Quick Note

Work and life in general has been super busy as of late, so I'm sorry I haven't had time to write here. I promise I'll be back soon, but I'm heading into another long weekend (yea!) in which I probably won't have a chance to get back on here and write anything!

Gotta go, still have some work to do before I can bust out of this place. Have a great weekend!

My weekend

I've been sleeping really well lately, but it's been so good that it's sort of messing with my head. Because when I wake up in the morning, I wake up from a really sound sleep. I'm so used to tossing and turning all night, waking up throughout the night to a clock that says 1:45 A.M., 3:30 A.M, or 5:15 A.M. While I obviously can't say I prefer to be waking up periodically all night long, I was used to it, and I think it helped me ease into getting up and facing the morning. I can't tell you how much I love waking up at 3:00 A.M. to realize that I still have almost three hours left to sleep, it brings me more joy that you could imagine! But now that I am sleeping on such a luxurious and comfortably bed, I wake up when that alarm goes off, and there's no warning, no thanking the lord that I can go back to sleep for another hour, none of that. It's time to get up, and it seems like no time has passed since I dozed off the night before. I know, it seems like an odd thing to complain about, getting a good night's sleep. I guess it's just something I'm going to have to get used to.

Even though it's not Monday anymore, I can still talk about my weekend right? Why am I asking permission? God, I'm such a people pleaser.

It was a great weekend, very low key, but the kind of weekend that you don't want to end because it has been so very lovely. I had the day off on Friday so I made plans with my mom and brother to do the shopping and lunch thing, since Ben was heading out of town and back to college that evening. We went to Sam's Club because every time my brother is home my mom has to make sure she loads him up with as much food as she can, all in bulk of course. I swear, I never once asked my parents for food when I was in college, by the time I was a senior, like he is, they weren't helping me out with money at all. That bum, he really knows how to ride his position as the "favorite son" for as long as possible. I'm totally kidding (sort of), I love my brother and kudos to him for taking what he can get for as long as he can get it. I'm not at all resentful. I swear. Rant. Officially. Over.

We had a delicious lunch at Big Bowl and did some shopping at Ridgedale. I found some amazing pink stiletto boots (with those pleating details) at DSW (on clearance!), and while my shoulder devil and angel duked it out for a while, the angel ended up winning in the end and I resisted the temptation to make the purchase. It took a lot out of me, but I know Dan was thankful.

We had dinner plans with two other couples for Friday night, and while dinner was nice (even though we had to wait for 45 minutes for a table), strangely everyone just kind of got up and left when it was all over, no talk of hanging out anymore, nothing. Very weird. So Dan and I stopped at Blockbuster on the way home and we finally rented Garden State. I assume I'm the last person in the world to see it, but if you haven't, run thee to the closest video store right this second! It was such a great movie, Natalie Portman was absolutely enchanting. I would recommend it to anyone, except my mom, who I'm sure would find it just plain weird and boring. But that's my mom.

Saturday morning Dan went to his little sister's basketball game, which is really just down the street so we have no excuse for not going, and I got a really good 4 mile run in on the treadmill while I enjoyed a couple episodes of Sex and the City! It was a very good way to start off the day. Although I'm very sad to say that I'm almost through all six seasons, I just need to go out and buy Season Six Part Two. When I'm finished with that one, it's all over. It's really very depressing! Since I never had HBO when Sex and the City was actually on the air, I'm watching it for the first time, and I will have to go through the same saddness everyone else did last year when the final episode aired. Oh, and on a related note, does anyone else agree that Miranda all of a sudden became completely gorgeous during Season Six? Seriously, she seemed all glowy and sparkly. So beautiful.

So back to my weekend. Saturday afternoon Dan and I went to Café Latte on Grand Avenue in St. Paul for some delicious dessert and coffee. He had a Mint Mocha and the Chocolate Torte, and I had a Vanilla Latte with my New York Fruit Tart, which was incredible, as I'm sure you can imagine from the picture!



