Sunday, December 30, 2007

My sincerest apologies...

...for having not updated this in several weeks. We've been insanely busy finishing up our respective semesters, preparing for the holidays, dealing with leaky windows, etc. And then we had perhaps our most authentic midwest experience to date: our travel plans were affected by the weather. This has literally NEVER happened to me before; I mean, I've dealt with delayed flights and all those kinds of inconveniences, but this time we were fully defeated. We showed up at the airport, Vinny in tow, we got in line, Matt looked at the flight info screen, Matt informed me that our flight was canceled, lady at desk said next flight she could get us out on wasn't until two days later--Christmas Eve. Bad. So we turned around and left the airport one half hour later, especially irritated by the fact that it was warmer that day than it had been in weeks (44 degrees) and it was the FOG that kept the planes on the ground.

The saving grace: to make ourselves feel better, we went out to dinner that night at the Third Ward Cafe, a very sweet and quiet little restaurant in the downtown warehouse district. The food and wine were spectacular and it seemed, momentarily, that our travel delay was a blessing in disguise because we'd get to spend a couple of quality days together.

Then the next day it was -4 degrees with wind chill and we no longer felt blessed. We hardly left the house and when we did I almost died. That is not an exaggeration. Thankfully, Christmas Eve was clear and sunny, and our flight was only delayed a few minutes, and we made it home safe and sound.

We had a fantastic vacation in San Diego, which was absolutely gorgeous and sunny and WARM the whole week. Although, clearly the 50s and low 60s aren't warm for San Diegans. I saw SO many girls wearing UGG boots and furry outerwear and thought--rather haughtily, I fully admit--about how there is actually a legitimate use for such things in places like Antarctica, Greenland, Wisconsin, and likely much of Canada. Anyway, we spent much time with family, and we even got my dad out of the house (he is currently recovering from his knee replacement surgery) for a really lovely Christmas dinner at the Leach house. In one week I think we saw every person we know even remotely well in San Diego. I over-ate the entire time and I don't regret it because I had so much good food, including the requisite Santana's burrito which was TO DIE FOR. For Christmas I received numerous cold weather essentials and was actually quite excited to return to Milwaukee and try them out. As it happened, it was 10 degrees when we arrived home today and therefore the calf-length down-filled parka and the ear-flap yeti hat came in handy almost immediately. How convenient!!!

I was overall very happy to get home, despite the fact that our house was at 42 degrees when we walked in, we have no food in the fridge, and the windows are still leaky. It's funny--I kind of missed the snow and the cold. Is that absolutely ridiculous? Am I going to be completely eating my words in one month when "cold" doesn't even begin to describe the hell that is REAL winter in the upper midwest? Probably, but for now I feel better equipped than ever (apparel-wise) to face the onslaught, and I'm rather happy to be back in the frozen tundra. We went and picked up kitty, and I actually kind of missed him, too. He's been acting suspiciously nice to us all evening, so I'm kind of wondering what expensive piece of electronics he will ruin tomorrow to even things out.

Oh, and our neighbor got Vinny a yellow Sponge Bob Square Pants sweater for Christmas. It is absolutely fantastic and I will post a picture as soon as I think to do so because it's one of the most hysterical things I have ever, ever seen.

That was a sort of shoddy summary of the past few weeks but it will have to suffice, because it's almost midnight and I am taking Matt to the hospital early tomorrow morning for his ACL repair surgery. Wish him luck. He'll be spending one night there (I might, too, who knows) and will return home Wednesday morning. He has already announced that during his convalescence he will attempt to contribute to this blog, so check back frequently if you're interested in his account of the recovery process, which will most likely not accurately portray how much a slave he is making of me, so I'll try to write about it too in order to set the record straight. :)

Happy New Year!

1 comment:

Darcy said...

I MISS YOU BRICKFACE!!!

Also, happy new year.