Thanksgiving Eve is like Christmas..but better

There must be a HUGE preface to this post because this year's Thanksgiving Eve will unfortunately be without the Stapleton-Levi duo and that saddens me. It deeply saddens me but in their honor I will be sure that the ladies take it to the house on the guys for the THIRD consecutive year in the never-ending game of flip cup.

I digress...let's focus on Thanksgiving for a split second. How could any holiday be better than this?!?! It combines two of the greatest things in the world: tons of food AND football. What could be better? Well that's exactly what I'm about to tell you.

I'm very lucky in that I have a very, very close group of friends that I have pretty much grown up with. And even as some have moved away or what not - we still make a point to all get together and let it rip as often as possible. Thanksgiving Eve is the culmination of all of those other 'minor' gatherings. Between Foxworth's rants, Jessica's dancing on chairs, Olson's just being Olson and the occasional 'trash-talking' sessions, this evening provides enough laughs and just utter nonsense that will last the entire year. The real question is this...

How on earth are we all going to make it to Donna B's amazing breakfast of champions on Thanksgiving? Should be interesting.

I'd love to hear what everyone else does on Thanksgiving Eve...maybe we can throw some madness into our evening tomorrow night.

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Ooo PBR....How I love thee.

After quite the hiatus from my blog, I have decided that I'm coming back with a vengeance. I'm not quite sure what to blame this leave of absence on. Could be the 'give it a go again' with P90X that leaves me so tired that I can barely walk at work. Or it could be my inability to not go out because I have so much fun every time I do that it's actually reached the point where I can't say no. And this brings me to my brief story.

Last night I had a lovely evening out with a couple girl friends. The night began with a very nice dinner at this fantastic Mexican restaurant in Philly called El Vez - which can only be described by saying - best case scenario. Turns out they serve 5 different kinds of guacamole. We order one...they bring another...we have no idea and we get both. All for the price of one. Fantastic. The rest of the food is phenomenal as well. Oh and PS - they have a photo booth in this place. Super. My favorite things in the world: guacamole and taking silly pictures.

The night took an even better turn when we walked down the road to Drinkers. All I had to hear about this place prior to going was that you could get PBRs (that's Pabst Blue Ribbon for the foreign) for $1 if you shotgunned them. What could be better? I love PBR and I love shotgunning. Sold.

Turns out they are actually $2 nowadays...the economy really has taken its toll. Nevertheless, it was definitely worth the extra buck considering I had three and only paid for one. Apparently the people in Philly are not accustomed to seeing a central Jersey girl shotgun a bunch of beers on a random Wednesday night. Who knew?

And what could be better than this you ask? They even had photo hunt. Quite possibly the best bar game of all time. I can't say that my performance there was as strong as the shotguns but I mean I showed up.

So there you have it. PBR may be one of the cheapest, most underrated beers but let me tell you something. This was crisp, frost-brewed and delicious and do you want to know what made Drinkers my new favorite place in Philly even beyond all of these other things? Of course you do. They didn't serve Coors Light. At all. And for that I love them.

Stop by Drinkers next time you're in town. And rock out with the PBR.

Odd Girl Out

I had the pleasure of sitting through a keynote speech the other day at the NJEA Conference - which in one word could be categorized as overpopulated - and I have to say that this woman was a very good speaker. Rachel Simmons was her name and she is a well-known, published author whose first book, Odd Girl Out was a New York Times best seller and later made into a Lifetime movie. For speaking at a conference where I'm convinced most teachers are not in attendance because they use this time as an extended vacation, and where others go to get the free stuff that goes along with having a tradeshow booth...this woman was a breathe of fresh air.

That being said, there are a couple of things I need to comment on about her speech. She was obviously up there to talk about her book and about bullying that occurs between girls, etc. Now this of course has stemmed from a traumatizing childhood that she had with another girl and she has managed to make a living out of this. She travels the world/country speaking to students, teachers, parents, administrators about the issue of bullying and how detrimental it can be to a young girl's life and general upbringing.

Of course I agree that bullying and any hurtful girl on girl behavior is awful and it's extremely serious and needs to be addressed at an earlier stage. The one point that she brought up that really hit for me was how the victims of bullying very often avoid conflict all together for fear that actually standing up for themselves will result in a 'lost' friend or more worry than they are willing to deal with. This, for me, was the root of all of the problems and maybe something that should be addressed more thoroughly.

And here is my five second therapist moment of the day:

If you are in a situation where one of your so-called 'friends' has done something hurtful, something that you don't agree with or just something that has bothered you or caused you to think, and you do not address them because you are afraid that that will cause further problems and that said 'friend' will terminate the friendship -- this is not a true friend.

I have been lucky enough in my life to have amazing friends. And over time we have grown up (obviously) and are perfectly capable of being up front and honest with each other in ways that I'm sure most groups of friends have not reached at this point. Which is why I'm putting this out there. And here is my final profound thought before 10AM on a Sunday:

If you are afraid to confront someone who you consider a friend with a truly genuine statement for fear that he/she might no longer be your friend after that conversation, that is not a true friend and you should really reevaluate the situation.

So what do you think? Should I be given a PhD right away...because I think so.

Have a great Sunday and Go Giants!

When is it Appropriate to Fake It?

Gotcha with that title, huh? For a number of reasons, I cannot go down that road but maybe (hopefully not) at a later date... if all that has become the norm for me remains the same...I will be able to do so.

Good luck with that last sentence.

What I'm referring to here are situations in life that leave you utterly flabbergasted. When you cannot...with all of the brainpower that you yourself possess figure out how certain things have ended up the way they have. When this happens, and it reaches the point where it is completely out of your control and you have several choices but the main ones being 1) Choose to be happy for that person (if that is the given situation....in this case it is) 2) Argue about your disliking of the situation on a regular basis; thus, creating perpetual animosity....what do you do?

I happen to be in this very situation right now. Out of respect I will try to be as anonymous as possible. This particular person...who is extremely important to me...has chosen to surround himself with someone who I have not been fond of since day one. This is not my problem...you say...because its his choice and I should just be happy for him, right?

No. And I cannot, for the life of me, be any more fake to this other person than I have been and that is not saying much. By fake I mean I am as courteous as one can be when they not only have not a thing in common with this person but when the other person in question is generally unfriendly. Unfriendly might not be the right word...anti-social, uninterested. I can't really pinpoint it at this point and it's been long enough where I should have a good grasp on this but MY GOODNESS!!!

No social skills, brings nothing to the table...we're talking barely has a pulse as far as I can tell. What is appealing about this? Not sure and at this point I can't even think about it anymore because it gives me terrible pains in my stomach.

Even with all of this pent up anger and utter unhappiness with the decisions that have been made on the part of this person who I care so much about....I still try as hard as I can to be as nice as possible. I know that's the right thing to do, but for once...JUST ONCE..I want to say what I'm really thinking. I know that may come as a surprise to some of you that I do not always say exactly what I'm thinking but it happens quite often. In some ways I'm thankful of this and in others I wish I would just let it rip and be honest.

When is the right time to say what is probably the wrong thing? Despite the fact that the wrong thing might very well be exactly what you're feeling, it is more than likely hurtful and that should never be your intention. But this particular situation has left me in such a predicament because it pains me to say nothing...but I have said close to nothing to be mindful of people's feelings. I'm sure that's the right thing but it feels wrong.

Please help..and sympathize :)