Ho ho ho!
Merry day after Christmas! I hope Santa was good to everyone! He was good to me - I finally got that new flash I've been wanting.

What a great day. The snow that was forecast never came, but it was okay because it just felt Christmasy - especially when I got in a fight with my mother, sitting round the Christmas tree. Gotta love the joyful holiday fights with family!

Now onto New Year's. My resolution this year is to be happy, whatever that may mean. I think it's a good one, and if I leave it open-ended, I'll be much more likely to follow it.

Happy holidays!

It's officially beginning to look a lot like Christmas, especially since I went to the fiance's company Christmas party last night. It was a good time, good food and free drinks all night, but is it required that company events taking place outside of work be very socially awkward? Anyway, compared to what my company does for the holidays - a $10 gift card and an obligation to donate money to a charity - it was a great spread. I am hungover and my brain feels like it's swollen, which is always a sign of a good time.

Speaking of Christmas, I can't wait until it's over. Bah humbug to this time of year, when it becomes necessary to wish goodwill on people you really don't care for, and buy them presents, to boot. I'm poor. My outgo far outweighs my income, and I am paying for it this month (pun intended). Maybe I'll ask for my very own accountant this year.

Happy Thanksgiving! Let's be thankful for the day of the year that we are reminded of all the things we should be thankful for. I plan on sitting at my aunt's table and stuffing myself with fowl until I'm too sluggish to wipe my own mouth.

Here are some other things I am thankful for:

To start off on a typical note, my family, friends, and of course, my loving fiance. What would I do without them? Probably just wither up and die in the corner, all alone. My fiance especially, as he has recently encouraged me to start writing again. And my family and friends, because they give me such great fodder.

Life. I only get one, and I am determined to enjoy it to the best of my ability. Even if I don't feel like it that day. Even if I have a low-grade fever and would rather be sleeping. Even at the expense of others. If I see someone with a bad perm wearing an ugly sweater, I will point it out - I'll just make sure that the person under fire doesn't hear me. I am charitable and believe others should enjoy their lives too. If that means a bad perm and a kitten sweater, so be it. Let's be thankful that we all can live and let live. Isn't life beautiful?

Waxing. Without that, I would have to spend hours in front of the mirror, diligently working my brows with tweezers. Do you know how long it takes to manually achieve the results one rip of the strip will give?

My car - even though it's a piece of crap that rumbles and squeaks in scary ways, it runs (for now), and gets me where I want to go (usually). And anyway, I'm doomed to be thankful for one more year, until I'm done paying on the piece of shit and can get a new (used) one that doesn't cause me to hyperventilate with anxiety every time I drive it. I guess when it comes to my car, I'm actually thankful that it hasn't exploded and killed me yet.

Holidays, because they give me a day off of work to spend with people that I love and that love me back, which helps me hold onto my sanity just a little bit longer. Too bad we don't get bonuses, but I suppose the trade off is okay if I don't have to stare at a computer for 9 hours in the Snake Pit.

Happy holidays!

Now that I am 29 and engaged, I have been battered with a bunch of new realizations that I never thought about before. For instance, I recently realized that at some point in the very very near future, my fiance and I will have to purchase a new washing machine. The one we use now sounds like a garbage disposal, and the towels come out smelling like cooking grease. I've never bought a large appliance before, and feel like I deserve some kind of accolades for being responsible and looking around on Craigslist for a cheap one...as if it's a gigantic feat I've accomplished.

Such a small thing, but I swear, before I became engaged, I never thought twice about how my clothes would be washed in the future, I just trusted that they would. Now we are adults, and will have to supply ourselves with the means to wash our clothing - because really, I think I'm too old to just go out and buy new stuff when I run out of clean underwear...right?

Has anyone else ever felt like this? It's like I'm officially at the door of adulthood, and it's starting to creak open.

I was driving down the street the other day, admiring the pretty fall scenery. A block away from where I work is a historic part of town, with beautiful rolling hills, wooden fence posts that fence in picturesque sheep and horse farms, and centuries-old homes that you can just tell were built by the nation's first settlers.

