Happy Holidays!

So...

Christmas was awesome. I really feel like I was spoiled this year. Alex did very well: he got me a blue iPod mini. Yay! It's so freaking cute! I'm listening to it here at work as I type. So adorable. :) The Wham and the Pa got me this adorable breakfast nook table (the kind that's rectangular and counter height and stores its two stools underneath it) that fits perfectly next to the sink in my kitchen. It pretty much doubled my counter space, so that's awesome. They also gave me this American Girl doll, Samantha, that I've wanted since I was, oh, 8. Wham had told me that she was getting the doll for my neice for Christmas and I called her a not-so-nice-name and then on Christmas morning she surprised me with one of my own! Yay! :)

I got a very cute jacket from my sister, a John Mayer CD from Xander and one from David, and Greg got me some Bath and Body Works stuff. I got a lot of really cute stuff from Alex's parents: a stocking with all sorts of goodies, a martini candle, a book called "Atomic Cocktails" with classic cocktail recipes in it, some glass olive shaped cocktail picks, a set of knives (chef, boning, paring), and a really cute kitchen mat with wine bottles on it. My mom and RJ gave me a really nice set of pots and pans (nonstick interior and hard anodized (sp?) exterior), some cute blue glass chotckies, and a set of fitness bands.

I got great stuff from my friends too: Beck gave me Newsies on DVD, a Pearls Before Swine book, and a garlic "house". Dodi gave me a book with 400 ways to indulge yourself and a very cute sectioned appetizer server. Carrie gave me a mix your own vodka shooters set and a framed picture of the two of us at her wedding. Danielle gave me a set of foot pampering stuff that smells awesome: peppermint sage, and Meredith gave me a mortar and pestle, a bottle filled with "exotic spices", and a microplane.

So yeah. I totally made out like a bandit this year! I pretty much got everything I asked for. I'm spoiled. :)

So yeah. So I went to PA over the weekend to visit with my mom and the rest of that side of my family. It was a good time. Nice trip: short but sweet. We went to the Yuengling brewery on Monday before I came back. It was a pretty cool tour: they took you through the working brewery and down into the natural caves underneath the building where they'd store the beer "back in the day". At the end of the tour, everyone was entitled to two drinks. Very cool. :)

The move is coming along. I had yesterday off of work and we got pretty much done. I have tomorrow off and I hope to do all the cleaning out of the old apartment tomorrow. I keep thinking that it won't take too long, but I've been thinking that about every step along the way and everything has been taking longer than I've expected. So yeah. So the goal for tomorrow is just to scour out the old apartment. It would be very cool if I could get more than that done, but I'm not going to build my expectations too high only to be disappointed.

Friday will be finishing up with cleaning and organizing the new apartment as much as possible along with preparing for the little New Year's party that we'll be hosting that evening. We're having a few people over for drinks and appetizers before we go out downtown to dance and drink in the New Year. It should be an awesome time... and I'll get to use some of my new toys from Christmas for hosting the party! Yay! :)

But since this is my only day at work this week, I think I should end the post and try and get a bit more done before I head home for the night. Tonight, my sister is coming over for a bit, so that should be a good time. :)

Big Doin's Going On!

(Ok, now I really want to go back to Disney... our wake-up call by Mickey every morning had him saying something like, "...there's big doin's going on!")

Anyway... so last night the girls (Beck and Dodi) came over to help me move crap from the old apartment to the new apartment. We were able to move all the stuff in my old linen closet and my closet from the bedroom. Doesn't sound like much written outlike that, but believe me, it was a TON of stuff! We had some Chinese food and opened up our gifts to each other while we watched The Full Monty on HBO. So it was a pretty fun night. :) After they left I spent about an hour in the new apartment folding and hanging clothes and finding places in the different closets for all the crap that we brought over that night. Then I emptied out the bookcase in the living room in the old apartment as much as possible while I watched The Princess Bride on VH1.

So there's still a lot to do for the move. We still have to move all the furniture in the bedroom and the enitre living room, as well as the desk and all the stuff on the porch... But I don't think it should take too long. I'm hoping to move all the little stuff from the living room tonight, the dresser and nightstand (and possibly the bed), and the desk tonight. Then tomorrow I have the day off and so we'll be able to move furniture during the day, so we should be finished up with the actual dragging stuff down the hall and that leaves next week (when I pretty much have the whole week off of work) to scour out the old apartment and clean and organize the new one.

And it all needs to be done by New Year's Eve because we're hosting a little pre-going-out get together at the new apartment. Yay! I love parties! :) Alex and I really enjoy entertaining, and this will be the first actual party we'll be able to have. Very exciting. It'll be a short get together... probably only from about 8 till 10 or so and then we'll go out downtown to ring in the new year. But it should be a good time. I'm very excited! :)

But there's lots of work to do before then... and speaking of work, I probably should do some since I'm at work today (suck... I totally think today should be a half day).

Progress Report on the New Apartment...

So the painting is finished at the apartment! Yay! I'll post pictures as soon as I can... but probably not until after Monday because I've already unhooked the computer and the guy from Time Warner wouldn't be out until Monday to hook up the Road Runner.

We started to move stuff over to the new apartment last night. We moved pretty much the whole kitchen over and the dining room area too. We still have A LOT of stuff to move... the entire bedroom, the entire living room, the porch and the closets... It's a lot of stuff, but hopefully it shouldn't take too long. It'll be SO nice when everything is finally in the new place!!!

I wish that I was at home now moving stuff instead of working... but I'm not. And I should just get back to work. Sigh.

New Apartment!!!

Yay!!! We're getting a two bedroom apartment... YAY!!!!

For a while now, Alex and I have been talking about how cool it would be to have a two bedroom apartment. We both really enjoy entertaining, but we've felt limited by the little amount of space we have in our one bedroom apartment. With a two bedroom, we'd be able to put the computer in the spare bedroom, and that would give us an actual dining room where we could put an actual table to eat at and we could have actual dinner parties. I mean, when we have people over for dinner now, we have to move furniture around and unfold the table and pull out the chairs and everyone has to sort of crunch into the table. It's not so much fun. I've also really wanted a guest room... I just think it would be nice to have a separate space to offer someone to stay in if we have overnight guests.

So right before Thanksgiving, we noticed that there was a large jeep pulled up on the lawn right up to the apartment directly behind ours. I've always been sort of fascinated by that apartment... Whenever I'd walk by, I'd try and peer in the windows and I could see that it appeared to be a two bedroom apartment because it looked like it branched out off of the dining area where mine didn't. It also appeared to be just nicer in general... the cabinets in the kitchen were larger and a few of them had glass in the doors and it looked like the girl that lived there had painted.

I noticed after the day that we saw the jeep at the apartment, I didn't see the lights on anymore. At first, I didn't think the girl had moved out because I never did see a moving van/truck there. I thought maybe she'd gone home for the holidays or something. But after a week went by, I decided that I'd put a note to Scott (the building superintendent who lives right upstairs) in with my December rent check asking that he let us know if any two bedroom apartments became available.

Another week had passed and I hadn't heard anything from Scott about the apartment so I thought that either it was a one bedroom or the girl hadn't moved out after all. But then, this past Friday evening as I was getting ready for my company Christmas party, there was a knock on the door. I answered it and it was Scott. He said that the apartment directly behind us was a two bedroom and that it had just opened up. He showed the apartment to me right away and said that it was only $115 more than what we were currently paying.

I fell in love with the apartment right away. The hallway that you walk into opens up to the adjacent rooms with adorable curved archways. The spare bedroom is small (about 8 by 13) but it's adorable and just the right size for my desk and a futon or pull out couch (a twin sized bed or daybed would be even more adorable, but not so practical since we'd most likely be having couples over as opposed to singular guests). The living room is about the same size as our current one, but will seem a little larger because there'll be no closet to try and not block. Speaking of closets, there are 2 more closets in the new apartment than there are in our current one. And they seem bigger... and more logically placed.

Here's the layout of the new apartment:


It's all very exciting. It's going to be an easy move... just slide everything down the hall. But then, it'll all be a lot of work... and will have to be done in a short time. He'd like us to have the move complete by January 1st. I'm sort of an impatient person and would like to have it done as soon as possible anyway. But there's some painting that I'd like to get done first. I figure that since we have the luxury of almost a little over 2 weeks to complete the move and full access to the apartment that whole time, we should not pass up the opportunity to paint. We've already picked out the colors... We toned down our color choices from our original plan... We were going to do chocolate brown walls in the living room with a red ceiling, but decided to go for a lighter brown instead. All the colors we picked came from the Martha Stewart Everyday colors line at Kmart. I figure Martha's colors are all pretty non-controversial and apartment ok... So here's what we're thinking:

For the hallway:

Raw Silk walls with Muslin trim.

For the spare bedroom:

Book Binding Green walls with Raw Silk ceiling and Muslin trim.

For the living room:

Coffee walls with Hollyhock Red ceiling and Muslin trim.

For the bedroom:

Cornflower Blue walls with Ice Water ceiling and Muslin trim.

