christmas and some other good stuff

the night before i left i saw the "boy genius" jewish guy again. i swear i'm cutting him out. any day now. really. i am....

so i had just about the loveliest christmas in years. not so coincidentally, it was also the first EVER without my immediate family. my little asshole of a brother finally moved out of the house and to houston. and then he decides that he doesn't feel like flying to CA to spend the holiday with my mother. i call my mother, asking her what she thought of this. "if he doesn't want to come that's fine! i'm not going to force him to do anything!" "but mother, you've been forcing me to abandon my sweet home chicago for CA for SEVEN years!" i say. "well i thought you liked it out here. if you want to go to chicago, go!"

so i did. and i went straight into the city to stay with a friend of mine who made gingersnaps and macaroni and cheese. i had breakfast the next morning at my favorite breakfast place and had loads of frushi. i went out to the suburbs where kate took me for a massage as my christmas present. it was excellent. i found some pretty good gifts for the grandparents. spent tons of quality time with the doggies. my mom, got me the 1980 vintage (the year i was born) of this wine. i have NO idea when the hell i'll drink it. it is, without a doubt, the nicest bottle in my collection. grandparents gave me cash (thank god). christmas day was with grandma and grandpa, the evening spent at kate's parents house like old times. and it was wonderful to be back home at the holiday. they had french silk pies and it was heaven.

a friend from high school texted christmas night, "hey, let's get a drink." i didn't know bars were even open on christmas. but not only were they open, they were packed. i ran into a good 20 guys i went to high school with. of the 20, ten of them were people i'd had crushes on at one point or another. it was hilarious. i even saw sweet dave who said he wants to get together next time the band is playing in new york. i haven't lived in elmhurst for 8 years now but i knew more than half the people in the bar. THAT's how popular i am.

the next day i went with kate to the fitting for her wedding dress. she looked absolutely beautiful. the bridesmaids dresses are hot. but kind of in an, "i'm going to a formal and i'm looking a little slutty" way, not an "i'm standing up in a wedding" way. i'll get pictures online soon. you'll see what i mean. it's hot pink. i hate pink. i'll definitely be dying the thing black when all is said and done...

i came back to a package sent all the way from malaysia courtesy of these awesome girls. it's a gorgeous caftan. they said people lie around the house/sleep in it. frankly, it's absolutely beautiful and i'm going to belt the thing and wear it out when it's nicer. ladies, let me know if that's a HUGE fashion faux pas, otherwise i'm gonna wear it outside the house if you don't mind!

so huzzah! for little surprises from far away places. now to figure out how to return the favor...