this year

i can't believe this year is already almost over. so much has happened and it's all gone by so fast i can hardly believe it.
it's been a year that has been defined by change, both on a global level and a personal level.
the economy is changing before our eyes - the housing market crisis, the global recession, an unprecedented multi-million dollar bail-out plan. the political landscape is changing all over the world, including the united states, where we've elected our first african-american president. peoples' lives are changing every day - affected by the changing economy, unpredictable weather patterns, and political unrest. but they are also being changed by more beautiful things: the birth of a child, a wedding, the election of an inspirational new leader. love. hope.
2008 has been a year of change for me, too. new job, new apartment, new car, new cat. new tv, new vacuum, new phone. i'm blessed, because while these may have caused a little bit of stress in my life, they are all changes for the better. but the best things in my life haven't changed at all - my husband, my family, my friends. the special days and the not-so-special days that are still special because of them. i'm looking forward to 2009, to see what it holds for me and the people i love. i'm sure there will be even more changes, but the one thing that i resolve not to change, the one thing i refuse to give up, is my attitude of gratitude.

happy new year to you and yours!

lunch at work

today my parents came up to visit me at work and have lunch. i got to show them my fancy office building, with its fancy fountain and its fancy starbucks. and we had a fancy lunch in the fancy cafeteria and then we went to the fancy museum. well, maybe it wasn't that fancy, but it was fun.

lunch at home

i came home for lunch today, and it was nice. it was nice to walk out in the sunshine, nice to drive the five minutes from work to home, nice to cuddle with the kitties for a few minutes in the middle of a work day. and afterward, it made going back to work a little nicer too.

old friends

it takes a long time to grow an old friend.

john leonard

last night i spent the evening with one of my oldest and dearest friends, talking, drinking, catching up. she lives in colorado and i don't see her nearly as often as i wish i could (of course, i don't see any of my friends as often as i wish i could), but when i do see her we always manage to pick up right where we left off. we went to dinner and then afterwards we came back to my apartment and read through every stupid little note that we had ever passed in middle school and high school, fraught with inside jokes and nonsense words. i laughed till i cried, and then some. we've been through a lot together - stupid jokes, ridiculous mistakes, good times, not so good times - and i've been so blessed to have a friend like her.

new car!

holy crap alan and i bought a car today.

i still can't get over it. i've never made a purchase that large in my life. not even close.

but i needed a car. so we bought one.

whoa.

cosmic cafe

cosmic cafe is a little indian vegetarian restaurant in dallas that has delicious food and yummy chai and a charming atmosphere... i think the first time i ever went there was my freshman year of college with a friend of mine and i've been hooked ever since. now a new mini-tradition has evolved, in which alan and i meet there with my best friends from high school at christmas time for our little gift exchange. we eat hummus and nan and drink chai or imported beer and talk and laugh and just enjoy each others' company. not a bad little tradition, really.

merry christmas!

i'll be spending the day with lots of great friends and family today - it's going to be a magical day, and i hope yours will be too. give lots of hugs, get lots of hugs, and celebrate all the different kinds of love in your life!

for some random holiday fun: check out these christmas trees from around the world!

happy holidays to you and yours!

christmas eve

i got a fancy drink at starbucks this morning, and after being completely un-productive for a few hours i got to leave work early this afternoon. i found some great bargains at the craft store, and then i spent a couple of hours curled up on the couch with a kitty and a good book. after that we went car shopping and then to dinner, where i ate a big bowl of yummy cozy tomato basil soup. when it got dark we drove around a local neighborhood looking at christmas lights - one of the houses' light displays was set to music! we cuddled and watched as the christmas lights danced along to mariah carey's all i want for christmas is you (probably my favorite christmas song of all time).

it was a relaxing sort of day, one that i am truly thankful for.

merry christmas eve!

gloves

i don't know what it is about gloves, but i just love them. well, i love buying them anyway. i've bought three or four pairs over the last year or so but for some reason i always wear the grey cashmere ones that i got for christmas like six years ago that have a hole in the left palm. but i still love gloves.

