the trouble with love is

I have had an absolutely lovely Thanksgiving Eve -- Terry's family does not play Rail Baron (as is true of every other family in America but mine), but they are quite entertaining, and the lead-up to Thanksgiving is proceeding apace. Terry and I woke up at 7:15 this morning (actually, she woke up at 5;30, which I consider an abomination) and went to the gym, where she got me in on a guest pass, and she had a training session while I did some treadmill and read part of a (rather disappointing) romance novel. This enabled us to shower with the amazing shower products and get ready at the same time, which substantially sped up our morning. Then, we picked up our laptops and went to UCLA's business school library, where I wrote about ten pages while Terry worked on a project with someone until around 1pm.

At that point, we both sloughed off for the day, picked up our bags from her apartment, and drove to her parents' house in La Canada (which should be pronounced "kahn-YAH-dah", but I'm not going to bother to figure out how to put that foreign-looking tilde on top of the "n" -- this is 'merica, after all). We dropped off our stuff, picked up Tom, and grabbed a late but v. necessary lunch at Panera. Then, in an attempt to have "sisters time" (which I was crashing), we returned Tom to the house and picked up Kasey and Mary Kate with the intention of getting mani/pedis, but the salon we went to smelled like everyone in there was already pickled in formaldehyde, so we changed our minds and did some desultory window shopping in old town Pasadena instead.

We made it back in time for dinner, which consisted of caesar salad, scalloped potatoes, and tri tip -- thank goodness Terry's family are not vegetarians, right? I had a v. entertaining time with Terry, Tom, and their parents at the 'grown-up' table while their younger siblings hung out elsewhere; it's quite interesting to see a large family in action, and I'm rather enjoying the experience. Eventually, the girls adjourned to the back den, where we watched "Love Actually" (my all-time favorite holiday movie, which I know virtually by heart), and now we're going to bed even though it's only 10:30. I am old, I know -- which is why I'm using my anti-aging cream religiously. It may not enable me to get by on less than eight hours of sleep a night, but as long as I look dewy while falling asleep in my chair, at least that's something.

Happy early Thanksgiving, everyone! Goodnight!