Tomorrow's a Mystery

No more guys. I'm just not going to do it to myself or to little man.

Here's what 2008 gave me:

2 guys that I was very interested in
2 guys that were clearly not interested in me
9 first dates
2 second dates
1 night being stood up
1 man that I shared a very passionate kiss with
Many tears over why I can't establish a decent relationship with a man
1 lost friend
1 new friend
Many shots
A handful of hangovers
1 potty trained toddler

Here's what I know 2009 will bring me:
0 dates
0 passionate kisses
0 times being stood up
1 happy mom
1 happy toddler
Many batteries
Hours of exercising
A possible trip out of state

So bring it on 2009. I'm ready for you.

Amy's Story

This breaks my heart.

NYE

A new years resolution you ask? Not gonna happen. Instead, I'm making a commitment to myself that I have YET to keep. Getting in shape. Yes, I've spoke of this hardship before, but now I have more reason to take myself seriously. I'm going to have to get into a dress in front of a bunch of people I know and don't know...I'm honored, and excited..but as of today, I would totally be the fat girl of the bunch.

This just won't do.

SO...aside from eating pizza THREE TIMES THIS WEEK (for the LOVE OF GOD!), I've started wearing a little green bracelet thing to visually remind me that I'm in it to win it.

My most daunting test is maintaining my "positive" attitude through that "time of the month" and what the hell do ya know..that time of the month hit me today (Thanks mother nature, eff you too!). If I still have a positive attitude at this point in the game, consider this mama good.to.go!

What's this chick doing on new years eve? Nothing.

Maybe my lackadaisical attitude can be attributed to pms, yes...most likely. I just don't feel mentally rested to deal with bar crowds, or presenting myself in a positive light in front of people I barely know. Meh, no harm no foul!!

Bring on the Fillet Mignon and Crab Legs bizzos! If I'm gonna celebrate NYE solo, at least I'll do it in STYLE! :)

Hello.

Wow...The holidays sure did keep my head spinning the past five days! Here's a quick mini recap:

Festivus party = everything I wanted it to be. Family, food, chilling. It was great!

Christmas Eve = not so great..but it was just one night, and what's done is done.

Christmas Day = Busy. a lot of running here and there, and culminating in a late night trip to a casino with my cousins...rounding out with a trip to the bar just down the road from the casino, meeting two hot random guys who were McFeely, but a TON OF FUN.

Friday = day of recovery, followed by brief appearance at a fun annual fiesta party...ending at my mom's house to hang out with my brother and his buddies for the night.

Saturday = drove my brother to the airport, cried at his departure but tried to tell myself that everything was alright. Ate breakfast at Mickey's Diner (DELICIOUS), and spent a sizable gift card at Target. Took an amazing bubble bath.

Sunday = Movie with little man and Grandpa, cheered on the Vikes, napped, and hung out.

See? I've been a busy bee. I hope everyone had a lovely Xmas!! Was Santa nice to you? Many more silly stories to come!!

12

Although I don't really know what the 12 days of xmas stand for, I thought I'd write up a little list of 12....in honor of the 12 things I've learned in the month of December

1. Family is more important to me than I ever thought it would be...SO, tonight is my first annual Family Festivus party...minus the negativity. Lord knows, my family needs more optimism and less negativity

2. Hosting an event is a lot of work! Especially when you are like me, and don't regularly clean.

3. Snow can be awesome. I took little man sledding for the first time, and was reminded of what it felt like to act carefree and enjoy the snow.

4. Snow can suck.at.life. MN (as well as other parts of the country) has received above average snow storms this December. This translates to horrible traffic conditions, and doubling commute times to and from work. (don't be jealous, really)

5. Friends truly are the family you get to choose. I may not be married, heck, I may not even be dating someone...but I honestly have some great friends...both in real life, and those I've met through the blog world. It's pretty sweet, and I'm more thankful that I could ever put into words.

6. Kids can be so simple, it's completely mind blowing. For example, two 12 cent goldfish were THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED to little man in 2008. I haven't introduced them to the net yet...since the last time I introduced fish, they died the next day...stay tuned for the introduction of David and Goliath (said gowiath...and yes, little man ACTUALLY NAMED THEM...haha)

7. Burning the candle at both ends always ends up burning me. With the holiday hustle and bustle, combined with a heavy workload this past week..I would up with a sight impaired migraine. I only get migraines when my body tells me "SLOW DOWN LADY". This time, I only appeased my body in the smallest way possible...by taking a four hour nap. Did I get a goods night rest last night? Of course not! I had too much to do to get ready for today. Do I have a nap in my future today? Of course I do!

