Out with the old.

There are only about 12 hours left in 2009. I'm not entirely sad to see it go. I guess it wasn't the worst year I've ever had... certainly wasn't the best either. But overall, I can't complain. I got a new job, moved to a new apartment, rekindled some old friendships. My brother got married, so I have a new sister-in-law. Nothing truly spectacular happened to me. Then again, nothing awful happened either.

Right now I'm relaxing with a cup of coffee before I get ready to go out for the night. I've been trying to think of something deep and profound to write, but I'm blank. Lol. Last day of the year and I've got nothin'. Although, I have been giving a lot of thought to New Year's resolutions. I always say I'm not going to make them, and then at the last minute, I feel compelled to do it anyway. I think it's something about the "clean slate" feeling of a new year. Like opening a brand new journal for the first time and seeing all those blank, white pages just waiting to be written on. So for now, I have a list of resolutions in my head. I think I might put them in writing, but not yet. Perhaps tomorrow.

Goodbye, 2009. It's been a pleasure.

Simplify :)

I haven't blogged in ages, but I've started a new project and I feel like writing about it will motivate me to follow through. We'll see. (Plus, I really miss writing. It's therapeutic.)

Lately I've been feeling overwhelmed by a lot of things: new job, money, apartment, physical clutter, emotional clutter. I decided that I needed to simplify my life. That sounds like a huge undertaking, but if I start small I can make it manageable. Baby steps.

My first "chore" was to go through my make-up, jewelry, perfume, and body lotions and get rid of what I don't want/need/use. Many of those things were gifts from former students, and I kept them out of guilt. It's hard to throw away a perfectly good bottle of body lotion... even if it's a scent I'll never use or a brand that makes my skin break out. So I threw away anything that was more than half empty and the rest went into a box. I'll figure out what to do with that later.

The next thing I did was sort out my new Christmas gifts and put everything away. I even took all the Christmas cookies that I got as gifts and put them in one container - eliminating all those little plastic bags made me feel better :) I went through the fridge and freezer and got rid of anything past its expiration date. I even went into the cabinets and organized the food. All of the baking supplies (chocolate chips, sprinkles, extracts, food coloring, cupcake papers) went into a clear storage box so that they're all together and out of the way.

I know I can't do it all at once. In fact, if I tried to do it all at once I'd get more overwhelmed and more stressed and I'd probably give up the whole project. So I'm going to make a plan for the next few days and then take some time today to let myself decompress.

So... the plan for the next few days is to go through my closet (specifically shoes and clothes) and to organize my desk and paperwork. I also want to go through my cookbook and plan out some meals, and then make my grocery list based on those meals so that I don't overbuy and clutter the fridge with stuff I don't really need.

I feel good about this. I hope I can keep it up.

I'm back!

I'm so bad at blogging. I used to do this all the time, but now it's something that I rarely think about. So here's the deal. I'm gonna try blogging again, but you need to read it. And comment. Comments are key.

It's been quite a weekend. Turned out to be a long one, too. I took a personal day on Friday for a job interview (read more about that here), and had the rest of that day free, which is a rare and glorious occurence. Saturday was spent at my parents' house playing with the dogs (Tasha, of course, and Doug's dog Mabel) while I was trying to upload Quicken. That wound up taking much longer than I expected, because my computer decided to be a bitch and freeze every three minutes. Finally got things working and all was well with the world. I fully intended to go home, relax and go to bed EARLY, since I had to be up early today for Confirmation. And then Joe texted. He wound up coming over to the apartment around 10:30, knowing that I wanted to be in bed no later than 11:30. We wound up going for a 6-pack at 11:20 (Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, yum!), so needless to say, I did NOT make it to bed at a reasonable hour. Four beers and one shot later, it was 3 AM and the salsa music was cranked up on the laptop. Sadly, Sam went to bed before the dancing started. I'm sure she regrets missing out on the fun, lol.

