no matter how much i enjoyed a vacation, and no matter how much i wanted to stay there forever, there is one thing i always love about coming back to my little apartment by the bayou. and i always forget until i’m back, and it happens: after days or weeks away, i fall asleep in my own bed again.
after the squishy, trampoline-like springs of katie’s extra bed, the odd feel and slippery blankets of james and chrissy’s guest bed, and the rock solid mattress of rachel’s bed at carter’s parents’ house, climbing into my bed last night felt like heaven. my bed is queen size, so there is plenty of room to sprawl out. it is the perfect softness, carefully constructed with a pillowtop mattress covered by a mattress pad covered by sheets that are juuuuust right. and my pillow has just the right amount of stuffing. my bed is perfect for me, and last night it felt so good.
it’s been a couple days since i updated, so i guess i should recap my new year’s. i spent tuesday night at james and chrissy’s new house in athens. it is a really nice place, with hard wood floors throughout, and an amazing amount of furniture for a couple who just bought their first house. (as a side note, chrissy must be an obsessive cleaner, because the place was spotless!) it’s a pseudo split level house. you come in the front door and go up half a flight to the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc. you go down a flight to get to the basement/rec room, where we spent most of our time. they got dance revolution for james’s playstation for christmas, and good lord, that game is so addictive! i must have played it (rotating in and out with james, chrissy, kent, and occasionally anit or carter) for at least an hour on tuesday night, and probably 2 or 3 more on wednesday morning. i want to go buy a playstation just for that game!
we were up late on tuesday night, dancing, playing cards, and chatting. we finally crashed around 2:30, anit and i in the guest bed, carter and kent on couches. anit said she wasn’t feeling sleepy, so we must have talked for another half hour at least before i couldn’t stay awake any longer. it was really great to see anit, who i see less frequently than the others.
wednesday morning we had some delicious pancakes courtesy of chef james, and played more dance revolution. 🙂 we had burgers for lunch, played a game of settlers, and headed down to atlanta around 5. multiple closed restaurants thwarted our plans to get together for dinner with chris and j.r., and it was just getting too complicated, so carter and kent and i just headed down to sharpsburg, which turned out to be lovely. we had pizza, played ping pong (god, i suck at ping pong, but with the help of dr. green, we beat carter and kent at doubles, woohoo), and barely made it to midnight. kent was falling asleep on the couch, and all three of us were in bed by 12:30. we are old now, i guess. 😉
yesterday we had a delicious chik-fil-a lunch and headed to the airport. my flight was at 3:30, so with the threat level at orange and all, i thought i’d need to be there at 1:30. carter said oh, no, you’re fine if you’re there by 2, so that’s when i arrived. and i got through security quicker than i ever have before, i swear! by 2:25 i was sitting at my gate! there weren’t enough chairs in the boarding area, so i made myself comfortable on the floor and called my mom and dad. while chatting with my dad, i look up and lo and behold, there’s phil! i told my dad i’d call back when i got in to houston. “phil!” i said. he looked down, did a double take, and then plopped down on the floor next to me to chat. i asked who was picking him up at the airport, thinking we could save either that person or becca a trip to IAH, but alas, he was only connecting through houston on his way to snowboarding somewhere near salt lake city. he was like 15 rows in front of me on the plane, so i didn’t see him again after we boarded, but it was fun to have someone to chat with in the atlanta airport. that’s the second time in the past year that i’ve randomly run into someone from houston in atlanta!
the flight back was uneventful. i was in the very last row of the plane, and thus was the very last person to get off, exiting behind a young guy with a backpack the smelled really good (the guy, not the backpack). the clouds i saw yesterday as we descended into houston were some of the coolest i have ever seen from the air. there were layers upon layers–big puffy ones, and thin, wispy ones. we approached from over the gulf, and either the clouds were low on the water or the light was playing an optical illustion on me, because i could see cargo ships leaving long wakes in the water, but it also looked like they were plowing through the clouds. there were wakes in the fog, making the ships look ghostly. it was strange and yet beautiful.
i lounged around my apartment last night, watching a guilty pleasure tv show marathon while checking email, unpacking, and scavenging food from my bare cupboards. oh! i almost forget–my quilt is almost finished, and looks awesome. all i have to do is put some darts in the middle of each column/row intersection to keep the batting in place and it will be done. i laid it on my bed last night, and it’s long enough to use there. not quite wide enough (another column of t-shirts would have done it) but c’est la vie. i love it. i sat on the couch last night under it feeling proud of my non-sewing skills. i have a few pictures of the quilt-making process (unfortunately not the beginning part with cutting and interfacing the shirts, only the sewing part, because that’s when mom decided to start documenting things), as well as the finished product, here.
i feel like i had a lot more to say, but i’ve forgotten. so maybe more later, if i remember.
