Thankgiving and More!

Happy Post-Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas! I had such an awesome visit with everyone and I wanted to thank everyone for coming out to our gathering at Chez Blackford. It was quite the success, I think, and I want to thank Bill and Amanda for hosting it! I mean, really, with Bill at the helm, it has to be a success, right?!?!? Bill, I think you should be lawyer by day, party planner by night (see Matt's comment on the last post). I forget who took the last group shot, I think it was either Matt or Bill, but whoever it was, can you send it to me to post? Kevin's sad to say that his memory card shat the bed, so he has no pics from that night, so any pictures taken that included the Hollers could be sent directly to Kevin or to me, for I am already building a treasury of items for Natty's future Christmas presents. Long live homemade gifts!

**Editor's note: This section contains a more detailed account of the entire Thanksgiving trip. For those of you not interested in all of this verbage, please skip directly to the end of this section to see what's been happening more recently.

Anyway, the rest of the trip, while not as awesome as the party, was pretty rockin. We spent a lot of time with my mom and Jerry and really enjoyed ourselves (shut up, Matt.) Thanksgiving was obviously spent with family, all of whom were surprised except my grandparents, as Jerry told them the day before that I was coming home (Darn you, Jerry!). All others were shocked and amazed, which my mother happily lapped up. Friday, pre-party, Arlo and I did a little bit of shopping in the morning and he dropped me off at my mom's office so that we could go to tea together. So good! After this, to Villa Blackford for the shindig. So awesome! Saturday, we went with my mom and Jerry to the Sports Museum and pop culture museum by Campden yards. I recommend checking out the pop culture one sometime if you have a chance. It definitely leans heavily towards the 1950's, but it has some really cool stuff, especially if you like comics (Phay). Afterwards, we went to Reggie's in Federal Hill for dinner, had spectacularly bad for you but delicious mac-n-cheese and headed back for a quiet evening at the Brotmans. Sunday was a bit of a rush, trying to squeeze in as much as possible, to the point where I basically had to schedule visits with Tamira and Wendy, as we wanted to see each other and they weren't able to come to the party, and still make it back in time to pack up the car before heading out for linner, or dunch, depending on how you see it, with my grandparents. We hit crappy weather both Sunday night and Monday, so I'm glad we ended up leaving Sunday afternoon. We made it back around 7:30/8:00 on Monday night to snow.

** Fast forward to present

There's no excuse for my sorry butt to have such long breaks between posts, especially when I have some loyal fans choppin at the bit to find out about my exciting life! However, I guess I do have an excuse, and that is this- My life has just been WAY too exciting lately to post. And by exciting, I mostly mean busy. I am now working full-time, full-time at my job, extra hours to boot. There's still a lot of organization that needs to take place, but I think by the new year it should be on the right track. It's definitely challenging, but I'm learning so many new things that I think it will all be worth it. By the end of each day, I'm pretty tired, and not too motivated to do anything but have dinner and sleep, with some t.v. in the middle. Sadly, I'm not even motivated to work on Christmas presents, as I haven't wanted to journey out at night to Joann's. The weather's been bad the last few nights, and a need for yarn just doesn't seem to warrant such extreme measures (unless you're Amanda). This may mean that each of you get a hand-drawn portrait or perhaps a trivet with my cats' paw-prints in them. I ain't makin any promises, ya'hear? Okay, now I'm just rambling, as I tend to do the sleepier I get. And despite only being 8:20, I'm in full sleepy-mode, time to get ready for bed. One last thing before I go.... you probably can narrate the pics up top if you were at the Friday night festivities, but the others, here are the descriptions. The pic of my mom and I was taken at Camden Yards, as we prepare for the unlikely event of a crazed out-of-control ball to come carreening at us. The next- Arlo and I set up our Christmast tree! Pretty cool, eh? The final three pictures I like to call Man with Big Stick, Espionage, and Discovery. Whenever I look at them, Espionage and Discovery make me laugh almost as much as when it happened. Night y'all. Sweet dreams to everyone!