Thankfully, I was not hungover when my alarm went off at 8 AM. Confirmation was held during the 10:30 Spanish Mass, and it was actually really nice. I've never been to the Spanish Mass before, but I definitely want to go back. The music was awesome! This was my first time being a sponsor for Confirmation... no wait. That's actually not true. My godsons were both confirmed at their baptism, so I guess I was technically a sponsor for them, too. Okay, so this was my first time being a sponsor for a Roman Catholic Confirmation. Pretty cool. The girl I sponsored is a former student. Hard to believe she's in 6th grade already! After the Mass, I was invited to lunch at the convent with the other teachers, the pastor and the bishop. By the time I got home, it was close to 3 PM, and I was exhausted! The rest of the day was spent watching movies... "Princess Bride," "Dirty Dancing," and now "Shrek."

And the best part? Tomorrow is a "professional development" day, which means no work! Gotta love it :)

Okay, I think that's enough weekend update for now. Later, gators!

Date Night

On a whim, I decided that I was going to make tonight "Date Night." I have a date with myself. I decided to spend my night doing things that make me happy, just because I can. (And because I have the apartment to myself). So I stopped at Target on my way home and bought my favorite Bertoli meal (pork with corkscrew pasta, spinach and sundried tomatoes, in a creamy sauce) and some garlic bread. I also picked up a package of something that looked quite delightful... brownie bites. It's break 'n' bake dough that makes little bitty brownies. Sounded too good to pass up.

I also perused the entertainment section and bought a few things on impulse: "Chocolat" and "Mamma Mia!" on DVD, and a James Patterson book called Sundays at Tiffanys. (A quick sidenote: So many people RAVE about James Patterson, but I have yet to read any of his work. This one looked fairly interesting and will probably be finished in a few hours, lol. But I was in the mood for a sappy easy-read.)

When I got home, I threw on my most comfortable outfit: a pair of old sweatpants and a super cozy long-sleeved t-shirt. Sloppy ponytail? Check. Ratty slippers? Check.

I ate dinner while watching "Jeopardy" (best gameshow ever), saw the episode of "Seinfeld" where the gang goes to India for a wedding (classic), and now I'm baking my brownie bites and watching the beginning of "Fiddler on the Roof" on TCM.

(The brownies smell amazing...)

Plans for the rest of the night include a glass or two of wine with some brownie bites and a movie... perhaps "Mamma Mia!"... followed by a few chapters of a book. I'm currently reading The Geography of Bliss, but I might actually start the Patterson book. And I'm pretty sure I'll pop onto facebook and read some blogs.

And that's Date Night in a nutshell.

shiny new year

Hello, all! I've been sitting around on the sofa in my pajamas, watching a "Twilight Zone" marathon and savoring a cup of coffee while I contemplate the passing of yet another year. I love the last day of the year. Gives me a chance to reflect on who I am, who I've become, who I want to be.

Overall, 2008 wasn't the best for me. It's been a stressful year filled with money problems, job hunts, and sadly, the destruction of my beloved car. But when I think about the big picture, it definitely could have been much worse.

While 2008 was nowhere near as kickass as 2007, it did have some good points. I still have a job that I love... this year has been rough, but I'm blessed to be part of such a wonderful community. In May, I found out I have a new addition to my family - Kyle's son Gabriel - who later became my godson. I got a sofa... lol... might not seem like a big deal, but it's SO much better than the futon. My brother got engaged in September, and I was asked to be in two weddings next fall (Doug and Jill, Becky and John). I had an interview with a very prominent school district, and I'm officially on their "list," which means I can be hired if there's an opening. Fingers crossed. And of course, I had some fun nights out with my friends. And lots of fondue!

And it was a big year for world events... the Olympics, Phils winning the World Series, the election of Barack Obama... a historical time to be alive.

Anyway, I'm hoping for good things in 2009. We'll see.

Christmas spirit... coming and going...

Today I upheld a fine family tradition... a trip to Peddler's Village with my parents! It was the perfect day for it - cold and clear. Our first stop was lunch at the Peddler's Pub. I had homemade vegetable soup (mmmm....) and a roast beef sandwich. Then, it was time to window shop! I didn't buy much this year, but we visited all my favorite places: the nut & candy store, the stationery store, the hat store, the Yankee candle shop. We skipped the bookstore (too depressing to go to a bookstore when I don't have money, lol) and the gingerbread house display (the line was WAY too long and no one felt like waiting). We stayed just long enough to see the lights come on when it got dark. A truly spectacular sight - I highly recommended it if you've never had the chance to see it. As we drove home, it started to flurry. The perfect end to the day! We also drove past Shady Brook Farms and caught a glimpse of their drive-through light display. (I really want to get there this year. If anyone's interested in getting a car together - and maybe a few thermoses of spiked hot cocoa - give me a call! It's $20 a carload, and I have a big car.)

