Tomorrow Is Another Day...

A Resolution Revolution

2012 got off to something of a rocky start.  I was lucky enough to book an amazing babysitting job for a family vacationing on Sullivan's Island, so I spent all of last week playing on the beach and strolling around the island with an adorable 2-year-old all while being paid what I found to be an obscene amount of money considering about 1/3 of my hours involved reading on the sofa while the kids were sleeping.  So, that part was good.

Unfortunately, by the time the 31st rolled around, my immune system decided to take a vacation, and shortly after the parents left and the kids were in bed, I found myself shivering on the couch, every blanket in the house piled over my aching body, completely unable to focus on my book I was so wrapped in sickly misery.  The parents finally returned home at 12:45 and I was released back into the wild, but before I was a mile down the road, I got pulled over for my license plate holder light being out.  This was surprising due to the fact that 1) I had no idea there was such a thing as a license plate holder light and 2) well, no, that's about it.  Fortunately, I got busted by a kindly cop who merely gave me a warning ticket before I could continue on my merry way.  

I immediately deposited my 101.2 degree body in bed beneath a fleecy robe, a sheet, a blanket, and my down comforter.  Then spent the rest of the night drowning in sweat while I shivered ceaselessly until morning.  As of today, my fever has vanished, but I'm left with a barking cough and a phone sex operator voice.  Happy New Year.  

I've decided not to make any resolutions for 2012.  I think I'll have plenty of stress and pressure between trying to make a baby, moving to a new country, and completing what I can of my 30 Before 30 list.  Anyway, resolutions in review:

Resolution #1:  Create a monthly housekeeping chores chart.
I managed to keep up with this pretty well throughout the year.  I got away from actually referring to the chart on a daily basis, but I kept up with most of my chores from day to day and rarely let the clutter and mess of the house get away from me.  I'm calling this one a win and plan to keep up with it. 

Resolution #2: Complete half of my 30 Before 30 List.
I got pretty close on this one.  Some of my items are partially completed, some I've had to accept just won't happen by December 20th of this year.  Life has changed a lot since I made this list a year and a half ago.  Some of the things I thought I wanted to do turned out to be not so important, and others have proved far more difficult than I ever expected--who knew having a baby would be the most expensive and difficult item on the list!  Anyway, I'm still working at it, but I've had to adjust my expectations about finishing it by my 30th birthday.

Resolution #3: Read 50 books.
This was a definite success.  I wanted to make an effort to spend more of my free time getting back to my first love of reading and less time parked in front of the television.  I read 59 books in 2011, and so many of them were amazing that it's going to be hard to pare it down for my top recommendations.

2011 In The Rear View Mirror

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Visited France, Germany and Austria; ran a 10K; fertility testing

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I came pretty close to keeping them, and I can honestly say that I actively worked on them throughout the year.  I'll write a whole post about resolutions at the top of the new year.  Not sure if I'll make new ones. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes.  Many, many good friends had beautiful babies this year. 

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No. 

5. What countries did you visit?
See above!  France, Germany and Austria. 

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you didn’t have in 2011?
I probably don't need to even tell you this, but a baby would be rather nice. 

7. What dates from 2011 will be etched upon your memory, and why?
I don't really have great recall for dates, but events that will be forever etched in my memory are finding out that both Colby and I are saddled with infertility and learning that we will be making our home in Germany for a couple of years.

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year?
I think maintaining my sanity and a shred of grace while dealing with infertility.  There have been so many times where it would have been so much easier to NOT bite my tongue when someone made an (probably unintentional) insensitive comment. 

9. What was your biggest failure?
I had big plans to work on my novel, and I haven't even opened the word doc once.  I think about it constantly, but I haven't made myself sit down and write.  I make time for blogging, why is this so hard for me? 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had surgery to remove a uterine polyp. 

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My new iPhone.  It has changed my life.  And Angry Birds.  Same. 

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Colby.  Seriously, that guy rocks.  He has made me laugh when I wanted to cry, let me cry when I just needed to get it out, and been my rock this year.  It makes me all verklempt just thinking about him.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Personally, nasty anonymous blog commenters.  In a more universal sense, just about every political leader in the world. 

14. Where did most of your money go?
To Europe.  I thought we would have single-handedly ensured the success of the Euro.  Maybe once we live there full time we'll be able to turn things around. 

15. What did you get really excited about?
Travel.  I got to have some really fun adventures this year, from the Magic Kingdom and Wizarding World of Harry Potter, to the Bean in Chicago, to cheering on the LSU Tigers at good old Rocky Top, to the top of the Eiffel Tower. 

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Adele, Rolling in the Deep 

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Strangely enough, probably happier, but only because of the events of the past month.
b) thinner or fatter? Neither, but probably in better shape.
c) richer or poorer? Poorer.  And soon to be even more so.  Hope our fertility doctor at least gets a boat out of this.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Other than writing more, I feel like I did a pretty good job of finding balance this year.  I make time for friends, work, exercise, keeping the house up--I'm actually pretty impressed with myself!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Crying  and/or feeling sorry for myself.  Turns out, it doesn't actually solve anything! 

20. How will you spend Christmas?
I spent it with my mom, dad, and sister at home in Baton Rouge.  It was perfect. 

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Not with anyone new, but as I mentioned, I gained a new appreciation for my relationship with Colby and I feel like we grew even closer despite the obstacles. 

22. What was your favorite TV program?
A lot of shows this year started out good then wen rapidly downhill... I think my favorites are probably New Girl, Modern Family and Once Upon a Time. 

23. What was the best book you read?
I read a lot of good books this year, but my favorite and the best written was Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken.  Nonfiction, that's a surprise! 

24. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Um, I finally got around to noticing Adele!  I'm kind of slow in cottoning to "new" music. 

25. What did you want and get?
A new iPhone, glorious, magical thing!  And an assignment to Germany!

26. What did you want and not get?
A new computer, a baby.  Very different levels of disappointment.

27. What was your favorite film of 2011?
I can never remember what movies I've seen over the year... Did the last Harry Potter come out this year?  If so, that one! 

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 29 on December 20, and I went to dinner at Le Creole in Baton Rouge with my inlaws, parents, and some friends.  It was a wonderful celebration. 

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I feel like a broken record, but a baby would have been quite nice. 

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2011?
I think I've finally filled my closet with clothes that I actually enjoy wearing and feel good in.  I don't think I really fall into any specific category, but the closest would probably just be classic.  I follow a few trends (jeggings anyone?) but only the ones I like and think flatter my body type.  All in all, I tend to avoid flash in the pan fashions and stick with clothes that I can wear year after year. 

31. What kept you sane?
Can I say cheap red wine without sounding like an alcoholic? 

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
I'm constantly stirred by political issues... probably mainly the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, gay rights, and the economy. 

33. Who did you miss?
I spent an awful lot of the year missing Colby.  And my family.  And my friends around the country.  I spend a lot of time missing people. 

34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Life doesn't always go your way, but as long as it keeps going you're doing okay. 

35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

My Heart Is Going Pitter Patter

Oh, what a spectacular two weeks it has been.  My world has been completely turned upside down, but so far in only the best ways.

I would be lying my butt off if I said I wasn't the least bit nervous or anxious about moving to Germany, but so far any negative feelings have been completely trumped by my excitement.  I can hear the happiness in Colby's voice when he talks about it too, and it's so good for us to finally have something amazing to look forward to and help pull us out of the slump that we've fallen into this year.  I've already been hitting the German phrase books and (probably annoyingly) been dropping random German words and phrases into conversation.  I've been pestering friends with multitudes of questions and have justified the purchase of a few new items based on the fact that I will TOTALLY need new winter clothes for Germany!

On top of that, we found out that Colby will be coming home soon.  I can't say exactly when, but when I tell you soon, I mean SOON.  As in I just placed a call to our IVF coordinator so that we can start figuring out when we'll fit in our procedure between January and March!  SOON!!

I've been wandering through the house all morning thinking about how we'll stage it to sell, what items will come with us and what will go into storage, and all of the organizational projects I have in front of me to make this move as painless as possible.

And then, even in the midst of all the craziness, I made myself relax and enjoy a lovely Christmas at home with my family.  In past years it has become an all too rare incident for all of us to be sitting around the tree on Christmas morning, so I try not to take any of it for granted, and as fantastic as all of my gifts were, I spent most of my effort on imprinting memories into my brain and enjoying our time together.

Of course, I'm also another year older since the last time we met here in blogland.  On December 20th, my life calendar rolled over from 28 to 29 and I am now staring boldly down the barrel of 30.  And you know?  I'm not the least bit worried about it.

2011 has been a rocky year, at best.  There have been countless good moments for which I am truly grateful, but overall, I'm not sorry to be saying goodbye to this year.  2012 will bring with it so many adventures and dreams come true, that I can't help but look forward to it with hope and great expectations.  A new country, a new home, new friends, a new decade of life.  Bring it on 2012.  I'm ready for you!

Thanksgiving in Review

Such a good week I've had!  Things have been busy, busy, busy and I feel like I could nap until the end of time.  My parents got in on Monday evening, and Tuesday I did a little babysitting then came home in time for Thanksgiving grocery shopping then happy hour and dinner.  Wednesday we kicked off the Thanksgiving cooking and baking extravaganza, then went out to dinner and saw the Charleston Jazz Orchestra's Holiday Swing, one of my newest and most favorite Christmas traditions.

