Scribo gratulanter

Hmm... almost officially Thanksgiving Day. After work I was nearly murdered in the streets outside Macy's by the ever-growing crowd of tourists who apparently think it's perfectly acceptable to stand in mobs all over the sidewalks and therefore render useless the attempts of anybody who actually wants to get from one pavement stone to the other. It's almost like a scene from The Lion King, those tourists being the wildebeest, naturally. Because stampede they eventually will- as soon as dawn hits tomorrow, I am sure. I'm actually a little frightened of going to work tomorrow. So if this is goodbye, then at least know my efforts to make it in New York were noble and brave.

I spent this evening baking brownies for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast at Scott and Lena's. These particular brownies are "Chocolate Cranberry Merlot Brownies"- I'm excited to see how they turn out, though I made them in cupcake pans in lieu of a 9x9 baking dish that apparently I don't own. I'm also making mashed red potatoes in my crock pot while at work tomorrow so that they'll be ready in time for dinner. I'm so pleased Scott and Lena invited me (and Alan-this will be our second Thanksgiving together, oddly enough). Last year I didn't go home for the holiday (as aforementioned, spent it with the Busch family), and I was afraid that this year I wouldn't have anybody at all to spend it with. Which is why I offered to work (thinking of course I'd be able to watch the parade as it went down Broadway- but, alas, the parade has been re-routed this year and in fact will cross from 7th to 6th. So no parade for me). Anyway, I'm pleased to have friends to spend it with, though there are many of you out there I wish I too could be with. You know who you are.

I am LOVING my Sherlock Holmes stories. They're so...fun. Literally, they get me on the edge of my subway seat, even though each story averages only 10-15 pages long. I think next I might attempt to tackle my first Ayn Rand book- I started one of them in high school once but wasn't willing to commit. I think I might be there now =)

I'm going to visit Virginia again this weekend (early Saturday-early Monday). I'm looking forward to it.

Aaaand....just sampled a brownie. Can't say the merlot is obvious, but it was pretty tasty. Hopefully they'll hold up through tomorrow evening.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and family. I'm grateful for you, and for the God that put you in my life. May He shower you with a cornucopia of blessings...(I couldn't help myself. I love that word, and what more appropriate day to use it?)

P.S. "Scribo gratulanter" - "I write with a grateful heart/soul"

The game's afoot!

Just finished War of the Worlds, now starting a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories (Doyle, of course). I think it has 22 of them (and I believe there are a total of 60?), so I'm pretty excited. Doyle has an addictive writing style.

.....

A few more books I read in the past week:

-The Importance Of Being Earnest (Wilde)

-The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)

-The Legend of Sleepy Hallow (Irving)

Just started The War of the Worlds (Wells, of course).

Somniare est Terrēre (II)

Ugh, dreams, seriously. Here's a good one from last night.

I don't remember any of the beginning or middle, just the end. It was Sunday afternoon, and basically Mom came up to me and a group of people and was like "Sorry I'm late guys, I went to the tattoo parlor after church and got this new tattoo I've been wanting." She lifts her shirt sleeve and reveals this ridiculously enormous Chinese dragon thing that starts at her wrist and wraps all the way up to her back. There are stars filling in the open spots...and she's like, "Oh yeah it cost $1100 but at least they got it done in 2 hours!" And I was just like, good lord....then I told Alan who happened to be there, and he was like "Oh yeah I got a couple new tattoos also" and I was like "Ooh I'm jealous what did you get?" and he was like "Oh me and my wife's names on my chest." And I was like "......wait your who?" and he said "My wife" and I said "your WIFE?" and I looked at his hand and indeed he was wearing a wedding ring. So I said "You're MARRIED??" and he said "Oh yeah I saw her ice skating the other day, and she was so beautiful so I asked her to skate some more and then we decided to get married."

WTF.

Legere est Avocari

Here's a fabulous list of what has been keeping me entertained whilst I've been in the city of New York.

Books read/being read: 8

-A Moveable Feast (Hemingway)

-This Side of Paradise (Fitzgerald)

-The Golden Ratio (Luzio)

-Rising Sun (Crichton)

-Airframe (Crichton)

-Disclosure (Crichton)

-The Great Train Robbery (Crichton)

-The Lost World (Conan Doyle)

TV shows kept up with: 4

-Top Chef

-Project Runway

-America's Next Top Model

-Glee

Movies seen in theatres: 2

-Gamer

-Where The Wild Things Are

Movies seen at home: oh please, like I really know this number...recently though:

-Jurassic Park

-Fievel Goes West

-The Shining

-Dracula: Dead and Loving It

-Scream

I mean clearly I live in the most boring city in the world so I need to be entertained constantly.

P.S. "Legere est Avocari": "To read is to be distracted."