hannah

here is the obligatory what-i-did-over-thanksgiving-break post...

i went home for thanksgiving break a week ago, on sunday the 22nd. i do not remember a single thing that i did that day, except that i drove home in pajamas and slippers from the night before. i was so exhausted! on monday morning i got up early and took my car to the kia dealership to have the oil changed... which took FOREVER. my car was 4 years old this month and is right at 60,000 miles. is that appropriate for a 4 yr old car? i know nothing about cars. it's embarrassing. after the oil change i picked up some groceries for dinner and then headed off to the grand with dianna to see new moon. i was really sick of hearing the hype for the movie, but desperately wanted to see it. (lol) i thought it was great... infinitely better than the first movie. i think it was better because it had a different director. catherine hardwicke was awful with twilight. after the movie i made corn chowder for my family for dinner, then cleaned up our 4th bedroom (extra room where mom piles crap. also, there's a couch and a tv so i spend a lot of time there.) for a while until the series finale of jon & kate plus 8 came on. i'm sad the show ended, but i think it's probably in the best interest of the children. their time slot is being filled by cake boss, which is the most awesome show ever. so ultimately, i'm happy. :)

tuesday morning i got up even earlier than monday to go have breakfast with granddaddy. he had forgotten about our date and was still asleep when i got there. i felt so terrible! after a tiny bit of waiting we headed over to zoes and had a nice time together. after breakfast, i headed straight from granddaddy's to grandma and grandpa's house. i have not been alone with grandma and grandpa since i was probably 10 years old and spent the night at their house once. i was SO nervous to be alone with them. is that awful? grandma has a hard time hearing and i always feel like i'm yelling at her when i talk. even though she has a new hearing aid, i was still yelling... then i was paranoid that it actually sounded like yelling to her and that she could hear me just fine. the reason i went over was for her to teach me how to make her super delicious AMAZING pimiento cheese. it's one of my favorite foods ever and one of the only recipes i've totally destroyed when trying to make it myself. grandma said i needed to see her do it to learn myself, but i've been putting it off. a month ago when she and grandpa graciously gave me some money to help with school (completely out of the blue) i decided that i really needed to appreciate them and spend some time with them. it wasn't bad like i expected it to be. i had a nice time! i learned the correct way to make pimiento cheese and even had lunch (a pimiento cheese sandwich, of course!) while i was there. i sat and talked with grandma and grandpa for a while after we were finished in the kitchen. the only awkward time was when i was trying to tell them about the corn chowder i made the night before and i mentioned havarti cheese and they looked at me weird, before grandpa finally said "hannah, we have no idea what you are talking about." haha! when i'm home for christmas i'm going to make a batch of pimiento cheese all by myself and send some to grandma. i hope it will be as good as hers! i might also try to make the bread she taught me how to make years ago. she can't make it herself anymore because it hurts her arms to knead it. EDIT: dad just called and said they went to visit grandma and grandpa today and grandpa told them how happy he was i came to visit and how nice it was to get to know me a little better. dad said he hadn't seen him that excited about anything in a long time! :)

on tuesday night, martha and i went to victoria's secret, which was a really bad idea. do i need lingerie? do i really? no, of course not. do i really need underwear when i have an entire drawer full? no, of course not. do i need a strapless bra since the four i've had have all broken? yes. did i buy a strapless bra? no, of course not. did i buy a lot of unnecessary things? yes. it's a good thing i don't work there, that's all i have to say! an employee discount would destroy me. after shopping, we met jennifer to get some dinner and ice cream. it makes me so happy that i am still so close with my high school friends. i already can't wait to see them both again over christmas, as well as stephen, who couldn't make it to dinner this time.

i have forgotten what i did on wednesday. did i finally sleep in? i really don't remember! i remember going out to do something wednesday morning and then going with mom and dad to pick stephen up from school on wednesday afternoon. and we had pizza for dinner. the end. i guess i didn't really do anything very important on wednesday if i can't remember it.