We got a ton of prep done on Wednesday, so on Thanksgiving morning we had a little time to relax before we got back to the kitchen.  I was hosting at my house, and my friends brought some sides, but we were in charge of the turkey, desserts, appetizers, drinks, and when one of my friends got sick and couldn't make it, we also inherited the stuffing.  We were frying the turkey, so we made a rub and injection and put my dad in charge of turkey operations.  Dessert consisted of these absolutely incredible S'mores Cookie Bars (thanks, Pinterest!) and Martha Stewart's Triple Chocolate Pumpkin pie.
Our fried turkey turned out absolutely SUBLIME.  It was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside and SO flavorful.  We had a very minor mishap when dunking the bird into the bubbling oil--because there was still so much of the injection retained, there was a bit of a liquid/oil overflow leaving my driveway with forever memories of a wonderful holiday.  We also had a lot of fun seeing Thanksgiving through new eyes as one of my friends who joined us is from Australia, so needed the full history lesson to fully understand why Americans gorge themselves on turkey and pumpkin pie annually.

With Thanksgiving behind us, I enjoyed a wonderful weekend with my parents, relaxing and recovering from the holiday prep, watching LSU beat Arkansas in the Battle for the Boot, fitting in a bit of tourism with a visit to the Hunley, and taking care of the turkey leftovers by making a delicious turkey, sausage, gumbo!  It made a vat big enough to feed an army, so we ate what we could, put some in the refrigerator, then froze about a third of it for when Colby comes home.

Now they're off in Disney World and I'm back to real life for a week, working, running errands that fell by the wayside, and resting up for their return on Friday evening!  They'll be here for the week so that they can bring me to my hysteroscopy on the 7th and then monitor me for the next day to make sure I don't have any nasty reactions to the anesthesia.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving (if you reside in the States, that is!).  Anyone else host at their house?  Did you go home for the holiday?  Can't wait to catch up on all of your holiday adventures :)  And now, ONTO CHRISTMAS!!!

Ups and Downs: The I'm Still Here Edition!

Down: Clearly I abandoned NaBloPoMo.  I was all excited to participate, because when I did it a few years ago, I found lots of fun blogs and got some extra readers round these parts.  Sadly, this time it just feels incredibly impersonal, and I've had all of ONE hit from the extensive list of over 2000 participants.  I've also been feeling like blogging has been a "job" and I always promised myself that I'd never allow that to happen.  Blogging should be footloose and fancy free.  Unless someone starts paying me.  Anyone?  Bueller?
Up: That doesn't mean I've given up blogging altogether, just that I shan't be clogging up your Reader/Facebook/Twitter feed every bloody day.  I think we can all toast to that!

Down: Colby and I have had really rotten luck with the phones since he deployed.  He's been gone for just over three weeks now, and we've only managed to have one successful phone conversation.
Up: At least we got one phone call!  I try to remember how lucky we are to have all of the methods of communication that we do have available to us, and how much harder it would have been in the days of only being able to write a letter to the last known address and hoping it got there.  We got to talk for about 30 minutes on Wednesday, and it was glorious!  Here's hoping the internet continues to cooperate and we can do that again before another 3 weeks goes by.

Down: I've been so busy, I've really been letting the house go instead of sticking to my daily housekeeping chores.  I had some time to get things together today, but I've got a ways to go before my parents get in town on Monday.
Up: I've been so busy!  And my parents will be here in three days!  It really is amazing how much faster the time goes by when I'm not sitting around feeling sorry for myself.  Instead, I've been babysitting almost every day, spending time with friends, squeezing in lots of runs, and working on my Thanksgiving and Christmas to-do lists--I even made room in the budget (because I bought the tickets a month ago before there WAS a budget) to go see the national tour of In The Heights.  It made me wish I was a super sexy Latina!

Only Up!: Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm SO excited to be hosting the big dinner at my house next week!  My parents will be in town and a few of my "single spouse" friends will be coming over with their kids to help us celebrate and feast!  I'll be talking more about my Turkey Day plans next week, but for now I need to hit the road for a seven mile run (hold me) and gear up for a working weekend.  Hasta luego mis amigos!

It's Not Like They Make Thanksgiving Music

And don't go throwing Turkey In The Straw in my face.  That doesn't count.  

It's been hard to find reasons to smile over the past few weeks, but every time I crank up my iTunes Christmas playlist I instantly feel more peaceful and content.  It's like musical Zoloft.  And given that I have about 15 hours of Christmas tunes, I have to get started early if I want to be properly satisfied by the end of the holiday season.

Making me grin even wider each time I click play are these recent additions to my library.
I've been listening to these two albums on repeat, and I'm completely smitten.  Michael Buble's take on Christmas is chock full of instant classics and grand, sweeping instrumentals that perfectly complement his silky smooth vocals.  Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, on the other hand, are much more stripped down and quirky, and their Christmas carols are so different from anything else I've heard.

I'm also excited for the release of Glee's second Christmas album in the middle of this month, and thanks to AOL, I was able to spend my afternoon caroling with the New Directions... and I guess the Trouble Tones.

I know it's a bit early yet for most people to be breaking out the Christmas tunes, but to help me prepare for the upcoming season, what is your favorite Christmas album?  There's a pretty good chance I already have it, but I'm always on the hunt for new additions to my collection!

Thankful Thursday

I'm dusting off the old Thankful Thursday posts and reusing the idea this November.  Last year I said:

Then, it struck me.  I am the only one who can choose my attitude.  I can choose to sit back and let my annoyance overtake me, complain about my problems, have a miserable week, and rely on someone else to bring me happiness.  Or I can dust myself off, acknowledge my sadness, and also acknowledge how much GOOD there is in my life every single day, enjoying each day for what it brings me rather than being angry because of what it does not.

 I needed that reminder more than ever this week, and in my very first Thankful Thursday of the year, I want to give thanks for the people who made my life possible.  My parents.

I am so lucky to have such supportive parents.  I have never, ever in my life had to wonder if they would be there for me when I needed them, and even better, they've always been there even when I didn't realize just how much I needed them.

There are so many examples of this, but just this month, they'll be coming to my house for the week of Thanksgiving, and then, because timing didn't work out for my procedure to be done while they are here, they're coming back one week later, so that I won't have to be alone at my house following my anesthesia.  Then, to help me save money and make it possible to visit my best friend and my sister in January and February, they're letting me leave my dogs at their house while I'm home for Christmas, and then my parents are coming BACK to Charleston in February so that my mom can come up to visit my sister in NYC with me while my dad grandpuppysits.

I didn't even have to ask for that--they just offered.

We don't always see eye to eye, and we are different in so many ways, but when it comes right down to it, they are two of the most supportive people in my life, and they have always been my rock.  And for that, I am more grateful than words can say!

This Is Halloween... Wait... No...

Oh my God... HOW IS IT NOVEMBER?????  I can't even deal with this year.  Obviously, I hope the next four months go by quickly, but at the same time, I feel like time is already whizzing by so quickly that if it goes into even more of a warp mode I'm going to be a dried up old hag tomorrow.  (No jokes please, I know I left that one wide open.)

Anyway.

Yesterday WAS Halloween, and I got dressed up and went trick or treating with Pauly D, Obi Wan Kenobi, a Lily Cat, and a VT Lion.  It was... pretty cool.  There were a few other adults wondering around the shopping center in costume, so I didn't look like a total loon.  My favorite family costumes were the Angry Birds (kid was the red one, mom was the blue shotgun one, and dad was the black bomb) and the Wizard of Oz (mom was the Wicked Witch, dad was the Tin Man, kids were Dorothy and the Scarecrow).  It was a great time, and as always, I drove home thinking about what I would be next year--I've already got a couple of ideas!

Honestly, I really dislike Halloween in general--I don't like the decorations (Most of them are gross and only loosely Halloween related--a crime scene?  Really?  Uh, Happy Halloween??), the music is kind of stupid, I don't like opening my door to randos to pass out candy--but it's all worth it in the end, because I LOVE dressing up.

Anyway, another holiday is checked off the list, and I guess I can admit to my blog family that I have been listening to Christmas music since this weekend.  I usually wait until November 1st to crank up the holiday tunes, but this year, I decided to give myself a special treat and get started early.  I can also admit that I signed up for NaBloPoMo!  I haven't done this for a few years, so I'm looking forward to the challenge of posting EVERY BLESSED DAY this month, and hope you won't get too sick of me.

Did you dress up for Halloween?  Any other NaBloPoMoers out there?

Off To A Good Start

I decided to begin this deployment as I mean to go on.  No... not crying alone in my car.  Not inhaling an entire carton of Pringles and a bag of Twizzlers in one sitting...  Maybe let's just not actually take Thursday into account at all.  But from Friday on, I was bound and determined to have a Good Weekend.

I kicked things off on Friday evening with a girls' night at a friend's house.  We ate tons of junk food, played corn hole in the dark (I still don't fully grasp that game), watched YouTube videos, and generally just helped take each others' minds off the fresh absence of our husbands.  I had intended to spend the night, but around 2 in the morning, I felt an overwhelming wave of homesickness and just wanted to be at my house.  Fortunately, I didn't have to call my mom to come pick me up--being 28 is SO much better than being six!

Saturday, I got the house in order, went for a four mile run, and made a sizeable dent in our DVR backlog.  Then, yesterday, I tried out Barsa, a tapas restaurant downtown, with a friend.  We've both been facing a lot of the same obstacles over this past year, so it's always nice to hang out and know that the other person just "gets it".  Also, the drinks and food were delicious!  I was thrilled to see "Pisco Disco" on the cocktail menu.  When I had my bachelorette weekend in New York many moons ago, we went to a swanky club where we ordered and subsequently fell in love with, Pisco Punch.  It's not a liquor I see on a menu often, but when I do I always try it out and bask in the fond memories.

I also uploaded a profile to a couple of babysitting sites, and have even booked a couple of jobs with a friend!  I'm really focused on trying to make some money over this deployment to put toward our Baby Buying Fund, and I like that with babysitting I can still retain some flexibility and make about the same hourly wage (if not more, which is pretty sad) than I would in many local office and childcare jobs.  Hopefully the jobs start trickling in soon.

