This time last week I was driving up to maine in some pretty slippery conditions, making every pit stop my lovely co-pilot and I could possibly make (Panera you are such a good friend!!). This week I will be driving in equally scary conditions: city traffic! However, as there was last week, there is a light at the end of the tunnel – dinner, beer and um, errrr, hmm how do I put this in a way that I can sustain any sort of dignity? Don’t think there is a way, so instead of saying it I will resort to this:

Yes, it is awful and yes I am ashamed. But oh goodness is it not the best sort of “pick me up” around?! Pure, unadulterated fun. I get to spend an hour of my night completely in tune with this group of people, that week after week continue to amaze me with their wit? beauty? intelligence? Ha I have no idea what it is that has me hooked, but it sure ain’t none of those (oh gosh I think their lingo is starting to rub off on me). Whatever it is that I find so compelling in these self proclaimed “Guidos” and “Guidettes” I have decided that it is time to expose my interest to the world. So thank you Blog, my cover is blown and my honesty is restored! I am a fan and will continue to be so until one of them becomes educated, removes the hair gel and or fake boobies or realizes that tanning is actually very bad for you…

Has anyone ever had any interest in going to Alaska? I met someone over the summer who has made it a bit of a life goal to get there and it wasn’t until I met him that I realized how beautiful it really is. Leave you all with some of the perrrty pics 🙂

Saw so many moose this summer, I am telling you its a sight to behold – for such gigantic animals they move so gently!

What a year it has been. I have never been happier to say goodbye to a year, and from what I hear there are many who feel the same way. It is funny to think that one day can hold so much hope, so much faith is stored in January 1st; as though this day will be an end all be all to all the days prior. As silly as it is, I am a follower, I was counting down the days to the New Year, wholeheartedly believing with a new year would come a new me, a new start, a new life. Ha, I may be being a bit dramatic butttt I must say I really needed this hope, something to help me move on and look torwards the future.

This New Years meant more to me than any other New Years in the past; it held a lot of weight and significance in my life. I feel like its a fresh start for me, and as I cozied up in the boonies of Maine, watching some unexpectedly beautiful fireworks, sipping on champagne, surrounded by new and old friends, counting down to 12:00 I realized: life is good. Its really good, and I can appreciate it because of all those sometimes not-so-good moments. I have shed more tears this past year than any other year, 2010 will be the year I smile more than any other year.

Don’t mind the cocktail, may have indulged a bit this year!!

How was everyone elses year? I hope you all haven’t totally given up hope on me!! =)

PS. Tommorow I will try to go into bits and pieces of this past year but will also keep it light and breezy, as I have in the past.

• You will never play professional basketball
• You swear very well
• At least one of your cousins holds political office
• You think you sing very well
• You have no idea how to make a long story short
• You are very good at playing a lot of very bad golf
• There isn’t a huge difference between losing your temper and killing someone
• Much of your food was boiled
• You have never hit your head on the ceiling
• You spent a good portion of your childhood kneeling
• You’re strangely poetic after a few beers
• You’re poetic a lot
• You will be punched for no good reason… Some punches directed at you are legacies from past generations
• Your sister will punch you because your brother punched her
• Many of your sisters are named Catherine, Elizabeth or Mary… and one is named Mary Catherine Elizabeth
• Someone in your family is incredibly cheap It is more than likely you
• You don’t know the words but that doesn’t stop you from singing
• You can’t wait for the other guy to stop talking so you can start talking “Irish Stew” is the euphemism for “boiled leftovers from the fridge”
• You’re not nearly as funny as you think you are, but what you lack in talent, you make up for in frequency
• There wasn’t a huge difference between your last wake and your last kegger party
• You are, or know someone, named “Murph” If you don’t know Murph, then you know a “Mac” or a “Mc”
• If you don’t know Murph, Mac or Mc, then you know “Sully”
• You’ll probably also know Sully McMurphy

~Wish I was back here with these cool peeps~

HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY EVERYONE!

-The fantastic stuffed peppers I made the other night and the even more fantastic company I had. An oldie but a goodie 🙂

-And how much I have been enjoying this mans photography,
http://hmmm.co.za/lates

Photography by Daniel Cuthbert

Pecularities

This is what I witnessed during my morning commute:

A woman stuffing her face with these two ingredients. Is this perplexing to anyone else?
Healthy – yes.
Gross – wicked.

Its a funny world out there.

Oh how I wish I was back there!

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don’t Disguise Your Voice!

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ‘ For Marijuana.

6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.

7. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is ‘To Go’.

9. Sing Along At The Opera.

10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can’t Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.

11. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream ‘I Won! I Won!’

12.. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling ‘Run For Your Lives! They’re Loose!’

13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, ‘Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.‘

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity

14. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.

Thanks Amy for this!!

Milestone in my blogging career:
An icon!!! Excitement of the week!

Wow my lifes worth was just brought down a peg however its all about the small things right? So anyways I would like to thank Princess Freckles for fulfilling my blogger wishes and tagging me in an activity that inlcudes a mascot of sorts. Here are the rules and regulations folks so listen up, this is serious business we are dealing with here:[1] Choose a minimum of 7 blogs for brilliance in content/design. [2] Show the winners and let them know. [3] List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

READY. SET. GO.

