**NOTE** Pictures are coming soon… gotta go through and re-size them and all! They’ll be posted in their own blog.
I don’t think I’ll ever cease to be bewildered by the feeling of waking up in one state and going to bed in a different one. It’s such a bizarre feeling. I remember when I used to make treks down to Atlanta, I would wake up at 7am in Atlanta and be at work in Richmond, IN later that afternoon. Talk about bizarre!
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So, dear readers, when you last joined us we had just gotten through a night of rough drinking with best friends from high school, and later joined by Mr. Jack Daniels and the Porcelain god of thunder.
The following morning was a nice relaxed morning. I woke up at 8am because that’s just when my damned circadian rhythm wakes me up. I had no hangover. *SCORE* I don’t know if it was the amount I vomited the night prior, or the glass and a half of water I drank to offset my dehydration, or what. But I was home free. My little brother was playing a video game I bought him (F-Zero GX for Gamecube), he and I played a few rounds together. My mom made breakfast: scrambled eggs w/ cheese, sausage, english muffins, and orange juice. Isn’t it strange how after a night of heavy drinking, really greasy foods always sound appetizing? I’ll never understand that…. my sister is the same way. She gets the “McDonald’s cravings”.
Around 1pm we took off for New Joisey, to see my grandparents and my mom’s brothers. It’s an hour-long trip, approximately 60 or 70 miles across interstate 80. I always love doing that trip because you drive right through the really rocky part of the Appalaichian trail in Delaware Water Gap. It’s wicked pretty. Lauren, Danny, Daisy (the dog) and I all rode together in Lauren’s white Camry, and Abby, Mom and Dad rode in their SUV. We had fun listening to a CD Abby had burned for Danny — it had some pop-punk on it (Thrice, Greenday, and some other bands I had heard before, but forget the names). It’s cute that my 9-year-old brother is getting into some good music. 
When we finally arrived it was utter chaos there. My grandparents’ house is sizable, but there were, I think, 19 of us. My Grammy (Norma), Grampa (Ray), my family (6 of us, including me), my Uncle John and his girlfriend and her kids (5 of them total), My Uncle Don and his family (5 of them), and Uncle Bob. I don’t think I missed anyone in that list. A whole fuckload of us.
We ate cheese and crackers, my cousin (Andrew, 18 or 19 y/o, MIT student) made quesadillas which were awesome, and we had some drinks. Don offered me some Jim Beam but that hit a little too close to home (re: last night) for comfort…. maybe in a week or so. I had a Tanqueray & Tonic though, and a Pina Colada after that. Yum! Good stuff. We sat around, chatted with each other. I hadn’t seen most of these cats since Cancun, and had never met John’s girlfriend and her family before. It was hectic in that there were a lot of people and we occasionally had 10 people in one room, but it was still nevertheless relaxed.
When Grammy had the Prime Rib roast in the broiler and all the food in “it needs to cook for a while so leave it the hell alone” mode, we exchanged gifts. This involved all 19 of us gathering in the living room and foyer. Craziness! I got some great stuff — some movies I wanted (including March of the Penguins :-O!!!!!), some awesome books, some clothes, etc. Grammy & Grampa really liked my gifts (A Benny Goodman DVD for grandpa, and some 400 thread count pillowcases for Grammy’s new bed). After an hour or so of gifting, we all made our way into the dining room for dinner.
Grammy had poured champagne for everyone at the “adults table” and was calling for a toast. No one said anything so I said “Sex and beer!!!” which got a nice laugh, but my dad took cue and said a nice brief toast to people travelling from different states, good food, etc. etc. and then he said “…and sex and beer.” That cracked me up. I actually got my dad to toast to sex and beer. I <3 my family.
The Prime Rib was *awesome*. I had a few pieces, a baked potato, and some other stuff. My Grammy is such an awesome cook. The only problem was that she would *not* sit down and eat! I think we need to hire her a maid or service-staff so that she can sit down and join us for dinner. She’d probably still feel compelled to get up and help out though, it’s just in her nature. I had a glass of some decent Cabernet from California.
