Queries

Have you ever stayed up past your normal bedtime & then gotten "stuck" wherever you happened to be (i.e., glued to the couch watching TV), and couldn't get up to go to bed?

Have you ever realized that you can reach a point where you are too old to be out at the mall as you look weird/creepy if you don't have a baby/small child with you?

Have you ever gotten to the point where your house/apartment/living space is driving you crazy because it's gotten messy & needs straightening up, but it's made you so crazy you don't even want to deal with it?

Have you ever been studying for a bar exam and decided that perhaps you should look into the life of a gypsy?

Have you ever waited past the regular wet food feeding time for your cats and then realize that if you wait an hour or so, the cats stop whining for food and go back to sleep, and wonder what would happen if you just ... didn't feed them wet food tonight? After all, you are stuck on the couch and are tired enough to go straight to sleep after getting in bed...if only you could get to bed.

Have you ever cheated and found out what your Christmas presents are before Christmas?

Have you ever gotten annoyed with yourself for watching too much TV and wanted to just not watch any TV at all but again, you're stuck on the couch and can't move your arm over 2 feet to grab the remote?

Do you remember your favorite Christmas gift (okay, favorite present)? I don't from childhood. I think from adulthood it would have to be my Patagonia down vest Husband surprised me with (it was a complete surprise), tied with the SATC complete set he got me for my birthday that same winter. He claims he got me a gift-to-top-all-gifts this year for my birthday (which will be tough, given all the T&Co. jewelry he's given me over the span of our relationship, not to brag) and only spent $60. He keeps talking about it & it makes me want to smack him because I cannot handle not knowing something. I'm the type that wants to know everything about the movie BEFORE I go see it. I know, so anticlimactic. So ... un-endorseable.

Have you ever been thirsty for water but because you're lazy (okay, stuck on the couch) and the glass of juice is closer than the water, you drink the empty-calorie-laden beverage?

Have you ever gotten a nice, complement-garnering haircut and then shortly thereafter (say, 2 months) decided it's "not working" and that you have to break up & grow out your hair again? Not because you want it to be blah, but because short doesn't really work for your life - I mean, it'd be nice to be able to employ a ponytail when you're out of power for 3 whole days & can't wash your hair because the water is so cold you'd risk hypothermia. Not that I want to grow it out to my arse (yes, it's been that long - a long time ago) or not have a style, but would it be so terrible to have a longer style?

Have you ever wondered if perhaps you set out on the wrong career course and maybe you should just give up this whole "bar thing" already? Not that I'm considering doing that, I'm just so annoyed that I have to be doing this again because I missed 12 fucking points. Okay, I'm a little angry, too.

Have you ever gotten to the age where you realize that the Holidays really are more fun when kids are involved? This year Husband & I will be spending Christmas with his mom & step-dad and one of his step-sisters and her family. She has 3 kids - 4, 6, and 8 years, and I think Christmas morning (or Christmas Eve, as is the case in their family - which is just wrong!) will be so much fun to watch them open up gifts.

Speaking of Christmas morning vs. Eve, who out there falls where? My family was ALWAYS Christmas morning (unless it fell on our church day, then we had to wait until after it was over which was unbelievably rotten when you're 6 years old). Husband's family is Christmas Eve. I don't think I'll ever adjust to that - it makes Christmas morning seem so anticlimactic! This year I'm going to take a few small gifts from my family (sister, etc.) in my suitcase so I have something to open up on Christmas morning. Seriously.

Okay, I think that's about all the queries I have for now. I think it's really time to get unstuck from the couch, feed the cats their wet food, and go to bed.

Pfffft

Sigh...Happy Monday everyone.

The weekend is already over? Really?

At least it was somewhat productive - Husband & I got all! our Christmas shopping done. DONE! We are so on the ball this year. We even did Holiday postcards! Look at us go! Now we just have to wrap & send everything. The optimistic goal is to get that done next weekend. But I'm not going to hold my breathe.

I officially started studying last night. Big Sigh. I really didn't want to, but was in that icky place where I was feeling itchy because I hadn't yet started, so I just decided to bite it and get started. And I started with a doozy - Civ Pro. Hooray for titillating topics! It went fairly smoothly, so I hope this is a sign of things to come with studying this time.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving went swimmingly well. I'm assuming you're all still in food coma as I haven't had ANY visitors for the last two weeks (according to my site meter)! It's shocking!

We put up the Christmas tree last night. It's a fakey, but with two cats (both of whom could still be classified as kittens), a real tree is definitely not worth it! I did decorate it, but only with lights. Husband & I took bets about how long it would take the cats to knock down the tree, and I won. They knocked it down at about 2:30 am on Sunday morning. Which is precisely why I opted for no ornaments & just lights - I don't want to have to collect ornaments every night when I get home from work.

We're moving. Ugh. Because we've just decided in the last few months that we wanted to buy, we not ready to buy immediately - we want to spend some time looking and watching the housing market here - we're moving into another apartment unit. We would have loved to stay in our current unit, but they're making everyone move out at the end of their lease term to do renovations (read: increase rent) on every unit. So we decided we'll probably be further ahead financially if we stay at this apartment complex, so we're going into a renovated (read: more expensive) unit sometime around Christmas. It's supposed to be done around the 20th, but I'm not moving on Christmas (we won't even be here!), so I'm anticipating we'll be in the new unit by the 1st.

Anyways. I am listening to Christmas music at work to keep myself in the Holiday mood. It certainly helps, as I've lately become disenchanted with my job. Ahh, but that's for another post.

Change is a' blowin'...

Hmm. I feel like we went through a bad breakup but are now forced to be friends. I'm not sure where exactly to start or what to say. I could revert to doing a list, but wouldn't you feel cheated out of a "hey, I'm back" real post?

Let's start with the obvious. I decided the site needed a little revamping. And I'd been away for so long that I didn't realize the changes Blogger had instituted. Not that I'm complaining. I like it. And I think I like the new look to this site. What do you think? (That is assuming there are any of you left as loyal readers given my unexplained, totally un-called for disappearance.)

I finally got my computer back with it's brand-new, empty, wiped-clean harddrive. That's really the rub, there - my laptop is completely free of anything I ever put on it. One of the computer tech guys at work is angelically and heroically trying to extract whatever he can from it, but it's extraordinarily disheartening to not have anything left. If I ever want to put a new CD or new music on my ipod, doing that will (at least as far as I'm aware now) erase what music I no longer own. This doesn't mean I'm a big music thief, it just means that one of my CD cases was stolen (still not over that one) and I'd purchsed iTunes music, that I don't think they'll let me download again just for free.

In craftsy news, I now know how to crochet. You can call me Harriet Homemaker, it's okay. And yes, I even crocheted on the bus on Friday - and I did feel like a 58-year-old woman, but it's fun. I'm currently making dishcloths for Christmas presents. It keeps me occupied (and not studying, hee!).

Husband & I have decided to enter into a very adult activity: buying real estate. We've started looking with the aim of buying in 6 months to a year. It's very exciting, although I found a townhouse I love, but we're not ready to buy yet, and it's a little more than we could afford right now. I'm hoping that by the time we are ready to buy, I'll be making lawyer money and we can afford something like that.

OK, now it's time to go get one of the cookies I made last night - Dark Chocolate Peppermint. Divine.