Emuzines

The holiday season has officially begun (in David’s and my opinion, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons begin on November 1)! The next few weeks hold a lot of excitement–a lot of celebrating.

Nik and I head to Amesbury on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. We are SO excited, and have been so for weeks and weeks. It will be Nik’s second time to New England. Seeing as how he was swayed enough by the area last time to hint at wanting a house out there, I know he’ll have a good time again. He also gets to be reunited with my cousin Billy, who he gets along really well with. Good thing Billy is bringing his girlfriend so I’ll still get some Nik time in! And I always have a great time there. It always feels like home. I get to see everybody, relax in Memere and Pepere’s house, and eat Memere’s wonderful food!

The week after we get back to California will be hectic, but with a lot of fun things. Class wraps up that week as well. On Friday, my friends and I are going out to Bistro 33 for our thrice yearly quarter-end celebration. We have developed a tradition of going out–always to Bistro, it seems–at the end of every quarter to celebrate. It’s even more welcome now since we’ve dispersed a bit in terms of classes. I only have classes this quarter with David, Abby, and Kyle. Not enough time to see Maciel, April, and Natalie. Here we are at one of our old quarter end celebrations. This is actually at the end of our first quarter–the bootcamp of the program. We had shots this night. We earned them.

As you can maybe see, the fall quarter quarter end happens to be our gift exchange too. Last year we did a White Elephant, and exchanged and “stole” the gifts. This year, since we know each other so much better, I organized a Secret Santa, and we’re shopping for a specific person. Nik drew names and passed them around.

The next day is our second monthly First Saturday Dinner and a Movie. This one will be chili in bread bowls, cornbread, and apple turnovers made with Memere’s homemade apple jam. We’ll probably watch a holiday movie, but votes on which one are pretty spread around, so I have to tie-break.

Lots of other things are planned–drinks with our stats professor, the Mind Institute Thank You party, etc. Can’t wait!

Last night was the prelim-passing celebration at our old professor’s house. She threw us a very elegant dinner party. We were all so excited to see her house! It was very, very eclectic, but really neat! There were surprises at every turn. Here are a few shots from the night.

This is Maciel in Brenda’s living room, admiring the (ceramic) sheep:

David and I:

The prelim-passers (L to R-Abby, Maciel, me, and David):

Had to include a doggy picture! Here I am with Paris:

Finally, a group dinner shot (L to R-April, David, Kyle, Me, Brenda, Abby, and Maciel):

We had a great time and it was an appreciated celebration. Now…tomorrow is my own dinner party! Wish us luck!

Last night’s party was a huge success!! About 30-35 people showed up, and I think everybody had a really great time. It was a welcome party for the first year students in my department, traditionally hosted by us second year students. Traditionally there is some sort of scavenger hunt or activity–while we didn’t do it last year as the guests, we developed an elaborate activity this year as the hosts. After the first years completed their activity, they joined the party at our house. We had some really great appetizers, food, desserts, and drinks. The house was perfect for the party, and lots of people complemented our fall decorations and the adorable house. Lots of burning candles, lit fire pit, and smells of fall.

The beginning part of the night was pretty low-key with networking, eating, and chatting–a lot of the guests hadn’t yet met. After the first year students left, though, things got a little more interesting. There was a core group of about 10-12 of us who played all sorts of games late into the night. We’re all exhausted today…but we had such a good time that Nik and I are thinking of instituting a monthly dinner and movie at our house. We’ll cook for everyone–David, Abby, April, Natalie, Maciel, and Kyle (our core friend group)–maybe the first Saturday of each month and hang out, have some drinks, and watch a movie. There was a great response to the idea, so now for the arranging. I’ve found that I love to host. Nik was also great at decorating, cleaning, and hosting. Even JoJo was a good girl and gently and calmly accepted pets from everybody. (She did lick the pumpkin pie and steal a piece of cheese, but that’s all she did that was bad!)

Nik and I hadn’t any plans for today. So this morning after coffee we headed out to Vacaville for some lunch and shopping. Then we came home and I got a good chunk of statistics homework out of the way, and we took Jo for a walk. It is so fall-y here, moreso than it ever seems to be in LA. I’m not used to it and I LOVE IT. The sky is gray and the trees are orange, and it’s windy with leaves billowing all around. There are lots of meerkats and ground-burrowing owls on our trail, hunkered down and adorable. We have gone with the feel of the season and the house shows–pumpkins, mulled cider, etc. We finished the night at Pasta downtown, stuffing ourselves with gnocci and fettucini. Now WE are hunkered down in bed and about to watch some Friends episodes.

I have been so exhausted for about a week!  I thought that I was “crashing” from my stressful midterm that I studied for for many, many, many hours.  It was immediately after that that I became a zombie!  I was nearly useless for a whole week.  Making myself get off of my butt helped a bit, but still I felt exhausted.

Then, I went to Ciocolat with my friend, Maciel.  This is a chocolate/pastry/brunch/coffee/tea shop in downtown Davis.  Since I was sick a few weeks ago and missed a get-together wherein my friends ate CAKE without me, Maciel wanted to take me out for dessert.  What a perfect plan.  I had a gigantic slice of carrot cake and a vanilla latte, and Maciel had a gigantic slice of lemon poppyseed cake and a Mexican hot chocolate.  They were all delicious, and the trip snapped me out of my funk.  I came home with plenty of energy, and have been great today (even despite being woken up very early this morning by construction noises…can’t wait to move…).  Thank goodness for friends and dessert!