Elevenses (has nothing to do with Elevenses)

I had a long day today, and I want to unwind a bit before I go home. I need a hug and a beer, and I'll get both of those things shortly, but I'm gonna do this first.

It's been awhile since I've updated, but there have been several things that I wanted to talk about. So I'm just gonna give you guys the hot skinny on my life for the past few weeks.

Two weekends ago, roommate John and I made cookies. It was originally going to be a community thing, since most of us had families that made cookies during the weekend after thanksgiving when we were kids. But really, John and I were the only ones fully supporting the idea. Ellen and Dan laughed at me for supporting something that had to do with Christmas, when I'm already known for my hatred of Christmas music, and they know that I generally won't buy presents, although I'll make them, or sometimes get practical things. Michael, during our initial discussion of holiday cookie-making, simply said, "You people and your damned functional families," and allowed that to be his general humbug against baking. Then I suggested that we all sing show tunes and Britton yelled out, "What? You want to sing Christmas songs?" and hijinks ensued.

But everyone got behind the eating of the cookies. It was an activity that all could enjoy.

I made Mimi's famous shortbread. That's what I titled it when I wrote down the recipe a couple years back. Everyone agreed that they were the best cookies of all our batches, and that was my cheers to my grandmother who always had shortbread on hand whenever cookies might be needed, or come in handy, or just because.

Last weekend we had an open house. It was far more successful than our open house last year, which had like five guests. This one had dozens, and it was even snowing outside and hell-freezing-over cold. Well, maybe not that cold, but still. I made hot apple cider for the first time ever, and half-way through the three-hour open house, Britton went on a grocery run to get more apple cider supplies because it was in such high demand. I even got a recipe request. That it was from the crazy guy only made it more special, and that he vowed to make it for the last day of Posadas just took the cake. We kicked everybody out when it came time to watch the Simpsons. You DO have to set your priorities in life, and even hospitality cannot beat Sunday night animation. Okay, I'm mostly kidding. :)

On Monday we had our community outing-- we went to an arcade. A busted-ass arcade. The thing was dilapidated, or at least nearly so. Half the machines were broken, but we made the best of it. Actually, it was a really fun time, and culminated in skee-ball and using our tickets to buy fuzzy dice to put in our car. Awesome.

I'm not gonna write about today at all, because I haven't yet figured out something good to say about it. Oh, wait, here's something. My teens love me. One of my girls from Holy Cross told me today that I'm the older, wiser, mature adult in her life that she can turn to and who will listen to her. And her boyfriend feels the same way--which is especially flattering to me because he doesn't trust anyone, and with good reason, really. And my St. Paul teens tonight at youth group spent a good hour telling me that they love me (and that they're sorry and am I still mad?)

There. That's it. I reached the point where it's funny. I can laugh about it, and now I'm gonna go home. And I'm gonna get that hug. And probably the beer too. But it's the hug I'm really looking forward to.

peace, y'all