My Buddies

My office buddy, Gerri, was very good to me today.

Let me give a little back story. Gerri is a really nice and very pulled together person. When I first started working here, I walked into her office and called her G-Dawg, because she's about as opposite from that as you can imagine. So she loved that nickname and it's stuck. To counter that, she calls me A-Cat. Cute huh?

Okay, so G-Dawg was my birthday buddy. She made me a cat cake (it was weight watchers friendly) Here I am with it. And my good friend Jill gave me a bunch of cute stuff during our little celebration. Here she is with her gift to me. She's good to me. She got the microfiber Vera Bradley cosmetic case and some cute Yankee Candle wax burner. Thanks Jill!

33 Reasons I'm Cool

In honor of turning another year older, I thought I'd share 33 random facts about me. Why? Because it's my blog and my birthday, so I'll blog if I want to.

33. I make "music videos" in my bathroom while doing my hair and makeup. Yes, I'm a dork.
32. I hate when people take their mittens off with their teeth. Ewww. Gross.
31. I love laying on the couch with music playing looking at the Christmas lights on the tree.
30. I hate cottage cheese with a passion. I can't even stand to sit next to you if you are eating it.
29. I love to paint my nails and despise chipped nail polish.
28. Thursday is my favorite day. I'm not sure why.
27. I love the number 8 because it's perfectly symmetrical.
26. I could buy a new bag every day.
25. I don't have any pictures that aren't in frames or in photo albums.
24. I could probably eat pizza everyday and be happy with that.
23. I love coffee. It's like liquid personality. I don't feel like my day is right without it.
22. I'm incredibly sarcastic but I am also really sensitive.
21. I love animals. I want to have as many as possible. I adore my cats like children.
20. I'm really scared of windows at night. I worry that someone is looking in at me. Yikes.
19. I think my father is one of the best men in the world. (shh, don't tell him I said so)
18. I've only been in love two times in my life (lust all the other times)
17. I've quit smoking for almost 4 months now.
16. Carrie Underwood is my sorority sister.(Although I don't actually know her--I did meet her once at my sorority convention last summer)
15. My mother is one of the strongest women I know. We are complete opposites but I admire her.
14. I love the smell of books and magazines.
13. I hate Facebook applications and ignore them ALL the time. Sorry, I just think it's dumb.
12. I never had braces and always wish I did because I want perfect teeth.
11. I clean my desk off completely at the end of every day. I hate having papers on it when I leave.
10. I am terrified of getting married and having kids and yet that's one of things I want the most.
9. I love to host events but don't do it nearly as often as I should.
8. I'm completely free of any credit card debt. Finally.
7. I don't have just one best friend. I have lots of them. I could never rank them. I love my girls and I could never say one is the "best" They all make me better for knowing them.
6. I cry often at commercials, TV, kids singing, St. Jude, etc. I'm very sentimental, even though I pretend not to be.
5. I want to get my PhD in the next 10 years, but it makes me so nervous to think about it.
4. I used to think I'd be a pop star and still secretly think it. (See # 33)
3. I love a man that wears a shirt and tie. That gets me every time.
2. I love laughing. Deep down, laughing so hard that I cry, laughter. It's one of my favorite feelings. I try to laugh daily and I don't care if I get laugh lines. That's why there's Botox.
1. I feel lucky that I've had the life I've had so far and can't wait to see what the next year holds.

Weekend Randomness

It's been a busy day today (but a lovely one) After my awful night last night (the cell charger was only a small portion of my troubles) I fell asleep at 10 pm. I needed to sleep off the funk. I woke up this morning feeling a bit better.

So on to the highlights of the weekend in pictures...

Yesterday I watched my friend Meg's little girl, Meredith, for a few hours. We went to McDonald's Playplace before hitting up the mall. The Happy Meal toy was a My Little Pony. How fun! I almost wanted to get one for myself, but I refrained. How cute is Meredith? She was all about taking pictures with the pony.Today was a good day for getting caught up on random stuff. I cleaned, baked and organized all day. It was lovely. I need that time to just zone out and think. It was incredibly helpful.
Anyway, tonight I had some of the students I supervise over for the Secret Santa gift exchange. Tomorrow is the last day of classes (YAY!)

The tree with the gifts under it.
The cute little gifts that one of them made for the others.

The delicious food that everyone brought. I made my infamous pizza dip (Beth taught me awhile ago and it has become a party favorite) I may not have a cell charger right now but I'll be happy to walk out to my car in the cold weather wearing my new Coach gloves.

My secret Santa works there and gave me these tonight. I saw the box under the tree and secretly hoped that it was for me. I absolutely love these gloves and can't wait to wear them.

I'm off to go to bed and read some Twilight (I'm actually enjoying it). I hope that everyone had a great weekend!

Funky Cold Medina

You know what's annoying when you are on day five of a funk?

Going outside to my car to charge my phone because my indoor charger is broken. (Literally, a piece broke inside of the phone.) I had to get it taken out by my friends at the Verizon store and was too cheap to spend 30 bucks on a new charger. I'm not really sure why a charger costs $30 in the first place. But I didn't get it and now I'm paying the consequences.