8. Keeping a line drawn between your personal and professional life is important..no matter how cool you think your coworkers are. I recently experienced some drama with a coworker...it snowballed into a pile of nastiness.. Thanks to a Christmas gift, the ugliness was squashed. I learned my lesson, albeit the tough way...co-workers and personal lives do not mix....nor should they mix.

9. As much as I love and yearn for mantention, I don't need it to be happy. I have my health, a job, a warm place to sleep at night, little man and the list could go on. I agree with those out there, who believe a man should add to your life, and not complete it. It's taken me a while to get there...and I'll never forget my journey to get this far...

10. Communication can be extremely powerful. I recently reconnected with an elementary school friend. Well, in elementary school we didn't get along with each other, come to find out our dislike for one another was because of poor communication on both of our parts. I'm so happy that we've become friends, and it makes me wonder

11. As fun as splurging on yourself can be, all of the money in the world cannot buy happiness. I tend to overspend in general. I function with the believe that you can't take money with you when you die, so you might as well spend it while you have it. However, I've come to realize that if you aren't happy with yourself before you buy something nice to share with others...you probably aren't going to be happy with yourself AFTER your big splurge. This is a lesson I'm really going to focus on in 2009.

12. My most favorite quote, and words that everyone should live by: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift...that is why it is called the present. I heard this saying on a Disney cartoon...no lie. It struck a deep chord with me, and although I've heard variations of this quote, I like this one the best. It is simple advice, and extremely powerful.

Happy Christmahaunikwanzika!

Road Bump.

It never fails that I hit a road bump when I'm in the middle of trying to pull of an xmas miracle (read: getting my house ready for the festivus party). The road bump I've encountered today, you ask?

An effin Migraine. Grr. I'm NOT happy about this.

Today was a great example of how my coworkers are generally an awesome bunch. The second I told them I couldn't see, they had me go into a dark room to try and sleep...so I would regain my sight and be able to drive home to rest some more. I have spent the entire afternoon sleeping...and it was awesome. I hope I have enough strength in to finish my list.

I think I can
I think I can!

Whoa Update.

In an hour and a half I've managed to:

Did one load of dishes (only one more to go...)
Decluttered my kitchen counters
Hand-ground pepper to fill the snowman pepper shaker because I was too cheap to buy ground pepper since I had an entire pepper mill full of it!
Took out the trash
Put my blue ray player in my tv stand...only to find out it didn't quite fit (grr)
Decluttered my end tables
Moved cleaning supplies under the sink

Realistically, I know I can do this. On my agenda for tomorrow:

Laundry and organizing my room, including but not limited to decluttering my desk
Moving my tv and other electronic equipment into my newly clean room
Wrap gifts
Move my shoes to my room, and away from my front door

On my agenda for Tuesday:

Clean the bathroom
Cook
Vacuum
Dust
Have a tall glass of wine

Honestly, I don't mind the work. Most of it is stuff I should be doing anyways...and what a better time to get things done than the holiday season!

Whoa.

First things first...My last post was a bit brash. I have been swamped at work, and dealing with coworkers acting like they're 15 years old. I used to work in an ugly environment, and what I deeply appreciate about my current company/position is I thought they were different...well, it turns out one person is VERY juvenile, and felt the need to spread very nasty rumors about me to other coworkers... so when I was busting my ass at work, I had to deal with a copious amount of frustration towards this ugly behavior. I've dealt with it. It's squashed. My professional life can return to normal (I hope!).

Onto bigger and better things...right?

My family is coming over this Tuesday for my own personal version of a festivus party. I ran to the grocery store tonight, and the menu I've planned only set me back $75. I think I did a pretty darn good job.

I have been swaying back and forth on my menu. Thanks for all of your awesome ideas. For whatever crazy reason, I settled on making a yankee pot roast with carrots, and serving cheesy hash browns. I also picked up some spinach dip and Hawaiian sweet bread, some candies for an awesome new candy dish I had received from a coworker, and I have a few cheeses to cut up and serve with crackers. I'm suppling some diet coke, sprite, Pepsi, milk and eggnog (which will be served with the option to spike it with rum). I also have three bottles of red wine and a bottle of white on hand. That combined with a pot of coffee should be enough to appease the crowd.

