GOODBYE 2007

If you know me at all, you know I have the worst memory in the world. I cannot retain information to save my life, but I can usually BS my way through it. It's really sad actually. I have few childhood memories, few young adult memories, few older (I'm not that old!) memories. And it's strange what I remember, or what made such an impact on me that I can recall the details. I remember being about 10 and Molly and I made a little Barbie campfire in her backyard...and her Dad yelled at us (it was a controlled burn). I remember cutting 5th and 6th periods with Jennifer when we were seniors so we could drive to her house and watch General Hospital. I remember sitting in Zach's truck watching The Cell at the drive in (and I remember it was a crappy movie). I can't remember 3rd grade and probably 80% of the people I went to high school with. I looked at my old year book a while ago and was shocked that I didn't even recognize most of the people, let alone come up with a name to match the face.

I can sometimes be reminded of things. Last night Molly came over (ask her about the infestation) and we were talking about something that I cannot recall at the moment. She mentioned this guy that we knew from when we did dishes at church camp. I had completely forgotten about him, which is unbelievable seeing as I had the HUGEST crush on him for the whole week. He was just dreamy though. Tall. Dark hair. Goofy sense of humor. I mean what's not to love? Anyway, I couldn't remember this dude's name. Molly had to tell me, which brought back all the feelings of teen infatuation. I wonder where he is now. I wonder if he's single.

Anyway, where was I going with this? So I last night I was trying to go to sleep (NOTE TO SELF: diet coke, The Simpson's movie, and a vampire book at midnight will NOT help you sleep) and started thinking about what has happened this year...the good and the bad. Here's my list.

Good stuff:

• Got out of jury duty (although I think it could have been fun)
• Met the newest member of the family- Lucy Ann
• Paid off my car
• Went camping in Oregon (I still remember cheapskate Kurt)
• Experienced the end of Harry Potter with Marianne
• Dyena and I moved from being just "work buddies" to being "after-work buddies" too
• Moved to a new office location- yippee! 10 min commute
• Said "hello" to some new online friends (I even still talk to some)
• Mastered text messaging (and got a cool new phone)
• Rediscovered the joys of Peter Krause
• Awesome cookie party
• Great Thanksgiving & Christmas

Not good stuff

• Got freaked out by the crack whore neighbor
• Operation "Meet New Peeps" was a total bust. Maybe the 2008 version will be better
• Got sick (but I got better)

I'm quite certain I've forgotten many things that should be on here, but they have escaped me for the moment. It's possible that I might have had to look at old blogs to remember a few things. Is it weird that I really can't think of any other bad stuff that happened this year? I'm sure something must have. WAIT! I know! Veronica Mars & Gilmore Girls were cancelled. No more Logan & Logan. Now I'm sad. Good thing I'll forget all about it in a few minutes!

New Year's Eve Already?

I don't know why, but this holiday seems to sneak up on me every year. I guess I'm so focused on Christmas that I forget all about it. Before I know it, people start asking what I'm doing for the big night. CRAP! I feel like I should have a really good answer for this...but I don't. To be completely honest, I hate this holiday almost as much as Valentine's Day. The two worst holidays for single people. This year I have no idea what I'm going to do. Karyn is toying with the idea of flaking on me so I could be going it solo. I could try to crash a party or tag along with Dyena at some club, but I just don't know. I have to work on Monday so it's not like I can go anywhere fun or interesting. How pathetic is it to stay home alone and watch movies and get drunk? I need to find a party fast! I guess next year I should start planning earlier.

I Love Christmas & My New Friend Greg

I just got home from a great time at my parents house (as usual). Bryan and I had a lovely drive up Friday night...well lovely with one exception. He didn't have the XM hooked up in the car so we had to settle for "Bryan's Sweet Mix" CD along with some other loser music. If I had known we would be listening to Cds I could have brought some good stuff. Eventually we ended up just talking and that was good too.

We spent a lot of time visiting family and just hanging out together which was really nice. It was relaxed and peaceful. Just the way I like it. We went to church on Sunday and the Christmas Eve service Monday night. Then the traditional gift frenzy with Mom's side of the fam at Aunt Lu's later that night. It's such a great group. They are really some of my favorite people to spend time with. Oh and lots of great gifts too!

Christmas morning I woke up at 5am but let everyone sleep until 6, which I thought was quite nice of me. Fortunately Lucy was one of the first up so she really helped me get everyone out of bed. My Dad just loves wet doggy kisses first thing in the morning. We followed every Christmas morning tradition we have established over the last 30 years (Dad MUST be wearing the red robe and is required to pass out the presents, Mom MUST have coffee before anything starts, Bryan is ALWAYS the last one up, and he starts the fire). We exchanged way too many gifts, but it's just so much fun buying for them that we all get a little carried away.

Anyway, Christmas was a blast, but that's not the point of this post.