This upcoming week is also pretty full, and I'm looking forward to brushing off the Alice in Wonderland costume for some Trick or Treating at the Outlets this afternoon!  Happy Halloween!!

Wamp Wamp Weekend

Well, I tried to go into someone's house yesterday to claim it as my own, but everyone has ADT signs outside.  I didn't feel like getting the police involved in my attempted imperialism.  Also, it rained all day and I didn't want to tromp mud into someone's house.

Anyway, this wasn't the worst weekend ever, but I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty pathetic.  Colby has been working his butt off to finish his Masters program, and this semester he's taking two pretty intense classes.  So, his weekend was spent with his nose in a book trying to work out complicated accounting problems in preparation for his midterm tomorrow.  I'd hoped we'd be able to have a little bit of fun around the city since this is our last weekend in Charleston before his deployment, but alas, studies come first.

I did manage to shoehorn a little bit of fun into my weekend spent mainly either in front of the tv or behind a book.  Friday night, I spent my evening surrounded by jewels at a Lia Sophia party.  I went in promising myself I wouldn't spend much, and ended up with a sparkly necklace and two pairs of earrings.  But really, I SAVED so much money!

Saturday, I went for an absolutely glorious four mile run in the neighborhood.  Charleston is currently in the midst of one of the two or three months out of the year where it is quite enjoyable to run outside, and I've been taking full advantage.  It was my first time back up to the four mile mark since we got back from our vacation, and I saw a definite improvement in my pace from the last time I ran it.  I'm still slow as molasses, but more like warm molasses as opposed to cold.

Sunday, I dragged Colby out for a date night at a new (to us) pizza place before he buried himself back in schoolwork.  Then Monday rolled around, rainy, grey and uneventful.  The lazy weekend caught up with me last night, and I was wide awake until about 3:30 in the morning.  Of course, I did nothing to stop the vicious cycle by staying in bed until (cough, mumble, cough) 11 o'clock (cough) this morning.  But tonight, I'm hitting up the melatonin early.  I may not be able to conquer entire inhabited continents through the use of flags and deadly disease, but sleep?  Sleep I WILL conquer!

Happy Columbus Day!

via

Six

No guest post today, I'm traveling into the future once again to celebrate my sixth blogoversary with you!

Six years ago today was just like any other day.  I went to work, spent way too much time putzing around on the internet instead of proofreading performance reports, came home, ate dinner, and turned on the television.  Maybe there was nothing on, maybe I got bored with whatever I was watching, but for some reason, that was the night.  I opened my laptop, pulled up Typepad.com, created a username and password, and in minutes a blog was born.

A lot of things have changed since that night.  Colby and I broke up, I dated other people, we got back together, we got married, we started trying to have a baby.  I was a lieutenant in the Air Force, I separated from active duty, found a job working as the office manager for a marketing firm, moved on to working as a child care assistant, was promoted to child care site leader, went back to school, got my Masters in elementary education, realized that was a really dumb move, still really enjoyed my classes.  I had recently moved from Louisiana to Arkansas, then I moved to Washington, now we're in South Carolina.  I had two gerbils, then a dog, then another dog, then the gerbils died--the dogs are still alive.  Blogging wasn't cool, I told only a few people that I'd started a "personal website", most people gave me the side eye, my parents thought it was pretty cool, then people started to know what I meant when I said I had a blog, I got fewer side-eyes, now everyone has a blog and celebrities show up at BlogHer.

I've changed, the internet has changed, the world has changed, and it's all been documented here for posterity.  The one thing that hasn't changed is how strongly I feel about the name that I chose for this site.  It was something of a whim--I've loved Gone with the Wind since I was 12-years-old, and "Tomorrow is another day" has always been the quote that meant the most to me from the book and movie.  Then I heard the quote that is in my header, and the phrase held even more meaning to me.

I've had a lot of good times over the past six years, and a lot of bad times as well.  The one thing that has gotten me through those more difficult times is knowing that someday I would get through it, that I would come out on the other side a stronger, more experienced, better person.  That tomorrow really is another day, and so far nothing has ever happened to take those tomorrows away from me.  Today might be shitty, but the hope that tomorrow will be better--or at the very least just tomorrow--has always encouraged me.

I often wonder how long I'll keep this website alive.  It's hard to imagine my life without it, though there have certainly been times when I've considered throwing in the towel.  I don't know if I'll be blogging forever, but I do know that I'll always have all of these years worth of todays and yesterdays transcribed and immortalized for all of my tomorrows.  And I cannot wait to see what my tomorrows bring me.

I'm Baaaaaack!

Not that I actually went anywhere, but we were without internet for much of the weekend and blogging on my iPhone is about my least favorite thing in the world.  However, all is well now as our connection is faster than ever and I talked down our monthly bill through the cunning use of whining.  Huzzah!

It ended up being a splendiferous weekend, though it was certainly touch and go there for a couple of days.  While I was so thrilled that Colby was supposed to be home for two weeks between his spate of trips, the Air Force was doing everything in its power to ruin things.  First, they were going to send him on a five day trip over the weekend.  We were bummed about that, but as soon as we'd accepted it, the schedulers realized that they'd made an error on the length of the trip and Colby wouldn't get back from it in time to leave on his next trip.  So yay!  We had our weekend back!  Then we got the call that Colby would have to stay on base starting on Friday through the weekend until Wednesday.  Much anger and frustration was called forth, the schedulers must have realized they needed to find another pilot to abuse before they lost their go-to guy.  And with that, we decided to run off to Myrtle Beach for the day before they changed their minds again.

Myrtle Beach was... interesting.  We entered the town through a street ornamented wih such entertainment options as The Pink Pussycat (formerly The Bunny Ranch), an assortment of adult oriented shops, and various other "Girls! Girls! Girls!" themed storefronts.  So we were a little leary from the get go, then driving down the main drag we got the feeling that everything needed to be hosed down with chlorine and given a fresh coat of paint.  I've heard that the area a bit north from the main street along the beach is nicer, but we were surrounded by a sea of airbrush t-shirt stalls, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and a surprising variety of pancake houses... and the actual sea.  It was a fun day trip, but we were very happy to return to our own less spring break geared beaches.

On Saturday, we spent the morning with our pal, the Comcast guy, working on repairing our internet, then headed over to a friend's house for her 2-year-old's birthday party. It included pizza, a butter yellow cake with chocolate frosting and watching little kids whaling on a pinata, a few of my favorite things.  Sunday we laid low and saved up our energy for 4th of July excitement, and Monday we scooted over to Sullivan's Island for a beach day with some friends.

We ate at Dunleavy's Pub, which had a wide selection of seafood, pub food, and "American fare" like hot dogs, hamburgers, and grilled cheese.  It was definitely a candidate for a return visit in the future.  Once I'd tucked away a chili cheese slaw dog and a couple of hard ciders, we headed down to the beach.  I loved that there was a deep tide pool that we could swim around in and cross to reach a sandbar that led to the open ocean on the other side.  I deluded myself into feeling much safer in the tide pool because only really small sharks could be swimming around in there looking for feet to chew on.  Once we were thoroughly baked, we came back home where we curled up for some Twilight Zone action and watched the amazing fireworks show put on by our neighbors.

It was really the perfect weekend with a very carefully balanced amount of fun and excitement and chilling at home, and I am so, so, so grateful that Colby was able to be home to enjoy it with me.  I hope all of you Yanks had an amazing holiday weekend, and for the rest of you I hope your 4th of July was just as swell as any other Monday!

I Resolve to Stay Resolved

Oh January.  A month of such optimism.  A month when the entire world stands united in our efforts to get fit, get thin, eat better, improve our minds... before the inevitable crash back to reality in February.  When we remember how much we love pizza and how much running truly does suck.  I've almost come to find New Year's Resolutions ridiculous, but there's still a part of me that enjoys the idea of a challenge and a fresh start.

So yes, I have some resolutions.  Though none of them involve food or exercise.  That's just setting myself up for failure.

Resolution #1:  Create a monthly housekeeping chores chart.
I do a fairly good job of keeping the downstairs of our house clean and organized, but the upstairs is a depository of vast amounts of random crap.  I also find that I do all of my cleaning in marathon sessions that leave me grumpy and frustrated.  So, I'm working on making a chart that breaks chores down by week and month and divvies them up so that I'm doing just a little bit every day.  We'll see how this goes.

Resolution #2: Complete half of my 30 Before 30 List.
I need to update the list with some of the things I've already finished.  In an effort to knock the two writing items off of the list, I'm instituting a one hour per day writing rule.  I'm finished with school, so I'll just devote the time that otherwise would have been spent reading textbooks or writing papers to working on my books or short stories.

Resolution #3: Read 50 books.
I thought about aiming for 100 books, but after reviewing the sheer length of many of the books I have on my list to read (many of them over 1000 pages), I've decided 50 is a much more reasonable challenge!

Do you have any resolutions for 2011?

Obligatory Holiday Round-Up

I kind of dropped off of the blogging radar there for a little while, yeah?  I've been constantly composing posts in my head over the past month and have written exactly... one of them.  So how will you ever know what exciting events I was up to over the holiday season?  How will you sleep at night not knowing EXACTLY how my Thanksgiving turned out or how many cookies I managed to eat over the Christmas weekend?

Obviously I can't leave you with these burning desires to know more about my holiday, but I can't bring myself to bore entertain you with a play-by-play of each holiday festivity.  So, that old lazy blogger stand-by comes into play: the photo post.

Thanksgiving

Cardinal rule of Southern cooking: If you can eat it, you can fry it.
If you think that's a lot of calories, you should have seen dessert.

