When only one's left

what do you do??

I am obsessed with earrings, all jewelry in general actually but earrings will always hold a special place in my heart. I remember wanting pierced ears every since I could remember, but my mother would not let me get them until I turned 12. Oh so when that wonderful twelfth day of my life rolled around, we went to a local salon, and then they brought out the gun! Now I was just excited to get my ears pierced, but never once had I thought about how they actually do it!! So I was a little freaked. Anyway they did it and as we were paying I was standing at the front desk with my mom and the next thing I know I am on the floor and throwing up in a waste basket. Yes, I fainted and then threw up. We never really determined the reason. My family is positive it was because of the pain and that I am just a wimp. I am going with the fact that I hadn't eaten anything that day because I was so excited and it just got to me. I mean what 12 year old doesn't eat all day?? haha. But yea, I went through a lot of pain and ended up with fabulous amazing holes in my ears!! I was able to wear real earrings.

But of course, over the years mishaps happen and I have lost lone earrings. For numerous reasons of course but a lot of them I absolutely love so I have been unable to throw them out and I keep them all in a bag in my jewelry box. Well I have been sorting things tonight and I decided to take pictures of all my favorites! So here goes:

I don't remember when/where/why I got this pair but I think the little turtle is just so damn cute! it always made me happy when I wore them because I knew I had these great little turtles on my ears! Sadly this guy has been lonely for a very long time and my ears, turtleless.

These earrings were a gift from a family friend one year for my birthday and I wasn't so much a huge fan of their looks as of how they stayed in my ears. The back had a little hook so once it was clipped in there was no way these babies were falling out. It was really nice because I could do anything in them, swimming was the main worry, and never have to think about it or anything. And you know what...their looks grew on me. The purple was great for bringing out my eyes and they looked nice enough for any occasion. These were my summer earrings for a long time.

I have an obsession with long dangly silver earrings. I have no idea why but I heart them. I also have this uncanny ability to lose or break them usually right around a month after I've bought them. thus I have owned a number of pairs and yet still always find myself lacking the dangly silvers. I also usually wait around 6 months before buying the next pair as I get very annoyed with myself every time I mess it up again. lol

These used to be my mothers I believe. I found a lot of old random jewelry over the years as I pawed through garage/barn stuff. But I loved these becuase they were flat where hoops usually have a pretty broad side that shows forward these were nice and flat. You can't tell from the picture, but they also had that stamped/beaten look that metal can have. I have never seen another pair like this and yet it is still a type I look for every time I enter an earring store.

These used to be my mothers as well. Obsession with gold much!?? And though it looks rather ugly just sitting there they were very pretty when on. I remember the night I lost these. My friends and I had been out on our school soccer field (and when I say field, it's like 5 fields put together) just hanging around one night in highschool. Once we got back to the dorms I realized I was missing one. I was very sad and I even went back to look around using my cell as a flashlight. haha, needless to say I did not find it.

My grandparents would very frequently get me earrings for my birthday. They spend the winters in New Mexico so most of the time they were turquoise or of native american origin. The bear represents a protector, physical strength, leadership. I have 2 other pairs of earrings that are the bear as well but my favorites were these cute little silver ones. Unfortunately...

Cute & simple. They were nice like the small purple ones farther up becuase they clipped in the back as well and I didn't have to think about them. The colors are pretty together.

As I said before I absolutely love silver and dangles. These were cool becuase they were never in the same shape. I've since seen bigger ones of the same idea but i liked the size and different qualities of them. This was a stupid loss, I had taken them off while I was lying on the couch and put them on the coffee table. I forgot them there that night and by the time I went back to get them.... I blamed my younger siblings. haha

Quickie

I have been all over the place this week in terms of EVERYTHING! And I shouldn't even really be doing this right now as I have to leave soon, but I've found myself thinking of blog posts and things that I want to right about. But I have no time! so bullets:

• I am very excited because I am actually excited to write posts! I thought I would lose interest in it..and of course that's still possible, but I see blog posts in my brain and it's thrilling! lol
• I am partaking in a company sponsored seminar thing that is being taught by an employee of the company who has been there for a number of years. In our field there are many different types of specialties so they like to provide one or two day classes just so everyone can have a general knowledge. Anyway I have decided that I really miss being in live lectures and being able to observe my professor. I take all my graduate courses online now and it is so not the same. Plus being able to connect with the people around you and make jokes or comments, whatever, makes it so much more interesting. 
• I don't know really why it does but I have been hanging with this person who I know has been unfaithful to his SO and is acting in a way that I consider to be pretty much unfaithful. And for some reason it just makes me feel very weird and wrong. (Sorry, I will continue hanging out with him and of course he won't ever know I feel this way but it this is where I get to speak free!)
• :) That's for this week, even though it's sucked as much as it's rocked.
• And I'm out, and way way out of time!

