I know I have been awfully quiet as of late. I'm not even sure if anyone reads anymore. I never lost my desire to write, I just find it hard to let it all spew out when this site is so publicly known (not famous per se but known to friends and family in real life). Plus, as I get older and take on more normal grown up responsibilities, I find it so hard to carve out some time to write.
Read MoreI’ve been rather reflective the past few days, looking through old pictures and writings. I cannot believe another decade has passed! They always say how the years just fly by as you get older and when you’re in your teens and 20s, you can’t even believe it. But here I am, on the downhill slope to thirty and can’t even remember where all the time went.
To start off, I found this meme over at Jenn’s that I figured I’d start out with. I usually try to do one of these each year and can’t believe I missed last year (then again, I had a lot of things going on). So let’s start with this as something to reflect on last year and move into the new one.
1.What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Pay off my car – I have had loans on three cars and this is the first one I ever paid off.
2.Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I’m pretty sure I didn’t make any resolutions because I never do.
3.Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope. We haven’t had too many births in quite awhile, come to think of it.
4.Did anyone close to you die?
Not this year, thank god.
5.What countries did you visit?
None. I travel quite a bit but in the good ol’ United States.
6.What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
More balance in my life and a better financial grip on things. (And maybe a new laptop!)
7.What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
May 25th – the day I paid off my car. June 24th – the day they told me the clots were gone and I was “healed”. June 25th – the day Michael Jackson died. Dec 18th – driving to PA in a blizzard. Mar 17th – the day my boss left and I knew things would change drastically (and I was right).
8.What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Cutting back on my caffeine intake and paying off my car, among other debts that I had.
9.What was your biggest failure?
Jacking my cards back up after paying them off. They cut overtime and I was desperately trying to rework my entire budget.
10.Did you suffer illness or injury?
I was still recovering from the blood clots. And among the various other klutzy injuries, I dropped the slate tile on my toe in June and had to have the nail aspirated.
11.What was the best thing you bought?
My iPhone 3Gs, hands down.
12.Whose behavior merited celebration?
Steve’s, for so many reasons.
13.Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I’d rather keep this to myself.
14.Where did most of your money go?
Bills, as always. And entertainment.
15.What events did you get really, really, really excited about?
Pinks in April, Myrtle Beach in July, Savannah/staycation in August.
16.What song will always remind you of 2009?
If I had to pick based on what I heard over and over, probably a Black Eyed Peas song or “Party in the USA” by Miley or anything by Taylor Swift (which is funny, because last December I was playing her on rotation). But I personally loved “Run This Town” by Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye (barf!) and anything by John Mayer.
17.Compared to this time last year, are you:
i.happier or sadder? Happier.
ii.thinner or fatter? I think I might be a bit thinner.
iii.richer or poorer? Poorer in the long term sense.
18.What do you wish you’d done more of?
Spend quality time with Steve and Sammy and actively pursue some of my hobbies
19.What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worry less about money and the house
20.How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent Christmas is PA with Steve’s family
21.Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Probably my mother, if only because she’s the only one I talk to most (everyone else is text, email or Facebook)
22.Did you fall in love in 2009?
I always fall in love with Steve.
23. How many one-night stands?
Zero.
24. What was your favorite TV program?
Sons of Anarchy. Dexter. Weeds. The Office.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nope, it’s pretty much about the same (I hate very few people)
26. What was the best book you read?
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
27. What was your greatest musical discovery or rediscovery?
John Mayer – I am so late to that party, it’s not even funny.
28. What did you want and get?
An iPhone – thanks baby!
29. What did you want and not get?
Nothing I couldn’t live without.
30. What were your favorite films of this year?
There were SOOOO many – but Star Trek, The Hangover, Transformers, Zombieland, and Avatar were hands down my favorites.
31.What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Steve made me a cake and dinner and surprised me by wrapping the iPod touch he got me into a box of Nutty Bars. We had a quiet night in. I turned 28.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying
Not losing my overtime at work (or at least having them compensate me a bit more after losing it)
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
As always, comfortable and easy. I like soft and loose clothing.
34. What kept you sane?
Steve and my friends.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most/least?
Gerard Butler.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Nothing I’ll speak about. I like to keep those opinions to myself.