Christmas

Three out of three individuals in this photo assisted in decorating the tree.  Some efforts were more appreciated than others.

Classing things up at the Charleston Jazz Orchestra's Holiday Swing.

The true meaning of Christmas?  Astronomically high electricity bills and s'mores.
(James Island Festival of Lights)

Thank you Charleston, for allowing me sweater dress temperatures on Christmas Eve, then jumping back into the 60s for the duration of winter.
(Dinner at Blossom)


My favorite part of Christmas is engaging in the annual rituals of pet torment.

Well, that and cookies.

A Southern Thanksgiving

Yesterday, all of my Washington based pals were in a tizzy over the snow and cold temperatures that hit the Pacific Northwest.  I was able to comfortably leave my house in boots, leggings and a short sleeve knit cotton dress.  South Carolina, you win, cher.

I'm so much happier not waking up 3 1/2 hours before school starts, seeing the ice paving the streets, checking the emergency bulletins to see if school is delayed or cancelled for the day, grumbling when it's not, making the treacherous drive to school, only to get a call as soon as I unlock the door that I can stay home because of the two hour delay, then getting angry calls from parents because they still have to go to work that morning.  I'm much more of a "eat Thanksgiving dinner, then spend a few hours in the hot tub or running around outside in my shorts" kind of girl.

We're excited about celebrating another Thanksgiving with friends where we'll fry up a turkey Southern style and each bring some of our favorite dishes.  I'll be whipping up some fancy mashed potatoes, a pumpkin-chocolate trifle, and the turkey rub and marinade injection.  There will also be dressing, green bean casserole, rolls, an assortment of mini desserts made by a real life pastry chef AND MORE!!!  My mouth is watering already...

My mashed potatoes got pretty rave reviews when I brought them to a Thanksgiving dinner last year, so I thought I'd share them with you.  Last go round I tried to cut back on the calories by using low fat options when I could, but I think this year I'm going to splurge and go full fat all the way--make Paula proud!!

Paula Deen's Loaded Mashed Potatoes

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 45 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 8 (Yeah, if you're a family of GIANTS.  I'd say more like 12 generous servings.)

 Ingredients

- 2 heads garlic
- 6 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled and quartered
- Salt
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 C butter
- 12 oz sour cream
- 8 oz sharp white Cheddar, grated (I used yellow sharp cheddar)
- 1 1/2 pounds cooked bacon, julienned 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut tops off 2 garlic heads. Wrap in foil and roast for 30 minutes. Allow them to cool then remove the flesh from the garlic heads and set aside.

In a large stockpot, cook potatoes in enough salted water to cover for 10 to 15 minutes or until tender.

Drain and return to stockpot. Beat until smooth; adding salt, to taste, pepper, butter, garlic and sour cream. Stir in cheese and bacon. Add more salt and pepper, if necessary.

The directions say to serve immediately, but since I always bring them to other people's houses, I reheat them and they turn out fine.  Just add a little milk to keep them from drying out.  I think this year I'm going to try adding the cheese and bacon after I reheat them at my friend's house.  I'm also going to add in some green onions or chives.

If the pumpkin-chocolate trifle turns out as tasty as I'm hoping, I'll share that recipe with you too!

What is your favorite Turkey Day recipe or dish?

Thankful Thursday

I'll be the first to admit that I was not entirely gracious and understanding when I initially got the news about Colby's return home being pushed back.  And it definitely bums me out when I think about the fact that because of a silly mistake, he isn't sitting next to me on the couch right now.  I spent Sunday and Monday in a pretty grumpy mood, wallowing in my anger and frustration, and thinking very unkind, very unladylike thoughts.

Then, it struck me.  I am the only one who can choose my attitude.  I can choose to sit back and let my annoyance overtake me, complain about my problems, have a miserable week, and rely on someone else to bring me happiness.  Or I can dust myself off, acknowledge my sadness, and also acknowledge how much GOOD there is in my life every single day, enjoying each day for what it brings me rather than being angry because of what it does not.

I think sometimes I spend so much time dwelling on the things that go wrong in life, that it's hard to see the good that is there all along.  And when I take a look around me, well, it's a little overwhelming just how much goodness I see.  In honor of Thanksgiving, every Thursday this month, I'm going to take a little time to think about the things that I'm thankful for and give them a shout out here on the old bloggeroo.
Autumn in the South!  For as long as I can remember, Fall below the Mason Dixon line has been my absolute favorite season.  It's cool enough to warrant boots and sweaters, but not so cold that you're bundling up like Eskimos and shivering uncontrollably.
Friends near and far.  I don't think it's possible to survive as a military wife without your own personal army of friends to keep you sane!  I know for sure I'd never have made it through this deployment without the amazing women I've connected with here in Charleston, or my friends scattered across the country.
Okay, so I can't do a cartwheel, but I am incredibly grateful for my good health.  I think that is the thing I take for granted most often--just assuming that I will always be healthy and not appreciating each breath I take.  I know too many people, old and far too young, who have faced dire life-threatening illnesses or injuries, and I should never assume that I'm somehow exempt from the dangers of life.  Every day truly is a miracle.
This guy.  Yeah, I may not need him to make me happy, but I sure am lucky to have found him, and he sure does make the happiness come easily.  (That's what she said.)

What are the things that you're most grateful for today?

The Weekend And Then Some

Now that I'm living life as a lady of leisure, I base my weekends on Colby's schedule--if he's at work, it must be a weekday, if he's at home, well, I guess it's a weekend!  So last week, Colby had a Friday through Monday off for Memorial day, and we jam-packed our weekend full of fun and projects.

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to see Sex and the City with a group of girls on Thursday night.  I've got to be honest, the vicious backlash that came after the release of this movie has me flummoxed.  I'm not sure what people are expecting from these movies.  Granted, I agree that they aren't as good as the tv show, but the movies are a fun, escapist couple of hours in a theater with girlfriends.  So, with that being said, I got a bunch of laughs and thought the movie was highly entertaining.  Plus, any excuse to lay eyes on John Corbett for a little while is OKAY by me!

Friday, we joined some other friends for a morning of boating on the Wando River.  It was an absolutely perfect day to be out on the water, and while I didn't join in on the wake-boarding or dare hurl my body into the creature infested water, I did a spectacular job of stretching out and absorbing as many sun rays as possible.  I wish I had a better picture to share, but Colby has been severely slacking in the photo-taking department lately!  It was this or one of seventeen thousand photos of water.

Friday afternoon and ALLLLL day Saturday were spent shuttling back and forth between our backyard and Lowe's, where we are thinking of petitioning for our own parking space.  Colby built a gorgeous retaining wall for a new herb and flower garden and I finally got around to cleaning out the garage.  We're waiting for the delivery of the flowering plum tree that we bought as the centerpiece for our garden, but as soon as everything is in the ground, I'll definitely post more pictures.

Sunday, we gave ourselves the day off and went to a barbecue.  I brought along this cake, which was not only the prettiest cake I've ever made, but the most amazingly delicious cake by a mile.  Of course, as was the theme of the weekend--no pictures, but you can easily replicate my barbecue experience by eating half of the batter out of the bowl, baking the cake, and then eating it all in one sitting.  Happy Memorial Day!

Monday, we got back to work on our respective projects, and I filled my new china cabinet with all of my lovelies.  Also inherited from the same grandmother whose hope chest I mentioned in my bedroom makeover post, was a beautiful collection of Fostoria American crystal and her Brentwood White Lace wedding china.  My parents also gave me a gorgeous set of Magnolia china years ago, and I finally have a place to display the main pieces instead of stashing them away in cardboard boxes and cabinets.

All in all, it was a spectacular, though exhausting weekend, and Colby and I are down to just three more weekends before his four month long deployment.  I haven't talked much about the deployment because I still haven't accepted that it's actually happening, but we did make our list of things to get done before he leaves, and are scratching things off of it each day, so it's definitely starting to become more real.  Ugh, who says acceptance is any better than denial anyway?

A Hippity Hoppy Easter Weekend

I don't know why I even bother worrying about having fun on holiday weekends away from home (home in this instance equaling my parents' house), because they always turn out to be amazing and I've wasted all of this time worrying about nothing.  I feel like there's a lesson hidden in there, not terribly far below the surface.

Friday, I had the bizarre experience of running into Colby on his lunch break when I went to lunch with a friend.  We were making our way toward the counter to order our sandwiches when she said, incredulously, "Is that Colby over there?"  I thought she was just joking and didn't even turn to look at first, but then when she said it again, I looked over, and there he sat, chowing down on a sub and looking at me suspiciously.  I think he thinks I'm stalking him.  Anyway, we laughed and sat next to each other, and I don't know, maybe you had to be there, but it was amusing to me.

Saturday, we went to the first Charleston farmers' market of the season, and met up with a few different groups of friends.  The crowd of people there was a bit overwhelming, I think in part due to the fact that it was the first market of the year and also because people were taking advantage of the beautiful warm weather before it turns oppressively hot.  After the market, we ate barbecue then went to Lowe's and bought everything in the entire store.  Or so it seemed.  Mostly we bought a bunch of herbs, and now I'm raring to go on our backyard garden.  Colby is less so.

Easter was another gorgeous day, and we headed over to our friend's house for a delicious Greek Easter featuring lamb, Greek salad, cinnamon potatoes and green beans in crushed tomatoes.  And cheesecake.  Though I think that last part might be more American Easter.  It was an amazing meal which led to an amazing nap on the couch for the rest of the afternoon.  No holiday is complete without a nap on the couch.

