I love...Thanksgiving.

"Bloggle, bloggle!" That's the sound I think my blog would make if it was a turkey.

But my blog is not a turkey, it's a blog. That's why tonight the sound coming out of my blog is "type, type, type" as I recap a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. A lot happened, so grab some leftovers, sit back and get ready to use those fancy reading skills...

Wednesday night (Thanksgiving Eve) I went to a birthday dinner with some friends at Crop's new location in Ohio City. The space is awesome and the food was yummy. After dinner we went to Market Avenue Wine Bar for another drink. There we saw a man that we were pretty sure was Cleveland Browns' player Peyton Hillis. As he left I joked that it wasn't him because he wasn't holding a football and he was wearing a belt. My friends pointed out that football players wear belts while they're playing. I suggested they should instead wear some sort of bodysuits. As we discussed the "belt vs. bodysuit" topic we lost track of the Mr. maybe-Hillis, and that was that. Later on we said our goodbyes and I found out that some other friends were nearby at Dragonfly. I stopped by to say hello, danced a quick salsa dance, then we walked down the street to Speakeasy to dance some more, and then we walked around the corner to Touch to dance even more. Looking back, this night of dancing was the perfect way to prepare for the day of eating that was to follow.

Thursday morning my sister Lisa picked me up and we headed to the airport to fly out to Washington, DC where our aunt and uncle live. At the airport ticket kiosk I went to enter the first three letters of my destination city and my sister and I were quite amused when the option of "Batman" appeared on the screen (mainly because of this Crank Yankers phone call that my sisters and I are obsessed with). After the flight, our parents picked us up and we went to our hotel to freshen up before dinner. There we were greeted by our sister Susan and two of her kids, Sean & Ryleigh (we missed you, Bill & Conor!). Ryleigh has finally remembered my name without prompting, which made my afternoon as she ran down the hall yelling "Aunt Jenny". We all squeezed into my parents' van and headed to our Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Mike's house. I walked in carrying a cooler my parents had packed up, which resulted in my relatives asking if I was ready for a Thanksgiving tailgate (actually, it didn't sound like a bad idea). I helped in the kitchen by rolling the crescent rolls with Lisa (a stressful and important job) and filling the water pitchers. Not to toot my own horn, but that was some of the best bread and water any Thanksgiving has ever seen! We ate, we drank, we Thanksgiving-ed it up.

On Friday everyone did their own thing during the day. Lisa and I visited the National Portrait Gallery, then wandered a bit and visited the very rarely seen Starbucks. That evening all of our cousins met up for happy hour in the Georgetown area. Then we headed back to our aunt's house for some pizza, which was eventually followed by our goodbyes since we were all headed our separate ways on Saturday morning.

The 2011 Thanksgiving weekend is now drawing to a close and I'm thankful for every deliciously wonderful part of it, from my friends to my family to the dancing to the laughs.

I hope your holiday was deliciously wonderful, too!

I love..."Almost Famous".

When I moved into my current apartment I didn't get cable. So when I wanted to watch something, I watched DVDs. On a regular rotation in my DVD player were the "Sex & the City" seasons, "500 Days of Summer" and..."Almost Famous".

The movie "Almost Famous" is on my list of top three movies. It makes me happy. I can quote it. I can fall asleep to it (and I have, several times). I make other people fall asleep to it (like two birthdays ago when my sisters were visiting, I tucked them into my bed and made them fall asleep to it, which is why my sister Lisa now fondly recalls my 'Almost Famous channel').

My love for the movie started a while back, cause it's awesome. If you've seen it, hopefully you're shaking your head in agreement right now. A young boy (and aspiring writer) travels around with a rockband and sees the ins and outs of the road and fame. He meets the lovely Penny Lane and lots and lots of awesomeness ensues. If you haven't seen it, you need to see it. Here are some of my reasons why...

The Quotes: As I mentioned, I could pretty much quote the whole movie, but I'll spare you. Instead here are a few highlights.

• "It's all happening!" - Once you hear it in the movie, you find it's pretty easy to use in day-to-day situations. When you do say it and someone around you offers recognition of what movie it's from, it's like you've found a secret club of Almost Famous groupies (well, Band-aids).
• Some other favorites: "Your aura is purple!"; "Feck you!"; "I hurt the flower."; "Rockstars have kidnapped my son."; "I didn't invent the rainy day, man. I just own the best umbrella."

The Music: Of course with a movie about rockstars, there's plenty of music throughout. There are some songs I can't hear without thinking of the movie. I'm okay with that.

