December in One Fell Swoop

December!  Aka- the end of 2014?? already???

well. My computer (Beasley) has reached the point where hospice care was needed and she has officially tagged off her responsibilities to our new friend Ramona.  Yes, I name all my stuff.  But the point of that sentence was to state my excuse for not blogging for the whole month- which was b/c my computer was quite unpredictable and grouchy.

What you missed.

Many a train ride.  There is something almost poetic to me about empty train cars in the middle of the day.  Here’s two common views in my life these days.

On a not- so empty train ride- a small family of accordion and tambourine carols.  

Mocha art and peppermint gifts in Tribeca before a friend moves.

All blurry and beautiful.  Reminding me again that I still have a crush on this city. 

wrrrr. Fast forward to finalizing my first semester of teaching, flying home, Christmas morning, and family.

Yes. This picture was taken Christmas day.  The classic green Indiana Christmas? I’ll take it!

Selfie revenge- put in on a blog. 🙂 you’re welcome Bri. 🙂

These days I enjoy the time warp that is ‘home for the holidays.’  It includes things like helping my mom put in a quilt, bowling my first over 100 score, and family family family.  I don’t mind one bit.

To end this post and this year- I will use some internet memes/pins to express myself.

1. my thoughts towards break:

2. How I feel about being home:

3. How I feel about the end of a year:

So here it is, my formal, in writing, farewell.  To the year that brought me family East Coast trips, printed diplomas and moments of joy so loud my heart jumped outside my body.  It brought me elephant rides, waterfall climbs, and ginger on chicken.  It was the miracle of landing my first job the Friday before school started and learning to handle kids who can’t use words to tell me they are sad, bored, hurt, happy, or insecure.  And, most of all, it was growing and learning and becoming- from trying and studying and waiting and praying.  The memories make the year- the lessons make my life.

Goodbye and farewell 2014.  You have been all the good, the bad, and the ugly.  And I’m beyond blessed to have shared it with each of you.  See you on the flip side dears.

A Thanksgiving as Planned

Although it feels like centuries gone by, I did go home for Thanksgiving last week.

I had my time quite scheduled weeks in advanced and it went much as planned.

As planned, I flew home Wednesday after work.  Ate a proper Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, then to the sisterhood black Friday shopping (which has become a tradition of ours), Thanksgiving brunch on Friday with my mom’s family (no turkey included), a surprise 50th party (more like a gathering…), a Saturday full of more brunches and Friendsgiving, Sunday to church, another Thanksgiving feast with my dad’s side of the family (which this time included deviled eggs), a mario cart party- party, which finally lead to my final Indiana brunch with my friend of 20 years driving me to the airport to catch a bus to another airport to fly home so I could end the longest run on sentence since learning about the concept of punctuation.

All in all- my Thanksgiving weekend in Indiana= 3 Thanksgiving meals + 3 brunches + 2 birthday parties + 1 late night shopping trip.  And I really didn’t even get any pictures.  See?…

The iceman.  De-icing our plane.

Me and my sister.  Waiting for our 4th Thanksgiving meal of the year.

Now.  To start my journey, I did forget my phone in my apartment and discovered it while waiting for my flight.  This was not planned.  Fortunately (something I almost never say) my flight was delayed.  So after some creative communication experiments, which included 2 attempted payphone calls (turns out payphones are best for ease dropping as the person answering cannot hear you speak), asking a stranger to use their phone (and getting turned down b/c it was a long distance call.?? How is that a thing?!?), and eventually paying for internet, I was able to contact my blessed roomie and she brought my phone to me.

And well.  That was my Thanksgiving. It feels like forever ago.  Probably because it’s a world away.

And.  I’ll be honest.  Transitioning to adulthood out of college has not been a can of peaches.  And definitely has not gone as planned.  But, for one weekend, life did.  And, appropriately enough, I was thankful for that.