Happy Martin Luther King Day

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." - MLK

I'm not a big quote person, but that one resonated with me. I hope everyone's enjoying their day off, if you get one.

2014 Wrap-Up

Happy 2015, everyone!

When I look back on my year, at first it seems like not much has changed from this time last year - which is fine, because the previous year was a huge transition and I started last year with plans on de-stressing and resetting. But then I read my "resolution" post from last year, and I realized that even though things are physically pretty similar to the way they were last January, mentally I'm in a totally different place.

I kind of forgot how weird I felt around this time last year. My life had gone through a major change, and I had done a lot of growing up in a very short period, so I felt uncomfortable in my skin and I had a lot of guilt issues about "abandoning" friends. I was also going through a major period of FOMO, but was in denial about it. I was really happy to be where I was, but I just felt weird about it. I felt displaced.

This year, I spent a lot of time reconnecting with myself, and reconnecting with Jeff. I didn't feel disconnected from him, per se, but this year we spent a lot more quality time together, and I feel closer to him than I ever have. Things have been a lot less stressful over the past year than they had been in the past, and it's been good to just be able to appreciate the good things in life without having to worry about a ton of other stuff. Not to say life was terrible before, or that we were going through anything particularly difficult, but things just feel very calm and stable right now, and it's nice.

Since the previous year had felt so chaotic, I had a pretty big list of goals for this past year, but they were pretty general. I'm not going to set specific goals for this year, because I don't feel like anything needs major change, and instead I'm going to just focus on appreciating the good things and taking advantage of my time doing things I enjoy and spending time with people I love. Pretty simple stuff.  Anyway, to address my goals from last year:

The first major "goal" I had was to get back on track with a healthy lifestyle. Results? We'll say, "Meh". I definitely didn't eat any healthier than I had been, but I wasn't a total train wreck about it, either (at least until the holidays hit). As far as working out every day before work...that was a joke. I didn't do that once. Not one time. It was too much work, having to bring my work clothes, keep them from getting wrinkled, lugging my makeup and hair stuff to the gym, attempting to shower in the locker room, etc. etc. It just wasn't happening. And that 12-9 schedule had me miserable. Remember that seasonal depression post? That was in the middle of that awful schedule. I do legitimately get seasonal depression, but that schedule was not helping by any means. It felt like my entire day was totally eaten up. Once I was on a more reasonable schedule, I did start going to the gym after work, and that went as it almost always does: I'd have a two or so month stretch where I'd go every day, I'd get busy and stop going for a month or two, and then I'd start going regularly again, and the cycle would repeat. My last cycle ended around November, and I officially decided to give up for the duration of the holiday season, but I'll go back in January and try to continue as frequently as possible throughout the year. It definitely does make a difference in the way I feel, and my schedule should be consistent this year so it should be a lot easier.

And then there was the social thing. I already mostly covered that, but I really am in a much better place mentally than I was last year. I spend a lot more time at home, but I feel totally fine with that now. When I do spend time with friends, I enjoy it a lot more because it feels more like an event than an every day occurrence. I finally feel like most of my friends are on the same page with me, so I don't feel guilty about leaving them behind and I don't feel left out of their lives. Not to mention I'm saving a ton of money by not going out three nights a week...though I have developed a bit of a shopping addiction. Maybe THAT should be a resolution.

The house thing...that's another "Meh." I got pretty much nothing on that list accomplished, but I don't really feel bad about it. When we first moved in, I was super hyper about making everything perfect right away and I was also reading a lot of DIY/home improvement blogs, which were making me feel like a total renovation loser. Our house the way it is right now is beautiful. It's not perfect, but it's home. I did decorate gradually over the year, and of course I'm always working on that. I still need to get our guest room done, because I hate making people crash on our third floor when they stay. The office is on pause, because we're not sure a dedicated office space is totally necessary. I still want to do the stuff I mentioned before like paint the staircase and semi re-do the kitchen, but I'm not really in a rush. We got our windows done, which was huge, and we got our heating situation resolved. I don't know if I mentioned this, but we're getting our roof re-done for free due to some hail damage from last spring, which is freaking amazing. That's going to happen next week. We do have official goals set for next spring/summer: our main goal is our exterior, which is a mess. Jeff's determined to make it functional and nicer looking, and of course I'm all for it as well. He's also determined to put a new, heated floor in our main bath because we get hardly any heat in there, so when we do that we're going to re-paint it as well. I'd also like to re-tile our shower and/or get a new sink/vanity, but we'll see. It's not a necessity. Smaller things we've done include putting a new faucet in the upstairs bathroom, putting a new rug in the living room, scoring my precious sideboard in the dining room, and mulching around our driveway (except we didn't maintain that, and now our work is pretty much ruined. And when I say "our work", I mean Jeff and our neighbor Liam's brother.) All in all, I think we did pretty well for our experience level and budget. We got a little lazy, but that's okay. Oh, and I still need to put stuff on the damn walls, but I have a pretty concrete plan worked out for that. More to come.

