Baked 47 pies. Shopped for 4.5 hours. Left 832 rolls to rise overnight. This is what 200 of those rising rolls look like…

So the Thanksgiving Dinner shopping began tonight. Nothing like purchasing 47 pies and 832 rolls for $178. Amazing!! Also, always… always… always check out in the Self-Check Out Line when you have huge amounts of one item. The machine loves to make you strategically pile pie after pie after pie in a 5 cubic foot area while constantly beeping to inform you that an ‘item has been removed the bagging area’. The managers are equally thrilled when you ignore the only purchase four pies at a time rule, but know deep down if they enforce the rule you’re just going to walk your four pies out the car and walk back in to buy four more until you have all you need. Then after the stress of making sure your pumpkin to cherry to peach ratio is perfect….. you’ll need to figure out how to shove all of the pies and rolls into three freezers… I can’t wait for tomorrow’s shopping trip… gallons of green beans… here we come!

I took a nap tonight. For the first time in a long time, I crawled into bed before 9 pm and just slept. I try not to take naps because 1) I hate having to wake up and 2) I always wake up cranky. I am not a napper. I can’t imagine how my mom dealt with that when I was a child but I hope for her sake this nap-phobia is something I developed as I have grown older. So back to the nap itself… I’m pretty sure that the nap was my brain’s last ditch effort to avoid a total nuclear meltdown. Things have been a bit out of control here in LaurelLand, and while I’m pretending that things are running smoothly… it’s total make-believe.

I don’t really want to ever speak too in-depth about work in this venue…. but just to give you a hint at what’s been going on… I swear there have been a few moments where I have balled my fist and unconsciously calculated the approximate location of an ovary to punch it for a real ‘feel-good time’. So you’d think I’d welcome the chance to relax, kick back, and enjoy Veteran’s Day three-day weekend. And, I did. Don’t get me wrong. But there really wasn’t much relaxing or kicking back. Saturday started off quite well. I slept in and had lunch with Lauren. Click To Continue Reading…

My dear friend and ex-college roommate, Emily, was in town all weekend. Just to start by setting the record straight…. we were under the same roof for 2 nights and it worked out well. It’s truly amazing how three, short years ago Emily, myself, and a person to remain unnamed were living together during my senior year. To keep the story quick, things didn’t work out between the three of us and Emily and said person of no importance moved out. But now…. Click To Continue Reading…

Thanksgiving is here again and that can only mean one thing… the Annual CaresTeam Thanksgiving dinner. This has been a tradition the last three years Keri and I have been on the property. The first year we battled through a new manager and bronchitis to host and feed 75 people in our clubhouse. Last year, we opted to partner with Megan and Damien across the street and make dinner for both of our apartment complexes. We promoted the dinner heavily and moved to the bigger clubhouse across the street and, in turn, had over 325 residents attend. Click To Continue Reading…