Gnomes and Diamonds

Just to recover some sanity left in my brain, let me wrap up my weekly life...

Grandparent story: The MORNING Aimee and I were to drive them to the airport for their flight away, grandma pulled this MASSIVE pout-fest. She had apparently hid a small container of a single piece of baklava in the dining room (3 days before) under a napkin. When the boys came over, I was trying to clean up and made the executive decision that she no longer wanted the dessert, and that I could eat it. And it was eaten. That morning, I woke up to find she'd be upset and throwing a fit all morning about how "it was just nasty" that me and my friends came in and ATE all of the sweets in the house. She made it a point to say that it had been OK if it were all "family members", but this was just unacceptable. "We had to eat salty things for breakfast." HEAVEN FORBID! And things got worse from there....
Anyways, for those of you who know my grandparents, this went on all day until we finally dropped them off. No tearful goodbye this time.
Aimee and I vented it out at Cheesecake Factory in Cambridge while I exchanged an Ann Taylor dress.
And that night, after a fruitful and fun run around the neighborhood, I fell asleep on Muck's lap while watching "Dodgeball".

I grabbed hot cocoa with Garrett. Just to get out of town, we found ourselves in a Dunkin Donuts in Salem, NH. We had a good 2-hour conversation about life and whatnot. He is such a great guy, I'm so glad we still talk.
And Jessica came over to watch Dane Cook, who is a very sexy man. It was a good night.

Yesterday I ran a lot of errands, focusing mainly on France things. And then I went to say goodbye to Craig before he moved back to NYC. Lucky bastard.

I FINALLY got an email back from Darrell. You know, I don't care what's going on with this whole......thing. I just get frustrated when friends don't keep in good contact with me, especially when I care a lot about them and am going to a FOREIGN COUNTRY in about a month. Common courtesy, in my POV. Agh, men.

Went into the North End with Steve F. today to have a lunch date. We talked in french, I told him about college life, tried to help him out with some of his problems. He acts a lot older than he really is, and I'm so impressed by him.
Wisdom teeth surgery victim Scott and I went out to dinner and a movie later tonight. We basked in the gift card glory at TGIFridays, and saw "Blood Diamond". It was a very good film. A lot of violence about the West-African diamond black market and it's relations with the RUF. Makes you frustrated with humanity, that's for sure.

I would like to take this time now to shout out to Deejay. I see you reading my blog. Hey, you. Let's chat soon.

I don't know anyone else who reads it, which is why I'm perplexed why someone in Latvia or Algeria would stumble across it....which they apparently have.

Back at Home

The chocolate thing I had was, in fact, the flu. Just to let you know. The worst jogs of my life...
Moving out of the apartment in Manhattan was a real bitch. I had to pack everything up all by myself into the car in the basement garage. Where Buck was so conveniently placed TIGHTLY (as in no moving room) between a BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, and Escalade. I'm serious. Rough 2 hours of packing my life into a Buick LeSabre.
And did I mention that there was a protest outside of my apartment at the time? Something about police brutality in Africa. There were more cops than protesters, I swear. That means Wall Street was completely blocked off, and the COMPLETELY PACKED garage was not able to get rid of any cars. Rough.
The drive home was uneventful. Dad and I talked some. I pined some. You know how I do.

Back in NA, life is same-old-same-old. Translation: lots of time. It's as if time abruptly slows down like you've hit a patch of molasses when you get to the burbs from the city.

The morning after, after a terrible run (again), Scott and I went shopping with Mom. Mom had gotten in a car accident, so she was pretty bummed out, but we tried to make her happier. Both of us kids got haircuts (though, Scott forbade me from cutting more than 1 inch off...). It was a short shopping trip, actually. We ended up getting dinner at the Loop, and then talking in my room for the rest of the night.
The grandparents came in, and my life got harder automatically. Not the cute ones, the evil ones. The biggotted ones. It's been an interesting few days.
Aimee brought home her cat, Ron. He's adorable, but a bit feisty.

I went to the doctors to discover my actual flu symptoms were legit. And I had a sore on my foot. Good, clean fun for everyone. And Jesse came over to say hi for a few.
We ended up (Jesse & Craig & me, that is) going to Dany's house for a party. Lots of people. One hour limit, thanks to the other 2 who didn't know anyone at the party but me. It was nice to see them all, but I sadly realized how far apart I really was from a lot of them. There's not as big of a connection to everyone as there used to be. Craig and I ended up going back to his place to discuss my boy problems.

