The Day After

Cleveland, Ohio
Originally uploaded by EdnPHX.

Greeting from Cleveland, Ohio….yes, the dreary city on Lake Erie. Actually, my mom’s house is in a southeastern suburb of Cleveland, called Northfield Center. Eh, Cleveland, Northfield Center, it’s all the same: cold, dreary and depressing. It reminds me of why I moved to Phoenix.

Aside from the depressing weather, I have had a great time with that family and doing the holiday thing. Traffic out here has been absolutely insane. God love development. Since I’ve moved away, they have built so many strip malls and stores. From Target to Best Buy to everything you can think of. I remember when the surrounding area was nothing more than a two lane road and rolling hills. Now, it’s a commercialized mess with more traffic than you can imagine. The population here surges around the holidays with all the people coming back “home” from all over the country. Cleveland airport was absolutely a mad house of people and presents and crying babies. The flight out was uneventful, which is always a good thing.

Since, I’ve been out here I’ve been spending a lot of time with my buddy Tim. He’s an absolutely insanely wonderful guy. Remember when I blogged about how all the good ones live far away? Tim is one of these guys. I don’t think I could ask for a better Christmas gift…definitely makes the weather much more bearable. I hope to have him out to Phoenix soon. It’s going to be a depressing flight back.

Aside from a great Christmas with family and Tim, I got a nasty Christmas cold out here. So my mom, has been feeding me Antibiotics (sore throat), Advil, Sudafed and cough drops. I hate colds. It helps having a mom who works for the Cleveland Clinic. I also rather have a cold out here than in the beautiful weather in Phoenix. The only good thing about the cold is that it’s keeping me from totally pigging out on the huge amounts of bakery, Christmas cookies, poppy seed rolls, cheesecake, pineapple upside down cake, and more leftovers than you can shake a bat at. I am so doing South Beach Diet when I get back.

So, now my sister Anne and I are going to go hit the stores at the mall. How crazy are we? I hate going to the stores after Christmas, but it’s a holiday tradition. I think I’ll take another Sudafed to make it more bearable.