So the weekend was the perfect combination of busy and relaxing, and I'm looking forward to a fun week with Colby still at home for the foreseeable future.  Today I'm going downtown to wander through people's private homes for the afternoon, and then tomorrow I'm seriously starting to put the pressure on Colby to build my raised garden so I can get to planting.  I hope you all had an amazing Easter weekend and enjoy your return to your pre-Lenten existence.

I, for one, am going shopping!

Spring Has Sprung!

I was beginning to think it would never happen.  I'd started to think that maybe we had brought Washington weather with us to South Carolina and that the temperatures in the 50s were here to stay,  But at long, long last, the pollen came to town and brought the warm temperatures with it.  It's been in the upper 70s to mid 80s for the past few days, and on the weather this morning all of the projected highs were in the 80s.  Yippee skippy!!!

Of course, with those temperatures finally showing their faces around here, and summer creeping its way around the corner, I'm starting to get a lot more serious about my summer prep projects.  First and foremost is getting the fence finished and getting some landscaping in so that I can lay out in the backyard with a bit more of a screen between my pasty white body and the neighbors.  Colby has been working his tush off on the fence, with a bit of assistance from your truly, and it looks absolutely amazing!  He only has a couple of panels to put up along the side, and then 8 more post holes to dig and some panels to put in to connect the fence to the house.  I'm so proud and lucky to have such a handy husband, and I'm already lobbying for him to put in the patio before he leaves for his deployment.  He informed me yesterday that it would probably be better for me to wait until the post-fence-construction euphoria had set in to mention that project anymore.  Noted.

I'm also starting to get a little more serious about my Jillian Michaels time.  Granted, it's surprising the muscles that I've been feeling after working in the yard, but shorts season is here and while I don't want to lose any weight, I do want to tone up a bit more before I have to prance around the beach in the equivalent of my underwear.  I'm coming to terms with the fact that long-distance running is just not a good thing to do to my body, but I had made a lot of progress with my run time in January and February, so I'd like to get back to those little 2.5 to 3 mile jaunts around the block.

And the most exciting thing about this time of year?  I am only TWO DAYS AWAY from the lifting of my Lenten ban on shopping!!!  I've only had three slip-ups and have bought absolutely zero clothes, shoes or accessories since before February 16.  I bought two magazines and an iTunes album before I even thought about the fact that by doing so I was technically "shopping", then last weekend I went to a local arts fair and saw some adorable ducks made out of iron and rock that I absolutely had to have. Since the company selling them is located in Minnesota, I figured they might not be back next year, and requested a special Lenten dispensation from Heaven.  But on Sunday, I will once more be able to shop without fear of a lightning bolt from above!!  First things on the list to buy?

 
(L: Lands' End Swim Essentials Underwire Bikini Top, R: Lands' End Chino Utility Shorts)

  
(L: Lands' End Smocked Slub Jersey Dress, R: Lands' End Patterned Cotton Lawn Skirt)

(L: Anthropologie Creative Outlet Tank, R: Anthropologie Hourglass Surplice)

(Ann Klein Sestina)

And PS, when did Lands' End become so awesome?!?  Do they have a new designer for this season, or am I just fully coming into my old ladyhood?

Down the Rabbit Hole

It has been quite an eventful week here at Chez Blackwood.  We've been here, there and everywhere and life doesn't show much sign of slowing down.

After I left you last, we dropped off the pups at the House of Disease and headed down to Florida to visit some friends and see the shuttle launch.  Unfortunately, the clouds didn't cooperate and at 4:14 am they made the decision to cancel the launch.  This was a pretty big bummer, but we loaded ourselves back in the car and started the drive back to our friend's house.  When I glanced over at a red light and notice that Colby's blinks had become extremely extended, I made the decision that I needed to be driving.  If anyone is going to kill me, I want it to be me, you know?  So, we got home around 7:15 in the morning and all collapsed into bed for a pre-Super Bowl nap.

The Super Bowl was amazing to watch, made even more so by the fact that I was able to find lambic at the liquor store next door, so I could pretend to drink beer with everyone else!  It was an incredible feeling to see the Saints win, and I think all of us Louisianians are still having a really difficult time believing that actually happened.  We managed to settle ourselves in for another short winter's nap, then woke up again at 3 am to drive to the Jacksonville beach in the hopes of seeing the shuttle launch in the distance.  And I can't lie--I wasn't all that hyped up for the launch, but I have to admit, seeing that shuttle blast up into space and bend around the horizon was awe inspiring.  We could even see the two rocket boosters drop off the shuttle and fall back to the ocean.  Crazy cool.

We got back home all in one piece later that day and picked up the dogs, who seemed fine at the time, but since then, poor sweet Jack seems to have incubated a lovely case of kennel cough.  He's been through much worse, so for now I'm just keeping an eye on him to see if it gets any worse over the next day or two.  Everything I've read says to keep infected dogs isolated from other dogs, but that's really just unrealistic in our house, so we'll also watch Ellie and hope that she doesn't come down with a case.

This weekend was another one filled with fun.  We celebrated a friend's birthday on Friday with good food and strong margaritas, then Valentine's Day rolled around and we decided to stay in and make our own delicious dinner.  Chef Colby started the parade of gourmet delights with homemade bruschetta, then followed up with bacon wrapped filet mignon with goat cheese and a balsalmic vinegar reduction, garlic and basil penne, and grilled asparagus.  It... was... fantastic.  The only thing that could have possibly been better in a restaurant is the fact that someone else did the dishes!

Last night I went to my first wine shop book club meeting and enjoyed a glass of merlot and wonderful conversation with some great ladies then came home to not one, but TWO king cakes.  And of course we've been watching the Olympics and I am completely flummoxed by the figure skating scoring system, but was thrilled to see Shen and Zhao win after hearing their beautiful story.  Part of what I love about the Olympics is the joy of rooting for the home team, but also the support and love you begin to feel for competitors from other countries.

This week will be spent prepping for my parents to visit next week and my weekend trip to Atlanta to visit my dear, sweet friend Melissa who I haven't seen since my New York City bachelorette party.  I usually take the couple of days before my parents get here to frantically clean and organize the house, but since I won't be here I'll have to trust that Colby doesn't cause too much destruction while I'm gone.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, and don't forget to indulge today on Mardi Gras!  Drink an Abita, eat some Zapps and then proceed to feel immensely guilty and attempt to atone for all of you indiscretions over the next 40 days!

Endings & Beginnings

I feel like the events of the last post I wrote took place in another lifetime.  Since that day, we have packed up all of our belongings, moved out of our house so that tenants could move in, lived with a friend for a week, and are now about halfway through our trip from Washington to Louisiana.

Surprisingly, everything has gone off so far without a hitch (I say that now, and tomorrow we'll probably go 500 miles in the wrong direction or something equally ridiculous).  Our movers were friendly types who seemed to take pretty good care of our stuff as they spent two days packing and then loading up all of our worldly goods.  It's amazing what a pizza and some cranberry juice can do for the movers' morale.  Our tenants moved in just hours after we finished our cleaning, and we headed about 20 miles south to stay at a friend's house until it was time to start our drive.

It was sad to say goodbye to our house, but we didn't really have time to get too emotional.  I feel good about the people who have moved in, and as much as I'll miss my friends, I can't say that I'll miss Washington too much.  It was really nice to have that last week free to take care of last minute errands and scratch items off of our to-do list.  We closed on our South Carolina house on the 11th, so it's officially ours now--empty and just waiting for us to arrive.  We enjoyed quality time with our Washington friends, though it was sad not getting the chance to say goodbye to all of our friends in person.

The road trip started on the 12th, kicked off with a final goodbye drink at Starbucks, a stop-off in Salem, OR to visit a friend and an overnighter in charming Ashland, OR.  We made it down to San Francisco on the second day where we camped out for two nights, visiting friends in the city and playing tourists for the day.  The next night was spent in San Bernardino after a nightmarish two hours of Los Angeles traffic, and tonight we're in balmy Tucson, AZ where we've enjoyed a delicious dinner with my cousin and his wife and a hotel viewing of Speed.

We still have two more La Quinta nights ahead of us before we make it to Louisiana where we'll spend the week of Christmas with our families and then it's off to South Carolina to kick off our next Air Force assignment.  I'm going to make an effort to check in again more often between now and the actual move, but in case I'm not back in time, Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate and Happy Holidays to the rest!

November

This month has certainly been... eventful.  First, we buy a house.  Second, I actually start hearing something that *may* just be the ticking of a biological clock.  Third, we celebrate another anniversary.  Fourth, I experience my very first Black Friday at the stores.  We've already discussed point one and point two, so let's discuss anniversaries and shopping a little more in depth.

Indeed, just three days ago I celebrated our second anniversary with a full day of work, a glass of wine and So You Think You Can Dance while Colby flitted about the Middle East.  Our first anniversary I spent throwing up and sleeping off a rotavirus.  I'm honestly not sure which anniversary was more disappointing.  There is no lack of mushy gushy writing on this website about how darn great I think that guy is, and suffice it to say, he started to look even cuter when he was holding babies.  Just saying.  So, I'm pinning all of my hopes on our third anniversary.  Flowers are nice, but actually getting to spend time with your spouse is even better.

Thanksgiving was a quiet but highly enjoyable day.  I whipped up Paula Deen's recipe for loaded mashed potatoes (oh my God, amazing) and bought my little can of Ocean Spray cranberry jelly and headed over to a friend's house where we watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, the Purina One dog show, the Raiders vs. Oakland game and the Peanuts Thanksgiving and Christmas specials with multiple eating and drinking breaks.  I felt so lucky to have such great friends that were willing to welcome me into their family for the day, but I still missed Colby who was spending Thanksgiving in Germany.