After consuming way too many sweets, we went for a long walk on Grand Avenue, and enjoyed the beautiful weather and lazy afternoon. It was really nice to just be together, with no commitments or plans that we needed to hurry up and get to, no cell phones ringing, no TV's on, just the two of us. I haven't felt that relaxed and happy since our honeymoon in Cape Cod, where we had all the time in the world to just enjoy eachother's company and take in everything around us. I think it's really important to have days (or even just moments) like those once in a while, to remind you of the reasons why you work so hard in life. The rest of the weekend was spent doing lots of family stuff, his grandparents for dinner Saturday night, my cousin's birthday party on Sunday afternoon. Nothing really worth recounting, but it was a wonderful weekend, even for just those few hours on Saturday afternoon when everything seemed good and right.

Tales from cubicle land

I'm starting to think that there's nothing else I can do to make this day go any faster. So while I don't feel like I have ANYTHING to write about here, I'm going to write anyways. Be forewarned. What you are about to read will most likely be incredibly dull and pointless.

So my big news yesterday came from the very crabby, unbelievably tiny, man-she who handles all of our office logistics, (or so I've been told, I had never met her before yesterday). She stopped by my office to inform me that my cube area (known as the "pit" by it's present and former inhabitants) will be under renovation beginning the week of February 21st. There were two pieces of good news. My orange carpet, mustard-fabric-covered cube walls, faux desk (picture two of those rectangular cafeteria tables arranged in the shape of an L and adorned with laminate stickers that are supposed to give the illusion of wood grains) and hodge-podge of old file cabinets will be put out with the trash and replaced with brand spanking new grey carpet, grey-fabric-covered cube walls, a grey L-desk (not crafted from cafeteria tables!) and matching grey file cabinets. Now, to an outsider, it all may sound a little too..... well, grey, but it sounds like heaven to me, compared to what I have had to work with for the past year and a half.

The second piece of good news is that during the renovation of my new workspace, I will be residing in my very own 4-walled office! I will tell you that I have been eyeing this office for some time now, during which it has been completely empty. I cannot tell you how excited I am to be in my very own office, with tons of privacy, for one whole month!

But I can't help but think about the possible bout of depression I may go into after my month in a real office is over. At that time, I will be forced to pack up my things (again) and trudge back into the cubicle-dwellers' world of unintentional but unavoidable eavesdropping, knowing (or more specifically, smelling) exactly what everyone around you is eating for lunch, and dealing with, on a daily basis, the fact that you have no door, no privacy, and anyone can just pop in without any warning at any given time.

Sorry, that's definitely enough whining! I need to get over my cubicle hatred. I'm still a newbie, still just at entry level, and there's really no telling how much longer I will be residing in cubicle land! So I'm going to take what I can get and be grateful. Maybe I'll buy a funky wall tapestry or plant or something to liven up the grayness of my new cube! I was very excited for the change, and I can't let the dream of a real office take away that excitement!

***Wow. After reading this entry, I realized that I have a serious problem with comma over-use and run-on sentences. I'll have to work on that so that you all don't get brain aneurysms trying to keep up with my writing, which is quite obviously not at all previously thought out.

Well-rested and confident

Yes, I know, it's been another week. I'm a slacker. Moving on.

Last night, for the first time, I slept in the most comfortable cozy yummy bed EVER, and it's MINE! I'm so excited. Dan and I finally bought a new mattress/box-spring set, since for the past year we've been sleeping on an old set we got from his parents that is probably 20+ years old, and leaves you feeling like you've slept on cement all night. This new bed is amazing, pillow top on both sides, amazingly soft, super high (the kind of bed you have to jump up to get on), just absolutely perfect. I was in heaven.

So this last weekend I went out drinking for the first time in forever, and I had such a good time. It was so nice to be out with the girls again, and I drank just the right amount so that I was in a perfect stated of buzzed drunkenness at the end of the night. I hadn't consumed hard alcohol since Halloween, so I was a little hesitant, but the Appletinis and Cranberry Vodkas were calling my name. Thankfully I can say there were no vomiting incidents or unintentional ass-exposures. (Not a good idea to drink to the point of passing out when you're wearing a short skirt, or in my case, flapper costume. I've been told by a couple people that they saw way more of me that fateful night than they would have liked.)