Sluggish With Crab....mmmmm.....crabbbb....

Against my better judgment, I decided to go out on a limb and talk about what I had for dinner tonight. Not that there's not other stuff that can be talked about, I mean, I did start a new job, quit my old job, and start looking at portable heaters for the house, but this was special.

Backstory: Arlo and I were biking one day up Layton Ave. We passed a restaurant with a large plane attached to the front. Arlo said, "Let's go check out the menu (or something like that.)" He loves it when restaurants post their menus outside the door, it's like window-shopping for him. Anyway, he was excited to point out that they have All-You-Can-Eat crablegs on Wednesday night, market price. Checking on the price for me, he found out that it's usually around $26-28. Normally I'm not a fan of AYCE, as I find I never feel I get my money's worth and the food is usually subpar. However, I must admit I was intrigued, as crab is probably one of the only things I know that I can keep eating for a long time without getting full.

So, as tomorrow's my first "real" day at my new job, not at a training center, I decided it was time to treat both of us to an awesome meal. And did it live up to expectation! Wow! I ate a bucket of crab! It was freakin fantastic! Arlo got AYCE fried chicken, fried fish, and french fries (A.K.A. Arlo's ideal meal), which was also quite tasty. We ate ourselves silly and then came home and practiced the blocks, holds, and other self-defense moves I learned in training today. No, really. It was fun, but kind of sucked with the full stomachs.

Now, it's about 9:00 and Arlo's already asleep on the couch. I've picked out my outfit for tomorrow and am ready to get up butt-early to assure that I'm not late on my first day. I will post after to let everyone know how it goes, and I all I know so far is that my office is in what was the conference room, leading me to question, "Where will we have conferences now?"

Have a good night! I'm going to go put on my pj's so that my belly can expand under the pressure of the two-plus snowcrabs that gave their lives for me. Oh crabs, how I have loved you.

One more thing...I just realized that I mentioned this but never followed up...I decided to quit my job at Louise's Trattoria. I really liked the people I worked with and the customers were nice. I just think that I will be way too busy with the new job for any additional stressors, you know? Plus, it feels weird to me to be the Outpatient Clinic Manager by day and waitstaff by night. So, after this Saturday, no more Louise's, though I am hoping to hang out with some of the people I met there, as they are pretty cool.

See you in about a week!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend Plans

The plan as of right now is to head out of Milwaukee on Wednesday, early afternoon or whenever we can hit the road. We will then sleep somewhere half-way and hopefully be in Baltimore by early afternoon on Thursday. Phay, I don't think we will be able to make Detroit the half-way mark, because that heads us North and would take about 6 hours, when at 6 hours, we should be much closer to home. :(

As with everyone else, we will be with family on Thursday and Thursday night. The "free" days, then would be Friday and Saturday, as we will probably leave Sunday mid-afternoon. Several people have said we could have people over to their place, and I just found out that my brother is not going to be at my mom's place, so we could probably also hang there, so long as we stay in the basement. I propose that we all get together on Friday night and determine the location closer to the date. I would like to just say that we could all come to my mom's place, but as you all know from my going-away party, they can be kind of crazy about having people over. We could go out for food or just order pizza so as to make it as easy as possible.

I think this may be the only way I can see everyone, but if you can't make it to Friday night, we can try to work something out.

Post comments or email me directly at jreit001@umaryland.edu to let me know what you think. Remember, nothing on Facebook!

Oh, and I realize that this is a really boring post (and I still expect a comment, Bill), but needed to get this out and it seems to be the best way to do it, perhaps even better than email so people aren't bombarded with "reply alls". There's nothing too exciting going on right now, as we haven't been to any concerts lately ("Quelle horror, what will Kevin think?!?!"), haven't started my job yet, and have been spending my time being sick and organizing things in the house, two things that NO ONE (except Andrej) would care to blog about. For more excitement, see Arlo's blog. I'm just happy to be on the mend and sitting in a clean house with a fully functioning bathroom sink (there was a snafu with the sink that could be a post in and of it self, I was so inclined, which I'm not).