37. Whom did you miss?
Our family, the ones who are far away.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
A couple of new friends, who never fail to make me laugh.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Keep calm and carry on. I’m still trying to embrace this one but I need to learn to live by it.
40. Do you have any lost feelings of others.
I don’t quite understand this one.
41.Quote a song that sums up your year:
Life’s a game but it’s not fair
I break the rules so I don’t care
So I keep doin’ my own thing
Walkin’ tall against the rain
Victory’s within the mile
Almost there, don’t give up now
Only thing that’s on my mind
Is who’s gonna run this town tonight
I guess 2009 was a rather low key year for me. Maybe 2010 will be more exciting. Perhaps that should be one of my resolutions!
The holidays are always busy for me and I pretty much bit the ground running from November 1st, when I started planning a surprise party for my mom’s 50th birthday, until like next Sunday when the season will officially be over for me because we still have New Year’s and second Christmas to get through.
As it stands we are wrapping up first Christmas which was spectacular save for the blizzard that hit the East Coast and threw a ginormous monkey wrench into my life (more about that later). As it stands I’m currently typing this entry from my brand new, bitchin’ iPhone 3Gs that my lovely boyfriend, Santa Steve, bestowed upon me. Having been dubbed the LadyPhone by Steve’s brother because of it’s pink and purple case, I don’t remember life without it.
So in a few more days I hope to rewind and recenter and get on some sort of regular posting schedule. For now, I’ll just leave this little meme up as a bittersweet remembrance of the holidays before it’s time to usher in a new year and reflect on an old one (generally a nice way of saying I’m late in wishing everyone a Merry Christmas as always, so hope you had a Happy Christmas and Merry Holidays and all that jazz).
Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate, hands down. Though I’m not a huge fan of it, I hate eggnog. And I have tried quite a few times so I’m not snarling my nose up for the sake of it. It’s just the egg part. Too much egg, not enough nog. But overall, give me a few glasses of Cabernet and I’m a holly, jolly girl.
Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Both. There were a few years he unwrapped and assembled them and a few where everything was wrapped. Steve and I dont have kids so everything is wrapped because it’s from us. But seeing my brothers and nieces stash makes me realize we would probably wrap the boxes. Less time to assemble stuff and night and cutting back on chances of little eyes peeking.
Colored lights on a tree or white? Alternate. Whatever mood I’m in that year, which is why I’d never really buy a pre-lit tree. But I usually lean toward colored inside and white outside.
Do you hang mistletoe? We did when I was little but have t in years. Might have to revive the tradition.
When do you put your decorations up? If were traveling for Christmas we don’t put any up. If were home I have them up as early in December as possible. Only because I’m type-A like that.
What is your favorite holiday dish? Ham. Ham, ham, ham. Love it. Have been eating it all week. That and this broccoli- cheese-Ritz cracker casserole my mom has always made.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? One. It’s usually pajamas, or at least has been the past few years. Love doing that.
How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Random mish mash of sentimental and meaningful ornaments. I don’t do ” theme” trees. I prefer memories.
Snow: love it or hate it? Love the first few hours ofnew fallen snow when the world is quiet and you can almost hear the flakes falling. After this season, do not love driving in it and remembered why I hate it a week later – dirty, black four foot mounds of ice.
Can you ice skate? Hahahahahaha! I can’t even walk most of the time.
What is your favorite holiday dessert? Not the biggest on sweets these days but I’ll rarely turn down a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie.
What is your favorite holiday tradition? The Festival of Lights and visting family.
Candy canes: yum or yuck? Like candy corn, I’ll have enough to satisfy the holiday urges but when I’m done, I’m done.
Favorite Christmas show? Elf. A Christmas Story. And Christmas Vacation. I will watch all three at least five times during the season.
So just like that another holiday season has passed and I’m anxious to move into a new year. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!
Today, I am thankful for flannel pajama pants, a nice soft bed, my laptop, a boyfriend that cooks me dinner and a chill in the air that makes all of that seem more delicious than it sounds.
If I had stuck to my normal Monday evening routine from the past couple of weeks, I’d probably just be winding down from dinner and cleaning the back of the house (bedrooms, bathrooms, hallway). As it is, I’m sitting in my bed in soft flannel pajamas, mindlessly surfing the Internet and writing this post and that’s about all I’ve accomplished tonight. And I don’t feel a bit guilty about it.
