Holiday Hangover

So, how was everyone's Christmas? Have you had your fill of sweets, smalltalk, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation yet? I write to you from my parent's couch, trapped here by 11 inches of snow. It's a freakin' blizzard out there! Interstates and highways are closing and people are cancelling Christmas-can you believe it? As for my family, we braved the cold and the daunting snowdrifts and ice to make it across town to Grandma's house. We didn't even get stuck once, thanks to my dad's self proclaimed "expert" driving.

Everything about the holidays is designed to bring people together, but sticking with a spirit of togetherness and love can be a lot easier said than done. Full disclosure, I spent the second half of my Christmas last year taking shots of tequila with a friend in a bar. Happy Birthday, Jesus. This year has been a year of change in my life, and within my family. This Christmas was spent as so many have been in the past, Christmas Eve church with the family sitting in the same row of the sanctuary as we have since I was a little girl, behind the same family we have known since before I can remember. Perfect.

The music was great, the message; the greatest story ever told. No matter how many times I hear the story, I am undone with gratitude at each telling. God became man for the sake of my soul, how sweet is that?

Christmas morning, I awoke as I always do, to my brother and sister waking me up to open presents. I'm definitely not a "morning person", and I was feeling more than a little Grinch-like. My grumpy behavior was remedied by a bowl of rice and raisins, a tradition passed down from my departed Grandmother, and one of the only traditions we have carried on from my father's side of the family. It tastes way better than it sounds. =)

This morning I find myself with a hangover, but in a completely different sense than last year. Instead of memories of tequila and tears, I have a heart overflowing with love and thankfulness for my friends and family. Nothing is flawless, my life is a constant work in progress. I am, however, constantly reminded of the many blessings I have been given and take for granted on a daily basis. So, in this time of reflection and resolutions, I am grateful and excited for another year of change.

Instead of letting myself become complacent and go back to the family quarrels and mediocrity of the rest of the year, I will continue to grow and be mindful of the countless opportunities and blessings I have received in my life. I will let this holiday spirit hang over into the new year, and continue to inspire and motivate me. I'm ready for 2010.

Are you?

-V

P.S. Today is the first of the 7 days of Kwanzaa, or Umoja, meaning Unity. Matunda ya Kwanzaa to anyone who celebrates it! I hope you enjoy your week!

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Songs:

"White Christmas" Bing Crosby [also from my favorite holiday movie of the same title!]

"The Christmas Song" Owl City

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Holidays from the Three's Company Crew and our littlest reindeer, Bridgitte!

[almost] Wordless Wednesday

This is pretty much how I feel about my life right now.

Dizzy and more than a little confused.

Someone wake me when it's 2010.

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Songs:

"The World Spins Madly On" The Weepies

"Breakeven" The Script [this song has been stuck in my head all week!]

Oh so RETRO

Have you ever noticed how fashion trends move in cycles? A trend is in style, then becomes out of style, and if you wait long enough, voila! In style again. Well, here's the thing;

The men in my life are like fashion.

I have those faithful few who have been with me through the good and bad times, and I can always count on them. I have been extremely blessed with some guys I met in my high school choir years, who I remain ridiculously close with to this day. I know I can call them anytime I need a laugh or a shoulder to cry on, or to be serenaded and treated like a princess. Those guys are my basic essentials; the little black dresses, great pair of jeans and stilettos of my life. Every girl needs 'em and I honestly don't know what I would do without them. (The men, not the clothes, I'm not that materialistic!)

Then, I have the flavor of the weeks. Guys I meet in bars who seem nice and funny until it's closing time and, "So...how about after hours?"...those would equate to the impulse purchase that seemed like a good idea at the time, but after the credit card slip is signed, immediate buyer's remorse sets in. Sunglasses a la Kanye West, anyone? I know you have them, too. Sometimes I wish men came with receipts, there's definitely a few of them I'd like to return if I had the chance. Store credit or cash back?

Another unfortunate fashion mishap, that item that looked great on the hanger, not so great in the dressing room, but I bought it anyways because, well, I can lose that extra inch by the time I want to wear this outfit...yeah, that never seems to happen, does it? Ladies, please buy clothes that fit, and for goodness sake, don't try and change yourself to "fit" a man, or the other way around. Listen, I'm a huge advocate for change, I do believe in rehabilitation, and that even the douche-iest of men has the capacity to change into that great guy you know he can be. Here's the thing though; just because he can, doesn't mean he will. In fact, odds are, even if he does have some miraculous transformation into Mr. Right, it'll have destroyed your relationship just in time for him to move on and treat the next girl he meets like a princess.

Case in point, I had an ex send me a text a couple months ago saying; "Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with." He then followed by texting; "Thanks for doing most of the stomping". He was trying to be funny, or maybe even cute, but my reaction was a resounding "F*#% You!". Thanks for doing most of the stomping? Really? You're welcome. You're welcome for spending years of my life believing that you could change, only to finally be done with it, break up, and have you call me a couple months later saying that it "dawned" on you that you were horrible to me and I was amazing to you? You're freaking welcome.