Talk to you all soon and see you in two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't emphasize my excitement enough!

Warning!!

Do not, I repeat, do not mention anything about the trip home for Thanksgiving on my facebook page. My mom has access to that and checks it, and recently I have become paranoid about her finding out about the trip. Comment all you want here on the blog, but not on facebook. Can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!

I'm a Bit Obsessed With the Leaf Blower

So, I'm pretty sad that I don't have time this morning to use the leaf blower out front to rid the yard of leaves. Leaf blowers are awesome! I compare it to the memories of raking leaves as a kid, and man, so much better now!! We have two very large trees, one in the front and one in the back, and I can't imagine doing it all by hand. And now I don't! Yay leaf blowers! Not that I'm going to do an entire post proclaiming the greatness of these machines. No, there is much to mention. In fact, I will probably forget most of it, and as I'm in a bit of a time crunch, I will be numbering all of the topics in a list format, starting with the most important and moving on down. Notice, I started with the leaf blower. Pretty big stuff! Onto the list!

1. I got a job! I interviewed for the position two weeks ago and when I didn't hear back from them earlier on the day that they told me they'd get to me by, I thought I didn't get it. I was pretty much convinced, and I had spent the morning applying to another batch of jobs. But at around 3:30, AJ called and offered me the job! So, now I will be officially known as Jen Reiter, Psychotherapist/Outpatient Clinic Manager. I will be working with a variety of clients from children with ADHD and ODD to adults with chronic mental illness, psychiatric disorders, drug addiction and mental retardation. I am so excited! I don't start until November 17, so I'm spending this time relaxing, getting new work clothes, reading, and getting a jump on Christmas present creation (see below for more). More to post later on the job front.

2. Halloween! Arlo and I went out for Halloween and had a blast! He was not thrilled with the idea of dressing up when I told him I was really into it, oh, say 3 months ago when we moved. But he warmed to the idea, so much so that I wasn't even planning on doing anything and he asked if we could. We debated between being two present-day dirty hippies a la Bonnaroo, or a lesbian couple, and in the end we went with dirty hippies. My costume was complete with frizzie wig, tattoo around the belly button, long skirt and fairy wings. Awesome! Arlo looked splendid in his Grateful Dead rasta shirt, rainbow glasses and tall hat. We went to a few bars in Milwaukee and ended up at Ma Fishers for the fried food platter. Fun night! For more on Halloween from Arlo's perspective, see his blog at http://arlosbloggitybloggyblog-blog.blogspot.com/

Oh, and we also carved pumpkins, see below! Mine is the scary one.

3. I joined the Y! They had a deal for joining by October 31, so I did it and it's awesome! I have been twice since I joined and I haven't used the pool yet, but I'm very excited to head there tomorrow. I also can't wait for the spinning classes and kick-boxing classes. Arlo signed up with me on a family plan, though his intention is to use the gym more like a spa, going mostly to use the hot tub and sauna when it's really cold in the winter and he needs a good thaw. I, on the other hand, have visions of us sweating together gleefully in a spinning class or encouraging each other as co-spotters. Ah, the idealist. So much fun to dream, so sad when those dreams are dashed!

Alright, best be going. I need to get ready for work now. One last thing. I'm trying something new for Christmas this year. I have an idea of what I want to make everyone for Christmas, but I'm making an offer. If there's something I've given someone else or something you've seen, thought up but don't think you can make (a la Kevin's blanket with sleeves), or something I've made you before and you want another one (like a new pair of pj bottoms), please shoot me an email or post a comment. I will try to honor requests. That being said, if I have my heart set on making you something else, you might get that, so you'll still be surprised come gift exchange time.

Word!