The past few weeks have been filled with copious amounts of lists and planning for a surprise party we threw for my mom’s 50th birthday this past Saturday night and since I go into whirlwind type-A geek mode for those things, I was all about the party and, with the exception of my daily and weekly chores, everything else fell to the wayside.
(Seriously, I geeked the hell out for it. I had a clipboard and lists! And I made posters – with glue and cutout letters and facts about 1959 and Hawaii – it was a luau theme – and a collage board of pictures. I cooked food and planned menus and OH EM GEE was it FREAKIN’ FUN but OH SO TIRING! It may be quite awhile before I try to pull of a feat like that again!)
Obviously, since it was a surprise, I couldn’t mention it here on the off chance that my mom stumble over and read about the plans we had in store but it has passed and all went well, for the most part. Surprises are always tricky and it’s amazing how one kink in the schedule can create a domino effect that comes close to pretty much ruining weeks and weeks of planning and trickery.
The lesson learned over the past month or so and with planning this party is that I am much more effective if I take my life one week at a time. I was notorious for overwhelming myself with attempts to plan weeks and months out and I don’t know when or where it clicked that hey, shit happens, no matter how much you plan, something, somewhere is going to change. And hey, it would be much easier if you took it one week at a time and dealt with things as they come.
And gosh darn it, that works!
Granted, I still try to do my meal plans for a few weeks and bigger events certainly get penciled in but, for instance, (and it makes so much sense writing it that I want to smack myself in the head), there is no way I could concentrate on Thanksgiving while I was planning this party. And there is no way I can concentrate on Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. (Although, I do have most of Christmas planned, it’s just getting it done and putting it into effect that I won’t do until after Thanksgiving.) (Also, I’m not even doing much for Thanksgiving but it’s an EVENT so it has to be treated as so in my time line of events and planning.)
AND THANKSGIVING! OMG THANKSGIVING! I don’t know why I’m so excited about it except maybe that I’ve been so busy these past couple of months that a day of gorging on all that deliciousness and collapsing in front of the TV in cozy sweatpants just seems right up my alley now (despite half of that being quite a few weekends this year). I LOVE me some turkey and REAL mashed potatoes (I will eat instant in an emergency but do NOT come near me with them on Thanksgiving!) and stuffing and corn and this broccoli/cauliflower/Ritz cracker casserole my mom makes. And pie. Lots and lots of pie! Dutch apple for me, thanks.
But seriously, normally, Thanksgiving is just a delicious treat in between Halloween (pretty much my favorite) and Christmas (a close second). This year, I didn’t do ANYTHING at home for Halloween. We got dressed up and went to a party at a friends house but I just had no spirit this year and my house was devoid of anything autumn or Halloween, save for a few pumpkin candles here and there. I have yet to even decide if I will decorate for Christmas this year as it seems a bit of a waste when we will be out of town. But we didn’t do much last year because I was sick and the year before we had just moved into the house and were going out of town so we skipped decorations then as well. (Who knows – I can say this now but in a few weeks I’ll be bouncing around here like a freak, still eating leftover turkey and demanding Steve haul out the Christmas decorations.)
But I am excited for Thanksgiving this year. I want food. Delicious, yummy, pants-unbuttoning, falling asleep while watching football, food.
I am also off Wednesday and Friday and will actually be using that to do some side projects that I’ve been wanting to concentrate on. There’s some house stuff and some Internet stuff and some general organization of things. I really want to sit down and make a list of things I’d like to do during the holidays. Like experiences – build a gingerbread house, do the Festival of Lights, stuff like that. So maybe I can get in the Christmas spirit and enjoy the season without feeling like I was rushed through it in nothing but chaos and traveling and clouds of wrapping paper.
I’m hoping to find a clean and pretty layout to put up here with some sort of jQuery featured slider but I haven’t found anything that has overly appealed to me yet. I’m quite finicky though so it’s a neverending quest. But part of the plans are cleanup on all of my projects so I’ll feel super accomplished if I can get those done.
So that’s life in a nutshell. Just humming along as usual here, curiously upbeat and optimistic. I like how I’m managing things now because it makes me feel like I have more time to enjoy life instead of manage it. I just seriously hope I can maintain it. I figure if I can keep it through this busy holiday season, then I pretty much can’t fail afterwards. If not, well, then I’m doomed to live a life of squalor and excess and laziness …..
