Lazy Days

I slept in till 9 this morning!! And it was awesome.

Last night was a date night, so we went to Carino's for dinner, shared a bread pudding for dessert and headed out to see Easy A. I'd say that I'm going to buy that when it comes out on dvd. It was pretty amazing. Came back home for a glass of wine and general lazing in front of the TV. All in all a good Friday night after a miserable day.

This morning we slept in and made oven french toast. Which is like making french toast only you bake all the bread pieces at once so it's cooked faster. I think it's a good strategy for hungry mornings. Only problem was that the oven needed to be at 500 degrees and the smoke alarm went off. Exciting. They turned out to be delicious though!

I called my aunt Staci cause it's her birthday and I'm glad I got to talk to her. She's one of my favorite people and while she usually spends her birthdays in Hawaii, her kids are in school so they can't really take the time off for a week in Hawaii. So she's spending her birthday cheering on her two kids at their soccer games. And she wouldn't have it any other way. That's what I really admire about her: she has what she wants and she's happy with it. Not very many people have what they want and keep wanting it. The women I aspire to be in my life are my mom, my aunt Staci, and my grandma Rachel.

My mom, because throughout everything shitty in her life, she managed to come out stronger and happier than she's ever been. She's not complicated or high maintenance, but she taught me never to settle for the long term things in life.

My aunt Staci, because she was the athletic, smart child that got good grades in school, and did things her own way. She got a lot of the privileges that I had, but it didn't make her snobby, and it gave me someone to talk to when stress got the best of me and my mom didn't know what to say. She went to college, got a job, did whatever she wanted in 20's and got married and had kids in her 30's. It gave me something to look forward to.

My grandma, because she believes in doing what you want to do, no matter what your significant other thinks about it. My grandfather wasn't much of a traveler 20 years ago, so whenever my grandma wanted to go somewhere like Paris or London or Rome, she said "okay, I'll take Staci and we'll see you in a few weeks." She's an unstoppable force of nature, that woman. She knows the value of a good education, the lessons one can learn by traveling, and the rewards reaped by hard work. She's the kind of grandma that I want to be. The one that knows you learn something new everyday, and if you work hard enough when you're young, you can enjoy taking your grandkids on international vacations too. She reminds me that you only have yourself at the end of the day, and if you don't do what you want to do, who's going to do it for you?

We went to the Friend's Church annual bbq, got some good free lunch, which is always awesome. Stopped by Saint Michael's Episcopal School where George's mom is headmistress to eat with her since she's stuck there for today. After that we went to Michaels because it's October and I want Halloween decorations. My mom was notorious for having decorations for EVERY holiday. It's a tradition that I want to carry on. So far we have some felt pails for Halloween candy that are a Frankenstein head bucket and one says "trick or treat!", a door decoration, a pumpkin carving kit and some Halloween cookie cutters.

I love October. And I love Halloween. In my opinion, it's the best holiday, and the best month of the year.

Next on my list of things to do while avoiding studying and grading: grocery shopping and making Halloween cookies!