Goodbye to 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2009 was great, but it's time to ring in the new year. I hope everyone has a fun and safe night. Welcome to the new decade!

We made it.

It was a long trip with lots of hours sitting on the runway, but we're here. The snow couldn't keep us on the East Coast, but it did keep my bag in Washington DC until last night. It was a long 48 hours with no clean clothes. But we're here. And the bag is now here. And this morning 4 inches of snow arrived as well. I was very surprised by it, but since I'm not trying to travel any more, I enjoyed it.

It's just been decorating and wrapping and Christmas is almost here! I'm excited :)

Monday Madness

I have already checked out and am completely in vacation mode. The only problem is, I'm not on vacation yet. Not really even that close. I have all this week, plus two days of "working from home" next week. That means I need to be focused a little more. Hopefully I can make that happen...

Anyway! The madness this week is insurance and flex spending and all the crazy benefit stuff! I have to figure out what I want to do with my 401K and if I want to change my dental insurance. It's all too much! I've never had to figure these things out before, so I have no idea what I should be doing. I wish it were like elementary school where I could just take my papers home to my mom who would fill them out. I just had to make sure they made it to her hands.

Now I have to try to figure it out for myself. How much do I estimate I'll send in medical expenses this year? What if I need new glasses? Should I count that in? What if I don't? Ugh. I don't think I like this part of being grown up...

Baking Fail

I love to bake, and generally I'm pretty good at it. My mom was never much of a cook, but the woman can bake and she always let me help. I grew to love the oven and making delicious treats.

Last night, I failed EPICALLY for possibly the first time in my baking career. I like to lighten things up while baking, because eating all the great things I can make is not good for anyone's waistline, and I tried to make brownies in a different way. I've heard that a can of black beans can be used instead of eggs and oil in brownies (much like a can of Diet Coke or a can of pure pumpkin can be used instead for cakes), so I tried it. But instead of looking up just how to use the black beans in the recipe, I just poured the can into the brownie mix and threw it in the oven. It was only later when the brownies seemed a bit chuncky that I realized I probably did it wrong. And I did. I was supposed to puree the beans first, then add the paste-ish beans to the mix. Oops. Instead we have what look like chocolate chip brownies, but actually taste exactly like beans.

I ditched the brownies for pumpkin bread that came out too sweet. Where was my head last night? Too busy listening to Christmas music and finishing Save the Dates I guess...

Another Holiday Photo

I got a pumpkin from my boss at Halloween, and I've now made it into a Sant-o-lantern. I just couldn't throw away the perfectly good pumpkin just because the pumpkin "season" has passed, so I just upgraded him a little.

Why waste the pumpkin when it clearly makes a wonderful holiday decoration?

Monday Madness

I know it's not the highest quality picture ever, but that's my wreath. It smells wonderful and it makes me happy. I'm still bummed that we're not having our own tree this year (the in-laws-to-be will have one, so I'm not completely without), but this is a nice touch. I put up our lights and even made a couple paper snow flakes. Tree or no tree, my apartment will have some holiday flair.

What maddens me today is how close Christmas and our travels really are! We leave in less than two weeks! That's crazy! We're having Christmas with my family in less than two weeks! I have less than two weeks to finish shopping for my family! (4 down, 5 to go! Yikes!) Not to mention, in the next two weeks I have about 5 Christmas parties to go to! I need to go shopping! :)

December Spirit

It's December and that means I can listen to Christmas music. And I have been for the last two days. I love Christmas music (for the few weeks a year that it's relevant), but I won't do it until it's December. I like to respect the bird and wait for the whole month to finish before I tune into the holiday stations.

I love December and I love Christmas. There's nothing better to me than the smell of Christmas trees and peppermint hot chocolate. I love decorating and watching horribly cheesy movies. Last year I had my very first tree. I took so much pride in the ornaments and all the decorations for my apartment. I'd never had my own place for the holidays before. This year we won't be home for the holidays, and so we're going tree-less. I'm a little disappointed, because I had so much fun last year, but it doesn't make sense to get one, so oh well. I'm definitely going to get a wreath though, because I need that awesome smell to fill my little apartment. I'm also going to decorate with paper snowflakes and a red and green paper chain (think back to elementary school and linking the paper together...yeah, that's my favorite). 

