30: I obviously don’t believe in nutshells.

I’ve been trying to figure out where to begin in writing about the last few days of Thanksgiving-weekend craziness. In retrospect, I probably should have just sucked it up and written about it last night while everything was fresh in my mind, because now, just a day later, I’m engrossed in a whole new week of distractions and the weekend seems a far-off memory.

But I promised to tell you about it, and I’ll make good on that one.

 

So, I’ll tell you about Thursday and Friday in a nutshell, then try to expound a bit more on Saturday and Sunday.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we spent it at Joe’s parents’ in LA. My parents and my little brother Ben came up from the desert, and that was just wonderful. I am so thankful that my parents and my in-laws get along so well. They’re seriously bffs. It was a bummer that my sister couldn’t come, especially because I won’t get to see her before her 18th birthday. But the meal was great, the company was great, and I was reminded throughout the day that I am the luckiest girl on the planet.

Thursday night Joe and I made the trek down to his brother’s place where we slept a few hours and got up at 3:00 for Black Friday (as briefly mentioned in Friday’s blog post). Just for fun, I’ll try to list all the stores we hit:

1. JC Penney
2. The Home Depot
3. Michael’s
4. Burlington Coat Factory
5. The Limited
6. Express
7. Bath & Body Works

(Hmm…I feel like there were several more, but I can’t think of them right now.) Anyway, after we were all shopped out, we had brunch at a place called Muck Lynch’s in Orange County, where I had some of the best blueberry pancakes and eggs-over-medium of my LIFE, along with a schooner (laaaarrrrge glass) of Hibiscus, which is champagne and cranberry juice. Mostly champagne. And we mostly drank them before our food finally came, so we were all mostly very buzzed. At noon.

So needless to say, after a very full morning of running all over town and then chowing down and guzzling the bubbly, we all crashed for several hours. Then Joe and I headed back to his parents’ house, where we hung out some more, I packed up for the rest of my weekend, and said goodnight.

Phew. That Thursday-Friday “nutshell” ended up being more like a hollowed-out pumpkin. Or something.

 

Now on to Saturday.

 

Megan arrived to pick me up at 6:45 or so, and with some munchies in hand (thanks to my MIL) we started off for the six-hour drive to San Francisco.

And since I know I’m one who tends to skim the “and then this happened” type of posts rather than actually read them, I’m going to bulletize the highlights to keep things a little less wordy.

Highlights from the drive up:

• Blasting Christmas CDs including Harry Connick, Jr., Mannheim Steamroller, and Take 6
• Blasting non-Christmas CDs including Justin Timberlake’s first solo album, the new Michael Buble CD and the new Rascal Flatts CD
• Driving through the grapevine and being AMAZED that there was tons of snow covering the mountains. We were legitimately ecstatic for those five miles or so, and took tons of pictures which I’ll be sticking up on facebook and will be sure to link to here.
• Great conversation, as always — and ranging from topics like family and relationship drama to farting, TV shows and reminiscing about high school days

 

Highlights from San Francisco on Saturday:

• Arriving by 2:30 even after stopping a couple of times for gas and potty breaks
• Eating at the Whole Foods deli with Megan, Lindsey, Carlo and Rufus. I had tomato soup and grilled cheese on sourdough, and it was GOOD.
• Catching up with Rufus after not seeing each other since college graduation
• Getting dolled up for our night at the opera, where Rufus and his dad played bassoon and we got to hear some really wonderful Italian opera and symphony performances
• Going out after the opera with Rufus and a bunch of his friends. We ended up at a cool Irish pub called the Chieftain, where we had drinks, played Truth or Dare, talked about religion and marriage and goofed off until 3 in the morning. Coincidentally, we had all agreed prior to arriving that we were too tired to stay out past midnight, but it ended up being a blast.
• While at the bar: watching Megan attempt a cartwheel in a dress (which, of course, I have on video but have sworn to never make public)
• Falling asleep under ten pounds of blankets on Lindsey’s insanely comfortable couch

 

Highlights from Sunday:

• Waking up leisurely around 10 a.m. and staying cozy under the covers to read a little before Megan and Lindsey were up
• Playing with Lindsey’s adorable Maltese, Bond (like James Bond)
• Eating scrumptious bagels at Noah’s, which we took to a beautiful spot where we could see the water and Alcatraz, and enjoying the beautiful NOT-freezing-like-I-had-expected-it-to-be morning weather
• Taking jumping pictures off the ledge, with the gorgeous water and mountains in the background
• Heading out to meet with Bree, another one of my bridesmaids who lives up north, for a last-minute addition to an already perfect weekend. It was so great to catch up with Bree and hear about all the great things she’s been doing and experiencing post-graduation.
• Blasting more Christmas music on the drive down
• Playing Would You Rather and asking some really silly questions, and some more serious ones
• Farting. A lot.
• Making it home right at 9:00 p.m. and grabbing Joe for a quick trip to State Street for frozen yogurt
• Sleeping in my own bed again, at last

 

So, in a nutshell (ha), it was fun!

And this marks the completion of #73 on the 101 in 1001 list, “Go on a weekend road trip with Megan.” It also means I’m officially “in progress” on #95, which is to document every goal completed.

And later this week I’ll write a post specifically about completing #17, “Go to an opera (and try to like it).” I will ALSO write about what it’s like to successfully complete an official NaBloPoMo month (yessss!).

It’ll be epic.

Or something.

 

What were some of the highlights from your Thanksgiving weekend?