1. I have two alarms set for the morning. The first one is a forwarning, a heads up to let me know that quickly approaching are the worst 15 minutes of my day. The second one is a kick in the stomach, I am aware of the physical and mental pain to come and force myself to reconcile with my not too distant future. I steady myself, pull it together and after a few minutes of debating whether or not I should call in, I hop out of bed and turn the bright over head light on – which in no way will let me slide back into my layers of comforter heaven.

2. Dinner is not dinner without dessert.

3. I really enjoy decorating. I believe I get this from my mom, she is a great decorator and I hope I will have the same talent has her 🙂 It is something that I was looking foward to do when I moved into my apartment this fall, however within weeks I realized it was useless while living with two boys. “GIRLS RULE AND BOYS DROOL!”.

4. In the past I have been guilty of flipping to the end of a book to read the conclusion. If and when this happens it is simply just evidence of a great storyline, one too good to wait for.

5. I use to be very shy, but finally came out of my shell in high school and am now the one you can sometimes find dancing on the bar or for that matter simba style while being held up in the air by massive basketball players (odd but true).

6. I have a lot of friends but few very close friends. Growing up I thought quantity mattered but as I have matured I have realized quality is what matters most. I choose to stay in touch with some and out of touch with others. Your friends say a lot about you and I am proud to say mine are the best, caring and most thoughtful people I know 🙂

7. I prefer tea to coffee. However, I rarely drink tea. Tea tasted best while drinking it with my grandfather.

8. I love the idea of doing nothing on a weekend but when it becomes a reality I quickly get a bit stir crazy.

9. Marriage scares me a bit.

10. I eat far more chocolate then I let on. I seriously eat or drink some form of chocolate probably everyday. AH now that is honesty for ya!

Ok so now I tag:

The Lavendar Lilly

Vineyard Vogue

Walking in Memphis

Stop and Stare

Sherlock’s Stuff

Lindsey

Aartee

Brittney

Ops that was 8 wasn’t it? Ah I am such a rebel

Winter blues have held me with a tight grip these past couple weeks but I am happy to say that I have finally sprung free and so far this week has been great! Granted it is only Tuesday buttt I am being optimistic 🙂 Last week a few of my friends, including my mom, all lined up and did the unthinkable – weighed ourselves in front of one another! Well to be honest I waited until it was only my sister and I…
We then went on and measured oursevlves in all the necessary area’s and called it a day; vowing to stay true to the competition we had submitted ourselves to (lose goal weight by June, winner takes home jack pot). Last week was our first week of dieting and exercise. Want to know what I said to that?
“HA I am going to go straight home every night and get into bed. I am then going to gorge myself with as much food as possible. I am going to eat ice cream as much as I want. I am not going to exercise. And I am going to do this everyday for the rest of the week.”
And that is exactly what I did! It was so dreary and rainy and snowy and gross and blah blah blah – I can think of a hundred excuses for my unhealthy week. Yet, what is important is that this week I woke up with no excuses, only plans 🙂 For one, I went to the grocery store last night and cooked up all healthy meals for the rest of the week. For two, I went and got a gym membership yesterday and am heading there right after work. FYI Power Fitness is a realllly cheap and great gym. $20 bucks a month, can’t beat that! The sun finally decided to grace us with a bit of warmth and light the past couple days and I think I can safely thank mother nature for my renewed energy and spirit!

On another note, I just signed up to be part of a local “Wine and Dine” book club. I am so excited to meet some new people and get involved in something a bit out of the norm. However, we are trying to choose a book to read and can’t come to any conclusions. This is the list I provided:

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

At the moment I am reading, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.
I just started it and although it is written beautifully I have found the storyline to be a bit to0 subdued and uneventful for my liking. I believe the writer hoped for it to be more poetic then anything else and that it is. The story, so far, is about a young boy who is growing up on a farm. His dad is a dog breeder and much of the novel takes places in and around the crevices of not only the relationships formed on this farm but the farm itself; every leak and creak having a tale of its own. I have yet to get to the climax of the story but once I do I will let you know if it gets any better 🙂

ITS FRIDAY!
Ok so first on the agenda for today is to finally join the Letter Game that Emily from Vineyard Vogue (http://vineyardvogue.blogspot.com/) sent me. If you want to play just leave me a comment (as I did) and I will send you a letter 🙂 All you do is post ten things that you enjoy in life that begins with the letter you are given. If anyone comments on your list or post you send them a letter and yada yada, I think you probably get the point by now. OK, so my letter is L, hmmm what oh what do I LOVE that starts with the letter L…

1. LOVE. I like everything about love. Whether I am knee deep in my own puddle of love or I am watching others flying sky high, with that “I’m in love, nothing can phase me” kind of look – I love it. Sure there comes messyiness and sometimes hurt but what would life be like without it?This is a great site and has a fantastic collection of what love looks like through a lens, http://leloveimage.blogspot.com/.

2. Limos – who doesn’t?
3. Lady Bugs – They are good luck and definitely the cutest of all the little critters.
4. I love lamp. Hehe I couldn’t help myself! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VGM_jAzPj8
5. Lace is always pretty, its one of the few fabrics that I unconditionally love. It can do no harm in my book.
6. Leo.

7. LIPSTICK JUNGLE – I sooo hope it doesn’t get cancelled 😦
8. Lists. I always have a running list for about 4 different categories. Banking list, food list, calendar list, life list.
9. Lightening but only during the day. I think I may have been struck by lightening in another liftetime or something.
10. Lollipops! O, lolli lolli POP!
Friday Fun Fact:
Shakespeare invented the words “assassination” and “bump.”

I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A FANTABULOUS WEEKEND!