I used to resent people at work who would take off a bunch of time during the holidays --every year-- who didn't have to commute to be with their families, forcing the rest of us to work throughout. I wanted to shake them angrily and shout in their faces how selfish and juvenile they were being. 5 years later, I grabbed the request time off book and got first dibs. I finally got spend Christmas with my family! And though the visit wasn't completely full of wonderful news, it was still really nice to be in the presence of my parents, my nieces, and my cousin who is like a big sis to me.
BEFORE I left though...
The business of gift exchanging was unfinished! I couldn't help myself, and got gifts for people after all. Not a lot, and only a select few because I was broke, but damn it I wanted to.
The morning before the day of my departure as I was getting ready to leave for work... Lauren woke up bright and early to greet me. She came in with a gift she had for me and wanted me to open it. I smiled and hugged her, taken by surprise because it's the most random time ever to give a gift lol. I told her I had something for her too. She squee'd in delight.
When I opened what she gave me I dropped my jaw so hard it almost looked like I had a chin for a second.
RIGHT?!
It was PERF
because a few days before, during Steam's ridiculous holiday sale,
BioShock Infinite was ten fucking bucks. But I had to be responsible and
not succumb. Then BOOM. HERE YOU GO CYNTHIA, KNOCK YOURSELF OUT :D
Which
btw I did end up getting (it went up to $19.99 but w/e) and it's
gorgeous. I did a mental double take when I heard Elizabeth humming
"Everybody wants to rule the world." She was humming it at a slow tempo
that I didn't pick up on it immediately, but recognized the notes until
finally I was like DANG. NICE!
World of Warcraft will have to wait until after the 22nd.
Gonna make sure I put that game time to good use.
The
day of my departure left little time for me to see other people really,
so Fett visited the evening prior, saying he had gifts for me. It was
probably the weirdest gift opening ever, lol.
He came over that night with a big cardboard box, wrapped invertedly with wrapping paper and duct tape.
lol.
lolwat
lol SIGH
that was fun to undo :P
I fumbled around the mess of wedding wrapping paper lol, and uncovered two amazing scents!
Tickets to see Lindsey Stirling in May
and a graphic novel of The Legend of Drizzt trilogy :D
eeeee ^_^
It was great because my candles are basically dead, and the graphic novel would be awesome on the plane. PERF.
The
following day I still went to work but later on in the evening before
the airport Lauren's parents invited us to dinner. We went to a nice
restaraunt who's name I can't remember. There we also met up with Geoff!
Mr. and Mrs. Lauren's parents also had a little something to give us
for the Holidays. I was humbled to shits, and didn't know what to say.
They gave me a debit gift card, which is also PERF because it could go
to .... things! Like necessities! lol.
Of course I got the seafood. :(
I really like shrimp =\
I really like shrimp =\
and pasta.
Shrimp and pasta.. together? YES PLOX ^_^
Lauren doesn't like her picture taken, so here's the compromise.
That's Geoff! He has epic hair.
That's Geoff! He has epic hair.
The dinner was delicious, and her father is always fun to listen to during his stories. Funny dude, reminds me a lot of my dad.
We all said our fond farewells.
Her
parents were staying at our place while I was away and Geoff offered to
show them how to get there, while Lauren drove me to LAX.
H A R R I S B U R G |
God
what a fucked flying schedule. I had two stops on the way there. LAX to
Chicago, Chicago to Washington DC, DC to Harrisburg. Red eye. When I
got there you can be I was all kinds of tired.
The
best thing about my arrival was not only being greeted by my loving
momma, but also my two nieces (second cousins, but w/e).
Apparently
Madoka Magica really stook to Ingrid -the older one- and she showed me
the games she had on her phone that she had found on the app store. She
explained them to me and how to play them, naming off all the characters
and even the witches. I was impressed. I had no idea she retained as
much as she did with Madoka Magica, so I made sure that this Christmas
she would shit herself.
Pamela,
their mom was outside waiting for us. Of course my luggage wasn't
there, but it was delivered later on that day to the house. I figured
there wasn't enough time between lay overs to transfer it from one plane
to the other, because even I barely made it to boarding to the DC plane
from Chicago. Had to haul some ass for that.
We went to breakfast at a diner that morning, the 5 of us girls. It was really nice ^_^
After that they dropped us off and split. The interior was so cozy and cute, like out of a story book.
Baby and I were happy to see each other again! She was wearing her 'Princess' puppy shirt, lol.
Such a good girl!
It still kills me to this day that so many people ignorantly put a bad light on Rottweilers.
The next day was Christmas eve, and my mother wasted no time in the preparations for her guests.
She made Causa, but in roll form.
It was fucking delicious.
The house looked super cute and homely.
She said this was a special occasion, so she brought out a 30 year old brandy they've kept sealed and treasured from our home country to mix into the eggnog.
With Peruvian beer
My cousin and the girls came over. It was nice because since they're kids and everyone there is an adult they got to go into one of the bedrooms and do kids stuff. I totally hung out with them there. We watched Madoka Magica episodes on my netbook with the loud ass weirdo adults got drunk and silly.
I also captured them a lot. Sorrynotsorry.