The Arrival of Fall (and Wendy) to Wisconsin

You know it's fall in Wisconsin when all of the Hortons begin getting excited about the Gaysmills Apple Festival. This year was different in that Arlo and I were among them. We all met up on the first day in the small town you see in the beginning of the blog. There the kids had fun on carnival rides, we all ate a so-so lunch and then looked at the local arts and crafts wares for sale. I don't know about you, but I can just NEVER have too many kitchen towels with Packer logos on them! From there, we went to the flea market, which was HUGE, and wandered through isles and isles of stuff. Arlo and I found an axe, which made Arlo very happy as he can now chop stuff for our fire pit, and for the rest of the day, he kept pointing stuff out that he could chop, if I wanted him to. I declined, as I would think that the vendors wouldn't like it if he chopped up their vintage baby cradles. As the kids grew sleepier, crankier, and louder, we knew it was time to wrap it up and get to the important part of Apple Festival- The Apples!! So, we headed to Arlo's favorite orchard and (to my dismay) we didn't have to pick the apples, they were all ready for us in huge bags. We left with not just one bag of apples, but three. This is very different from my usual 5-6 apples when I go to the grocery store, one for each day, bit. I'm immediately thinking of all of the things I should do to "use up" these apples before they go bad, pies, apple sauce, more pies. Funny enough, I tend to just keep doing what I have been doing all along, one apple a day. Suddenly, three bags don't seem to be an absurd idea. We ended the weekend with a pancake breakfast held in the town church. It was delicious, but some of us (Arlo) couldn't use self-restraint and ended up with a stomachache. Oh, yeah, and to explain the picture of the goat, on the way out of town we stopped at Peck's, a produce place that has a petting zoo out back with goats, potbellied pigs, a camel, a miniature horse, ducks, etc. As you can imagine, this was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.

Since then, October has started, our fall shows are in full swing, including Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, and Arlo's recent find, which you should check out if you have BBC, Gavin and Stacey. We have had some really fun times, including when Arlo made me a super awesome suprise dinner of crab legs, asparagus, and corn on the cob. It was delicious! As you can see, I am enjoying it! We have also been having some fun dates, like going out for mini-bowling at Koz's, a local bar, playing trivia at Nomad, another bar, and checking out the local scene at Robert's, up the street from us. I haven't been keeping track of my Live Music Tally, but we went to see some live music too, Cory Chisel and the Traveling Sons (I think that's the name anyway). Cool band. For more detail than that, check out Arlo's blog.

So, other than that, what else? Hmmm...there was my VISIT FROM WENDY!!! Wendy came and stayed with us on her way to Seattle this past weekend and it was AWESOME! It was so great to have someone her who knows me and has been my friend for quite some time. After picking her up at the airport it seemed like she's been here the whole time, we just picked right up. We spent the weekend doing what we did best as friends, talking (a lot), crafting, watching tv, eating, thrift shopping, and drinking wine. In addition, we did two things that we haven't done in the past- sing kareoke and search for a bronz statue of The Fonz from Happy Days. Both were successful endeavors. The singing took place at Robert's. We originally went there to see the Neill Diamond impersonator (don't judge, it's our local bar!), but they were doing kareoke instead, for Sweetest Day (like Valentine's Day, don't ask). As I have always wanted to try it and never had the courage, and Wendy was feeling the same way, we decided that now would be the perfect time, as there were about 10 people in the bar, including us, and the average age was 51. I sang Copacobana, and Wendy did Blister in the Sun. Both were huge hits! It was a wonderful weekend, but it had to come to an end. I dropped Wendy off at the airport at the butt-crack of dawn on Monday morning and then headed back to bed, sleepy and sad after the send-off. Now, it's back to the job search, waiting tables, and perhaps a renewed quest for a new female friend. Not that Arlo doesn't make a fabulous boyfriend and friend, but no one can be someone's everything. Wow, that was a mouthful. Alright, need to be going. Time to exercise and do all of the other things on my list of things that need to get done today. Oh, before I go though, one more thing. Marley's been doing some strange things lately and we are wondering if he's having an identity crisis after living in a house with two cats. Is this weird? Peace out to Bill (and everyone else).