It's also snowing out right now so I had to brave the elements to do this task.

I may or may not burst into tears for no good reason.

Tomorrow I will talk about the nice things that have happened this weekend, but for now I just want to be funky.

I Make It Hot.

I'm in a funk. I'm not sure why. That's why I haven't posted in a few days. I'm sure you've missed my incredibly important posts about absolutely nothing, right? Clearly.

To help boost my mood, I purchased the new Britney CD this morning (go ahead and judge but I still enjoy her). I have to admit it's helping a bit. Especially lyrics like this:

I'm like the ringleader

I call the shots

I'm like a firecracker

I make it hot.

Because, like Britney, I make it hot.

Ha ha!

Christmas Crib

One of the shows that I always get sucked into but don't mean to--MTV Cribs. I've always wanted to shoot my own version. Maybe I'll do the full version one day but for now I'll just make you endure the Christmas episode.

Here is the tree. I'm not crazy about the location but my apt. is small and I only have so many options. Hopefully this is the last year in this apartment. Close up of some cookie cutters and the cute snowman that Angie got me last year.
The card table (all my cards are done and waiting to be sent out. The basket is really for ones I receive--I'm very popular so I might need a bigger basket. Ha. Ha.)
Cookie Cutter--Up close, Yo!
My favorite new ornament--from St. Jude. And my new prim plaid tree skirt that I got this past summer. Gracie thought she needed to lay under the tree while I was decorating it.

The small tree in my bedroom.

Thanks for stopping by the Christmas Crib! Next time, I'll show you the fridge.

They Call It Puppy Love....

Tobey is freakin' cute.

It's been a good weekend at the GFE. I relaxed and spent time with my family. I also got some projects done too.

Today was a milestone because I have officially lost 20 lbs with WW. I love that it happened right after Thanksgiving, too.

Tomorrow it's back to O-town to spend the day decorating for Christmas and laying on the couch reading Twilight (I'm going to try to read it--even though I have my doubts).

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Giving Thanks

I'm thankful for a lot every day of the year, but today I wanted to let you all know what I'm giving thanks for this year.

• I'm thankful that my family is healthy and lives close enough that I can see them whenever I want.
• I'm thankful that for my crazy and great friends that all make me laugh and make me a better person for knowing them and allow me to be me. (And this is for the friends that live close and the ones that are too far away to see everyday.)
• I'm thankful that I have a career that I love and that I work with great people.
• I'm thankful for all the kiddies in my life and for my friends for allowing me to be "Aunt Allison"
• I'm thankful that Obama was elected President. :)
• I'm thankful that Andi was so generous to let me keep Sadie because I freakin' love that cat.
• I'm thankful that my life is full and happy and I can find humor in just about everything.

I could really go on and on but those are the ones I want to share right now because I'm hungry and can't wait to eat some turkey. I hope you are all having a lovely day with friends and family!

Happy Thanksgiving!

...And Through The Woods

I got up early this morning and packed some clothes, my computer, other assorted projects, and two very irritated cats into my car to come over to the GFE for a few days.

It was snowing, a light snow. I'm not a big fan of snow in any form. I don't think it's pretty. I don't find it charming. Snow and I would get along great if it wouldn't get on me, my clothes, my car, or the roads/sidewalks. And because snow doesn't want to play my game, we are are sworn enemies. I was less than enthused about driving in snow to get here this morning.

Now, I've lived in NY long enough to be able to handle myself on snow covered roads but the roads from my apartment to the GFE are awful sometimes. It's just about 10 minutes of the trip (out of 40 minutes all together) that are just awful in snowy weather. It's all because of the drifts across the road (this is literally the place that the sun does not shine--I suspect that trolls live in the trees and constantly throw snow out on the road to irritate drivers. In the summer, they send out the deer.)

So let me paint the picture of what my nice morning drive consisted of. Two cats in the back. Sadie is whining LOUDLY and consistently for the entirety of the trip. Gracie gets carsick. BIG TIME. She is puking throughout the 40 minutes. And she's not quiet about it either. So between the two of them and the snowdrift-tastic roads, it was the longest 40 minutes in the car ever.

But I'm here at the GFE and thrilled to be away for a few days. I know I could just come over and back tomorrow but I just love coming to spend a few days with my family. There is something so comforting about being able to completely retreat from my normal life and routine.

Snow and puking cats and all...

Monday Night

I came home from work to find Sadie having a love affair with my LL Bean tote on my bed. It made me laugh. It's a tough life for a kitty.

I love this week because the students are going home for break so I can get out of my office at 5 pm on the dot. I was very productive tonight. I made dinner, made some muffins, treadmilled it up and packed up my fall decorations in preparation for Christmas.
My friend Tara gave me some cookie cutters that I'm going to put on my tree with some cute ribbon. I saw this in a magazine a few years ago and have been collecting rustic looking cookie cutters ever since. I think I have enough now to make it cute. I can't wait to put my tree up now...