This is the current kitchen/dining room:


We've decided to just keep the kitchen/dining room the way it is for now because the girl who lived there before us did a decent job of painting/applying wallpaper. The bottom cabinets on the other side of the kitchen are a deep red color. I'm not a huge fan of the dark flowered wallpaper, but it really could be worse. And now that I look at all the rooms collected like that, I think that I really might stencil on the bedroom walls because compared to all the patterns/textures going on in the kitchen/dining rooms, they look pretty boring. But that can be done after we move in, so I won't worry about that now.

It's all very exciting! I'm hoping to buy the paint by Thursday and to start painting Friday night... and I'd LOVE to have the painting done by the end of the weekend. That way we can start moving stuff in next week. It would be awesome to be able to be in by Christmas, but I don't want to wake up Christmas morning in an "unsettled" apartment, so I think that most of the moving will have to wait until after Christmas... but my goal is to be pretty much settled in (not just all the stuff out of the old apartment and into the new, but put away as well) by New Year's eve because I was sort of hoping to have a little get together before all this moving "nonsense" started up... we'll see...

Must go to bed now so that I can get my lazy butt up and go to the gym in the morning. We spackled the rooms we intend on painting tonight, and I won't be doing any more work in there until Thursday because tomorrow night is girls' night at Meredith's (yay!). But it'll be back to work Thursday... Oh, and I'll accept any help anyone wants to give this weekend with painting! ;)

Christmas Pics...

I've started a Christmas photo album. So far there are just pictures of my apartment decorations up. I'll be adding more pics as I take them this season. Enjoy! :)

I Want:

So Eric was up over the weekend and we got to hang out for a bit (good times) and he showed me the wonders of the Froogle wish list.

Here's My Wish List.

I had an Amazon wish list forever, but recently was no longer content with it. What if I wanted something that was (gasp!) not on Amazon or one of their partner stores? This is what makes the Froogle list so great... You can stick stuff on your wish list from any one of the many, many stores that Froogle searches - you can even stick eBay items on there!

So, what's on my list, you ask? Lots of stuff... some books, cds, dvds... iPod mini, iMac (17" G5 with a Superdrive), PowerBook G4 (12" with a Superdrive)... (I'm having an Apple obsession right now... it's all so stylish and pretty... I will switch... hopefully soon...)... some furniture, kitchen accessories...

I'm having way too much fun to daydreaming/shopping and adding things to my wish list...

Stick Figure Warning Signs

"This is from a tractor-mower at Home Depot, and seems to convey "don't run over your child with the front of this tractor." Note that the child's leg is being pulled into the tractor blades; because, you know, simply running over the child is not enough of a mistake in parenting."
I was laughing so hard at some of these that I was crying in my cube at work.

So Thanksgiving went very well. :)

I baked the night before Thanksgiving... made 2 pecan pies (one to bring to my parents' house, one to bring to Alex's parents' house) and 4 dozen white/dark-chocolate-swirled-chips cookies. I was quite the little domestic... I really enjoyed baking and everything came out really well.

The Cookies...

...were from the recipe on the back of the Nestle swirled chips bag. They came out SO good... I freaking make awesome cookies. I was just timing them perfectly for taking them out of the oven... they got golden and crisp on the edges but still soft in the middle... Mmmmm... and I actually got a little over 4 dozen out of the recipe - which is what the recipe actually yields, but I never get that many. So I was rocking. I brought them to my parents' house and they were gone that night. In fact, when I dropped by the house last night, the first thing that my brother said to me was "did you bring more cookies?" So on the way home last night I did pick up a bag of chocolate chips (plain ones this time) from the store and I might make some cookies before I go up today.

The Pies...

...were from a recipe from Cooking Light. I made Pecan Pie with Spiked Cream (Cool Whip Free mixed with some bourbon). They came out EXCELLENT. Mmmm. They weren't too sweet like pecan pies can be, and the bourbon cream really added something. I was going to make my own pie crust, but then I wimped out at the last second and used the Pillsbury Roll Out pie dough (which was very simple to use and tasted great!). I got many complements on the pies, so I'm definitely keeping that recipe and will use it again. In the future I hope to not wimp out and make my own crust... So easy to use the premade stuff though... ;)

So yeah. Alex and I went up to my parents' house for appetizers (Wham makes this curry pumpkin soup that's awesome) then we went to his parents' house for dinner - which was excellent. Got to see Beck and Kevin and congratulate them and marvel at Beck's ring. It's just absolutely gorgeous. Looks like the picture posted below only the picture really doesn't do it justice. Kevin had it made and all the diamonds in the channels to the sides of the center diamond were picked to be exactly the color of the center diamond. Is very beautiful. :) After dinner, Alex and I stopped back at my parents' house for a bit and then went home and watched Gone With the Wind (Alex kept making fun of it but when I tried to change the channel he stopped me). Beck and Kevin dropped by after they left his family's house and we hung out for a bit - Alex and Kevin farted around on the computer while Beck and I browsed through my collection of Martha Stewart Weddings magazines that I loaned her. It was, altogether, a fabulous day! :)

And now it's Sunday, the last day of the 4 day weekend. Sigh. I'm so not ready to get back to work tomorrow. :( Ah well. Guess I better get a move on and get started with my last day of freedom before it's back to reality...

Yay!!!! Congrats Beck and Kevin!!!!!!!

So while they were vacationing in Vegas, Kevin proposed to Beck!! On the last day of their vacation (yesterday), he took Beck to Zion National Park in Utah where he proposed. She was totally surprised!! She called me this morning (tried to call me last night but I didn't hear the phone as I was passed out from Red Wine OD) and told me all about it... said she still couldn't believe it. :) I'm SO happy for the both of them!!!! She said that her ring looks just like one that Dodi emailed me a couple of weeks ago:

I'm so freaking excited for her!!! :) She said that she hopes to have the wedding sometime next Sept/Oct/early Nov. That's less than a year! It's gonna go so fast... :) They're coming back from Vegas tonight... should be getting in around 9pm. If they have no delays and get in at a decent hour, they might drop by the apartment tonight. I SO hope they do! I can't wait to see her and give her a big hug! I'm SO excited and happy for them!!! YAY!!!!!

Am a Fab Host.

Dinner with Alex's parents went v.well last night.

The Menu:
Fresh Garden Salad tossed with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinager,
Beef Tenderloin Steaks topped with Melted Gorgonzola Cheese,
Oven Roasted Assortment of Small Potatoes tossed with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Rosemary,
Steamed Green Beans,
and for dessert, French Vanilla Ice Cream topped with Grand Marnier, served with Vanilla Wafer Cookies and garnished with a Slice or Orange.

The recipes came from Rachel Ray's Thirty Minute Meals 2 book (Lake Isle Press, 2003). The food came out excellently. I was v.happy with the results. The tenderloins were just perfectly done, which was such a relief because that was some freaking expensive meat! I had no idea. But that's what the recipe called for and I wasn't sure how to modify the cooking times for another cut of beef, so I went with the tenderloins even though they were god awful expensive (the meat alone cost more than the lunch Alex and I had at the Olive Garden earlier in the day), so I'm v.glad they turned out great. The potatoes were divine: a bit crisp on the outside and deliciously hot and soft on the inside. The green beans also came out great - I'd just picked them up at the store and they were super fresh and I managed to steam them until they were still crisp but hot and delicious. The only thing I wasn't that hot for was the dessert. I think the Grand Marnier alone on the ice cream was a bit much... If I want to make that again I'd try and make a sauce with the Grand Marnier to sweeten it up a bit.

But yeah. Here's a picture of the main meal plated:

I actually forgot to take a picture of it last night, so I plated up some leftovers this morning and took a pic. I know, I'm really a dork. But I really had wanted to take a picture because I thought that I'd start a new thing with my blog (either here or on Metamorphosis or on a new blog) where I'd take pictures of all the new things that I cook and put the pictures and a review of the recipe up. That way I'd know if I liked the recipe and if it was hard and how it looked when it was done for the next time I wanted to try the recipe.

So... Notes to Self for Next Time: Beef Tenderloin is freaking expensive. Know that if you want to try this again. Also remember that you can't use your oven and your broiler at the same time, so start the potatoes early enough that they'll just need to be kept warm by the time you stick the steaks in the broiler to melt the cheese. Also consider getting one of those cast iron griddles/grill pans that were like $19 at Macy's because that would have been much better for carmelizing the steaks at the beginning of the recipe. Altogether was a v.easy meal to make that turned out beautifully and was v.tasty.

So I'm SO much less stressed now. Who knew that a stupid PT job could do that to you? I mean, it's not like it was taking up too much of my time... and it's not like it was even all that difficult... but now that it's cut out, I'm like way less stressed. So that's a good thing.

And I'm not stressing so much and being generally desperate about finding another job. What will be, will be. And in the meantime, I should try and be the best at my current job that I can. I know I say this every time I take a break from freaking out, but this time I mean it.

God. Who am I kidding? I'm such a drama queen that you know in like, 2 weeks there'll be another post up here about how much I HATE my job and how I NEED to find a new one right away. Ah well. I guess I need to embrace my craziness. I need to own it. It's one thing to embrace your own craziness. It's another to expect others to do the same. I know that I'm probably really exhausting to my friends and family. I'm so thankful that they put up with me.