This morning, after a fitful night of sleep in which I dreamed about waking up at the crack of dawn for the Black Friday sales only to find that entire stores were sold out, I woke up at the crack of dawn and hauled my weary body to Best Buy where I found that not only was the store not sold out, but in fact very willing to sell me many things.  The key to skipping the Black Friday lines at the store?  Purchase major appliances.  I came away with a Samsung front loader washer and dryer to take with us and a refrigerator to leave at the house for the renters all for just a little over $2000.  It was... not as much fun as I'd imagine spending that amount on clothes and shoes would be.

BUT, I'm incredibly excited about our washer and dryer (oh my God, how lame have I become??).  Our current washer seems to mostly just get clothes wet and put tiny little holes in all of my favorite shirts, so I'm really looking forward to a washing machine that allegedly washes and hopefully will not destroy all of our clothing in the process.  Plus they're pretty.  I just got the white ones because shelling out another few hundred for a "designer" color seemed silly, but they're such a shiny, lovely white!

Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's house to watch the Tigers dominate the Arkansas Razorbacks (please, God, please?) and the rest of the weekend will be spent preparing the house for the movers to come on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then on Thursday, we will officially become the homeless owners of two homes.  Time sure does fly when you're stressed to the max!

This Wasn't Supposed to Be a Shopping Post

It's a good thing I don't blog for my health...  The thing about having become so sporadic about my blog posting is that so many events build up between the times I take to write here that by the time I make an effort to sit down and type something out, it just seems too overwhelming and I don't know where to start.  Then, before I know what's happened, I'm simultaneously watching television, playing Shanghai Dynasty on Facebook, and perusing realtor.com.  And nary a blog is posted.  So, what say you we alleviate some of this boring wordy wordness with some PICTURES!  As Alice says, "What is the use of a book without pictures?"  Particularly if it's a picture book.

That rather neatly segues me into my first topic, which is Halloween.  I'm going to be mighty sad if I move to Charleston and don't manage to find a group of friends who will get dressed up and get a little crazy with me every October 31st.  However, for now I'll be enjoying my last Halloween with this group of friends dressed as Alice in Wonderland.  And how perfect is this Alice dress?
 

Now, the trick is convincing Colby to dress up as The Mad Hatter.  Come on, how cute would we be??  After purchasing this dress, I promised myself that I just needed one more thing to complete my fall/winter wardrobe before cutting myself off completely from shopping once more.  That thing?  The perfect brown boots.  Now, do I already have a fabulous pair of brown boots?  Well... yes.  But these brown boots are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!  Here's a visual.  Old brown boots:

(Fact that this is a terrible picture acknowledged, but it's the best I could do on short notice)

New brown boots:

They have it all.  Gorgeous color.  Feminine heel.  Interesting details.  And most importantly... comfort.  In my search for these elusive perfect boots, I entered the hallowed halls of Neiman Marcus.  Let me tell you, if you ever want to feel poor, inadequate, and slightly ashamed of your outfit, treat yourself to 15 minutes in Neiman Marcus.  Despite my temporary bout of insecurity, I did feel a little as though I had died and gone to fashion heaven.  I was literally surrounded by labels... Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenburg, Manolo, Michael Kors, Catherine Malandrino... it was thrilling.  And heartbreaking.  I tried on this adorable Nanette Lepore dress and these gorgeous Louboutins, and I'm not kidding when I tell you that I teared up ever so slightly when I had a seriously think about our checking account.

And I've never been accused of having excessively high levels of self-confidence, but for reals y'all, that dress looks SO much cuter on me than it does on the model.  Anyway, the Neiman Marcus effect came into play with the boot purchase in that after having the strength of will to say no to $1500 worth of merchandise at Neiman's, dropping $250 measly bucks at that rat-hole Nordstrom suddenly seemed like a pittance.  I suddenly have a whole new sympathy for shopping addicts.

Um, and seriously, this blog post was supposed to be about so much more than shopping, and yet, that's what it has turned into.  I cannot be held responsible.  I'm sitting here looking at those heavenly purple shoes and my brain has completely turned to mush...  This must be how men feel when women with extraordinary breasts are within view.

The World is A Little Bit Colder

In the first 24 hours of my separation from Facebook and Twitter, the clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped below freezing, and the snow began to fall.  I think this is a sign that God truly feels the pain of this sacrifice and even the angels are crying.

You know, I poke fun at myself for giving up these two social networking sites, but honestly I had no idea how hard this would be.  I know that probably only makes my situation even more ridiculous, but I also know that Lent is going to be Very Long.

I think what makes me so susceptible to, in particular with the Facebook addiction (which I miss a great deal more than Twitter), is that I really use it as a connection to friends and family that I rarely have the chance to see in person.  It's easy to say, "Well, Angela, just pick up the phone!", but on top of the fact that I just plain hate the phone, we all have very busy lives.  Not many people have the time to go through their address book, touching base with all of their friends and family every week.

The wonderful thing about Facebook is that when I'm particularly missing my sister, I can just log on, click over to her profile, read her About Me section, look at her pictures, write on her wall, and instantly feel closer to her.  And I can do that at midnight, or while she's stuck in rehearsal, or I'm watching the kids at school.  A huge and growing number of my family and friends who live hundreds or thousands of miles away are really only a click away because of Facebook, and I feel confident that it is a huge part of the reason that I'm still in touch with many of them after all of these years of moving so frequently and living so far apart.

Anyway, I know it's only a little over a month and a half away from Facebook, but in those 46 days, I do truly feel like I'm making a sacrifice.  Not just the sacrifice of a tool to fight the boredom while I'm in line at the grocery store, but the sacrifice of feeling that constant connection to my friends and family over the magic of the internet.

I'm definitely counting down the days until I can log back in to my profile, but who knows, maybe over the next few weeks I'll be compelled to make a few more phone calls and keep up with my email.  And that's definitely not a bad thing.

How I Spent My President's Day Vacation!

Friday and Monday were both no school days for my school district, but of course, being that we are a day care provider, I did have work on Friday because it's not technically part of the federal holiday.  It really wasn't a bad day of work though--I got in at 9:30 and was gone by 4:45, so it was a perfectly lovely schedule, and my few bad apples weren't there, so I actually had a lot of fun.

We kicked off our vacation weekend by trying out a new Mexican restaurant, Playa Azul.  We already have a favorite tiny little Mexican restaurant in the town a little to the south of us, but I'm thrilled to have another tasty option closer to home.  The prices were a smidge higher than our favorite hole in the wall, but I think we'll definitely be making a return visit.  After an amazingly fattening dinner, we headed off to the movie theater where Colby was kind enough to sit through Confessions of a Shopaholic with me. 

Now, this movie is more controversial than I thought it would be.  People who love the books seem to not be too impressed with the movie and people who hate the books hate the movie equally.  I don't know, maybe I'm just not that deep, but I loved it.  Sure, it deviates from the books (that, admittedly, I also love) but I actually felt that Isla Fischer's Becky Bloomwood was more likeable than the book version and Luke Brandon was dreamy.  My only two wishes were that they had kept the setting in London and cast a better actress for Becky's sidekick, Suze.  But alas, Luke retained his Britishness, and Suze made minimal appearances, so I couldn't get too upset.  The movie will definitely be added to my DVD library, and I'm sure it will enter the rotation of chick flicks to watch when Colby is deployed.

Saturday, I woke up to the smell of French toast wafting its way up the stairs, and when I woke up from an after breakfast nap there were a dozen beautiful roses and a heartfelt card, referencing one of our favorite couple jokes--the piguin.  I remained pretty firmly rooted to the couch most of the day, while Colby did some homework, and then I finally got myself all gussied up for our romantical Valentine's dinner at another favorite, nearby restaurant, DeCaterina's.  I made the near fatal mistake of wearing a fabulous corset top to dinner, not thinking about the fact that I was probably going to want to cram a lot of food into my stomach and that may be difficult when dealing with steel girders up my side.  Anyway, I pushed through the pain and managed to eat an amazing dinner and dessert.

Sunday, I had my turn to work on homework and that night we had some other couples over for a supremely enjoyable game night.  We had tons of food, wine, beer, and round after round of Cranium, which I am heartbroken to admit the girls lost two out of three times.  We still managed to have a great time, despite the losses, and Monday I spent on the couch once more, recovering from a hangover caused by red wine and defeat.  Now, it's back to real life as I'm working my way through a mountainous pile of dirty laundry and preparing to head back to work for my afternoon shift.  But the good news is that it's a short week and I've got tons of tasty leftovers to eat my way through. 

Yesterday, I also booked a flight back to Baton Rouge for March 28-April 5, so I've got another exciting vacation to start counting down to, and I can't wait to spend some relaxing time at home with my parents.  I haven't had a trip home just to hang out and visit since the March before I moved to Washington in 2007, so I am way overdue for a vist, and I can't wait to see all of the changes to Baton Rouge that I've been hearing so much about.

Finally, I want to thank you all for your comments on my last post.  I was amazed at how good it felt to get all of that out, and I was overwhelmed by the wisdom and kindess you shared with me.  Y'all seriously are the best, and we should totally eat ice cream and cupcakes together some time.

The Rose City

Last week, I was just going about my normal business of work, school, and sleep when I happened to take a glance at my little used iCal.  Much to my surprised, I saw January 19th highlighted in red with big bold letters proclaiming "NO WORK!!!"  I don't know exactly how a three day weekend escaped my notice--generally I'm counting down the days until a no work day like they're Christmas--but I didn't question it, instead I just fired off an email to Colby (Who was stuck in Korea with a broken down airplane, and probably off gallivanting about Seoul at the time.  It is so hard to be him.) to inform him that we were taking a vacation.  To Portland.

You see, as we near the end of our time here in Washington (I hope and pray), I have suddenly realized how very much there is to do around here that we keep talking about and never doing.  I visited Portland for a day once with my parents, but Colby had never been and I knew that there was so much left to do there, and since it's a two hour drive away, it seemed like the obvious choice.