If I sound a little bitter, it's because I am, and lookie here, I've gone and strayed from my men are like fashion analogy. Getting back on topic...right now, I have a couple men in my life that are causing me some trouble; J and R. J is my vintage guy. We've known each other for ten years, and he's [almost] always been so good to me. He, of course, has his share of flaws, but you don't throw away a piece of vintage Chanel just because it has a few frays on the hemline. Then we have R. I really don't know what to say about R except that, he's Nice Guy #2 from a few of my previous posts. Now I'm thinking he might not be such a nice guy after all. I'm frazzled and confused, and beyond exhausted with trying to figure this whole thing out.

Why is it every time every time I finally get rid of a particular trend it comes right back around (Hello, 80's)? I find myself craving something new, something fresh, not just the same fads recycled over and over again. Anybody with me?

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Songs:

"Trainwreck" Elliot Yamin

"Maybe This Time" Cast of Glee feat. Kristin Chenoweth

"Heart Shaped Glasses" Marilyn Manson

'Tis the Season

The new roomies & I FINALLY put up the Christmas tree last night. It looks pretty good, if we do say so ourselves. This past week has really put me in the Holiday spirit. There have been many wintery activities of late, including windshield scraping and defrosting, digging my poor car our of a 3-ft high snowbank (thank you so much Mr. Snowplow), and of course, the oops-I-forgot-to-fill-my-gas-tank-and-now-my-gas-line-is-frozen conundrum of December 2009. Thank goodness for having a father that's only a phone call away, and a male roommate who never makes me take out the trash, won't even think of letting me shovel the snow-covered driveway, and let me park my car in his one car garage last night, so that I don't have to defrost it this morning. He's such a sweetheart. (And recently single, ladies!!)

Is it just me, or do the holidays start earlier every year? Thanks to the Facebook News Feed, I know that several of my "friends" (or people whom I've met once in my life and now have a source of constant information about them) have already had their family Christmases. This blows my mind. I mean, I know people have busy schedules, but isn't the point of having a set date for a holiday...to celebrate the holiday on that actual date? Or at least it should be somewhere in close proximity; day before, day after, etc. I mean, if Christmas is just going to be a free-for-all, why don't we rename December to Christmahanukwanzaakah and we can just have a month full of festivities!? I'm down.

On that note, I'd like to wish a (belated) Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish friends out there! I hope your nights are being filled with Manischewitz, honey, latkes, and all the fried foods & dairy you can handle! If you're anything like my great friends in Texas, at least one of the nights of Hanukkah will be spent watching the Rugrats' Hanukkah episode. Wow, I miss those ladies.

This whole holiday season has me über-sentimental. Well, more so than usual. I mean, on any given day you can find me choked up while watching a heartfelt [read: overly dramatic] episode of Grey's Anatomy, or bawling my frickin' eyes out over a Nicholas Sparks novel, just because I'm sappy like that. This time of year does something different to me though, and it catches my heart in a weird way. I find myself reminiscing constantly, taking stock of my life and pausing for a moment to reevaluate things.

I won't bore you with a list of my New Year's resolutions, afterall, I'm creating a whole blog about them starting in January (click here to see what I've written thus far). Well, kiddos, that's all I've got for you today. Make sure you check out my playlist up top-did you noticed I turned off the autoplay for ya? Ask and ye shall receive. Those are the songs I listen to as I sit here stealing internet from my new neighbors because we haven't hooked ours up yet. Hey, they give me dirty looks because Jill & I are moving into our *gasp* male roommate's house! In my mind, this makes us even; they judge, I steal. Bah Humbug.

-V

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Songs:

"If My Heart Was a House" Owl City

"Yule Shoot Your Eye Out" Fall Out Boy

Making Moves: Three's Company, Too!

I've been a little M.I.A. lately, I know! I'm sorry. In a tiny little nutshell, here's what's been going on in my silly little life.

I moved!

I moved into a new house with 2 of my co-workers this past weekend. New Roommate #1 is Joe, and it's actually his house we're moving into. New Roommate #2 is Jill, my awesome co-worker/cubicle neighbor. We are becoming fast friends, and she is 5'2'' of pure energy...love her! So far so good, except that I've somehow become the dish-washing, dinner-cooking, house mom within a matter of days...ah well. We've been having a grand old time, mostly because the great state of Nebraska decided to blizzard for two days straight, leaving us snowed in and more than a little stir crazy. It's been a week full of wine/beer/peppermint schnapps & hot chocolate, card games, and most recently, a Michael Jackson fueled dance-a-thon.

I'm sure I will have plenty of anecdotes and adventures to share in the following months, did I mention Joe has a 19-month-old daughter? We're gonna have some interesting times, I can tell.

I promise to post more frequently as soon as I get the wireless hooked up in my new digs, just wanted to write a little something to let all of my readers in the blogosphere know that I'm thinking about ya! I hope you're all having a wonderful week, stay tuned!

-V

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Song:

"Three's Company" Original TV Soundtrack