Today at work I was just about to give up on my boss when I began to realize that he is one of those grown-ups who really doesn't like his mother and I really don't like people who don't like their mothers. Then, out of no where he tells me that the whole week I am off for Christmas soaking up some Texas love he's going to pay me as a holiday bonus type thing. Damnit! Just when I think I have this whole moral high road thing down I am sucked back in by the taunting greenbacks of capitalism!

The high points from a long weekend of turkey love:

• The roomie's parents and my mom hit it off like the cool kids on the first day of school (and our outdoor ashtray has the reminents to prove it!)
• My first solo Thanksgiving meal was a total success and the Orange Glazed Turkey was the star of the show
• If you were questioning their staying power, rest assured that the Rockettes are still the coolest high kickers around, and as I have always suspected, Mrs. Claus is a pretty saucy broad
• Brooke Shields is officially the tallest woman on Broadway (so much so that her lover boy dips her on stage to kiss her, not because of overwhelming passion, but because of necessity)
• Sharing cocktails with your best friend is still the best thing going
• If I ever learn to play Spades decently, I would have tournaments all of the time
• Assembly line mojito making produces a lovely cocktail
• You can meet some pretty interesting people standing inside of the green box waiting for Wicked tickets
• Watching your mom pull away in a cab at four in the morning is only made easier by knowing that in three short weeks you'll be seeing her driving towards you for more holiday fun

Random Bits

• Now is your chance to own a stapler signed by the stars...I've got dibs on the stapler signed by Christine Lahti because even though no one else watches Jack & Bobby, she had me at Chicago Hope, oh, and that time that she was in the bathroom when she won a Golden Globe...classic!
• In case you never noticed, Kaballah spelled backwards is "Hallabak." Now I get why celebs are all about studying it, it has nothing to do with spiritual beliefs, they're all just a little ghetto. Word!

My mom arrived for her first visit to New York last night and hailed a cab from the airport to Brooklyn all by herself. At the moment, I am sitting in my office at work and she is wandering around Times Square by her lonesome and I have asked that she call me each hour until I see her again for lunch at 12:30. Call me crazy, but I worry about my tiny mom walking around all alone, she already had a moment of dizziness walking down the street out of the subway from looking up at the tall buildings! I know she can take care of herself but I totally get it now, why our parents need us calling them all of the time to "check-in," I'm worried sick and I know that she is within a ten block radius!

Anyhow, the week ahead is certain to be a great one. Having my mom in town makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. We have big plans to see the Rockettes this afternoon at Radio City and, if the weather cooperates, we'll be watching big floats at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade before stuffing ourselves with our own holiday feast. My best gal pal Rachel gets in tonight for the holiday and my roommates parents are already here too. We officially have a full house (and a fixed toilet, thank goodness!) for the week ahead. My holiday heart is full.

Preparation

Any of you who know me know that I am a planner by nature. The annoying list making-fact checking-reservation setting-not leaving anything to chance kind of planner. Which means, with the holidays in full swing, my favorite time of year is here! At last count, I have no less than half a dozen running lists in my prescence at this very moment. In no particular order, some of the lists include:

• Thanksgiving meal grocery shopping list
• "Things to Do" list for my mom's visit
• Holiday Gift shopping list
• Holiday Card mailing list
• Library book list
• "People to visit when I am home" list

And this list of lists (clever, I know) doesn't even include the standard grocery list and general things-to-do list that I keep in my day planner at all times. Or the just-for-fun lists like "CDs I need" or the "dating needs assessment" list. What can I say, I am IN LOVE with making lists. Not just because they keep me (the not so closeted control freak) organized but because I feel a huge sense of accomplishment when I get to mark something off or throw it in the trash...and by trash I mean the "recycle bin" because they are all, of course, kept in a file on my computer for easy editing. All of this in the name of being prepared, prepared for the day that someone absolutely has to know which Streisand CDs I own or how many people are in for the big Thanksgiving meal.

