It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

so i wasn't sure how i would handle spending most of the christmas season in the city, but so far it's been ok. my radio is my alarm clock, so this morning i woke up to christmas music playing. the market on my block is selling christmas trees outside, and i'm debating whether or not i want to go to the tree lighting in rockefeller center tomorrow. christmas is my absolute favorite thing, so i'm pretty excited. if anyone decides they want to come into the city this month, i would definitely recommend it. you should drive by the time warner building on columbus circle when it's dark out. it's beautiful.

The Pilgrim's Progress

thanksgiving is nigh upon us. i can hardly wait. thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday because it's the start of the christmas season, which as everyone knows is the most wonderful time of the year. i'm having a very hard time not listening to christmas music. thanksgiving is when i allow myself to start. i almost broke down and watched love actually yesterday (which i consider to be a christmas movie), but i managed to stay strong and katie and i watched hercules instead. only six more days. i think i can make it.

here is my plan for thanksgiving day: i am going to set my alarm for 8am. this is very important because the parade starts at 9:00 and i don't want to miss the part where they count down from 10 and yell "let's have a parade!" and cut the red ribbon. this is the very best part. i would like to be up and dressed (and by dressed i mean pajama pants) and have breakfast before i settle down so there are no distractions. then i will watch the parade. i will probably have to run downstairs to the pantry to get something for mom a couple times during the commercials. i am going to run fast, because i don't want my brother to take my parade-watching chair while i am gone. after the parade, there will be an epic battle between me and my brother and my dad for control of the clicker because they will want to watch the football game and i will want to watch the dog show. my brother and my dad are on the same side in this battle. i fight alone. i will put up a good fight, but eventually i will be overpowered and lose. following this, i will probably lay around for a while and then end up in the kitchen with mom watching miracle on 34th street until it's time to make the mashed potatoes. these are my specialty. dinner comes after this, which is followed by the clean-up. it is a whole family affair. the rest of the night i will probably listen to christmas music in anticipation of the holiday to come.

i can't talk about this anymore or i'm going to get too excited. i think i'm going to go watch two and a half men and then fall asleep. nighty-night.

Welcome To Madagascar!

in honor of the opening of 'madagascar 2' this weekend, katie and i went to the central park zoo after church today. i've never been there before so i was pretty excited. we wound up going at the perfect time because there was a sea lion show at 2:00. the trainers made them do all sorts of tricks. i'm pretty sure they're the fourth smartest animal on the planet. i think it goes us, then dolphins, then dogs, then sea lions. or maybe pigs. pigs are pretty smart too. but i have yet to see a pig salute me with it's flippers when i give it the sign. also at the zoo were red pandas. i think they might be my favorite animal. they are not related to pandas. they are not even bears. they look like raccoons but i'm not sure what family they belong to. all i know is that they are incredibly adorable and i wish i had brought my camera with me so i could take a picture of them. if you don't know what they look like you should google them because you will fall instantly in love. i promise.

A Pox On The Phony King Of England!

i'm not going to get political, i swear. all i'm going to say is good job, america. you made the right choice!

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

my favorite halloween special was on tv tonight. i really love all the charlie brown cartoons, but the great pumpkin holds a special place in my heart. i feel so bad for linus at the end when the great pumpkin doesn't show up, and he's waited in the pumpkin patch until 4:00am. i thought it was very nice of lucy to get out of bed at that hour and go get her brother.

i'm pretty excited for halloween because there are going to be some festivities at the office. i don't think i can sound much more like a dork when i talk about going to the office halloween party, but apparently there's a prize for the best costume. i hope it's money. i'm going as june cleaver. that should be good for at least 50 bucks. in other news, cloris leachman was finally voted off of dancing with the stars tonight. i think all of america breathed a collective sigh of relief. i like her but it was just getting too awkward. the judges ran out of nice things to say to her in the second week. i'm glad she's gone. that's all.