This weekend I plan on watching Christmas movies and, hopefully, finishing our Save-the-Dates. Who knew they would be such a pain? We want to send them out with our Christmas cards to kill two birds with one stone, but I'm a little behind on both things, so we'll see how it goes!

I just can't believe how quickly this year went and how soon Christmas is!

Monday Madness

What happened to November? How is it possible that the month is over and Christmas is just a few weeks away? I feel like I blinked and the month went by. It's maddening.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had quite the adventure and a great weekend over all. My top five moments are:

1. Being pulled over Thursday morning for being a horrible driver and running a red light. I was driving in Boston and could not get to where I wanted to be for the life of me, thanks to all the one way streets, and just totally missed the light. Luckily, no one was even close to hurt (it was a stop light for a crosswalk, so no cars and no people were crossing), but of course a police office saw me. He was in the Thanksgiving spirit and let me go.

2. Spending approximately 13 hours in the car. Luckily I enjoyed the company I kept and my radio decided to work for all but an hour of the trip. The clock was not as cooperative.

3. Hearing "Alice's Restaurant" on the radio at noon, as always, and knowing pretty much all the words...at least all the words at the good parts. (If you don't know the song, definitely look it up. It's by Arlo Guthrie and is a Thanksgiving must).

4. Celebrating seven years of dating with the hubs-to-be. On our first date we saw a Harry Potter movie, went to the Thanksgiving bonfire, and played pool. This year we went to Borders and had coffee, and discussed wedding invitations. I'm happy to say we've grown up quite a bit since then, but not to worry, I still love Harry Potter movies :)

5. Taking a nap by my grandfather's fireplace on Friday when it was nasty and rainy outside. That's what's supposed to happen on vacation and I was happy to do it. It's not often that I get to sit in front of a fire, or take a nap, so it was bliss. (Plus I was full of day-after-Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing sandwich, so life was REALLY good).

I just hope December can live up to the standard November set!

A week without words

So I totally missed a week of blogging, and I'm fully aware of it. This week was incredibly busy. Work was just crazy and I had something to do in the evening every night! It was a fun week, but it totally wore me out.

This weekend has been wonderfully restful. The hubs-to-be and I haven't had a lot of time to ourselves (again), so we spent all day yesterday just the two of us. It was so nice. It's such a weird feeling to live with someone, but to miss them so much. Like I said, it was a fun week, but we needed some us time.


Today, and the rest of the upcoming week will be very family-filled. Tonight is Sunday Family dinner at my sisters (which should be awesome), then Thanksgiving in CT, followed by Thanksgiving with the soon-to-be aunts and uncles and cousins in-law in Vermont. A lot of family means a lot of driving, but it will be good to see everyone.

I'm so glad this is a short week! Three days of work sounds definitely do-able :)

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

I am so unbelievably happy it's Friday. This week has been too long and too busy and I'm ready for the break. More than anything, I'm ready to sleep and not have to wake up to an alarm tomorrow morning. That will be so wonderful.

This weekend I'm going home to my Gramma's house and getting new tires on my car. It was quite the process of figuring out where the best place to get them done was, so hopefully I've picked well. Having a car can be so expensive, but I just can't give up the freedom it gives me. I have hating to park it and move it for street cleaning and all that bologna, but being able to go home or to the store, or to Vermont whenever I want to is worth it. I always debate getting rid of my car, and always come right back to the fact that I would feel SO trapped without it.

Although the weekend promises some rain, I'm so ready for the relaxation! Happy Weekend!