So speaking of friends and family and being thankful... Thanksgiving is in a couple of days! I love Thanksgiving because it's such a no pressure holiday. No pressure to get gifts for people, no pressure to see every single family member. This year, I think Alex and I will be going up to my parents' house for appetizers (Wham makes an awesome pumpkin soup), and then heading to his parents' house for dinner. I'm planning on making pecan pies Wednesday night to bring along to both houses. I LOVE pecan pie... and I really love baking and cooking.

I'm so domestic. I love whipping up a fab little dinner for Alex and myself, and I really like baking something yummy to bring to work or some such place and have people tell me it's great. :) I baked a cake last night to bring into work today for my supervisor's birthday. I based it on a recipe over the internet, but sort of did my own thing too. I called it "Starbucks Cafe Mocha Cake" because it was a really rich chocolate cake that I flavored the batter and the icing with some fresh brewed Starbucks coffee. It was very yummy. :)

Anyway, I'm way into cooking lately. Tomorrow night Alex and I are having his parents down for dinner. I'm making steak gorgonzola with green beans and oven roasted potatoes. Haven't decided what I want to make for dessert. I was going to do this orange creamsicle ice cream dessert thing (easiest thing ever: vanilla ice cream with grand marnier on top garnished with some orange zest), but now I think I might make a White Chocolate Cake with Raspberry filling. Depends on how much cleaning I get done tonight... if I have time, then I'll do the cake. If not, it'll be the ice cream. I'm very excited to make dinner tomorrow... I hope it turns out well!! Alex's parents haven't been down to the apartment yet, so I've been franticly cleaning the place...

...which I better get home to do.

So I tweaked out yesterday...

...and I ended up quitting the PT job at NY&Co. I didn't mean to do it the way that I did... I sort of feel like an asshole. Sigh. Ah well. Can't change what happened. Guess I have to own that.

I've been really stressed out lately. For a lot of reasons, I guess. I think the number one reason is that I'm just really hating my job lately. I'm totally and completely overwhelmed with work, and I don't like the work to begin with so it's been really tough trying to dig myself out from under it. I'm working on resolving this problem, so hopefully there'll be a change in the near future and I won't have that stress anymore. I'm scared though that my solution won't come to pass... so I'm stressed about that too.

So yeah. There are other things that are stressing me out and I'm just in this constant state of being right at the edge... and lately every little thing pushes me over it. At the end of the day at work, all I want to do is go home and curl up with my boyfriend on the couch and relax. The NY&Co job was preventing that from happening. Because of that job I had to give up some of my free time - my down time... I wasn't getting to go home after work - I had to go to work. That fact caused me even more stress. Every day that I had to work at NY&Co in the evening, I'd be in an even worse mood. When I got there, though, I didn't hate that job... but I was always exhausted when I got home and still stressed from the day. I'd get home and just crash. I was like Goldie Hawn in Overboard after her first day of doing chores and taking care of the kids: sitting in a daze muttering, "ba ba ba ba ba ba..."

And the money definitely wasn't worth it. I got $7/hr working there, and even though the holidays are upcoming, I was getting at most two four hour shifts a week... and then usually getting called off of one of them. So I was bringing home $20 a week. Not worth it. They kept saying that our hours would increase as the holidays approached, but the thought of giving up any more of my down time really stressed me out.

So yesterday while I was at work I was stressing out, as usual, and on top of the usual stress, I was irritated that I had to go into work at NY&Co right after work and couldn't go home. I really had worked myself up into a state. (In case you haven't noticed, I'm somewhat of a Drama Queen.) I emailed friends for advice... and I came to the conclusion that I would go into work and tell the manager (Kathy) that I'd work the new schedule that she just posted the day before (that ran through next Saturday), but that I couldn't handle a PT job on top of everything else anymore.

Then I thought about it and I remembered that Kathy had told me Tuesday (when I was on call and couldn't get through for hours to see if they needed me so ended up driving there after work to be told that they accidentally had the ringer turned off on the phone and that they didn't need me - annoying) that she was going to have me training on register last night. So I thought, "If I'm not going to be working there after next week, why would they want to waste their time training me on register?" So I tried to call Kathy to tell her right away over the phone about working just through the new schedule to see if she even wanted me to bother going in last night. But she wasn't there when I called. So I stressed out more. I really hated the thought of going in there that night and being trained when it was pointless.

So I called back and spoke with the manager on duty - Jen - and told her that I couldn't come in for my shift. She gave me attitude and said that they called the on call person and told her she didn't have to come in and I could call the on call girl and ask her to come in for me. That really irritated me. First of all, she's the manager, it's not my deal whether or not they're staffed. And secondly, no one gave me the courtesy of a phone call the other night when they didn't need me. So I hung up on her and called the on call girl and got her voicemail and left her a message. Then I got in my car and drove towards the mall. I was really tweaking out. I didn't want to go in especially now, because I felt like a tool because I told them I couldn't come in. I got to the parking lot and sat there and tried to decide. I ended up calling Jen back from the parking lot and telling her that I left a message with her on call girl but that I wasn't coming in tonight or back - ever. I apologized for leaving her in such a lurch but said that I just couldn't handle it anymore... and I sort of cried a little bit. God, I'm a tool. I must have sounded SO crazy. Ugh... own it. I have to own it...

Anyway, she said that she'd have to try and cover my 2 shifts I was scheduled for next week (yeah, I bet it's really only one and that the other was an on call shift anyways) and it sort of irritated me that she bothered to tell me that because I really don't care because I just quit. She also said that Kathy might call me, which I expect that she might, and I'm really going to feel like an asshole when I talk to her. I really like Kathy. She's been nothing but accommodating for me and now I just was a complete asshole and quit without any notice. And left them in a lurch for last night. God... I'm such an asshole. (Trying to own it.)

But I do feel about a million times better already. I was able to go home last night and relax with my boyfriend. I didn't feel like sitting there complaining all night, either. I was in a good mood, finally. I really hate the way I ended up quitting, but it's a really good thing that I did. I cut one stresser out. I've been such an Eyeore lately, and I don't really know why and that really bothers me. So hopefully this is a step towards being Eyeore no longer.

"Patience is the Key to Joy"

-my fortune cookie last night. v. appropriate.

deep breath in, let it out slowly.

must remember that i am fabulous.

things may suck now, but they won't always suck.

wheel of fortune and all that jazz...

Halloween Pictures are up...

... at aliwolly.photosite.com/hall04. Halloween was a good time this year... got a fab black vinyl dress that cost too much (guess I'm wearing it for the next 8 Halloweens or so...)... went on a booze cruise with Beck, Dodi, etc that the The BurnersUK played on, which was an awesome time... hung out with the family and helped with dad's "haunted path" - which turned out great. :) So yeah. Check out the pics... though, I should probably take down the ones that Alex took of me while we were sitting at a table on the cruise waiting for everyone else to get there... they're a bit risque now that I look at them again...

quickie

may have to work at NY&Co tonight. not sure yet. am "on-call" for this evening. very strange. "on-call" seems to imply some sort of importance for a job. retail is just the opposite. mixed feelings about working tonight: on one hand, would love to go home and be with the boy as he slept all evening yesterday after working a 36 hr shift and will be working a 24 hr shift tomorrow. on other hand, would love to be able to buy people christmas gifts. will find out shortly if am needed...

might have swore in front of a nun today while at the dollar store. must cease swearing (in public, at least).

halloween pictures to be posted tonight if am not working...

A Picture Share!

Frog and Toad are friends. Good friends.

A PICTURE SHARE!

I'm fat. This is my inspiration to stop being such a bad girl. I'm such a sausage. Ew.

Congrats Beck and Kevin!!!

So Beck and Kevin finally got word from their realtor that the current owners of the house that they've had a contract on had their offer accepted on another house. So they got their house!!! I'm so excited for them! Beck says that they may be able to close by the beginning of January! So exciting! So they can start the new year in their new home. :)

So hearing that she got her house is a bit inspirational for me. I'm not so reluctant to go into NY&Co tonight. It may suck, and it may be taking away my free time, but it may also be bringing me closer to my goal of owning a home.

(I still really don't want to go... and if it sucks tonight, I'm totally using my discount on Sunday and putting in my notice next week.)

So the Red Sox won. And it hasn't been 100 years since Babe put the curse on them... was there no such thing as a curse? So does that mean that for the last 86 years they couldn't win because they just sucked?

Whatever. I couldn't care less about baseball. ;)

SIGH.

Hate my job. Hate my part time job. Not in the mood to be a good girl. Have been bad. Hope to correct this situation ASAP as it's just not good.

:(

So hard to be good with what you eat when you're in a bad mood most of the time.

It's like... it's like God doesn't want me to have any $...

Sigh.

Every time I think I'm going to get ahead... every time I think I'll be able to put some money into savings... something happens. :(

Usually, it's something with my car. And it's not that the beetle is especially troublesome, because this used to happen with the Saturn too.

This time, it's a grinding in my brakes. :( Alex took the beetle to Hackel's VW for me yesterday to have it looked at. Hackel's is a shop that only does VWs and was recommended to me by Meredith who'd taken a Passat that she owned there when she was younger. She said they were very knowledgeable and fair and they didn't give her the girl treatment.

