Christmas in November? Why not!

Today was my Sunday School Christmas party. I'm really glad that whoever planned it planned early.  December is always such a crazy month, so November 30th wasn't a bad idea at all.  We went to Maria's in Washington for dinner.  I really enjoyed my pot roast!  There was good conversation, and I got to know several people who sit on the other side of the room from me in class! :)  We are such creatures of habit.  At the end of dinner, we had a surprise visit from Santa Claus!  We got presents and got to sit on Santa's lap.

Santa got me a squeaky bike horn! :)  It was hilarious to see what some people got.  We had a good time.  Fun trivia.  Good food.  Great conversation.  And Santa!  Who could ask for more?

"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane"

I'm pulling out the Jimmy Buffet lyrics tonight because it's the song that keeps going through my mind regarding this work move. For those of you who don't know, my department moved to a new building this week.  I thought this week was going to be super stressful because it was going to be so chaotic.  But it turns out that the chaoticness has just been really humorous to me.  If they didn't want me to work for a week, they should have just told me.  Originally we were told that we were moving on Thursday.  Does "Hey, you're moving on Thursday" sound to you like "We're going to start moving you on Tuesday?"  Me either.  But Tuesday early afternoon the MIS people started moving the computers and phones out of our office.  No big deal, I decided I could just bring my laptop in on Wednesday to do the paperwork that they still expect me to get done.  Wednesday morning at 8:45 when I got to work, the maintenance guys were dismantling shelves and removing counter tops (the equivalent of our desk space).  I lasted until about 11:00 before I went home.  Thursday was the move day, so I didn't even attempt to go in. Today, Friday, I planned to work from home for a little while and then go to the office to start settling in.  Hahahahahahahahahahaha!  Here is what I found at 2:30 this afternoon in my new office:

Above is the view from the front door.  All those black file cabinets are the two drawer cabinets that are supposed to be under our new counter tops.  And the back wall to the right is where the next pictures are zoomed in on.

If you look at the blue tape on the wall, mine space is the tape farthest to the right.  Yesterday when I went into the office (before they started moving things in), they had the counter tops laid on the floor where they would go.  My space did not have counter top in front of it.  I'm not really sure what that means.  Maybe I'll be working from the floor.  I could put a nice rug down.  Maybe get an inflatable chair.  The possibilities are endless!

Here is a close up of my space.  See the phone on top of the red tub?  That is my phone.  Well, it's half mine.  I get to share it with one of my coworkers.  Don't get me started on that.

See now why I'm choosing to laugh so I don't go insane?  It's that or cry or get really frustrated.  Did I mention that one of the maintenance men was hanging pictures on the wall in other parts of the building today?  He must not be savvy about putting up counter tops.  I'm thinking I might have a space, complete with my shelves to set my stuff on sometime in mid-January.  Any other guesses?

Decorating 2012

2:00 until 7:00ish. Two people. One Christmas tree. 32 strands of lights.   Zero trips to the store! (That is definitely a record).  One strand of garland.  Two nativity sets.  Lots of snowmen.  Various other decorations.  A decorating extravaganza!  Here is the progression of the 3 hours of light putting on.  Emily and I are a great team.  Each plays her vital role. I string the lights.  Emily unrolls each strand and has it ready for me before I need it.  Here is the first row of branches finished:

Emily had a snafu with the garland and had to put new lights on it.  But she was a trooper.

More than halfway there and getting a little loopy :):

At the top where I can't reach, so I have to straddle some chairs instead of getting up and down and moving chairs.

Finishing touches.  Red bows:

The injuries.  I always cut up my fingers on the needles.

Pizza for dinner has become the tradition.  Normally we have frozen pizza, but we forgot to buy one, so we had to go to Papa Johns.  Notice the mess in the living room.  We are still in the midst of decorating.

This year, the tree came complete with presents to go under it.  Thanks to a very early visit from Santa and some presents from my mom.

And here is the completed living room.  A job well done, if I do say so myself!

Thanksgiving Weekend

So, someone finally mentioned that I haven't been blogging.  It wasn't necessarily why I haven't been blogging, but it motivated me a little bit.  The fact is, I've planned several blog posts in my head and then never gotten around to typing them.  That's just how it goes sometimes.

Yesterday I celebrated Thanksgiving in Roselle with my mom's side of the family.  At some points in the evening I was laughing so hard I cried. My plan was to tell you the story about the coffee cup, but I think it would get lost in translation and I forgot to take a picture of the coffee cup, which would have helped you understand the story.  At the end of the evening, my cousin Jake said, "I love when Teresa visits.  She laughs at everything!"  I finally got to see my cousin's engagement ring (she got engaged in July) and hear some wedding details.  Here are some pictures of our dinner:

 Before consumption.

 A candid of the diners:

 Hey, everyone look:

Then, today, Mom and I left the house at 9:30 to start shopping.  My kind of Black Friday.  We went to Woodfield and went to Gap and New York & Company.  Then we stopped at Chickfila for lunch :).  Unlike if we had gone in Peoria, there was absolutely no wait.  And I think I could have gotten free fries!  You know how they walk around asking if you want a refill on your drinks?  Well, I was eating the last of mom's fries (I had already eaten my own!) and the owner asked if I wanted a refill.  I was taken aback and full, or I would have seen if he would have really given me more fries.  Then we headed to Stratford for a couple of more stores.  And we ended at Best Buy.  Now, I am parked in a chair and might not move again.

Roy G Biv

Tonight at Bible Study we were discussing God's promise to never flood the earth again and that the sign of that promise is the rainbow.  The teacher stated that the rainbow has been  consistent throughout all these generations.  In elementary school many of us learned Roy G Biv so that we would know the order of the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.  I was talking to a couple of women who went to school in India.  Interesting fact of the evening--they learned the colors of the rainbow in opposite order--Vib G Yor.  Someone mentioned the fact that Roy is probably not a common name in India.  One of the ladies said, "Vib G Yor was not a popular name in India either!"  Hilarious!

Why I like football movies but not football

I've always loved sports movies.  I've never really understood why, since I don't really like sports.  Especially football.  I don't like football really at all.  As a matter of fact, one of the fastest ways to get me out of the room is to turn on a football game.  Yet, I love football movies.  And not just the off the field stuff, but the actual games.  I've been watching the TV show Friday Night Lights.  Which is all about football.  And I sometimes rewind to watch the football parts of it.  But tonight I just realized why I like it.  I don't have to watch all of the time outs.  One slow play at a time.  Soooo boring.  But fiction is fast paced and you only see the important stuff.  :)  I guess I'll stick with fiction over the real game.  And I'm okay with that. 

There is something wrong with me!

I have been sleeping with my window cracked all week.  At 4:30 this morning I woke up to go the bathroom and realized I was sweating.  When I woke up this morning my room was 52 degrees.  I just walked my rent to the office in a t-shirt, exercise pants, and flip flops.  It is 49 degrees outside.  My hands were the only thing cold.  Sometimes I wish people who are cold all the time could live in my body for a day or two to understand how miserable I sometimes am!

PS.  I know...there are other things wrong with me, but this is the one I wanted to blog about today!