secret santa

i posted earlier about our alternative christmas gift giving this year, and i think it was a huge success. we got to spend time with our loved ones and buy presents for children who will get little else this christmas.

that said, it was difficult to get alan's mother to come to terms with the fact that we wouldn't be buying anything for each other, so we compromised and agreed to a secret santa gift exchange. we got together for a christmas eve-eve-eve dinner tonight - each person received a gift costing no more than $30 from one other person. i like secret santa-ing because it allows you to buy one thoughtful gift for one person instead of ten gifts for ten people. it's fun, it saves money, and no one ends up with a whole bunch of stuff they don't need. i think everyone had a good time - mostly because we were together.

cookie dough

alan and i have bad luck with christmas cookie baking. two years ago i got overly ambitious with my icing and i nearly broke my back. last year we burned them. this year we made our dough using vegan egg substitute. it was looking a bit dry, and when we tried to roll it out to cut it into shapes, it got crumbly. so we had to make boring round cookies (which aren't really christmas cookies at all). but i will say that the cookie dough tasted delicious...

love actually

if there is one movie that you absolutely must watch at christmas time, it is love actually. it may in fact be the most heart-warming, warm-fuzzy-inducing movie of all time. i must have seen it a million times but it never fails to make me laugh and cry and i just don't ever get tired of it...

"whenever i get gloomy with the state of the world, i think about the arrivals gate at heathrow airport. general opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but i don't see that. it seems to me that love is everywhere. often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. when the planes hit the twin towers, as far as i know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. if you look for it, i've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around."

anthropologie

i think if i had to live in a store, it would be anthropologie. actually, i would pay to live in that store. it's just so... beautiful. and whimsical. the colors, the textures, the patterns, the smells - i find myself looking at and touching everything there. they have cozy beds and lovely clothes and fantastic little books and all kinds of delightful little things.

a quiet day at the office

today at work we had our group christmas luncheon and then our group happy hour... tomorrow is the friday before the holiday, and i'm looking forward to a fairly quiet day at work (fingers crossed, of course). lots of people have already left town, and lots more will be taking a half day tomorrow. here's to an early start to a happy holiday weekend!

spiritual wealth

"happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth... happiness comes from giving, not getting. if we try hard to bring happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also. to get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it."

- john templeton

texas winter

today was the first ice of this year's texas winter for me. i accidentally parked outside last night instead of in the garage, and as a result i had a considerably thick layer of frozenness on my windshields, mirrors, and windows this morning. i warmed my car up for about 10 minutes and then scraped for another 20 minutes (with a credit card, as i do not own an ice scraper because i live in texas)... it sucked, but it usually only happens once or twice a year so i could deal with it (although i sure did park in the garage when i got home from work today). and in the next couple of days the temperature will be back up to 70 degrees. gotta love those texas winters.

toys for tots

we decided to invite people to bring new unwrapped toys to our christmas party this year so we could donate them to toys for tots... our party was so much fun, but the best part is knowing that now there will be almost thirty children out there who will get christmas presents who wouldn't have otherwise. plus, our christmas tree looks extra christmas-y!

lazy lazy lazy

after the insanity of yesterday and the stress of the last month, alan and i took a lazy day today. and when i say lazy, i mean lazy. i slept till almost ten, he slept till noon. we sat on the couch, watched tv, played with the kitties, and didn't leave the apartment even once to do anything. i think we earned it.

happy birthday, tonya!

someone i can count on

i take for granted sometimes just how blessed i am to have a husband like alan. he is the definition of a stand-up man; he is loyal, and loving, and i know that i can always always count on him in any situation.

today has been a hard day. we had to run about a billion errands this morning in a town that we don't know to prepare for a holiday party that we're having tonight (two weeks after moving in). this afternoon, unfortunately, i had to go to a funeral for a good friend's little brother. when i was halfway to dallas, my car overheated and i had to pull over. i called my husband and he came right away - he took me the rest of the way to dallas (i wasn't even late) and then went back to my car and drove it to a shop in plano. he took a cab from the shop to his truck and as soon as he got home, he had to come right back out to dallas to pick me up. he never made me feel guilty about any of it, even though the timing couldn't have been worse and i know we were both beyond stressed.