Monday Madness

Here we are at Monday again. The week really goes by so quickly!
This week was good, but the madness is the irony of a broken hair straightener. So this weekend I got my hair cut. I decided to go with bangs again because it's winter and I have to blow dry my hair anyway, so bang wouldn't be such a pain. Of course because I have curly-ish hair I have to straighten them with the hot iron after blow drying. Wouldn't you know my straighten broke this morning. Just decided it didn't want to turn on any more. Gonzo. Four days ago and I wouldn't have cared. Today, I needed that puppy. Luckily my most amazing bff is in town from NM, so I could use hers, but I have to get a new one tonight.
Isn't it always that the one thing we barely ever use decides not to work right when we need it? And there isn't much that will do the duties of a hair straightener. Although I know this is ridiculously trivial, it was not the way I wanted to start my Monday.

The weekend was awesome, as was having the bff in town. If I could find the card reader to take my pictures off my camera I'd add a little pzazz to this blog. Hopefully that can happen soon!

Monday Madness

Yes, I know, I've missed Monday again. Monday at work is pure madness, so I run out of time! Plus yesterday I had to go to the dentist and see the trainer at the gym, so I was all over the place. Oh well!

The madness this week is wedding dress shopping! It's happening! On Friday! Holy Cow. I'm so excited, but so nervous! The last time I wore a white dress I was 9 and having my first communion. Now I'm going to be wedding dress shopping! It makes my wedding so real! Luckily, I'll have the bff in town to help out, along with the other engaged friend. There will be back up. There will be lots of girly-ness. Amazing! I just can't believe it's happening already. Neither one of us engaged ladies is planning on buying a dress, we just want to try a million on and see what styles we like/don't like, and kind of go from there. Crazy!

What I also think is crazy and maddening is the show "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC. I mean, it's amazing. Some of the dresses are gorgeous (some are awful) but the girls trying the dresses floor me. A $5,000 budget for just your dress!?! Or some even at $7 or $8 thou!?! Whyyyy!??? I mean, I understand it's super important to look beautiful and you definitely want to look your best, but I don't think that means you have to spend all that money! I sure hope it doesn't mean that because I'll be screwed! I would love the help of these wonderful people at the store on the show, but not if it's going to cost me my entire wedding budget!

The cool thing for me is, my dad's wife and my g-ma are going to make my wedding dress. I'm excited to have something so special done for me. I don't know what exactly I want yet, which is why we're going shopping Friday, but they need time to make it, so I need to start looking! Our wedding in less than 10 months away! Gosh that seems like forever and not enough time all at once!

Christmas plans?

I am all for respecting the pumpkin and the turkey, but yes, our Christmas plans are made. Granted, we have to travel and buying plane tickets ahead of time is a must, I can't believe I'm thinking about Christmas already!

I've been looking at tickets to New Mexico for a while. We decided that for the first time I'd spend Christmas away from my family. The hubs-to-be has a little sister, and with little ones Christmas day is still a really big deal, so my family will celebrate here on the East Coast the week before and be just fine with it. It's hard to believe that I'm old enough to have to choose where I'll be spending my holidays (it's not fun when the families are on opposites sides of the country) but here I am making that choice. It was hard, for sure. But I'm engaged now and definitely don't want to be without him on Christmas. We've never actually spent the holiday together, since our families are all over the map, so this one is a big deal for us. I'm excited, and definitely looking forward to some nicer December weather that what Boston will provide.

The best part is, we got a good deal! Ticket prices were SO high and we weren't sure we were going to be able to make it happen, but today, out of nowhere the ticket prices went WAY down, and now we're booked! :)

But that's so far away! For now I'll focus on my Halloween costume, then my Thanksgiving travels!

Monday Madness

How maddening is it that I don't have a pumpkin yet? I love pumpkins and I have yet to get around to getting one! Halloween is in less than a week and I have nothing to show for my holiday spirit. I went to Trader Joe's yesterday, but all they sell are pie making pumpkins, and I most certainly do not want one of those. I do have a mini pumpkin at work, but nothing at home.

I'm not sure that I want to carve said pumpkin, but I definitely want to have one. Last October I got a pumpkin in Vermont, which I did not carve, and it lasted, rot-free until February (well maybe not really that long, but it was a really long time). I would love to have another amazing ones this year, but I'll settle for whatever I can find.