Anyways, the only sort of ridiculous thing I did (besides talking mile-a-minute nonsense to two very sober husbands in the car on the way home) involved the cement steps coming up from my garage, my impaired vision and uneven balance, 3:00AM induced exhaustion, and one very black and blue knee. I suppose it did provide a little comic relief for my husband who stayed out much later than he had expected to, obviously not taking into account the presence of my very good friend Betsy, the most hard-core bar-closer I have ever met! I think he was just relieved I didn't make him hit up the open-all-night grease-fest with Betsy and her boyfriend!

I had a serious case of "the Mondays" at the beginning of the week, so serious that I took a half-day for no reason whatsoever. I'll be honest with you, I was wearing a really thick wool sweater which was not only making me so hot I thought I was going to pass out, but it was itching the hell out of my arms and neck. By 10:30 I just couldn't take it anymore. I felt fat, I felt crappy, I felt sweaty, and I felt itchy. All I could think about was escaping to the outdoors, and out of my stifling cube! So it turned out to be a very nice day, because I went out to lunch with my mom, brother, and husband, and hit up the mall with one of my favorite shopping partners, my brother. (He has this way about him where I never ever feel rushed, it's wonderful!)

I'm feeling much better today though, and I think it's directly related to the fact that my hair looks good (for the first day this week it's not up in a wet messy bun) and I'm wearing an incredibly cute outfit (just-below-the-knee black skirt, knee-high black stiletto boots, and a white button-up under a black and pink argyle sweater vest)! The fact that having a good day is directly related to my outfit and hairstyle may seem ridiculous to some, but I think there are a lot of women out there that can relate. I just feel so much more confident and ready to tackle anything when I'm feeling good about how I'm presented, and today... I'm feeling good!

Back from the dead

I know it's been so long since I've written here that many of my readers may not even be checking back for updates, but I figured I should still try to get back into the blogging thing after my 2 week sabbatical.

There are many factors that contributed to my severe lack of motivation for blogging over the last few weeks, listed here for your reading pleasure:

1. Work has been crazy busy. This is definitely the number one reason for my absence. Between deadlines and training and year end commitments, I haven't even had time to read all my favorite blogs, let alone write on my own!
2. I have no desire to even be in the same room as a computer when I come home from work at the end of the day, especially during weeks like the last few. Argh.
3. My best friend Lisa was visiting from Costa Rica, and up until last Wednesday, when she left us again, my evenings were pretty much filled with getting in as much "Lisa-time" as possible.
4. I was away all of this last weekend at my friend's cabin lounging around reading Cosmo, Glamour, and People, catching up on the Brad & Jen split (so so so sad), and chowing down on Doritos and popcorn until I thought I was going to be sick, while my male counterpart tried not to kill himself messing around on 4-wheelers and snowmobiles in the -25 degree weather.
5. My life has just not been very exciting lately and I can't seem to find anything to write about! Does any one want to hear about my husband's and my guest bedroom mattress purchase? I didn't think so.

But February looks like it'll be a better month, so stay tuned for more exciting updates! Some friends and I are taking an Intro to Belly Dancing class, and I'm definitely looking forward to that, and Dan and I (he made fun of me for trying to keep him anonymous, because seriously, what is the point?) are going to Vegas for a few days at the beginning of February because he has work training there. (I can't wait to spend the whole day at the spa while he's working!)

So anyways, thanks for sticking around, it's always trying to come up with that first entry after a long absence that stresses me out and just prolongs my return! I was that way with diaries and journals too when I was younger, and I guess I'm the same way with working out. I get in a rut and I get stressed out just thinking about starting back up again. Stupid I know. But I promise I'm back.

Now I'm off to catch up on all my favorite blogs, specifically Dana, Sharoni, Laura, Pink Stiletto, Kristin, and Rebecca!

Make a Wish! (I wish it wasn't so cold outside.)

It's so cold these days it makes me want to curl up into the fetal position in my warm bed and cry. Last night D. and I went out to run a bunch of errands, and I immediately got in a bad mood when I felt the freezing wind swipe away at my already devastatingly dry face. Two days ago I ran out of moisturizer, and I've been slathering chapstick on my lips like it's going out of style. This. Sucks. I was reminiscing about summer and fall the other day and I got super depressed. And it's only January! Which means I need to snap back into reality because this isn't going away for at least a few months. Grrr...

