happy new year!!!

so normally i'm unexcited about new years - its just another day, n'est-ce pas? but i'm in a rather good mood right now... wait. is it not the new year today? oh crap. oops. its the 2nd. well, happy january 2nd! probably not a lot of people celebrate january 2nd, so i will. i missed 1/1/11. actually, yesterday, i was in an up-and-down mood. one second good mood then one second annoyed. good mood because i started being productive, then got distracted (typical). good mood because i got to see my grandma, then bad mood because her apartment smelled (thats what happens when you never leave the house) and she kept asking me OVER and OVER if i had red in my hair. can you not see the red??? its ALL red! actually, once i got over that, i was happy to have seen her and kicked her butt in cards. :) then most of the annoyance stemmed from two things: 1) i was still in fargo and 2) i hate sports bars. let me explain: i'm always happy to be in fargo, but i was stranded there for 6 extra days. sure, 6 days with my family is always nice, but its hard not to look at it as 6 days where i'm not moving on with my life. i had things to do, places to be, people to meet (literally), and a lot of plans that had to be canceled or rescheduled. it was frustrating. and i wasn't nearly as productive at work as i would've been had i been in the office, so after i write this (i'm on the plane back to bos), i'm going to have to spend the rest of my flight working. ugh. stupid snow storms. its not often that you got stuck because of BOTH ends of the trip. oh and 3) (why i'm annoyed) because i now won't get gold status on delta. sigh. that's self explanatory. anyway, on to point #2. my grandma gave my family some money to spend on a dinner for christmas. so we go out to eat. and to me, eating out is about being with the people you are dining. conversation, the food, etc. half my family enjoys eating at sports bars. i do not. i don't like their food - its almost always frozen and then fried and i hate the loudness in bars. you can't talk to people. besides, it sucks to have a conversation with someone when they're watching tv over your shoulder. its kind of like, "ok, why am i here? why don't you just watch tv without me around." it's not fun to wait for a commercial to feel like you're important for being there. so, we were going to go out to eat, but of course, its a bowl day. so there is football on tv. we ended up compromising on a restaurant which has ok food, even though it kind of feels like a chain, but i'm not sure if it is. i prefer non-chain restaurants. well, we get there and the restaurant is full (because, of course, its the first time people can leave their houses in 2 days, so everyone wants to go out to eat). so we end up in the bar, which started out really loud. i shouted "what?! i can't hear you!" to my brother and i think a lot of people around me heard me because it wasn't quite as loud the rest of the time we were there. it ended up being fine, but still not my place to go. don't get me started on the gold status thing.

in the end, we ended up going bowling, which was actually really fun! i haven't bowled in like 18 years (except for one time a few years ago when, at a bowling alley with a bunch of people so we were splitting frames, i said to my brother "hey, homie, i'm not really that bad of a bowler, right" (after i bowled like 3 straight gutter balls) and he replied, "are you kidding?? you've sucked at every sport ever!" and i promptly left the bowling alley because i was so mad). anyway, this was not that time. and i bowled a spare on my first frame! i didn't hit 100, but i was actually really please with my score! in the 2nd game, i scored an XX9. i didn't get to use my ball to see if i would've gotten a spare and we didn't get to finish the game, so i don't know what my final score was, but it was above 102, for sure. kind of makes me want to join a bowling league. except i feel like its super expensive in boston. i'll have to check it out. that could be a fun thing to do in the new year.

other fun things i plan on doing in the new year include taking tennis lessons with a friend. i am also meeting my little sister tomorrow. did i mention i was going to become a big sister? i can't remember. i hope it goes ok... also, i am going to learn to play bridge. or pinnochle. no, bridge. and... what else? oh, i hope to ACTUALLY get gold status this year. we'll see how much i end up traveling. i hope less, but better trips.

so bowling last night put me in a better mood. and also i was happy because drinks are
so
cheap
in fargo. i texted a bunch of friends "just had a pitcher of beer and a large gin and tonic while bowling with the family for just $11.50." just to say nah-nah-na-boo-boo. they were jealous. i'm telling you, everyone should go to fargo just to drink. then i got home and played cards with my mom. i probably should've done some work, but oh well. i woke up on my own this morning around 5:30. i got up and did YOGA. how awesome is that? then i showered and packed and got ready for my flight. lots of fun stuff. i'm waiting for the flight attendant to get me some more wine. where's my wine, dude?? omg. he just passed me AGAIN without asking what i'd like. not cool. and i've done about half of my christmas cards (i know, i know). so that is good.

anyway, i'm happy because i'm heading back to boston. its going to be a crazy crazy week. i looked at my work calendar yesterday and it made me so... tired. just by looking at it! there is going to be NO TIME to get any work done this week. i'm having the two people who report to me over tonight and we're going to play settlers of catan (bonding moment) and have indian food. woo hoo. i'm really looking foward to it, although i was planning to have them over earlier in the day because i was supposed to have been home for... like a week... but now i am landing at 4:50 and they will be over at 6.

ok, i just got some more red wine. decency is restored.

ok, not sure if you'll hear a lot from me that is not already scheduled this week. its going to be cra-zy. and i'm pretty sure if i DO end up writing, i will be inebriated. just warning you.

so... it was sad saying good bye to my family. i have seen them sooo much in the past few years (because, you know, i LIVED with them and all) and now i won't see them for probably 4 months or so. thats sad. so i won't dwell on it. plan to head to nodak in may for player's graduation (that is IF they'll give him a diploma! mwhahahahaha) and then who knows when the next time will be. BUT i live in boston now and i have things going on there, so i have to get going on.

and to leave you on this fine sunday day - man, my feet are HOT. i got boots for xmas (thanks mom & dad) and i wore them on the plane so as not to pack them. holy crap they are WARM - i shall play you this video from this podcast that i like (dinner download) because i really liked this song. i might have to get this guy's video.



my hands are super dry. i don't like that.

what do you think of the song? makes me want to reminisce....