Weekly Update .... err, sort of weekly

Thanksgiving into Friendsgiving. I had a wonderful time. First of all, it kicked off with leaving work early on Wednesday with the rest of the company as we went out to celebrate the 5th anniversary of one of the people who works there. She's been there for five years now, and she's this cute tiny Vietnamese woman who is 40 and looks about 30. We all went to a Dim Sum restaurant in the heart of Chinatown called the China Pearl. Well, it was lunchtime, and the place was full of people mostly shorter than me, which is pretty cool, i have to admit. Mai was beaming! She ordered for the whole table, speaking to the waiter in her language. The place was a bustle of noise, people ordering food off carts (a la carte, you know, where the saying came from). It was so cool. She was totally surprised, too.

So we got out around 3, and i headed home to make some preparations for going up to Maine. Matt and Kathy got here around 4:45, Matt fell asleep on our futon while Kathy and i caught up and i fixed the buttons on my wool coat. daN got in around 6:30, and we piled into the car on that rainy rainy night and drove up to Maine. Yay! daN and i fell asleep hard on the pull-out at his mother's house, and we awoke the next morning to a breakfast of strawberry rhubbarb pie (OHHH how i have missed pie) and rolls and prepared for Thanksgiving Dinner at the Watier's. Dinner was great, the peas were forgotten again this year, but Kathy and i (well, really, i) drank enough wine to not notice. We looked at Pat's pictures of Maurice, Pat, Chris, Ron & Carol's recent trip to Paris, and then daN and i headed over to say hi to my Mom's side of the family down the road. The rest of the weekend was spent largely enjoying what we could of the outdoors -- the peace and the wind, the sunshine and the desolate lonely cold that i miss so much. I'm not kidding.

Friendsgiving was, for me, a joyous time of sneezing and post nasal drip in my sadly allergic reaction to the combination of dust and dry air at Bogland. It's really too bad! I don't know why it's so much worse this year, but no amount of tea and ibuprophen and allergy and sinus medicine could stop. I felt alright at Matt's BOOKSIGNING in Camden, probably as a result of having been away from the dust for so long. It's very sad that i had that reaction, but in the car on the way back down to Mass with the Bogs who drove us back so kindly, it became clear as i felt better and better that the dusty dry air is was had done me in. That and the fact that i didn't actually eat very well -- not nearly enough green things to keep me going. But let this not all give anyone the impression that i had a bad Thanksgiving weekend. Despite allergies, i was surrounded by love and loved ones the whole time, My friends are amazing cooks and amazing singers, as we all gathered around and sang 4 or 5 part harmony to beautiful Christmas Carols.

We also tested out daN's new board game, which is so MUCH FUN! I love it so much, and seeing the smile spread across his face as we returned from our walk to find friends playing it because they were curious and having a good time was enough to fill me with joy. daN is so creative, and i'm so happy when he can witness people deriving joy from his creations.

On people deriving joy from creations, Matt's book has been a big hit at work. Everyone comments on how amazing the illustrations are -- how animated the characters are and how quirky and fun the story is. I hope it makes it.

And that's that. My fantastic loved ones made my weekend special. On returning to Cambridge, the Bogs brought daN and i out to Anna's Taqueria for some vegetables and protein (veggie super burrito!) and we came back here and crashed. The week has been good and somewhat productive, even -- i got some grad school applying in, and i also applied to present a paper at a conference on The Fantastic in Children's and Young Adult Literature in June ... and i might even have a shot at getting in.

But i am off to have dinner with Laura and Dave at their apartment in Teele Square, so i'd better be heading.