New Year’s Eve was relatively low key.  We met up with some friends at a pub in Wallingford, rang in the new year and then headed out for a celebratory burger at Dick’s. 

The lines were as long as I can recall ever seeing them.  Since it was cold out, and getting late, we decided to head toward home and stop at another one along the way.  Approximately 15 minutes later, we rolled in to Dick’s, the lines weren’t horribly long in length, however, the wait time seemed ungodly long for the half hour it was and the lines weres barely moving, if at all. 

There were some very interesting characters standing in the lines in front and around us.  Believe me when I say we stood  in line so long, we had a chance to check everybody out at least once while we were developing hypothermia and rapidly nearing starvation.  We had one guy who I thought must have had a neck problem, when I realized he had no neck…just a head attached to his shoulders.  His friend seemed like a sharp knife while boasted about how he’s not the kind of guy to drink and drive, he’d just walked all the way from Greenlake.  He’d contemplated walking to the Greenwood location, but couldn’t decide how long that would take compared to Lake City.  There were some girls who were dressed in very high heels that appeared to not really fit and clothes that made me wonder if they were cheap hookers or just white trash that had left a party.  We had the man who was nicely dressed in an overcoat who kept looking at these individuals with a look of amazement on his face.  When we were about 4 people back in line, these two other girls with their dates/boyfriends, started compiling their orders.  One wanted one deluxe, one fries, one tartar.   The other wanted 3 specials, 3 fries and a shake.  Got me thinking too, the ole stomach started growling.

Moments later the girls approached their window. They started to place their orders when I heard one say “you’re out of specials? I’ll take a cheeseburger…no cheeseburgers, ok then, I’ll take fries.” She walked away with a very small bag of tiny fries.  The person in the front of our line was having the same problem and walked away without even fries and the employee shut the window almost in his face.   Keven and I looked at each other with the same incredulity that everyone around us had.  Dick’s, out of burgers?  Is that even possible? That’s like a crime against nature.  We couldn’t believe it!  It was 5 minutes after closing time, but there were still about 50 or so people in line.  You can imagine the conversation on the way home, the whole debate how they could turn people away when there were so many in line.

It was a travesty and an injustice.  I hope it’s not an indication of the year to come. 

Happy New Year, my friends.  May the new year bless you with much happiness and prosperity!

Consider the holiday craziness commenced!  It always starts with Alyssa’s birthday and just seems to keep going without a break until New Years.  Her birthday was last Monday…15, YIKES!  I have no idea where the time went but am grateful that she’s 15 years older and not me! She was having last minute nostalgia about leaving 14 behind.  So I rubbed it in a bit by reminding her of last things while she was 14.

The celebrating started the weekend before, going to the movies with her friends early Saturday, then a girl’s nite with my best friend Kim. Sunday day she spent with my Dad and stepmother, followed by a family dinner on Alyssa’s dad’s side of the family.  On her actual birthday, I was off and Keven took off work early and we took her to Capital Hill to get a helix piercing (higher up on the ear aka cartilage piercing) which she’d been asking to do for quite some time.  Then a mad dash to get toward home to pick up a couple of her friends and onward to the birthday dinner at the Spaghetti Factory (email me for photos). 

Wednesday was girl’s night out, so we went to Molly Maguire’s for trivia.  That’s something we all used to do as a group, but Mac and Rachelle had a baby in June so they alternate going out and I haven’t been in forever since I started getting up so early for work.  The alarm is going off a little after 5am and I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination and I can’t roll home at midnite or later and get up at 5.  It was really fun though and our group won, so after buying a round of drinks for the runners up (we won in a tie breaker) and tipping the bartender, we each walked away with $20!

Thursday we went to Margo’s (Keven’s brother’s mother-in-law) hours, then on to Mac’s for the remainder of the evening.  Friday we did a bunch of errand-type stuff, went to a play with Marla (it was really good but over 2 hours long) then out with a few friends…one of whom was having a birthday.  Saturday was a blur of activity as well.  We got up early and did a freezing cold lap around Greenlake (it was 31 ice cold degrees), went out to breakfast, ran errands, then down to Mac & Rachelle’s house and babysat their kids so they could go out.  Keven was up early on Sunday, although I’m not quite sure how, all perky and flying out the door for a bike ride.

I’ve also been working overtime when I can get it, so you see the holiday tornado is already set in motion!