in while I was
in the back, but there it was at the front as I came back up. I was
quite peeved that I had somehow missed when the bags came through
because that was their fault as we watched all the marquis the whole
time.
By the time we got home it had been over two hours since I'd landed. I
went upstairs to say hi to Lori and then went into the bedroom, and
there was this huge Xmas present on the bed! I figured it out from the
shape before opening it - it was a guitar! John got me a guitar - I'd
been saying that I was thinking about trying to learn.
Then we went to the Looneys' and I had fun.
None of my classes have started up yet, so I've been taking it easy and
having fun. Chris has been visiting, and we've gone to a few movies.
Saturday we went over to Thom and Kathy's to see Meg, Joe, and the
kids. We hung out by a campfire with them for the afternoon. I hadn't
seen the Naabs since last Xmas time.
That night Chris did an open mic at the Best Western in College Park.
Chris was very funny, I was in tears and my sides hurt. Everyone else
pretty much sucked; one guy was kinda funny but another guy stood out
as the suckiest. I've never seen worse.
Later that night we went to The Quarry House in Silver Spring to see
Beth Fuller, who was hanging out there while her husband did some DJing
between 50's style bands. She and John caught up and I socialized with
Thom, Meg, Suzy, and John Amigo, and danced with John and Chris a
little bit. I had a Belgian beer called Lucifer, yummy.
Sunday we accompanied Renee on her 3rd viewing of Sweeny Todd. She was
so excited she peed her pants (not really). I found it decent, but too
gory and I felt queasy after it was over. As we were walking out I
noticed a movie called PS I Love You was just about to start, so I
asked if everyone wanted to see that too. I figured from the name that
it would be a romantic comedy, and Renee thought it was too.
<SPOILERS>
It turned out to be a very sad movie and I was crying for most of it. I
left that theater feeling like I'd been put through the wringer. On the
drive home, we talked about Sweeny Todd, and John wanted to leave Chris
at the side of the road and not take him back to our place because he
would cackle every time someone got dumped through the hole onto the
concrete below.
The next morning as I woke I was thinking about Sweeny Todd and thought
to myself, "Hey! That hole through the floor of the barber shop was
right over the pie shop below! The bodies would have gone right through
the middle of it!" That was a pretty bad incongruity.
</SPOILERS>
Monday was New Year's Eve and John made a nut loaf while I got a
manicure from Lori. I ruined the paint job on my nails getting dressed
too soon after because we were running late and had to take the polish
off. Sorry Lori! We went to RnA's for a small dinner party. Izolda made
mixed drinks. She made one up with Sprite, celtic cross, chamborg, and
peach schnapps. It was delicious and it got named a Navel Ring. We sat
around drinking and chatting until dinner was ready.
Renee and Alex had place cards for us all, with the menu and guests
listed on them. That was cool. I sat next to Andy and Janet. Kristin
and Alison were on either side of John who was across from me, and Rich
was missing because he had a gig. He showed up in time for the New Year
Countdown, but meanwhile we had a fabulous dinner of salad, the nut
loaf, and pasta with many choices of sauces. Plus roasted veggies, and
May wine.
<SPOILERS>
We whiled away the evening with discussion and games. I revealed to
Alex and Renee the "worm hole" problem in Sweeny Todd - and today it
seems Renee discovered that there was a different set up originally
that would have worked with the chair dumping bodies forward instead of
backwards, but they didn't fix the set once they decided on the cool
and efficient backwards dumping.
</SPOILERS>
We played Buzz Word before the New Year, went dowstairs to the TV for
the countdown, and played Hoopla with Pictionary cards after the New
Year. We had dessert late. It was really nice to be at a small
gathering with close friends for a bit of a change this year (not that
we wouldn't have enjoyed the party that everyone else was at!)