Well, these past few days have been different.

Saturday morning we left for Pittsburgh. Rushed around to get ready and went to Someplace Else to get our hair done. Mine is amazing..... but, I'm not going to tell anymore about it... After that I went and met Maria at the mall. Em was there two, and we met Alex later. Maria needed to get a gift for Ivan, so we went and looked. She had a vey funny idea, but, I don't want to ruin the suprise for Ivan, so I won't write it. I practically picked out one of the gifts, and the other was totally her idea (That one is funny too! But I have a feeling that I shall get blamed for it... ;-)).

Maria got me hoop earrings that are AMAZING, and Emily got me a Tori Amos CD single- Spark.

I shall love her forever.

Maria said one thing that kind of bothered me, I said to her that maybe I could work out my schedule and be in Pittsburgh when Ivan was there, and she looks at me and says "Liz, Ivan said we could have a day to ourselves," (Meaning just her and Ivan, of course.)

Well, okay then. .. :-/

We tried calling him from the mall on the cell phone, but he was not home. I later found out why.

Anyway, we were having dinner in the food court when Alex came up. She looks amazing!!! I love her hair!! And she like, knew everyone that walked in or out. Maria left and Alex did too, eventually, which left Emily and I to walk around a little bit. We talked about things, such as "Remember when we got a Mocha Chai from Gloria Jean's and it spilled all over and we left it there and then we walked by it again and it was still there?"

Good times, good times.

Then I left, and we went to pick up Teddy. It was fun for a while, then I got really bored, so I tok my dad's cell phone out back while my parents were talking to their friends. Abbie was not home, so I called Ivan, who was not home either, but his mother was. So, I talked to her for a while, she was pretty cool, and I learned a few things about Ivan that I had not known before. One thing tht I'm actually allowed to write in here is the fact that he was at the mall with Petah while I was at the mall with Maria, so that's why we couldn't get in touch with him.

We left the Sand's and went to Grandma's house... I think. Yeah. Went to sleep. Teddy stayed at Matt's.

Sunday morning we went to church, then to the mall, then to Boston Market, then back to Grandma's. The Steelers were playing Detroit. I can't exactly remember- yea! I called Abbie. We talked for a while, then the cell phone died and I didn't call her back because- er, the cell phone was dead. She was thinking about having a New Year's eve party at her house, now all we have to do is get everyone to go there and not to Petah's. I guess we'll see what happens.

:tries to remember: yea! After the Steelers won (47 to 14 was it?), mom, dad and I went to pick up Teddy at Matt's. We ran some random Errands, mostly at the mall. I saw a few people from USC, but none of them even looked at me. Actually... you know when someone is looking at you, but they;'re not? Like, they're looking straight forward, but you know they're looking at you from the corner of their eye, pretending not to be looking at you, because they don't want to talk to you. USC'ers are famous for the "look but don't talk" technique. Maria has even done it! I saw a ninth grader who used to be at my bus stop, Sasha, and a girl who I guess used to be my friend, Pooja. I was walking from the food court and she was walking to it, I was smiling at her, but she blankly stared forward, I could so tell she was looking at me, but didn't dare talk to me because I'm Liz and I should feel fortunate that she doesn't spit on me.

After many lengthy errands, we went to Grandma's. It was tough getting to sleep that night because Teddy was snoring...

Christmas Eve- Talk about boring! We basically sat around my grandparent's until about noon when everyone took a shower. The family came over at one, and my grandparents were yelling. My grandpa keeps tin cans in the basement, (the kind from pop and beer). He like, collects them, and there was a few week's worth. Dad was clearing them out, and Grandpa was yelling. Grandpma, who is normally a very sweet person (she's kind of an air-head...), yelled "Aww, shut up George!!! What are you gonna do, start paying people in tin cans???" And he yells back "Shut up, you know it all!" and she yells "I am not a know it all, you're just too dumb to get rid of garbage!"

See, you gotta know my grandma. Normally she sits in the room during fights and looks out the window and mumbles in Polish. This was pretty much the first time ever she has gotten involved in a fight. Half the family was stunned and half the family was rolling on the floor laughing.

I was so rolling on the floor.

Everyone ate, we got ready and went to the Abruzzi house (formerly known as Aunt Helen's house). Neeldess to say, there was a twinge of solidarity in the air, Christmas is not Christmas without Aunt Helen.

Nonetheless, I played with the girls (Leigh, 9 months, Lauren, 2 years, Amber,6 years) I'm pretty sure that's their ages. I read them Christmas books and such while the adults talked in the next room. I joined them from time after time.

You know what I think about a lot, when I'm in situations like that? Am I ready for the adult conversations, or should I stay and play with the kids? At the Sands, there's my brother and Matt who are 11, and then there are the adults who are in the next room. I talk with the kids, then I talk with the adults. They're both fun, but, I don't know.... I sometimes slip up and say something immature in front of the adults, and get chastised for it, then I say something mature in front of the kids and I'm "boring Lizzy". So... It's difficult sometimes.

Anyhow, we went to church afterwards. Then back to Grandparents, went to sleep....

Christmas morning: Woke up to the sound of wrapping paper being ripped. Teddy was opening his gifts. Mom handed me some from my grandparents in Texas, I got some sweaters and "Cologne Spray" from them. The sweaters actually fit.

mom gave me some gifts from 'Santa" (heehe). Cell phone (yay!), Best Buy gift card, Express jeans, some books, Venus razor (yes! yes!), manicure kit.. (er..), Contact Lens appointment! I might be getting contacts!! Alleluij-however it's spelled. The leather jacket and various other things were already counted as gifts before Christmas. Ugh, if I had gotten a normal jacket and not a leather one, it would not have counted and it was like, 20 bucks more than the regular jackets!!

Teddy got a book, a scarf... underwear, socks, a watch (from me), clothes, annnndd.... an x box. With all the trimmins... a carrier case, an extra controller, DVD chip, games, everything. He is playing Star Wars Starfighter as I type.

I had a good Christmas until mom yelled at me, I yelled back, she whacked my leg, I kicked her in self defense, she yelled more, dad yelled, I left the house (my hair was wet), I went and sat down by a tree. Teddy came out ten minutes later and lent me hisscarf then persuaded me to come inside. My hair was frozen.

Mom gave me a WHOMPING five minutes to get ready.

I was putting my moisturizer stuff on in the car, and my make-up and such. We dropped Teddy off at Matt's then went to Rachelle's. I gave her the gift I had gotten for her, it is the most amazing thing in the world! A snowman container with different nail polishes in it. She gave my candy and a bug calendar.

A BUG CALENDAR!! I love it!!!!!!!!!! It's so so so amazing!!! It has close-up pictures of bug faces and it's so so cool!

Amanda came over a bit later and I gave her a gift (same thing I got Rachelle). She gave me these really nice smelling soaps she had made at home, and some home-made chocolate. It was really good!

As most Amanda/Rachelle/Liz meetings are, this one was filled with "Remember when..."

We played 'truth or dare" jenga. There were things like "Have you ever gone out without your underwear on?" and "kiss the person to your left" and such. How fun that game would be to play with guys.

Then a lot of boring family stuff happened, don't feel like writing anymore.

(_iz

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