Overtime Is Worth It

i've discovered the joys of overtime (and by joys i mean the extra money) and it's totally motivating me to work more hours. yesterday i worked three extra hours. yesterday was sunday, which is my busy weekend day, but i made myself do it and i'm glad that i did. i don't usually do any overtime on sundays because i get up super early to go to church and it kind of eats up the first half of my day. i get up at 6:15 so i can leave my apartment by 6:30. this whole daylight savings time thing is killing me with that because it's like pitch black when i'm walking to the subway. sunday mornings i get on the 1 train at 125th street in harlem, and i was kind of nervous yesterday to walk there alone in the dark when there's not a lot of people around, so i wore my plaid underwear with the tiny skulls and crossbones to make me feel a little bit tougher. i think it worked because nobody came near me. church was really fun because katie's family came and then after the service they took me out to lunch. i had a chicken parm hero and it was pretty good. the french fries were excellent.

not much going on right now, i'm listening to "exploring music" on 96.3 The Classical Station Of The New York Times. it's all music that was inspired by shakespeare. it's pretty interesting. i think they're playing medelssohn but i can't be sure because i wasn't really paying attention when the guy was talking about it. i like it but it better be over soon because i need to watch dancing with the stars. oh wait, they've started playing the wedding march. it's definitely mendelssohn. midsummer night's dream. and it's wrapping up. i gotta go. smell ya later.

Union, Hash, and Gone With The Wind

i've just come back from a really cool trip down to south carolina with my family. it was the 100th anniversary of tabernacle baptist church, which is the church that my grandfather grew up in, and also where my grandmother's father preached for 8 years. they had a big homecoming, so we went down with grandmommy and also took the opportunity to see some family that i've never met before. i'll try my best to chronicle the events without giving you the paul hamm novel. here goes.

the first thing that happened before i even left new jersey was that i realized i had booked my flight for the wrong day. the plan was that mom was going to drive down to virginia on wednesday, and then thursday she and aunt kim and grandmommy were going to drive to south carolina so they could pick up tiffany and me at the airport early friday morning. i threw a small wrench in those plans when i discovered that i booked my flight for thursday instead of friday. because i didn't feel like waiting at the airport in charlotte all day thursday, i drove down with my mom on wednesday instead. the drive down to union the next day was pretty uneventful, so i'll skip that part.

thursday night we got to the bed and breakfast in union, which was the most beautiful place i have ever seen in my whole life. it looks like tara from gone with the wind. there were five bedrooms. mom and grandmommy had one, aunt kim had one, uncle dave and aunt mary had one, and i had one that i was sharing with tiffany. we basically had the run of the place. friday morning i got up extra early with aunt kim to go get tiffany in charlotte, which was totally worth the early morning because after that we went to bojangles. (i am going to take a little detour here to tell you about bojangles. they only exist in the south. if you want an amazing breakfast biscuit sandwich, this is the place. mcdonald's pales in comparison.) after we picked up tiff we met mom, grandmommy, uncle dave and aunt mary at the smokehouse grill in jefferson for lunch. we ate with grandmommy's first cousin, and his son and daughter and grandson. the men all have the same name. harley jackson rushing. coolest name ever, but i digress. after we left there we drove around and looked at places that were connected to my family. we saw walter gulledge road, gulledge cemetery road, jake gulledge road, and a cemetery that was chock full of gulledges, hancocks, and rivers'. i think at one time or another my family may have ruled that town. i also found out that my ancestors were pirates! we spent most of the rest of the day getting lost going back to union.

saturday was a really fun day. we went to my mom's cousin jay's house and had lunch with his family. his two youngest sons had a good time with me and tiffany. his wife robin made some killer banana pudding. after we left there we headed back to union to see the house that my great-grandparents lived in, and the park where my grandparents met.

sunday was the big homecoming at tabernacle. the service was really fun. there were a ton of people there, and they did a drama where people wore period clothes and talked about the founding of the church. they were pretty good actors! the music in the service was awesome. they had a big choir and everyone was really into it. we got up and danced! it was nice to be at a church where people in the congregation were really involved. it was very lively and fun. i got to meet a lot of people that grandmommy knew when she lived in union, and a couple of people that mom played with as a kid. the food at the lunch was amazing. there was hash (which i cannot describe to you. you need to take a trip down there and go to midway barbecue. it's worth it) and sweet potatoes and a ton of banana pudding!

