Christmas is Coming

It's a been a little while since I last posted, and while nothing major has happened in my life, I decided I'd post about the little bit that has occurred. After returning from Boston, I worked the weekend, and then spent a week in Johnson City with the family. I did a lot of house looking and have found a couple of prospects. My house here is still for sale and I'm trying not to stress about it. I would love for it to sell before I have to move so that I can just move once. It looks like I may end up renting something for a few months or so, which unfortunately means moving twice. I don't mind moving to new places, or back to old places as the case may be, but I hate the process. I hate having to carefully wrap everything up. While most things pack easily, it seems like there is always that one box that has a bunch of random stuff in it that doesn't really fit in any other place. Then there's the unpacking, which is fun for the first little bit, but get tedious really quickly. And no matter how carefully you label things, things always seem to end up in boxes you know you didn't put them in.
My last day at my job here in Chattanooga is January 6th, and I'll be starting at the med center around the 14th. For those you who may have missed this info from my earlier posts, I have accepted at job as a PA in the ER at JCMC and will be moving back to Johnson City. I'm ready for change and am excited about it.
After my week with the fam, I came back to Chattanooga and worked two horrible shifts. I then drove back to JC for two days to spend Thanksgiving with the family. I also got to catch up with Leah and Jennifer for a short while, which was nice. Thanksgiving morning I watched the Macy's Day parade, as I always do, and managed to turn it on just in time to see the Ooltewah High School Band perform. They were the band dressed like clowns for anyone who happened to catch it, and that's where I actually live. I just say I live in Chattanooga cause it's easier. I then enjoyed some traditional football watching as the Green Bay Packers continued their winning streak!!!!!!Thanksgiving dinner was especially wonderful this year, because last year I got the stomach virus on Thanksgiving day and spend the evening puking my guts up. This year I decided to try a recipe that I saw in a Rachael Ray magazine as my contribution to dessert (we ended up with six different desserts this year and decided we are going to have plan a little better next year). We've never really been a pumpkin pie kind of family, although Sarah has made this pumpkin cheesecake the past few years that's a big hit, so we normally end up with a random assortment of things. Anyway, I made an apple caramel cake from scratch. It was my first attempt in all my years of baking, at making a cake from scratch. I've always used mixes in the past. It turned out quite well and I plan to add it to my ever growing list of favorite recipes.
After my short visit home, I headed back to Chattanooga to work all weekend. The day after Thanksgiving wasn't too bad because all the nuts where out shopping and not in the ER. The next two days weren't so wonderful though and I was very glad to put last week behind me. Last week was actually the only week this month that I worked my normal full schedule. I'm only working 8 shifts in November because I'm using up all my vacation time before I leave! It's been wonderful. I am currently on another stretch of vacation time and don't work again until December 7th. I've spent the past couple of days on a desperate search for Hanukkah decorations. My sister Rebekah is student teaching kindergarten this year and they are doing a unit on "Winter Celebrations Around the World." I didn't that it would be too hard to find a Star of David and a few dreidels, but it was. Out of all the places that I went to in Chattanooga, only one had any decorations. I realize there may not be a huge Jewish population here, but surely there are some people who celebrate Hanukkah. I finally found some at Party City (just in case anyone else has been searching) and only went there as a last ditch attempt.
This evening I'm heading to Knoxville to spend the night with Elizabeth (my sister), doing a little outlet shopping Thursday morning, and then heading to Johnson City again. Friday morning I'm flying to Richmond to visit my pregnant college roomie and I'm very excited about seeing her. Currently, I'm hanging around waiting for the heat man to come and see why my heat is not working. If you turn on the heat, it blows freezing air and makes the temp in the house drop. It was 54 when I got up this morning! It did this last year too and it was a quick fix, so I'm hoping for the same thing this time.

Boston

I spent this past weekend in Boston visiting my best friend Valerie and we had lots of fun. Boston is a really cool place and I had never been there before. It was nice to get away for a few days and catch up with Val. For those of you who aren't aware, Val and I have been friends since we were somewhere around 4 and she is definitely one of my best friends. She moved to Boston at the end of July, and this is first time I've seen her since she left.

I love big cities that have good public transportation systems and where people walk a lot. It reminds me of being in Europe, and well, I love it in Europe. Plus it's nice that things are within walking distance and that people actually use the sidewalks.

I got to Boston on Thursday evening and after navigating the bus and the T by myself, I met Val at the station as she was getting back from work, and we made the treck up to her apartment. We cooked dinner and hung out with her bf, Adam. Friday I bummed around Harvard area while Val was at work, which was kind of neat to see. We had the best burgers that night at this little place (and by little I mean 30 people max can be in there at one time, if you have to wait you do it outside!), that was just down the street from the apartment. I am slowly becoming addicted to The Simpsons, thanks to Val and Adam! I've never really watched any episodes before and we watched more than a few this weekend. I must say most of them were pretty funny, even if they are a bit ridiculous! Saturday it was cold and really windy, thanks to the hurricane that moved up the coast. So after bumming around for most of the morning, we braved the elements and ventured out to shop at this big indoor mall place, which had pretty much any store you could imagine in it. Thankfully, the weather in Boston changes almost as quickly as it does here in the South, and Sunday was a perfect day. We went down to the waterfront and walked around a lot so I could get a taste of Boston. It was fun. We spent the late afternoon eating wonderful seafood and sadly watching the Colts get beat at this nice resturaunt near MIT. It was a really good weekend and I didn't want to leave on Monday.

Here are some random interesting things I learned about Boston during my trip:

1. There's no such thing as Happy Hour due to some weird law

2. You can only buy alcohol in a liqueor store, not the grocery store or the gas station, another one of those crazy northern laws. Talk about having to plan in advance.

3. You can't smoke in bars, which is really nice.

4. All those items in the LL Bean catalog that you thought people couldn't possible ever need to wear, are for people who live in Boston. You have to dress for warmth and comfort and not fashion, or you will freeze to death!

5. 95% of Boston owns a pair of UGH boots, or it least it seems like they do!

6. Valerie lives at the top of one of the only hills in Boston and I'm willing to bet that someone has probably had a heart attack walking up it at some point!