The henna party - Part 2 of Katie's Wedding Weekend

Once we got off the bus in NJ, we walked up the hill to Ipek's house where she was throwing a henna party for Katie. This is sort of the Turkish equivalent of a bachelorette party, only there aren't ever any strippers, or bar crawls. There's a little ceremony where the groom's family gives the bride to be gold pieces (which are as good as cash in hand) and everyone celebrates with a little henna staining on their hands. I was a smidge disappointed because when I heard henna party I thought we'd be doing something cool like in India where they decorate their hands with henna in beautiful designs. This is not the case in Turkey. Nope, you just plop a little henna down in your palm or whatnot and go on your merry way. Nonetheless, I came home with a little packet of the stuff, and I think it'll be fun to play with (we can do a henna design party anyway).

Because it was so cold in the city we were the first people to show up. The henna party is for girls only, but Brad did hang out for awhile until Bekir showed up to take him back to NYC for the bachelor party at a Brazilian steakhouse. Once he was gone most of the ladies showed up. Several of Katie's friends from the city and from college were there, along with my mom and Bekir's family (sister, mother, aunts, grandmother and cousins).

Ipek did Katie's make-up and Bekir's mom dressed her in a green sparkly "robe" and put a red scarf on her head. She sat at a table and they brought out a tray with candles and a bowl of henna (which I'd earlier mistaken for spinach dip - but thankfully did not sample). They sang a little song (of which I understood zilch, but it was fun anyway) and did a little ceremony with the giving of the gold coins and the henna. They tied a red bag around Katie's hand with the gold and henna and she then passed around the bowl of henna for everyone else to put a smidge in their hands. This was fun, but mild disappointment ensued when the American girls figured out there wouldn't be any pretty designs (see, it wasn't just me). That was pretty much the entire ceremony.

After the ceremony we had some new and interesting Turkish dishes to sample and there were plenty of drinks to go around. I tried 3 different kinds of pasta salad, 2 different kinds of hummus, some red relishy stuff on bread and crazy amazing brownies made by Bekir's mom. The party was all in all a good time, but we had to drive about 45 minutes back to the hotel and Brad did not come back to get us until about midnight (we were not the happiest campers ever).

NYC Trip - part 1 of Katie's Wedding Weekend

So last weekend was my sister's wedding. Like most weddings there were a few events leading up to the big day, so even though the actual to-do wasn't until Sunday evening, we headed up to NJ on Thursday afternoon. After a nearly 7 hour drive in the rain, we made it to Bridgewater, checked in to the hotel and crashed. The 6:30am wake-up call came rather early (with it being 6:30am and all), but we got up, got ready and drove in to West NY to catch a bus in to the city. First off we saw Wintuk, a seasonal Cirque du Soleil show that my friend Rene just so happens to be performing in. After Josh moaned and groaned a good bit (as he does when we do anything he didn't particularly suggest), the show started and he decided it was a good idea after all (shocker). The show was fab, and when it was over we went backstage with Rene to get the grand tour. This was a pretty interesting addition to our trip and it was great to see Rene aside from everything else.

From there we took off for Soho - it's only my favoritest place in the whole world (well, at least it's my favoritest place in NY, if not the east coast). We made our way over to La Esquina (otherwise known as the Corner Deli) and had their fabulous roasted corn and fish tacos. Josh, ever the moaner and groaner, would not eat a bite of his corn, so I finished off not one, but two servings and definitely had my fill of corn till next season. From there we walked down to Rice to Riches and had some cheesecake and cookies & cream rice pudding. This was Brad's first trip to the famed rice pudding shop and I think he quite liked it (which is shocking cause Josh gets the groaning and moaning precisely from him when it comes to trying new things). Josh, still groaning and moaning, had no rice pudding whatsoever. After we stuffed ourselves silly at RTR, we walked over to Uniqlo so Brad could get a hat, scarf and gloves cause it was not particularly warm that day. Even with the newly purchased warmth, it was too cold, so we decided to just hop on the subway and head back to the bus.

Not so warm in south Texas

I'm on my last trip of the fall travel season, and frankly I'm rather disappointed. The people are great, I've got a bay front room and have had fun thus far. The major issue here is the freakin' weather. I picked this trip almost exclusively for the nice weather potential. Seriously, who doesn't want to go to Corpus Christi in December? It's all nice and warm and sunny.... or not. No, it was lovely when I got here on Wednesday, about 85 degrees, sunny, a light breeze. I wore my flip flops and walked around town - just great! All that ended about the time I went to bed that night. The wind woke me up repeatedly, it got terribly cold out, and today I didn't see the sun at all. Granted, it's better than the cold and wind in DC (cause there's no bay front room) and it is probably 10 to 20 degrees warmer. I'm outta here tomorrow afternoon, and of course it's supposed to warm up over the weekend. I suppose this is what I get for planning business travel around my personal desires.

