Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

For those wondering, yeah, I received some gifts for Christmas, but they're not so important (though the bee-yoo-tiful leatherbound journal Chas is certainly at the top of the list). Though I did get 70 blank CDs, which means CDs owed to folks like you will be in the mail shortly after my return to VA. What's important, like Jenn said, is the time with friends and family. Last Saturday (the 20th) our gang had our annual Christmas shindig at Joe's, which was utterly lovely. Wednesday, I hopped a flight to Charlotte, and then Indianapolis (thanks for the ride, bitch!), for three days with my family. It was so, so good to get to spend time with them en masse for the first time in two years. I hadn't seen my baby sis in that long, and hadn't seen my parents in about 16 months. My middle sis came for a visit in March, but I hadn't yet met my new brother-in-law, who is a charmer and a keeper (good job, Amanda!). Christmas evening was spent over at Amanda and Bryant's with little sis Sarah in tow, playing the Bass Fishing Edition of Monopoly (fishing's a passion of my brother-in-law) - and really, no matter what edition you're playing, it's hard to beat Monopoly.

Saturday, Stumpy came by, and we embarked on our "history tour" of both of our hometowns. In Warsaw we stopped by our old place of employment, while North Manchester saw us walking around the campus of our alma mater and stopped for alcohol and jukebox fun at The Inn, our old college drinking post (and bizarrely, they still had Ween's "Voodoo Lady" amidst all the Toby Keith and southern rock on the jukebox!). We then made our way down to Indianapolis, which is much prettier than I'd remembered - especially the Monon Trail, which Stump and I walked a couple miles of through Broad Ripple yesterday. Today will feature the obligatory visit to Luna, quite possibly still the greatest I-want-more-than-I-can-find-at-Sam-fucking-Goody-and-a-knowledgeable-staff-as-well record sto', evah. And who knows what else? We're purposely keeping an unplanned vibe going throughout the week. Oh, and tonight I have dinner with recovering-from-the-flu Scott and Jay, yay. Blogger meets = good. Long vacation = even better.