'tis the season: part 3 ('tis ALWAYS the season)

so, i've just decided that i'm going to stop apologizing when i haven't blogged for a while. it's really just a waste of world wide web space and finger power. i blog when i blog, you understand.

to start off, i'm going to give you a very BRIEF synopsis of what i've been up to for the last few weeks since my last post.

i moved out of my sister's house just in time for ma and pa gagnon to make the trek down to pittsburgh from bow for christmas. they had plenty of space there, and i've had plenty of space in my new digs, housesitting for a friend in squirrel hill, a nice little section of pittsburgh that my dad affectionately named "rodent mountain."


(the christmas tree at the house where i am house-sitting. i feel right at home!)

despite my change of address, amy and doug, mom, dad, me, koen, tavin and friends along the way all thoroughly enjoyed Christmas morning and the surrounding activities. it, as always, was a very special time of year. but this year, more than ever, i have decided that it is completely acceptable to wake up and pretend it is Christmas morning every day of the year. the same Miracle is always there whether it is december 25 or not. note to self: pretend every day is Christmas. and try not to get down when every day does NOT yield wrapped presents.

so here is a little bit of pittsburgh, a little bit of family, and a LOT of love. all wrapped up in a few photos.

the view as i left my last day of work at the gingerbread shop.


a pretty little house on my walking route to gap.


speaking of gap...the holiday line you DIDN'T know about...


it was a "slippery" christmas. (4 out of 7 of us got slippers. see above, koen and doug's slipper high five.)


i just love this...the boys chasing each other around the dining room table. ah, the good old days!


does it get any better than this? he didn't even care about the present, he just LOVED the tissue paper!

(okay, so i just realized that i didn't really make it into any of these photos, but i'm not going to apologize for that, either, as this blog has basically been the abbie show up until now. besides, it's january. i'm getting pretty pasty.)

'tis the season: part 2

...for viruses. that's right, 'tis the season for viral infections to wrack my respiritory system for weeks on end. this is my second bout with some kind of head cold/chest cold in a period of six weeks. isn't there a rule against that somewhere that my body should know to follow?

thus my pictorial tour of pittsburgh yule is on hold. i will probably restate my goal next week. i hope you're not all too disappointed. it's going to be grand when it does go public, though, i assure you.

and for a quick update on my current goings-on...well...there's not much...going on, that is. on the bright side, i have been thoroughly enjoying my time to be close to my nephews and my sister and her hubbie, and friends in pittsburgh. i've been working at gap about 20 hours a week, and i work at the gingerbread gig all weekend. on the "dark side," (not to get all star wars on you) i feel torn in many different directions when it comes to where i want to live, what kind of career i want, and when to give up on the ideas that aren't supposed to be part of the picture. i have had several interviews in pittsburgh and have sent resumes all over the place. the cold has set into the northeast and into my heart, as it sometimes feels, but, being a lifelong northeastern-er, i saw that coming.

so these are basically the reasons i have not been blogging. i really want my blog to be uplifting, so how can i chronicle these darker, colder days? i responded with the easiest answer: "i can't...i'll just let the blog go dormant." but then i realized...i didn't name this "the comfortable and ever-upbeat life of abbie gagnon." i aptly named it "adventures with abbie." and the adventure certainly is not over...it's just at that part when just about everything is going wrong for the likable main character and the reader just feel depressed at the end of the chapter. but then, something good ALWAYS happens in the next chapter, right? well, let's just put it out there: this protagonist is ready for something good in chapter 2011.

'tis the season: part 1

first of all, let me clear up one misconception...mainly, for myself. 'tis NOT the season to quit blogging, even though everything else is getting busier, my roadtrip is on a hiatus, and life is getting a little monotonous. 'tis the season to take pictures of the things that keep life from being...just...monotony. even though my patience with photography wears very thin as (a) i prefer to take pictures outdoors and (b) it is cold outdoors now.

my goal this week is to take photos of pittsburgh that will convince most of my east-coast, west-coast and everything-in-between friends that pittsburgh is worth visiting! i'm not saying i'm staying here forever, but while i am here, i'd love a visit or two. i just need to figure out sleeping arrangements. (currently i'm on the very comfy pull-out couch in the guest room at my sister's house, and i haven't checked the rulebook, but i'm thinking i can't just have a pile of friends there too.)

so, YOU get to keep me accountable on my search for pictorial holiday cheer in the upcoming seven days: my goal is to have some kind of eye candy to lure you back to my blog with every day this week. until tomorrow!

it's all about gingerbread, pumpkin ravioli, and shopping.

i sold my first gingerbread house!

to catch you up, no, i did not make said gingerbread house. and no, my roadtrip did not take me to the north pole. i am in pittsburgh and have taken on a few seasonal jobs.

1. gap retail sales associate. (i haven't learned how to do the cash register yet, so as of right now i'm a professional greeter and clothing-folder. and you can just ask my mom and my sister, no one ever expected i would be doing the latter professionally.)

2. gingerbread house sales associate (but i'd rather be called an gingerbread shop elf.)

