Esprit de l'escalier

So a few days ago (okay, more like a week or so ago) I took my grandma Christmas shopping and I discovered a new skill. I’m proud to say that I can handle a wheelchair like nobody’s business. But in the process, I’ve also discovered a wide range of wheelchair friendly and not-so-wheelchair friendly stores. To name a few anti-wheelchair stores in the mall: Brookstone was the worst and Hollister didn’t even have an entrance for wheelchairs! (Instead they have those steps in front of their store). Some okay stores were Bath & Body Works and of course, Macy’s and other big department stores. Barns & Noble was decent too. But I suppose the holiday crowds weren’t exactly helpful to the situation, but this was a few days before the last week for Christmas shopping. So there is no excuse! Anyhow, it was an eye opening experience.

In other news. Christmas was nice. I went to my best friend’s house for dinner and a small gift exchange and then I went home to be with my family and a friend on Christmas Eve. We watched one of my favorite movies Serendipity. Christmas morning we woke up late and had my bro and his wife over to open gifts and lay around until the rest of my relatives came. We had a nice dinner and just relaxed. I got them all playing the “Packing for a trip to Hawaii” game. It was funny. The Polings also joined us for the evening. We played the white elephant gift exchange game. We usually play Christmas with the Right family…but I supposed we decided to switch things up. I listened to my cousin Porter play one of his gazillion guitars. He’s growing up to be such a stud! I’m so proud. He’s an awesome Christian, an amazing athlete and a very skilled musician. And he’s a cutie to boot!
(friends stay tuned for news of cousin Megan…big news)

Oh, funny story: As the last person was trying to steal a gift during the gift exchange, my mom said something really funny. Here’s the story: my cousin Travis had his $20 gift certificate to Best Buy stolen by my cousin Megan. He couldn’t find anything else he wanted to steal except this box of chocolates that my grandma was trying to hide. He decided to steal those and the rest of the family was like “Gasp!”. Because you don’t just steal stuff like that from grammy, ya know? My mom pipped up and said “Well, I think that’s good for him to take what he wants. We don’t have any sacred cows in this family” And my grandma was like “Did you just call me a cow?!” It was hilarious. I guess you had to be there.

It was at that moment that we decided to start our family quote book. I’ll post more of those for friends later. I think they’re the only ones who would appreciate them.

For those of you who are familiar with my strange family traditions…we still haven’t found the purple cow. We overheard the kids talking about it as they were leaving, but we still haven’t come across it. My aunt Lisa is a sly one!

So tonight I was looking forward to hanging out with some old church friends. My friend Bryce called me last week and was like “Hey, keep Saturday open for an old sunday school kid hang out!” and I was like “Okay!” Did it happen? No, not so much. So much flakiness lately. I wonder what it is. Also, I got a call from one of my best friends from kindergarten through high school, Brynn. She’s been in England for the past 3 months! And she just got back about a week ago and then had to go to the hospital because she caught that really horrible flu that’s been going around. I heard that several people have died from it already! My cousin Chris also got it and (like Brynn) spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in the hospital. Talk about suckiness. Anyway, I was going to go over and hang out with Brynn tonight and we were going to have a chill evening watching movies and stuff. Because she’s not supposed to go anywhere…she’s still recovering. Apparently, the flu had spread to her heart and the muscles in her heart swelled up! So her case was even worse than my cousins, well as far as I’ve heard. So she’s at home again, bed ridden and some close cousins of hers came over and are spending time. I told her that we should hang out later within the next few days.

So, here I am. My parents have friends over and my bro and sis-in-law are over. I have 3 new movies that I got from Wal-Mart today (for $5) that I want to watch and I think I’m going to have to set up my laptop to watch them. *sigh* Oh! and I have a new three-in-one 3000 piece each puzzle to work on. Oh the excitement! yay!

Okay, so lots more has been going on, but I don’t feel like talking about it now. Have a good day. The end.