More Olson Family Fun

Here's the update on the last couple of days of Olson family fun...I was not disappointed even a little. It was another spectacular couple of days!

* We finished the gingerbread house...FINALLY. We got so ticked off at that darn house and its walls that caved in, that we gave up on it for a couple of days. We pretended like it wasn't even there. Hmpf. But then we finally broke down (my mom mostly), and finished it up...and here it is:

Looks pretty good. And doesn't taste too bad either. There is still about half of it left for the taking. But I have no worries about it getting finished...not in this family. My dad is actually talking about tearing down one of the walls as I type...

* We had a fabulous evening of wine and appetizers at la casa de AS! Absolutely gorgeous apartment that makes me miss my NYC apartment days...old brownstones, beautiful hardwood floors, crown molding, radiators....aaahhhhhhh, it's like home to me. I got a wee-bit tipsy there (we'll leave it at that), but I did get to meet Charlie, the pony...

Long story about him, but he's fabulous. If he didn't mean so much to AS, I probably would have smuggled him outta there.

* I went for my first post-Thanksgiving run today! It was not easy. My legs felt like logs made of concrete. I'm guessing it had something to do with all the wine and yummy food I've consumed over the past week...and the lowered levels of physicial activity perhaps? But I managed to squeeze out 4.2 miles. I'll take it. The only problem was that I forgot how dangerous the streets of NYC can be! I almost got hit 5 times by cars/taxis, I bumped into 2 pedestrians, I slipped and ate it on some wet leaves, annnnnnd I managed to run into this guy:

I don't want to talk about it. Or actually, I do. I was trying to avoid a woman with a stroller, because obviously the butthead on the other side of the sidewalk was NOT making a move to do so...and I over-compensated with my leap/quarter-turn move. And pretty much ran into this garbage can. Yup. Pretty ladylike. At least my hind quarters took the brunt of the blow, since I did the turn while I jumped...sometimes it pays to have a little extra junk in your trunk.

* And finally, we have the fussiest dog EVER. Farley has decided to stop eating, and boycott all dog food he is offered, and most of the human food offered as well. He is literally on a hunger strike (for whatever reason). I finally felt so awful last night about his forced starvation, that I made my mom walk with me to the nearest McDonald's to buy him hamburgers. He loves McDonald's hamburgers. So the strike ended (at least temporarily). Oy vey.

And on our walk back, I saw these adorable toy soldiers on 9th Street:

They're not meaningful in any other way. Just cute. I'm hoping that the residents of that brownstone didn't think I was casing out the joint by taking pictures of their house. (Although my mom and I did debate for the next 5 minutes about whether or not those soldiers could be stolen if someone really wanted to snag them...I said absolutely, she said no way...I'm no thief, but there would technically be only one way to find out who is right...do you get internet access in jail?)

Adventures in Living Olson

I am having the time of my life getting to spend a full week with my whole family, and in NYC to top it off. In between our times together it can be easy to sometimes forget all the ridiculous fun we have together, and all the shenanigans we always get into. But the second we come back together, it all begins again! And I love every minute of it.

Here's the recap of the most noteworthy Olson shenanigans from the past 24 hours:

* As the 5 of us (AS included) were cruising down 3rd Ave. in my parents' car, my brother all of a sudden says he felt something on his arm. My dad says, "It was probably just a plastic bag or something." My brother sits back for almost a full minute, before springing back up and asking where his wallet was...apparently it was on the dashboard of the car (for whatever reason), and had flown out the window while we were moving. My dad pulls a quick U-ey at the next intersection, and parks illegally while the other 4 of us go running up 3rd Ave. searching for the wallet. It was quite the sight, to say the least. We were bobbing and weaving, and dodging traffic...and luckily, found the wallet after about 7 minutes of looking. But a bunch of stuff had flown out of it, so then we had to go searching for the credit cards and what-not in the street as well. We found everything eventually, but it ended up being about a 20 minute kinda-insane detour from our day. Only the Olsons, right?

* My mom brought a gingerbread house-making kit along to NYC for the holiday. Obviously the best idea for this would be to start assembly just before midnight when we're all quite a few drinks deep, right? Of course. After probably a good 45 minutes of effort last night, here is where the poor thing currently stands:
Yup. Those are, in fact, cut-up toilet paper rolls holding up the sides of the thing. The directions said to use normal size cans...but those definitely don't fit. Too tall. So my brother came up with the toilet paper roll idea - genius. Unfortunately, that's not enough to save the thing...it's a bit crooked, the roof isn't entirely connected to the walls, and one side is starting to cave in. We're letting it dry for now, and hoping that when we decorate "the crap out of it" (as my brother says) it will look quite lovely. Stay tuned.

* We made a "quick stop" at the grocery store to get 3 things, but ended up there for well over 30 minutes. Then we had a big hold up at the self check-out (this ALWAYS happens!), and we slowly started to disperse to other areas, leaving only my dad at the check-out for a time. We started to get bored, and I ended up on the 50 cent elephant ride at the insistence of AS. Even though I'm a tad too big for it...just a tad.
Aaaaah, so many good times. I'm just so excited that we have 4 more days together yet...just think of all the fun that's yet to come....

I Give Thanks...

...for many, many things in my life. And since this is the day during which we are all supposed to express our gratitude for the blessings we have, I shall do exactly that, as I sit here in New York City (my favorite place in the world) surrounded by my dear family.