3. babysitter and full-time aunt.



i'm thinking about adding some more, too. thus far, all of my jobs are seasonal...i'm still not sure how long i will be in pittsburgh, but i figured, as long as i am here for thanksgiving and christmas, i might as well make some money off of the craze of consumerism that surrounds the holidays!

i'm spending time with old friends and making some great new friends at my jobs and i encourage EVERYONE in the greater pittsburgh area to visit the pittsburgh public market where my gingerbread job and countless other magical things happen.

jayme with almost two-month old liam. and yes, i said two-month, not seventy years old, as his hairline currently suggests. it was a wonderful visit with jayme, liam, and rob, with some festive and creative food, as usual! (see pumpkin ravioli below...yum!)


thanksgiving photos now:

just seeing the steam rise there is making me crave some midnight potatoes.

oh: another of my jobs, continually stir gravy until arm falls off. it was worth it.

we needed none other than a steeler's help to get this turkey from pan to carving board. no joke, he's a steeler.

hopefully posting will become more regular now that i am settling in for a bit...happy belated thanksgiving, all. i'm thankful for my blog followers and readers!

you know that picture with all of the yellow tulips?

i'm the one red one.

my eye-catching title tonight and zinger first line are not so much of a theme as they are a general musing on the recurring feeling i have lately. where exactly do i fit? where is the field of flowers just like me? rather...not just like me (NO THANKS!), but at least with enough of a mix that i don't stick out like a sore thumb...or to spin it a different way, a red tulip. i'm ready to fit in...somewhere. even a really mismatched bouquet. anything.

i do feel quite at home here in pittsburgh, in many ways, though. staying with amy and doug and the boys has been great. i am really happy to be somewhat helpful to them and they are VERY helpful to me as they are providing me with room, board, and...love!

to catch up on the last week or so since my final florida post...i spent some time in nashville, tennessee that was pure fun. what a great city! in my two days there, i visited belmont university's beautiful campus with old pal (now belmont super-senior) johnny wallace, saw a full-size reproduction of the parthenon (excess), visited historic franklin, heard some live country music on broadway, and much, much more. see photos below and enjoy...they MAY be the first of many. i hope to visit nashville again soon!

AMAZING sweet potato pancakes at legendary pancake pantry.
before:

after:

it killed me not to finish every last bite. but you know how pancakes are.

me and johnny, courtesy of my mac webcam. thanks for hanging with me, johnny!

this is johnny on his scooter/vespa/buddy! yeah, yeah, taking pictures while driving isn't as bad as texting, okay?

the parthenon.

my special art deco view of the parthenon.

live country band at tootsies! i got really excited when they started playing the whitestripes. maybe i DON'T belong in nashville. ha.

this photo may not look like much to you, but to me it is the fulfillment of childhood dreams. at some point in first grade we were asked to journal about what we would invent if we were little inventors and i had this strong desire to create a bubble-maker. and this is EXACTLY what it looked like. if you look closely, you can actually see some bubbles. it is awesome.

what's not to love?

will update sooner next time. hopefully there will be something in the next post about getting hired somewhere here in pittsburgh for the time being...think i should attach the following picutre to my resumes?

i think massages could get addictive.

my time in destin is now just a memory, but there were a few last events that i think you all should know about. first of all, i started the week watching the steelers - bengals game with leah and kristy. kristy is a bengals fan, and...i have a steelers sweatshirt. so there was some fighting.


but then we made up.


and the abbie-adventurous week goes on...i had a massage on...what was it, tuesday night? it's hard to remember because time and space pretty much stand still when you get on that table. it is fabulous. the day leading up to my 5 o'clock massage appointment was full of pretty heavy duty work sanding leah and phil's large trellis in their backyard.


(and this is only half of it.)

i was in dire need of a massage after that, but unfortunately, the spray painting i completed in the days following really cause me to require yet another massage...and as you can imagine, it can become a vicious and expensive cycle. needless to say, i will not be getting another massage for some time due to monetary constraints...leah was kind enough to finance that one. i am learning how to massage my own forearms, and, side note: i am STILL scrubbing paint off of my hands and arms. but the finished product was so worth it!


we had a beautiful week on the gulf coast and i am also recovering from my pesky cold, slowly, but surely. so i had a couple more beach days! my favorite part of destin, to be sure.


thank you, small photogenic person, for the following photos:




i also had a destin staple this week: fried shrimp at dewey destin's, a GREAT seafood place right on the harbor. i even splurged and got key lime pie for dessert! i wish my dad had been there to enjoy it with me...and uncle nels, thanks for the suggestion! a great restaurant. (dad, notice the waffle house across the street. you and nels would be all set for a week!) the jeep sitting in the parking lot was my sweet ride. thanks, phil!



and some photos taken at the harbor:




my final florida adventure consisted of running to target, buying a box of hair color, and dyeing my hair! it has been two months since i've done anything different with it, so i was ready for a change. see the metamorphosis below!

step one: pose for the camera.

step two: separate sections and clip up, somewhat resembling how i used to do my hair in high school.
step three: scalp-stinging hair dye does its job. and it looks really dark and scary.

step four: rinse and rinse and rinse some more, and TA-DA! the hair God meant to give me. (it actually MATCHES my eyebrows.)

the first week in november

it has been over a week since anything really blog-worthy has happened. i keep feeling that if i lived in some exotic place like paris or brazil or morocco, interesting stories would just flock to me. however, i am in beautiful destin, and, despite the beauty part, it is getting cooler both in weather and in journalistic inspiration.

to update you on the last week of my life, most of it has been spent catching up on sleep, coughing, trying (and failing) to be productive, drinking airborne-infused water, eating zycams by the bottle and getting creative with vapor-rub. yes, i am sick. and, as of yesterday, i thought i was on the mend, but after an unexpected bout of weeping last night it all feels like it is now sinus congestion. i thought having a "good" cry was supposed to be...good?



there were definitely good moments in the last week, though. we had a pizza night (see above), watched some fun movies, and hung around with tres cool kitties-in-residence, flo and hannah. last night, as i was attempting to plan out the next phase my life, armed with an atlas and a notebook, flo decided she wanted to help me out by sitting her fluff-ball self on the map of the US. wasn't too helpful, but it made for a great photo.



i expect that i might blog only once more from the sunshine state before packing up and heading to pittsburgh via nashville for a couple of days. just wanted to give you that preview of the fun that is to come on adventures with abbieeeeeeeeee! (in my head that last part was spoken by a circus announcer.)