Bye Christmas...Hello New Year!

Christmas....the most wonderful and exhausting time of the year. I had a great Christmas...family, friends, good food, good times. But damn, I'm glad its over. I need a vacation from my vacation! Even though I had some time off from work, I feel like all I did was entertain people or visit, running here and there, which is what has probably caused my sinus troubles. Well that, and this ridiculous weather that we have. It doesn't seem like Mother Nature wants to decide which way to go at this point: summer or winter, make up your mind! As I say goodbye to the holidays, I do think I should look back on this year and be grateful. No, I don't have a house yet, or a dog, or a permanent job, and no, I haven't actually been accepted into law school yet, but all those things are coming. I can just tell. I know when I walk into my house, I will know it is mine, not like the house I went into yesterday. I can't tell you how disappointing it is to get your hopes up and walk into the 7th circle of hell on earth. How people can live like that is beyond me; bad wallpaper, nasty carpeting, an odor of some sort (Amber compared it to old people and bad breath), and stuff that accumulates over a lifetime spread out EVERYWHERE. That was NOT my house. My house is coming soon, and so is everything else. I just need to learn to have patience...which most of my friends would tell you is a character trait I tend to lack most of the time. Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution: be more patient with myself and everyone around me. Yeh...haha, good luck to me.

On a final note, to everyone who has lost someone this past year, my prayers are with you. I could not be prouder of my grandmother for being strong in this first Christmas without her husband of more than 60 years. It could not have been easy. We miss you Grandpa. Love you always.

Problems in Threes

Ok, so we've all heard the saying, "Bad things happen in threes." Well, I'm here to tell everyone, my family is proving that wrong this week. My parents have a Christmas party every year; 150 of our nearest and dearest friends, not even including MY friends. I thought this year was going to be amazing. We have a beautiful tree, some of my best friends are coming in from out of town, and to top it all off, my dad's twin brother is coming into town to surprise him! Well, that was before the storm. First, our tree fell over. Not like a crashing to the ground kind of thing; more like a leaning on the nearest wall. Broke at least a few ornaments and we had to almost redo the whole thing. Then, my dad caught a vicious cold, which has still got him feeling crappy. Then, our oven decided that it just didn't want to work anymore, which considering we cook for these 150 people and need the oven, is a very very bad thing. THEN, today, my dad calls me at work and tells me that while blowing leaves out of the yard to make it look pretty, his leaf blower explodes. I mean, are we serious? This is almost at a ridiculous level, and I swear that if things continue the way they are, my mom is going to go insane. Thankfully, I think we've gotten it all under control, and dear god, I pray nothing else goes wrong. Now, I'm just looking forward to picking my uncle up from the airport and having my friends arrive. And when we put that new oven in, it better make some damn good food.

Surprises

I have officially decided that the best things in life happen completely by surprise. I know that some people don't like surprises, and I just don't get it! Maybe its a fear of being badly surprised, like thrown off by something that isn't good, or you didn't want. But think about it. Most things that have surprised me in my life have turned out to be great! Surprisingly enough, I went to a college that I swore I would never apply to and met some of the best friends in the world. My 18th birthday party was a total surprise, and even though everyone scared me half to death, all my favorite people were there with me to celebrate. There's the puppy you get as a kid for Christmas that's a surprise (oh wait, that would be what I'm hoping for this year). And what about surprise proposals? 99% of the time, I bet those work out perfectly (not that I would know for sure, haha). And what about those surprise people you meet? A great guy for example, who turns out to be nothing like all the jerks you've dated before, or a new best friend that you meet at work or through another friend or wherever. I'll say one thing, this warm weather that is happening today was definitely a surprise and speaking as a warm weather kind of girl, I'm going to enjoy it. My free advice to everyone, if something surprises you, take a moment to enjoy the fact that you didn't even see it coming. To me, that's the best part.

Random thoughts

So, I'm not going to be as introspective as I was the last time I posted, I promise. I'm sitting at my desk today, and remembering something funny that struck me yesterday. So, at my awful job, we are allowed to listen to our ipods all day if we feel like it, and I got really excited yesterday about listening to some fun Christmas music! I thought it would pump up my mood, like it always does when I listen to it. Not that I was wrong, it did make me smile, but probably for a far stranger reason. If you think about it, listening to Christmas music on shuffle on your ipod can be hilarious...the same songs can play over and over again, but by different people. I wasn't paying attention and thought to myself several times, "I've heard this song already." Haha, of course I had; do you know how many people do renditions of Silent Night or White Christmas or Rocking Around the Christmas Tree? Its insane really. But despite the repetitiveness of the songs, let's face it, Christmas music is some of the most fun, happy music in the world. I'd listen to it year round if people wouldn't look at me as though I should be in a mental institution! (haha, maybe they are right, but its for reasons other than loving Christmas music, I promise)

Imagination

I've been thinking a lot lately about the power of the imagination. Truthfully, I never imagined that I would be in the position I'm in; having just graduated, waiting to go back to school, and stuck in a job that makes me feel like bashing my head into the muted tan walls of my cubicle. I never imagined that so many people I knew would be getting married at 22 years old. I didn't imagine that my parents would be so stern about the fact that I can't have the dog that I'm dying to have! But such is life I think. And I'm starting to realize the the best things in life are the things that you can't imagine, even in your wildest dreams. I never could have dreamed that I would have the amazing friends that are wonderful and whitty enough to keep me entertained even in my endless days at work; great parents that take care of me even when I'm being a brat. With the results of this past election, I think it is the perfect time for using my imagination, pushing myself for whatever it is I decide I want, or need, or can't stand to be without. As a South Carolina Gamecock fan, I will imagine that ONE day, we will be able to beat the pants off our rivals for consecutive years at a time, rather than having a team that lays down to take it. As a future lawyer, I imagine that one day I will make my point heard in front of the Supreme Court and win. As a woman, I imagine that one day I will be married with beautiful children that actually behave, as opposed to the 3 year old children that I see running around in the middle of our street, completely unsupervised. As an American, I imagine that we will once again make ourselves a country worth being admired, instead of one that indulges the "superstars" and neglects our troops and our teachers; a nation that admires responsibility and duty rather than fame, fortune, and power. And as a global citizen, I imagine that one day, people really will realize that fighting over things like religion and ideology never solves anything; people have their own beliefs and set of reasoning skills to figure out what's best for them. It sounds like I have a long list of demands, with a long way to go. And I think that's true. It may not all even happen in my lifetime. But damn, it actually makes me excited about tomorrow.