The Last Couple Months

Blogs are such a good idea unless you don't post on them. That is what happened with my livejournal, but i refuse to let such an ellipsis be the end of this blog. So, here are my last couple of months in review.

Thanksgiving: I went home for Thanksgiving and it was really good to be back in Michigan. I love Boston, but i understand the rhythm of Michigan...its kind of like cuddling up in a that threadbare blanket that you have had forever and refuse to get rid of. It just feels right.

Anywho, i saw family and friends (Charlie's is still one of my favorite bars!), and ate a lot of good food. The venue for one of the good food eating nights is quite a tale in of itself. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, my entire extended family (and all of you have a least met some of my family, so you'll appreciate this) went out to dinner at this place called the Dakota Inn. It is a cute, German restaurant located on John R just north of 6 mile. Yep, nice area, right? So we get to this restaurant and the food and beer is of course all German, which was tasty (the food, not the beer). But the best part comes after dinner. All throughtout the night, a piano player had been coming out, playing a set, taking a break, repeat. Around 10pm however, he came out, and flipped on a slide projector, which then projected the lyrics to Joy to the World on the screen. He then gave the crowd a couple chord intro. and we were off. The entire restaurant starts singing...and that, my friends, is the point. On any given weekend, the songs can be anything from broadway hits, to classic motown to just classic, but there is always a sing-along. So the piano player took us through probably 5 or 6 carols, and then the part that everyone is waiting for...a man, either patron or owner i'm not sure, but he could speak German, gets up, kind of stumbles over to this huge bell and rings it. He has everyone's attention. Now he goes over to a wall painting, and we all discover that the painting is actually the lyrics to a german drinking song. With a cane, he points to the words, and pronounces them so the crowd knows what to sing, and then the piano player provides the music. The song continues like that, with the cane man adding words and then the audience singing. By the way he was laughing, i have the feeling the story we were all singing was a bit raunchy, but as it is all in German, who knows what we were saying. After that, we went back to the carols sing-along. It sounds cooky (although you all know my family so hey, what do you expect for an Erwin outting), but it was so much fun, and the whole time we were there i couldn't help but think that we would all have so much fun there. Between those who speak german, and the fact that we all enjoy singing, it would be awesome!

So that was Thanksgiving. Between now and then has been a mantage of homework and working. Even though i am no longer coaching, i still feel crazy busy. And with all of my projects coming due at the same time it makes sence.

My big news is that i just got an internship at Houghton Mifflin (they are the publisher whose logo is the trumpeteer riding a dolphin...books of theirs include all LOTR books, the curious george books, the polar express, petersen field guides, american heritage dictionary). It is exciting because it is an internship in a PR department in a publishing house...i am finally starting to do what i came here to do...but it is also exciting because it is a paid internship, so i don't have to go find another job. I don't have many details other than that i am going to be responsible for keeping track of all of the galley and review copies...bu this means i will know if anything interesting is coming out. The one thing i have heard about is apparently there will be a new LOTR book coming out in April (which i get to help with the publicity for it :D ). So yeah...thats my news.

I am going to be home from Dec. 20 through Jan 14th so i want to see everyone who is going to be in town. Let me know what if any plans there are.