So, the boy took the beetle there. Alex said that the owner was really nice and didn't pressure him into anything. They put the beetle on the lift and showed him that the rear rotors were the problem and that I'd need new rotors and brake pads in the back only and that it would be $315 installed and that it wasn't something that needed to be done immediately but that we should get it taken care of pretty soon.

Sigh.

I'll make an appointment to bring the car in next week to get that done. Until then, I'll have to drive the car around and listen to the grinding when I brake. That sound just cuts right through me... I feel like I'm going to puke every time I hear it. :( But now I know what it is and I know how much it's going to cost me to get it fixed and I'll have it done sometime next week.

But it's still just so frustrating that every time I feel like I'm getting a little ahead I get thrown something like this.

I'm just down lately. I started the job at NY&Co and I'm not lovin' it. I'm not a fan of my actual full-time job, and at the end of the day, all I want to do is go home and search Monster for a new job and work on my resume or just collapse on the couch. I really hate going to the mall and working for another four hours. UGH. And I really hate giving up any of my free time on the weekends.

I have to go there tonight and I'm just not looking forward to it.

I may quit. But I hate the idea of quitting. Carrie pointed out that it really wouldn't make me a "quitter" because it's really a matter of self-preservation. No free time = stressed out crazy me. And I'm not sure that working there is even worth it... I mean, I only make $7 an hour. And it eats away my destressing time. What's $7/hour after taxes anyway? Like nothing.

Sigh. I don't want to be a quitter though. I feel bad. :( I like the manager, Kathy, and I don't want to "let her down" or whatever.

You know, only a girl would continue to do a job that she didn't like because she doesn't want to disappoint someone. I'm dumb.

New Server, New Domain...

So I finally just decided to move my page off of my computer at home and onto an external server. And since my new hosting service came with a free domain name if you signed up for a year of service (which was the best deal anyway), I figured, why not? So aliwolly.com was born.

So update your links/bookmarks/whatever. Thanks for finding me/visiting and I hope y'all come back! :)

daydream believer

but not a homecoming queen.

I daydream so much, sometimes it's hard to determine what is reality and what I just dreamed up. That's pretty bad. Some days I'll dream out a whole scenario in my head:

I'll go to Mobil after work to get gas for my car and realize that I have a couple dollars cash, so I go into the store and pay and, on a whim, I'll pick up a "Win for life" scratch off ticket. No, it'll be a "Set for life"... Anyway, so I'll shove the ticket in my bag along with my change and go back out to my car and drive home, where I'll throw my bag on the desk and get changed and start making dinner. After dinner, I'll sit on the couch with Alex and watch TV until I fall asleep, then wake up around midnight and check my email and pay some bills and then go to bed. I'll begrudgingly wake up the next morning and drag myself to work.

I'll somehow make it through the morning and go to Mobil on break for coffee, where I'll remember that I bought the scratch-off ticket the night before. I'll go back to work and at my desk I'll pull out the ticket and the shiniest penny in my change purse and scratch away. I'll see two "Life"s and stop scratching. One more "Life" and I'll be a winner!!! I'll look around to see if anyone's looking, cross my toes (because it's hard to scratch when you've got your fingers crossed), take a deep breath and scratch the rest of it. Then I'll stare in disbelief at the third "Life" looking back at me. I'll look at it again. And again.

And then the realization that I've won $5,000 a week for the rest of my life will set in. And here's where the fantasy splits, depending on the kind of day that I'm having... I might run over to Mary Ellen and say "I'm not working here anymore, how 'bout that?!" and then maybe add a "boo-yah!" as I run out the door. Or I might just quietly put the ticket in my wallet, finish out the day, go home and type up my letter of resignation and hand in my two weeks notice at the end of the week.

I'd pay off my loans, get a convertible beetle, and buy one of those fabulous large older homes in Albany that I love to walk by and stare at. I'd be able to decorate my house any way I wanted to. I'd have time (and money) to take cooking classes and any other sort of class that just sounds interesting to me. I could travel... I could afford to have kids and be a stay at home mom. Sigh...

Some days I get so into these daydreams, I have them so intricately planned out, that I get confused when I stop dreaming as to what is reality and what I made up. I get excited for going to Mobil (or wherever else the daydream may have taken me), only to realize that in reality none of the things that I daydreamed about were going to happen. It's sometimes a real disappointment to "wake up" and get back to reality. I don't quite think that's healthy...

WEEK 1 OF THE CHALLENGE...

...went well. I actually lost weight this week. It wasn't much (I only lost 0.4 lbs) but it still was a move in the right direction on the scale for a change!

Motivated by the challenge, I've actually gotten back to going to the gym. I went Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning this week. I plan on stepping it up next week and going Tuesday and Thursday mornings as well. No sense screwing with my sleep and changing the time I wake up every morning. If I'm going to commit to getting to the gym in the morning then I might as well wake up early every morning.

I've been going to the branch of The Fitness Factory in Latham that's, like, 3 seconds from work. It's really nice. There aren't a lot of people there in the morning and I have to be at work at a weird time (8:30) so there's no one else in the locker room when I'm in there getting ready, so it's like I have my own private locker room. It's nice. :) The only slightly irritating thing is that there's this Chatty-Cathy-Guy there every morning that I'm there and he always wants to chat. It's early, I'm in gym clothes, I'm sweaty, you're lucky if I brushed my teeth. Don't talk to me. I don't want to be rude so I always respond, but I don't want to encourage him either so my responses are always brief. I have to admit, though, that I was pleased this morning when he told me that he was surprised that I only go to the gym three times a week because I'm in "such good shape."

So yeah. Good stuff: lost weight, back to the gym, eating better... Pretty soon I'll be 15 lbs lighter and feeling fabulous!!

It's hot here. Like a cow on fire.

Anyway. So lately I've been listening to JR on 94.5 in the afternoons. I've never really been one for talk radio, but his show is pretty funny and seems very original. He just pretty much talks about stuff that's going on... national stuff, local stuff, random stuff. He's got a guy with him - Pi - who looks nothing like he sounds. Some of the funniest parts of the show are when a chick calls in and Pi starts hitting on her and is just failing miserably and JR starts busting on him. Oh, and JR does spoken commercials for his sponsors, and his commercials are really good. I mean, you don't want to turn the channel when he starts in on them and you really believe what he's saying. You really believe that he thinks that he thinks CRWireless is the best wireless carrier around. And he sort of talks the commercials the same way he talks about anything else, so even the commercials are interesting. Anyway, it's just good stuff.

So my new obsession is buying a house. I was really bored one night last month and I started watching this program on CNN OnDemand for first time investors and they suggested buying a two family home and the rent for the other could pretty much pay your mortgage. Sounds like a good deal to me. I know it's not that simple, so I'm researching (yeah, I'm a dork because researching crap is like my favorite thing to do) all the possibilities. I'm pretty excited. I hope I can make this happen...

Oh yeah, I found a digital phone service that seems like it's an excellent deal: Lingo. It works through your cable modem and allows you to make and receive calls. I’m on the $14.95/month plan which gives me 500 minutes of call time to anywhere within the US, Canada, or Western Europe and I get all the bells and whistles: caller ID, call waiting, voicemail, free unlimited in-network calling to anyone else who uses Lingo… etc. They also have a plan that’s $19.95 a month that gives you unlimited call time. So yeah, I hope it works as well as it sounds. I get the kit sometime this coming week. Anyway, I wanted to share my find because I’m excited about it. It’s going to save me money while allowing me more features and greater calling capacity. I’ve been on the basic Verizon plan for my area which gives me access to the phone line but I pay for every single call and I have no extra features… and so it still ends up costing me $20/month! The only drawback that I foresee is that you can only have one phone hooked up to it and it has to be next to the computer. That's not an issue for me because I live in a small apartment, but if you had one of those expandable cordless phone systems (like this one) where you only use one phone jack, then it would work great for a larger house. So yeah. I'm excited. I hope it works well...

This weekend should be pretty fun. I'll be at Revolution Hall in Troy tomorrow night for Seven Nations and at the Pepsi Arena (Knick) Sunday to see Hair of the Dog and the Glengarry Bhoys at the C.O.P.S. benefit concert. Very exciting to see 3 of my favorite bands all in one weekend. It'll be a very Celtic weekend with the music and the Guinness a-flowing. Yay!

Geez. TGIF. I better try and get something done here at work for the last 45 minutes I have left.

umm.... no.

I forgot that I'd wanted to post about this for a while, but can you believe that someone left a comment on my "on being a star" post below propositioning me to be a topless model? Um... no. But yeah, I am pretty cute. ;)

motivated by shallow thoughts...

I was at the mall the other day, allowing myself to shop for clothing for the first time in months - probably since I borrowed a very large chunk of change from my parents to pay off my enormous credit card debt. I realized while I was cruising the mall how much I missed shopping and how much I really wanted a whole new wardrobe. I also realized that not accumulating gobs of credit card debt was also high on my list of wants. So, pretty much on a whim, I applied for a PT job at one of my favorite clothing stores, NY&Co.

I was called for an interview the day after I dropped off my application, interviewed the day after that, and 4 days later was offered a position as a Part Time Sales Associate.

At first when I was thinking about this job, I was just excited to have extra money to buy new clothes. But then I realized that the holidays will be here quicker than I'll be ready for, and that it will be a nice bonus to have cash to pay for Christmas gifts and not have to worry about charging anything. The extra cash should also help me with my longer term goals... like putting money away for a down payment on a house.

