you mean i actually have to go back to work?

thanksgiving was a gloriously long and sumptuous break from reality, filled with family, old friends, and delicious food (the three F's that i treasure most). it felt like a legitimate vacation, a true escape from my daily routine here in the ATX, and now that i am back and facing a towering pile of work i feel my brain has gotten rusty in the past several days -- instead of writing a POV and wondering about target audiences, can't i just worry about whether the sweet potatoes are whipped enough? no? alas. it was worth a shot.

a few highlights from the wknd:

first and foremost, the delicious thanksgiving dinner. my parents hosted thanksgiving this year (for the first time ever), and my mom cooked her inaugural turkey (affectionately dubbed theodore, or teddy for short). we smothered olive oil, we sprinkled spices, we stuffed cavities, we hovered by the oven, we worried... and the result was delicious. roasted turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans sauteed with slivered almonds and wild mushrooms and some shallots, corn muffins, two kinds of stuffing, fresh cranberry sauce, an apple tart and pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream, a few token korean dishes (heh), etc etc etc... yum.

then there was brunch with my high school buddies at a place called "eggspectation" (dare i say that the food was speggtacular?), girls i've known and loved for over a decade. at one point i looked around the table and felt impressively inadequate. i was surrounded by one soon-to-be-JD from upenn that will clerk for a judge trying terrorism cases, one masters-of-education girl that is saving the world one naughty kid at a time (man those naughty kids make me laugh), and three (three!) future MDs that will dole out meds to psychiatric patients, deal with infectious diseases and handle emergencies. and then there was me. with my bachelor of arts in english. that works for the man and makes ads for a living. sigh. stupid magnet high school with its overachieving dorks.

and of course i can't forget the wedding of a family friend, in which i managed to sing a song that is actually a duet and half of which is sung in italian. i know! didn't you know that i'm italian and can split my voice in two? well clearly you don't know me very well. i am an italian-singing, two parts managing wedding singing beast. in that vein, i also came up with a brilliant business plan... i am going to open a half-half consulting practice, half of which will be all things wedding (i can bridesmaid, i can sing, i can play piano, i can coordinate, i can plan, i can sorta-kinda do calligraphy... i've got to get SOMEthing out of all the weddings i've done) and half of which will be getting people into grad school (so far i've got a 3 for 3 success ratio). it will be called "dreamz r us" to help people realiZe their dreamZ whether those dreamZ are weddingZ or buZiness school.

...not a good idea? maybe i'll stick with working for the man for now while i finaliZe my plan.

i will end this post with a shout-out to my awesome cowboy, who managed to survive my week-long absence without dying. i walked in the door yesterday fully expecting to see a floating fish body and steeling myself for the inevitable fishy funeral... but no! he was still alive and kicking! swimming around his bowl with a vengeance, showing me his fins and darting away every time i came too close to the bowl surface. well played, cowboy. well played indeed.