Thanksgiving and wishful thinking

I rather enjoy social networking sites - of any sort really. For some it's a blog community (sorta like this), for others it's Facebook or MySpace, and for other's it's a message board of some sort. All of these things are nifty ways for folks to keep in touch and I really enjoy reading up on everyone's lives and news. This brings me to my current state of reading up on everyone's Thanksgiving holiday. Several friends of mine went out of town, while others stayed home and people came to them. Most had home cooked food, but I'd venture I know at least someone who went out for their turkey dinner. The recurring theme in most everyone's depiction of their holiday was FUN. Fun with friends, fun with family, fun with the dog and cat - whatever, it was all just fun. This applies to mostly everyone who wrote a blog, posted pictures, or made a comment of any sort regarding turkey day. This; however, does not apply to me.
For many years now we've been going out to Winchester to have Thanksgiving dinner with our friends and former babysitters, the Purvis family. These folks are straight sent from heaven. When we were absurdly young, clueless, and in need of quality child care, the Purvis family (yes, all 4 of them) came to the rescue. Kelly, the daughter, worked at the daycare Josh went to and when we asked around for someone who might be available one evening to babysit she was all in. We really liked her and her family (she was 19 at the time) and so we called her again and again to help us out. When we discovered we would need someone who would pick-up our kid and watch him till later in the evening, Debbie, the mom, stepped in to help. These folks helped us raise Josh and were just like family to us for the whole 3 years we lived in Winchester. Even after we moved away, we continued to go out to visit them for Thanksgiving (among other times during the year). THIS was always nice and enjoyable, never awkward or uncomfortable, and something anyone would want to do again.
This year my mom wanted to come for Thanksgiving with her new husband, who we've met all of once. Not to completely poo-poo the guy - he seems nice enough, but we just don't know him at all. Compound this with the fact that my mom doesn't even know him. This time last year she was screaming at us all about how everyone on the Internet is a "liar - all liars", and how dating sites are just formulas for disaster. Fast forward 6 months and she'd run off and married the first guy she met on an Internet dating site - pretty much site unseen. She dragged him around to her friends and family (Katie and I excluded) and then decided that was ample opportunity for everyone to "approve", so she took the leap like a complete child. I'll stop this rant here and continue on with my Thanksgiving story.
So she calls and says she wants to come and I said that was fine if she wanted to, but it wasn't necessary (cause we're very happy just going to Winchester). I've spent the bulk of my life going out for Thanksgiving, so she suggested we do that - her treat. I looked up a few places and decided on Clyde's in Ashburn, and that was that. There was some momentary moaning and groaning on the part of everyone here in my house because it's just not fun. It's not fun to deal with people in your house that you don't know. It's not fun to deal with my mom who is just a strange bird to begin with, but then coupled with her draped over this guy we don't know is extremely awkward. It's difficult to describe the level of discomfort that exists when they're here. At least when it was just my mom I could deal with just her. Generally she's nice to your face, it's over the phone that she's so unbearable. I did my best to make conversation about whatever I thought I might have in common with the new guy, but as it turns out there isn't really anything. He mentioned that he wanted to go visit places now that he's retired, so I thought that would be a fun topic. It wasn't. The only places he wants to go are places he's already been to, and all of said places are in this country. The funniest part of the entire conversation was when he suggested my mom get on an unpressurized, unheated military plane to Hawaii. She was clearly shocked by this suggestion, and my comment to her was "Travelocity.com." I was beginning to think he might be relatively tolerable until the day they left and he started to tell a "joke" which wasn't a joke at all. Brad, in quick thinking, stopped him, and later told me what he was going to say (which he'd apparently told Brad the night before). I honestly wish he would've said it in front of me so I could've thrown him out good and proper. I have no patience for stupidity, racism, redneckism, or anything that could be construed as a threat to our national security. Makes me wanna take him up 123 and drop him at Langley next time they're in town.