I feel like I've grown up a little bit in the last week. By acting on an impulse spurred by a pretty shallow thought (I want new clothes!) I've acquired the means to help me on the way to a pretty grown up goal. It's amazing how little bits of maturity suddenly spring themselves on you.

FABULOUS FALL-ING POUNDS.

So September was a wash for me. It was just a bad month on the weight loss/control front. Temptations were too great at Disney to not give in... and I did have a fabulous time giving in... :)

Anyway, so the result of September was about 8 lbs gained. UGH.

I decided that I needed to start fresh with October. It's important that I get back on track because the holidays will be here before I'm mentally ready for them.

But getting back on track is so hard. (Read that again and whine in your head when you do it.) So I had to figure out a way to get back on track that I'd be motivated for and feel accountable about. I remembered that Carrie, Meredith, and Danielle all had said on different occasions that they were also feeling a lack of motivation lately. So I thought, "Why don't we all do this together?"

So I started a challenge for the four of us: every day we were going to try and earn 2 Activity Points while we stayed On Program. I send an email out to everyone the next day and we all report on how we did the day before. I'm calling it "Fabulous Fall-ing Pounds" for now... I'll have to come up with something equally cheesy for the Winter... ;)

Yesterday was the first day of the challenge and so far it's working out well. I was able to stay OP for the whole day (seems like it's been months...) and I even walked at 10:30 last night to make sure that I earned those 2 APs. I'm pretty excited! And it's really great to have a forum to discuss any issues about the program or our motivation, etc.

So we'll see how this goes. I'm hoping that by Christmastime I can be down to about 148. It's definitely do-able as long as I stay on track, and I think this challenge will make staying on track a lot easier. Yay! :)

So I bought the Trilogy on DVD the other day. We'd been talking about it at work, and then at dinner one night... and I couldn't stand it anymore, I just had to go out and buy it. Sort of an expensive impulse buy, but well worth the money.

I didn't realize until I started watching the first one (just plain old Star Wars or A New Hope for all the new schoolers...), just how long it had been since I really sat down and watched those movies the whole way through. I mean, I'm pretty positive I haven't seen them since I saw the re-releases in 97 in the theater. And before that it had been years.

I remember being a little kid and watching the movies... and liking them. Every time I see the very first scene of Star Wars, where the huge ship flies overhead, I think of being little and sitting on the basement floor and watching the movie on our old TV. I remember playing with ewok toys and a small x-wing toy that "broke apart" when you pushed in on the back. Star Wars was definitely a part of my early childhood and I have positive memories of the movie.

Then I got a little older. And I didn't watch Star Wars so much anymore. I'd seen those movies. I remembered that I liked them... and if I passed through the basement and one of my brothers was watching the movie, I'd stop for a few minutes and watch with them, but I didn't take the time anymore to sit and watch the whole thing. So when I bought the DVDs and brought them home and started watching them, I didn't think I'd be so thrilled...

But I was. The DVD versions of the movies are just so crisp looking... and exciting. Most of the original effects were so good that I didn't feel like I was watching a movie that was older than I was, and the new effects that George Lucas added in were mostly seemless... The movies just seem so fresh and exciting and new to me again.

It's great to be excited about Star Wars. I sit, broad eyed watching the action unfold, on the edge of my seat as if I don't know what's going to happen... cheering when the Rebels succeed... yelling at the screen for Darth Vader to help his son when the Emporer is killing him.

Every night for the past week I've had one of the DVDs going while I'm at home. And with all the extra features on the discs, I feel like I could do that for a month and not watch anything twice. :) I can't believe that I totally fell in love with these movies... I feel like a little kid. But that's what's great about the movies... They're so timeless, and just so good. :)

On being a star...

I always thought that I'd never be able to be a movie star because I don't have a good smile. But then I saw a picture of Brittany Murphy on a magazine cover the other day and realized that maybe the smile thing wouldn't necessarily keep me from being a star. (The lack of acting talent might do it, though.)

Here and having a blast!!

We're here! We're here! We're at Disney World!!

I'm accessing the internet via a computer station at Disney Quest in Downtown Disney. Disney Quest is a giant - five level - arcade full of not only traditional video games but also interactive similators. It's really cool and really very Disney... The elevators that you board when you first arrive aren't content to be just elevators... They have a small show with the Genie from Alladin. We're here at Disney Quest after having just seen Cirque du Soleil - La Nouba next door. It was an absolutely amazing, incredible, beautiful, unbelievable show!! Before the show we had a fabulously decadent dinner at Fulton's Crab House.

It's really been an incredible night, and, to tell the truth, I'm a bit tuckered out. After walking around Epcot all day in the heat and then coming here to Downtown Disney and having a huge meal and then sitting in the dark watching a show for over an hour, I'm pretty much ready for bed. But Alex thinks he's died and gone to heaven in this enourmous arcade, so here I sit, sipping on a diet Coke to try and wake up a bit while I type on an impossibly annoying keyboard to update my page. I am waking up a little, so I think after this place closes at midnight, I'll be up for walking over to Pleasure Island for some drinks and checking out the clubs.

I've had a fabulous time so far! The trip down was pretty much uneventful. We were able to get into the parks pretty early on our arrival day... We were at Epcot by 4:30. We had dinner at Morroco and then viewed the fireworks show (IllumiNations). While watching the show (in the rain in our ultra stylish ponchos) we met an older couple from Philly who'd also just arrived that day. They were also staying at our hotel for a week and were in celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. They were a nice couple and we exchanged polite conversation before saying "see ya around". And, we did end up seeing them again the next day.

We went to Animal Kingdom during the day and had a great time seeing all the animals, attractions, and shows. Afterwards, we cleaned up at the hotel and then headed over to the Polynesian Resort where we saw the Spirit of Aloha dinner show... and that couple from Philly! We'd just arrived and were directed to go get a picture taken. On our way to get the picture done, we noticed that everyone else had lais, but we didn't see anyone handing them out. We stood at the picture spot and just before they were about to take the picture, the gentleman from Philly ran over and put his and his wife's lais around our necks so we'd have them for the picture! The dinner show was amazing - especially the fire dancer guy - and afterwards we walked out to the Polynesian beach and layed on a hammock and decided it was paradise and that next time we came to Disney we were going to stay at the Poly.

Today we finished up Epcot, just in case Ivan decides to come bother us later on this week. Tomorrow we'll be doing the Magic Kingdom and Monday will be MGM. So, by Monday night at least we'll have done the major 4 parks and if the weather decides to be a problem and we're stuck in our hotel room for a day, we'll at least feel like we didn't miss out on anything important.

Well, my timer on this internet access computer is running dangerously low, so I'll finish up and go find Alex. Am having a fabulous time!!!!!!! :)

People crowding the gate waiting to board the flight to Orlando.

Alex at the Charlotte airport waiting for our Orlando flight.

Little worried about hurricane Ivan though..

We're in Charlotte waiting to board our flight to Orlando. It's apparently running late. Sigh. Can't wait to get there!

SO CLOSE!!!

I'm so excited!! We leave in 15 hours!!!

I'm having such a hard time concentrating at work... I'm pretty much all packed, just have to pack my carry-on and toothbrush etc. I think I was annoying Alex last night while I was packing... I had to try everything on and then go out and model it for him and ask if I looked good in it or if I looked fat. He probably deserves sainthood for living with me this week... I'm going to be especially irritating tonight, I can tell...

Can't wait to be there!!! YAY!!!

Much calmer now

So I was able to push back our plans a couple of days, and now I'm much calmer. Frances has, of course, since downgraded and might possibly be not as much as a threat, but I figure that it's better safe than sorry. Oh, and of course, there's another tropical storm brewing out there - Ivan - who could pose a threat while we're down there, but there's nothing I can do about that so I've decided to stop obsessivly watching the weather channel and checking weather sites and just stop worrying. What will be, will be.

So here's the new itinerary:

Thursday (9/9) - Leave bright and early for Disney! Get there, check in, spend the afternoon at the Magic Kingdom and then have dinner at Epcot and watch the fireworks show there - IllumiNations.

Friday (9/10) - Go to Animal Kingdom during the day and then go to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian resort that night.

Saturday (9/11) - Free day... probably go to Downtown Disney and shop or check out DisneyQuest... perhaps go to the Grand Floridian Spa for some spa treatments... then we'll have dinner at Fulton's Crab House in Downtown Disney and then see the 9pm show of Cirque du Soleil.

Sunday (9/12) - Whole day at Epcot. Dinner will probably be in Japan... :)

Monday (9/13) - Whole day at Disney/MGM Studios. We'll have dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby and then see Fantasmic, their nightime show with fireworks and water effects.

Tuesday (9/14) - Whole day at the Magic Kingdom. Dinner will be at Tony's Town Square restaraunt, which is supposed to be modeled after the Italian restaruant in Lady and the Tramp. This is the only night that they'll have the Spectromagic nightime parade during our trip, so we'll watch that parade and then the fireworks show - Wishes.

