Goodbye November

Wow. Ask me anything about Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, or Samantha. That’s what happens when you’re stuck inside with the flu for five days, you become a Sex and the City expert. You also become stir-crazy and think of the many ways your furniture could be rearranged, but since you are all tired and ache-y, you just pop in the next season of a former TV show.

I’m hoping to leave the house tomorrow. For more than just shoveling my walk. Pullman got hit with about 20 different snow storms this week, and today was the first day I felt up to shoveling my sidewalk. I’m pretty sure we had over 18 feet. Winter has arrived.

Anyways, so I’ll briefly recount the last half of my Pocatello trip. Clearly things picked up in the Gate City, as I stopped posting. Toni came back into town on Tuesday and saved me from killing myself by massive My Fair Brady overdose. We went shopping (not our best choice to unleash ourselves on the poor workers at Home Depot; we get a bit giggly together, and Toni dances in aisles), ate a lot of food (after convincing some poor waiter at the fifties restaurant that I’m a bit of a kleptomaniac, just where Elvis memorabilia is concerned) and got caught up.

I don’t think Toni’s daughter enjoys us together, but her college friend sure did. FYI, whenever I’m in Austria, I have a free place to stay. My charm translates well, apparently, and we’ll see how I do internationally.

Toni also filled me in on her definition of evil, and I think I skated by. In Toni’s world, hell is when you have just cleaned a countertop, and then use the same sponge to clean the wall, transporting whatever stain that was on the counter to the wall. My version of hell is elevator music, Liza Minnelli impersonators, and soft ice cream. To each her own.

Let’s see, after spending two days with Toni, I caught up again with my sister-in-law and the two nephews. They still do nothing, except guarantee us faster service when my father takes us out to eat.

My stepmother had to work on Thanksgiving, so my father and I ate a very casual meal together. After gorging myself (and I have no shame here) on pumpkin pie, I headed back over to Toni’s, since I hadn’t seen her husband yet this trip. I also heard rumors that there was more pie there. I love me some good pie.

The next day, I went to Salt Lake City (which is second only to Pocatello for fun, fun, fun) to spend a few hours with my cousin before catching my flight.

So that’s my holiday recap. Here are the lessons I have learned: 1) don’t plan a week in Pocatello without making definite plans with people, 2) no more family holidays without a large supply of alcohol, and 3) it is ridiculous that pumpkin pies are only “in season” for a few months a year. And I don’t care what other people say, Starbucks pumpkin scones are the nearest thing to heaven this world will get now that Elvis is *dead*.