Carolina Christmas

This year, I spent Christmas at home in North Carolina. I loaded up my rental car with my two doggies and off we went. The trip began at 9:30 and ended around 7pm just outside of Raleigh. I started off singing along to the Christmas songs on the way, but by about noon I was desperately searching for channels playing anything BUT Christimas music. By 6pm I was ready to drive into a pole - due to said oversaturation of Christmas tunes and the fact that Gizmo had puked twice on the way.

My first order of business was to meet up with my highschool friend Ali Mae. We left her hubby at home to watch their three kids, their two dogs, and my two dogs and eat pizza while we went to the steakhouse. I know, we are mean. But, TIM (her hubby) is a trooper and we loved him.

The next morning, it was off to Mom's house. I arrived and we immediately packed up and headed over to Asheville. We met up with her boyfriend, grabbed lunch, then went to the Grove Park Inn. Every year, the Grove Park sponsors a Ginger Bread house making contest and people from all over make these amazing houses all out of foods. Plus, they have tons of decorated themed Christmas trees that are really pretty - overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains.

After our stroll, we sat out on the terrace in the rocking chairs and looked at the skyline. The sun was in my face and it was fairly warm. I could have stayed there all day and did nothing but sit in that chair.

Christmas was next... My mom and I headed over to Asheville and went to Mass at my old church that I grew up in. Then we killed some time and saw "PS I Love You", then off to my brothers house where the real Carolina Christmas came into play. As we arrived, my brother is on the phone with the Henderson County police department because some men are huntin in the field right in back of his house. My nephew says that there were some gun shots. The binoculars come out. We all start lining up by the back window and watching the hunters go through the field about 100 yards away while they look for whatever it was they were trying to kill. The drama unfolded after the police arrived. There was some talk in the field between the men and the police. Then the phone rings with something to the effect of this on the other line,(I may be embellishing a little)POLICE: "Them dere men in that there field got themselves huntin licenses y'all. They kin hunt there and its legal and the've done been to the huntin safety classes and kin hunt safely back yonder". My brother thanks the policeman and hangs up, "Bullshit".

Got to also meet up with some other old friends from highschool. I went to see my friend Brandy for a while and we caught up, then I headed over to the Hanger (a bar by the airport) to meet up with another friend. While I was waiting, I ran into Brandy's sister who ironically works there. We caught up and then the singer from the band comes over during a break and I meet him too. So, he asks me where I am from and what I do ... and I tell him that I am from New Jersey/New York City and that I work in investment banking at a Wall Street firm. He asks me if I like Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen (natives to these parts). I say yes, of course. Next thing I know, he is back up on stage singing a song "for the girl from New Jersey". He plays BIG SHOT by BILLY JOEL. Embarrasing, yet funny.

My friend Mike finally showed up to meet me as the bar was closing. We went to another bar that was still open and got a drink and caught up.. It closed on us too. Then, I couldn't leave NC without a proper Waffle House experience. I pigged out on a nice 330am breakfast that included hashbrowns that were their signature "scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, and diced". Please, if you don't know what that is, try it once. They are the BEST.

For the trip home to NJ, I made a pit stop in Charlotte to visit some of my other friends. 4 kids, 2 dogs, then my two dogs. It was fun and I kicked their 7 year old's butt at video games. I know, I'm mean. I have to build up my self confidence somehow!

Hope y'all had a nice Christmas too.
My Nephews...

Woman Superpowers and Johnnie Walker Black

The holidays always bring a nice and exhausting string of holiday parties. This year was no different. There was the work holiday party, then the traders holiday party, the neighborhood party, ugly sweater party, and then there was this one...a random party that Maggie and I got invited to by Holly. She wanted me to meet a guy she works with to try to set us up. 3 things here that night - The Guys and Dolls Guy, The Setup, and Johnnie Walker Black.

The Guys and Dolls Guy
So, there was a very nice person there that I had a lengthy conversation with and basically told my life story to. I have a habit of doing that after a few drinks. But my question is this, its like the song, "Why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends?". It automatically led to, "I'd like to take you out to dinner sometime" at which point I never know what to say. He was nice. I had a nice conversation. But that's it. I ENJOY having conversations with people I don't know. Had a pretty good conversation with a girl I met that night too but she didn't want to take me to dinner! I didn't really think I gave him any kind of vibe that I was interested in him in that way but hence, I am stuck in the uncomfortable situation of trying to say no, nicely. UGH. I call him the guys and dolls guy because he was in the play some time back 'off Broadway' (supposedly, i never know whether to believe these people) and I was in the play in high school. Not sure how we discovered this similarity, but we did and it launched a very long conversation.