My brother is a really amazing person in many ways. The most amazing (to me) is that he is almost always trying to make me laugh. And I laugh easily so when I'm around him I'm pretty much cracking up the whole time. He knows exactly what look to give me to make me laugh. He flares his nostrils and I die in hysterics. So anyway, the day we left he started growing a mustache. Why? He's insane is the best reason I can think of. Don't get me wrong. I like a good stache when it's done correctly, but it seems a little wrong on my baby brother.

That first day it didn't look like anything. By day 3 it was starting to come in. You could tell he was growing a little something on the upper lip. I sat next to him at the Christmas Eve service at church and I kept seeing it out of the corner of my eye and every time I did, he would snarl his lip and I would giggle (He also busted out the chicken version of Away in a Manger that had me dying and made my Mom give me an elbow to the ribs). Today on the drive home, I realized the true magnificence and power of the stache. It's coming in with red highlights which I think will make it even more fabulous. It's so powerful that it demands it's own name so I decided to call it Greg. I'm not sure how long Greg will be with us, but I hope he has a chance to get full and lush. I envision him like the stache on Magnum PI.

HC Here I Come

Ok I think I might be ready for Christmas. I mean I really hope I am. I have all my shopping done, I'm packed, and everything is in the car. I'm leaving from work to go to Bryan's house where we will unload everything from my car and add it to his. Then he gets to drive the whole way to my parents house. This is excellent for me because I can nap through all the boring parts of the drive. It's 5 fun-filled hours. Actually they really are.

The 1st hour up I-5 is mostly chatting and catching up. Then when we hit Hwy 20 we get the XM cranked up. We have a little game we play. We pick 10 stations and go through them 1 at a time. The other person has to guess the artist/title of the song to get a point. We each play a round and then if there is a tie, we go to the bonus round. The bonus round is a 1 point, winner-takes-all, sudden-death grudge match...and the station is Cinemagic (movie & tv clips). I will admit we don't usually make it to the bonus round. I really stink at this game. I only have so much room in my brain. I can't fill it with random and useless trivia about music. I need to save that space for the really important things: the exact number of minutes and seconds needed to produce the best popcorn in the microwave at my old office 3 years ago, the code for the copy machine I used in my first job out of high school, every line from Zoolander. You see where this is going.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, leaving soon. We should be in Humboldt by 8 or 9pm. I'm getting excited to spend time with the family and celebrate Christmas. In the spirit of being festive, I wore red today. See?



Yeah my hair is all messy. So sue me! I had to pack up the car and then scrape the ice off the car. It was a busy morning.

Update on Christmas Spirit

I think I might be coming out of the cranky christmas mood. I've just spent the last hour listening to Wham! Last Christmas on a continuous loop. If this 80's holiday classic doesn't put me in the mood, nothing will. Forget the fact that its the only Christmas song I can stand to listen to at the moment, listening to it at all is a huge step forward. I know I'll be back to Squizz and bopping my head to Korn in a few minutes, but at least I can say I felt some holiday spirit. If even briefly.

Maybe this video will help.



I'm sure I'll really be feeling festive later this week. I'm driving with my brother to our parent's house for 5 days of fun. I can't wait. It's going to be so nice and my Dad already mentioned he's making waffles on Saturday morning. Just thinking about all the things we're going to do is getting me excited.

Ok, one more time with Last Christmas.

Cookies, Cookies, and More Cookies

Today Molly and I had our 5th Annual Christmas Cookie Decorating party. We started this tradition back when we were roommies and always have a great time. Last night Molly brought a car full of supplies and decorations over to my house. We were so excited! We jumped right into making the cream cheese roll out cookies that everyone would be decorating the next day... after about an hour of chit chat. We made the dough and popped it in the fridge to chill for 2 hours. What could we do for 2 hours? Watch Harry Potter, of course. The only problem was that Harry kinda put us to sleep. It was either Harry or Big Vinnie. My money's on Vin. He's a killer. Anyway, we were so exhausted that we crashed early and were asleep by 11pm. This meant we had to be up and moving by 8am to get everything done.


Here we are early in the morning. See how excited we are?


We've cut out all the cookies into adorable shapes: snowmen, trees, stars, snowflakes, angels, ornaments (circles), presents (squares). We've done this a few times so we know what shapes work best for decorating.

Once all the cookies are cut out and baked, we always have some dough left over. The left over dough always gets turned into the penis cookie.


Don't ask me how this tradition started. I'm sure we were baking the cookies really late at night after a trip to ghetto Win-Co. Maybe we'd had a bit to drink. I accidentally left it in the oven too long so he got a little crispy.

Alec wasn't at all impressed with the penis cookie so, being the only guy at the party, took it upon himself to make a buxom snow woman. Somehow she's not as funny as the penis cookie.


Everyone did a fantastic job decorating cookies. Dyena especially had some hidden skills. She really can do amazing things with some toothpicks and sprinkles. Well she's not as amazing as Matea with the sprinkles, but I think Dyena was just trying to save some for other people. Tea seemed to think "more is better."


Aiden's specialty was using tons of icing. Those cookies are still probably drying. Looked like a good soup though. And he kept wanting to put more sprinkles on my cookies. I had a tough time convincing him that my pretty little snowflakes didn't need dinosaur sprinkles.