Almost the weekend!

I live in an Icebox, I'm told :)

After chatting with a number of family members I have been informed that most of my family believes that I live in an icebox. My grandfather in fact told my uncle that in no way would he come visit me becuase he could potentially die of hypothermia!! Now of course I wouldn't let his happen... I have a wonderful electric blanket which I would willingly wrap around him like a muu-muu! This fact was then confirmed when my uncle called me up last night and said (demanded) that I stop whatever I was doing and go turn my heat up to 70. Then I was to leave it there for the next month and he would pay the difference. Gotta love fam! :) Now I was able to talk him down into allowing me to turn it down at night and maybe off when my roomate and I are both gone, but it still cracks me up for a number of reasons.

1) I have always been cold. No matter what is happening, unless I am in a sauna or something similarily designed to make you sweat, I'm chilly. So for me to be sitting wrapped up in 1 or 2 blankets while watching tv is not insane, and I truthfully enjoy the coziness it provides. The only time this does get annoying is when you're trying to do something like blog, read, eat. You know the normal stuff. And frequently I still do these things and end up with icicle hands. There have been a number of times that I have had to stop chatting with people because I had to put the computer down! But eh, getting away from a glaring screen every few hours is not a bad thing.

2) For my entire life I have never seen heat above 68 degrees! At my home the heat would turn on around 7 or 8am to 68 and then around 6pm at night it would go down to 55. Now as soon as I got old enough to understand what was happening I was pretty much existing in 55 degree temps becuase a kid is always out of the house by 8am for school and by the time I got back and sat down for whatever the heat was off or turning off and the temp very quickly sinking. House has lots of windows. Now my father (who set the heat) never experienced the chilling cold because he went to bed extremely early! (up early as well but...8pm bedtime is just ludicrous to me).
These temps were engrained in me, and even though sometimes I would get pissed and turn the heat up it never did that much, and a body gets used to it. So going into my college apartment I did the same thing. Whenever I turned the heat on I would put it at 68 and at night I would turn it down to 55 (if I remembered, which I usually did b/c my bedroom had the one rogue heater that would go on no matter what and it usually got so hot that I had to open my window! ). This apt as well absolutly sucked at insulating so I stayed used to being cold, under my blankets or accepting body heat from others. :)

3) Now that I have spent 22 years used to this pattern it seems very odd to me to change it now. Especially since I don't believe in wasting excess energy and the only rooms that are very cold even at 65 or 68 are my bedroom and the living room. WHich I have found remedies for. Now it would be nice to get up without an ice cold nose, and it would be kinda fun to be able to move around at night and not feel like I'm setting my head down on an ice block every time I move it somewhere new. But hey, spring will come sometime. And plus, I love sleeping in slightly colder temps.

4) Energy?? I know that it takes a lot to heat it back up but does it take the same to keep it there hour after hour?? potential research for this afternoon.

So a very big thank you goes out to the uncle for the idea, but I don't mind bundling up. And if I'm ever shivering too much a shower is fantastic to warm you right up! Plus I have a trip to LA planned out in just about 3 weeks!!! That'll keep me going!! Woot woot rockett!!

Haircut!!

I got a new haircut today...went with a new theme of bangs this time! I'm very happy with it.

Old:

NEW!!

Don't tell me if you don't like it....haha. The pictures aren't really doing it justice. :)

Trying to say what?

I've always been very subconscious about my writing. And a lot of time I find it very hard to put down in actual words what I'm feeling. I think a huge part of this is because I change emotions like woah, so sometimes before I can even put down the current feeling I am rationalizing and changing it into something else. And yet I have always found myself doing diary/journal like things. They just usually end up being very disjointed and random as I jump from point to point and feeling to thought.

Recently I have found myself in a situation where I am trying very hard to get a point across to someone through words. While writing my thoughts down I keep going back to reread and see if I can maybe explain it more clearly, or add a thought here becuase that will provide the background for this. all in all, it comes off as very longwinded and scattered. At least in my eyes. And the frustrating thing is that these ideas are very important to me and it is very important to portray them to the recipient in the way I want them to be viewed. I mean there are SO many ways one can interpret a passage. That's why everyone likes different books.