Hmmm, that doesn’t sound too bad after all! LOL
Hope everyone is having a great week and if you don’t see me before then, have a wonderful and delicious Thanksgiving!
(On a side note and probably TMI but who cares – I feel awful because earlier I told Steve he could join me in my sloth and laziness of lounging in bed because I wanted his company and I guess he incurred that I wanted some “quality time” together and I never reciprocated. And he kind of went back in to play video games with his friends saying “I’ll go play with people who want to hang out with me”. I know he was joking and I know he doesn’t hold a grudge but damn, do I feel awful that it didn’t even OCCUR to me …. am I stupid or just a girl?? Hahaha!)
This past Friday, Steve and I went over to our friends house for dinner and enjoyed a few hours worth of good food, laughter, story-telling and general conversation with some of our favorite people in the world. Eventually, as nothing lasts forever, we had to head home.
We pulled into our driveway and were doing the general end of night chit-chat: “I’m sleepy”, “Sammy needs to go out”, etc. as we headed up the walk to the door. I was in front so I saw it first.
Now, to be clear, I wasn’t quite sure what “it” was because I stopped dead in my tracks and just stared. But I was fairly certain that the long, skinny, furless tail curled around the small white ball of fur meant it was some form of rodent. Whether that type of rodent was mouse (ew!), rat (EW!) or baby possum (HOLY ‘EFFIN EW!) was yet to be determined as all I did was stand there and point in it’s general direction while looking at Steve.
(I’d be really, really effective in a crisis situation! Bear comes walking around a corner. Kristy sees it first and stands and points. Gets eaten by the bear before Steve even realizes what she’s pointing at.)
(Also, this moment was a quintessential depiction of one of mine and Steve’s favorite stand-up bits by Bill Burr where he explains in the simplest, funniest terms that men get paid more an hour because of the role they need to play in a crisis situation. You should give it a watch here and check out anything else by him because he’s hysterical!
As I was saying, I’m standing there like an idiot mute pointing at this tiny ball of white fur (with skeevy long tail! ugh!) while Steve goes over to investigate (YEA HONEY, IT’S A RODENT! AHHH, IT BIT ME! I HAVE RABIES! …. LOL). Of course, I can now follow because Steve is in front of me and he’s a boy and bigger than me and will protect me from whatever threat this ping-ponged size ball thing was posing.
(Gender stereotype enforcer right over here baby!!!)
As I guessed, it’s a rat. And Steve is crouching in front of it, checking it out, determining its intentions or reasoning or just generally getting all 12-year-old boy and being like “COOL!!”. I start to feel bad for the poor thing at this point because it’s huddled in a tiny ball in the corner right near my front door and looks terrified. Not like bite you, defensive terrified, but cold and hungry and just generally exhausted. It even allowed Steve to pet it briefly.
We both were pretty sure it wasn’t wild because it was all white with red eyes, which indicated it was an albino rat. While white rats are uncommon wild, we were pretty certain albino rats are rare, used more for feeder, lab or pets.
We go into the house, taking precaution to scoot in quickly so as to not let the rat in and not let Sammy out. This has become a situation of sorts and Steve decides it’s hungry, so he grabs some bread from the refrigerator and heads back outside. I follow.
He breaks the bread into pieces and drops it on the ground and the rat turns around at the noise but doesn’t eat the bread, just continues to sit in a shivering ball. We discuss whether it’s blind, where we think it came from, what were we going to do with it.
Call us bleeding hearts but the poor thing was cute and scared and this tiny ball of fur (except the tail. I couldn’t think about the tail) so we decided to get it inside and figure out what to do with it from there. (Also, we have a neighborhood cat that hangs out everywhere – including under OUR cars, on OUR porch, THANKS KITTY – so we’re pretty sure if we left him out, he would become Marshall’s dinner)
NOTE: We are insane!
I had one rule and that was we couldn’t keep him IN the house. The garage was ok because I pretty much ignore the fact that I’m sure there are other creepy crawlers in there. But inside was a no-no. Partly because what if, god forbid, he escaped and, even more god forbid, Sammy got a hold of him. Then I’d live in creeped out fear of waking up to a rat crawling on me in bed or finding it dead somewhere in the house, preferably not underneath Sammy’s grinning, panting, excited jowls! (Because that’s my job, MAMA! TO PROTECT YOU FROM THE RODENT SCUM!)
