This little snowman was drawn by the VERY talented Jeff. Husband to Amanda.

This veritable SAINT (Jeff if you got lost there) sat for hours with 5 women whose conversation topics ranged from talking mostly about online journals, fiction for girls based on things like getting your period and breasts and a million other things that passed by in the blur time was that night.

During all this, he put his time to constructive use and drew this little guy on the butcher paper type table cloth in .... what was the name of that place......here we go (I had to go find the little business card that I got from the place): "Zuni".

Amanda wanted to bring it with us (the drawing) so they tore the corner of the table cloth off and he dated it, signed and scanned it in the next day at their home.

Of course, the snowman is making the understatement of the century. I'd be a bit more colorful in describing the cold. And was.

I'm from the North. I grew up in the seemingly coldest spot in Pennsylvania where it snows and snows and blows and stays cold for months on end.

But I have traded my snow boots in (gladly) for the ability to wear my pathetic little ankle socks almost year round (not the same pair though) and I was truly a pathetic soul when it came to the cold.

It's cold here but I obviously don't spend much time out in it anymore and it's a DIFFERENT cold. Plus, it's usually not blowing 5-20 mph winds all the time.

I'm a wimp. A wuss. A big baby. I'm a southern person at heart when it comes to hot and cold.

Do you know the first thing I did when I got off the New Jersey train thing and entered Penn Station (I think that was the name of the station we arrived at) in NYC? Besides have the desire to smack some girl with a suitcase that almost got me stuck in the escalator steps because she was trying to push past everyone and fell into me....

I went into the K-MART and bought a hat and more substantial pair of gloves than the cute little knit gloves that are equivalent to little ankle socks in keeping out cold, that I brought with me.

K-Mart. I was so proud. I came all the way from North Carolina to visit the K-Mart in NYC. Typical.

I did like my hat though and the K-Mart comes with interesting story and photo so. I can live with that.

So. The K-Mart tidbit.

You can't see the woman in the picture that caused a complete halt in people going through at any kind of pace besides NOT MOVING but she had decided to buy an entire wardrobe and the girl with the brown sweater there, that's the cashier. Possibly the slowest moving thing I had seen since coming back north. People normally move as slow as that down here but everyone is in a hurry in cities it seems. She had run the bar code thing on each item and then meticulously and slowly folded the pile of clothes she had just scanned so she could slip them into the bag for the woman with the new wardrobe. Very slowly.

I got used to it, the slow ambling pace of most everything down here but when you have a very strange, over 6' guy LOOMING behind you mumbling obscenities under his breath because of the slow pace (almost in my EAR because he was so close to my back and invading my space), you tend to start getting a bit impatient yourself. I didn't turn or acknowledge him in any way because you just don't encourage people that act like that. Amanda captured the moment for posterity's (and hilarity's) sake before I had a chance to rearrange my facial expression into a socially more acceptable one. I look a bit...SCARED. Heh.

One of those moments that stand out because of the absurdity of it all I guess.

No time to edit. Have to upload while I have the chance. Erica is behaving like a leech since I've gotten home. Understandable of course but that leaves me little, to no time, for myself.