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I know it’s been a while since I have posted here but November has proven to be a really busy month!  First, there’s NaNoWriMo and I’m trying to get a 50,000 word novel written in the 30 days of November.  I will need to do a lot of writing this weekend to catch up to where I want to be on the novel.  No worries, though, I have 4 days off so I can (hopefully) get things done.

Also, I started doing volunteer work this month with New Beginnings Cat Rescue.  It’s only been three shifts (I’m a cage cleaner…not glamourous but needed and involves getting to cuddle kitties!) I’m going to continue doing this as it’s a good workout and helps kitties and just makes me feel good.

Then there was the T-Mobile Dallas Holiday Tech Shopping Party.  TexasHolly sent the invite and I was excited to not only get tips on holiday shopping and get to see some of the latest and greatest tech gear, but also get to see some blogger friends I hadn’t seen since the last one of these wonderful gatherings!

Got in the door and wristbanded, entered the contest by tweeting (actually, I tweeted to @TexasHolly before I even got in the door!) and played some games.  I also got to eyeball the lovely goodies for us to munch and I’ll admit that I  had to restrain myself from parking next to the table and hoovering it all up.  Fortunately, there was plenty going on and I was distracted from the deliciousness (seriously, the tomatoes on the sandwiches were fresh and tasty and that is a rarity when eating catered food. BONUS POINTS!)

Fred the Regional Manager (who was officially on vacation but had still come out for the event) shared some shopping tips and a few cool apps with us (to help with holiday prep).  Fabulous employees Arthur and Tanya (who looked stunning in her pink sequin Santa hat!) helped us out by chaperoning the games and it was cool that they genuinely seemed to be enjoying themselves.  I know it can be tough to be tapped to work events like this when you’d rather be home in front of the TV, so I thank them for being fabulous hosts!

I loved seeing blogger friends, TexasHolly throws GREAT parties and I am looking forward to the next DFW blogger gathering.  Thank you to T-Mobile and TexasHolly for a fabulously fun evening!

Then I got an invite to the YELP You down with Y-E-L-P party! It was held at Life in Deep Ellum which is a cultural center in (duh!) Deep Ellum (a section of Downtown Dallas) It was a good size for this event,  their parking lot is on the small side which made parking interesting ,  but I found a spot pretty easily (glad it wasn’t me who had parked in Mark Cuban’s private parking space).  I felt like I was a good decade older than most of the other attendees but one of the first things I did, to help fit in with the theme and give myself a little bit of a younger vibe was let the absolutely amazing Live Hair Group stylist give me bangs. The stylist cut long bangs for me and I have a picture of myself from the 80′s where I was rocking  a similar look so it was a good way to “turn back the hands of time”.   The girl before me getting her bangs done was really nervous but she looked absolutely gorgeous when she was done (she was stunning to begin with, but he did a superb job with her bangs!)

They had a DJ spinning the 90′s tunes who was excellent, he did a really excellent job with gauging the crowd. It was so much fun to spend a night listening to music that I knew all the words to (why yes, I AM OLD….now would you kids get off my lawn?*giggle).  Dallas PowerHouse had dancers there and they were all very talented and after a little encouragement (in the form of some lovely drinks and some enticing dancing by the DPH dancers) several people were on the dance floor.  They had furniture from CORT which was very stylish, functional and comfortable.

Velvet Taco had an amazing pulled pork taco with a pineapple habenero salsa that was spicy but not “my mouth is on fire” spicy.   The Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka mixed with lemonade was a nice drink to go with the spicy tacos. There were Bahn Mi sandwich slices from Pho is for Lovers, which I will need to track down in the VERY near future as I am always on the hunt for tasty Vietnamese eggrolls and figure if the eggrolls are half as good as the bahn mi I should be a very happy lady. The icing on the cake (literally!) was Whiskey Cake… a chocolate toffee dream come true.  Well worth weaving through the crowd over to the corner they were ensconsed in!

Not a lot of conversation going on, but it really seemed that people had a good time (I know I did) and it makes me want to pursue YELP Elite status so I can go to more YELP gatherings (this was a rare “open” party).

That brings us to today, Thanksgiving.  I had originally planned on staying home, alone, and eating Kraft Mac n’ Cheese.  I know, not very celebratory, but there’s no point in cooking  a huge meal if you’re alone, in my opinion.  I was rather shocked, then, to get a call yesterday from my boss’s wife inviting me to have dinner with them.  And so, I will be trekking out for dinner tonight with some of the classiest people I know.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you will all take a moment to pause and reflect on the things you are thankful for today and every day.  I’m thankful for everyone who comes and reads my blog, as well as a number of personal blessings I have.  Eat, drink and be merry (and drive safely, if you are needing to be out and about).