Yet at the end no matter what, I'm not happy with the final result. If I were to go back read it for a 5th, 10th, 50th time I am sure that I would find somehting to change, omit, reword. And that essence, that literal thought that i'm trying to preserve on paper will still be elusive.

I'm hoping this blog will help me to become more comfortable with people reading my writing. And hopefully comments back will allow me to see exactly what people are taking from it, then I can compare it to what I was going for and see how far off base I am! I remember my college roomate used to think it was funny that I would reread an email before I sent it. It didn't matter who it was to (friend, boyfriend, professor, coach). I would always read it over though and usually fix something. It made me feel like I was checking to make sure that none of my wierdness was shining through or something.

Well here it is, my weirdness and all is standing up and not going to worry about who might see it. And to start now I will just post this without going back to the top and I will not view it in my blog, because yes I have found myself editing even after I post.

TV? Real Life?

I've always enjoyed the very dramatic shows such as 7th Heaven, One Tree Hill, etc. And these days I still find myself watching Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice even though I feel like both of the shows have gone off the deep end in their absolute ridiculousness. Grey's more, but still.

I'm not sure exactly what it is that draws me these types of shows. I feel like I almost crave drama in a, life's hard so this allows me to prepare myself, or if it's because I enjoyed acting when I did it during highschool and of course acting stories and shows always have a lot of drama. I can see myself acting out these stories with the dead father or the baby who's dying. I mean after all, I was Maria in West Side Story who threatens to shoot the guy who shot Tony!!!  And then beyond all that I look at these doctors or people in the shows who go through like 10 different tragedies in one day and you wonder how the hell they actually make it through if that's their real life. Like, for real? I would collapse in a second if stuff like that went on in my life every day. 

I have obviously just watched the new episodes of Grey's and Private tonight while doing other things but I found myself actually spilling tears when the kid in Grey's who need organs almost died.  I've had such an amazing and lucky life up till now and I am so grateful for that. I can only hope that my future is as wonderful. 

Now on to L&O SVU. Yea I have a thing for dramatic and disturbing tv.... But all my good friends have the same obsession!!! 

Inauguration Day

Of course the one day that I really really want to watch something during work hours I am busy as heck trying to make a deadline. But I made it and then spent the time watching the swear ins (???) and Obama's speech. It was truly incredible to see the massive amounts of people who came to cheer this man in. I am very happy to see this type of change.

Though why are they showing Bush's helicopter leaving for so long??? Hello, we are happy he is gone, go back to the fun.

I did not like Obama's speech as much today as I did his acceptance speech but I do think he did a good job with it. The thing I appreciate the most about him is that he has a great talent in calling out to everyone and making you feel, no matter what, that you are part of a great group. He never leaves anyone out and I feel like you can see him talking personally to each of these different types/races whatever. I can swear I actually see and hear changes in his sentences. It's incredible.

I'm so happy for the US to be embarking on this new direction. I can't wait to see what will come of it. This country thrives on adversity and change so I think it will be wonderful to view and be a part of. Lets go USA.

George Clinton & the Parliament Funkadelic

This past saturday night I went to see this band. They aren't my most favorite type of music but I have a number of friends who absolutely love it and as I don't dislike any type of music when my friend asked me to go I said sure. I was in the mood to get out of the apartment and I figured the "Godfather of Funk" has got to be a good time. Plus my friend kn

ows the good funk bands so when he is dying to go, you can tell it's going to be great. And no worries, this band did not let me down.

Not only was George Clinton one of the most colorful (literally) and interesting man I have every seen, but he had so much fun up on the stage. In fact everyone who came up on that stage looked like they were loving their life and what they were doing. Which to me is the epitomy of a concert/show. I enjoy listening to the music, but the real fun is in being able to watch these incredible people doing something that affects so many people and see how it just radiates off of them. There were times that there were so many people up on stage, rocking out, that you didn't even know who was playing or w

ho was just there to have a good time! Check out the hair on this guy!!!

Now granted I could pretty much only see

 from their waists up, if that lucky but 

I did even get to see the guy in a diaper. 

YES, supposedly that is his claim to fame. I'm still not 

sure about it.