Forced to slow down

I haven't been sick in about two years. Once upon a time, when I worked at the oh so craptastic law job, I got sick twice, in the whole horrific two months I worked there. The sickness only compounded the misery that was working there. Fast forward out of that dark and dreary time to my current job, which is generally sunny and fun. Even though travel is often the culprit for illness (especially this time of year), I managed to stave off any instances of the cold or flu for my time there thus far. At least until this past trip.
I've been a big fan of DanActive, pretty much every since it came out. I told my friends all about it and how great it seems to work. I generally chug a little yellow bottle of vanilla yogurt daily and never get sick. Unfortunately, in my flurry of travels and work and soccer and whatever, I neglected to pick up DanActive on my last several trips to the grocery store. I probably went about a month without it and now I am paying the price.
Each time I have to fly anywhere I get a little hack. I attribute this to the dry, recirculated air in the plane. Generally, after about 24 hours the hack is gone and everything is fine. This is what I thought was going to be the case on my trip to Boston-ish last week, but apparently the hack turned in to full blown nastiness. It took several days for me to come to terms with the fact that there was still something sitting in my chest. I came home and started waking up with a sore throat each morning, so I turned up the humidifier (which hadn't been turned up nearly enough). The end of the week came and the sore throat went away, but the hack did not. Saturday came and went and nothing awful happened, but on Sunday it all let loose. After lunch and grocery shopping I came home and took a little nap on the couch. When I woke up I was sure that the 8 pack of DanActive I'd just purchased would not be able to save me. I worked yesterday, albeit from home. I'm pretty productive like that, and as long as I can sit here in my sweats with a big cup of tea I believe life will go on. Today, my boss is gone off for his holiday vacation, and I am most definitely not going to take this affliction and pass it around the office. It wouldn't be nice, and it's completely unnecessary. Instead I'll be here, probably napping, popping some pills and catching up on my TIVO.

Secret life of a vampire lover

So, I love vampires. If you knew me in college, you might know this already (though that really depends on what point in college you know me from). I have no idea where the love came from, or when it started, but it's been there for quite some time and was only enhanced by books and movies like Interview with the Vampire and Blade. I have zero desire to suck blood from anyone or anything, nor do I fancy living forever (most days anyway). I just think the idea of vampires is... kinda cool. All of this is in sharp contrast to my extreme fear of horror. Horror in books, movies, real life - not up my alley. Vampires - up my alley.

Did I write this blog just to ramble on pointlessly? Actually, no.

So, today a new movie came out - Twilight. It's based on a book (or maybe a couple of books from the series) targeted at teenage girls. For this reason I haven't read the books, and I'm writing this blog instead of watching the movie (unlike alot of other people I know). I've seen several ads for the movie, so my interest has been piqued for awhile. Yesterday I read a review in the Post that was pretty positive for the flick over all. Today I took Sharon out to lunch (my assistant) and she told me about how her daughter is all gung-ho to go see the movie this evening. Then she told me how her daughter never reads, but was completely obsessed with the book series over the summer and how after her daughter finished the books she picked them up and read them too. Ok, so clearly I'll have to read the books. Seeing how I NEVER get to the movies, I probably won't get to see this in the theatre, but after reading the books I won't want to watch the movie anyway.

I'm generally opposed to books targeted at teenage girls, but for the sake of the vampire theme I'm gonna go ahead and take the leap. I have a feeling that I'll end up with plenty of folks to discuss them with (not unlike the Harry Potter following).

Blog for the travel break

So, you might have noticed that I haven't written a blog in like.... well, forever. It's a busy time with work, and blogging is WAY on the back burner (cause sleep is what I choose to do with any free time I might come across). Anywho, I've got a whopping 2 week break between trips, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to catch up a bit on where I've been, what I've seen and whatever else I think might be blog worthy. Let's work in reverse chronological order.

Most recently I've been to Boston-ish. The trip was planned for Worcester, MA, but thanks to a handy hockey practice scheduled in, I managed to make it around a bit of Boston with a good friend. I was super thrilled by this addition to my trip (which would've been totally lame otherwise). I spent a couple of hours the morning I arrived walking around Quincy Market and the north side of Boston. I had real good italian food and real good italian pastries. The north side is a really great part of town with narrow roads and lots of very old buildings - very old European feel. This is the part of town where you'll find the Freedom Trail along with all the italian goodness you can handle. After my jaunt around town we headed across a bridge to somewhere and went to hockey practice (for a whole hour thanks to SU not having it's own rink and having to rent ice time from public joints - cushy job, I know).

The trip before that took me to Texas.... yes, again. There I watched the election results from the privacy of my hotel room while I had a great turkey sandwich and amazing chocolate chip cookies. This was pretty much the highlight of my trip. Sad, but true. There were a couple of meetings I attended, but they weren't blog worthy.

This puts us back to late October when I took my first-ever trip to Wisconsin. I've wanted to go to Wisconsin for quite some time, and I was thrilled to actually go and see what there was to see. Unfortunately, my trip took me to the dead center of the state and so there wasn't a whole lot to see and do there. Fortunately, the folks I worked with there were hilarious and quite possibly the most entertaining group I've come across at a convention. After 2 days in Stevens Point I was ready to head home and made it back just in time for trick-or-treating.

I know, the exciting travel is almost too much for you to handle - well hang on, there's still more to come!