The Setup
Holly, you are very cute for trying to set me up. (Not sure if she reads this but going to give some props to her). So, I get there and I have no idea who she is trying to set me up with. But, she has told me his name. I'm changing it for purposes of this blog**. Let's call him Fernando. So, I walk in and Holly immediately introduces me to some guy named Fernando that is probably my father's age and doesn't speak English too well. Missing a lot of hair, but has a nice comb over to cover it up. I just about die. I mean, I know that my girls are trying to set me up with someone closer to my age than the last few but c'mon!!! Needless to say, that wasn't the guy she was trying to set me up with, he just had the same name. She just didn't clarify it so I walked around having discussions with myself in my head about what perceptions my friends must have of me.
Later that evening I met the real Fernando. I forced him to take my phone number (and simultaneously made him swear not to tell Guys and Dolls that I gave him my number because I felt bad for shooting G&D down).

Johnnie Walker Black
There was a raffle drawing at the party with several bottles of liquor as prizes. My friend Holly had tied on a few drinks and was in charge of passing out the raffle tickets. At the end, she had several left over and passed them over to me (hee hee, I think I had 9). BUT I STILL DIDN"T WIN!!! I was slightly distraught over the fact that I had such a good chance of winning but didn't actually win. A few minutes later I was talking to one of the guys who won and telling him my sob story about how I should have won, was only one number off, blah blah blah and he gives me his prize - the bottle of Johnnie Walker Black: which I don't drink, but it makes a nice decoration on my liquor display. The other girls didn't really witness this whole exchange (I dont think) and they all wanted to know how I got the bottle. I bragged about my woman superpowers.

**Side Note: I did tell Fernando that I never write about this stuff on my blog but he said he didn't mind.

Ugly Sweater Party

*Red and Green courdoroy holiday vest that makes you look like Santa's Elf, 7$
*Sexy turtleneck with penguins and christmas trees, 3$
*Size 3X whipstich sweater with gigantic holly leaves and sparkle, 7$
*Rummaging through the racks at the JC Journal Square Goodwill for an Ugly Sweater Party.....Priceless

I don't think I need to write anything else, except this: Mags came up with a really good point about ugly sweater parties..If you want to have a party and don't want guests that show for an hour and leave, then have an ugly sweater party. You really can't go anywhere else like a party or bar hopping looking like that so you are forced to stay where you are accepted for what you are wearing.

Hookah and Polish Rap

So, my roomie for the last few months was going back to college (she was a co-op, which is like an intern) and we thought it only fitting for her to have a going away party. Being the good roomate/boss that I am, I decided to call ahead and make plans. I found a place that I had been to before - Sin Sin. I really only wanted to go there because of the name - it sounds like fun huh?

So, I make the call to get some tables reserved. We have a pretty diverse group of friends and I wanted to make sure that the place had a good mix of people that show up there regularly so that we weren't caught off guard. The guy assured me it was usually a big mixed crowd.

So, we get to the place and to our pleasant surpise, it had turned into a hookah lounge. I don't remember it being a hookah lounge the last time I was there, but thought it was a cool touch. Got a little off track here, the point of the story has nothing to do with it being a hookah lounge, but I hadn't ever smoked hookah before so I thought I would throw that in for good measure.

ANYWAY, back to the story. So, all the guests start arriving and the music starts playing and we mingle. Its getting pretty crowded with our group and a bunch of other people when Maggie all of the sudden looks at me and says, "hey, this is polish rap!" (Maggie is Polish). So, we thought it was interesting that they were playing a Polish rap song, but then all continued to mingle. The next few songs were all in Polish, and some guys also had called us over to the bar because they wanted to buy us a shot of Polish vodka. Maggie starts talking to the guys and we find out that it is Polish Happy Hour. Apparently there is a myspace site that plans these events and we just happened to be there the same night. We enjoyed talking to our new Polish friends. After a while, we got tired of not understanding the music though and left for Manahatta.

Here is a Hookah pic