All in all I had a fantastic time. Funk, as I said before, is not my first choice of music but i was having a blast dancing around and people watching. If you can imagine the types o

f people who came to watch the crazy awesome people on the stage...people watching was insane! So if you ever have the chance to go see the Godfather of Funk, I suggest you do it. Because it really is an experience.

Pretend this is a Thursday Night Post

For the entire week the weaher people have been preparing us for insanely cold temps. There was even an article in the daily newspaper that was telling how to avoid hypothermia and frostbite. As of right now this is Chicago's weather post:

Yep that's -10 and yep that's not even considering the wind. No need to make fun, my friends have already taken care of that. :) Woke up to an "enjoy that -30, haha." gotta love that time difference as well as friendly ribbing. Thanks Kristy!

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Because of the insanely cold weather these past few days icicles have had a joyous time growing. These are the icicle on my back porch:

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The middle icicle is almost touching the porch railing. If it extended out that far! I really enjoy how they form a pyramid. Makes me wonder what is on the roof that makes most of the water drip down the middle. Of course it's just musings because I wouldn't even step outside to get these pictures! It was hard enough opening the door to it. I always laugh at myself when I think these things, this is why I went to engineering school. Here's an artsy one as well being shot through the screen door. I think it's pretty cool that you can see the water drops on the screen as well as the icicles behind that.

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Also for enjoyment, this is a pic from when I went skating last week. For some reason Chicago is famous for "The Bean." I don't know what it is, but I thought the photo opportunity was fun. 

I seriously love the chicago skyline. I wish I had a better camera so that I could really capture it. Note: This post was meant to go up last night but blogspot seems to hate me right now. 

A Vivid Dream

I had the weirdest and most vivid dream last night:

My best friend had just moved into a house with a guy, whom I had never met before, and I went to visit them. While touring the house all I could see where things that were wrong and that I knew she wouldn't like. First off the house was huge! I mean you felt like you walked a mile to reach one end from the other. There was a big really nice pool with a viewing area and so much other extraneous rooms and activity things. It was big and cavernous and felt like you were walking through an office building or something. The fireplaces (there were numerous ones) were all really big, made out of stone, but the actual opening where the fire goes was tiny and short. So you really couldn't see the fire. Anyway as they were showing me around I was making comments, asking her about this and that and I kept getting glared at by this guy. I mean I was seriously offending him. And she wasn't saying much, it was like she didn't want to contradict him. Which is VERY unlike her.

So finally I was like ok I'm going to go for a swim so I went to the pool. Randomly my entire swim team was also staying in the house and so they all came and joined me as did she and we had a ball. When it was dinnertime everyone went to get out and I realized on my way back to my room that I had forgotten something back at the pool so back I went. Down on deck there was this contraption that was similar to lane line holders which whatever I had forgotten was next too and somehow whatever was attached to it started to unravel. (I know this is very vague but I can't remember the details, and dreams aren't always so clear.) So here I am trying to wind this thing back up but I can't get it to attach again and I'm wasting lots of time. Then I hear footsteps and I'm really afraid it's him coming to make sure his precious pool didn't get ruined or something so I leave it and run out another door.

Back in my room getting ready I'm talking to one of the girls about how he really freaks me out and she's agreeing and then all of a sudden he walks by on the ROOF with one of his friends. And blatantly looks in the window at me like he's checking on me or something! So the girl with me in the room is like what the hell is going on and I'm like I do not trust this guy. Ultimately the dream ends with us deciding that I should never be left alone, I'll always have a swim girl with me, and that's it.

I woke up from this feeling very unsettled. One because the friend who's with the guy is nothing like the person she was in the dream. She is very opinionated and not afraid to say what she wants, and she knows how to deal with guys like that. I mean she has been with guys who kinda freak me out and can be nuts but she never let them make decisions for her or anything. And now she's with a really great guy who I have a grand time hanging out with.

I might research it a bit, provide an update later but for now I have to do some work.

To discover your inner self

    (Note: I fell over when I did this move!)

With the lovely cold front that has been flowing through Chicago I have been focusing on spending a longer amount of time in the gym than usual. I figure during the week unless I have plans I could be working out rather than sitting in front of the tv and passing out! haha cause yes, for some reason my incredibly boring work days tire me out like woah!  Plus I would like to get my swimmers body back just a bit..