Eventually (after a few of us had completely finished our plates and she still hadn’t even had time to touch hers) we got her to sit down, Don propped a chair up behind her, and I put my leg over her lap to keep her from getting up again. I was completely stuffed — they brought out dessert and I had to get up from the table for a while. I think I may have taken a short nap on the couch for a little bit. I had some delicious Moosetracks Pie afterwards.
After that we did our annual gag-gift exchange. This usually consists of “booby-prize” type gifts. A pair of odd-socks, or a toilet plunger, or a set of refrigerator magnets, etc. Some years we do 20-questions, some years we have riddles, some years we just feel it and guess then open. There wasn’t really any guessing this year, but Grammy had written up a little rhyming clue on everyone’s gift. It was cute. I forget what mine said now, but I correctly guessed it. It was, stuffed into a can resembling a Diet Coke can, a bib that my mom made for me when I was born. It has a big “A” on it. Grammy had apparently found it in the linen closet while cleaning it out one day. That bib was 25 years old, and it still looked like it had barely been used! Amazing. I’m not sure where I’ll put it, but I may frame it or something, I don’t know. It needs to be preserved. It’s always neat finding little artifacts from your childhood like that.
The rest of the evening was pretty low-key. John’s girlfriend and her family had to leave because she had to work the next day. The rest of us were in one of three groups: There was a large group of people (Aunt Ellen, my mom, Grammy, and most of the kids) watching “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory” in the living room. My dad, Uncles John and Don were in the dining room assembling the blimp toys they gave, I believe, Danny and one of Don’s kids. (those toys were pretty awesome, the blimp portion was about 3 or 4 feet long and about 2 feet wide, the gondola had a battery-powered set of fans to change elevation, rotation, and forward or reverse motion. my family has a tendency to give neat gadget gifts like these) And myself, Andrew, and Bob were in the computer room watching funny videos online. Grampa had gone to bed for the evening.
After the movie was over, everyone was getting ready for bed. I elected to sleep in the living room — I’m used to sleeping on couches. The “getting to bed process” took about 45 minutes. I popped in “Lost in Translation” (another gift for me) and watched it while I curled up in some blankets on the longer of the two couches. For the first half of the movie I heard movement in the kitchen area. Everyone else had gone to bed so I knew it could only be one of two things: it was either the dogs (Daisy or Oggie, Don’s dog) roaming around, or it was my Grammy cleaning. I guessed (correctly) that it was the latter, and went in to see what she was doing. She was cleaning up all the mess and everything from the night before. I swear that woman has an infinite amount of energy when it comes to housekeeping. I don’t know how she does it or where she comes up with it. I told her she needed to get to bed and to worry about all of it tomorrow. It’s the holidays after all, we shouldn’t be getting stressed about cleaning things. Eventually she came in and checked on me (enough blankets? warm enough? need a drink?) and then said goodnight. I watched the movie and fell asleep during the credits.
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The next morning I was half-awake and heard Danny, Aunt Ellen and Uncle Don, and a few of my cousins. My eyes were still closed and for the most part I was still sleeping, but I was awake enough to hear them. I smelled some breakfast, and it smelled good. After about 20 or 30 minutes of laying there like that, I decided I could go ahead and just wake up. Grammy made me some scrambled eggs, sausage and english muffins (see a pattern here? 
), and I chatted with her and Grampa. I really love spending time with them because I only get to see them once or twice a year, if that, and we’re really close. I wish I could see them more often.
Everyone else was planning what they would be doing in NYC that day. I unfortunately had to miss the annual family NYC excursion because I had to return to Richmond today. Poo. Originally the plan was to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the new Van Gogh exhibit, but that got nixed for one reason or another. The tentative plans were to just go and walk around the city. More than likely that would entail lunch in chinatown or little italy. I was envious. mmmm mmm!
