Hiatus?

Obviously, I have been "away" for awhile here. People ask me, "when are you going to post again?" and I don't really know how to answer. I have a million excuses, not the least of which is work. The truth is, I do work a lot, and I feel a bit intimidated by my lack of social media background. I have decided to try not to let this get to me. Two of my good friends were in town for the Ragan Unconference yesterday, and we ended up going for dinner and drinks with some people I could only refer to as "internet friends". In talking with these people, it occurs to me that maybe I am not the square peg in the round hole after all. I actually knew that they were talking about and also, I could talk twitter with them. This is good, as most people in my day to day life have no clue at all whatsoever what twitter is. This is a good indicator that I need to start blogging on a more regular basis- MAKE time for it, because it is fun!

Which brings me to my next announcement; I am on twitter! I have been on twitter for over a year now, so sorry for the late announcement :) anyway, if you want to follow, you can do so by clicking here. I actually manage to update pretty often, as I can do so from my blackberry. I used to be able to access from the office comp, but they blocked it and I have to say that is probably for the best, or I would be stuck at work even later than I already am!

Also, when I first started writing this, I had some inherent fear of being "found". Too bad that already happened and I'm over it. By now most people know who I am, so I am just going to roll with it. Sarah from Sensibly Sassy seems to do just fine being "herself" publicly, so why can't I?

Anyway, feel free to drop by in the coming weeks. There might actually be something to read for once!

xoxo, I miss you all, especially those I got to see last night :)

Tra-La-La

We have started decking the halls as of last night. Paper snowflakes on the windows, handmade wreath on the front door, fake frost on the window panes. . . .
Tonight we are going to get the Tree! We wanted to be all City Traditional and get it from one of the many lots, drag home and haul up the stairs, but home depot and menards are proving to be much more affordable. Besides, no one will notice once it is lovingly adorned, right? Thoughts on this? I just hope all of the needles don't fall off before Christmas and that the aroma fills the apartment!

Besides that, I unpacked the snowglobes that my Grandfather had purchased for me every year from Neiman Marcus. Always modeled after some Christmasy artwork popular at that time, they are very interesting to look at. Sadly, the seal broke on the the one from 1994 and some of the water (I think it is water?)had leaked out and the snow and glitter followed. Sadness :( Does anyone out in blog land know how to fix a snowglobe? no glass is broken, but all of the contents have leaked out and it makes me so sad! I just hope none of the ornaments broke on the harrowing trip back from Michigan. (the waves were topping the cement barrier along Lakeshore!) All of those ornaments are from my Grandpa and Grandma's first tree. They are all super beautiful, being that they are from the 1940s and 1930s and pretty colors. I can't wait to put them up on our tree!!

Ah, the holidays. . ..

Been Away Much?

Okay, so 2 months is a bit of a hiatus. Especially when every blog post (that actually made it on here) refers to "getting it together" and "posting more often". Whoops! sorry about that. I have been. . . . .busy. Lame excuse I know, but I don't have any other. I have managed to write bits I want to post about, they just happen to be on to do lists, napkins, work computer word documents, etc. Also I have been posting on twitter! So at lease I have been doing some blogging, even if it is "micro" (way to make me feel small!).

However, I am dropping in here because I have heard so much, 'you never post anymore!', and I don't. I feel bad about it. Not bad in the malaise sense, but bad because I know I am better than that and dammit this is something I enjoy!

I will spare you a recap of the last two months, if I ever manage to back post other writings, that should sum all of those exploits up for you all.

But the point: Have a happy holiday! The most wonderful time of the year technically starts tomorrow, and I can't wait! I grew up with the most wonderful Holiday experience and it has most definitely rubbed off on me. I remember going to Hudson's as a child with my grandfather. Grandpa loved shopping and Christmas above all else. We would go see Santa, and then wander around looking at all of the holiday ornaments and decorations on the top floor of the Twelve Oaks Hudson's. I can still remember how it smelled! My mom is as into the season as my grandfather was. I can expect to be spending a great deal of Black Friday and Saturday helping to deck her halls. This is rewarding work, even if I won't get to see it again until Christmas eve :(

The biggest different this year, is that I will have my own halls to deck. Because I no longer live in the shoe closet, and have in fact moved it on up, I can have a tree, a wreath, some stockings, garland, maybe even some lights! I am feeling especially lucky, because my mother is letting me take a substantial amount of my grandfather's Christmas items. When we cleaned out his house after he died, it was very difficult to decide what should stay and what should go. Because I was only 14 at the time, I regret some of the things I let go. However, I did have the presence of mind to demand all of this holiday stuff. After 10 years of chilling in boxes in mom's basement, all of it will be restored to its former grandeur and displayed upon my lovely (crummy, crumbly) vintage walls. I am almost as excited about this as I am about going home and stuffing myself full of food. Not that I don't stuff myself everytime I am in the southeastern region of Michigan, but come on, its Thanksgiving!