I have to walk past the farmers' market today (poor me, right?) on my way home, and I'm hoping they will have a selection, even if it's not the best. I also need to get flowers for a friend's birthday today, so hopefully the cold hasn't scared the farmers away yet!

Monday Madness

Yes, I do know that it's Tuesday. Yesterday was a little too busy and I didn't have a chance to wax poetic. But I'm here now with some more madness. The weather.

My mom always told me that people only talk about the weather when they have nothing else to say, but the weather here is worth mentioning! When we got back from New Mexico we were shocked by chilly 50 degree temps. Nothing too horrible, but they just kept dropping from there. We had a couple days of high 40's, but by the weekend we had rain and low 40's (definitely the biggest down fall of living in New England). Pretty gross if you ask me.

Saturday turned out ok, but Sunday was horrible from the time we woke up. It was rainy and windy and just about the worst weather to go out in. But we did. We wandered out to the suburbs to see my sister, only to also see snow. SNOW. Yup...October 18th and it was SNOWING. What the heck? Even for New England it's WAY too early for snow. I'm just not ready for the boots and mittens and constant runny nose that come with snow and winter.

The best part is, weather in Massachusetts is bi-polar...and the high today is 62.

gone, but not forgotten

Sorry for the lack of blogging, I've been on vacation. Hence why there were no new post, and no Monday Madness. It was so nice to get away, but it's also nice to be home.

Our vacation was to New Mexico to see the family, as usual. We had a wonderful time seeing friends and hot air balloons. I have so many pictures of balloons, and basically nothing else. Hopefully I'll get around to posting them soon.

On said vacation, I did two pretty major things. One, we bought our wedding invitations! We're doing all the typing/decorating ourselves, and that's not even close to started, but we bought the actual invites we'll mail, and all the fun stuff we'll need to put them together! We has something else in mind when we went to the store, but we came out very happy. I'm really looking forward to starting the process! It's going to be a lot of work, so we'll have to start soon. Luckily we got a new typewriter ribbon.

The second thing I did was get a tattoo. It's my second tattoo, but the first one I can actually see (tattoo #1 is on my back, and I never even think about it). This one is on my wrist. It's the longitude and latitude of my Alma Mater. I'm happy with how it turned out, but I slightly freaked last night, realizing what I just did. I think not being able to see my first tattoo didn't make me realize the longevity of these things. Oh well. It's not that I don't want to have it, because I wouldn't have gotten it done in the first place, but it's just so weird to see still. The hubs-to-be also has an arm tat, and he says it just takes some getting used to. He did a little panic dance at first too, but now he doesn't think about it even being there. I like that, and hope it comes soon for me. I'd like to stop staring at my wrist all day.

So now it's back to work and back to the grind. I love visiting, but home is comfortable. Too bad for us, we came back to winter starting in Boston. It was a chilly 35 degrees this morning, with an eventual high of only 47 today. It's days like these that I wish we never left the warmth of the desert!

Monday Madness

It's Monday again (how does that keep happening?) and the madness today is...colds! It seems that about half of the people in my office are sick with colds. They all sneeze and cough all day long in the office. IN THE OFFICE! Instead of staying home to get better, the come to work and spread their germs to the rest of us. I am less than excited about this. I do not want to be sick. I do not find it fair that I have to share my office with sickly people and their germs.

The reason these sick people are coming in is because they "have too much work to do to stay home." I understand that. I have a lot of work to do, and a unplanned, unprepared for day off would be hard, but putting the rest of the office's health at risk? That's just mean.

Since we're going to New Mexico on Friday (yay! I can't wait!), I REALLY don't want to get sick. So today I've been pumping the vitamin C, drinking lots of water, and making sure to wash my hands. I don't want to go overboard, but I really don't want to get sick! I just wish the sickos would stay home!

october

I'm pretty sure it's March that's supposed to come in like a lion. Some one apparently forgot to tell October because holy freezing the fall has come today. When I checked the weather at 7am it was 40 degrees. That is not warm. 40 degrees warrants real jackets and scarves. I don't think I'm ready.

