Hey Folks. It’s been a while. A long while. Since I last posted: I flew South. Thanksgiving came and went. I spend lots of time with family, close friends and my SISSY. I ate a ton of yummy food. Auburn beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and took the #1 spot in the BCS. I flew back to NYC. I Christmas shopped, cleaned, cooked dinner, and hung stockings. It’s been a whirlwind. Whew! But I am so THANKFUL for every minute of being home, and since that time is so special I do not take even one single moment for granite. I am THANKFUL!

I am really thankful for my sweet sister. This girl is my heart. Five years younger than me, and I still look up to and respect her SO much. She is the most outgoing individual you will ever meet. She has a heart as BIG as Texas! Last Wednesday night we curled up in her BIG king size bed to dig through memory boxes of old cards from our friends and family. We were pulling out all the ones from my grandma-who has recently become very ill. We gathered up all the cards she’d ever given my sister and me. And I mean she never missed an occasion to send a card, so it was A LOT. Birthdays, graduations, Valentine’s, Christmas, other random holidays, honor society inductions, you name she sent a card. They were the sparkly, colorful, 3-dimensional, musical, fun cards too. So we filled Andrea’s bed with a puddle of “glittery tears” as we read aloud ALL of the cards. Grandma knew us both all to well. It was so special because every card for Andrea pointed out her cheerful spirit…after all it’s really contagious. If I just had an ounce of what she has. Not only did the cards bring light to our sprits, but to Grandma’s as well. She is a lady of grace and beauty. She always thinks of others before herself, and we especially felt that love as her only two granddaughters. It was such a blessing to have lots of time to spend visiting with my sweet grandma, and recalling wonderful memories.

And on another note. I have another wonderful memory that I will pass along to my grandchildren one day. It isn’t quite as touching, but it’s memorable. My dynamic duo and I here, along with my dear friend Amory, cheered AUBURN on to victory AND WERE THE FIRST THREE PEOPLE TO WELCOME THE AU TIGERS BACK TO THE LOVELIEST VILLAGE ON THE PLAINS. Yeap, you read that right the first. I’ll admit we did “act a fool”, but who cares, right? It’s hard to control your Auburn spirit. We were heading down College Street towards Toomer’s Corner, then heading to the Athletic Department to hang with the other fans who were out at 10 pm to welcome to team back home. Well, as we deceded the small hill to the side of the library, lots of blue sirens back flying up behind us. Our hearts raced, and then fell straight to our feet in fear, for a few seconds, before we realized it was the team escorts for the buses. However, we were “in the way”. So we pulled into the hotel and conference center parking lot. And by pulled I mean took a right hand turn on two wheels. Then basically all three sprung out of the car before we’d stopped, and sprinted to the curb where we jumped up and down and screaming “War Eagle” as the team passed by. We either looked like three hard core fans or three drunken girls. And that story will most definitely live on…

So as you can see I had a lot of extra fun on my Thanksgiving getaway back home. Not only did we have a turkey feast, we had family time and football extravaganzas!! Hope your Thanksgiving was HAPPY as mine!! Night, and have a Happy Monday as you enter a new week!

Wish I could invite all of you to join in on our fun, family Thanksgiving. Instead I will leave you with a little tease as to what you’re missing out on.

I am chomping at the bit to fly home next week. That cab ride to LaGuardia just cannot come quit enough! Although I am a little bummed that I will yet again be watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, when I could be there! Instead I will wake up Thanksgiving morning to a Turkey Trot 5k which I am running with my sister, and then a long morning in front of the TV watching the parade festivities unfold.

What are your Thanksgiving Day plans? Do you have any special traditions? We always have a post lunch/dinner football matchup! Cannot wait to recap for you next week! XO!

Typically the morning involves a post-workout shower. That is if I find the energy to drag myself out of the bed in time to do all the “morning routine junk”, and get to work at a decent and acceptable time. So I tend to find ways to multi-task. Quiet time and coffee. Brushing teeth while rinsing out the coffee pot. Catching a glimpse of the morning news while drying my hair. And talking to my Mom on speaking phone while I add a little color to my face. I leave ‘blackberry” on the bathroom ledge and…talk, until it really is time to hit the street running, catch the subway AND cheer [internally] when you barely slip through the doors before they chime and close. Hooray…I feel I like I made it and can breath!

The weekends however are a little more relaxing. I find it okay to linger down the street, walking and avoiding public transportation. I enjoy the stimulation of the city streets: the noises, the colors, the flowers, the architecture, the people, the fashion and the unfashionable, strange and sometimes a little scary.

Oh, and I cannot forget to mention to entertaining. It was just a few weeks ago this was filled to the brim with water. Kids were barefoot and splashing around, and now a FULL size piano rest inside and music and “pole” dancing.

One of the scary parts of the city are the pigeons. They are NOT, and I repeat NOT, afraid of the the human race. They find great pleasure is swarming by you, all 100 of them at once. It is terrifying, and not to mention rather disgusting in my book. I am NOT a fan of pigeons. If you see the glimpse of the red shirted lady in the top of this picture, well she was really liking the pigeon attention. She reminded me of the freaky pigeon lady on Home Along 2.

After we finally made it through “pigeon zone”. We found our way up the NYC marathon, around Central Park South (across from the Plaza Hotel). No worries, or “heads up” – Charlie Sheen was not throwing any harmful objects out the windows. I digress, we were here to cheer on some friends, who were running. At this point, they were embarking on the final mile, and some of them looked like they had just started 2 miles ago, not 25. Amazing human athletes. And just like NYC, you saw everything. A man in a banana costume, a lady as a bride, a BAREFOOT man, a lady in converse shoes and slacks, a snail costume, wacky colors, tutus, wigs, peacock feathers, a speedo and cape and WAY TO MANY OTHER [sometimes INAPPROPRIATE] HILARIOUS THINGS.

Well folks that’s a wrap. My time for this post 32:00. That’s the time I was shooting for! Off to work. xo.