The leaves are changing color, and as I drove, I noticed the leaves gently blowing across the road and landing in the drifts against the curbs. Movement caught my eye, and I saw an old man walking along a fenced-in corral, watching the horses eat the hay bales in the field next to the road.

He was walking with his grandson, a toddler, and for a moment the quaintness added to the scene - until I noticed that the kid was on a leash, and wearing a bright red helmet.

I wish I had my camera. I laughed out loud. It was so absurd - this kid's helmet was huge, too big for his head, and had earflaps and a chin strap. The leash was heavy duty, and looked like it was made out of reflective material, which made me wonder, does this guy walk his kid at night, too?

Happy fall! Been a while since I've posted anything...I've been trying to figure out the settings on my camera! I've had the thing for a year and still don't know what it can do.

Took a walk yesterday - fall is officially here! The leaves are changing and the air is cool.
I just signed up for photography classes - and people are actually volunteering to be models for me! I can't wait to start. I'm hoping to learn about photography, of course, but also the business aspect of it, so I don't have to sit in a cubicle for the rest of my life!

I just had an odd experience at work, and I thought about it my entire ride home. I work in a very stifled environment, where personality is frowned upon.

There is a sales guy that works there that is friendly, outgoing, and a little different from the other stiffs. I actually ran into him one night while my boyfriend (fiance!) and I were out in a city that is well-known as a place that a lot of gay people live, go to school, and hang out. Very gay friendly, and fun too. That being said, you'd think a guy that was hanging out in a bar in this city would be down with the gays...but read on.

I was talking to him at work, and I told him that the previous weekend we had gone up to the same bar that I had seen him at before, and he said that he was around the city the same weekend. I mentioned that the night we were there was some kind of Gay Pride party going on...and this is where it got weird. As I spoke, his expression shifted, kind of closed, and he started backing away from me. His entire demeanor changed, and I got the distinct impression that he didn't want to be involved in a conversation that involved the words "gay" and "pride," lest someone mistake him as homosexual. I found myself becoming embarrassed, and I didn't know why. It was an awkward moment, even more awkward than usual in such a socially awkward atmosphere.

Here's my question: Why is it considered so wrong, shameful, negative, whatever, to be gay in our society? Why do people get so hush-hush when the word "gay" is spoken? Why did a normal conversation turn into such a mess because of the two words, gay and pride? It's 2009, for Christ's sake.

Was it the work environment that made him close up? His personal beliefs? Religion? I don't get it. I'll never understand people's desire to suppress the rights of other human beings just because they lead a different lifestyle, and I don't understand why people consider it distasteful to even talk about.

I have three gay friends who all took years to come out of the closet and finally tell their family and friends that they're gay - why? Because of society. Because we're taught that anyone different than the rich white men in power are bad, wrong, and should be shunned, and the people who are different believe it.

It's changing, slowly but surely, but obviously not soon enough.

Wow, one week after that last post, and I'm engaged! Weird timing...We're gettin' hitched! Yeehaw!
And I solemnly swear to not become a Bridezilla.
So strange to say "fiance" instead of boyfriend...

Just got home from getting my hair cut, and the first thing he says to me is, "What happened to your head?"

Thanks honey. I am the victim of Hairdresser Blowout - my hair looks like a helmet that has been gently placed upon my head. No weather, not wind nor rain, can mess it up.

So I am the proud member of a bridal party. The wedding is scheduled to take place in three weeks...and lately I've been wondering, what the hell is the point of a huge, traditional, overdone ceremony? Is it to benefit the couple? Is it for the families? Friends? Is a wedding supposed to completely exhaust the couple - and their respective parties - emotionally, physically, and financially? She can't wait until it's over, the bride said...which made me wonder, why even have it in the first place? Why not elope, or pop into city hall and tie the knot there?

While we're on the subject, what is it about weddings that turns caring, compassionate individuals into wretched harpies that use the phrase, "My Special Day?"

Here's to a happy marriage!

"The woman cries before the wedding and the man after."
~Polish Proverb~

Quite possibly the worst week ever is finally over. It got so bad that I'm a little afraid to leave my apartment...the only thing that hasn't happened this week is an airplane falling out of the sky and landing on my head.

