HAPPY NEW YEAR!

First post of the year! I'm back from the land of hootenannies, as my mom would call it. I went to Tennessee for Christmas. Erik and I left Friday December 22nd. Our flight departed at 2:30pm. I was scheduled to work until 12pm. I was (mostly) packed since Thursday night, so plenty of time to make our flight, right? WRONG! Erik starts to frantically text msg me at like 10 am asking if I can get out sooner than 12. Apparently the line to get into the airport was like 30 mins, plus the check in line inside the airport, plus security checkpoint... After going back and forth about it, I asked if I could leave at 11, but ended up leaving at like 11:30. Went to get Erik,got home, finished packing, my mom was waiting for us downstairs, and off we go! We made it JUST in time. Our flight was San Diego - Dallas, and then Dallas - Nashville. Well we had seats together from San Diego to Dallas, but not on the second part! They told us to ask at the gate in Dallas. Great, I thought, I get to sit next to some weirdo. But we ended up getting to sit together! The flight from Dallas to Nashville was NOT full, at all. Whew. Finally we got to Nashville at 11pm local time (9pm Pacific). After waiting like 35 mins at the baggage claim, and the carousel not having any activity, all of a sudden the carousel next to us that said "Chicago" starts moving and there's our luggage! Thanks for telling us of the change, Nashville International Airport. We were pretty beat but oh hey! We still have to drive about 3 hrs to Knoxville, where Erik's family is... We picked up our rental from Alamo; a very new Pontiac Grand Prix. It had seat warmers!! It was pretty chilly in TN, about 30F/-1C (yes, minus one Celsius). First stop was to the Waffle House, which they really need to open up in San Diego!! So yummy. Then the almost 3 hr drive. I was supposed to keep Erik company, but ended up crashing. Oops. The poor guy didn't even turn on the radio, because apparently all of the radio stations between Nashville and Knoxville really suck. It wasn't until like 2 days after we arrived that I discovered the car had XM radio! Ha. Anyway, we arrived at his mom's house at about 4:30am Knoxville time (Eastern). Finally! More sleep.

Saturday was a big day. Erik's friends, Brandon and Lia, were getting married, and Erik was a groomsman. Here's us looking all spiffy.

The wedding was at 2:30pm. Erik left beforehand, and I went with his mom. It was a Catholic wedding (Erik is Methodist), so at least I didn't feel TOO out of place. Erik thought the wedding was the longest thing in his life. It really wasn't! Anyway. After the church ceremony, we were pretty darn hungry, so his mom took us to Chick-fil-a, because we didn't know where we were gonna get to eat. The reception was at a Hilton nearby. Lots of people I did not know, obviously, but all in all it was a nice wedding. Here's us with the bride and groom.

We must've come off as the most boring people in the world because we ended up leaving the wedding relatively early. I think it was like 11pm. We were so tired, though!

Sunday, Erik's friend Abby and her boyfriend came over. We chatted, had lunch; it was fun. That night, Christmas Eve, we went to the church his mom and sister go to (Methodist church), and his sister played the flute with the choir. It was nice, and a very short ceremony! No wonder Erik thought the wedding the day before had been so long, haha. Then we went home, and to bed. Santa was coming! :)

Monday morning, it's Christmas! First, the annual breakfast at the Waffle House (again! yay), which is Erik's tradition with his friends. This time it was Brandon and Lia, and Erik's mom and sister. Then back to the house, because Santa came! And also, Erik's aunt Janet. I got so many presents, I was so not expecting all of that! Erik's family is so nice. We opened presents, watched 3/4 of Millions (have you seen this yet?!?!), then ate an awesome late lunch/early dinner of steak and mashed potatoes.

Tuesday our plan was to go to Dollywood. But, even though it'd been fairly chilly the entire time we were there, Tuesday was the only day it actually RAINED! :( aww. We still went to Dollywood, though, rain and all. It was fun! Erik's mom works there part-time as a hostess in one of the restaurants, so we got in for free. We saw a show, rode the bumper cars, and ate at the restaurant where Erik's mom works. It was delicious. It really sucked that it rained, though, because that meant we did not get to ride any of the rollercoasters or other rides... I need to go back when it's not raining!

Wednesday, our last full day there. Also, the day of the family Christmas gathering, since that was the one day everyone could get together. We went to Erik's uncle's house, and in total there were 10 of us. And apparently, that's pretty much it for that side of the family! I think it's funny because in my family 10 people is like 1/16th of us (maybe I'm exaggerating). But anyway, we ate, exchanged more presents! And then went to visit Grandpa (Erik's mom's dad). After that, Erik and I went to visit his friend Ron. It was Ron's birthday, and we were gonna go have a nice dinner, but it was already 7pm and we had to be up by 4:30am to make our flight the next day. So instead Ron, Stephanie, Erik and I played multiplayer Elite Beat Agents for the Nintendo DS, where Erik and I completely kicked Ron and Steph's ass. Erik got me the game, and a super cool black DS for Christmas :)

After we left Ron's, we were pretty hungry and Erik had been going on and on about Krystal. I've had frozen White Castle, but never the real thing. We got a sack of 12 cheese Krystals. Well, it was really a TRAY of 12. Oh, I made it through like 4, and barely. Erik had 7. He will not be eating Krystals or White Castles in a long time. We finally made it to Erik's mom's house, and I tried to go to bed but at 1am I was still wired. I had set my alarm for 4:45am. Our flight left from Nashville at 8:55am Central. I don't know when I finally went to sleep but of course at like 4:15 I woke up and had to pee really badly. Sigh, 30 more mins of sleep... Should I even try to go back to sleep, or should I just get up now? Too tired, back to sleep. Finally up at 4:45, and by 5:15 I was ready. We had to scrape ice from the windshield; it was damn cold. This time I kept Erik company in the car, I didn't fall asleep!! I wanted to stop by the Waffle House again, but we didn't have time...