I could write some long, drawn-out novel about all the things in my life I'm thankful for...and we all know how much I love lots and lots of words! So I'd thoroughly enjoy doing that. But for the sake of time and efficiency (and my full belly that would like to get horizontal soon...soooo much food and wine...), I'm going to keep it nice and simple. I can sum up what I'm thankful for this year with two words - stability and renewal.

STABILITY - I'm thankful for the constants in my life.

* My incredible family, who love me and support me in everything I do. I can't ever put enough emphasis on how amazing they are and how much they all mean to me. I'm sure all of us take our families for granted some of the time, BECAUSE they are such a constant. But that's all the more reason to stop doing that. I'd be lost without them.
* My amazing friends, old and new. When a person has friends who are there, unfailingly, for anything and everything a person could ever need...that's priceless. And I'm fortunate enough to have friends in all different cities who are a part of my extended family. They all constantly make my life oh-so-much fun.
* My optimism. I really love this one. I just never get sick of feeling happy and good about things. I know perfection is non-existent, so I readily accept that fact and then see all the greatness that does exist. If it was socially acceptable to carry champagne around with me all day, every day, and toast life...I would do it.
* My Green Bay Packers. I had to throw this one in there. They smoked the Detroit Lions today, which accomplished two things - 1) made me, my family, and cheeseheads everywhere insanely happy. And 2) won me a lobster dinner in a bet. Can't wait to cash in on that! (Sorry in advance, JH...I probably won't eat all day beforehand so I can fit in as much as possible)

RENEWAL - I'm thankful for change in my life.

* My new city. Yes, I moved AGAIN this year...making people start to think that moving is my favorite hobby (which is false, for the record). I'm just lucky enough to not yet be tied down to one location, and to have an incredible job that allows me to move around. I love the fact that some day far in the future I'll get to be the rambling older person who can list all the various cities I've lived in and adventures I've been on. Where will I be rambling that from? Anybody's guess.
* My age. This one will never stop changing, and I THINK I'm okay with that. I think when a person is in their early to mid-twenties, getting older seems like the worst punishment in the world. But then you actually get older and realize how fantastic it is. I've loved all my years leading up to now, but I have a feeling the ones to come are just going to keep getting better (as they already have been).
* My periodic purges. Of items, beliefs, and people. I haven't always been good at this type of change (in fact, I've been awful at it in the past)...but in the past couple of years I've gotten much better at it. And really in the last couple of months, specifically. If something/someone doesn't provide awesome value to my life and well-being (or worse, takes value away), then it needs to go. Plain and simple. No ifs, ands, or buts.
* My blossoming love for running. This would be a huge change, since I've normally been the person who would rather poke myself in the eye than have to run. But for whatever reason, I'm liking it a lot right now. Enough that I signed up for a half marathon after running just one 5K. (Stay tuned for the hilarity that is sure to ensue...)

It's so easy to focus on all the things that could improve in life, and I think we all do that a little too often. Which is why this holiday always seems to come at the perfect time, in my opinion. Look around at all the awesomeness in your life, say many thanks, hug someone you love, eat approximately 4,500 calories (according to The Today Show), drink a little too much wine, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

And apologize in advance to yourself for being mad tomorrow morning because your pants don't fit.

Night at the Museum (Minus Ben Stiller)

I was lucky enough to attend a pretty awesome fundraiser event this past weekend here in New York City. It was for a local hospital, and I have a close connection with a large firm currently working with them, and was fortunate to snag an extra ticket to the gala. It was a really fabulous evening - a perfect mix of class, conversation, dancing, indulging, and dressing fly.

I got to go with my brother and AS, so obviously we would have had an amazing time even if the event was lame. But that it was not. It was gorgeous in the art museum - set up like a very nice wedding reception in some ways. And even had a kick-butt live band, playing all kinds of top 40 hits...and playing them WELL. It was seriously impressive.

It was a pretty fancy event, which I did NOT pack for from Chicago. Luckily AS brought me lovely dresses to choose from and borrow for the affair! (Because I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have let me in in the 'going out' dresses I packed for these weeks on the road...) And thank goodness I managed to not spill on it...even though I sloppily ate about 10 of those delicious mini cheesecakes... (Maybe if the cute waiters hadn't kept bringing them to me every 60 seconds I would have had more self control!)

Per the usual, many photos were taken to commemorate the evening. Here are the choice shots:

The rest of our little gang for a good portion of the evening:

This shot was solely taken for my friend BY (or Yacoooooochie, as I like to call her)....she loves her some Gaga rah-rah face:

I fell a little bit in love with the man on the left side of this one:

Finding that we could easily remove roses from the center pieces really changed the direction of the night...and every picture we took afterward:

Nothing like a good old-fashioned sword fight...with roses:

Look AS...we're both wearing your clothes!

Too cute:

And even cuter (not)...crazy girl hugging 21 half bottles of champagne...ugh...

Annnnnnnd it's time for the night to be over...

But alas, it was not over. We went out to a bar afterward, of course. Because who ends their night at 12:30am?! Crazy people, that's who. (Makes me sound pretty tough, right? Yeah, well I only lasted until 1:00am...W-U-S-S style...I'm still embarrassed 3 days later)

I'm going to pretend that it was the transition from fancy party girl (i.e. me faking that role) to college-y Union Square bar drinking beer in bottles that really tripped me up. It's hard to make that switch. I think that was my problem. I'm sticking with that story. And at least I kept going until about 4:00am...just not in the jam-packed bar where I was in the oldest 20% of the crowd.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Per the usual, this post is a little bit behind the times...but only a couple of days this time! I'm getting better, at least.