Alisha doesn't like to have her picture taken. Every one I did manage to get I was glad she held still for at least 5 seconds to let me do it.
Ingrid dgaf
My mom made the eggnog with raw molasses. #hard
Madoka!
So. Good.
So... because Ingrid was way more into Madoka Magica than I had anticipated, I pulled a last minute thingie and asked Lauren to talk to Ingrid as Kyouko. Then Sayaka came to mind, because she really like Sayaka too, and so I messaged Sarah asking her about it. Lauren also got in touch with her, and she ended up doing a recording just for Ingrid to hear.
LET ME JUST TELL YOU HOW MUCH SHIT SHE SHAT.
My mom and I planned it out so that she would call Ingrid and Alisha over when it was time to open presents at 9PM. I'd then call Lauren and pretend someone was calling Ingrid, and that they wanted to talk to her. Boom. Worked.
She tried to compose herself like a sweet little Vulcan, but she burst into a shriek as soon as she handed me the phone and hauled ass into my bedroom going "OOHH MY GHAAAASH."
Once she came back out, I played the clip that Sarah had sent to Lauren, to give to me, only I attached an image of Sayaka to it.
Alisha was unimpressed. lol
As for me, well... my dad got me an Apple product that I couldn't hide my disdain from.
I felt AWFUL. There just was no way I would use it, but I gave it a shot because he is really fond of Apple, and it never hurt to try something new, right?
So I did.
The next day...
We returned it. No exchange for anything different. I rather him keep the money.
Honestly I'm good with what I have, and if I were to get any next gen anything it'd be an upgraded phone-- that's all. That's all I find myself having trouble functioning without. Everything else is just unnecessary, to me. I didn't want him to feel bad, but I also knew that it'd be a waste if I came home with it because I simply wouldn't use it. Selling it would be immoral, and honestly that money could go towards something way more important and less fucking retarded.
My other gifts were wonderful! Ingrid picked out a lotion body spray set from Bath and Body Works that consequentially I was eyeing for myself a few days prior. I was thrilled that she chose it specifically.
Most of it though was left behind, since security won't let that stuff pass through carry-ons, and that's all I had.
My mom however is coming to visit on the 8th and is staying until the 21st. She said she will bring it all then.
Left overs for breakfast :P
Yummy!
I treated my girls some coffee. It was the girls' first Starbucks drinks!
They really liked it, as I knew they would.
Ah, snow.
On my trip I also saw a couple people from High School.
I know I've mentioned him a few times before as my HS lovey love.
Jordan was also in town with his lady and we all went out to lunch at Neato Burrito.
mmpf.
So good. It was really good to see him again, and I'm glad to see him
happy with his lady. He deserves it. Beard is gross though. Sadly I
didn't get a picture of him, but this burrito marks a fond moment during
my visit in PA.
I also saw Jer.
Jer holds a place in my heart not only because he's in the Army, but also because we go waaaaaaaaay back. I hadn't seen him since I lived in San Francisco, when he went to visit, several years ago.
It's so bizarre seeing people, who affected you so much in such delicate transitional phases of your life, all grown up and .. being adults and stuff.
We cool.
Even if we don't talk forever
We'll always be cool.
We also went to Neato Burrito because reasons.
Reason being: Neato Burrito is fucking delicious.
They came over on my last day and stayed for a bit before it was time for me to leave.
I asked Ingrid and Alisha to pose for me.
"Can we stop taking pictures now?"
=\ lol.
I was off to the airport that morning with my mom and dad. The goodbye is always bitter sweet, but it was nice saying "I'll see you in a few days."
Flew all day and got here around 6. Was headed home thanks to Josh around 6:30 and passed the fook the out.
New Years was sort of nice. Fett invited me over and we spent it laying in bed being boring and watching the live feed from Times Square. We also went to the store to grab eggnog and chips.
Best cups ever.
Nice, quiet, relaxing evening. He made me watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the world. It's cute, but I wouldn't watch it again.
We both worked the next morning so that was fun. We also had a lot of food.
A few days ago I also stopped by Rot and Josh's to exchange gifts! I had given Josh's gift to him already, the evening he dropped me off. Josh got me Skyrim off Steam XD. So awesome, lol.
I'm plowing through BioShock Infinite now but ... SOON. Soon....
Rot got me yet another thoughtful gift. The BioShock score vinyl and soundtrack.
Sweetest thing ever! I love how they all got me geeky things, lol.
I stayed there for a while and hung out. He was telling me about some new PS3 stuff he had and that I had to try them. Apparently the new Silent Hill is scary as shit.
When I got home, there was something else waiting for me on my desk.
LOL?!
I lost it and got ahold of Lauren immediately to flip out some more. She's so funny, lol.
The most random thing ever, hahaha. She's great.
And now it's 2014 and it's already the 5th. Dang.
My mom will be here in 3 days and she declared the kitchen her field. I won't take that from her, lol.
She's going to have an awesome time here, I'll make sure of it. Perhaps Fett can be a map and suggest more places to take her. I can't wait. ^_^
A few days ago Fett was his mappy self and took us somewhere nice, but that will have to wait because my BACK IS KILLING ME AND I'M TIRED. been up since 4 am. lol. Are we done yet? Phew! Yay, we are!