Wednesday (9/15) - Another free day... and our last full day at "The World". We can check out a park that we wanted to see again, or rent a boat or go horseback riding or something. That night, we'll have dinner at the California Grill at the Contemporary Resort. I wasn't able to get as good a time as I had for our original reservation, but we still should be able to see Wishes from there...

Thursday (9/16) - Departure day. :( But, our flight isn't until 6pm, so we still have a lot of time to do stuff during the day. So we'll be doing a behind the scenes tour at the Magic Kingdom called "Keys to the Kingdom". That'll be from around 9 until 2. If we can't get a late check out, we'll check out of the hotel before the tour and just store our luggage there until we get picked up there by the town car. If we can get a later checkout, we'll be able to sleep a little later that morning and then come back to the room and pack out after the tour. We'll arrive back in Albany around 10:15 that night.

So I feel a lot better now that the plans are pushed back. And I think that this new schedule is a lot more relaxing than the original schedule, so everything worked out fine. Oh, and since we're going Thursday to Thursday, I took the Friday off after we return, so I only have to work this Tuesday and Wednesday this week (Monday is a holiday), and then I don't have to be back to work for 11 days! And the weekend after we get back is IrishFest, so that'll be fun too!

So yeah. I feel SO much better now!! Only 5 days to go! :)

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN... ;)

So last week's weigh-in was very encouraging. I'd gained the week before... 3 lbs over 2 weeks... and then at last week's weigh in I lost... with a vengence! ;) I lost 3.2 lbs in a week. I guess my body was like, "What's this? This fat does not belong here!

So yeah. I was happy... :)

And then, last week they started a new plan at Weight Watchers. They now have 2 options in their "Turn Around" plan... You can continue to do the Flex Points thing (where you get a daily points target and you count and keep track of points for all the food you eat and then you have 35 flex points a week so that you can "splurge" if you need to), or you can do their new Core Foods plan. With that plan, you can eat all the food you need to to be satisfied off of their core foods list, which is pretty big! It pretty much includes all whole, unprocessed foods. So you can eat lean cuts of meat, veggies, fruits, beans, and unprocessed grains. If you want to eat a food that's not on the list, that's ok, you just have to count the points for that and you've got a limit of 35 points a week. It's all very exciting. ;)

I decided to give the new plan a shot this week and so far I love it! I think that I'll have another "losing" week when I weigh in tonight, which is fabulous, because usually when I lose big one week, I won't really lose much at all the next week. And this week I didn't even exercise all that much... So I'm thinking that this new plan, combined with exercise would give really awesome results!

So yeah. It looks like I should definitely make my goal of being right around 150 by Disney (which is next week already!!!). I'm really happy. I can't wait for weigh-in tonight to see how well I did. Then, I think I'm going to try and get to a meeting to weigh in on Sunday so that I'll have a September weight before I go to Disney and pig out and gain... ;)

Big bundle of nerves...

So I'm alternately so excited that I can't sit still and so nervous that I can't think...

A week from today I should be in Epcot. I say "should be" because right now everything seems uncertain because of Hurricane Frances. We're supposed to be arriving in Orlando at about 12:30pm on Monday. But if there's a hurricane travelling up the East Coast of the US about that time, who knows what will happen. I'll be really disappointed if we don't make it in on Monday, especially because we have Preferred Seating (like a reservation) set up for the California Grill at the Contemporary Resort for 7:20 that evening so that we can have dinner and watch the fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom (Wishes).

I just want to get there. :( I'm so worried. I mean, if we just get there, I'll be fine. I don't even care if we get delayed a lot that day... as long as we can make our PS at the CA Grill... ;) I really hope we don't have to lose a day of our vacation. :( We're supposed to leave Albany for Charlotte, NC at 7:10am on Monday and arrive there at about 9:15am... then we're supposed to leave Charlotte for Orlando at 11am and arrive in Orlando at 12:27pm. So if there's a hurricane blasting up the coast, I'm thinking our travel plans will be fucked. I hope not... :(

I guess there's no point in worrying about it now. I mean, there's nothing that I can do. And forecasts this far ahead are never right. So I should just calm down. Easy to say... hard to do.

Also, Beck is on a cruise to the Bahamas right now. I bet the cruise isn't actually going anywhere near the Bahamas. They've probably been diverted to other islands. I mean, I'm sure they won't go near any bad weather. She's safe and having a great time, I'm sure. She'll probably have problems getting back from FL though... I think they come back to port on Thursday, then she'll be there Friday and is supposed to return home on Saturday... but if the storm is hitting then, she'll probably be stuck there. But I'm sure she'll be fine, so I shouldn't worry about her either.

I keep obsessively checking all the weather sites I can find online...

Sigh. I hate when things are beyond my control.

Eric and Sara's Wedding

Just got back from Eric and Sara's wedding. Had a blast! :) You can view the photos at aliwolly.photosite.com/EricSaraWed. Will post more later!

AIN'T THAT A KICK IN THE HEAD!

So last night was a dissappointing weigh in. I'd gained 3 lbs since my last weigh in (8/3). I was pretty annoyed with myself, but I definitly got what I deserved.

Seeing that + 3 in my member book was really the kick in the ass that I needed to get myself back on track. Also, the topic for last night's meeting was very relevant! We talked about getting stuck in weight loss and ways to get out of a rut and common mistakes that people make. I know that I've been guilty of an all or nothing attitude lately ("well, I've screwed up all ready today... might as well have some ice cream too") and I've also probably put some unrealistic expectations on myself. So it's time to start fresh.

After the meeting, I went to Price Chopper and bought a rotiserrie chicken for dinner and some veggies and oven fries. My dinner turned out to be 5 points, which was exactly what I had left for the day and I didn't use any flex points on snacks. I packed my lunch last night and made ready my gym bag, and I got up early and went to the gym today. Second day this week! I rule!!

I feel very certain now that I'll lose weight. I'm pretty sure that I'll lose the 1.4 I need to in order to get back within my range. And I'm pretty sure I'll make it to at least 152 by Disney. If I got underneath that number, I'd be hella excited, because 152 is the least that I've ever weighed in at.

And it's not just about the numbers on the scale. I've been feeling pretty unattractive and crappy lately, and I know that has a lot (if not everything) to do with my poor eating and exercise habits lately. Now that I'm back into it, now that I'm making it a priority again, I feel a lot better about myself.

And I want to keep those good feelings going! :)

GETTING BACK ON TRACK

So I've gained. I know it. I need to stop eating like I don't care.

Because I DO care!!

And I feel lousy when I don't really pay attention to what I eat... And the past couple of weeks (when I've been all not caring), I've had zits. I never break out. This sucks. I look like I did on bad days in high school. And I really think that has something to do with the fact that I've been all not caring about my food.

So yesterday I got up early and went to the gym. Yay! I'm back at the gym! And I really paid attention to what I was eating yesterday and I've been doing the same today. I rock. And tonight, I'll be going back to Weight Watchers.

This will be my first meeting back since I made Lifetime. I didn't go last week because I was "exercising my right to not go". Now that I'm Lifetime, I don't have to go every week. But I think I will from now on. Because going to the meetings really keeps me on track.

I also didn't go back last week because I was a little afraid that I gained. I didn't want to have to pay on my first meeting back as a Lifetimer! But then, I found my Lifetime member rules and realized that I wouldn't have had to pay if I was outside of my range: After you weigh in the first time in a calendar month and you're within your range and you go to another meeting that month, you don't have to weigh in if you don't want to "and if you do decide to weigh in - it doesn't really count - so if you're a bit over your weight goal - that's OK - and you don't pay." So that rocks! I might be outside of my range tonight, but since I've already weighed in as a lifetime member within my range this month, I won't have to pay! Rock! So now I can go back and get on track!

And I will get back on track! :)

Three Weeks!!

Three weeks from today, I will be in Walt Disney World at the Magic Kingdom.

I am so excited!!!!

I just can't wait to be there. Well, I can. I have to. And, as Alex pointed out the other day, I'll be a basketcase after I get home. He asked me if I'll start planning our next trip there when we get back and I told him I already started planning. ;) I sort of have... I've been looking at all my research and thinking about what time of year will be best for our next trip. Depends on how this trip goes. I think September might continue to be ideal, but there are a lot of people out there who say that Early December and Mid to Late January are even better. So we'll see... And, I don't think we'll go again right away next year... we'll probably take a year off... depending on what kind of deals I can get. ;)

Anyway. I'm loving the planning part of this trip. I have a pretty good idea of what we'll be doing each day that we're down there, and a list of "Preferred Seatings" to make. I've done a lot of "work" (had a lot of fun) planning this trip, but I'm really an amateur compared to the people I've "met" on the DIS Boards. There are some serious Disneyphiles there!

So yeah. In preparation for all the photos I'll be taking on the trip and then posting when I return, I've been looking for a new way to do my photo albums. Currently I'm hosting my own photo album pages. This is annoying for a few reasons... I haven't found a good, simple, quick way to produce a slideshow effect, or at least the ability to scroll through the pictures easily. Also, since my camera takes pretty large sized photos, I'd have to produce copies of all my edited, ready to be shown photos in a smaller, more web-friendly size, which meant that I'd have multiple copies of my pictures stored in different places on different hard drives. Annoying. So I decided to go looking for something better.

