Well, I'm back at the homestead, and as usual things are getting insane.
Sometimes I need to remind myself of how great I have it, and not to sweat the small stuff. Because it really is great to be home. I get to see my family, and I adore them. And play with the dog. And sleep in my childhood bedroom. It's really great. I'm perfectly content to just sit around with family- we laugh all night. I love it.

But Mom is getting usual holiday crabby. Which I understand, but it's tough, because we just can't do anything right. If we try to help, we're all just in the way and doing things wrong. If we stay out of the way, we are lazy ingrates who don't help.

Sigh.

So my dad and brother are picking my sister and her husband up at the airport, and I'm hiding out on the computer.

As much as I love being home- I love having the space/privacy of my own place.
Last night I was trying to use the computer, but my brother was just hovering over my me reading IMs and spying on email...
Not that I have anything so secret to hide, but still, it would be nice to have a little privacy.

But here's the kicker-
We have a well, and the pump died this morning.
We have NO WATER.

And mom is more worried about the dirty dishes piling up than she is about the fact that we can't flush the toilet or take showers.

And mom is doing her usual weird sadistic thanksgiving dinner. This year we are NOT having the sweet potatoes that everyone loves. But we ARE having extra chestnuts and brussels sprouts- which everyone (including mom) hates. I don't get it. But I just try to stay out of the way.

Oh boy...

Grant me strength.

Dad made the liquor run last night- tons of beer, and 7 bottles of wine since there will be seven people. Minor point- four of them don't drink.
Ha, more for me.

I made a half-assed attempt to go out last night... i.e. i texted one friend and she didn't respond. Oh well. I went to bed at 10. it was great. did have lunch with an old friend from high school though, which was great. And have been trying to catch up on some old emails. (did you hear that ladycroft? You're next!)

Am supposed to go for "holiday cocktails" at The Reading Room tomorrow. I've never been there. And frankly, am not sure why I should want to- except that women aren't allowed except for certain occasions. It's some old snooty members-only men's club (no, not a strip club). I said "sure, I'll go, but I'm not sure I brought home dressy enough clothes" and my friend replied "are they clean? that's good enough. Everyone there smells like moth balls anyway."

Yeah... good times. ;)

Mom is calling!

later peeps.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Ok, so I just ate at Torches. I'd never even heard of it. I guess it's fairly new (a few months?)- it's where Tsunami used to be.

But it was really good.

I don't know how to write a real restaurant review, but I'll try.

We had an early reservation, and so we were the only people there when we arrived. (but by the time we left it was packed.)

It's sort of an unassuming building, but true to its name, there are lots of torches all over. And, a weird animatronic christmas penguin, that looks very out of place. Whatever.

But you walk into a little foyer area with these cool tables that are like rough-hewn stone. And the hostess greeted us and took our coats and told us about two featured wines, and gave us tastes of a Shiraz before we were even seated. I've never seen that before, and it's probably a ploy to get you to buy overpriced "featured" wine, but, eh, whatever- it was tasty.

It's a little (too) dark, but not bad, and overall the decor was nice. Certainly more a date/special occasion kind of place than "family dinner with the kids". Left Bank-ish, maybe.

And our waiter was awesome. Very funny. And attentive without being intrusive.

I had a crab cake special appetizer with some carrot ginger coulis (or something- some sauce)- it was delish. And a nice presentation. The crabcakes were maryland style, and there really was a lot of nice crabmeat. Though maybe they could have been crisped up a little more.

For an entree I had chilean sea bass and I don't know what the sauce was, but it was also great. Served on a bed of risotto, with some porcini mushrooms.

And warm caramel apple pie for dessert.

And a bottle of wine, and coffee.

I think I am going to explode. And then fall asleep. So much for the party I was thinking of going to tonight. ha!

But as the restaurant got more crowded, and we were no longer the only table, it took our waiter a few more minutes to stop by- but honestly I wouldn't have even noticed and certainly didn't think it was bad service. But then he came over- he said he was sorry if he'd neglected us, but that things were a little crazy since Janice Okun (buffalo news restaurant critic) had just shown up, unexpected.

So I'm curious to see her review, but I thought it was great, and would certainly recommend it.

[I did look at their menu online though, and it is FULL of typos, which is a major pet peeve.]

Sometimes I can't believe the emails my dad sends me...

What a weird night... I'm kind of wondering if I was somehow drugged or something. (but I don't actually believe I was.)

I was on call friday night, which was blessedly quiet for the first time in about a month. hallelelujah.

In the morning I met my friend for breakfast... and she told me a story about her night. Her (now-ex) boyfriend called her SIXTY-FOUR times, over the course of 3 hours. And left her 19 voicemails. You could tell he wasn't getting the response he wanted, so he was mixing up his technique. Alternating between "I love you I miss you please call me back" and "ok you are a cunt, get the dicks out of your mouth and call me back." Yeah.... that's the right way to win her back. Then while I was listening to his messages, he called eleven more times.
Point: guys are psycho too.

And then somehow I think there was a time warp from about 11am til 7pm. I seriously don't know where that time went, but I did none of the things I was supposed to. I didn't know what I was going to do that night since I had never made plans. A friend was maybe going to come to town, but at the last minute she couldn't. I was maybe going to go to some yacht club thing, but didn't hear back about that. Then the friend that blew me off last week texted me to try to make up, and said that if I'm ready to forgive him, he had an idea for something super-fun.

"Flash Party" at Essex. I guess there's sort of an art co-op behind the essex st pub. I never knew that. But they were having some benefit last night. So I went. It was $40, but it was open bar, a band (complete with go-go dancers! for real!), and supposedly catered food. Though the catered food ended up being chips and salsa, oreos, pretzels, and peanut butter.

But I had two glasses of wine, and 2 beers. Which I guess is a decent amount to drink, but over 4+ hours it's not insane....

And I was SO DRUNK. I don't know what happened. It didn't hit me until about 2 am when we were at Towne, when I realized I could not eat, and all of the sudden HAD to be in bed, RIGHT THAT SECOND.

So I got home and went to bed, and couldn't get out of bed til 1 today.

Seriously, wtf! I mean I know my tolerance isn't what it used to be, and 4 drinks isn't nothing, but MAN!

So, now I need to try to get everything done that I was supposed to yesterday and today. Bleh....