Home, Sweet Home

After a lovely vacation in AZ, I must say I am more than a little happy to be back in Iowa City. I have now lived in this house for longer than I've lived anywhere else since I left for college, and have lived with Brian for longer than I've lived with any non-family person. This house is definitely the first place that has really started to feel like my own home, and as much as I love seeing my family and the house I grew up in, that is no longer where my life resides. It may be 50 degrees colder outside here than in Tucson, but somehow this has become a cozy and relaxing place for me to be.

Starting the Holidays Right

Last night we had our first holiday event. We met my boss and some of our colleagues down at Formosa for sushi and Christmas drinks. The members of this group are well-known notorious martini drinkers, but Brian and I, knowing we are not up to their level (and incidentally being the youngest people there by 20 years or more) were careful to stick to beer except for the champagne toast. It was a merry gathering, to be sure, and didn't end when the sushi ran out. After that, Brian and I went with Nick and his lady friend and another friend to the Dublin Underground, where the others shot pool and I provided moral support (I refuse to play pool if anyone can see me while I'm doing it), and Brian and I continued to drink beer, until an end of the evening shot of tequila. By then even our slow but steady beer intake had impaired us sufficiently to make this seem like a good idea.

We walked home, rather sotted. Once back in our house we realized we'd eaten only small portions of rice and raw fish for dinner and probably needed more food. We ordered pitas, watching bad TV online while we waited. They arrived. Mine had nothing in it but meat. Had it been the opposite problem, nothing but vegetables, I wouldn't have minded, but even intoxicated at midnight, I couldn't choke dry meat on dry pita down. So, we called and they brought a replacement, but it was all very slow and we didn't get to bed until nearly 1 am. (A nearly unheard-of feat for us, as we're normally out cold by 10.)

So, this morning I am in a slightly delicate state, though there is a part of me that is proud that I don't feel worse. Holiday festivities are a tricky thing. Sharing drinks with friends and colleagues is a wonderful, time-honored tradition, but since Brian and I drink so little most of the time, we are lightweights on the bar-scene. Drinking enough to have fun but not enough to suffer for the entire following day is a careful business.

Tonight, we have holiday party number two. This time Brian's work-friends will be gathering to celebrate. Hopefully, we can hold up through another evening of good cheer.

Drag

You know how sometimes you wake up to an alarm in the dark out of a deep sleep and irrationally think, "It must be Saturday," but then the love of your life sits up and groans, "It's Tuesday," and Tuesday means you have to clean five stalls, toss several bales of hay off a stack of hay that's three times as tall as you are, carry four flakes into each stall, fill up 16 buckets with water, lead 14 horses into a barn over icy ground... and also yesterday you had a tetanus shot in your right arm so now that hurts all the way to your fingertips when you move, and really you just want to snuggle back into your warm bed until you can wake up on Saturday for real?