When I got home, snow was still falling, and it was enough to cover the cars and the grass. Since I was in the mood for Christmasing, Sam and I decided to haul out the holly... I mean, the boxes of decorations from the garage. We were practically giddy with excitement. We lit a holly scented candle and put on a DVD of "A Christmas Carol." We started unpacking boxes and putting things in place. Then Sam asked which box had the lights. We rechecked the boxes, but couldn't find them. So we went back to the basement to see if we had missed a box. Nothing. I went up and asked our neighbor if maybe she took it up with her boxes by accident, and I found out that when she went down last weekend to get her decorations, she saw that 2 of her boxes were missing. She had to buy a whole bunch of new stuff to replace what was gone.

She told us she wrote a letter to our landlord, so Sam decided to give him a call. He apparently apologized and offered to reimburse us for what was stolen. I took a mental inventory and figured out what was in the missing box: lights for the tree and the window (at least 5 or 6 strands), the star for our tree, the new tree skirt that I bought last year (that matches our stockings), the electric candles for the window (which have been in my family since I was little), the garland of tinsel for our tree (at least 6 strands). As far as I can remember, that was all that was in there.

So now we have to go shopping tomorrow (with money we can't afford to spend right now) and buy things to replace what was stolen. Ugh. It really put a damper on the evening.

In retrospect, it could have been much worse. It could have been our tree, or our ornaments... but it's just so frustrating. And we have no way of knowing how the boxes went "missing." They're stored in a garage which is bolted shut from the outside and padlocked from the inside. Our neighbor had a friend who was storing things down there, so it's possible she took it. Our landlord's nephew has a key... maybe he took it. I just don't know why anyone would want our Christmas decorations.

So our fun-filled evening ended with much cursing and depressed sighs. And now I'm watching cheesy Hallmark channel Christmas movies and drinking my second rum and coke. Meh.

Gracias. Merci. Danke. Arigato. Obrigado. Xie xie.

This hasn't been a very good year for me... or so I'd like to think. It's really more along the lines of "things haven't been going my way this year." But today I want to force myself to step out of my bitter-box and really reflect on the good things I have in my life. So... I present to you my list of Things for Which I am Truly Thankful. In no particular order.

1. Family. Including the dog. And the extended family (cousins, second cousins, godsons, etc). Maybe I should have listed extended family before dog... lol.
2. Friends... the ones I see every week and the ones I don't get to see as often as I like. They all keep me sane.
3. My job and my co-workers. The pay is bad and I often feel underappreciated, but the truth is... I don't think I'll ever find another "work family" like this one. I will truly miss them when I eventually leave.
4. Weddings. I bitch about "always a bridesmaid, never a bride," but I'm thankful that I have friends who have found happiness. And also thankful that they want me to be a part of their happiness by standing with them on their wedding day. (But I'm not so thankful for the closet of bridesmaid gowns I'm collecting...)
5. My students. I teach them... and they teach me. It's pretty much even. They make me smile when I'm having a bad day. They tell me I'm the "best teacher EVER," and I believe it coming from them. I may be single, but I get more hugs, hand-holdings, "I love you's", and random gifts than many of my coupled friends. Can't get that kind of love from an office job.
6. My health. (No explanation necessary.)
7. Booze. (No explanation necessary here, either.)
8. The apartment. It's not so bad, compared to some other places. And the noisy neighbors are... well, they're tolerable. Most of the time. Even though their TV is currently so loud that I can hear every note of the Thanksgiving Day parade.
9. My education. I'm lucky to have parents who impressed upon me the importance of learning. I've never once taken it for granted.
10. My boobs. They're nice.
11. The unique qualities that make me ME. And the fact that my friends and family love me because of (or in spite of) those qualities.
12. My faith. It gets me through when nothing else can.

Thank you. Seriously. And go be thankful yourself. It feels pretty good.