There was no summer...spring lasted forever. Now it seems we only had a few weeks of fall and winter is already here. I'm hoping today does not mean that it will be 40 from here on out, because I could use just a few more 70 and sunny days. Winter needs to wait.

( the cute little pumpkin the director of my department gave me this morning)

And with that, holy cow it's October. Where did the year go? How could it possibly be the 10th month already? We've been over a year in our apartment, and in two weeks it will be a year ago that I started at my company. It definitely doesn't feel like that long ago.

I did it

I survived the dentist. It was a pretty long hour and a half, but I made it through. My new dentist is wonderful and made sure I was fully numbed up before she started drilling. I told her about my anxiety at my first appointment, so I think when I sat shaking in the chair, she wasn't too surprised. But she did a good job, and I'm a lot less nervous for my next appointment now. (I have two more fillings to go. Never will I slack on flossing again).

The big excitement of my day was getting a new keyboard for my computer at work. I've never liked the old one I inherited when I moved to my cube, and today I asked for a new one. It's not brand new, but it's new to me, and SO much better than the old one. Is it sad that a keyboard is so exciting? I don't know. But the day isn't over, so hopefully it won't really be the MOST exciting thing.

Monday Madness

Well look at that, it's Monday again. There is a lot going on today that makes my life crazy (mostly work), but the madness is the dentist.

Today I have to go to the dentist and have some cavities filled. I'm not really looking forward to it. I used to love the dentist when I was little because I never had any problems with my teeth, and I'd come out of the office with squeaky clean dents. But then I started getting cavities. I take good care of my teeth (the dentist says I have great oral hygiene), but thanks to genetics, my teeth are soft and get cavities more easily. Gee, thanks Mom and Dad. And as it turns out, the dentist is not so fun when there is a drill involved.

It's maddening that I can sit in the dentist chair and be told that I have "beautiful teeth" and "amazingly clean teeth" and then be told I have 6 (Yup. SIX) cavities. I'm having three filled today, and the other three at a later date. The dentist didn't want to have to numb my whole mouth at the same time. How thoughtful.

Of course the real problem stems from the fact that my cavities are mostly between my teeth. I floss, but not enough, and since I haven't had x-rays in two and a half years, there was no way for the hygienist cleaning my teeth to spot them. So now there are six gross cavities in my teeth. Awesome.

I just hope I don't bite my cheek while it's numb...that's about the worst feeling ever...besides maybe a drill going into your teeth.

Proud Owner

We are now proud owners of our very own typewriter. I am so very excited. I love how typewriters look, how they sound and how they type. I even make my blog font the typewriter kind. :D

We've wanted one for a while, and with the wedding coming up and surely lots of things to type, we started looking for one more seriously. We found one on craigslist for a great deal and we couldn't pass it up. It's at my apartment right now and I can't wait to go home and test it out! Hopefully I'll have lots of wonderfully typed things to share soon!!!

Monday Madness

Today the madness is buying a house. I am, by no means, looking to buy a house. But it seems like everyone else I know is. My sister and her boyfriend, my mom and a few of the girls at work all just bought houses. I understand the draw, with all the tax credits that will be given, and it being a buyers' market, but it just seems like a whole lot of responsibility I'm just not ready for.

I do like the idea of having my own place, in the sense that I don't have to worry about whether or not I can paint a certain color, and I like the idea of having a yard or a deck, but I don't really like the idea that everything becomes my problem. We just got a brand new fridge (after an entire year of dealing with an awful one) and at no cost to us. If there is something we can't fix on our own, we have someone else to take care of it for us. No paying for plumbers, or electricians or anything like that. Granted, at the end of our lease we will have paid a lot of money and be no closer to owning our own home, but it's something we're ok with.

