Whoa.

I am away at a conference for TWO DAYS and LOOK WHAT HAPPENS! Um, I'm feeling totally left out, I may just have to plan a short getaway!

A Birthday Celebration

The mini-vacation was wonderful. I didn't not get nearly enough sleep so I'm still exhausted, but we were (finally!) able to celebrate our birthdays and I was gifted:



and...

a new ipod! Wooo! He bought me my first ipod (a nano) but decided that with all of my Jazzercising I needed something with more memory. Also, this way I am able to keep the Nano with all of my workout songs and for running (love the Nike+ still, LOVE IT). I couldn't be more excited I was completely NOT expecting it!

My boyfriend is really into music, really into it. He's not that great (he played the drums in high school and still tries to play the guitar) but he's always finding the "backbeat" in songs and loves that sort of thing so anyway, I did a little research and there is a recording studio not far from his house in MI. I called over there and talked with the owner, explained my idea, and I ended up getting him two sessions of "mixing" lessons. I'm not exactly sure what it entails, but he'll get a cd at the end with the "song" that he produced so I'll find out!

Happy (Early) Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all enjoy your day and think about all that you have to be grateful for.

I'm heading to Bethlehem, PA tonight for Thanksgiving with my boyfriend and his family. Should be fun (even though smoking is PERMITTED in restaurants and bars there and I REALLY can't take it oh and there's chunky cranberry sauce and well, I hate that. Give me some Ocean Spray with can-marks please) and I'm looking forward to four days of eating and drinking. :) I'm running in a "Turkey Trot" Saturday morning, still trying to convince the bf to run too, not sure I'm going to have any luck with that.

We had a meeting last night about our recent pay cut and, well, it didn't go so well. You ever get the feeling like you're on a sinking ship? And you're frantically bailing water but the reality is... YOU'RE GOING DOWN?!?!? That's how I'm feeling. I'm hoping these next couple of days inspire a new attitude, outlook and solution.

AND I hope these next couple of days serve as some reminder of WHY I'm in this relationship. This long distance thing is really getting on my nerves.

Happy THANKSGIVING to YOU though!

...

violently ill crawled into work so I don't need to take any vaca/personal time
part-time pay cut sh*t hit the proverbial fan
playing hardball with this long-distance relationship thing
spent the weekend surrounded by small, Northeast, liberal arts college squash players and do not want to see a squash uniform complete with ultra-tall uggs, 1" diameter pearl earrings, 4 Tiffany bracelets, 8 coordinating hair ribbons tucked through a side-ponytail, and longchamp bags EVER AGAIN. I'm all about the preppy but there's a time and place for everything and that whole adage about looking at yourself in the mirror and removing one accessory thing... well, that should be a college course apparently.

on the plus side... it's a three day work-week.

FYI

I just caught a snowflake on tongue for PJ. Mission accomplished.

But MOM, Everybody's Doin' It

Okay, I stole this from a WHOLE BUNCH of people and you're probably sick of reading them by now in these smallish blog circles, so if you are... save mine until MONDAY! :)

10. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father's middle name) Wise Andrew
9. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, fathers dad) Richard William
8. STARWARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, 2 letters of your first) Terme
7. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, fav animal) Pink ____ (?)
6. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Bridget Burlington
5. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning) The Blue Reisling
4. FLY GIRL/GUY NAME: (1st 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name) Meen
3. GANGSTA NAME: ( fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie) Moose Trax No Bake
2. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pets name, current street name) Pookie Main
1. STRIPPER NAME: ( name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy) Polo Reese

Have a great weekend. After my last Junior Jazz class tomorrow (they're performing for their parents) I'm heading to watch my sisters squash tournament. It's snowing in VT today...'tis the season!

Hypothetically Speaking...

Okay. Let's say you have a job that's not your "real" job. It's a second/part time thing that you enjoy. Currently at this job, you make $x. Now, your employer is readjusting their budget and they would like to pay you anywhere from 39-93% LESS than you're currently being paid depending on their revenue for the month.

What would YOU do?

(if this is too vague I'd be happy to be a little more detailed.)

P.S. Happy Birthday to my wonderful boyfriend. :)

Shopping

Bad joke time...
You know you live in VT when...Hunting season started here this weekend so the mall was PACKED Saturday night when I ran out to do a few errands. (End Joke.) Seeing that many people out and about was fun, for about five minutes. I'm hoping to have my shopping done by Thanksgiving so I'm able to enjoy the rest of the season without going crazy. I have lists of everyone I need to pick something up for and a couple ideas for each. I figure I'm good to go.

While we were out Saturday night we got SUCKERED. You know those kiosks that are in malls and there are about 3 people working at them and they approach you while you're walking by to "try" it on you. Well, there was this nail thing (I actually already have two of them from years ago) but it's the whole sand/buff/polish block and EACH one of us bought one. I was not impressed with myself at all, but I did already use it to do my nails and I DO love it.

I had to work ALL day Saturday at an event we had that was crazy. A party for about 500 kids/adults is not something that I would like to do more than once a year. And people are rude. (Ha, like YOU didn't know...) We were serving cake and ice cream (FOR FREE) at this party (WHICH IS FREE) and this mother comes up and goes, "Um, could we have cake ONLY? My husband works at Jen & Berry's (name altered to protect the guilty) and that ice cream is NOT so we do NOT want that." I looked at her, and smiled, and said of course but what I really wanted to say way, "YEA LADY? Well, I ASKED J & B's to have THEIR ICE CREAM and THEY SAID NO SO HOW ABOUT YOU ASK YOUR HUSBAND ABOUT THAT, HUH?!??"

Saturday evening before we headed out shopping one of my best friends from high school stopped by on his way out for the night. It was a quick visit but we got caught up, so I get a text from him yesterday morning that reads, "So are you ready to date me yet or do I have to wait longer?!??" Ummm....? WHAT?!?

I (FINALLY) started working on my quilts again yesterday. I finished my last block for one of them (still have to figure out the lattice/borders) and started on another one. I'm feeling good about that.

It's my boyfriend's birthday tomorrow and his mom's birthday on Friday but I'm heading there next week so I think we're going to celebrate then. (I hope, because I didn't even send him a birthday card...) oops.

Koo Koo Bear Kids

Have you guys heard of this company?

CUTEST KID STUFF EVER.

I strongly urge you to check it out www.kookoobearkids.com

It's a Pink & Green and Personalized HAVEN. I'm in love.

Almost $100 Barrel

Ugh. I'm tired of these rising fuel prices. Go fill your tanks now before the price per gallon surges. I don't know about all of you, but it's $3.03/gallon in VT right now and I'd rather not see it any higher than that.

I don't think I mentioned that the other day when I ran into the store for a gallon of milk it was $4.99. A $5 bill for a gallon of milk. Expensive? Yes. But I'd rather pay more money for milk (those dairy famers work HARD) than for gasoline.

I read somewhere that the states with the best economy right now are Idaho and Colorado. Maybe I should think about moving. :)

AND what's up with people refusing to be paid in American dollars. That just makes me angry.

Oh, have a great day. :)

Halloween...

Better late than never, here is me, teaching Jazz 0n Halloween! (Obviously used the costume from last year...)