Tired Jen

This is tired Jen. She's home alone, it's 10:18, and all she wants to do is crawl into bed and sleep. However, as it's been a long time since last posting, and since I recently took Marley out of his room and it would be cruel to put him back so soon, I decided to stay up, post, think about what I can possibly say in the job interview tomorrow, and then scoop cat litter, brush teeth and hit the hay. Arlo's bartending right now. He got a job in Racine at one of the bars he's been going to with his dad since he was a wee tot. I think, as tonight is Wednesday night, he should be listening to live music right now, and I'm sure he's probably happy about that. Excuse me. I just had to go play intermediary between cat and dog. Right now, we exist within a complex system of individual bedrooms and baby-gates, all intended to keep the animals from harming each other. I just completed a routine intended for behavior modification, called "When I See Him, I Get Treats!" While the animals stare each other down from either side of the baby-gates, I throw treats to each, praising each for not hissing, whining, or barking. It's quite amusing, and so far seems to be working. The other night Sidd went Kamikazi, jumping over the gate, but Marley was on the chair, and by the time he noticed, I had his leash. For the next hour, Marley slept on the one side of the gate, and Sidd stared at him from the other.
I do realize that sharing all of this animal information makes me sound A.)like there's nothing else going on right now and B.) like the kind of woman who talks about her pets like they're her kids. These statements are indeed partially true, no doubt, but a bigger reason for all of this is that I'm freakin exhausted, not thinking straight, and my mind is drawing a blank. So, let's get organized, shall we? What's been happening since last we spoke?
1. Arlo and I have been to one movie and one concert. Movie, Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, Concert, Ray Lamontagne. Guess which I liked more. For those of you who guessed movie, you're WRONG! The movie was good, it was cute, sweet, and everything I love about a good chick-flick rom-com. 'Cause that's definitely what it was, despite having funny lines from Michael Cera and cool music. Definitely still a chick flick. It's funny, it makes me realize that I'm getting older, as rom-coms are now appearing with seemingly younger and younger casts. Weird. Anyway, the other event was the Ray Lamontagne concert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddX1FOD1Yx4&feature=related. For those of you not familiar, he's a fantastic singer/song-writer/hetero-sensitivo with a gorgeous voice, who looks surprisingly like a combo of Zach Galifianakis, Iron and Wine, and some woodsy forest ranger. BTW, check out Zach here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JeUTEtP1lE&feature=related, he's a hilarious comedian, and he looks a lot like Ray Lamontagne. Anyway, it was a stirring, beautiful concert, and it made me jealous of his kids/future kids to have a dad who could sign the pants off any lullaby. Damn.
2. I have been working steadily at my new job at Louise's Trattoria. It's not exactly steady pay, however, as I am finding mostly famine with a couple of feasts. The people who work there are cool, however, and I'm enjoying trying to remember all of the Spanish I learned in high-school (as the cooks are mostly Latino).
3. I have been hired as a substitute teacher. This is another temporary job as I am continuing to look for gainful employment as a social worker. No dice on that, though there's an interview tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. I haven't done any gigs as a teacher yet, but I do have an orientation Friday morning, so let's see what happens next week. Who'd thunk that I would be back in the classroom after all of these years?!?! I feel like I'm repeating the last 10 years of my life, waiting tables, then teaching.
4. I've created a compost bin and started composting. Believe it or not, this is very exciting to me. It feels really good to be able to recycle even more of our waste. I don't have much in there yet, but it's a start!
5. Not really about me, but I wanted to share and to invite everyone on my list to go and check it out- Arlo started a blog!!! http://arlosbloggitybloggyblog-blog.blogspot.com/ It's meant as a more interactive blog about all aspects of pop culture, music, movies, television, etc. Give it a go. I have to say it's way funnier and more clever than mine, with less animal adventure stories, so you will probably enjoy it.

Alright I'm out. I really want to get a good night's sleep tonight so I can get up butt early and get ready for the interview/interrogation (depending on how you see it.)

Miss my peeps on the East Coast. Keepin' it real, yo.