Christmas Eve was uneventful. Aimee and I went to the grocers for Mom's birthday, the family went to Wilson's to get food for Xmas, and that's about it. I cooked dinner.
Ido called me, surprisingly. I was so glad to hear from him. I missed him, and it's nice to know that we can still talk. Though, his English isn't as good anymore. Oh well, I'm used to it.
Aimee and I went to Church for Candlelight Mass a bit early, where the youth came together to say "hi". Again, there was a stronger disconnect between me and the other Andover kids, which surprised and disappointed me. Oh well, que sera sera, right?
It was interesting going to church after my personal seperation from Christianity. Lots of interesting things are heard when you're not so hooked on the religion.
Grandma has the most hideous, shrill, out of tune singing voice I've heard in a long time. It made a lot of us giggle during the songs.

Christmas was fine. My family woke me up in a cruel way: continuously calling my mobile until I came downstairs.
Too many presents. I got what I wanted, and then some. I plan on donating some key things to charity, along with a lot of things from my room already.
What did I get? Money...gift cards...a piece of lingerie (thanks, mom)...a gnome (thanks, aimee)...and other joyous things.
Dad and I went for a jog around the neighborhood. It wasn't too bad.
Ido and I talked again for a while. Aparently he's going to call me more often so he can work on his English, and I owe him a song?
Scott saved me from the family, and we went to go see "Dreamgirls". Not a bad movie. MAN, do those women have chops on them!!!! Jennifer Hudson's GOT PIPES!!! That movie's really made me want to get back into the jazz singing scene.

Today, well, was amazing. After lunch with the family, Jeff and I ended up going to Salvation Army, where Jeff found the most ridiculous clothing to buy for a grand total of $15. And we ran into Maxx & Molly, which was great fun for all.
Jeff and I talked in Starbucks for an hour about life, futures, and politics. And I talked to his girlfriend on the phone.
We came back and took a long walk around my neighborhood, and talked some more.
After I made us dinner and we took pictures of Jeff being sultry, Scott joined up with us, where we decided to go to Salisbury Beach after a glass of Pinot Grigio. We sang carols on the beach, and joked about life. And we found the most dismal bar on the beach. Big place. We were the ONLY people in the bloody place. Dismal, I tell you! We had a few chuckles and headed back to my place, where Jesse stopped by for a while.
I love them.

Oh, Wow....

So, last night I didn't feel very well. At all. I was hugging the toilet for perhaps 2 hours, praying that I'd get the job done and feel better once and for all.
The kind where you can't really think straight, and it's a little harder to walk outside. The kind where you forget what happeed exactly the next day.
We, being Mom and me, think that it might be a mix between having some kind of bug, the stress from exams, the current events that have been going on in my life (which I will not discuss on my blog), PMS, and the fact that I OVERDOSED on chocolate. Yes, I ODed on chocolate. It can happen.

The funny thing is, apparently I felt compelled to write to Ido. I haven't talked to him in a few months. I wanted to know how he was, I guess. So, I got onto the computer, and started making an email for him. I got the "To" part right. The subject said "recap". I assume I was going to write out what I had been up to or something.
The body of the text: "hey ido,".
That's it.
Sent.

How do I know?? Because Ido responded to me this morning. His response was something along the lines of, "...call me on Friday...."

I'm still laughing about this.

DC

Thursday, Aaron and I ate some Korean Food and watched 2 movies: "Babel" and "Running with Scissors". The former was excellent, I liked it. The latter was, well, disappointing (to say the least).
I finished "The Secret Life of Bees". It was a good book. Cute, and a little overly-sappy for my own liking.

I went to DC this weekend to visit Aimee. The trip was nice. I got in around 7pm because of a slightly-delayed flight. Laguardia isn't the best airport in the world, that's for sure. We went to an Epuricurean and ate LOTS of sushi. Lots. And then we spent an easy night in her apartment discussing the future of the world.
Saturday I made my sister play tourist with me. We walked from the Potomac River to the Smithsonian Mall area. Aimee complained about her shoes a lot of the way. It was a lovely day, though, so I made her suck it up. We heard Madame Butterfly playing in the park, and we mosied from place to place. Took pictures. We strolled into the Air & Space Museum, which wasn't nearly as interesting as I anticipated it to be. We made fun of the spaceships being made out of the astronauts' wive's aluminum foil rolls, and we mourned the death of Pluto's status.
We ate at Macaroni Grille before spending another lowkey night at her place. We watched "Pride and Prejudice"...and Degrassi.

