happy

It’s Just Life & It’s Good! (Pictures, Long)

/ christmas, friends, happy, life, pictures

Oh, hi y’all. As you know, I haven’t updated in a while, so I apologize in advance for the longevity of this post. I’ve been around, as those of you who are on my Facebook know, but typically it’s been a busy few months, what with four quarter at Schawk (can’t believe another one has passed), family visiting, friends visiting, and just… life, really.

Which is great, by the way. So much to be thankful for these days. :)

Earlier this month, Aidan came to visit for several days. It was awesome! He’s so mature and smart. And he’s turning out to be quite the bookworm. Hmm, wonder where he could have possibly gotten that? Seriously, one day, he read five books. Impressive! Anyway, when he was here, I took a day off from work to spend time with him. He loved that. I took him downtown to look at the Macy’s store windows, and he got to see Santa Claus!

Macy's State Street Windows

Aidan and Santa

Poor thing was totally tongue tied when Santa hugged him, but it was such a sweet scene. I had to keep blinking back tears. Santa was an absolute sweetheart to Aidan. :) Aidan also wrote and sent a letter to Santa that day, and he was beside himself when we peeked into the news studio (a couple of them have their windows uncovered and passersby can watch live broadcasts) and someone inside waved at him. The most random thing happened to me that day, too. We were looking at the windows and interacting or whatever, and a stranger came up to me, told me I was a good mom, and gave me a hug! :)

Later that week, Adam’s family came to town to visit. They loved spending time with Aidan and he loved spending time with them:

Family Pix

Aidan went home that Sunday, and I was sad to see him go. He is always excited to fly alone, so the good-byes aren’t terrible (for him).

That Monday, I scarfed down a cheeseburger from Portillo’s and saw the burger again a few hours later. :( I woke up Tuesday morning feeling sort of OK, so I headed out to work, only to end up exhausted and weak from the commute. I ended up leaving a few hours early. I wasn’t feeling good at all. Wednesday morning, I woke up feeling sort of OK, so I decided to brave it again even though my brain/body was telling me not to. I was 100% worn out when I got to work. I must have looked like hell. My manager eventually came and suggested that I go home. I left work at one, and was in bed by two. Thursday morning, I woke up very hungry, ate a big breakfast, and was back to normal by Thursday afternoon.

The next weekend, I got to hang out with Ricky Luna. For those of you who have known me for some time, you’ll know that I’ve been a fan of this former Mouseketeer for several years now. We had an awesome time together. He, his manager and family, and Adam and I just hung out, doing the touristy thing. Navy Pier (mmm churros), Pizzeria Due, parade, and then we came back here and hung out for hours. It was one of the best days ever.

Ricky & Me

Ricky just recently dropped an album that is super amazing. If you love electronica, you’ll love his music. The album’s called Electro Bomba, and I seriously cannot stop moving when I listen to it. I can’t even describe it, except to call it Electro Bomba, but it has a lot of what I like in good dance music. You can download a free 45-minute mix here, and you can buy the album here on iTunes. If you want to only get selected tracks, I recommend My Fitted Hat (Raw Mix) and Eyes Wide Shut and Smile (Sonrisa). Arms In The Air is also pretty damn awesome, as is the title track. Seriously, trying to choose a favorite on this album is like trying to pick a favorite child. I can’t do it. I don’t say that about a lot of music. So, download the free mix. What have you got to lose?

After all that excitement, last Monday, Adam took me to the American Girl store, where he had me pick out my birthday present. Yes, it was about a month too early, but he knew I’d want to pick her out myself, and neither of us wanted to deal with the store as the Christmas holiday draws closer. And when your husband is Adam Selzer and he asks you if you want to go to American Girl Place, you say yes!

Anyway, I came home with …….

Me & Julie
Julie!

Julie is the 1974 doll, which is special to me because that’s the year I was born. So it was cool to get a doll for my birthday who represents my birth year. And she’s so pretty. Why did I wait so long to get her? I’m in LOVE with that doll! :) I think she is going to be the one doll I actually keep in her time period. She’ll be my 70s girl.

Last Wednesday was my last day at Schawk 2009. I made it through this fourth quarter with no printed errors (Go Ronni!). It’s kind of weird knowing I don’t have to go to work tomorrow–all I have scheduled is a 2:30 massage at the Cortiva Institute. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be a homemaker, something I’ve never been! I mean, I stayed home with Aidan when he was a newborn, but this will be different. For one thing, I’m not sure where my next job will come from, or when. But Adam’s working full time now, so it’s going to be my job to keep the house, which he’s been doing all this time. I’m excited about it.

I figured that I need to make a schedule, though. Else I’ll end up playing FarmVille, Cafe World, and The Sims all day. So, here are things I MUST do every day:

1. exercise for at least 45 minutes (conveniently, the Electro Bomba free mix is 45 minutes)
2. write for at least an hour
3. some sort of special project (with Christmas coming up, this will be easy)

I’m actually going to write stuff down in my planner and hold myself accountable. It’s important.

Thanksgiving was awesome. Jeff and Deborah came over and we ate GOOD food. Four different kinds of dressing/stuffing, cheddar mashed potatoes, corn, pumpkin peanut butter soup, macaroni & cheese, and of course, a nice, juicy turkey. We played Super Mario Bros. for Wii (awesome game), and hung out and had a good time. Friday, I stayed in. Had to avoid those crowds, but Adam and I went out on Saturday. Dropped off laundry, and I just about finished Aidan’s Christmas. I’d like to get him something EPIC though. We’ll see. I haven’t begun to shop for most people. Will wait until December 1st. Same to put up my tree and decorations.