• "Tiny Dancer" - Ah, the bus scene. This movie moment made me forever fall in love with this song. One night in college I snuck away from a party to go back to my apartment and listen to it. One of my roommates came home to find me dancing alone to it on our coffee table. Luckily she and a couple other friends happily joined in as we all sang along. As great as that was, I still can't wait for the day where I'll be on a bus and this will happen:

• "Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters" - Another Elton John song made its way into the movie. Though I'm not looking to recreate this particular scene, I did take a liking to the song. Unfortunately it didn't make its way onto the soundtrack, so I quickly bought the next CD I could find with it.

• "The Wind" - Penny Lane hangs out after a show to dance around on the trash left behind by fans as this Cat Stevens song plays in the background. It may sound like a weird scene, but I've noticed that after a concert when the lights come on and people have cleared out, somehow the trash of fans does look more poetic than trash looks when left on the side of the road.

Etc.: Want more? Well, there's also the fact that at one point in the movie the band sings a song written by Shel Silverstein. Or that the band plays a show in Cleveland and stops at Swingos. Or that the main character is a writer who gets an amazing opportunity.

Still, these are only a few tidbits to explain why I love this movie. I watched it again last night and today the aftertaste of it still makes me want to be a rockstar, or Penny Lane, or something in between.

Tonight my inner-Jenny is calling for an encore viewing, so as soon as I post this I'm going to press play on the DVD player. Why fight it..."it's all happening!"

I love...old sweatshirts.

Want to know what I'm wearing?

A sweatshirt.

Not just any sweatshirt - it's a sweatshirt that I've owned since my freshman year of college. I got it when I went for orientation. It's gray with large letters on the front that read: BGSU. It was my first "I'm in college" clothing item.

This sweatshirt has been with me through a lot. I wore it to class. I wore it when I didn't go to class. I wore it to bed. I wore it on walks. I wore it when I was sick. I wore it inside out and outside in.

Today the sleeve hems are torn, it's faded, there's a slight hand print in white paint on the back of it and small pen marks on the front of it.

Other sweatshirts have come and gone. But this one has managed to make it through all of my moves and my closet cleanouts.

I know there's more to this sweatshirt than the cloth that it's made of. There are the moments that happened when I was wearing it. Like the moment my friend put her painted hand print on the back of it (ahem, moose...), and the moment I accidentally marked it for the first time with pen (...and then marked it a second time).

There's a lot of warmth, a lot of comfort and a lot of memories wrapped up in this old sweatshirt. And now, on a chilly Wedneday night more than 10 years after I first got this sweatshirt, I'm wrapped up in all of that, too. And it feels good, no great, no...it feels sweatshirtastic.

I love...puppy chow.

Here I am, alone in my apartment, and just one room away in the dark it waits for me. It's puppy chow and I want to eat it...all of it.

I'm not talking about dog food, I'm talking about that mix of cereal, peanut butter, chocolate and powdered sugar. You might call it by a different name...but whatever you call it, it's delicious!

Over the past couple months I've found several occasions to make this yumminess. Once for a tailgate, once for a party and tonight I made it to take into work tomorrow for an office potluck.

Making it is the easy part (and it gave me a reason to wear my apron!). The difficult part is trying not to eat it all once I'm done.

I've been able to hold off from eating it all night, but it's getting late and before I go to bed I should probably try some just to make sure it's okay. It's a difficult job, but somebody has to do it. After all, my coworkers are counting on me. So just one bite...well, maybe two.

Have a yummy night!

I love...future Jenny.

In life it's important to take the time to think of someone other than yourself. How do your words affect your friends? How do your actions affect your neighbors? And let's not forget...how do your words and your actions affect your future self?

Or in my case, how do my words and actions affect future Jenny?

Like last summer when I was choosing a popsicle to enjoy. I found I had one grape popsicle and one orange popsicle left in my freezer. Though I preferred the orange over the grape, I went with the grape. Why? Because I knew that in a few days, future Jenny would be happy to have the orange one.

In the past I have bought clothes and not worn them right away. Then one day months later, as I'm looking for something to wear, I notice the perfect unworn top pushed to the back of my closet with the tags still on it...that's right, I had shopped for future Jenny!

Now that I think about it, thinking about future Jenny may be the perfect diet plan. Sure, I may want that piece of cake today, but future Jenny won't be so happy when her pants don't fit tomorrow. A moment on my lips, a lifetime on future Jenny's hips.

So remember, what you do right now will eventually affect your future self. But don't stress out about it, the last thing your future self wants is to have stress lines all over your face.

p.s.: Hi, future Jenny! Don't forget to buy milk...