I've been trying out different work out classes in the past week or so. My gym is great in that it offers like 4 or 5 classes a night that are free since I am a member and they have 3 locations with different classes. So the other night I went to "Ab Attack," pretty self explanatory and "Steel Pilates." Both were nice and not too cardioish which is nice. I'm one of those worker outers who likes to work out but does not like to be moving at rocket pace the whole time. I am uncoordinated and do not have the will to move that fast. It was always my one huge problem with swimming. My coach would always say "windmill!" "windmill!" and I just could not handle that. Anyway I liked those classes. 

Then today I went to what was called "Absolute Yoga" or something like that. The description made it sound like it wasn't so much straight yoga as it was yoga moves with abs and core exercises thrown in. WELL NO! This was straight up yoga, up to the incredibly flamboyant instructor telling me to look inside myself and learn from this hour long class. Now he was very nice and made the class interesting and easy to follow but yoga is just soooooo not for me. I mean you are supposed to be focusing on your breathing and connecting but all I can think is oh man I'm not exhaling in the right place and my shoulders hurt, and how long is this downward dog going to last! I also could not stop thinking about that Bikram Yoga, the one where you do yoga in a 90 degree room or something. I can not believe someone could do that! Haha the roomie did for awhile but oh man...instead of thinking about breathing I would constantly be wiping myself off from being sopping wet! ICK! I mean hello, I'm a swimmer. You don't see the sweat in the water. lol

Regardless I am now never going back to yoga and will continue to spend my time is ab and pilate classes or reading on a lovely cardio machine! Because seriously, I know all these gorgeous actresses get their incredible bodies from yoga, but they must get high or somethign before every workout to be able to get through. And I don't mean to knock anyone who really likes yoga. To each their own, it's just not for me. 

Touch or Nano

I received my first ipod nano many years ago for a christmas present and have loved it ever since! It is one of the first generation nanos that is shown here:

There was a creepy weird flame guy on the left of it so I painted that out, didn't do a fantastic job, but this is what I have. Anyway it has been the perfect little companion to me for however many years and it even has a lovely inscription on the back that my mom put on. Essentially I have loved it to death and even though it's itune tendencies of shuffling the same songs on over and over again annoys the hell out of me it is really the only thing I need to provide me with hours of musical enjoyment.

Alas in the past week or so it has started to freeze and the buttons are acting up. When I go to skip a song it decides to skip two, etc. In essence it is starting to die, and even though I expected this I am horribly sad. Now when I bought my Macbook just about two (one?) years ago I got a free ipod nano along with it. This of course was then stolen by my sister and somehow ruined. I took it back when I went home over break knowing that mine was going out of commission but when I plug it in it is not recognized on any computers I try. To add to that the buttons do NOT work! I can sit there and press the play/pause button for a full minute and nothing happens. So now that I have to buy a new one I can't decide between the Ipod touch, or nano.

Or

Touch:

Pros

1) Touch screen! I'm a geek and love things like this!

2) Ability to watch movies/tv shows (know the nano has this but the screen is not worth it)

3) Internet!!!! I don't care about my email or anything but man it would be so useful to have google maps at certain times

4) This will also be a con, but they do have good brain thinking games that can be amusing at the right times.

Cons

1) Price. It's about $80 more than the nano, but maybe I should spring for a greater memory becuase of movies, etc???

2) Games. I am not even close to a video game type of person and a lot of what the touch is is being promoted as being great for that.

3) I really dislike the idea of being attached to technology 24/7. I will never get a blackberry if I can help it, but than I can always just not attach my email to it. And side note: If i had the opportunity to get an Iphone I totally would!

Nano:

Pros:

1) It is small and easy to use, holds lots of songs

2) Price

Cons:

Non really, I mean it does what I would pay for, plays my songs. I don't get to see pretty pictures on it though (screen too small).

Ultimately apple is great in ensuring that both the nano and touch have the same qualities when it comes to playing music, such as the accelerometer. The nano now also comes in color which is fun. So do I go with the really cool touch just so I could play with it?? Or stick with the nano which just makes sense.

Well old nano is working today so we'll put the final decision off for at least another day!!!!

I went...

SKATING tonight!

I haven't gone skating in a very long time. I mean so long I can't even remember the last time I went. I remember as a kid one of my parent's friends had a house on a lake/pond...I don't remember and they used to go skating all the time. I can see my mom flitting around the lake doing turns and twists (at least I think it was my mom!). But I never really skated. I'm not sure if they had me try or if I just ran around on the ice in shoes.

