Pre and Post Christmas 2008

My last post detailed Christmas 08 with the family, in Chicago. I also did a lot with friends in Pittsburgh before and after said Midwest excursion, which would be a shame to forget and thus lose.

Before Christmas, Mom was already in Chicago--she'd been there since a week after Thanksgiving. Daniel got back I think Wednesday the 17th, I worked that day and the next, and then I was off on my long weekend, from Thursday 6pm till Monday 6pm. Daniel came home with Skipper and Chris, two guys from AEX, who stayed with us while they participated in Daniel's old roommate's wedding. Batchelor party Thursday night, Wedding Saturday. I spent a lot of time with Justin, burning the midnight oil, and making heavy use of the after-midnight diesel fuel as well :-)

I think Friday night I went over to the Harveys and Justin and I watched "The Untouchables" down in the basement. Saturday morning J and Wayne went out for lunch, and I got up and tried to figure out a good efficient plan between my to-dos and Daniel and his guys. I ended up swinging into Chick-fil-A for some food, and lo and behold! Justin and Mr. H :-) So I had lunch with Justin, and then we both headed to Cash-in Culture - the used CD and DVD store in the mall. I loaded up on music and movies, and then we split ways and I headed home.

Saturday evening the corporate mission was to watch all 3 X-men movies at the Harveys. I forget if anything else was going on, but we started out there with a bunch of people: Justin, me, Daniel and his guys, Steve Schuch, Anna, Betsy, I think Rachel, Mike, maybe Heather and Katie/Rebekah Calano, and Andrew Graham. Most folks left after #1, and everyone but Andrew was gone by the end of #2. Turns out Justin, Andrew and I had an awesome talk down in the basement, till about 4:30am. Andrew is a great guy - I'm a fan :-)

Dad and Daniel left Sunday from church, leaving me to run amuck for a couple days on my own. Justin invited me to the Harveys for the Steelers game, where I joined about 20 other peeps. I left when the game was over and went to Nate and Sarah's for a "dinner with engineers," which was a fun and classy affair. I kept inwardly shaking my head and wondering what the guys at the plant would think as we sat in the living room swirling glasses of wine and talking about biomed stuff. Sunday night my mission was to stay up late to prepare for night shift, and I FINALLY had Justin in town to do it with! He came over here, and we made mac 'n' cheese and watched Hero.

Monday and Tuesday nights I worked.. finished up Wednesday morning, drove the car to the airport, parked, made it to the gate, and flopped on the floor for a little bit of sleep. From there it was a somnolent plane flight and then I was in Chicago! And you know the story from there.
Post-Chicago, I arrived in cloudy rainy Pittsburgh at about noon, thankfully remembered where my car was parked, and headed home. Worked that night (Wednesday) and the next, and then I was off for the weekend, until Monday morning. Yay! During those two days I was working, basically everybody in Pittsburgh had been in Akron having amazing awesome times. Which was tough, and also strange, since Akron is like my city, and here's all these people there but not me.

Thursday afternoon saw Justin and most Pittsburghers, as well and Craig and Steve-O all heading to Pittsburgh. I made it through the night, slept till 3 on Friday, and then Justin called and the day began. I think there was some confusion regarding the plans, but what ended up happening was Justin, Craig, Steve and Steve Schuch came over here and we watched Rocky IV on TV. Then Heather, Erin, Anna and Rebekah Calano all came over, while most of us were jamming downstairs. They left, they returned, they toilet papered my house, they took it down, and then Katie and two friends Brenna and Debs arrived. A little later Rebekah Booher came as well, so we had a full house. There was all kinds of noise as people jammed downstairs and talked in the living room. Many folks were hungry, but my house was regrettably bereft of food since I'd been gone/working for almost 2 weeks! We ended up making eggs and scraping together enough butter packets to make macaroni and cheese. People started leaving around 11, and eventually Mikey was left on the couch, out like a 3rd strike, and I convinced Steve to stay here instead of going back to the Harveys. Turns out we had a really awesome time playing songs on my laptop, and then he got my guitar and we played through a lot of his songs, which are great and really need to be recorded. We finally went upstairs to bed, but laid there in my room talking until about 7:30. Pretty crazy.

Saturday I roused myself at 12:48pm, took a shower, and dragged Steve up around 2. We had various ideas floating around, but what I really wanted to do was hang around at the Harveys with lots of people and talk and play pool. The first step was meeting folks at Chick-fil-A for lunch: Justin, Anna, Craig, Megan, Janelle, Heather and Erin. Then we all trundled over to the thrift store and looked at clothes for awhile, eventually repairing to the Harveys, from whence to venture not again until Sunday for church. Mom, Dad and Daniel got home at 5:30pm that evening, and Daniel came to the Harveys awhile later, bringing Mike Q and Nick Schuch in tow.

The afternoon/evening proceeded pretty much as I had predicted: pool downstairs (with some occasional beating of drums and a lot of Rat Slap too), great conversation in the den upstairs, and less great conversation but good hanging out in the living room/kitchen area. Wonderful Mrs. Harvey made dinner for us all, and eventually, when the group was pared down a bit, we coagulated downstairs to watch Spinal Tap, which we had bought at the thrift store. I think just Steve, Steve, Craig, Justin and I were left for that. Very funny movie. Then came the best part of the weekend: Steve and I stayed up in the basement playing pool till about 4:30am. Craig joined in too, till his Nyquil took effect and he crashed. We just played and played, cheering not even so much to win, but just for either of us to have good shots and make them. Apparently the girls woke up at some point, 'cause Anna, Janelle and Megan came down for awhile randomly. Pretty much a great time. 'Course, I was deathly tired Sunday, but that's OK. I remember the sermon.

Sunday Justin, Craig, Steve and Janelle all left after lunch. Before that, though, we had a great big group of people at Quaker Steak 'n' Lube for lunch. Including Debs, who just moved here to intern with the Penguins as a staff writer. Like Steve Gole back in the day, she pretty much jumped right into things, and became one with the hanging out that day (and Friday night, as well). After some confusion and many rapid decision changes, Katie, Rebekah, Debs, Erin, Heather, Megan, Mike, Daniel, Nick and myself all ended up going to the Quinlisks, where we watched Hitch down in the basement. Then Debs and company made dinner for everybody, and I made espressos, lattes and noggtes. Then we went for a long walk in the graveyard in the mist and warm temperature, Mike flew his awesome new radio controlled plane, we played cards down in the basement, and at the last, Katie, Heather, Debs and I watched The Italian Job down in the basement. Somehow, I made it through the next day of work quite well, despite getting home at 2am, getting to sleep at 2:15, and waking up at 4:45. Not recommended, but I made it. And I don't regret it.

That's about it, folks. Last night (Monday night) I met up with some folks for dinner at TGI Fridays to celebrate Jess Mittelman's birthday, and we watched Office Space back at the Q's. Now I'm off for 2 days, and I actually woke up at 5am this morning since I crashed on the couch at 7:30 last night. Sleep is a wonderful thing.

Peace.