Terri’s Neighborhood

I don't know if I've mentioned this - but the Nook is taking gadget
prone readers by storm this Christmas. The pre-orders sold out within
the first two weeks and now if you pre-order you wont get it until the
first or second week in January. I ordered mine in time, and it'll
still be shipped on Monday.

However, now the Nook is selling well on eBay. There are 10+ bids on a
single Nook causing the once reasonable price of $260 to skyrocket -
and in some cases double. So I'm now wondering if I should play the
patient one and put my Nook on eBay - and let it pay for itself and
just get it AFTER the holidays. But I don't know if I can. I've been
waiting well over a month for this thing and that's a long time for
me. The last time I waited so long it was for a doll who had to be
cast and sanded.

Paul's telling me I don't have to sell it, but I know that he thinks
we'll just make the money back and so it's foolish NOT to sell it. But
I don't know, the bubble may burst after the devices are officially
shipped and people are able to get real reviews on the thing. Then
again...I bought it blindly, didn't I?

I'd ask for everyone's opinion, but to tell the truth I don't think
anyone will be able to make this decision but me...

I'm kind of blah about this year's Thanksgiving agenda. In the previous seven or eight years of our relationship, my husband and I have had a chaotic time of making it to the gatherings on every side of our big families. This year, there has been little to no talk about it amongst the family, and my extended family decided to by-pass a big gathering altogether. Chris's mom is working on Thanksgiving. My sister's husband is working that afternoon, as well. Any get-togethers that are happening seem to be out of obligation or habit.

My parents decided to do a lunch. It is the whole turkey sha-bang, but it will be just my parents, my sister and her husband, Chris and me, and we have to do it early enough in the day so that my brother-in-law can head off to serve and protect that afternoon. Doesn't quite have that Thanksgiving feel. We eat dinner together all the time.

Chris's dad and his wife are doing something with her brother. They never include Chris or the other kids anymore it seems.

His grandma is doing a traditional Thanksgiving thing that I think most of the cousins may be at. But when she told us, she said: "I know you're probably going to Erin's parents for Thanksgiving but I'm making dinner too and at least try to stop by and say hi. I know we're not the priority, but..." I was totally offended by the intonation in her voice and what it implied. As if we haven't made them a priority every previous year! They're eating at the same time my family is, but I suppose we'll try to stop by, even though his family isn't a priority. Gosh.

On Black Friday, Chris's mom is making some kind of dinner for all of us kids to come to, but it doesn't sound like a big deal.

That's it. Maybe it's more than some folks do, but to me, this year will be more boring than ever before. I really only get to see the whole family on Thanksgiving, and we're big and lewd and have a blast. This year everyone seems so put off by the whole thing.

It just occured to me that this is a day set aside for being thankful and I'm not sounding very.I am. I really am thankful for all of the things that 2009 brought me: health, a stable job for both me and for my husband, the opportunites to persue areas that I am passionate about, insight and drive, a long awaited for and fast-coming niece, and of course the family and friends that love me. I'm still thankful for the people I'll get to spend time with, and for the tremendous number of calories I will consume tomorrow!

Last night I dreamed that an old friend from my college band sorority and I were driving on a narrow, crumbling highway. It was dangerous and falling into pieces, so we veered off the side into the wilderness. After driving through forest and desert we came upon some covered wagons and extremely rustic housing. We had discovered a lost Californian civilization called Valley de Salsa.

In Valley de Salsa, the folks were completely unaware of modern times and though they welcomed my friend and I, they were confused by our speech patterns and clothing. They fed us unleavened bread and buffalo meat, and we decided to stay with them. We pushed our beat up car into the forest to hide it from these ancient people. My friend had to continuously remind herself not to curse in front of them.

Funny thing, though: this was a lost civilization, but they did have a street sign in the village that annouced "Welcome to Valley de Salsa." Shifty, no?

Leave it to Californians...

 have attended eleven weddings in two years as of this month. One includes my own. I was in two others as well.

Thirteen- maybe more- weddings if you go back another year or so.

This is too many weddings.

I truly am happy for these couples. A wedding is a [mostly] joyous occasion and a lot of fun. (Sadly, for  about two of the weddings I attended I wasn't so confident that the couple will make it, but it's not my place to make that kind of judgement. Aloud, anyway.) I've come to think of weddings as a nice date. Usually you get an evening of playing dress-up, with a nice dinner and dancing to boot. Not too shabby.

Every wedding we went to I compared to my own because- and try not to take my bias so strongly here- our wedding was pretty rockin'. Really, it was just that cool in every way, and was a great party. Everyone talked about it later on for being intimate and fun. Now, I'm not a wedding snob and I do realize that not every couple wants that whole white-dress-church-cake-DJ-reception thing; In fact, I had wanted a backyard bonfire on the river with BBQ and beer, a whole white trash setup, but Chris and my parents vetoed it for a multitude of reasons. It woulda been more me but I certainly do not regret the wonderful wedding we had. Most weddings I go to fall far short of it's sheer awesomeness. Some come close, but are lacking in the fun department, or the food department, or the venue department, or the music department.  And the amazing department. But they're mostly nice. Others just make you want to stab yourself in the eye with the salad fork (or in one wedding instance last year, with the plastic spork from El Pollo Loco,) so that you can get out faster.

But, as I said, I am almost always happy to go to the weddings because they're typically people I love and support and am truly happy that they're making this committment. And, because I am female and mostly irrational, I always cry during the ceremony and at the key moments of the reception. It just always strikes me that two people found someone they love enough to want to be with, procreate with, share every aching moment with. It's a big deal. It still blows my mind sometimes when I think about how I made this decision with someone, too, and I'm still happy about it. Then I start getting all mushy on Chris and he looks at me like I'm nuts and then I'm back in reality.

So on Saturday my husband and I went to his buddy's wedding. Rather, I attended as a guest and Chris was a groomsman. This was a BIG Catholic wedding. I've only been to two Catholic weddings, and both times I was equally weirded out by the ceremony (or mass or whatever it's called.) This couple is great, however, and remind me a lot of Chris and me. They had their six-month-old baby girl baptized during the mass as well because so many of their family members were here from all over the world. She's probably the best baby I've ever known, and all day didn't fuss a bit but was happily curious.

The reception was probably the best one I've ever been to. It was equal to ours on the fun and food scale, and finally someone had a DJ that lived up to ours, but far superior in extravagance. Every detail- from linens to menus- was covered, and it really took the whole thing up a notch. The hosted bar reached the max the family had paid for in one hour. ONE HOUR! But the father of the groom instructed them to keep it open all night and he'd pick up the tab. Wowee.

We had so. much. fun. They really spared no expense on the affair. Dinner was fantastic, and there was not only a mariachi band to start of the night, but a small combo during dinner, then the DJ for the party. The decor was beautiful, and there was even a candy table. Chris is a party animal whether he wants to admit it or not, and we danced like crazy. My legs and butt still hurt from dancing. The couple was so happy, and I just know they'll be a solid life-long couple.

It was a good last wedding in a long, steady run of weddings. Unless it is a really important person to me, I hope I can avoid weddings for a year or so!

I'm done shopping and I think I covered all the basics but want to make sure I didn't forget something obvious. (I've been known to do that.)