I feel like I have a million things to do before the 23rd. I'm very thankful I am done with work at noon that day!! Yes, I'm being a baby...but here's my list (and I'm holding myself to it.

do the dishes
declutter my kitchen
move cleaning supplies under the sink
declutter and clean my bathroom
laundry
put away clothes in room
do three loads and put them away
reorganize my room
declutter my desk
swap where my book shelf and dresser are
move my old living room tv to my room
move my old dvd player and vhs player to my room
vacuum
sweep
dust
throw out new tv box
declutter my living room end tables
figure out a way to move my blue ray player into my tv stand
cut up cheese
wrap gifts for the kids
wrap xmas presents in general (since little man will be home all day on Wednesday, and I won't have time to wrap on Tuesday night because of the party)

Damn, why am I even blogging right now? Oh yeah, it's because I'm the worlds BIGGEST PROCRASTINATOR! At least I have the grocery shopping done. I've also taken a moment to clean out my fridge...but now it's time for me to take out the trash, and start crossing things off of my list. Looks like there's a lot waiting for me in my future!!

Happy Holidays..and if you're bored you're MORE THAN WELCOME to come over and help me cross things off of my list!! :)

Blah.

People really can suck sometimes. Sorry, I'll fill y'all in later, once my head stops doing 360's and I have a spare moment to catch my breath. Thanks for listening!!!

Hugs'n Smootches!!

Pretty Sweet.

So much to share..where do I even start.

This morning traffic was horrific. I thought I was in the clear, when I was swiftly met with break-lights. A twenty minute commute took me 40 minutes.

While I was crawling towards the office, I just so happened to catch more christmas wishes, and the christmas wish song on the radio. It was a severe mascara alert...and I loved every second of it.

I'm a chronic radio station surfer (almost worse than I a tv channel surfer). When I tuned into K102, they kept going on and on about how Jared Allen would be coming into the studio just after 8 to take over their morning show. If you don't know this already, the radio station is a tenant in my office building. I briefly thought to myself, what are the chances that I run into him when I'm walking into work..would I say anything to him? That thought lasted about a minute, then I was onto the next radio station.

When I exited the highway, I realized I was driving behind an F250 with Arizona license plates. No way that's Jared Allen in front of me. I went to turn towards my office, and was stopped at a red light. I looked over to see, yes, indeed, it was Jared Allen...lost. I rolled down my window, he saw me and rolled down his. I politely told him which way he needed to go, and then continued on my way to the office.

He seemed like a really nice guy, and his football voice totally made me laugh. So here I sit, a bit giddy from my brief but really funny brush with a local celebrity.

Yes.

Yes...it's the start of a new work week
Yes...the next week and a half are going to be pretty hectic for most people, with the looming holidays fast approaching
Yes...this makes me happy. Very happy.

Happy Monday!

HeHe HaHa

"What's with today, today?"
"You're a superb manager....superb"
"Shampoo is better! Oh really fool? Really! Stop looking at me swan!"
"I can't hear you, I've been physically abused in the ear"
"You're a hard candy shell"
"Shut up, Richard"
"You had me at hello"
"ET PHONE HOME"
"Ogres are like onions"
"Teenagers...they think they know everything. You give them an inch, they swim all over you"

Some days, I could have an entire conversation solely using movie/television/pop culture quotes. It's quite fun, and extremely entertaining.

What are your favorite silly or serious quotes?

Life is Good.

"None of my past relationships have worked out...but it only takes one to work! The rest is just a combination of practice and learning experiences!"

~K. Dohman

That's honestly how I am trying to live my life. With each day of my single-hood that passes, I start fearing that the light at the end of my single tunnel will fade to black forever...I'd be lying if I said this wasn't true. I am making an honest attempt to focus on the positives in my life, and not worry about my light fading. Life is too short to sit and reel over a future that you can't predict. So this is what I'm going to do:

Focus on now, not tomorrow.
Enjoy my single freedom of being able to do, say, wear, go and spend whatever I want, whenever I want.
Be thankful that I have a job which (not only) entertains me, but provides me with steady bi-weekly income so I can pay my bills, and afford a warm, safe place to sleep at night.

It will happen for me and my little guy (hopefully before the Vikings win a Superbowl). I'll keep my fingers crossed...and when it happens, I'll be sure to let you know.

Common Courtesy?

Question...

