Christmas at Dad's

Well we had another Christmas at my Dad's house. I had a great time. There was a lot of family here, 12 people and two young kids. Everyone gets along very well and everyone is pretty close with each other. It was like a cooking factory once everyone was here and the food was on in no time. The food was good, as it usually is. The prime rib was excellent. Most of the side dishes had a lot of pepper in them and they were good.

After dinner, we skipped dessert of course, we moved right into presents. I am the young single one so I passed out presents but as usual I am slow and Dad helped out for the second half. The benefits was everyone got to watch me open my presents at the end. Well kind of a benefit any way. I got a lot of really good stuff and I believe everyone was very happy.

It was nice to see everyone again. I was just here for Thanksgiving but there were more people here tonight. It would be nice to be back in Dallas again to be able to see everyone again all the time. I will see what fate brings with the selling of the house and everything else that is now going on in Nashville.

Everyone have a nice Christmas day and New Years eve.

Here are some pictures from tonight.

christmas at Dad's house 2008

Christmas Gifting

This years Christmas gifts are slim but are handy gifts. I like to give handy gifts. I get to pawn off other peoples larger gifts to get those people accessories that they really need; even if they don't know they need it yet. I really like shopping for Christmas gifts; although I tend to know exactly what to get but it costs way too much. When I have to find a lower priced option I sometimes quickly run out of ideas. If I do find the perfect low priced gift I always feel like that is not enough. This year I am going to try and resist that urge. With all the things going on this year things are a lot tighter for me. I also did not do what I say every year I am going to do; which was to find the perfect gifts online (Amazon is great) and slowly buy over a few paychecks; instead of just the one before Christmas. All in all I like the gems I have found this year and I believe everyone will like what they get. Oddly enough after years of not knowing what to get her I have found many things that would be perfect this year. Oh well, good timing is just not something I have; it seems. c'est la vie.

Have an Merry Christmas.

Christmas Party - of sorts

The party was very nice. I came home to Dallas and went to Friday happy hour with my friend and he said he was invited to a party tomorrow. He was told it was cocktail dress. So we debated about what that meant a bit. We came up with suite pants and shirt. It was three of us that went together to the party. We were in our suite pants and button down shirts and two of us (not me) had sports coats. The background is that the guy that invited my friend is a guy that owns a bar over by Fair Park in Dallas. It turns out he lives in an apartment above the bar, and the party was in his apartment above the bar. The bar is kind of a hole in the wall but they have great beer and wine. They just remodeled bit and changed the name to The Amsterdam Bar. When we get there at 8:15 for an 8pm party there were like four people in the bar and we were way over dressed. Mike (he owns the bar) comes walking out of the back with some ice and we follow him upstairs. Of course we are the first people to arrive so that was weird. We did bring wine so that helped I think. Slowly people started showing up and everyone talked and introduced them selves. We watched some of the Dallas game. Listened to some music but we all talked at length about everything and nothing. The really interesting part of the night was the collection of people. Mike invited his friends. His girlfriend invited her friends and they invited some bar regulars. Given the nature of the bar this made for a colorful group of people. And the fact that everyone got along famously was something. So to illustrate my point here are some pictures Party Pictures.

So it turns out that Mike told people cocktail dress and nothing else on purpose to see what people would wear. Most people were dressed nice but most of the guys were just wearing jeans. I could totally have gotten away with my work clothes. Anyways it was a fun party.

I don't know what to put here

So off the spirit of the last entry I now post something I never thought I would post. Liz and I are separated and she moved out yesterday. It was quick; only a week from decision to yesterday. For me this has been harder than I expected. I think of myself as a very routine person so I am following the steps of loss to the letter but they are a bit accelerated. Denial and Anger were at about the same time and I have been in those two steeps while jumping in and out of bargaining. So that pretty much leaves depression which has its obvious parts and not so obvious parts.
I really don’t know what to say here that doesn’t sound like a text book or that doesn’t make people upset or uncomfortable. I did not want to split up and I felt that more and more each day. On the other hand it was hard to argue with the thought that things could be better apart than together. It does not feel that way it is only when you think about it objectionably or at least try. And it currently does not seem that anything good could come out of this action now and each moment has its ups and downs.
As for logistics I am living in the house and Liz is down the street in an apartment. We packed up on Saturday and moved most stuff on Sunday. She is in a nice apartment that she can afford and she can get a lot of studying done there. She still has at least 4 years of school left here. I am weighing the options of staying here since I have the house here and it is not likely to sell without us owing a lot of money. So I am just going to see what happened and in the mean time I can work from home most days of the week. I am living cheep which helps.
Thank everyone for the helpful and caring words and thoughts. This is harder being in a town where Liz was the only person I knew and family being so far away. And everyone I have talked to has been helpful. I will continue to use that help.

Finding a Balance

At first look the blog concept seems simple. Talk about my thoughts and life and people read it. This way friends and family can see things that are going on all the time. When you factor in new friends or people at work where I want to talk about my experiences with but don’t want to offend anyone or give away something that is best left unsaid it gets more complicated. I am not a writer so trying to write in a certain style adds some new challenges.

I think the point here is going to be any ambiguity on my part is not should not be taking negatively rather it should be looked as caution and thoughtfulness, (ya, that sounds good). And it gives you something to ask me about when we talk next. If I don’t know you yet then think of all the conversations starters are out there. So to summarize I have no idea what I am doing or what I am saying and more often than not my fingers type the easiest word to get out and my brain does not even notice. So enjoy and please comment let me know if I have lost yet or not.