Today I got a stupid-ass chain letter forward from my sister-in-law and it seriously made me so angry, almost to the point of coming up with some sort of violent retaliation scheme. I mean COME ON WOMAN! Who sends out those forwards any more (besides my obviously dumb-ass sister-in-law)? I just don't expect them anymore because I thought that everyone with any sort of common sense, except maybe the occasional middle-schooler or college freshman with too much time on their hands, realized how irritating they are to the recipient. So when some tricky devil like the above mentioned family member sends me one with, mind you, nothing in the subject line to warn me of the ridiculousness that I am about to be bombarded with, I get very irritated. This email had the audacity to claim that how quickly my wish will be granted depends entirely on how many people I forward it to. For my convenience, there was even a nice little chart:

I hope you made your wish! Now then, if you send to:
1 person --- your wish will be granted in 1 year
3 people --- 6 months
5 people --- 3 months
6 people --- 1 month
7 people --- 2 weeks
8 people --- 1 week
9 people --- 5 days
10 people --- 3 days
12 people --- 2 days
15 people --- 1 day
20 people --- 3 hours

And just a few hours later, another pleasant surprised popped up in my inbox! One of the girls that sister-in-law had originally sent the forward to decided that I might have ANOTHER wish I need granted, so she sent it to me again! Yeah! (I'm raging inside just thinking about it.) She chose to also send it to 4 other lucky souls, so according to the chart, she will have her wildest dreams come true in just 3 months. I'm so happy for her.

Anyways, so I definitely didn't intend this post to be a rant about idiotic forwards and the people who send them. I apologize. I feel, though, that I am spent on the subject, so you can be sure that there won't be many more entries like this one.

Yum, strawberry shortcake!

I just returned from the cafeteria in my office where I picked up a very delectable array of food that I have put together to serve as my lunch: a cup of tomato bisque soup, two packages of saltine crackers, an orange, some strawberry shortcake, and some fat free chocolate skim milk. All so very tasty, yet admittedly random, choices. I'm going to start with the strawberry shortcake, which I believe has helped lighten a very dull, boring morning in my cube!

It's the little things...

New Years 2005: Drunken Frat-party?

I'm back after a very nice, long break from thinking. I'm not quite sure I'm up for it though, as this morning was one of the most difficult days to get up in a long long time, and I am still in a trance-like state 5 hours later. I'll try though!

Oh... and Happy New Year! (I know, I'm a little late with this.) Bringing in the 2005 New Year was interesting, to say the least, and the evening ended with me thinking the same thing I thought after my Halloween drunken debacle: aren't we too old for this? Fortunately, it was not my actions I was questioning this time around. The following three events of the evening contributed to my post-partydom woes:

1. It was not even 11:00 when I heard squeals and witnessed the scampering of girls into the room in which I was so peacefully enjoying a game of Celebrity Taboo. The reason for the squealing and scampering being that our friend Colin had politely chosen the only 5X8 foot portion of carpeted surface area in my brother in-law's home as his personal vomiting area. And there was A LOT of vomit. Two innocent bystanders (other than the cream-colored carpet) were affected by the vomiting incident: the Christmas tree and my friend Betsy's super-cute pink and black peacoat. Poor Colin hid in the dark corner of the office whispering "I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry" (very Rainman) while a quarter of the party pretty much cleared out, and another quarter scrubbed furiously at the red-splattered carpet. The rest of us stared pretty dumb-struck, and ran around opening up doors and windows, and pouring out the remaining contents of whatever we were eating or drinking at the time. (At least I did, I didn't have much of an appetite and pretty much lost interest in drinking at that point.) At 11:49 a few of us realized that 2005 was almost here, and we ran around pouring champagne, because God help us, we weren't going to miss midnight! During the countdown, the sound of hurling could be heard (I believe they coincided with the even numbers) from the Taboo room, which was no longer my sanctuary for obvious reasons. At Midnight, Colin yelled into his bucket-o-vomit "Field Goal!", and then continued to hurl into the new year.
2. At around 1:00 I was in the kitchen and I heard some scuffling noises and manly groans coming from the living room. What I found when I entered said room is 3 grown men entangled on the floor, one with blood dripping from above his eyelid frantically looking for a towel so as not to stain with blood the already vomit-stained carpet. They were "wrestling". Well, as far as I'm concerned, 25 year old men should not be wrestling inside a very nicely decorated and looked after home. It was absolutely ridiculous. Further more, they were wrestling on the smelly carpet, still wet from the disinfectants used to scrub out the vomit. That's just gross.
3. At 1:30 the final event occurred, and felt a bit like a sign from God telling us to get out, and get out now. The same bloody wrestler from event number two, drunken and immature per usual, somehow got kicked and landed on his back on the living room coffee table, sending mixed nuts flying through the air, as he proceeded to continue a backwards somersault over the table landing on the wood floor in a fashion which I believe just barely skirted a spinal-cord injury.

