In Eckleburg's Eyes - 1/5/2009, Part 1

News & Notes from Friday, January 2nd, 2009

-I spent Friday afternoon with JTH. After eating a late lunch at Wishbone’s Famous Fingers & Wings, we headed to the church. There, I delivered LEJ’s Christmas gifts...from the last three years! It has been too long since you have seen someone when you do not remember what you got them. (Evidently it is harder to get off my Christmas list than a Baptist Sunday School roll.)

-While at church, we also caught up with JMM, GWS, and JMT. We then headed to an unbelievably crowded McKay’s (among the crowd was another church friend, JCP) before we headed our separate ways.

-On Friday night, my maternal family gathered at my house to celebrate the arrival of AT, my cousin ACN’s roommate at UMass. AT was visiting for five days. She came to my house straight from the airport. It marked her first trip to south so I provided her with some books on how to survive the south. (Note: This photo is of my cousins HANJ and HLN in their matching hoodies. You will note they are flashing the west side sign.)

-My mother cooked spaghetti for dinner. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned late lunch I abstained. I had not had time to eat all day and just could not wait any longer. It was a shame as my mother’s spaghetti is excellent. Over dinner we came up with a great idea for Facebook. Not only list friends, but people you denied as friends.

-After dinner, we played the 25th Anniversary Edition of Trivial Pursuit. Since there were thirteen of us, we numbered off to make three teams. My team consisted of my uncle REN, AT, my mother DLNV, and my cousin HANW. If you are unfamiliar with the family, my team was stacked! DLNV and I may not know anything overly important, but trivia, we can handle. Not surprisingly we won. Handily. (Note: This photo is of my beautiful cousin HANJ attempting to read us questions. This process amused us all night.)

-I have to give credit where credit is due, the winning question was answered by AT. She knew that canaries were once regularly used in coal mines as an early warning system.

-After the family gathering, I headed to MoFoS to meet up with JTH before going to dinner. A friend of NHH’s had brought a dog in the store. The dog was actually very friendly and eventually its owner handed me its leash so I could play with him. It was still strange seeing an animal in the store.

-JTH and I then headed to Applebees in Bearden where we met JDM and ANS. We had a great waitress named Lindsay.

-While there we also exchanged Christmas gifts. JDM got JTH the apropos car vacuum. JTH was so happy. JDM got me Seasons 2-4 of La Femme Nikita. I laughed. He had purchased them in one of Best Buy’s sales in 2007 with the inteion of selling them . They had been sitting on his shelf ever since. I was instructed to get trade credit for them. That is a gift that truly keeps on giving.