I’m looking forward to having December off from work. Just me recovering, and getting things done around the house. It’s going to be nice. And it’s my favorite season! It’s going to be more awesome because Aidan will be here in Chicago! YAY!!!

With that, I’m off. The ZzzzZZzzzZs are catching up with me. Til next time!

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Wow.

/ happy

I am speechless.

No matter what, this is a day to remember.
No matter who won, this would have been a special day in history.

And it is. God Bless America.

(And the M&Ms and Santa will be coming soon, I feel it!)

ETA:

Heck, I’ll bring it myself! Forget waiting for the TV to air it!

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Right Then, It’s On

/ cats, dork, happy, shopping, work

I’m surprised my brain is even functioning enough to write this post. But here Iam.

I am currently in the middle of a seven-day work week. I went in on Sunday, and I’ve been at work every day and will work Saturday as well. Yesterday, I was so exhausted and sick-feeling that I went home a couple of hours early, and those extra few hours of sleep REALLY helped. I figured that if I didn’t rest yesterday, I’d be crap for the rest of the week. This morning I felt back to normal and worked a regular day with no problem. Tomorrow is Friday for most people, but honestly, I don’t really know which day is which these days anymore.

The upside of all this working are the following things:

It’s nice not to have to worry AT ALL about money for the next several weeks. And all the frugal living I’ve had to do the past two years has really helped me not lose control of my spending. My biggest splurges this month? Some clothes for Aidan and my Disney Photopass CD, both of which I snagged at substantial discounts. I still take my lunches to work (except for the occasional McDonald’s treat), still reread books at home or get them from the library.

The people I work with are generally pretty great. The permanent employees are used to this fourth quarter madness and most of them take it in stride. They buy us lunch when we work on the weekends. The guys have a great sense of humor. I mean, anytime someone says “moot” and five or six people all start going “moooooot” like cows–that’s just my kind of place. Not only that, but they don’t look at me weird because I love Disney so much. In fact, I know of at least two other people there who are fans, and someone brings his/her lunch in a Disney World bag every day.

The culture of the place is one of the best I’ve ever worked at. Not only is there the Tuesday and Thursday popcorn, but I can listen to my music, and I’m pretty much to the point where I can get through entire days without having something pointed out to me that I missed or just didn’t know yet. I can wear jeans every day, and my “boss” has an Obama paper doll on her office window, and his clothes get changed often.

Did I mention that I know ahead of time what the sales are? Yes, that’s pure WIN. Not that I shop a lot, of course, but it’s nice to know. I am getting ideas of Christmas gifts for people.

The downside is:

No weekends, or very short weekends. I’ve pretty much accepted that I’m going to be working 6-day weeks until Thanksgiving. TGIF means nothing to me now.

I keep DREAMING about work and those ads. Other people say it’s normal, so I don’t feel like much of a freak, but still. I often have to force my mind to go other directions at night.

I haven’t had time to read a new book in weeks. So I just re-read old books. Now I’m going through the Casteel series by VC Andrews. I might skip the last two, though, and go to the Dollanganger series.

My room is a hot mess. I WANT to clean but I just don’t FEEL like it. I figure life will return to normal soon enough, so I’m not too worried about it. Except when I’m trying to find stuff. Or when stuff constantly gets knocked over.

Our Internet connection has been iffy again. Adam finally broke down and ordered a NEW service which will be active Monday night. I’m looking forward to stable Internet again.

Why are people so resistant to change on the ‘net? Flickr has a new homepage and people are in an uproar about that. The new Facebook–oh Lord. People lost their minds. I happen to like the new pages, and I’m getting used to the new iGoogle in the meantime. Good times.

The other night, I went on an online shopping spree. But the only thing that I actually paid for that night was Aidan’s clothes. I got him $100 worth of clothes from The Children’s Place for $26. The Photopass CD had been pre-paid. I also FINALLY dipped into the $45 worth of Amazon gift certificates I’ve had for months to preorder a couple of CDs, a DVD, and a book.

HOLY CRAP. The water heater guy left his sweatshirt here by mistake and Helena just peed on it. WTF. She pees on our bed every chance she gets and she tries to sneak in our bedroom just so she can pee on the bed. Lucy at least had a reason to keep peeing everywhere–she was sick. But Helena is just being a bitch and I’m getting annoyed by it. Ironically, she’d been taken back to PAWS in the past because of the same problem. But when we first brought her home, she used the litter boxes with NO problem at all. I don’t understand the problem. And I don’t understand why our vet charges effing $300 to look at a urine sample. Besides, she’s perfectly healthy, doing her billion windsprints all morning, and she poops in the litter boxes and pees in them when the bedroom door is closed or random sweatshirts are not on the floor. And she eats like nobody’s business. I don’t understand the peeing, though. It’s obviously behavioral, but I don’t know anything beyond that.

Anyway, I guess that’s all for now. I need to take a bath and then get ready for the bed that is not made, incidentally, because Adam was washing the sheets and comforter AGAIN because you-know-who peed on it. Again. Sigh.

Til next time.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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