So after leaving the crazy New Years party, I found myself wondering how long these kinds of parties will be able to go on, and when we get to start acting like grown-ups. Then I felt a little hypocritical looking back on our own Halloween party, and the drunken idiot the emerged from my seemingly put-together person. Oh well, I guess it's one of those infamous parties that will go down in history. I'm just glad I stopped at 2 beers and one small glass of champagne, and didn't do anything to render myself any of the infamy.

Hope you all had a more "mature" New Years!

Teeny tiny blog announcement

I finally got Haloscan, which should make commenting much simpler and more efficient. Unfortunately, in the process, I lost all my old comments! Now, I know I don't have a huge fan base, but I really miss the few comments I had from those of you that do faithfully read my ramblings!

So please please please continue to comment away!

Christmas Ramblings

I am such a dork. I'm at work listening to my two newest CD's (Christmas gifts), Vanessa Carleton's "Harmonium" and Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway", and I am just so ecstatic and sublimely happy about them both. I am a girlie girl through and through; three of my favorite things: chick flicks, chick lit, and chick pop/rock.

My Christmas weekend was highly enjoyable, and incredibly busy. It started off with D. and I both taking off Thursday to get some of our last-minute Christmas shopping done, and to experiment with our oven and cookie cookbook. He was strangely and ridiculously motivated to make Christmas cookies, while I would have been fine making a trip to the grocery store less than 2 miles from our house, but I tried to be a good sport about it! Can you believe he got up at 6:00 on our day off to bake? I love my funny domestic husband. I finally dragged myself out of bed at like 7:30 because I was feeling horribly guilty hearing Mr. busy-bee in the kitchen. However, it took me until 8:00 to actually wake up, I swear I only have a vague recollection of those first 30 minutes crouched on the couch with a bowl of cereal, staring comatose at the blurry television. I really don't like getting up that early when I don't have to.

Anyways, the first candy cane looking cookies that he made turned out great. The other ones were pretty comical. We tried to make these "Chocolate Snowflake" cookies and followed the recipe exactly. You were supposed to take the cooled round chocolate sugar cookies you made and use a self-crafted snowflake stencil and some powdered sugar to make a snowflake on the top. Ok, that book was full of crap because all that happened when the powdered sugar hit the cookie was a big white poofy mess. I decided after about 4 attempts with the snowflake stencil that the authors of our cookbook were playing some sort of mean practical joke on us, so I just made some frosting with the only food coloring we had (red) and frosted the stupid cookies. So we ended up with pink frosted round chocolate sugar cookies. They looked ridiculous, and our kitchen was covered in powdered sugar. So much for our first attempt at holiday baking. My two best friends were there to witness it all and were highly amused, I'm sure, by our antics. Oh, and D. is a severe baking Nazi but I won't get into that. ;)

The rest of our weekend, starting with Thursday night, involved a lot of running around and a lot of family! I feel so lucky to have so many people that want to spend the holiday with us, but I think it's safe to say we were definitely exhausted come Sunday night at 8:00 when we were finally home and officially done with Christmas.

I was reminded this weekend how much I love the game Clue! God, I hadn't played that for AGES! Unfortunately, I could have won the first game but I threw it all away on a really stupid mistake. Man, that pissed me off. Now my brother Ben has bragging rights to winning both games. I'll get him next time though, I have that game down. Speaking of dumb board games, I asked for Guess Who for Christmas and I got it from Santa. I need to break that sh#t out, I love that game! I hate when I draw a girl though. You pretty much automatically lose, there's nothing stopping you from forfeiting immediately, you really have no hope. Unless you believe in Guess Who miracles.

God, this Kelly Clarkson CD is awesome. I adore her. Go out and get it now if you don't already own it. Amazing.