thursday morning i woke up around 9 and made the pumpkin pies for our thanksgiving lunch. pumpkin pies are always my responsibility. i am clearly a master at following the directions on the canned pumpkin. ;) just like every other year... granddaddy, aunt jonetta, and uncle dan came over and we had fried oysters. i avoided the fried oysters and made chicken casserole for myself and aunt jonetta. i understand that it's tradition to have fried oysters, but it really bothers me. uncle dan is currently in a pretty rigorous weight loss program at duke medical center. he's living in raleigh for the next couple of months while he attends the program to help him lose some serious weight, quit smoking, and deal with other health problems. i find it irresponsible that we had FRIED OYSTERS for thanksgiving, considering uncle dan's health. he spoke to his nutritionist before thanksgiving, who told him that he could eat 6 oysters. but wouldn't turkey still have been better? all we did at the table was discuss his program while everyone (again, NOT ME) stuffed their faces with fried oysters. it just seemed wrong to me. i feel awkward at family dinners and kind of just sit there until i figure i can excuse myself without being rude. nobody really talks to me. i wonder if we had a bigger family if it wouldn't be so uncomfortable. i wonder if grandma and grandpa are sad that we never spend the holidays with them. i wonder a lot of things about my family these days.

thursday night amber came over and watched me wrap christmas gifts. i was on top of things with my christmas shopping this year and currently have everybody's gifts, except for martha and meridith. after i got bored with wrapping, we decided to see if cookout was open to get some milkshakes. most people can't imagine wanted a milkshake after eating a thanksgiving dinner, but i didn't have a real thanksgiving dinner now did i? sadly, cookout was closed. walmart was open, though, so we bought some junk food there: potato chips & dip for me and paula deen's gooey butter cake for amber. i gave her a hard time for buying BUTTER CAKE. it sounds so nasty! she said i'd eat my words when i tasted the cake. i must admit that she was right. unfortunately, it was delicious. i felt like i was eating a thousand calories with every bite.

on friday morning i headed back to boone WITH MARTHA to do some black friday shopping. this was a monumental deal to me, as martha has not visited boone the entire time i've been at appalachian! after a quick lunch at panera (which, fyi, now has THE BEST macaroni & cheese on their menu!) we went to the outlets in blowing rock. i was excited because the entire banana republic store was 50% off, but neither of us ended up buying anything there. we got matching long sleeved polos at ralph lauren. i got a navy blue cardigan and an elephant necklace from j. crew. martha bought a scarf and gloves and boxers (for jc) at gap. we stopped by kmart to see if their joe boxer pajama sets were on sale. they were buy one get one half, i think. i wish they had just been half to begin with! i ended up buying stephen a michael jackson poster (he says mj is his idol... scary!) as well as my big fat greek wedding and legally blonde/legally blonde 2 combo pack for $5 each. martha found a super soft throw blanket for only $12 that she's going to give to jc as an early christmas gift. we went to the mall next because i wanted to check out old navy. they had jeans for $15, but i was disappointed to find that none of them fit me quite right. we ended up at hallmark, where i bought a rodney the reindeer puppet that hums christmas songs when you move his mouth. too cute! at rue 21 we both found winter coats. before you say anything, yes i know that i do not need another winter coat. my current total for winter coats is 13. but i couldn't resist! they were so cute!

after our first spurt of shopping, we went to get dinner at macados. i feel that anyone who comes to boone should go to macados at least once! after dinner we decided to stop by walmart to see if they had any good deals on movies. when amber and i were at walmart on thanksgiving night i saw huge pallets of movies wrapped up for black friday. i figured there must be something special going on! and i was right! they had the BEST deals on movies ranging from only $2-$9! i bought miss congeniality, seven, the curious case of benjamin button, and the last kiss for $13 total. then i bought gran torino and taken for my dad for his birthday! they also had taboo for $15, so i called mom and asked if i bought it if they would give me $15 back and make it one of my christmas gifts. she happily obliged. oooh, i spent so much money on myself. i should be ashamed! when we got back to the apartment, we had to blow up the air mattress for martha to sleep on. now, the pump for our air mattresses only works in a car cigarette lighter. dad bought this kind of pump years ago when we used to go camping all the time and that was the only source of electricity. of course, it isn't practical anymore. it is especially not practical when it's 36 (feels like 25) degrees outside with wind gusts up to 50 mph!!! i thought martha and i were going to DIE before we could get it blown up. the worst part is that it would not get firm! i don't know what was wrong because the last time we used them in st. louis they blew up fine. we finally gave up after about 15 (felt like 30) miserable minutes. once we got the mattress inside it slowly lost all of the air and crumpled up. :( martha ended up sleeping on all the cushions from our couch and chair.

saturday morning we had a delicious brunch at melanie's before martha headed home. i have to say it again... i was SO happy that she came to boone! for the rest of the day saturday i watched my new movies and did some random stuff around the apartment. today heather came to visit for a couple of hours and now i'm at work until 10.

WHEW! what a post! i'm going to have to do a better job of updating over christmas break. imagine trying to recap more than one week of vacation!! my brain is fried. i can't even think of an appropriate way to end this post. goodnight!

HL