Sunday we got breakfast at the Reef with Erin, and we talked about boys and boobs and other girly flares. I almost missed my flight check-in (basically, had to beg my way on), but it was 2 hours late, so no matter.

Aaron swung over after I got home to look at my music and be completely distracting.

A Memo

Dear Men,
Please don't think that by ordering females around you will either attract them OR get your way. We are not obedient pups waiting for our next command. Yes, we admire a guy with some good, healthy confidence and initiative. However, when it comes to telling us what to do and then scolding us for not concurring...that is unacceptable. You might as well pour a cup of slightly-hotter-than-scolding staining coffee on yourself. Thanks, but no thanks. We can handle our lives just as well as you think you can.
Two more comments:
1) Know our individual names
2) Don't EVER start the conversation with the words "whore", "hoe", or "bitch".
Love,
Kim, a Female

On that note, Aimee and I just had a great day. Not only did we go to the Bodies Exhibit, but we also ate lunch in Little Italy at the San Gennero Festival. And we ate chocolate at Max Brenner's chocolate shop, and watched the hilarious show Hairspray. An A+ day.

Picking Up Aimee

Last night after work Mom and I went to go get Aimee from Logan.

Compromising with myself to gym tomorrow after work, I encouraged the family to drive into the North End for dinner.
So we got lost in Charlestown for about 30 minutes. Yeah yeah, Charlestown isn't the best location to get lost in, but it wasn't that terrible. Just slightly frightening.
We finally got into the North End, and all was well. We parked not too close to where the restaurants on Hanover Street are, so we had to walk a little bit (which the both of them continually doubted my walking navigation skills as we meandered through alleys). Guys, I knew where I was going. Don't worry. We just started in a bad place, and it was hard to get there.
Aimee commented all night that she felt she was in Europe, or London (?). Well, we were in fact in the North End, which is about as Italian first-generation as you can get in the US....

We concluded to try the newer restaurant, Strega. And boy, let me tell you....it was great. They had italian/mobster movies playing on one wall, and the ambience was vey dark and upscale. The food was pretty darn good. I indulged, yet again, with a vodka & salmon penne dish and a glass of merlot. Delicious.
They decided that it was necessary to end the night at Mike's Pastries. For those of you who haven't been to Mike's, then you don't know what it means to be italian (which I am not), or what it means to be alive. The baked goods/pastries are so good you won't feel like dieting ever again, if only you could just feast on only the sweets in that glorious little patisserie. It's always busy, but it's sooooooo worth it. And the people who work there have serving down to a "t"...or to an "s", more appropriately. I purchased some macaroons (regular & pistachio) and some leaves.
Boy, will I be paying for it today.

Michigan

This weekend was full of tripping over to Ann Arbor, Michigan to see my family. My grandfather has been in and out of the hospital for the last few months, and we went to go see him in a kind of "just in case" mentality. He looked alright, considering the amount of surgeries and close calls he's been having. My poor grandmother is holding up, too, considering. They both are tired, though. That was quite obvious.

Mom booked our flight for 6am, meaning we had to wake up at 3am and get there by 4.30am. Really, it was fabulous. Northwest is the way to go. Sarcastically speaking.
Anyways, we got our rental car, and went to Meijer's for some breakfast. Meijer's is much like Wegman's...it offers everything, it's midwestern, and it's open all of the time. I love those stores.
We went down an isle that had 2 signs: "International Foods" and "Mexican & Chinese Foods". I had to think about this for a while. Anyways, we hit jackpot over in the British & German section of that aisle, and I pranced out of the store happily with my booty of Hob Nobs, Fig Rolls, Cadburys, and Ritter Sports.
Hit up Aunt Mary Jo's (yes, that is her name), and I hung out with my cousin Joe while my mom and Aunt Mary Jo went to a funeral for some relative. I have so many relatives I don't know that "Do I Know Them?" has become quite an interesting constant game with my family. Joe and I goofed off on the computer for a while (we goofed off all weekend, but anyways), until I went to the basement and used their in-home gym to get some blood pumping. The machine of the day was the Nordictrack-like thing, where your legs literally swing back and forth at full speed while your arms attempt to keep up with your legs on the bars. It was an interesting machine that freaked me out a lot, and made me feel like a prancing gazelle. I made Joe do abs with me, which he was less than excited about.
After checking into our hotel room, we finally ended up at The Farm (my grandparents' home) where I took inspiration from my grandfather and took a 2-hour nap. I woke up to find much of our family in the family room, and dogs everywhere.