When it snows, and one goes outside to snow-blow their sidewalks/driveways...why do they insist on blowing the snow into the street? I mean, really! Is it THAT difficult to turn the crank thingy on your snow-plow to blow the snow back into your own yard...or better yet, into your neighbor's yard?

Grr to you, blowing-your-snow-into-the-street-a-holes.

Awesome.

If you live in Minnesota, and have the chance to go to Myth to see a concert...I highly suggest going.

I saw Gretchen Wilson this past friday at Myth, and was blown away by how close the stage was to the audience. Yes, you had to stand...but it's really no different than standing at a bar all night.

The atmosphere rocked. In a nutshell, I had a blast!

Festivus

Little man is growing up before my eyes, and reminding me what life looks like through the eyes of a child. I am very thankful for this, but also a little sad/concerned.

When I remember winters and holiday's from when I was a child, they were filled with fun family gatherings that included aunts, uncles, cousins...the works, really. We always laughed a lot, ate until we were uncomfortable, and went home with smiles on our faces. I don't feel like I have been able to provide little man with the same kind of comforting traditions..which is what makes me sad/concerned.

My family feels like they have grown apart, and only care about their own schedules. I really do love my family, and I am brainstorming a way to bring them back together for the sake of little man. Seeing as I only have one brother who is overseas 95% of the year, little man misses out on his Uncle T. My mom, dad, and aunts who had (up until this year) been the enforcers of getting the family together have decided it's too much work. I just don't get it. If everyone is on board, HOW is it too much work?

I digress.

I think you'd all be proud of me. I actually approached my mom about my concerns..and for once, I think she actually listened. In my heart, I know she heard the sadness and frustrations in my voice; towards how I feel our family has shifted from a unit, to a bunch of individuals. I guess time will tell if she acts on it, or if she sweeps it under the rug.

SO....instead of sitting at home (alone) and crying over my family sucking at life, I've decided to take measures into my own hands. This year, I'm throwing a Family Festivus party!!

I live in an apartment. It's decent, but not a house. There's not a fenced-in backyard where the kids can go outside to play. There's not a huge kitchen, or a living room AND a family room...there's just a living room (with 2 three-person couches, two rocking chairs, and a two-person love seat), a bathroom, and two bedrooms. I think there will be enough room for seating...I'm only concerned about the kids not having enough space to stretch their legs. If everyone shows up, there will be:
three toddlers
two seven year olds
13 adults
Yup, you read that right...it will be a FULL house.

I still haven't decided on an appropriate menu, but I'm thinking I'll for SURE make this AMAZING a spinach-artichoke heart stuffed croissant (it truly is to die for).

Does anyone have any simple yet impressive suggestions for my menu?

My family has been notorious for boozing it up...while I'll provide wine, I THINK that will be the only alcoholic choice....maybe spiked egg nog too...but I've never experienced that before, so I wouldn't even know where to begin!

I guess I have to go and research Festivus now, cuz dammit, I don't want to get it wrong (and if it's a huge success, maybe it will be a yearly thing!!).

UPDATE:

I just looked up Festivus...and I'm not sure if my gathering will stick to the script...However, it would be a RIOT to tell my family how much they've disappointed me this past year...lol

The Devil went down to Louisiana...

Was I the only person who watched Britney Spears: For the Record?

Didn't think so.

I haven't decided if I was impressed with the content of the "documentary." However, I feel like the film did what it intended: letting the public know that it's tough to be a millionaire, lonely, but for the sake of the music/art worth it.

Ew, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

I'll be the first to admit: Britney works hard when she wants to. She puts long hours in, yes. Joe the plumber puts in long hours too...as do thousands of other Americans. blah blah blah

Maybe the documentary made me realize Brittney is more like me than I could have imagined....NOT. The girl has millions of dollars that she earned by sacrificing her privacy to become famous. It's ironic that she admits six years into becoming famous she was over it. Sorry girl, you sold your soul to the devil. Maybe it's all about the "art" now...but it's a little too late to have a change of heart.

She'll have to survive in the public eye, she'll have to be guarded on who she lets into her life. Period. The end.

I think her story is the perfect example that money doesn't buy happiness. Would I want to trade bank accounts with her? SURE! But I wouldn't want to do it so I could build a multi-million dollar house in Malibu. I would want to trade bank accounts so I could give more back to society (and not in an "I'm Paris Hilton, and I want to give back, so I'm going to continue to hit up the LA club scene and make horrible reality programs for MTV" kind of way).

What do you think? Would you trade places with Britney? Why, or why not?