I wanted to find a site that would host my photos and allow users to easily browse my pics. Easy enough, there are tons of them out there. I'd used Ofoto in the past, but their prints were expensive and it was annoying that you couldn't link directly to an album, instead you'd have to invite people by email and they would have to sign up to be members of Ofoto just to view your albums. That's irritating. I found Snapfish and I was pretty pleased with their site... Easy to use, really cheap prints... but then they require people to sign in to view photos too.

Finally, I found Photosite. This site hosts your pics, allows you to specify what pics you'd like people to be able to order prints of (but they're not cheap), and doesn't make visitors sign into your site just to view your pictures. The albums it produces are not as customizable as I'd like, but they're pretty decent. What really pushed this site over the top to be the winner for me, was that it has a really nifty mobile version. So, in order to view a photosite link from your web enabled cell phone, you'd just navigate to the url by putting "mobile" in front of it. For example, to view my photosite on the computer, you'd go to http://aliwolly.photosite.com, but to view it from your cell phone, you'd go to http://mobile.aliwolly.photosite.com. It's really cool. :) I can also post to a photoblog album from my phone. So now, if I want to share a pic with someone who's not on the Sprint network, I can take the picture, email it to my photoblog, and then text the non-sprint user with the "mobile" link to the pic on my photoblog. How cool is that?

Anyway, so check out my new photosite. This is where I'll be posting any new pictures from now on. Pictures from before April of 2004 will all still be hosted on my older photo album page.

A PICTURE SHARE!

MADE LIFETIME!!

So, last Tuesday (the 3rd) I (finally) made Lifetime at Weight Watchers. I can't tell you how much of a relief that was!!!

Summer is always a hard time for me, weight-wise. You'd think that it would be easier... I mean, the weather is warm and who wants to eat a lot and feel like a fatty when it's hot out, right? Yeah, well, hotness doesn't always stop me... and it's not that I'm eating so much that I feel huge and disgusting, it's that there are all these different foods available... Lots of ice cream and potato salad... and you're always going somewhere on the weekends... visiting people, eating their food. And most of the times, there food doesn't really conform to WW and you don't want to be rude and ask for something else, and you really want to eat their food anyways, because it's stuff you don't normally get.

This summer was especially hard. Right after I hit goal at WW, I went away on a weekend trip. Couldn't really be in charge of my food so much then... After that was the 4th of July and another weekend away, not in charge of my food. Then there was Carrie's wedding with the rehearsal dinner and the reception and all the food and alcohol that went along with those events. Immediately following was my birthday... and who wants to deny themselves anything on their birthday? So, needless to say, I was nervous every Tuesday before WW. And I definitely didn't lose any more weight.

But I made it! I did it! I kept within my range and made Lifetime!! And I did it in time for Carrie's last meeting too. Goal Met!!

I don't think I'll be meeting my next goal, which was to be under 150 by Eric's wedding. Yeah, actually, I know I won't be meeting that goal. And the 145 by Disney seems unrealistic now, as Disney is only 25 days away (YAY!!!).

Ok, ok. So... new goal. To be good the rest of this week, starting today. And then... um... to be under 150 by Disney. That's definitely doable.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Sentimental Something...

I was sitting next to my dad in the kitchen Sunday afternoon. He was playing solitaire while watching TV and I was reading the paper.

"BANG!!" my dad suddenly yelled.

I didn't jump. Instead, I looked at him and said, "Geez, you blew up?" and we both laughed hysterically. The kind of laughter that puts tears in your eyes and leaves you gasping for breath. It was perfect.

I guess this scene needs some sort of explanation. See, my family is weird.

We all get along great. All of us kids respect our parents, and we enjoy spending time with each other. Even as we went through our teenage years, we never really sucommed fully to that typical teenage attitude that parents are lame and that spending time with your family sucks. It's sad that those facts make us sort of weird in today's world, but it just seems that most families I know don't sail along as smoothly as ours does. And I think our "success" has something to do with our silliness. And the silliness has a lot to do with our dad (and mom's patience and tolerance level).

The scene from above was very typical growing up, only it went a little differently... Usually we'd all be sitting together watching a movie, and during a really intense part while we were all quiet, holding our breath, leaning towards the TV in anticipation for what was to come... "BANG!!!" We'd all jump, utter little screams... and then glare at Dad, who'd say, "Geez, I blew up," and then laugh at us.

Another favorite and sort of weird trick that Dad would like to pull was when we were all at home and Mom was out, say, at the store or something like that. When he'd see her car pull into the driveway, he'd say to us all, "Quick! Mom's back! Pretend you're asleep!" And then we'd all try and pretend we were asleep, which was sometimes pretty hard because someone would giggle and giggles are contagious. The really weird part about this "trick" was that Dad would say it no matter what room you were in... So we could be in the kitchen, all pretending we were asleep with our heads down on the table. How ridiculous is that!

I didn't realize how strange some of our tricks, traditions, jokes... whatever you'd call them are, until recently. Now that I'm living with Alex, I find myself saying some of the things my parents said that seemed so normal growing up, and I get the strangest looks and responses from him. For example, if we passed a place where someone famous or someone we knew supposedly lived or worked inside, Dad used to shout "Hey (person that's supposedly inside)! Stick your feet out the window!" I never thought about how strange that was until I said it in front of Alex and he looked at me like I had three heads. I ended up going home and asking my dad how that expression came to be, and he (after he stopped laughing) said that when he was in elementary school, the kids from the other school got out earlier than they did, and as they passed the school, they'd, for some reason, yell to kids inside to stick their feet out the window. He thought it was funny, and continued to use the expression as he grew up. No wonder Alex thought I was strange.

Another time, Alex and I were at my parent's house and Dad started to tell a story about how when they were at an amusement park recently, David, my 17 year old brother, would get on roller coasters alone and scream wildly at the unscary parts, like when they first started to leave the station. Dad and Mom and I were in hysterics while he told this story. Afterwards, when I was wiping the tears from my eyes, I looked at Alex who looked slightly shocked. I guess most normal families just don't get that silly.

I'm so glad mine does. I wouldn't want my family any other way. I really enjoy time spent with my family and I've got so many great memories of laughter and silliness and love. I hope that I can raise a family with the same attitudes and feelings. I hope my kids think I'm weird and enjoy being with the family and have no doubt that they're loved immensely.

Thanks, Wham and Pa!

A PICTURE SHARE!

New haircut. Asked for mid neck length with side swept bangs. Got all shoulder length without bangs. Annoying. But I guess it still looks OK.

RESOLVE RENEWED!

So writing that post the other day really helped me to refocus on my goals.

It didn't stop me from going out for Mexican food and having two large margaritas and dessert on top of my dinner of rice, refried beans, chicken chimichanga and beef burrito, but it helped me to refocus... ;)

Actually, I've started fresh this morning. Despite the fact that I went to bed closer to midnight than I'd wanted (actually, right about at midnight) and the fact that I'd left my gym bag in at the parents' house where I'd been doing laundry all Sunday, I still made it to the gym this morning. And even though I've felt like eating kind of a lot today, I've written it all down and I'm planning on making something healthy for dinner tonight, so I'm doing good.

I think that maybe if I commit myself to writing in this blog at least a few times a week, then maybe that will help keep me on track. Hopefully...

A PICTURE SHARE!

The funny thing about this sign is the braile on it... Like some blind person is going to be walking near this wall and feel out this sign before they fall off.

A PICTURE SHARE!

This was a stupid sculpture at the empire state plaza. They have a lot of stupid art there...

Do you think when they market a piece of furniture and they say that it holds 176 DVDs or whatever, that someone sits there & counts?

A Picture Share!

Friday. 451pm. Why am I still here?

MOTIVATION... GONE. :(

My motivation for being a good girl about what I eat and how I exercise is just totally gone.

This always happens when I've got any time when I let myself just have "whatever"... like any type of celebration. The last time this happened it was St Patrick's Day, and I figured, "what's the point of trying to control what I eat when I'm going to want to drink until I'm -faced?" This time it was the combination of Carrie and John's wedding and my 25th Birthday. I figured, "what's the point of trying to control what I eat when I'm going to want to drink until I'm -faced?".

Damn alcohol.

Actually, the drink isn't the problem. I got way fat before I liked to way drink. It's just a complete lack of natural control. I'll have something and then instead of thinking, "wow, that was awesome. I'm so content now." I think, "Wow, that was awesome! I want another one... and another one... and another one..." It's just a bad scene. Like, at the wedding last Friday, I had like freaking 5 chocolate covered strawberries. They were huge and just so damn good that I couldn't stop myself... and then on my birthday last Saturday, I didn't want to deny myself anything because you're supposed to be a princess and get whatever you want on your birthday. So it's pretty horrifying, the amount I ate.

I figured that the madness would stop by Monday... but it didn't. And my motivation to be good was not fueled by the fact that I only gained 0.4 lbs at Weight Watchers when I weighed in on Tuesday. It was like I was being rewarded for being so bad.

I need to get back on track. I need to set a goal. I can never be motivated unless I have something to work towards... and that something better be something soon because I can't ever work the motivation thing unless my deadline is almost upon me.

