06 January 2012

Last Week in December 2011

Monday, the day after Christmas, was a day off for me, and a usual shopping day for the rest of the universe. Troy, Kevin, Maeg, and I forwent the crowds at the stores, and had dinner at China Buffet. We ended up staying extra long because Kevin was late. The conversation near the end had to do with the structural characteristics of, well, poop. Not appetizing by any means.

The afternoon was full of the lazies, then I saw that Joe popped a notice up on Facebook to go ice skating.

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What the observing crowd looked like as I went by.

The crowd at the ice rink was out the door, and only Jillian and I managed to get skates. Joe, Marilou, and Maggie didn't even try. Even with the skates, the ice was being resurfaced as we got there, and it took 45 minutes. The weather has been warm, and the skaters plentiful all through the time the rink has been opened. When we finally got on the ice, it was busy and just me and Jillian. I did manage to make scare Jillian, quite by accident. I saw a little girl fall and almost take Jillian with her, so I grabbed Jillian by the back of the coat to try to hold her up. She didn't hear me tell her it was me, and didn't see me either, so she thought it was the little girl's father holding her up instead of picking up the girl. Oops.

Tuesday night after work I met Joe and Amy at Panera and we had dinner together. Wednesday during work I was informed that surprise: I'd be on call next week. Thursday evening Marilou gathered us up at Texas Roadhouse for dinner and a show ... and we were the show. Between Marilou goading us on, Sarah looking alternately bewildered and disgusted, Joe trying his hardest to annoy Beth (via phone) every time Florida State scored against Notre Dame, me coloring the kids meal, a very spunky waitress, a portable saddle, dancing, doodling, and most importantly, The Callin' Oates Hotline (719.226.2837), we caused a ruckus, although not quite the scene we were hoping for. Dinner was good and only a handful of peanuts were thrown.

Friday I got to leave work an hour early, and I used the time to come home and nap before I headed out to Jitterbugs. Dancing was good, but I had a moment of difficulty when I tried to politely ask a socially awkward gentleman to not touch people in an inappropriate way. I was trying to be polite and caring about it, but I thought it came out a little aggressive and angry. He had been there the week before, so I had a plan in mind of what to say and how to say it, but when it came to the moment, I didn't execute the plan. I felt fail-ish, although several people were supportive that I said something without making a scene. We went to the Donut Stop afterwards, I mostly did nothing while I was there.

Saturday afternoon I met with mostly the usual Mass suspects and we went to Mass downtown at Holy Family Parish.

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After Mass, the Deacon gave the group the tour of the church
(I've been on the tour before).

We then discovered that it was pouring rain. We loaded ourselves up and then went to China Buffet (yes, twice in one week). We hung out at the restaurant until it was time for the game night party to start at my house. Marilou came to Holy Family from Saint Cecilia Cathedral, so she was all dressed up; I gave her some of my smaller clothes, and some pajama pants ... somehow the pants didn't drag on the ground ... um, I'm a foot taller than she is.

It was a game night party, so we played some games. Heidi brought a new social game one, Say Anything. It's a social game, so who cares who won. Kaleb brought his traveling, and always changing game collection, including one I didn't like the first time I played it a couple years ago called Alien Frontiers, however this time I enjoyed it. about 3/4 into the game, it was almost midnight, and we all counted down the last 13 seconds to the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, BLESSINGS ON A BEAUTIFUL 2012

We finished up the game of Alien Frontiers, but I didn't win. We played one more game, Gift Trap, a game I normally like to avoid, but this time I enjoyed it. The party broke up around 0200 and it was off to bed.

Sunday morning Hannah Marie had her dedication at her church, so I went to church with Matt and Vivian (and VK, Ben, and Jon).

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Really, that's a happy face from Vivian. Photo credit: Matt

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You don't see a whole lot of big pictures of parishioners
on the walls in Catholic churches. Photo credit: Matt

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Three generations! Photo credit: Matt

The funny part about these pictures is that I give Matt the credit here, but he gives me the credit on his Flickr page. After church was over, we went to Village Inn, and I officially ate too much ... I recommend the Blackberry Bavarian Pie.

Even though I ate too much, I met people downtown at Old Chicago and I had ... a diet coke. After all the eating was done, I came home and napped. Since Monday was a day off, I met went over to Kaleb's house for some Rock Band. We played ping pong and Rock Band until the almost wee hours of the morning.

Next week: starts like this one ended.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The skating was fun, you're totally forgiven for scaring the hell out of me. :-)