Category: holidays and parties

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Bracing for a Winter Storm

This week coming up is an exciting one for a lot of people. It is the week of Thanksgiving, when a lot of people made a big effort to gather with family and enjoy a big traditional meal together. But it is also the early weeks of winter, and it looks like we are bracing for a winter storm this week, which will probably affect a lot of travel plans. I worry about big holidays when so many people are on the highways. You know that some people are going to be in wrecks, some will break down, some will have major problems when they arrive – it can be so stressful and dangerous.

I hope all my friends who are heading “home” this week are super extra careful when driving and that they arrive safely. I hope that the family dramas are limited and you find a reason to be grateful for having people who love you and the chance to share a wonderful meal.

I plan on staying home and just cooking a small turkey breast. I already bought everything at the store yesterday and am ready to cook on Thursday morning while I watch the Macy’s parade. I love Thanksgiving for a lot of reasons, and wish I could get home but that’s just not practical this year. Maybe next year I can invite a lot of family to join me here in my home and I will cook for a crowd. That will be a nice change!

In the meantime, I got my grocery shopping done for keeping my pantry stocked and for cooking the traditional turkey meal. I also bought some extra baking supplies, so if we really do have bad weather this week, I can try some recipes out and spend some fun hours in the kitchen baking. There are a whole pile of new recipes sitting on the desk that my friends have been sharing on Facebook and Pinterest. This might be the right time for trying them out!

 

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An Ex’s Birthday

Even though we broke up with a lot of bitterness and hard feelings, I still care a little bit about my ex. I don’t ever search him out or try to talk with him, but I do think of him every now and then. I know that his birthday is coming up in two days. I am not going to send him a card or call him up or anything. But I do remember the last birthday we shared together and how special I tried to make his whole day and night.

Unfortunately, he never much effort to reciprocate. My birthday was a huge disappointment, especially since we had celebrated his in November, so he had several months to figure out what to do to make mine special. But he didn’t bother, and to be honest, I think that disappointment was the start of the end of our relationship.

It was then that I realized he wanted all the attention on him and was never going to be as giving or considerate as I wanted in a partner. And I also realized that the only reason he made such a fuss on Valentine’s Day was not because he was expressing his love for me. He was just dutifully buying me thing so he could have a night of great sex. I’m glad I didn’t waste any more time on him than I did, and although I recognize that his birthday is two days away, I no longer care if it is a happy day for him – or not.

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Halloween Parties for Grown Ups

This weekend is when all the adults get to have their Halloween parties. The clubs and condo party rooms will be full of people in costumes, eating spooky snacks and having lots of fun. Downtown will be especially interesting this weekend, with just about everyone local going out in costume and only the out of towners still in street clothes.

Halloween is actually Thursday night, and next weekend will be too late for grown ups parties. I am glad that I can go out and have some fun with my friends this weekend and then stay home to pass out candy to the kids on Thursday night.

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Any Big Sales This Weekend?

Sorry to admit this, but the Columbus Day holiday has always seemed the oddest and least celebrated holiday of all the official holidays throughout the year. We all learned a little bit about Christopher Columbus and several other notable world explorers while in school. And there is some controversy about whether Columbus really discovered America or did he land on a Caribbean Island or even Mexico or Central America instead?

But for me and anyone else who works in retail, Columbus Day means one more holiday to have an excuse for a sale and it is the last holiday before the big Christmas rush. I think the Columbus Day holiday has lost some of its shine in modern years and people are no so much interested in any sales during October unless it means they can get an early start on their Christmas shopping.

Do you know of any sales going on this weekend that will be worth going to the mall to save money on something you really need? I can’t think of anything, and I’m not willing to start my Christmas shopping yet, either!

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August 1 Means School Starts

Today is the first day of school for the kids in the Metro area. A lot of other counties are either starting this week, too, or one day next week. I think it is crazy to start school in August, but this has been a long term effort to change our public schools into a year round schedule.

By starting in August, the schools build in a week of “Fall Break” in October, a two week “Holiday Break” and then a one week “Spring Break.” So the kids don’t really go for a longer school year, they just get more breaks.

Since I don’t have kids, it doesn’t matter much to me. I find is strange to go back to school before Labor Day, as that traditionally meant the end of summer where I grew up. But in the South, the warm weather lasts a lot longer and they have redefined the breaks away from Christian holidays to be more suited to teacher’s needing a break and professional development seminars.

School back in session just means longer drive time in the mornings, as the school buses mess up traffic. I absolutely HATE getting stuck behind a school bus on my way to work. I end up leaving for work 20 minutes earlier when school is in session just so I don’t have to deal with school buses. Getting to work early means less sleep for me and not enough time after I get to work to do anything personal, so I end up making coffee for the whole office and reading the newspaper for 15 minutes every morning. Personally, I would rather get that extra sleep and skip the newspaper, but I’m not willing to risk being late due to traffic. So it is what it is.

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Rainy Forecast for the Fourth

This year I was really looking forward to going downtown on the Fourth of July holiday, but now I don’t think I will be going. The weather forecast is for rain tonight and all day tomorrow and a rainy Fourth of July night – all the way into Friday night. Yuck.

Several municipalities are cancelling their fireworks shows based on the rainy forecast. Some are pushing them out to Labor Day holiday weekend, which is a long way off but a kind of nice idea to add to that holiday celebration. Around here Labor Day does not usually mean much other than some people get a day off from work and all the outdoor swimming pools close.