I guess that was it, other than "take more pictures". I guess I included that in my house goals. I'm still kind of bad at remembering to take pictures and I'm really weird about asking people to pose or asking strangers to take pictures of us, and I'm kind of (really) bad at taking candids that look like anything, but I'm trying to get better. I bought a "grown up" camera, and have been working on learning how to use it effectively, and I have photoshop now, so I'm thinking about taking an online photo-editing class. I'm happy that I've started blogging on a consistent schedule, and I'm going to try to improve on content.

All in all, it was a pretty great year, and I'm excited to see what 2015 has in store. Thanks for reading, and happy new year!

New Year, New Whatever

This year is going to be different.

I don't mean that in a resolution-y way; I'm not doing resolutions this year. I always say that, but this year, I'm not even doing the thing where I list out my goals/things to improve upon (or, y'know, resolutions) that I usually do. I mean it in an actual way, in that this year is going to be different than past years, and I have no control over that fact.

Right before I left work for my holiday break, I found out that I've been accepted for a new position that I had applied for, effective pretty much immediately upon returning to work. Which is awesome, awesome, awesome. However, this new position comes with a different schedule - my dream schedule, actually: Monday thru Friday, off by 5 PM every day. I've been dreaming of such a schedule ever since I took my first serving job and have been on random (sometimes nightmarish) schedules ever since. But! I've been on some iteration of my current schedule (which is Tuesday thru Saturday; hours have varied over time but are currently daytime hours) for such a long time that I've gotten so used to it that I'm a little apprehensive about it changing, no matter how "ideal" the new schedule is. On my current schedule, Jeff and I each have one "alone day", where we have the house to ourselves during the day and can spend it doing whatever we please (I usually go the thrilling route of cleaning the house and cooking an elaborate dinner, because I'm a 1950's housewife, apparently), and one day off to spend together, which has been pretty ideal. Plus, my "alone day" always fell on a Monday, which means if I had errands to run I had the whole world to myself, with everyone else at school/work. It was lovely, and I had gotten so used to it that I all but refuse to enter a grocery store/the mall/any public place during busy weekend hours.

So, it will take some adjusting. It's not all bad, though. I've also considered the fact that we'll now be able to actually take weekend trips on occasion without one of us having to take time off work, and we can spend a weekend here or there at the beach (or "down the beach", as the locals say) like the entire rest of the Delaware population during the summer if we so choose. I can also start making trips to the farmer's market that I used to work at when I was with Drip on Saturday mornings, which was a no-go previously since I always had to work. Most of my friends aren't really on normal schedules because a lot of them are nurses or servers or have other careers that involve shift work, but it still FEELS like everyone has normal weekends off, and I've always felt like somewhat of the odd man out (more so when I had to work Friday or Saturday nights, but still.)

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great holiday. Ours was SUPER relaxing (to the point of where we had to leave the house yesterday for dinner and a movie, because we both felt cabin fever creeping in even though we technically were traveling for several hours the day before). For the first time in...five? years, Jeff and I are staying in by ourselves this New Year's Eve, and I'm actually pretty excited to spend a cozy night eating finger foods, drinking champagne, and watching the ball drop in our PJs. I'll be back to regular posting next week, and may or may not be back before then with some kind of a year-end wrap up post; I haven't decided yet. If not, I hope everyone has a safe, fun and happy New Year's Eve!

A Quick Hello

Just wanted to leave a quick heads up that I may be kinda MIA throughout the rest of the holiday season. So much gift-wrapping/movie watching/cookie baking/eggnog drinking/merry-making to do, so little time! I'll make an attempt to pop in here and there, or if anything of interest happens to come up, but until then, I leave you with this photograph of my dear Grooby (whose name I spelled wrong on our Christmas cards, by the way...you know, the name that I, in part, created) terrorizing his birthday toy (my baby turned 5 yesterday! FIVE!!!) and creating large amounts of mess and disorder throughout the household.  Luckily, he only destroys his own stuff, by some grace of god. I hope everyone's enjoying the holidays as much as we are around here!

Holiday Gift Guide: For the Food Lovers

When in doubt, gift food. Who doesn't love food? I love food. Here are some food gifts. Food.

Anything from mouth.com. Literally anything. Might I suggest this chocolate-covered deliciousness taster? - $70

Christmas Party in a Box. It's a box of salami. A box. Of salami. - $90

Murray's Cheese Greatest Hits. It's got all your bases covered: sharp, creamy, sweet, mild, nutty, crunchy (crackers). - $75

Harry and David's Royal Riviera Pears may be old-school, but they're famous for a reason. They're sweet, buttery, and so juicy you can literally eat them with a spoon. And they come individually wrapped in pretty gold foil, which makes them the perfect Christmas gift! - $29.99 

Jeni's ice cream comes in multitudes of gift packs, but you'll never strike out with this top sellers collection. - $48

Honey is good for so many different things, and really good quality honey isn't something that people tend to buy for themselves. - $29.95 for a two-jar gift set

Pair this awesome small batch tonic with a really great bottle of gin (this is a good one), and you've got a great update to a classic. Plus, the tonic is a concentrate, so they don't have to worry about it going flat after using it a couple times. - $16