So tonight my friend and I went to the Millenium Skating Park because he is a hockey player and really wanted to get on the ice so I thought why not. Well I was very nervous because as I stated above, I really wasn't sure I knew how to skate. So trusting the knowledge that I learned over college about how to be athleticish I stepped on the ice and started moving.

Now I in no way look graceful or smooth as I move around the ice, but I can definetly grasp how to do it so I actually move and look like I'm skating. I do have to concentrate fairly hard though. Whenever I got distracted or tried to watch the people around me I would start to lose my balance or catch a tip. Very frustrating for someone who loves to people watch! And whose friend was just sliding along laughing at everyone. LOL We went out for about 40 minutes and I only tripped like 3 times (which my friend was lovely enough to follow me around and give me an arm/catch me when I did, and than I completely fell only once!

I am now obsessed with the idea of getting my own pair of skates and going more frequently because it's free to use the ice you just have to pay for skates. I've spent all morning scouring craigslist and freecycle for a decent pair of skates. It's gonna happen. Of course I'd love to get out on a patch of ice that isn't packed but for now I will have to make do with going in circles, around and around. After all I am a swimmer, I'm pretty used to it.

My weird food characteristics...

I did not eat well over the holidays. Not to say that the food was bad or anything, but living on my own and mainly cooking meals for just myself I find that I can exist on a lot less food than I am used to. Now some of this is obviously because I am not on the swim team anymore, but I find that my body almost repels food because I am sitting in a chair for 8 hours of a day. (my job is not the most thrilling) So having three meals a day plus appetizers and snacks and candy. It all just gets to me. I'm not angry that I allowed myself to eat this way, but it is amazing how it makes me feel. Last night and tonight I was actually excited to go to the gym and I was able to not only work out for close to 2 hours each night, but I did not have to read while doing the cardio machines! That is a huge thing for me, I usually get so bored that I don't know what to do with myself.

But regardless, I am digressing, today when I went in to heat up the soup I had brought for lunch there was food out on the community table and it ended up being a chicken sandwich and onion rings! Onion rings are one of my biggest weaknesses so of course I couldn't pass it up! And then I wasn't so excited about my soup so I thought if I cut up the chicken and put it in than maybe it would make it better. Of course the chicken was breaded. Well not even half an hour after I had finished eating, I felt like hell. And it makes me sad because I find that I can't eat half of the normal food that is offered in this country. I'm alright if it is in moderation like say chicken on a salad or something, but the breaded chicken and the onion rings combined just killed me.

I have always been a picky eater. I never liked fast food ever. I remember back when my mom was not horribly against fast food places we would stop if we were on the road or it was late and there was no dinner at home. Now way back I used to get hamburgers but they could not have anything on them. I mean no lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, mustard, etc. and if it did I would not eat it. I HATE condiments. And I mean I really truly do not use any condiments EVER! It is my opinion that if you can't make food that you want to eat the way you prepare it than why even go through the troubles. Not too mention that most of those silly icky condiments just mask all tastes of what you have already prepared so why don't you just take a warm piece of bread or something and dip it in ketchup! And in case you need a real idea of how much I abhor things like ketchup and mayonnaise and mustard, if any ever got on me I would throw up and I literally have trouble passing bottles of the stuff if they are dirty and gross. But after the hamburgers I would order the chicken nuggets and if any of the meat looked suspicious, meaning slightly darker than white, I could not physically eat it. Just the thought would make me sick.

Now I still have those weird feelings. If i clean my own chicken I cut off probably close to a sixth of the whole breast because I can't stand the idea of fat. With veggies if they aren't perfect I will throw those unperfect sections out. I understand this is wasteful and I try to buy so that I don't have anything go bad on me, but it's something I can't help. The idea of eating not perfect food just disgusts me.

I realized today that I just can't eat greasy icky foods like that. And I somehow need to figure out how to control my boredom and cravings. And I only say this because I LOVE chocolate. And I get major major chocolate cravings. And not for the cheap hershey stuff but nice dark expensive chocolate that melts in your mouth. I can eat chocolate all day and not feel gross but 5 onion rings and a breaded chicken and I want to go lay on the couch, my stomach bulges out. It's gross! And it's not worth it, I would rather eat loaves upon loaves of bread or something chocolate than fried foods.

So here's to me trying to stay away from all grease!!! I can do it....I think. In hopes to further it along I will cook up some chili tonight for lunches. It is soooo good.