Speaking of Turkey day, this year I have decided that I need some new traditions. Namely, I will not be spending Thanksgiving with my dad this year. Every year, Mom gets Christmas and Dad gets Thanksgiving and Easter. But this year, I don't think dad is getting anything, as he is not showing an interest. I know we all get busy (boy, don't I! look at the state of this blog!), but he has yet to return my calls regarding Holiday itineraries. SO, this particular gathering holiday is going to be about gathering with my friends and my mother. We will see how this sticks in the coming years.

Best Turkey Day wishes to everyone! Don't drink too much tonight (I, for one am going to try not to!), don't eat so much your pants won't button, and watch out for those shopper stampedes on Friday.

Xoxo

Back to the Earth

I have been insanely busy trying to move to a new place (with BF!), study for the GRE, and find a new way to waste those hours from 8-5, Monday through Friday. This does not leave much time left for "fun". Blogging is fun. Reading is fun. Watching trashy television is fun. Shopping is fun. (I think you get the idea). Working, moving yourself, cleaning and trying to play Ms. Fix it are not fun activities. So this means two things. . . . .I am lacking creativity right now, and I have posted in forever! I have lots to say and have been thinking about a lot of things, but getting them up here hasn't happened yet.

Considering that I finally have wireless high speed internet consistently again (first time in two years!), I need to at least post something. So here you go: stolen from Sensibly Sassy, 7 Things I Have Never Done:
I Have NEVER. . .
1) . . . .smoked a cigarette. I haven't even taken a puff!
2). . . .cooked a burger or steak. not a huge red meat fan, so why stray from chicken?
3). . . .drank the milk from my cereal. i think this is grody, but if you enjoy it, more power to you.
4). . . .gotten a speeding ticket (knock on wood here)
5). . . .had plastic surgery, body altering things done
6). . . .hired movers to move me. this will be changing the next time i move!
7). . . .worn foundation, concealer, powder, etc. i have never really worn makeup to speak of. i should probably learn how to put it all on before I look like an age spot mess.

I will post pictures. I will post something a little more interesting. It seems I never manage to make time to do these things. But I know I need to.

Comments?

Metrogal84 brought it to my attention that my comments were "not working". I checked out this section, and it looks like they are good to go. I have no idea what I did, and I apologize for whatever it is. Anyway, comments should be good to go now. Sorry about that!

The expense

Ah, my ship has not come in just yet. No new camera, but I am hoping I can get pictures from friends for a time. Instead, I got my mail yesterday and there was a lot in there (I only get my mail once a week because I really only get mail once a week, because this is Chicago and my mail person is lazy. The only problem with this is that there is the potential to have two weeks worth of mail that will not fix in your mailbox. I have no control over what day is delivered) that I didn't want to see. The usual junk mail, magazines (yay vogue and vanity fair), advertisements for a new roof or driveway (don't have either of those), and of course the bills. Except that this time there were 4 nasty nasties. the first of which being a bill for the doctors office for an appointment I didn't have and didn't go to. The second being a bill from the city for parking tickets I appealed nearly two years ago. Apparently I didn't win because not only am I being billed, but they are twice as much and interest is being charged! WTF?! I called to try and resolved the issue, but was told I had to pay for the tix. Then sat on hold for another 20 minutes (the city has awful hold music, like a cross between muzak, Kenny G, and bad German Techno beats) to talk about setting up a payment plan for this ungodly sum ($786.00!!!!!). Alas, the phone is finally picked up by a disgruntled sounding customer service rep (this must be the worst job in the world, hands down) who informed me that I am unable to set up a plan because I am not on Welfare (I have a job and no kids. . . shouldn't I get rewarded?)and that I had better pay up at least half today and then I could pay the rest over the next 6 months, but still with interest. I paid up the initial $100 and then put the rest of the $343.00 on 3 different credit cards (stupid city) because I was informed that for each month I don't pay up, interest plus another $100 accrues. Good God! This is bad news in the mail if I have ever gotten it. The next offending piece was a letter from my landlord with a move out checklist (like the dorms!)and a note reminding me that my move out date is 8-30-2008. . .WHAT?????? According to my lease I can stay until 9/1 @ 12noon. This is imperative because BF has to be out of his place on 8/31 @ 12 noon, and we are still negotiating the new place, but it really looks like 9/1. Sh*t~! So I call them up, (2nd nasty call involving lots of waiting) and after getting the busy signal twice, get "Brittany" the nitwit at the front desk. Brit and I have history, as I have threatened lawsuits and sicced government agencies on this management company on multiple occasions, so of course she puts me on hold forever upon hearing my name. Great. Finally I get the office manager and she informs me that I do in fact need to be out on 8/30 @ 12noon because that is the time I specified? I didn't specify anything. I mentioned my lease at this point and she chewed me out, saying that it meant nothing because it was with the previous management company. Grrrr. I am going to call the building manager now and see if anyone is actually moving into this rat trap. I doubt it, as over half the complex is vacant. If no one is moving in, then why should this even be an issue. Yuck. Last offending piece of mail was note from credit card (the one I put the parking tix on incidentally) that interest rates are going to be the prime rate + a bajillion percent. So now my parking tickets are going to cost $786.00+ (786x (28.99%)= a lot of frickin money for tix I thought I was off the hook for. Seriously, how can anyone afford this city?