Welcome to my mom's family. Veteran farmers with a tiny (and ooolllddd) farm house that consists of a single room extension that is of equivalent size of the rest of the house. The decor of the house consists of holiday gifts and family presents (mostly unused or overused) dating back from pre-Vietnamian times, save a stash of doggy treats that somehow finds itself in every nook of the place. At any given moment, an estimated 2.5 dogs can be found running frantically around the 2 rooms and 1 kitchen, begging for food from the "Food Lady", my grandmother. If for some unknown reason there aren't at least 2 or 3 other family members in the house (who, mind you, have western accents), you can find grandparents sleeping on reclining chairs or working on 1000+ piece puzzles.

Anyways, after dinner with some family, Mom and I drove back to the airport to pick up Aimee. When back at The Farm, my cousin Jodie came over with her boyfriend/fiancé?, Nick. Nick's from Liverpool, England. His accent was not very thick since he's been living in Michigan, but I could definitely hear his Northern Britain accent. It was WONDERFUL to talk to a Brit again. Apparently Jodie and Nick are moving to Liverpool in February for a year or so....which means I get to visit. Excitement, commence!
Jodie, being a physical therapist, tried to help me with my tendonitis problem. It's still bruised, and it hurts to move it....but it may all be for the best.

The next day I went to the hotel's gym to run on the treadmill before we enjoyed another day at the farm. It was a good jog, but I was being stared down by a few co-guests for the treadmill that I was using. I pulled my quads on the damn machine somehow, but it was good nonetheless.
We were going to have breakfast at The Farm, but their one toilet broke (and Uncle Mike had to come over to fix it), so we went to Baker's Pantry. All 8 of us. Afterward, Aimee, Mom and I went over to CostPlus World Market and splurged on more international foods (Milka, Cote D'Or, marzipan, etc). We're spoiled, I know that much.

It's funny, because there's not much to do at The Farm but relax and do nothing, so that's what we did. After calling a few friends to say "hi", I took another 2-hour nap, and woke up to find (again) more relatives. We decided to, as a family, go to Red Lobster for dinner. All 14 of us. Leave it to my family to be he huge family that ruin the waiters' days. Granted, it must be noted that 2 of the people with us were Aimee and my other 2 grandparents: the evil ones (we'll refer to them as the republicans). We tried really hard for a few hours to find reasons not to call or see them, but we were found wanting, so we obediently invited them to dinner. Now, this may sound harsh, but it's completely legit. Ask anyone who's met them. Ask my father. They aren't the best people in the world, that's for sure. We have a family rule with them: don't spend more than 24 hours with them, and if you have to see them, cap it at 2 hours. ANYWAYS...

Dinner went over rather well. I made the mistake of telling my republican grandfather that I was dating an Israeli for a while. I didn't hear the end of it....then I made the even worse mistake of bringing up computers...then my mom made the mistake of telling my republican grandmother that I was learning how to cook. Otherwise, I talked to Nick, and we reminisced about England.
After dinner, Jodie, Nick, Joe, Aimee and I went out to downtown Ann Arbor and hit up a comedy club. It was pretty funny. The first guy wasn't much, but the other guy was pretty funny. I still can't get out of my mind when one of the guy's just stood on stage and shook his fat around and said, "Look, I'm Jell-o. Eat me." I can't figure out whether it was funny or disturbing. Ah, good times with cousins.

Sunday began with a pancake breakfast that lasted for a while. Then some lowkey puzzle making. Then some throwing of dice with the cousins. Then not much. Then a drive to the airport.

On a different (and more depressing) note, Ido is going back to Tel Aviv on the 9th. I want so badly to see him, but it's simply impossible for me to do so. How much do I not want him to go back.... Also, James is transfering to SUNY Buffalo, due to money problems. So, there's 2 of the closest, best men I have, leaving me for other places. And Deejay's going to Thailand on Thursday. I'm a mess.