Crazy Bus Travels

New Years Eve (Wed): Woke up insanely early this morning to catch a 6am bus down to danbury. I was choosing to go on the early one becuase I thought it was a straight trip all the way down and I would get there with plenty of time to hang out and get ready for the new years eve partying!!! Oh no! At the very first step, buying the ticket, I was told that I had two transfers. Now I'm not sure if it was the insanely early hour, or that my mind just hadn't woken up yet, but the woman seemed very calm and was acting like this was a normal thing so I assumed everything would be fine and my transfer buses would be waiting right there for me and I would go from one to the other. yea...right. cause my traveling experiences are always easy peasy. I get off the bus in boston and look across to find my next one and there is nothing. there is a bus going to hartford (my next transfer) at 9:30am, it is not 7:20 but that is it. Ok, my brain is thinking well I was supposed to be in Danbury at 11:30 so there must be one that leaves earlier than 9:30.

So I walk myself over to the ticket counter, being careful to swerve around all of the overexcited NYC bound crazies AND the mean old bitchy sour cause she's not goign anywhere woman tells me that the next bus that will get me to Danbury doens't leave until 12:15. Excuse me??? I say on the website there was one that was supposed to get me there at 11:30. Oh you missed that, that one left at 7.
Now here's where Hallie gets really mad becuase anyone who lives in NH knows that you can not get from Concord to Boston in an hour, so the woman who sold me the ticket at the beginning of the morning sold me a ticket that she knew would take me all day! Strike 1 bus people.
So I say ok, well can I take the bus that leaves at 9:30 to Hartford anyway? "Surrree if you want to wait in Hartford." Fine cranky old woman I will just leave and do what I want. Luckily I did take the 9:30 bus which was supposed to put us in Hartford at 11:45. Guess what time we got there???? 

1pm!

Now this was fine for me becasue I had already called my friend and she had looked up the next bus to Danbury and it wasn't until 2. great! less time for me to wait in a station (they are always cold and gross) and I'll still get to danbury with a decent amount of time.

Around 1 I drag my 85lb bag into the Hartford bus station and immediately check to see if the bus to Danbury is still running and on time. I mean we had just driven through the worst of the snow storm, but who knows with crazy bus people. The not so lovely woman at the desk informed me that yes it was. Ok nice!!! I'll run to the bathroom and then grab some food. 3 minutes later Hallie walks out of the bathroom and hears over the intercom...

"crackle crackle...Danbury passenger.....crackle mumble static....dispatch office....static crackle...immediately"

oh no!! is that me?? I'm a danbury passenger... what is a dispatch office??? well there was a small window outside that I saw someone sitting behind?? I mean the ticket desk can't be the dispatch office right???!?!? That over there is the security booth. Alright, outside I go! 

"Hello I'm going to Danbury, is this the dispatch office?"

"You're going to Danbury? At 2? Do you really need to go to Danbury?"

"Well yes, my friend is picking me up there."

"I can only take you to WATERBURY! WATERBURY you hear??" short crazy man is yelling at me. "And we leave now! I am leaving now, you come, I will take you to Waterbury, you can be picked up there! All buses to Danbury are canceled! Lets go!"

"Alright!" waterbury is closer than hartford at least right?

I am the only one on the bus with this crazy man and as soon as we pull out he is cackling up in the front seat because he knows that there are others at that station who are trying to get to Danbury but they didn't report to the dispatch office... I have no idea what was working for me that day, but man it all just worked out perfectly. I ended up being picked up in Waterbury by my fave even though it turned out that they could have gotten me to danbury....silly silly. At least my flight back to Chicago was uneventful and easy. :)

All in all I ended up in Danbury with plenty of time to make myself pretty and have a fabulous time in a NYC bar. Go 2009!!! 

Holiday Recap Part 1

2008

Most of the holidays passed in a blur for me. I wasn't home till xmas eve so before I knew it christmas was over! which is sad because I like the build up of anticipation. Silly big person job!
But i'll try to recap here, for my sake because I have a bad memory and I would like to remember what I did!

