10 days!

Just a little over a week until I’m on my way back to the US of A! For a short stint, anyway. I’m giddy and can’t stop thinking about what I want to see/do/eat/buy and who I can’t wait to hug/head butt/high five. So that I don’t physically explode with excitement, let me verbally explode with my itinerary and a list of things I hope to “accomplish.”

Dec 19th: Travel
Watch a million movies/read something silly/do a lot of Su Doku/zonk out on flights and layovers from Entebbe to Amsterdam to Dulles to Syracuse.

Dec 20th: Land
Touch down in snowy SYR, scramble off the plane, smile, squeal, and squeeze the family members that love me enough to pick me up at midnight, “Love Actually” style. Talk a mile a minute while waiting for luggage. Freeze when I walk outside in weather-inappropriate attire. Stay up way too late enjoying the Orkis gift of gab with Kay, Mitch and Dad.

Dec 21st-30th’ish: Fulton!

• Hit up Mimi’s (Fulton’s best diner) for a Quickie (Fulton’s best breakfast sandwich). Several times.
• Burn my back sitting in front of Gram and Gramp’s fireplace cracking walnuts. Aunt Linda, Daniel, and the usual suspects implicated.
• Buy all Christmas presents for everyone I know. In four days.
• Wear snowpants, go sledding, throw snowballs, make snow angels, watch a (live) hockey game, drink hot chocolate.
• Complain loudly about having to bring in wood, shovel the steps, or scrape off the car, but secretly enjoy it.
• Lose at ping pong, revert back to age 7 for charades, eat too much of Gram’s amazing fudge, and sip too many of Gramp’s famous whisky sours at the Christmas Eve party.
• Beg Carla to work her pierogi connection for Christmas dinner. Blow my eardrums listening to our very lovable yet very tone deaf family try to conquer Rock Band on Christmas day. Give Gail a shoulder massage, against my will. Ask Sean if he has a girlfriend yet. Fall asleep watching a movie on Carla, Bobby, Kels and Ky’s basement big screen in a really comfy chair.
• Catch up with Phillips’ over their delicious dips. Freak out over how big Maddy and Quinten have gotten and probably utter a couple senior citizen-like, “You’re shooting up like a weed!”s.
• Have one of those Chubby’s/Muskie's reunion nights where you run into everyone 10 years ahead of and behind you in high school. And some teachers.
• Make the Dinosaur BBQ trip for pulled pork, cornbread, and a long awaited Blue Moon.
• Crack up with Aunt Marcia and Uncle Joe, Laboda’s, Carla Henke, and anyone else I can convince to come chatter around the 103 Jones Drive kitchen table.
• Try and sneak in an Ithaca trip for some Collegetown Bagels, a stroll around the Commons, and gorgeous gorges.
• Walk into Wegmans. Cry.

Dec 31st-Jan 4th’ish: NYC

• Crash on Kay and Mitch’s couches. Make fun of their apartments, out of pure jealousy over the fact that they’re 40x the interior designers than I’ll ever be.
• Ring in 2009 allllll weekend long with the Cornell girls, Aliya, Heida, Kay, Mitch and YOU, because you should be there, too.

Jan 5th: Schenectady
Party down with Grandma O and Aunt Pat. I’m thinking Mike’s hot dogs, some line dancing, and an introduction to the neighbor that seems to have a crush on Gram. Wink wink.

Jan 6th-19th: Baltimore
Work out of the B’more office, frequent the Inner Harbor haunts, and take care of doctors, dentists and life logistics by day, and make good on the dinner dates planned two months in advance by night.

On the lunch/brunch/dinner/out list: Panera black bean soup and whole wheat baguette, Chipotle veggie burrito, Whole Foods salad bar, ESPN Zone for chicken fingers, Red Star for the Bucca and rosemary fries, Thirsty Dog for pizza and pretzels, anywhere that will serve me crabcakes for crabcakes, Nacho Mama’s for a seafood quesadilla, Kooper’s for crab dip, Safeway for a Primo Italiano sandwich, the new Japanese place for sushi, Mama’s on the Halfshell for everything brunchie, Portside for an Oranj Crush or three, Kooper’s, Max’s, Brewer’s Art, Mick O’Shea’s, and, fine, Fed Hill.

Jan 20th: DC
Inauguration!!! Cheer wildly, clap without interruption, and bawl my eyes out while history is made.

Jan 21st-22nd: Travel
Fly from Dulles to Amsterdam to Nairobi to Entebbe, with suitcases chock full o’ America.

I'm just a little bit excited. Maybe I should pack.