Thanksgiving and Travel update

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven't written anything in nearly a week. Not like anyone reads this thing anyway. But what the hell. Have an update on my oh-so-interesting life anyway.

I got to my mom's house in the Philadelphia suburbs on Tuesday night, and though I was busy for the whole trip, it turned out to be just what I needed. Wednesday I was home alone, and ended up doing a bunch of inconsequential yard work in the 35 degree weather. Wednesday night my sister came back from school, and Thursday morning (5am) my brother got in from the red-eye from LA. The big meal had 11 of us gorging ourselves on my mom's fantastic cooking - Mom, bro, sis, me, Nana & Papa, Aunt K. and Uncle D. Cousin S. and her daughter C. and mom's BF, J. It was great to relax in front of the fire with a few football games I didn't care about, and be glad I wasn't outside in the incredible wind.

After everyone left, the wind got so bad that we actually lost power for a few hours, which is always nice, as long as it's not out too long. That night bro, sis and I went out to a few different bars (always fun with them) but nearly got stranded in West Chester when mom's Impala wouldn't start. It ended up being a problem with the ignition security system, but we avoided a tow the next day when it just randomly decided to work in a last-ditch attempt.

Friday saw Mom, bro and I looking at motorcycles for mom and buying a chainsaw to cut up a tree that fell directly onto the bonfire burn pile in Thurday's wind storm. How fortuitous, since we'd planned on collecting wood for a bonfire that night anyway! The bonfire drew quite a crowd, including a friend of my brother's from Boston, another from San Diego, (obviously not just for the bonfire) my good friend J. from NYC, and a bunch of my sister's friends from high school days. All in all really cool.

My good college friend J. and I then trained back up to NYC on Saturday so I could finally see her place in Manhattan. It's fantastically central to everything, and even though we decided not to go out that night, we had some great Tibetan food and some bubble tea afterwards, though the chocolate cake wasn't all that good. Sunday I trained back down to philly, but due to me missing the 10:15 at Penn Station by literally less than a minute, and a broken down Amtrack in front of the Septa I was on, didn't get into 30th street till after 2, and was close to making my bro late for his flight back to LA. We did get to see Grandma O. before he had to leave, though, and though it was too short, it was still nice to see her. My flight left monday morning at 6, so i was up shortly after 3, but waiting at IAH for over an hour for my ride. Yesterday also had some progress in physical therapy, a broken motorcycle (electrical problem i can't seem to even find, much less fix) and finally some sleep at around 10. Apparently bro interviewed last night (again) for a kick-ass job he really deserves, so I hope that went well.

How's that for way too much information?