First time for everything.........

Today, for the first time ever, I ate in a restaurant for Thanksgiving. Mountain Man and I went to a local steakhouse where he ordered a steak with bleu cheese and bacon and I had pistachio-crusted salmon. Hey, at least I had garlic mashed potatoes! It was delicious and we topped it off with creme brulee and cheesecake with pumpkin drizzle. So, basically I bookended my day with pie, since our morning started off with a very early trip to the airport, followed by breakfast at Denny's nearby while we ensured our precious cargo actually made it airborne before we got all the way home (holiday travel is fickle). My pie at Denny's sucked so I only ate three bites. But, still, pie to start and end the day is never bad.

Except I'm on Weight Watchers so of course those indulgences are forbidden. But it's Thanksgiving so I'm giving myself a pass. Last night I was really hungry and wanted ice cream. As Jeff dug into the carton of coffee ice cream, I mentioned I'd really like a milkshake, but that I was out of points for the day. Licking the spoon, he yelled "Hold the line! Don't give up!" Can you tell he was watching "Gettysburg" just before his dessert? Needless to say, his Civil War motivation did little to quell my cravings, but I did not indulge and went to bed with my stomach growling.

Speaking of Civil War, since we just returned from our trip back East and having just visited Gettysburg, Antietam and other historic places, Jeff has been obsessed with watching movies and reading about these places. I guess we should have done our homework BEFORE the trip, but after is fine, too, since it's history, right? Still, he talks about it all the time. This morning, he was drawing imaginary fighting lines on the table at Denny's, explaining some strategy or other while I was busy texting Arlie at the airport. (I'm listening.......really...).

I remembered that I usually do some online shopping on Thanksgiving morning, but the crack-of-dawn trip to the airport kind of threw me off. Still, I logged on during the commute, and completed a few transactions. God bless smart phones!

When I got home I had a sudden urge to make this coffeecake I'd had once about 15 years ago. I have no idea what made me think of it again, but I picked up a can of cherry pie filling at the store just to make it so I looked for the ingredients. The first ingredient was Bisquick and I only had enough to make half the recipe, but that was fine since there were only four people in the house at the time. I was reminded that my box of Bisquick was from Costco, a place I have not ventured into for almost a year. I let my membership laspe, even! Gasp! But tomorrow I have to pick up my Christmas card that I ordered from Costco so I'm sure I'll have to renew my membership. If anything, I'll appreciate the ginormous packages of toilet paper because we go through that stuff like water.

I did some more online shopping today. What a cluster! It's so confusing to navigate all the black Friday specials (yes, it's Thursday, it just gets earlier and earlier each year) and it gives me a headache and anxiety trying to shop for four kids. Plus, one significant other and two extras we've acquired for the uncertain future. Yes, this year I have seven kids to shop for - all teens and young adults. I'm going to need a lot of Bailey's and Xanax to get through the season.

But today is about Thankfulness........and I'm truly thankful for everything in my life. I mean, I'm thankful every day - for my beautiful, but cluttered and often messy home, for my comfortable bed and the old electric blanket I found at grandpa's that still works great and keeps me so warm at night, for waking up with various kids under my roof, always happy to have them around for their goofiness, laughter and the way they amaze me every day with how smart they are. I'm thankful for food and flowers and my sweet old dog, and my lazy cats, and adventures with Mountain Man, and the fact that, even though not all Thanksgivings are full of family and friends and a turkey in the oven, a fruity adult beverage and the company of my husband are just as welcoming on a day we celebrate gratitude. I'm lucky.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

November 7 and I've been in three states today.....

Remember yesterday's post where I was worrying about flying? Well, I had good reason to be worried because today I experienced terrifying turbulence in an airplane. I'm not talking a few bumps through the clouds. I'm talking so rough it was hard to read or hold my Kindle and it felt like a truck hit us midair. You know, if trucks flew. And went 600 miles an hour. My point is, I had to close my eyes, pray fervently, grip my jacket and take deep breaths, and I still could not quell my anxiety. When the plane landed I felt like my legs were jelly. Still taking deep breaths, I exited the plane but not before I heard the pilot say "Yeah, I'm new!" God help me.

And you know, yes, flying can be beautiful, like when you see the sun streaming over the clouds like this:

Or you see cool jet streams in the sky like this:

Or you see an awesome river reflecting the sun like this: 

But that turbulence will ruin it every time. It's like a bumpy car ride only when you reach for something to hold on to, you realize you are IN THE AIR and there's nothing between you and the ground, except AIR, and the whole reason you're feeling all these horrible, lurching, tipping, shaking, dropping moves is because of AIR. This is why I hate air travel. 