Kim also did a fantastic job, although I'm pretty sure I saw her licking her fingers a few times. The icing was really good. I should also mention that Kim was a huge help in making the Maple Yule Logs and the Hershey Blossoms. She will probably get an invite to the pre-party next year. That's the party where we make the cookies ahead of time.


















We made a huge mess in the living room, but it was worth it! Everyone had a great time and we ended up with some really beautiful cookies.

After everyone left, Molly and I just collapsed.
We absolutely love this party, but it's exhausting!

Where's my Christmas Spirit?

I don't know what's wrong with me this year. I haven't started listening to Christmas music. I haven't watched any of my favorite Christmas movies. I rolled my eyes at the Christmas episodes of my favorite shows. I think I might be turning into Scrooge. Well not totally. I do have Christmas decorations up at my house and tomorrow Molly and I are having the cookie party so I guess that will force me to turn the festive up a notch. The cookie party is my favorite part of the pre-Christmas Eve season. My favorite part that doesn't involve presents anyway.
ACK! Presents! I forgot I'm only about 1/2 done with my shopping. And I'm not even motivated to go out and look for more. I actually thought about just getting gift cards for those unlucky souls who have given me no shopping inspiration so far. How lame is that? I mean I love gift cards, but is it really an appropriate Christmas gift for my grandmother? I doubt she will think so. She's old school and a gift card is thoughtless. I guess I'm going shopping on Sunday.

OK I need to turn off Pantera and put on the Burl Ives. Maybe that will pull me out of the bah-humbugs.

Oh and this pic was taken by the lovely Dyena in the lobby of our office building. See how festive I am with the gray and black?

Office Christmas Lunch

I have 2 favorite days at work. The first is my birthday. It's fantastic! I usually have some super nice co-worker who has left me some little gift and it's waiting for me when I get to my desk in the morning. I get to spend all day listening to people tell me I don't look as old as I am. I go out to a great lunch with friends. I probably get a present or two. And I feel like work expects me to get absolutely nothing accomplished. I just get to focus on being fabulous for one day.

My other favorite day is the office Christmas party. It's the one time of the entire year where we can drink at work...well not really at work, but the work peeps are there so I count it on my time sheet. There are only 6 of us in the Sac office, so we always go out to dinner or lunch. Last year we went to The Melting Pot for dinner and it was awesome! I don't really remember the food, but the drinks were amazing. I think I had 2 and if you know me at all you know that's about 1 and a half too many for me. I get drunk off 2 sips so you know I was having a good time.

Anyway, this year we went to Piatti in Roseville for lunch. Now the brilliance of a lunch party is that you don't have to waste your personal time on the work peeps AND it totally counts as work time. The food was great and my drink was out of this world.
And the waiter carded me which always makes me feel great. Yeah they probably card anyone who looks under 50, but I don't care. Dyena, the dope, forgot her license in her other pants. She tried to steal my drink, but I was too fast for her. Yeah I drank it WAY too fast. On the plus side, the waiter was really cute. I'm sure he appreciated me touching him and waving at him. Everyone loves that. Maybe it's better to drink without the work peeps around. Nah! I can't wait for next year. Maybe we can just go to a bar. Forget the food. Merry Christmas to me!

Well Don't I Feel Old

Back in the dark ages I attended Sac State. As a bright-eyed young freshman I was lucky enough to stay in the dorms. It was a great way to meet a lot of people and have fun. At the time, I didn't think the accommodations were that bad.

Here's what the hallway looks like. I remember it as a little more cramped and a lot darker. The 2nd door on the right is the community bathroom. It wasn't all that bad surprisingly. Ok it was bad, but I'm feeling nostalgic. My room was about 4 doors from the bathroom. This was very good because I was close enough to make it in the middle of the night, but far enough away that I didn't have to listen to hair dryers all morning like my friend Heather did. Yeah I remember it a lot darker. I recall many instances of stumbling down this hallway in the middle of the night only to get back to my room and discover I had gone out in just a t-shirt and panties. Those might have been party nights.


Here's what the room looked like. Except we didn't have those cool bed frames and the under-bed drawers. It was all metal back in the day. I was on the left side and I had some sweet wallpaper going. I had photos and clippings from magazines covering the entire wall. Yeah I was really cool back then. There wasn't a lot of privacy, but I only had 1 roommate.

The reason for this little trip down memory lane is that they are demolishing my old dorm. Apparently it is no longer "state-of-the-art" --like it ever was. In a few months, I will only have my memories of those great times:

• hanging out in Zach's room on Wednesday nights--we were just drinking water Mom, I swear. And we were studying...um accounting. Yeah, that's right.
• Crappy Pizza/Good TV Night-- back when Thursday nights were all about Friends & Seinfeld
• Laying in bed watching General Hospital between classes
• Waking up in the study room with no idea how I got there

Yeah those were the days. Makes me a little sad that they are tearing it down. They can destroy the building, but they can't destroy all the stupid things I did there.