jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

Jeremy and Ashley are back home. Dad is back home. We’ve got our apartment all to ourselves again.

It sounds a little insincere since I’m so happy to be guest-free, but we really did enjoy having everyone here. Damon and Jeremy are very close, so they’re always happy when they’re together. And even when my dad is a pain in the ass I still love him. To his immense credit, he was really pleasant the whole time. He got snippy with a docent at the Natural History Museum for a few minutes, but otherwise was well behaved. And anyway, she got hers back by making him wait about 45 minutes before she got around to walking us past bathrooms. We had a funny conversation in the gift shop. He found a little onesie with an alligator on it that says, “Lunch Is On Me.” Dad said (Here’s where I buried the lede: We’ve decided to name our baby, whenever she does get here, Camille). Anyway, Dad said, “Do you think Camille would like this?” And I said, “I think there’s a good chance that Camille will be too big for that by the time she gets to us.” And he said, “Well *I* think Camille would like this.” So now it’s safely tucked away. I figure that I’ll cram her into it at least once, even if I have to cut the bottom and the arms off.

Not that any of that will happen any time soon. But we’re ready, now that we have that onesie.

I didn’t miss work while off for a week, but I feel pretty comfortable to be back. Near the end of the day today I finally got to the bottom of my inbox, which means I’ll have a sane final two days of this week. A great lesson that this job is teaching me is that lots of things are important, but nothing is really an emergency — no matter how how everyone else is acting.

I also got free cheese sandwich today in a meeting, so that was an extra bonus.

Here’s my new challenge, which will last until I get it right or the leftovers run out: I’m trying to find that knife edge where I’ve got a piece of cold pizza in the skillet when the crust has reach maximum crunch but before it burns and turns black. Tonight I was not successful, but we’ve got three pieces left.

Vacation time is flying by. The day before Thanksgiving was my last day in the office

That night Damon’s brother and his girlfriend drove in. They stayed until Sunday and on Monday my dad arrived. He’s been a lovely guest. As a matter of fact, he’s sitting one couch over from me watching a Woody Allen special. He’s also repeatedly looking over here, as I think my typing is distracting to him.

So, more maybe later.

I’m home alone. So nice.

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. And that’s saying something, as the odds were against me. I worked until about 7 on Wednesday, with the intention of coming home and doing kitchen prep work until Damon’s little brother and his girlfriend showed up. That was the plan until I got home and got the message that Fresh Direct had a scheduling software malfunction and the groceries that were supposed to arrive between 3 and 6 were still hours away. I do not envy them the evening they must have had, but I was still screwed on the schedule.

The food finally came around 10, followed a few minutes later by the guests. I tried to do a little socializing and chore doing at the same time. I didn’t get as far as I would have liked, but I did:
— parboil a zillion pearl onions
— wash potatoes
— peel, wash and score brussels sprouts
— assemble a standard green bean casserole and stick it in the oven. (It made Ashley laugh that this was the only thing on the menu that I didn’t actually know how to make. She talked me through it. “Dump the can into the baking dish. Dump the other can into the baking dish. Etc. Etc.)
By then I was pretty sleepy, so I retired to the couch and shortly after to the bedroom.

Because I am a bad hostess I was hellbent on going to the Macy’s parade this year. So even when Jeremy and Ashley said they were too tired to wake up at 7, I dragged Damon out the door and down to my office. It was a nice bit of luck that our office windows look out onto the parade route. So Damon and I sat comfortably over the fray, working the coffee/tea machine liberally. I got a sick pleasure of seeing all the people on the street huddling under the umbrellas, shivering. My karma came back to bite me, though. As the parade wrapped I suddenly remembered that David Blaine was doing a stunt at Times Square. So we headed over there and, since we got a great place to watch, stood around for about two hours watching him hang 50 feet above the ground in a gyroscope. He finally wiggled out of his shackles and leapt to the ground. It was marginally exciting, and his escape was our cue to get home and get dinner done.

It was about 2pm when we got back and I hit the kitchen, finally producing:

— creamed pearl onions
— mustard-glazed brussels sprouts
— corn stuffing
— horseradish mashed potatoes
— green salad (my homemade vinaigrette is the best you’ve ever had)
— traditional cranberry sauce
— green bean casserole
— custard sweet potato pie (I confess that this was from the bakery. I don’t bake.)
I feel like there was one other dish, but I can’t recall.

Everyone seemed happy and plenty of seconds were had, so I think the turkey was not missed. We were seriously dedicated to eating. The best illustration of that I can provide is that we were so tired from eating that we accidentally left the half-eaten pie sitting out all night. I felt it was unwise to try to keep it, and we threw it away. Then Damon and I walked down to the bakery and bought a new pie, so we could start over and do it right.

For the rest of the visit we did a lot of standard tourist stuff, as Ashley had never been to NY. Most of the time we are smart enough to allow our visitors to go see Times Square without us, but Jeremy gets special treatment so we got dragged along. It was fine. We also took them to do some stuff we like a lot, mostly going to our favorite restaurants. We sent them to the New Leaf Cafe for a date, and then all four of us went to Popover Cafe and Pana II.

Oh, and let me not forget the video games. We got a Wii a while ago and it sat in the box awaiting Jeremy, who is a video game nut and knew exactly how to set it up. After that there was a lot of monster truck racing and elvin (elvish?) sword fighting. I am quite handy on the drift. Who knew?

In 24 hours, my dad will be here. I’m sure it will be wonderful. But pray for me anyway.

the fact that my incoming guests are so low-maitenance that when Damon said, “Um, Jillian doesn’t want to cook any meat for Thanksgiving” my brother-in-law said, “I don’t care if we order pizza.”

I am at the beginning of 11 days off work.

no one I love is sick or struggling to the extent that I am terribly worried.

that someone somewhere is pregnant with our kid (I think).

that Chris Rock is so freaking funny, because his show is cracking us up as I type.

And it wouldn’t be a post from me without: I am definitely NOT thankful for…

Fresh Direct, who was supposed to deliver our Thanksgiving dinner groceries between 3-6 and they’re still not here. Not so handy in getting my prep work done. I’ve had bad luck with them being ultra-late and sending me sub-par produce and it’s my own stupid fault for giving them another chance.

What embarrassing neurotic habits do you have? Can’t answer the telephone until the third ring, because otherwise the call will be bad news? Always sing “Leaving on a Jet Plane” during takeoff to keep the plane from crashing? Share your neurotic habit in the comments and your rationalization for it.

Repost in your own journal so others can see they are not alone in their strange habits.

My Neurotic Habit: When I fly, I have to have a tomato juice (or bloody mary mix), with lemon if possible. Or the plane will crash.

My Rationalization for My Neurotic Behavior: I fly a lot, and the plane hasn’t crashed yet. It’s got to be connected.

I know that’s repetitive to the example, but it’s true.