We got to the airport, and after waiting like 10 mins to check in we decided to try the self serve check-in. It didn't work; it said something about an error, whatever. So back to the line. Another 10 mins. We were still like 15 mins away from being helped, when some lady employee starts yapping about trying the self serve. This other chick in the line was like, I tried but it didn't work. So she was sent to the self serve counter, which had no line! I was like, Erik!! Tell her!! and so off we go to the self serve counter, and we got checked in. The lady there wasn't that nice though, because when, once again we got separate seats for the Dallas-San Diego flight, the lady was all, I HAVE NOTHING!!!!!!!! arghhhhhhhhhhh!!! (ok she didn't yell like that, but she was pretty pissy). Chill out, dude. I was ready to punch people; I was tired, hungry, and very cranky. After a very long wait at security (and passing a table full of left-behind full-size bottles of hairspray, water, lotion... People, do you not understand the meaning of NO LIQUIDS/GELS allowed, except in 3oz containers in a ziplock bag?), we finally made it in! I hate having to freaking undress at security, though. I mean the shoes, the jacket, the belt, the hat... omg! Anyway, our flight was relatively uneventful. And after changing our seats in Dallas (yay together again!), we made it into San Diego a full half hour earlier than expected. I called my mom to pick us up, and she hadn't even left TJ yet. Nice. After a quick stop at Corvette Diner for lunch (I'd basically been up since 1:45am Pacific, and had only had half an egg/cheese/bacon biscuit in Nashville at like 5am Pacific). Mmmmm, Mac & Cheese. After lunch, finally, home sweet home! I kinda miss TN, though.

Friday it was back to work! Sigh. Bye bye, vacation.

Friday afternoon, my friend Tere called and wanted to meet up. The plan was to have Erik drop me off in Fashion Valley and Tere would drop me off after dinner. So we're walking to Erik's car, which had been parked in his parking spot at his apartment complex, and hadn't been moved since we left for TN, because he didn't work Friday. We get to his car, and he just stands there, looking horrified. I didn't know what was happening, but he just stood there. Then I see it. Erik has a convertible Miata, with a soft top. There was a huge rip in the top!!! And his door was ajar. They broke into his car :( And because they left the door ajar, it drained the battery. I didn't really want to go to dinner with Tere after this, but he insisted I go and try to have fun. In the meantime, his roommate helped him jump start his car and he drove it around for a bit, but wasn't able to turn it back on after he turned it off. So he called his insurance, and put in a claim for vandalism. We didn't think they'd stolen anything, but later he realized his FM transmitter for his media player wasn't there...

Saturday my mom, Erik, and I drove up to Pico Rivera to visit my aunt and uncle, and my cousin Vicky who is in town visiting from Denver, with her adorable kids Alex and Adrian. We were there pretty much all day, and it was nice but nothing really out there happened for me to write about. It's always nice to see family, though, especially on my dad's side. I miss my dad so much, and seeing his brother and his family really helps.

Sunday Erik and I went to Sears to get some jumper cables, so I could help him jump start his car and we could take it get the battery fixed/replaced. We drove around to like 3 different places, and apparently no one has batteries for a Miata. WTH! But it seems that driving around helped his car or something, because even though we were terrified of turning the car off while we drove to Sears, Pep Boys, etc, when we got back to his place and he shut the car off, he was able to start it back up without a hitch! Very odd. He has tried it a couple more times since then, and it seems to be fine. Except for the big, fucking rip in the top, that is. It makes me so mad that someone did that! People really suck.

Anyway, Sunday was also, of course, New Year's Eve. We were gonna hang out with Erik's friends, but they decided to go to a bar instead of just hanging out at home, and well Erik and I are pretty poor so we couldn't go. Instead, I made us a delicious dinner of Pollo a la Naranja, Tennessee Taters, and biscuits. Everything from scratch, except the biscuits haha, I got lazy there. Very, very yummy. Then we had some Captain Morgan and Coke, and we played some Mario Party 7. Then off to bed! Yes, we're very exciting people.

Oh, I finally bought a digital camera, so hopefully I'll get some pix on here soon. Well, I just recently ORDERED it, so first it has to get here, and then I have to actually do something to take a picture of. But I'll try to get more pix from my trip too.

Oh well, today has ended, the first day of the new year, the last day of vacation for Erik, and of the long weekend for me. Back to the grind tomorrow! Hope your holidays were as fun as mine! (Minus the car vandalism).