the trip back was nice, and i managed to convince mom that leaving grandmommy's to drive back to nj at 11:30pm was a bad idea, which was a good thing because the next morning when we started out my sparkplugs kept misfireing and we had to stop at a dealer in maryland to get my car fixed. all in all, it was a very nice trip and a really cool experience.

this is the inn we stayed at. amazing!

tabernacle baptist church

my great-grandfather, Rev. J.D. Gulledge

historical drama at church

Jumpin' Jack Flash

so i'm staying at the camerino's with jayne while they are in california, and they have the cutest dog ever. her name is mae and she is a dollface. she let's me carry her around like a baby and whenever i sit down she comes and sits in my lap. they also have an amazing television with about a gazillion channels, which is a nice change from my little one that doesn't have cable. i'm watching jumpin' jack flash right now, which is probably one of my favorite movies ever. it's a spy movie. and it's funny.

i kind of have a craving for a giant hamburger right now. i don't really eat meat when i'm at my apartment because i don't cook. i'm also a little wary of buying it from the market on my block. one time i looked at some ground beef and part of it was green. i don't really miss it when i'm not eating it, but when i'm home it's all i want. i saw a commercial for ruby tuesday last night and i literally had to wipe drool off of my face. it's the little things. i'm pretty hungry now that i've been thinking about food. there is an abundance of snacks in this house, but i feel like they are not good for me. i want some fruit, but i'm not sure where to find it. yesterday i had a very hard time finding the bread. i swear i looked in every cabinet and drawer in the kitchen, but i must have missed one because when i asked jayne where it was, she opened the cabinet by the sink and this little tray popped out with all sorts of bread on it. it was like magic. magic bread cabinet. it was pretty good bread to. i made a nice sandwich. i think i might go make another one.

Bird's Eye View

i think one of my favorite things about my apartment is the fire escape. it's like having a balcony except you don't have to pay extra for it and you have to climb up over the stove and out the kitchen window to stand on it. i hope that if i ever need to use it to actually escape from a fire that it's not an oven fire, because then i wouldn't be able to get out the window. so far that hasn't happened (knock on wood), so i'm really just enjoying sitting out there and watching the world go by. i took some pictures today so you can see what i see when i'm up there, and hopefully get a better idea of my 'hood. holla!

I Should Be Packing = I'm Actually Watching TV

there's nothing like needing to pack a suitcase to make me instantly interested in the football game on tv. i no sooner decided that i should start getting organized for my trip home when i was suddenly seized by an overwhelming urge to watch the entire cowboys/redskins game. it doesn't matter that i don't really care about either team, or that out of the eleven channels that i get on my tv, fox has the absolute worst reception. what matters is that i actually have something to do that really needs doing, and i will watch a whole football game if it provides me with a feeble excuse to put it off for a few more hours.

in other news, i'm considering ordering some bun xao with no peanuts and pork for dinner from the japanese restaurant downstairs because even though it costs me $10.50, the portions are so huge that it will feed me for three days, so it really only costs me $3.50. also, i don't feel gross when i eat it because it's rice noodles and there are a few vegetables involved. i'll think about it. either way, i have to go because i have about three solid hours of watching football while not packing ahead of me. smell ya later.

What Am I Doing Here?

so i'm a big bad harlem girl now. okay technically i'm a big bad morningside heights girl. but i can see harlem from my bedroom window. it's a scant two blocks away. i feel kinda bad-ass. and a little bit afraid for my life at the same time. i'm having some fun though. tomorrow is sunday, so i'll be going to st. mark's for my church job. even though it's not really my job, it's katie's job. i'm just horning in on her action because i miss singing. i have to get up at 6:15am for this situation, so it stands to reason that i should quit narrating my life and go to sleep. that would be a good decision. i would probably file that in the "smart choices" folder of my mental filing cabinet. i have many folders in that cabinet. sometime i will share them all with you. until then, happy saturday to all and to all a good night.