So... I guess my new goal will be to weigh under 150lbs by Eric and Sarah's wedding, on August 21st. I should definitely be able to do that... I mean, that's less than 5 lbs in about a month's time. Then after that, my goal will be 145 by Disney World, which should also be doable (though probably a little harder as that's only 2 weeks after the first goal...).

I can do this!! I'll toughen my resolve and refocus on my goals and get this done!! I'll go cold-turkey on the over-indulging and get back to the gym!!

...Starting Sunday... ;)

Instant Gratification?

Just sort of testing this theory... I'd like to use this page as a wireless blog for text messages and photos taken with my SprintPCS camera phone - a Samsung VM-A680... it's hella cool... can take 15 second video clips too, but I haven't figured out a good way to get them to post on here directly from the phone yet.

There's a great little site - www.buzznet.com - that I'd been starting to use as a photo blog, but it looks like they'll become a pay site soon(ish) and I'm not willing to pay for the photo blog. So, while buzznet has an advantage in providing a little thumbnail gallery on the side of all the images that I upload, I think that blogspot might work better... I mean, the photos that I take from my phone are all "throwaways"... little bits of instant gratification. So I don't think it'll matter that much to me if the ones from, say, a month ago aren't that easy to find. And also, I can use this blog to post little wireless posts too, and not just pictures.

So we'll give it a go here. Enjoy my "little bits of instant gratification"!

I've decided to change the thrust of this blog... Originally it was going to be just for my trip to Europe last summer, but since I wasn't all that successful in making that complete and I wanted to keep the blog, I decided to make this a blog that I can post to during any of my travels. Since I'm still having this hosted on blogspot and not on my own server (where blogger has to FTP in and won't automatically publish when I email in posts), I should be able to update this blog using my cellphone - which is hella conducive to traveling.

Anyway. So this blog won't really be updated all that often... just while I'm on trips.

My next mini-break will be next weekend, actually. A quick trip to Pottsville, Pennsylvania for a family reunion. Should be a good time :) After that, there'll be another mini-break, this time to Fairfield, Connecticut for a friend's wedding. And then... drumroll... Disney in September for a whole week!!! I can't wait!!

Anyway, so yeah. Mission Statement: just a blog to post from when I'm travelling. Enjoy! :)

wireless blog fun

So my phone died the other day and I got a new one and it's hella cool... It's a Samsung VM-A60. It has a camera and camcorder in it. Rock!

So I decided that I had to have a place to put my little instant gratification pics to... I started with a site at buzznet.com: aliwolly.buzznet.com. I could post pics there directly from my phone, which is awesome... but then I saw in the FAQs that the site was eventually going to become a pay site and limit the free features that it offers. So I decided that the site wasn't for me.

I started another blog on blogspot that I'll use as my wireless blog. Blogspot works very well with SprintPCS because blogger allows you to post by sending an email and it'll show the picture while it's hosted on the Sprint server. Since I'm having the hosted on blogspot instead of my own server, it doesn't have to login to my FTP and will publish automatically when I send an email post to it.

So check out my wireless blog: instant gratification.

It's been a while...

So really, I've been sucking with the updating lately.

July has been really busy.

We went up to the Adirondacks over the forth of July, and the week after that there was furniture shopping and HOTD over the weekend... Last week was full of wedding preparations and then my birthday celebrations. And now, I finally have time to catch my breath.

Ahhh...

The furniture got delivered and it's awesome! I'll have to take some pictures of the new and improved living room and post them. The sofa is just so comfortable... The living room is really the only place I want to be now when I come in the apartment. Now if we could just keep the cats off of the sofa, we'd be all set...

The wedding was wonderful! The celebrations began with the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner on Thursday night, followed by a full day of preparations on Friday and the ceremony and reception Friday evening. Everything went off well, with no major disasters and everyone had a great time! Carrie looked absolutely beautiful, and John was dashing in his kilt. The Scottish people were lots of fun. They did a couple of traditional dances that looked like a good time, though very complex! Alex and I did take some pictures with my digicam, but we were both imbibing, and so the pictures aren't really that great... Meredith and her husband also took pictures, and there's came out very well. Take a look at them here.

I had an awesome birthday as well. I was a little depressed about becoming so old... I'm 25 now! That's not early 20's anymore. I'm on that slippery slope to 30, and then it's all over from there... ;) But yeah, the day was really nice. Alex took me out for brunch at Quintessence and then we went up to Clifton Park where we stopped at the Country Drive-In for ice cream before we went to Carrie's house for her post-wedding BBQ. After the BBQ we headed up to my parents' house where we did the birthday thing with the fam. We stopped by Alex's house to get his TV to bring up to the apartment (I had some trouble helping to carry it... and I've got tons of big nasty bruises to show for it) and then went home to get ready to go out to dinner. Alex had made reservations for us at Jack's Oyster House for dinner, which I was really excited about. I hadn't been to Jack's since my college graduation, and it's just such a cool restaurant. We had a fabulous dinner - he had the roast rack of lamb and I had the pan-carmalized sea scallops, which I thought were fabulous, but Alex thought the scallops that I'd made last month were better (aw...). For dessert I had their homemade cotton candy which came out in a oversized martini glass and was a lot of fun to eat! Our waiter took a picture of us, which I'll post here when I get home today (yes, I'm being a bad girl posting from work again...). The birthday continued through Sunday with a lunch with Beck and Dodi at Uno's (where I had the incredible Peanut Butter Cup dessert they have there... mmm...), followed by watching a couple of Sex and the City episodes back at the apartment on the comfy couch. All in all, it was a very nice birthday weekend. :)

And so now it's back to real life... sigh... Lots of stuff to be done around the apartment: cleaning, replacing light bulbs (that have been burnt out for weeks now), grocery shopping... Lots of everyday tasks to incorporate back into my routine (like not eating like every day is a celebration and getting back to the gym in the mornings). It's surprising how quickly your good habits leave you and the bad habits take their place.

But there are still plenty of fun things to look forward to! Eric and Sarah's wedding is in about a month, so Alex and I will be taking a mini-trip to Connecticut for that. After that is our trip to Disney, which is now only 46 days away!!! There's still so much planning that has to happen before we go! And then there's IrishFest to look forward to after that... and then the holidays will come rolling in before we're ready for it.

But for now, I'm going to try and sit back and relax and enjoy the summer... :)

Ok so it took me forever to finally finish this post and get it posted... I've been so busy lately...

So we went to Taft Wednesday night. We were on a mission to find an entertainment center because Alex wants to bring his large and very heavy TV down to the apartment and he took one look at my current TV cart and pronounced it unworthy. So I figured we'd go to Taft because when I was pricing furniture a few months ago, Taft kept coming up the cheapest.

So we went. When you arrive in the showroom at Taft, you immediately walk into the leather section. So, for the first half hour we were there we had to sit on every leather sofa there so Alex could say "Ahhh..." while he put his sneaker-clad feet up on the coffee tables. Then I'd have to drag him away and say, "we're not getting leather." I mean, please. We can't afford good leather furniture yet, so what's the point? That, and Molly would destroy it. Stupid cat.

Anyway, so we toured the store, sitting on all the lovely couches and laughing at the unlovely ones. And then we found the sofa.

It was just so lovely. And comfy. And large. And (relatively) cheap! It was a (smallish) sectional that was slipcovered in a khaki colored denim with huge cushions that you would just sink into when you sat down. We both sat down and "Ahhh..."-ed. Then we looked at each other, both thinking the same thing... We should buy this sofa.

Our sofa at home was just so awful. I'd been avoiding going in the living room for weeks because I couldn't stand to try and sit on it. I say "try" because you weren't always successful in sitting down. There were two broken legs on the sofa and sometimes when you'd sit down, one of them would give out and you'd end up on the floor. Not fun.

So I did some calculations and we walked around the store for a while, looking at all the furniture while we turned the decision over in our heads. We found a few more pieces that we liked... a red armoire to put the TV and game systems in and a large cedar lined chest on casters to use as a coffee table. We ended up buying it all. They had financing available at 0% for the first year, and by my calculations, we could pay that off in 6 months after we were done paying off our Disney vacation by applying the same payments towards the furniture. So we did it.

The furniture will be here by the end of the week (arriving just in time for my birthday!), and I can't wait!!

FIRST WEEK POST GOAL...

So my first week after making Goal at WW started out really well. I'm not trying to maintain my weight yet, because I'd still like to lose a few more pounds.

But then the weekend came...

Alex and I went on a minibreak with friends to Cape Cod. I had no control. I sucked. I tried to eat good, but it was very hard because no one else was trying, and so the food available to me was not what you'd call health food.

So I know I gained weight.

I only hope that it's not over three pounds!! I can gain three and still be OK, still be on track towards making Lifetime. But if I gained over three pounds, that will throw me off, and I won't make Lifetime at Carrie's last meeting (and I will be very upset!).

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

quick update: wonderful weekend!

I'm at work now and have decided to be productive today, so just a quick update...

We had an awesome weekend in Cape Cod!! I quickly put up the pictures here: aliwolly.homeip.net/capecod04.htm. The pictures aren't "cleaned up" yet and I didn't put up any captions yet, but feel free to take a look for now.

Back to work... morelater!

We've arrived

Got to Cape Cod late last night. Amy's family home is a beautiful antique 1 house from water. Lovely! Typing on cell morelater!
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