When they were getting ready to leave, I snapped a couple more pictures of them all, gave a bunch of hugs all around to everyone and said bye. They left, in three cars I think, for Ramsey train station. (Even though Park Ridge is only about a 15 minute drive to Manhattan, they generally go to Ramsey, take the train down to Hoboken, and then take the subway under the Hudson into the remains of the World Trade Center. It’s just easier on everyone, because driving in the city SUCKS ASS, believe you me!).
I went back inside with Grammy and Grampa and we sat around for a while and chatted. Some more of that quality time. We listened to some music and just talked for a while. Eventually RevJon arrived at about 11am. He came in, we all ate some lunch, I snapped a few more shots, and then we said our farewells and left town.
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The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. RevJon had driven from Albany, NY down to Park Ridge, NJ, so I said I would drive first. I drove all the way across NJ (80 miles total in NJ) and all the way across PA (310 miles) before we finally stopped in Youngstown, OH (14 miles in). During this ~400 mile journey we nearly died by getting merged-into by a Semi. RevJon had an outburst that suggested he may have Tourette’s when he tried to get me to notice the truck changing lanes. Scary for a moment! We listened to “Napalms & Silly Putty”, a George Carlin audio book. I had forgotten how funny that man is. I was laughing so hard I was half-tempted to pull over at times.
I apparently have a pretty vicious lead-foot when on I-80. There were a couple of times he had to remind me to slow down because I was pushing 95 mph. I just didn’t notice it because I was driving relative to the traffic. NJ people and eastern PA people drive like maniacs because of the commuter-lines, so driving *as fast* as them puts you right at 70-80 mph, and if you’re passing them you’re easily doing 90. Thankfully the roads were pretty sparse as far as state troopers were concerned. I don’t think we saw any until we hit I-71 South, and by then RevJon was driving.
Oh this was hilarious as well: If you read the first “PA Trek” blog you’ll remember a part where I mention something about an exit with an Adult Bookstore where Jon always “Gets off.” We were coming down I-71 South and Jon said he was stopping at the next exit so he could pee. I had to as well, so I was all up ons that. Which exit it turned out to be (unplanned!) should be fairly obvious. I told RevJon he should go use one of the private viewing booths at that Adult bookstore so he can really say that he’s “gotten off” at that exit.
Oh, and to any I may have txt-messaged in the past 3 days: My Verizon Wireless coverage was being RETARDED since Xmas. I don’t know if it’s network problems or what, but this was jacked up. I sent a whole mess of txt’s on XMAS DAY. I sent a few out today during the trip and didnt’ receive *any* replies, which was unlike the people I had sent txt’s to. I thought maybe my phone needed to be reset, so I turned it off and back on. Sure enough — I had 10 messages waiting and it sent out SEVENTEEN MESSAGES. Some of which were “Cherry Mistmas and a Yappy Hew Near”, which most people interpreted as me being drunk (incorrectly: There is no way I could have written a sentence where all of the words have their first letters rotated… drunken txts look more like this: Mer7y Xmnnas.!1!). Anyways — I imagine some people were confused by it since it was definitely two days after Xmas. But whatever. If you were one of those people, now you know why!
The trip back home took about 10 or 11 hours. We had stopped a couple times for gas, and once for dinner at Bob Evan’s. Decent time!
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Well that’s about it! Another fantabulous xmas vacation with the family… no fatalities or dismemberments — I got to see all the family I missed, and I got ridiculously drunk with my best friends from high school! I’d say that I fared pretty well! Back to work tomorrow… fortunately it’s at least an abbreviated workweek! I’m still undecided as to *what* I am doing this weekend for NYE. It will involve Friends, Alcohol, and someplace other than my apartment. Beyond that? No clue. It will be blog-worthy, though, I promise!
Pics from this adventure are coming soon!