Between being scolded for talking to coworkers (even if it's about a work related subject), being instructed to not wear pants the same color as jeans (but actually weren't), a flat tire, a sore throat (I can barely talk enough to vent about my shitty week), a threatening letter from our landlord chastising us for feeding stray cats (that have been on his property longer than we have), and our groceries being confiscated at the grocery store for attempting to write a check without a store value card, I don't know what'll happen next. I think all I have to look forward to this weekend is two days of rain and feeling like I'm sitting in a cold, damp basement.

The only thing I can do is lock the door and take a deep breath. And maybe write an angry letter to the grocery store, because that's bullshit. I've written tons of checks there without a card, and have always left with my gallon of milk and can of soup. I guess the universe just hates me this week.


Oh, and one more thing: I tried to buy a water out of the vending machine at work today, but it was sold out. So I bought a Coke instead...and when I opened it, it was completely flat. $1.25, gone forever.

Next week will be better - it has to be. Unless that's the week my apartment burns down and my car explodes.

Moo.

It's the last official week of summer - school starts tomorrow! Hooray for getting stuck behind school buses in the morning!

I wonder how many blogs there are floating around the internet?

This is where I'd rather be, instead of where I am now, fighting my way through traffic, packed elbow-to-elbow in the Walmart line, crowded in everywhere I go.

I went to the dentist today and had a bonding experience - literally, he bonded my teeth. The first time I have ever gotten Novocain, and now I understand what the fuss is all about. I much prefer laughing gas. My upper lip was completely dead for 3 hours; I had to stay away from hot liquids and hope that I wouldn't be pulled over on the way home.

Which brings me to my next problem: I have lost my license. Try explaining this story to a cop with a mouthful of Novacain: I can't find my license, and I also can't find my social security card (which the DMV requires as one form of accepted identification). The dumbest part? Apparently the state commands that you need one to get the other. What kind of broken system do we have when the social security office won't accept a birth certificate because it's "not a current form of id?"

It gets better - the social security office will accept certified school transcripts as a form of identification. Transcripts take up to 3 weeks to be processed and sent to me, and once I go to the social security office with them (and take a half day off of work to do that), it will take up to a week to receive my new card in the mail. All together, it will take up to a month to get a new card...and the DMV will issue me a temporary, 10-day license until I gather all the necessary forms of id they require. Since I'll need about a month, what happens after the 10 days are up? Will I have to go back down to the DMV? Every other year is too much for me - a trip to that place is like a week long vacation in hell.

Sigh...why is it so complicated? I wish I could call the governor and tell her to fix this annoying, broken, complicated, time-consuming, stupid, backwards system and make it easier for people to just live. They even have my license, with picture, on file - why can't they just pull it up and look at it?

It's like I'm playing tug-of-war against society.

Another rainy night. Sigh. After two weeks of 90 degree temps, it seems like summer's over and fall is here.
I'm awake, alone upstairs. It's cold outside, and the sun's just rising. One light burns in the window of the house across the street; the world is waking up. The cars on the street are so much louder at 6:30 a.m.

Worked all day, came home and did the dishes, cleaned, and finished the article that's due tomorrow and has been hanging over my head all weekend. I'm happy with it. Have you ever met someone that inspires you? That makes you think, "If they can do it, then so can I"? I met someone like that last week, and I wrote my article about her. It wasn't supposed to be, but I changed it, which is fitting since the theme is change. I need a change. I think we all do.

Oh, and I'd like to celebrate my first follower on here! I'm not sure what a follower is or what it means to have one, but I'm still excited about it!

It's the end of the weekend, another rainy Sunday night. That blob of light is a car making its way down my street in the rain. It looks lonely outside tonight.

Too hot.

See that sun? It was burning at about 100 degrees today, with what must have been 130% humidity. After feeling like a limp stalk of celery for a week, I kept reminding myself that fall is a month away... and we finally broke down and put in the air conditioner.

Ahhh...

I love summer!

I heart houseplants.

I was bored one day so I was shooting around the house. Who knew a plant in the window could be so pretty?

Don't wake the sleeping bear.

He would sleep all day if I didn't wake him up.