Steve searches high and low in the garage for something that could contain the thing, which was infinitely harder than you’d imagine as it couldn’t be cardboard (chew through), couldn’t have holes in the sides (climb up) and needed to be deep enough to keep it from climbing out. We settled on an old plastic garbage can.
Steve put on a pair of work gloves and I put a towel at the bottom of the can and we went out to commence Operation: Rat Catcher which really wasn’t all that hard since it involved Steve scooping the little guy up and depositing him in the can and me walking into the house towards the garage with it held like four feet in front of me and Sammy trailing my heels.
(WHAT?! It’s cute one minute, creepy the next, then cute again! I’M A GIRL WHEN I WANNA BE!)
The next day, Steve had to go to work so I got to rat-sit. I leaped out of bed at 7 when I heard Steve going in to check on it (curiosity killed the cat, eh?) and found him in there staring into garbage can. When I peeked inside, the poor thing was devouring a baby carrot. Steve tells me it’s my responsibility to check on him throughout the day and he would go to PetSmart on the way home and see about getting him a habitat or some better accommodations than a garbage can.
So YAY for that!
But it wasn’t a big deal. I eventually took the poor thing out of the tiny garbage can and put him into a much wider storage bin with more towels (wearing gloves as we were both being extra cautious handling him – washing hands when we petted, wearing gloves to move him). I gave him a few bits of dog food and another carrot and even put a toiler paper roll for it to chew and a brown lunch bag for it to hide in. I would check on it every few hours.
I wasn’t getting attached by any means, I just wanted it to be comfortable, per se!
Eventually, I got a bit perturbed as the day wore on and the thing got curious and restless. It would let us pet it but it nibbled, like a tasting nibble, on everything, including us. It also started trying to jump out of the bin. I caught it standing on the lunch bag to get height and then trying to jump to the other side of edge of the bin. At that point, I put the lid on enough to keep it from getting out but still allowing it to breathe and waited until Steve got home.
He arrived with a hamster starter kit and we set up shop for the little guy. He LOVED it! In no time, he had the bedding and the paper towels we used to line the cage all set up as a little nest. He had a little area where he ate his food. He was climbing all over the inside of the cage like he was Spiderman.
Now we had to figure out what to do with him. As the day had passed, I was fairly certain I didn’t want to keep him. For the reasons listed above and the fact we already have Sammy and the bearded dragon. And the fact that anytime Sammy was near the cage, he was FREAKING THE ‘EFF OUT, whining, trying to chomp at the bars, sniffing the rat. Plus, it was a rat and while some think they are cute and cuddly, I found him only cute and slightly tolerable as long as he was in his cage.
I think Steve kind of wanted to keep him because he had talked about having a rat before. From what I read, they are clean, curious animals and make good pets. And Steve never had the novelty of gerbils or hamsters like I did so it was cute seeing him watch the rat in the cage and saying “Get in the wheel! Get in the wheel! Do it! Do it!” because he wanted to see him run in the wheel. But I think ultimately, we both realized it wasn’t a good idea to keep him.
But we didn’t know how to get rid of him. Steve was fairly certain he came from our neighbors across the street because he had seen a reptile light on in their house and was pretty sure this little was supposed to be or had been, at one point, food. And we knew that ultimately, that’s what he probably was – food. So we didn’t want to drop him on Craigslist because people would scoop him up for dinner for one of their reptiles. We didn’t think the SPCA would take him or value his life enough to keep him and find a home. And we didn’t know too many people who would want a rat as a pet.
But we knew ONE! And that was all it took. One of the girls in our group, as it turns out, had always wanted a pet rat and as soon as another friend passed along the word that we were looking to get rid of one, she jumped on the chance.
They came over to pick him up last night. He acquainted himself by nipping at them (or biting, whatever you want to call it!) and she left with a new pet. And now we can at least feel better about rescuing the poor guy and making sure he lives and long and happy life somewhere other than in a snake’s stomach.
So again, we are insane but I feel much better knowing we did what we could without having to keep him. And that we did it so quickly, because any longer, and we would have had a new pet – by the name of Snowball. That’s what Steve had named him!
Thank god for friends!!!!