So, I hopped on TripAdvisor and Hotels.com, made some reservations, got the dogs booked in a kennel at the vet, and started counting down the days in earnest.  We decided to wake up early on Saturday and drive down to the city to meet our Epicurian Excursion walking tour by 9:45.  The tour was a great way to kick off our trip, as it managed to combine breakfast, lunch, and an introduction to the city all in one fell swoop.  It sort of set the theme for the rest of the weekend: Eating and Making (Good Natured) Fun of Hippies.  You see, the one unifying theme of all the restaurants we visited were the following traits: Fresh, Local, Organic, Sustainable, and Seasonal.  These are all wonderful attributes that make for some seriously delicious food, but it was also seriously hysterical how fervent these restaurant owners were about being the MOST sustainable or the MOST organic.  I don't know, maybe you had to be there, but it was really funny to us.  Particularly when they detailed exactly how much garbage they threw away per week.  That's great and all, but seriously, just give me some beer!

However, that was not nearly as hilarious as the time the lady at the culinary school described the wine she was pouring for us as "an explosion in her mouth."  My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, and I tried my damndest to hold it in, but finally I turned my beet red face to Colby and mouthed the inevitable, "That's what she said!  That's what she said!!!!"  And then we both snort laughed in an embarrassing manner.  And that is why we love each other.

 

After the food tour we headed off to my Mecca: Powell's Books.  This place is just... intense.  It was just room after room with every available wall and floorspace covered in bookshelves and crammed with books.  After I had wandered through in awe for a couple of hours, I had to sit and sift through the books that I had been stuffing into my basket in a frenzy.  I left with a long list of books I want to buy, including The Road and The Executioner's Song, but only allowed myself to walk out with four new books: A Lion Among Men: Volume III in The Wicked Years, The Red Tent, The Painted Kiss, and Why Do Pirates Love Parrots?  Because really, why do they?  (Don't tell me!)

Following Powell's, we braved the blustery wind that had begun whipping and headed off to check into our hotel, the wonderful Hotel Monaco.  This is an extremely pet friendly hotel, and it was all I could do to not hurl myself at every passing puppy.  Colby wondered how much they must spend on carpet cleaning solution, and I must say, whatever amount they spend is absolutely worth every penny, because we could not smell a single bit of pet odor.  In fact, I may even go so far as to say it was the best smelling, cleanest hotel I've ever experienced.  Dinner that night was at the delicious Mother's Bistro & Bar, just a couple blocks away from our centrally located hotel, and we liked it so much, we headed back for an even more delectable brunch on Sunday morning.

Sunday we spent expanding our cultural horizons at the Porland Art Museum and Colby explained to me why exactly electricity costs money at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.  Plus I got to shoot off a bottle rocket and experience an earthquake in the same day I gazed upon a Degas and a Monet.  I just love museums!  That night we decided to just go with our affinity for maternally named restaurants and I had a wonderful gnocchi and tiramisu at the Mamma Mia Trattoria.

Monday morning we packed up our bags and headed out for our last day of the Porland experience.  We had breakfast at Bijou Cafe, picked up some coffee for our parents at Stumptown Coffee (check the mail, y'all!), then made our way to Chinatown to visit the Chinese Gardens.  I had visited the Japanese Gardens in Portland with my mom in September, and I was struck by how different the two experiences were.  I am by no mean an expert in Asian gardening, but just based on these two experiences, it seems that the Japanese garden was much more forcused on actual plants and what you would think of as a "garden environment" with ponds and rocks and statuary, while the Chinese garden was much more architectural, with its focus on providing a serene, tranquil environment for scholarly pursuits or philosophical conversation.

Well, philosophical conversation AND making faces at ceramic Chinese dragons.

From there we headed over to Grant Park so that I could hang out with Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins at the Beverly Cleary sculpture garden.  Our last stop was The Grotto, a gorgeous outdoor Catholic shrine and botanical garden run by the Order of Friar Servants of Mary, then we bid a fond adieu to the Rose City.  We stopped by the Mount St Helens visitors center on the way back home, but it was closed for the holiday, so Colby just snapped a few photos before we went back on our merry way.

Check this out:

The mountain.  Now you see it, now you don't!

I plan on debuting this amazing feat of magicry before a live audience at Spring Break.  If you can't be there, look for it to be featured in the 2009 edition of the immensely popular Girls With Low Self Esteem, coming to a Hollywood Video near you!

So, all in all, Portland was a really fun experience, made almost more so by the rather spontaneous nature of the trip.  We didn't really plan a whole lot, and didn't give ourselves any specific schedule to stick to, so I didn't come home feeling like I needed a vacation from my vacation.  We're working on a list of things we still want to do here before the end of the year, and stay tuned Twilight fans, because I'm lobbying hard for a summer visit to Forks and LaPush.

Resolute(ish)

Every year I claim that I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions, and then every year I find myself making New Year's resolutions.  I think it's a hold over, knee-jerk statement from back in the days when I really didn't make resolutions.  When life seemed like an endless road, full of possibilities stretching out before me.  When I didn't put so much thought and effort into living, and just lived.  Every year that passes, every birthday I celebrate, I feel those possibilities slipping away and the frightening finiteness of life becomes a little more real.

I know that I'm still young, that life is far from over and every day is another opportunity to do something great, but I have reached the age where I have realized that if you do want to "be anything you want to be", you have to work at it.  If you're lucky, opportunity knocks, but it's far more likely that you'll have to hunt it down with a tranquilizer gun, tackle it, and hold on for dear life.

So, anyway, all of this to say, I made some resolutions centered around becoming a better person, both in mind and body, and I'm resigned to the fact that I apparently am a New Year's resolution kind of gal.

"A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes." ~Mahatma Ghandi

1) Reading: In continuation of my somewhat belated resolution last year, I'm going to try going another year without reading any "chick lit".  I think I did a decent job cutting the genre from my reading list in 2008, with just a few journeys back into fluff territory, and I was surprised to find that I really didn't miss it and the few that I did read felt a little empty and formulaic to me.  I'm not knocking a good Sophie Kinsella or Jane Green when you need to give your mind a break, but I feel much more inspired and moved when I'm reading books with a little more heft to them.  I've always kept a list going in my sidebar of the books that I've read recently (a list that has been woefully out of date lately), but I've also started a new page (found in "Bonus Features" under my profile picture to the left) tracking the books I've read in 2009, along with a little personal review.

2) Writing: In short: Write more.  I suffer from a strange malady in which I lay awake nights thinking up stories and plot twists, characters and intriguing themes, then I sit down to write them all out and am completely blocked.  From what I understand, the only way through writers block is to just keep writing, even if it's complete crap (which is not to say that everything I write isn't complete crap--I am incapable of judging for myself).  My resolution for this year is to write at least one short story that I deem worthy of submission to various literary contests and journals and to write at least fifteen pages per week of the ongoing trainwreck with the working title, Gemini.  A subresolution would be to come up with a less cringe-inducing title.

"Health is not valued until sickness comes." ~Thomas Fuller

3) Eating: After spending the vast majority of this winter wishing I could either die or trade in my nose/throat/stomach/head, I have realized that both Colby and my mother are right: I eat like crap.  And I think it's safe to assume that my steady diet of candy, cheese, starches, and cereal is having a less than healthful effect on my body.  I don't expect my diet to magically change overnight, but I am going to make a real effort to eat better.  Here are my goals:

• Pizza no more than once a month
• Eat at least two servings of a fruit or vegetable every day
• Drink at least 3 large glasses of water every day
• Take a multivitamin every day
• Dessert no more than twice a week (and YES, Angela, that does include breakfast items from Starbucks)

4) Exercise: Did you know that I bought the 30 Day Shred on October 19th?  Do you want to know how I feel about it or how well it worked for me?  Well, I don't know, because I haven't so much as OPENED it.  Funny thing these workout DVDs.  You actually have to DO them for them to be effective.  Oh, and that elliptical machine sitting up in our loft?  Haven't been on it since before Colby got home from his deployment.  More than two months ago.  So, yeah, safe to say there is plenty of room for improvement here.  Improvement along the lines of doing at least thirty minutes of cardio three times a week and completing the 30 Shred by the end of February?  Yeah, I think that would do it.

So, those are my goals for 2009.  I feel like there's a certain amount of effort involved in all of them, but none of them are completely unrealistic or a set up for failure, so I hope that by the time 2010 rolls around (oh my God, that looks crazy!) I'll be able to look back on this post without feeling completely defeated.  What about you?  Did you make any resolutions this year?

(Oh!  And in case you haven't seen my tweets or Facebook--no, my house did NOT flood and I was back home by about 4 o'clock the next morning.  Thanks for your good wishes!)

Looking Back

So, I'm finally going to close the book on 2008 around here and get the rest of December all wrapped up in a neat little bow.  It was kind of a crazy month  for me and the highlights were definitely the panic inducing snowfall we had just prior to winter break, my birthday, and those other two big December holidays.

The Snow

Unfortunately, I have hardly any photographic evidence of any of these big events as Colby has developed the annoying habit of downloading all of our pictures onto his computer, then deleting them off of the camera before I can get them.  He assures me that it's easy peasy to transfer them onto my computer, but so far that's all talk and no action.  We ended up getting about 8 or 9 inches of snow in our area, and I have never in all of my life seen a city shut down like ours did.  Colby still braved Mother Nature and went to work every day, but the schools shut down on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday--before "the big storm" even hit.  Jack and Ellie totally loved romping in and chowing down on the freshly fallen snow, and I'm willing to admit that it was kind of pretty.  However, I am still not a fan of the slipping and sliding across roads and I never realized how many damn hills there are around here until they all turned into mini-ski slopes.