Closing the pools on the first weekend of September is stupid in the South. The weather here is usually warm enough to enjoy a swimming pool for another 4 – 6 weeks.  I can see that if they need lifeguards it might be hard to find teenagers and college students available for lifeguard jobs, but truth be known, school here starts August 1, so the teens and college kids are long gone before Labor Day.

Anyway, if it really does rain all day and night tomorrow, I will stay home and watch the fireworks on TV instead of heading downtown. The last time I went downtown for fireworks, we got caught in a violent thunderstorm halfway through the fireworks show and the asshole police would not let us leave the bridge to go to our cars. They forced us to stay out on the bridge over the Cumberland River and risk getting hit by lightning. I was never so mad and so scared we would be hit by lightning before in my life. I will never let the police force me to stand outside in a thunderstorm again. So any time there is a serious threat of rain involved with a downtown event, I refuse to go.

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Wearing Green and Drinking Beer

This weekend is all about Saint Patrick’s Day. Here in Nashville we love any holiday that gives us an excuse to drink beer, so this is a big deal for downtown bars and restaurants. On top of the holiday, we have the SEC basketball playoffs here this weekend, with a huge number of extra partiers to accommodate.

I heard some big numbers on the news about how the downtown bars and restaurants can only actually seat something 75,000 people on a weekend, but with the basketball game there are going to be more like 100,000 people looking for fun and refreshments on Friday and Saturday nights. With all these extra people, Nashville decided to have a big street party and rope off a few blocks downtown to allowing drinking on the street – a very rare thing for our proper southern city!

To be honest, I do not drink much beer. I tend to not want the hassle of watching my intake and fretting about driving home without the risk of trouble with cops. And second, I don’t want all the extra calories. Third, I only like beer that is ice cold. I don’t want to hold a bottle in my hand and just sip on it for an hour with the heat from my hand raising the temperature of the beer. I don’t like drinking from a bottle anyway. I like a glass – and not plastic, I mean a real glass.

Sorry if I sound so finicky, but I have learned what I like and what I don’t like and I will certainly seek out the things that I like if I have that option. Maybe once in a while I might be at the boss’s house for a backyard barbecue and have to drink a beer from a red Solo cup, but most of the time I will be seated in a sports bar or a stadium suite and enjoy an ice cold beer served in a glass along with the peanuts or Chex Mix and a good baseball game or hockey game underway.

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Single and Not Minding That

Yes, I’m single and I’m OK with it on Valentine’s Day. In some ways, it is better to be single and dating several guys – you get more gifts! I resent a Facebook friend’s comment that I should be eating ice cream and crying tonight.

The guy is a family friend is serving in the Navy and he recently got engaged. Of course, I am happy for him and his fiance, but I do wonder if this is going to be a long term, successful relationship. Almost all of their communication has been long distance phone calls, which have to be short because of the expense, and emails. I do not think that you really get to know someone well after less than a year’s emails and short phone calls. I hope they don’t get married right away – in my opinion they should wait until he is out of the Navy and they have more time together in person.

One of the fun things about being single is getting to know other people. I have found that it takes time to get past the fake bravado and extra efforts that people make for their first impressions. I want to know what the guy is like when real life happens, not just dates. How does he handle an emergency? How does he act when he doesn’t get his way? What does he do when he is not with you? How does he interact with children and senior citizens? All of these things have to do with character and values. If his values are far different from yours, you need to know that before going deeper into a relationship.

Anyway, I’m dating three different guys right now. I am not looking for a husband as much as someone to spend time with doing fun things. I am very happy being single and I loved getting roses, candy and a beautiful necklace from the guys in my life. I can assure my FB friend in the Navy that were no tears and ice cream for me tonight.

 

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Big Party Weekend in Washington DC

Tonight starts one of the biggest party weekends for Washington DC – the Inauguration! I actually know people who are going to one of the Inauguration Balls and loaned one of my girlfriends a gown to wear. How funny to think that my dress is going places that I cannot!

I wanted to know what is going on besides the Inauguration Balls, which are just party of all the festivities in DC, and found a complete schedule of the inauguration events, with names of the celebrities and performers on the ABC News web site.

While surfing around some other sites, I found a playlist of songs by the scheduled singers and bands on Spotify. I think that was a good idea to put together and will check it out next time I’m on Spotify – probably sometime late Saturday, while my dress is dancing with the stars in Washington, DC.

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Friday Feels Like Wednesday This Week

All these holidays days off earlier in the week plus bookended by weekends have got my internal date/day/time clock totally messed up. I still know about what time it is, but my days are so confused. This does NOT feel like a Friday. I cannot believe that tomorrow is Saturday and I have two days off again so soon.

I did enjoy having Christmas on a Tuesday. That gave me the whole weekend plus Christmas Eve being on a Monday was like a free bonus day to get all the last minute things done. I know a lot of people took off Monday completely or were able to leave early to get home and prepare for Christmas day.

This weekend is my R & R weekend. I don’t have to clean anything, the tree and decorations are already put away, and I think I will stop by Redbox for a couple of movies to take home with me for a Friday night movie and popcorn night.

Tomorrow I will deal with a little bit of paperwork – I have to make new files for the bills and taxes for 2013 – that means I will get some practice writing 2013 and letting the fact that this really is a new year sink into my brain! Then I might call a friend and see if anyone wants to go to the movie theater and watch either the Hobbit or Lincoln with me. If you want to go, hit me up!