 So why do people assume that a house is in our future? Even at the bank on Saturday when we were opening a new checking account (now that we're engage, we've finally gotten a joint account) they asked if we were saving for a house or looking to buy. Nope. Not at all. And not only that, but I don't want to leave the city! I love living in Boston and you have to be Scrooge McDuck to buy here. Maybe in a few years a house with be part of our game plan, but for right now, we're so happy being renters.

the dragging day

Today just seems as if it will never be over. I'm tired today, even though I slept well last night, and work is not where I want to be. I know that this is not an uncommon feeling among the working folk, but I just can't seem to shake my afternoon slump.

Yesterday I had an all day meeting. I got into the office early and had to be on top of my game for the whole day. It was rough. I think because of it, I'm just worn out. I played Smiley McSuper-Worker all day, and I just haven't recovered. And in comparison to yesterday, today is really slow. There is nothing to prep for and nothing to present, so the day to day work just seems unexciting. I know I need to get it together and get at least a little something done this afternoon, but crawling under my desk for a nap seems like the more appealing option. 

How much coffee is too much in one day?

Monday Madness

Today is, of course, Monday. I've decided that on Mondays, I will discuss one of the maddening issues of my life. Hopefully it will be more amusing than a horrible vent session.

Today, it's planning a wedding. I was proposed to a total of two weeks and two days ago. To me, that's not a whole lot of time. I've been just enjoying the new bling on my finger and not thinking too much past when I'll need another manicure. But, unfortunately, other people want details. When will it be? Where will it be? Who will be invited? Granted, these things have crossed my mind, but nothing has been set in stone. We're still working on it. Maybe next week?

At the same time, I'm very eager to start planning the unimportant details. I love spending my time looking at wedding dresses and floral arrangements, and fancy place settings. I've thought of what the invitations will look like, and my guest list for an engagement party. Am I doing things in the wrong order? Probably.

I'm sure we'll get around to setting a date before all the other weekends in 2010 are taken, and I'm sure we'll find the perfect location. Hopefully these will happen soon too. But for now, I'm just fine not doing anything important. And hopefully I won't annoying too many people in the process.

And hopefully I won't be kicking myself in a few months saying "why didn't I start thinking about this earlier?"

Today we remember.

September 11, 2001. I was in chemistry class in my junior year of high school. A note was handed to my teacher. He didn't read it out loud. He kept on teaching until it was lunch time. At lunch, everyone was in a frenzy. Would our friend have to go to war? Would Boston be a target? I didn't know what was going on. I asked. I learned. 

Everyone says you'll never forget where you were when you heard about it. I won't. I remember exactly where I was sitting in the cafeteria and who was at my table. I remember who exactly told me, and who was crying already. It was something Earth shaking and we didn't know what would happen next. As it turns out, our little town, like the rest of the country, rallied around the flag and felt patriotic. We didn't trash George Bush in our American Politics class anymore. We were proud to have American flag stickers in our lockers.

As time has passed, we have become more critical of the presidents again. We've lost our love to display the flag, and we've often felt betrayed by our government. Politics has gone back to politics. And that's probably ok. The climate of politics and the state of affairs in the country does change. We can forget that we every loved George Bush, if even just for a few days.

But what we can't forget are those people who lost their lives. They were innocent. They were not supposed to died that day. They were on planes. They were trying to rescue others. Firemen, policemen, and people just trying to get to work. Not one of them should be forgotten. Nor should the soldiers who've lost their lives in war. These people are the ones we should rally around.


**Note: I am not generally very vocal about my political opinions. I have a lot of them, having studied politics in college, but I like to let everyone have their own too. This is one thing I actually care to talk about. I promise I won't get all Rush Limbaugh on you very often.

back to the drawing board.

I have missed the world of blogging. A few months ago I decided to cut off my old blog . There were a couple of things that lead me to such decisions, but they don't matter. What matters now is, I'm back. I missed having an outlet for thoughts, and I missed having a way to communicate with the world, even if there's no one on the other end of this.


I've decided to start new instead of picking up where I left off. A lot has changed in the two months since I last posted, and I thought a fresh slate would be the way to go. I hope this will be the place for me to find some sanity in the madness of working full time, planning a wedding, and finding parking in the city.