The Birthday
My birthday was, in a word, AWESOME!  Colby had a pretty steep learning curve when it came to my expectations for birthday celebrations, but he picked up on things after last year and when I woke up, my birthday was already in full swing.  I crawled out of bed to find him making muffins and french toast, a chocolate cake already baked and frosted, hundreds of balloons scattered around the house, and I even got a fancy Birthday Girl badge to wear.  The morning was pretty relaxing, the snow fell softly throughout the day, and that evening we made the trek into Seattle for dinner in the Market and the Pacific Northwest performance of The Nutcracker.  Dinner was absolutely delicious and we had a prime table overlooking a gorgeous view of the Pike Market.  The snow continued to fall as we ate and then headed over to the theater, and The Nutcracker was incredible. 

Funny story:  I recognized the design of the Nutcracker painted on the curtain before the ballet began, and upon reading the bio of the set and costume designer, realized that he was the man who illustrated Where the Wild Things Are, and upon receiving praise for his take on the Nutcracker in the 80's, he published an illustrated version of The Nutcracker story.  Turns out, I just so happened to own that book when I was a little girl and read it yearly, dreaming of being Clara with visions of Nutcrackers dancing in my head!

When we left the performance, we were surprised to see that the snow had begun coming down much harder and the accumulation had already increased by a few inches from the time the performance began and the drive home was more than a little scary at times.  But we survived it, and all in all, it was a phenomenal beginning to my 26th year!

Favorite gifts included tickets from Colby to go see Brit Brit perform on April 9th at the Tacoma Dome, a Nordstrom gift certificate that I put toward the brown leather jacket on my wish list, and a fantastic page-a-day calendar with a picture of a different fabulous shoe each day!

My birthday tea was supposed to take place the next day, but ended up being postponed to the following Sunday because of the snow.  I was thrilled that some of my gal pals were able to take time away from holiday plans and brave the still rather nasty weather to make it to the Meeker Mansion, and we enjoyed our ladylike tea and a tour of the mansion.  I don't have any pictures of the tea, but I do have to show you the fabulous Mad Men dress that I wore for the event.

It makes me feel just like Betty Draper.  Except without all of the crazy and the alcohol/cigarette dependency...

The Holidays
We spent Christmas Eve at Lori's house, eating good food, spending time with great people, and playing a down and dirty game of Scene It? Squabble, boys versus girls.  I always love spending time with Lori and her family because they always do such a great job of making sure that we feel included and like we really are a part of the family.  Christmas morning we woke up and did our standard stockings, breakfast, then presents routine.  It was a totally relaxing day spent with the DVD player going and amazing food just appearing before me from time to time when Chef Colby was inspired.  We got some great deals at the seafood counter on Christmas Eve, so throughout the day our entrees consisted of shrimp, crab cakes, and salmon.  Yummo!

I gave Colby Cranium WOW! and a new lens for his camera that he's been playing with ever since, so I think those gifts went over well.  Highlights of my Christmas goodies included all three seasons of Arrested Development (How had I never seen this show?  HILARIOUS!!) and my spiffy new Marc Jacobs watch (also on my wish list), both from Colby, some beautiful Banana Republic tops from my parents, and a gorgeous Manolo Blahnik coffee table book from one of my favorite girls, Shani.  We were totally spoiled on Christmas morning, and even though we missed being away from our families, it was still a wonderful day.

New Year's Eve was much quieter than last year's craziness.  We went to dinner at a yummy pizzeria and then saw Marley & Me where I proceeded to sob my freaking eyes out.  I wasn't the least bit surprised since I had a pretty identical reaction to the book, but I thought I might be able to retain some semblance of composure.  Yeah.  No.  New Year's Day we spent rooted to the couch while I subjected Colby to hour after hour of The Twilight Zone marathon on SciFi.

And that pretty much wraps up December and my musings on 2008.  I'm ready to look forward to the future and have a lot to say about 2009, but right now the dogs are crying and Gossip Girl awaits, so the new year is just going to have to wait around for another day or so until I'm ready to tackle all of those thoughts.  Ciao for now!

2008 Was Pretty Great

Well, how about that, another year has gone by and looking back on it, I really can't find too much to complain about.  It's a bit strange how last New Year's Eve can seem simultaneously like it was a million years ago and like it was just yesterday.  2008 will probably always hold a pretty special place in my heart.  It was the first full year I ever spent as a married lady.  The first time I'd crossed the pond since college.  The year of the most romantic and magical honeymoon a girl could imagine, as well as the first time I experienced the deployment of my husband.  Friendships deepened with the girls I've met here in Washington, and I had wonderful experiences with friends who live too far away.  I felt the elation of being published as well as the confidence in choosing a careerpath and taking the steps to achieve my goal.  I've definitely hit some rough patches with this here blog, but I'm so glad that I have it as a way to look back on my year and remember the things that otherwise would have probably slipped my mind ages ago.  So, now for my annual year in review--here are the reviews for 2006 and 2007 if you're interested.  I generally take the first sentence from the first post of each month, but for my 2008 review I'll do the first couple of sentences to give them a little more context, and I'm skipping the very first post of the year, because that was last year's review.

January: I've never been really big on New Year's resolutions.  In fact, I just went back in my archives to see if I even made resolutions last year.  Answer: I did not. (And lo, my resolutions lasted for a few months before I was well and truly over them.  I think I have a couple of good ones for this year though, but more on that later.)

February: So, check out what came in the mail the other day: It's my story!  In an actual, real life, published book!  A book that somebody in the world might have decided was worth the exchange of their very own hard earned money! (I still smile when I think about that little story that could.  It only took me six years to work up the nerve to send it out for publication--with a record like that, I could be looking at a published novella in about two decades!)

March: Went to a new cupcake shop that just opened in our cute little downtown main street.  I decided on a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting, and Colby had a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting.  Clearly, I have failed spectacularly at my Lenten promise. (I think this marked the beginning of my This Weekend I... posts.  I should really bring those back--I should really also go get a cupcake...)

April: Supervisor IM:  I'm writing your going away email right now.  What should I tell people you'll be doing next?

Angela IM:  Hm.  Maybe just something along the lines of "pursuing job opportunities closer to home."

Angela IM:  Oh, and catching up on daytime soaps!

No response from Supervisor

Angela IM:  Just kidding...

Supervisor:  Okay, so I can highlight your commute time? (Snort. This still makes me laugh.  Oh man, I don't miss that job.  I miss seeing Becky on a regular basis, but not that job...  The two weeks off for Christmas was nice though!)

May: Damn, I seriously suck at blogging regularly when I'm not chained to a desk from 9-5 every week day. (A theme that has continued through the rest of the year, because seriously, blogging IS hard when you're not chained to a desk all day!)

June: This weekend was our big girls night out for the Sex and the City, and it really was a fabulous experience. (I just watched this movie again the other night, and I think I loved the movie even more the second time through.  And Lord, those clothes are just... AMAZING!  I'm sure this DVD will be on a pretty high rotation in our household when Colby is away on trips.)

July: Dear Typepad,Things have been distant between us lately.  I know it.  You know it.  There's no sense in pretending that we haven't hit a rough patch.  I know that I've been ignoring you, spending very little time at home with you and then on the few occasions when I have turned on my computer, glancing guiltily at your button there on my favorites toolbar and then navigating over to my class website or Facebook. (Well, yeah, things are still pretty much the same there--I still read a bunch of blogs, but I just don't comment like I used to, and I definitely don't blog like I used to. But hey, I posted four times in July... and six times in December--that's an improvement, right!?)

August: Somehow, over a week has passed since my last post.  I do not understand where the time is going and how the days could possibly be flying by so quickly while simultaneously dragging on endlessly.  In the words of Confucius, "Time is a sneaky, sneaky bitch." (More bitching about blogging--Jesus, Angela, shut up!  It's a wonder anyone reads this stupid website anymore!)

September: Hey, remember when I was being haunted by a numismatist from the great beyond a few months ago?  I think he (or she) might be back, and this time has more than coins on the mind. (That dang ghost... I wonder if he or she will do anything to increase our property value?)

October: Y'all, I am so tired this week.  I'm not particularly sure why, but I can tell you that I come home from work, stare blankly at the tv for a little while, stare blankly at the computer for a little while, and then try to remember to feed the dogs before I fall asleep.  What I'm saying here is that not only is this Hills recap a little late, but it's also probably total crap. (Oh, Hills recaps, I kind of miss you guys!  Turns out though, that I really stopped liking the show when it meant I had to put all of that extra effort into it.  So, now I just mock it silently in my own head.  Much more enjoyable that way!)

November: I know I have so much to catch you all up on, but I had to come out of blog hibernation today to marvel at the fact that exactly one year ago, I woke up early in the morning to the sound of raindrops to... (GET MARRIED!!!  Also, holy crap, that is the ONLY thing I posted in November.  What have I been doing these past few months?  I have NO IDEA, because I didn't write about any of it...)

December: So, November pretty much kicked my hindquarters.  November was the lion and I was the unicorn, and it resoundly beat the crap out of me all about the town.  Things started off fine and dandy.  October drew to a close with a splendid Halloween celebration involving a limousine, copious amounts of liquor, dancing, and the company of good friends. (So, that explains November... still not quite sure what I DID to become so tired, but maybe I can reflect more upon that in 2009.)

And there you have it--the jist of my 2008.  I've got a lot to say about where I think 2009 might go, and where I hope we might go, and hopefully I'll make a little time in my life to get back to this here blog.  I hope that you all had a splendid New Year's Eve and are enjoying our entry in to 2009.  Enjoy it, because this is the last year that we will be able to purchase these stylish accessories: