7 posts tagged “friends”
As expected, we had a great time at the party last night. Everyone seemed more than ready to get rid of 2007 and start 2008 with a clean slate. There was something comforting about the fact that Tadd and I weren't the only ones who had had a less-than-stellar year. It seemed like everyone had parts of 2007 that they would rather forget.
Betsy came up with this great idea to create a small fire in a large metal container in their driveway and have everyone write down things that they wanted to leave behind in 2007 on strips of paper. Then, about 30 minutes before midnight, we all stood around the container and ceremoniously tossed our misfortunes into the fire. Everyone wrote down something; some people wrote down several things. People wrote out their frustrations with former employers, current employers, past relationships, problems with school, general upsetting incidents that happened, and even just plain bad luck. Some people stood up and vented out loud prior to burning their frustrations, while others just quietly tossed their pieces of paper in with the others. A few people burned their old business cards too. I think it was extremely therapeutic for everyone. I wonder if this will become a new NYE tradition...
Aside from job searching, job-applying, and job interviews, we were able to squeeze in a few holiday activities this month. The first weekend in December, we half-heartedly decorated the tree. It did help cheer me up a bit. We had originally wanted to buy a new tree (we use fakes), but with our new financial hardships, it just wasn't much of a priority anymore. So, for the first time in almost 30 years, my parents got themselves a brand new prelit tree and offered us their old one. It was so much fuller and prettier than our 5 year old $30 6-ft skinny Charlie Brown tree, so we took them up on it. This tree has been in use every year since my parents got married in 1978 and still looks great for its age!
On the 15th, we had our 6th annual Christmas party. I'd say it was a success. We did a mystery gift exchange this year instead of the usual gift free-for-all where we exchange with everyone. I think it worked out much better this way. People who wanted to participate could, people who didn't want to didn't feel obligated to, and it was less expensive and less awkward for just about everyone. Everyone seemed really pleased with the gifts they ended up with. I ended up with a $15 iTunes giftcard and Tadd ended up with a mojito giftbox (a handle of rum and a bottle of mojito mix). Everyone seemed to have a good time, although the party ended earlier than I expected it to.
And for some reason Vox isn't letting me upload anymore pics right now, so I guess I'll stop there for now... More later.
I can't say enough how glad I am that Stephanie came over last night. We had such a good time, and it was really good catching up. We need to do that WAY more often than we currently do. I miss the days when we were neighbors, and we saw each other at least three times a week when we would go to the gym together, and usually at least once on the weekend. And in between, we would send each other emails at work and read each other's LJs. Those were the days. Now we've moved on to differnt towns and life is moving fast. We need to remember to make time for each other so our bond stays as strong as it is right now. I'm lucky to have friends like her and Betsy in my life. It's always comforting to know you have friends you can both laugh and cry with, and that they will accept you no matter what.
It was also great to finally see a new episode of Big Love. Lots to ponder with this episode, and some stuff isn't entirely clear. Hopefully it will either be repeated tonight or available On Demand, because I need to see it a second time to process everything effectively. Just thinking about the loaded gun given to Nicki and the pseudo-supportive phone call Bill received, I think Roman is cooking up something very very big for Bill. Also, Pam and Carl give me the creeps! As did Roman's "Bridal Registry" book that he showed Joey when they were talking about reassigning Wanda. Ick.
We almost didn't get a chance to watch it last night because we had a HUGE thunderstorm in the late afternoon/early evening. The power was out when I got home and remained out for about an hour and a half after I got home. Then, once power was finally restored, the cable wasn't working. So we missed the original premiere at 9. But it kicked back in before the repeat showing at 11, so we just watched that one instead. After a year of patiently waiting for the second season to begin, I was determined to watch it on premiere night.
My weekend was alright. Friday night we went to Betsy & Richard's party. They were celebrating Betsy's brother Brian and sister Julie being in town from Boston. I was more tired than I wanted to be that night, so perhaps not in the best party mood, but I still managed to have a good time. Tadd had too much sake and didn't feel good after awhile, but after sitting outside in the fresh air, he started to feel better.
Saturday I got four hours of overtime in. It's always eerie being in the building when barely anyone else is. They turn off all the main overhead lights on the weekends, and the closest window to my office is quite a ways away, so I was only working by the light of my cubicle. Everything else is pretty dark. Sometimes I really like the peacefulness of working in that scenario...other times my mind starts wandering and I get creeped out and jump at every little noise. I do tend to be more productive when things are quiet and still, so I got a lot done. Maybe I should come in over the weekends more often...or not. Tadd and I went out to dinner at Chilis a little while after I got back, and then we vegged at home for the rest of the night.
Sunday, we did something we probably shouldn't have done...went shopping. There are SO many semi-annual sales going on right now that it was hard to resist. Every June and January I stock up on Bath & Body Works' anti-bacterial hand soaps during their big sales. So that was originally the reason we were going to the mall. In the end I got three foaming hand soaps (Tropical Passionfruit, Wild Honeysuckle, and Coconut Lime Verbena), a large bottle each of shampoo and conditioner in their Fresh Pineapple scent, and a small bottle of lotion and conditioner in their Eucalyptus Spearmint scent. I only spent $26, so not bad. We also went to Yankee and got 6 wax tarts, an air freshener refill, and a Car Jar for $12. We got my dad's Father's Day gift and a few cards at Hallmark as well. So, all told, we spent about $75. Not terrible for the amount of stuff we got. We stopped and got lunch at Steak N Shake and then came home.
We've been working on Pieces of Eight Council for a good portion of the time since we got home from lunch. We ended up buying a domain name for it, so it's now at http://www.piecesof8council.com. Easier for us to tell people about it and easier for the users to remember. Tadd also added an image gallery, so now each member has a place to upload photos. It also allows comments for each photo, just like on MySpace. We're still tweaking it, but it's completely functional at this point.
I've decided I'm finally going to bite the bullet and buy myself an iPod so I can stop borrowing Tadd's all the time. I've decided on a green 4GB Nano. I'll probably get it either this week or next. Unless I talk myself out of it for the zillionth time, because there are so many other things we could be spending $200 on right now. Hopefully not though. Because I do really want one.
Where oh where are my journal buddies??? I haven't seen entries from any of my Vox friends in a week and a half! I'm getting lonely over here...
But, regardless of whether or not I have any active buddies over here, this will remain my blogging home. I like Vox infinitely better than LJ.
On a similar note...I would like to give a warm welcome to Bet, who created an account yesterday. He hasn't done anything with it yet, but it's still nice to have more people in my Vox neighborhood!
So Tadd planned a whole birthday celebration night for me on Saturday. I think we've determined that he just doesn't have the planning gene. On top of that, he just generally has bad luck (he is a Capricorn, and they are prone to bouts of bad luck). But his effort was valiant and I am extremely appreciative of his efforts.
The night consisted of several stages. Stage one, which went off without a hitch, was a romantic dinner at Kona Cafe in Disney's Polynesian Resort. I had a delicious dinner of Pan-Asian noodles with chicken and Tadd had the prime rib with stir-fried broccoli and mashed yukon gold potatoes. I had a glass of riesling with dinner and we shared some banana-caramel creme brulee for dessert. Everything was delicious. The plan from there was to have some time to wander around by ourselves for awhile, then meet up with some friends to watch the fireworks at 9, then head over to Pleasure Island to go to The Adventurer's Club and meet up with even more friends over there. So we did wander around at first. We headed down to the resort's beach and grabbed some pina coladas. Then we walked from the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian, and passed a wedding taking place in the wedding pavilion between the two resorts. Then we hung out in the GF lobby for awhile, just people-watching.
It was then, while we were in the GF lobby, that he told me what the plan was for the rest of the night. As touched as I was at all of his planning and scheming for me, I had to tell him that Pleasure Island was just too expensive to ask our friends to pay! It's $21 just for cover charge, then drinks are horribly expensive on top of that. At that point, both Rick and Betsy texted him and said they couldn't make it. Betsy had a migraine, and Rick had some unexpected financial things come up and just couldn't afford it. We thought about canceling the PI portion of the night and just going someplace cheaper, like Copper Rocket in Maitland. But just about that time, we found out Manny, Stephanie, and Ryan were already on Disney property. And then Tadd found out from the GF concierge desk that PI now allows for you to pay a much cheaper cover charge if you only plan on going to one club. So we decided to forge ahead.
We headed back to the Polynesian and met up with Ryan, Manny, and Stephanie to wait for the fireworks. It turned out the information that Tadd got was wrong, and they wouldn't go off until 10pm. That was too late for the rest of our plans, since we had to meet up with Bet at PI and if we waited, we would miss some of the first events at the Adventurer's Club. That meant that poor Ryan, Manny, and Stephanie came all the way to the Polynesian for nothing. But they were all hungry, so we headed over to the snack bar and they got some food. Manny also got me a really cute birthday cupcake with Mickey sprinkles, which I thought was a sweet gesture, with the night going as horribly wrong as it had so far. We hung out for awhile until everyone was finished eating, and then we all drove over to Pleasure Island.
It turns out that Britney Spears, of all people, was playing at House Of Blues in Downtown Disney. So in order to get to the Adventurer's Club, we had to endure the traffic, and throngs of people, who came to see Britney. Ugh. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still a hassle. We FINALLY got to the Adventurer's Club. Bet had called and said he was almost there, so we decided to go in and have him meet up with us inside. We get in line to get inside and the two castmembers there checking IDs tells us that the Adventurer's Club is excluded from the reduced single-club cover charge, so in order to get inside, we have to each pay $21. I don't think so. At this point, Tadd is beside himself, embarrased, frustrated, and upset at how this night he has planned is going. My heart goes out to him, because I can tell he feels awful. So we go to plan B...let's call Bet really quick and tell him to go to Universal instead of Disney, then we can all meet back up at The Groove over there (where cover is only $7 and drinks are expensive, but not insanely so). We call Bet, and then the whole way back to the car, Tadd is apologizing to everyone. Poor guy. I could tell that Manny and Stephanie were miserable at how the night was going. Ryan is much more go-with-the-flo, so he was fine, but I felt awful because I knew Manny and Stephanie were truely hating the way things were going.
So we drive back through the Britney traffic, and head over to Universal. We meet back up with everyone at The Groove, and finally I start relaxing and having fun. We had made arrangements that Stephanie could get a ride back with one of us (Bet and Ryan both live very close to her and Manny's house, but Tadd and I also would have gladly brought her home if for whatever reason they couldn't), since Manny had to be at the station to DJ his 1am radio show. At the time that we had offered, she had thanked us for making the arrangements and seemed really cool with the idea of staying. But barely over an hour or so into the time we had gotten to The Groove, Manny got up to leave and Stephanie was leaving to go with him. We couldn't convince her to stay. I guess my night had sucked that badly. I'll be honest...I was somewhat crushed that she left so early when I had thought she was staying until the end. I know all our plans had gotten screwed up horribly, but I had really hoped to have some time with my best friend, since I hadn't seen her in months. So, they left, and then our group, which was supposed to be a festive group of 8 was down to four people: me, my husband, my brother, and Bet.
At that point, I started weeping a little bit, upset that for the second year in a row, my birthday had turned into an utter mess. Yes, it was an ugly moment of wallowing in utter self-pity, but if I were to tell the story honestly, that is what happened. The guys all did their best to cheer me up, and eventually I just got that "screw it" attitude and made the best of the rest of the night. We hung out in the Red Room for awhile, and Bet and Ryan took turns buying me drinks, and we took lots of silly pictures with Bet's camera. We went out on the balcony for awhile, then back inside to the Green Room. By then, I was relaxed and enjoying myself again.
They announced last call, and Bet asked if anyone was hungry. No one really wanted the night to end, so we decided to go to Steak N Shake. We drove to the one in Winter Park, got out of the car, and a waitress yells across the parking lot that they are drive-through only, and it's closed to dine-in customers. What?!?! Steak N Shake is known for being 24-hours! So we shrug our shoulders and drive to the closest Denny's, which was happy to take our business. We feasted on greasy diner food and laughed about our antics earlier in the evening. Bet amused the waitress by ordering TWO english muffins to go with his giant plate of every breakfast food known to man. Then, of course, he got too full and can't eat the second english muffin, so we laughed at him for that. We pay our bill around 3:30am, say our goodbyes to Ryan and Bet, and head home. I am asleep before my head hits the pillow.
So that was my birthday celebration. It was upsetting and frustrating that things didn't work out the way they were supposed to, but I was moved at how Tadd attempted to plan a wonderful evening for me, and how my brother and Bet did their best to cheer me up when I was sad. It's times like those that really warm your heart and make you realize that there are people out there who really care about me. You know when you're at your lowest moment, they will be there for you.
Birthday celebration last night was somewhat of a disaster. For the second year in a row. At least this year my pet goldfish didn't die. I'm starting to think my birthdays are cursed. In the end, I still managed to have a good time, with some serious cheering up from Tadd, Bet, and Ryan. I'll elaborate more later. Right now I have to get ready to go to my parents' house for our little family celebration. I'm sure this one will be much less disasterous.
