Suburban Island

More Please - The Day After Thanksgiving

Today was the second day of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. I love Thanksgiving leftovers. Being in Pittsburgh has been fun. The landscape is just so different for us. And it has been snowing on and off but not sticking. The joint effect of beautiful hilly landscape and drifting snow flakes is very much like being dropped into a pretty snowglobe. On top of getting the snowglobe effect, we got to see family that we don't get to visit with that often and we actually had a pretty good time doing it.

Today, we got to do some shopping - not too early but with a dignified 10 AM start time. It's fun to go to different shopping malls from the ones at home - even if a lot of the stores are the same. The Christmas trees in the center of the mall  we went to today were lavender. I can't help but like a mall with a centerpiece of strange pastel trees.

The big treat was going to Primanti Brothers and having one of their famous sandwiches. The sandwiches have everything on them - including coldslaw and french fries. Wow - a sandwich has never been so much fun!

Recipe for Holiday Travel Trauma

Here's my special recipe, whipped up on the fly this year as we hit the road for a Thanksgiving with family in Pittsburgh, PA. Try it at your own risk.

TRAVEL TRAUMA RECIPE:

Blend 2 parents and 2 college-age kids in a small rental car. (For maximum effect stuff a cooler in the backseat between the two passengers so they are really wedged in.

Add:

• Minimum sleep the night before for everyone but Dad- the driver (rest for the paternal driver is necessary in order for him to be equal to annoying all the other family members by perky wake-up call that turns to frustrated bellowing up the stairs: Get up! We have to go!);
• An unexplained need by said driver to leave home by 8:30 a.m. at the latest no matter what anyone else in the house says;
• Portable devices that promise entertainment but require charging (that didn't happen), headphones (that suddenly go missing), or simply remembering to bring them with you (darn iPods);
• The inability for anyone to agree on where to eat lunch at the halfway point;
• The desire of parents to control and/or lecture trapped offspring and offspring to tease/annoy/push buttons of siblings and parents (who ironically find themselves equally trapped after indulging in major lecture binge over lunch).

Sprinkle with endless choruses of: give it back to me, move over - you're on my side, stop doing that, you should have remembered to do that yourself, cover your mouth when you sneeze (ewww!) and my favorite: I wanted to sit there.

Upon arriving irritable, exhausted, and looking like something the cat dragged in, tumble out of the car and rejoice - travel by trauma has been successfully survived. Try not to think too hard about the return trip. Eat lots of turkey and pumkin pie.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Into The Water

The rumors of my passing have been greatly exaggerated. I did enjoyed the moving obit by Spritopias at Caustically Optimistic, however. Newspapers would be much more interesting to read if only Spritopias was a regular syndicated columnist.

Now, back to Suburban Island and – well... me. Here’s the truth of it:

Suburban Island has not sunk into the ocean. Nor have I expired. I have instead become overcome by daily life. It is a modern malady of the standard-issue working woman with job, family, and home with which to contend. Potential blog posts dancing like sugar plums in my head each day become lost in the fray. The daily amusing blog post, seen immediately for what it could be, dissolves in the chaos of the day and time marches on – with no post to show for it.

This is my holding pattern right now. I’m living my blog posts through and not having the energy left at the end of the day to share them out here. I feel guilty about this and yet I cannot seem to find a way to remedy it at the moment.

So, Suburban Island is still alive and kicking and I am still resident here. At some point – and soon I hope – things will settle down enough for me to get back into the blogging groove with more regularity. I think I had best do it before Spritopias writes more arm-twisting posts to encourage me to rearrange my priorities towards the blogosphere. I feel especially chastened by the plea of Margaret at Stargazer that I not stick her with the role of the Presidency of the Suburban Island Neighborhood Association. I also want to spare Golfwidow the trouble of arranging a seance at which I would not be able to be present (if I were indeed expired) because I'd be doing my time in purgatory for blogging neglegence - a big time slip up.

The autumn leaves are falling here on Suburban Island and the biggest pumpkin ever is still sitting on our porch from Halloween. I feel confident that the holiday season will provide me many tales of suburban fortitude and adventure with which to either delight the reader or throw them into a fit of proper despair.

Until then, remember to walk on the sunny side of the street and don't forget to look before crossing.