Some of you may think it's nuts, but for those of you who get it, I'll gladly add you to my "people I would hang out with even if they had a major deformity list"...oh yeah, there's one of those too!

(Write in blog--check!)

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

On Friday I get an out-of-the-blue raise at work! Yay for me...and I floated on a very high cloud all weekend thinking I could do no wrong at the office.

Today, after looking for a picture of Catherine Zeta-Jones on the internet to see if she really has "sausage fingers" like a friend said, my computer was contaminated with some mad-crazy virus and had to be sent away to the computer hospital.

I get it universe, lesson learned!

Today's Weather Forecast, NYC:

Hi of 44*, but technicaly hasn't gotten above 39*. Heavy rain turning into possible freezing rain or snow overnight. Lows in the low 30s. Tomorrow, more of the same.

Hello winter, My name is saddened!

Now is the time when I will gladly start accepting warm well-wishes or recipes for cold weather foods, i.e. your mom's hot chocolate, hearty soups/stews, and any and all "hot totty" recipes.

Thank you kindly...

Ok, after much confusion (as always seems to be the case when code is involved!) the new site is up and running! YAY!!! It's still a work in progress but certainly a lot more fun. Enjoy!

This morning in my office my office pal pulled out the new CD he has been talking and drooling about for weeks...he stopped this morning on the way into the office to get it. That's right, he made a special stop to purchase the new Britney Spears album...her greatest hits. Which, by the way, I take huge issue with as I do not believe that our favorite serial marrying girl is worthy of a greatest hits album...she only has four CDs, perhaps she should have made a greatest flops album. Don't get me wrong, I secretely enjoy a couple of her songs as they are fun to kareoke to in a drunken night of excess, but that by no means makes her eligible for a collection of greatest anythings. Although my statements infuriated said office buddy, the other, more sane person in the office summed it up best I think. While thumbing through the cd booklet, which reads like a photo shoot for Maxim tucked away in lovely shimmering silver tri-fold case he leans over and says..."Just like Britney, great packaging, but no substance!" My day is complete...

P.S. I'm thinking or revamping the site to make it a little more, well, me. So, if you come back in the next few days and things look a little different, don't worry, I'm still here...

As I sat at my desk today fighting with the CD burner on my computer I was overhearing the conversation that my boss was having on the telephone with the woman I assume to be his girlfriend. Overhearing his life unfold is not an unuasual thing since he leaves his door open all day, every day and I am pretty much accustomed to tuning out things unless I hear my name at which point I perk up and pretend to be interested. The crazy thing about this conversation was listening to a grown man talk to his girlfriend like sixteen year old kids with vocabularies stuck with the Brady Bunch, if the Brady's were breaking a lot of rules. Just so you all feel like you were a part of the conversation, it went something like this...the best part is really trying to figure out what the woman on the other end was saying that could have sparked his responses...

Hey you...you busy?...Well, it's been one of those days...yeah, we should take a trip...will you fly on the same plane with me?...we don't have to sit next to each other (interjecting a WTF?!)...we should go to Disney World, or Disney Land, they're both pretty far...we could neck on the rides like teenagers...I know, I know...we'll figure something out...okay, okay, get back to work...

People, I think things just got interesting!

I am convinced that at any moment Ashton Kutcher is going to jump out from behind one of the pillars of the White House wearing an "I *heart* Kerry" trucker hat yelling to the world that we all just got Punked! And then, his homey P Diddy is going to start tossing out VOTE OR DIE t-shirts to all of the people who fought the good fight and Teresa Heinz will declare it "National Ketchup Day" and we'll all get free fries.

Seriously, that would be really cool...

If you do nothing else in the next four years...you have to VOTE today!

If not for you then do it for:

Your sisters and wives, so that they can have control over their own bodies
Your children and grandchildren, so that they can get the funding they need for a better education
Your parents and grandparents, so that they can afford necessary medical care
For anyone that you know in the military, so that they don't have to continue fighting in wars about greed and money
For your country...cause your vote and mine need to be counted!