Will post later when have cooled down more. Was not as productive as one would have hoped (we have an Oberon supplier in Chicago now, what can you do?) because I got a little extra tipsy on Friday night. However, just because I didn't make it to a place of internet, doesn't mean I didn't write anything. More word documents, to be uploaded when I do make it to said internet place. No pictures though. Sorry for the lack of entertainment!

Holy Field Trip

After an interesting time last weekend, I am happy to say that I have limited plans this weekend. A lot of people are out of town, so maybe I can manage to catch up on sleep and on here. I am beginning to think that this just isn't meant to have pictures on it. My digital camera died a slow and painful death this weekend. THen again, I have had it since 2004, so what am I complaining about? having to buy a new one. It amazes me that a new camera, same model (canon elph sd), more pixels (obviously some time has passed here), but same camera is the same price it was when I bought my original one. Needless to say, that purchase will have to wait until my ship comes in. I don't really know when that will be, but I am hoping soon. So what i am saying is, no pictures for now. :( sorry, i really like to blog and i really like to take pictures, but when i get busy, these are the first things that get pushed to the backburner. I would like to write in more detail about last weekend, but all i can seem to get out are the events that unfolded:

First and foremost, L+Z's beautiful wedding. I cannot describe how beautiful this was. Gorgeous! totally worth her two years of planning! We took pictures at one of the places i think i wuold eventually like to be married, so you can imagine how amazing those are. Unfortunately, i don't have any of these pictures because of aforementioned camera misfortune. But I have friends that took pics, so hopefully I can just mooch off of theirs. The entire weekend, from Thursday boating and bachelorette tanning to rehearsal dinner atop the Park Place, to the sweet reception was everything I would have dreamed of in L+Z's case. There were 6 people in my overpriced room at the Park Place: Woody, otherspartangirl, Metrogal84 and her husband, and of course BF. BF was a bit of a surprise showing seeing as event number two. . . .

Event #2. Several hours before I was supposed to head up to Traverse city for bachelorette fun, BF got the call that his mom had died. This is never a fun call to take, particularly being that she was young- 57 in fact. Plus it is his MOM. I would be a complete train wreck if my mom died at this point; in fact, you might have to commit me, because whenever anything gets bad in my world I do what any upset person does: call mummy dearest. BF was not particularly close with his mother, in fact they didn't talk all that much; he is much closer to his dad, and i suspect if his dad ever died, he would go to pieces as well. However, his mother did die and he is very upset, as we all would be. Of course this meant a funeral and viewing and wake and all of those lovely funeral activities when a loved one passes. The chosen date for the funeral was Friday. I am thankful it fell on that day, because even though I had to drive 4 hours downstate to attend the funeral (only to drive 4 hours back upstate to make the rehearsal dinner), I could at least attend and be there for BF. I was thinking it would be on Saturday and that would be a nightmare, as I was an attendant for L's wedding. The funeral was beautiful but sad. Someone had decided to paint his mom's nails red (her favorite color) and her lips too. This somehow reflected her personality well. Seeing his mom laid out like that only made me miss mine all the more. The last time i "saw" her was for Metrogal84's wedding, but we haven't hung out since my "episode" in early March. This seems like a really long time. She is coming to visit next weekend.

But all in all I cried buckets of tears this weekend, happy and sad.

I just love weddings :) All this talk of weddings made me want to get married and plan my own. But really I think I just want to have a wedding; not ready to be a grownup yet. Plus I can't even afford a ceremony, let alone the reception right now.

For now I am going to chill out, update things (this??), hunt for sales on Digital cameras, and catch up on sleep. Have a happy friday!