TURKEY DAY

How far has the family unit fallen? Well, let's put it this way: I spent 10 hours today reorganizing my TO READ comic boxes; something that desperately needed to be done. However, doing it for 10 hours straight was rather stupid. In the end, I ended up with 15 long boxes almost full. Oy!

Today was a bit special because Tina had to come by to pick up a couple of the pudding pies I made her. I had sent her a text the other day to do so, but she probably didn't check them until today. Anyway, we stood and talked for a bit outside (which wasn't too bad at all in terms of temperature...though you wouldn't know it the way she was all bundled). That was a nice little exchange. And a least I'm seeing her more than ONCE this year!

The worst part of the day was the apple cider. Hardly ANY Martinellis on sale around us this year. Pops went and found a cheap knock-off brand. It tasted like apple-flavored wine. Accept no substitute, folks!

INDIAN DISCO

Sis was gonna be in Brooklyn so she wanted to get together for a little dinner. We ended up at the Taj Mahal, Indian joint in the 'hood. We tried to get Tina to come, but she was busy. So was just me, sis, Roy and eventually D when he got off work. Food was good, and someone there had a birthday so they dimmed the lights and had a couple colored light balls sinning around the place. I could equate it to the Lego Batman game, where when you solve a couple of floor puzzles it turns the scene into a disco with a disco-fied version of the Batman theme.



D finally spilled the beans so guess I don't hafta hide it here no more since no doubt I'll be referencing it here and there: he's gonna be a pops. Yup. I already lectured him so I'll save it here.

KEY HOLED

At work, we've got this computerized magnetically locked drawer that we use to scan IDs in order to give out the truck keys. The company broke ties with the company that manufactured it and the tags, so the system, which has been messed up for a while now, will be chucked when it finally dies in favor of a universal peg-board system.

Well, today, it died. We've gotten to the point where we had to bang it or pry it with a tire iron the boss provided in order to open it sometimes, but none of the tricks or rebooting worked this time. So, we ripped the front off of it to get at the keys.

I had to go help out inside the Empire State Building. I didn't have many stops, but it may as well have been a ton. I got stranded by the freight elevators...TWICE. FOUR freights, it took me 25 minutes to get off one floor and 15 to get off another. I did what I could through the front elevators, but with all the different banks it didn't make much difference. I also tried the stairs, but again, the access points I needed were unavailable. I ended up with four lates as a result, and by the time I got out of the building my rides back were already gone. Yeah, fun day.

GATHERING

Sis and Roy are back in town for a bit before returning to their lives in Texas. As usual, she organized a gathering of friends for lunch. There was me, Tina, Maritza, Jessica and Jessica's BF whom most of us met for the first time. She gave us all souveniers from overseas, I gave them the crap I got them from Boston. I got a translated Superman comic and some art I'll hafta find wall space for.

Lunch was fun. We broke up around 3 and all went to do our own things. After being home for a few, I eventually decided to go back to the Starbucks where Tina was going to grade some papers. Well, she said the only way she gets to hang with people is if they come to Starbucks...so I did. Figured I only see her once a year may as well make additional times count. I brought the laptop and worked on some scripts and my prose story while she graded. We talked some, and made me smile when she got so happy when one of her kids did well. And hey, I was actually productive! Told her if she ever wanted company to let me know when she's at the 'bucks and I'd come on by. I don't expect a call.

I've decided this year to go back to the holiday baking. I'll probably do my usual pie and some brownies. Told Tina I'd make something for her family this year. So we'll see what happens. At least I'm guaranteed to see her two more times because of that!

Funniest part of the day though was I got a call from Alex asking me where the diner we'll be having our meeting at was. I was kind of expecting someone to call like that because of the odd weekend last week. I almost thought the same thing myself a couple times, that this was the second weekend. But, nope, it's next week. Sorry, Alex! Read the E-Mails carefully!