It was already dark by the time we got our rental car and headed to York, PA. Hey, did you know that York Peppermint Patties were first manufactured in York, PA in 1940? That's what it says on the placard in our bed and breakfast. And there are York Peppermint Patties lying in little dishes all over our rooms. Here's a little Wiki background for you: York Peppermint Patties were first manufactured by Henry Kessler of the York Cone Co. in York, PA. Many similar peppermint chocolate candies were in existence before the York Peppermint Pattie but what made these unique was that while others had a soft and gooey center, the York had a firm and crisp center. According to a former employee of the company, if the pattie didn't snap clean in half during test sampling, it was considered a second. And that's how you "Get the Sensation"!

Let's just talk about how weird this whole Airbnb thing is. Anyone can rent a room in their house to anyone else for whatever amount they want and they make all the rules. So, I found this place online and these people live in a regular neighborhood. We just drove up, found the house number, and knocked on the door. A nice lady answered, asked us to take off our shoes (and offered up house slippers which "are washed between each guest" - I declined). She showed us to our upstairs quarters. There's a main bedroom with a queen bed that looks like this:

Hi Jeff! 

Plus, there's an extra room for just spreading out or lounging in that looks like this: 

And it has these super cool built-in bunkbeds so if you were traveling with kids, it would be so fun! 

And we don't know these people AT ALL. They are perfect strangers and we're just sleeping in their house. We took showers in their house! We are going to eat breakfast in their house! How weird is that? Plus, I've seen enough episodes of "Criminal Minds" to know that this could be the perfect scenario to lure unsuspecting people to your house just to murder them and make them into mincemeat pies or something. I mean, except for the paper trail, it would be the perfect crime! At least there's a lock on the door so I guess I'll be able to sleep. The last Airbnb place we stayed in had its own separate entrance and was its own little apartment. This place is right inside this couple's home. What if WE are the murderers? These people are crazy to let complete strangers into their home. And yet, here I am. 

So, we asked for a suggestion for a dinner restaurant and they highly recommended a Mexican/Peruvian place nearby. I was already starving when the plane landed, and then it took an hour to get the rental car and another hour to get to York, so that by the time we arrived at the restaurant, I was beyond hangry. Not a typo. And can you believe THREE people cut in front of us in line to get their name on the list? I mean, I'm trying to be polite.....I'm a guest in Pennsylvania after all, but....HOW RUDE! So, the wait was 20-25 minutes. You can imagine how hungry I was by the time we got our table. It took forever for them to bring us chips and salsa. The chips were warm and freshly-cooked but the salsa was watery and disappointing. Not to worry, though, my margarita was divine! I was SO looking forward to trying a Peruvian dish but nearly every dish had tilapia (ew, disgusting fish), salmon (in PA? I don't think so - how fresh can that be?!) or shrimp (again, the coast is too far away - I only trust seafood when I'm actually close to the water). So, I went with Mexican. Mexican is easy, right? Hard to screw up. Wrong. I had the worst "vegetarian burrito" ever. It was a cold flour tortilla filled with beans and about half a bag of shredded lettuce. I think they forgot the cheese completely. I had a quarter-size dollop of sour cream on top with an olive slice for garnish. The "pico de gallo" it was to be served with was another mound of bagged lettuce with a few tomato dices in it. It had no flavor, except for that nasty "bagged lettuce" taste. I HATE bagged lettuce. Plus, they forgot the side of rice and beans. When I asked for it, I was given a flavorless sauce-sized plate of ick. Jeff had a decent Peruvian dish, but overall the dinner was horribly disappointing and I was mad because I was starving for hours and was really looking forward to a good dinner. Jeff tried to make up for it by taking me to Dairy Queen after but I was already full from the little I did eat of the nasty burrito, so I only ate a few bites of my treat. Bleh. 

Now it's 10:10 here and Jeff is snoring. Never mind it's 7:10 our time. I guess we'll get an early start tomorrow, which is good because it's pitch black here by 5 p.m. and we have a big agenda. 

P.S. I'm totally calling my doctor to have her call in a prescription for Xanax or something for the flight home. Seriously. I'm not kidding. I'm considering driving home. I hate airplanes. Please don't make me get on another one.