Christmas Eve (Wed): Flew home today. I was lucky enough to have a scheduled flight right in the window of good weather. I was after all the craziness that occured on Tuesday where people were stuck in Ohara all night so yippee for that! And then I flew out oh about 2 hours before the snow was due to start again and cause all manners of nonsense in the flying airplane world. Managed to get home around 6ish that night and had a delicious fajita dinner with the family and grandparents. Then spent most of the rest of the night going through christmas presents that I had had mailed home previously (I did all my xmas shopping online) and wrapping those. Felt good to hang out with the sis, she's starting to get old enough to relate to and have nice conversations with so that was great! Maybe now that she actually likes to talk, she'll start becoming more girly as well! She did receive a scarf from our grandmother which is something new! And yelled at me when I tried to steal it so there's hope. Lol

Christmas Day: This whole day passed in a big blur. Of course we were up at 8:30 am because my family are freaks! who can not sleep for the life of them. Unwrapping presents was fairly simple and quick as there were only a few for each person. I got an electric blanket which I just tried out last night (Jan 4) and it worked wonderfully well. Though I think I may need to turn it on periodically through the night cause it did get cold halfway through. I also got a veggie peeler!!! And a Kindle. Which is very cool, but we really need to figure out a way to share books on it because it is just not cool with me that I pay to order a book and than can't do anything else with it? I mean I read books more than once, but sharing is half the fun.

We had a lovely brunch after present giving (I heart bacon! and fresh bagels! and sticky buns!). And then later in the afternoon the rest of my mom's side of the family came up and did the whole family thing. Included in the serious business of gifts my mother and aunt had also decided that it would be fun to do a yankee swap. Not sure what they were thinking as that just meant that we would go from having our junk in our basement to having someone elses, but hey. And to prove it my brother ended up with a Flowbee! A flowbee is a hair (head hair) shaver that you connect to a vaccum and then shave someone's head. yes I would say that you probably don't get such a great haircut and seriously is it that hard to just sweep up the hair after you're done?? I used to shave my ex's hair and you could just gather the clumps as you moved the razor and then place them in a bag. Granted his hair was curly so maybe that made it easier but are we that lazy??? Dinner followed and then everyone peaced out pretty early actually.

Day after Christmas (Fri): I met up with the college roomies today. All four of us had lunch at some obscure restaurant in Peterborough, NH. Random and completely empty of course because we didn't meet until 2 and by the time everyone got there becuase of traffic and getting lost it was closer to 3. But it was fun to hang out with the girls. One of the hardest adjustments of moving on after college has been that I don't have people in my apartment whenever I am home. :( I mean I love my alone time but we would have at least 4 or 5 people at a time what with all the boyfriends and surrogate roomates who filtered in. Now it's just me and chlo. Still good, just different. After lunch the 3 originals rented a room in yet another obscure Peterborough establishment, Jack Daniel's Motor Inn. Yessir, It was a classy place, but it was clean and boasted two double beds and a place for us to veg out, have some drinks, and relax. I was insanely lucky to be placed with two amazing girls my freshman year in lovely old Riley dorm and I am so glad that we can keep up the relationships we began back there in that one room even though we are now spread out across the US! And I'm still coming to visit Rockett!!!!

Late Friday into Sat: Needless to say we stayed up and talked until all hours of the night and unfortunately Buffman had to leave rather early. So we saw her off and then passed out again for a couple hours. Lol. After parting ways from Rockett I headed home to shower up and then we ended up going to Exeter, Nh to have dinner at my aunts house. Now this was pretty much just a replay of christmas day dinner, but right around when the dishes were cleared I crashed and only wanted to go home and pass out. Not sleeping does not do well with me! I would have been fine but my grandparents are rather technology inefficient and for xmas my grandfather had received an electronic book and a one-cup coffee maker. Neither of which did either of them know how to work. So after dinnner was teh time to make numerous cups of coffee one at a time while everyone sits there and yells out what they think you should be doing! Trying on the nerves even at the best of times and I was not feeling it. Other than that it was very good to see everyone. I miss the family very much!!!! and also usually love the gatherings....sleep though, required!

Sun, Mon, Tues: I believe I spent two of these days reading Twilight 1 & 2. I mean entire days. My father was ready to murder me! He would come stand in front of my chair and ask if I really meant to be still sitting there in my pajamas READING! I mean come on it's like 3pm in the afternoon. Well yes Dad, that is exactly what I am meaning to do! I mean I may be saying that the books irritated me but I am still goign to read it! (If you want to know what I thought of the Twilight series go here) Other than reading I also saw Marley & Me (awesome, though you're thinking how horrible the dog is most of the time) and Seven Pounds (not at all what I expected and very sad, though good) in the theatres. And no matter what my family says, I will never be able to go to two movies in one day!!! NEVER! I have a hard enough time with one! lol

My experiences on Wed require their whole own post or this will become a very long one!! So there is what we have thus far.