life gets scary. you can plan as much as you want, but you can't predict anything. it can be stressful, and terrible, and wonderful, and magical - it's just nice to know that i have someone i can count on the whole way through.

reminders

"the foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet."
- james oppenheim

"slow down and enjoy life. it's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."
- eddie cantor

"cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age."
- christopher morley

"if you want to be happy, be."
- leo tolstoy

"happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place. but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around."
- e.l. konigsburg

"man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. if he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it."
- fyodor dostoevsky

massage lunch

today at lunch i went with two of my coworkers to get a twenty-minute chair massage at the mall... it's not the same as a real massage, but it was definitely nice. i felt all gooey and massage-y for the rest of the day!

counter space

seems like we've been living in a disaster area for a month now - boxes all over the place, not knowing where anything was, mess and clutter everywhere (especially on the kitchen counter)! but as of today there is only one box left, and it is full of art and photos that go on the walls. the office is unpacked and put away. the bedroom clutter is no more. and best of all, the kitchen counter has only kitchen-related items on it. hooray!

lots of little things

today i am thankful for:

quality morning cuddle time with scoop;

a good workout, and having the whole workout room to myself;

the shortest drive to work ever;

hot earl grey with honey, because it warms me up and smells so good and tastes just sweet enough;

the kind of restaurant bread that is hot and doughy and perfectly soft;

cinnamon gum;

sample sweatshirts, because i didn't wear a jacket to prepare for this crazy cold front;
cardboard boxes that used to be full of stuff but are now empty because they have been unpacked;

the curious little kitten who is purring while he watches me blog;

the good good sleep that i plan on getting tonight...

spaghetti squash

spaghetti squash is fun to eat. yum yum yum.
:)

life

today i am thankful for my tired bones, my exhausted brain, my twitching eye, my lengthy to-do list, my whiny cat, my struggling football team, my creaky car, my pouty husband, and my yucky cough... because today i know at least one thing: that it is a blessing just to be alive. and that as hard as life can be sometimes, it's never a guarantee.

little by little

little by little, our new apartment is starting to feel more like home. we've been busy all day every day, unpacking boxes and putting together ikea furniture and buying new toys and just enjoying the process.

holiday parties

alan and i both had our respective office holiday parties today. at my party, there were lots of yummy snacks and desserts, three different musical groups (including pete's dueling pianos), and big seminar rooms set up with giant screens and video games like rock band and mario kart (i am ashamed to say that my wii boxing skills need a lot of work). there were also black jack tables set up, and some sort of green screen make-your-own music video situation. a good time was had by all, and of course it's always fun to get out of work a little early...

fortune cookies

i love fortune cookies! they are fun and little and yummy and cute, and of course they hold the key to your future inside. i always read my fortune before i eat my cookie, but alan won't ever read his fortune until after he's eaten his cookie. perhaps he's just worried that i will eat his fortune cookie...

sample sales

at work, every so often, there will be a sample sale. sometimes they're selling clothing, sometimes it's shoes, sometimes it's home goods, and sometimes it's a combination - but the prices are always ridiculously low, so there are always fantastic deals to be found. and all the money goes to the united way, so there's no feeling guilty about it, either!

happy birthday, hollie!

good gifts

well, it's officially december, which means it's officially gift-giving season. alan and i just finished up our alternative christmas gift shopping last night, and all we have left to buy now are a couple of secret santa gifts. i just came across this article on great gifts that are easy and eco-friendly (and not gift cards), and i think i'm getting some good ideas...

monday, monday

in the past seven days, alan and i have dealt with apartment office stress, paint problems, cell phone service issues, moving drama, car trouble, cat health crises, and more than our fair share of emotional distress. needless to say, i was more than happy to see monday morning roll around. monday morning means routine, it means getting out of the apartment, it means not thinking about boxes or cleaning or unpacking for at least eight hours.