On getting my hair did...

I've always enjoyed shorter hair.  My hair is pretty short now, however, I'm talking pixie short.  Pixie short looked good when I was thinner.  I'm kind of afraid that my face is so round right now, that pixie short wouldn't look so cute. I've found a few photos of thin people who supposedly have round faces in which I really like the hair styles, such as:

Found here

Found here

But I think this has been my all time favorite for some years now:

Found here and a few other places

Still searching for the right style.  Maybe my oh so wonderful and very talented hairstylist can help me out Thursday when I go to get it cut.  Until then, the research continues.

On being thankful…

A lot of my friends on Facebook are doing a daily “I am thankful for…” post.  It’s kind of interesting to see what people are thankful for.  I thought about sarcastically posting that I was thankful Monday-Friday for not killing myself as I sleepily commute to school in the morning and that I’ve made it (safely) through each work day. And then Saturday and Sunday I am thankful for not having to put up with those little sh…er..lovely students that I “teach” Monday-Friday.  However, I began thinking about it.  There are many things in my life that I am thankful for, so here she goes (in no particular order):

1. my upbringing
2. the fact that I have a job with a decent pay check
3. Mighty Miss Ebba Jean Lucille
4. Family
5. Sleep
6. Technology with which I can use to see my husband on a daily basis
7. Edward Ray Burton
8. My, although far away, friends
9. My education
10. Comfy beds
11. My Grammy blanket (shhhh…don’t tell anyone)
12. My mini
13. A place to sleep
14. Nieces and nephew, they’re hilarious and cute
15. Hulu
16. Talbots Women
17. Pretty things
18. Sarcasm
19. A few students that shall not be named, however they get me through my day because they actually want to learn
20. My experiences abroad and living away from home
21. The fact that I can usually come back “home”
22. That I still have one living grandparent
23. That I got to know and spend as much time as I could with Ed’s dad before he died
24. Crafty things
25. That I’m somewhat healthy
26. The changes of the seasons that inspire me
27. Common sense
28. OPI nail polish
29. Hobbies: knitting, photography
30. Co-workers that understand and help me make it through the day
31. My new computer coming in the mail on Monday
32. Good books
33. My vibram fiver fingers, all four pair
34. Pinterest…pretty and shiny… oooooooh
35. Friends with whom I can talk every day and always have something to say/discuss, and who will listen to me, share with me, and give objective opinions to my problems, concerns, down to the “which one should I buy?” types of problems.  As well as friends who I rarely get to talk to, but I can call them up and it’s like we haven’t missed a thing
36. vegetarian options in Mississippi
37. plants and gardening
38. old things passed down
39. music, even if it’s country
40. that I get to see Ed this Friday!

Now, this list didn’t take long to think of, so I’m sure there is a lot more that I am thankful for.  What are you thankful for?

On Christmas presents and the Amazon wish list…

For years, I have kept an Amazon wish list.  More for my own benefit, like if I research something I can just add it there and not have to keep 100 bookmarks, than for anything else.  But as I get older, I wish people would have them and use them.  I know it seems thoughtless, but you can get ideas from them.  And you get a person something they actually want, rather than something they are just going to re-gift or give away in a few years time.

Also, for the past couple of years, Amazon has had the universal wish list button.  You just install it and you can add anything from any website to your Amazon wish list.  I’ve added stuff from etsy, ebay, Bed Bath and Beyond and many other stores.  It just seems like a convenient place to keep a list of the things you would like to have one day. 

Some people argue that this is materialistic and damaging to your mental health.  I guess it’s just how you look at it.  I don’t look at mine as a list of things I don’t have.  I use it as a list of things that I potentially want, have researched, and don’t want to or can’t buy quite yet, but they are there if I want to easily access them, rather than having to remember what I was looking for to begin with. 

Today I even did a little Wish List upkeep.  I deleted over 50 things that I thought I was interested in or that I use to be interested in, but am no longer.  It kind of felt good and helped me to redirect and focus on what I am interested in.  After deleting more than half of my Wish List, I added a few things that are more directed towards my current goals and wishes.

So I encourage you to make a Wish List.  If anything I can stalk you and see what you like or would like to have.  It’s kind of fun, you can learn a lot about a person.  And it will also make it easier for people to buy you things!

*disclaimer: these are my opinions and you don't have to agree.

On holidays…esp. Christmas

Growing up you spend the holidays with your family.  You don’t really go to friends’ houses, you stay at home and endure the love that comes with family.  Then, you start growing up and dating people.  Things get more difficult.  You want to spend the holiday with your significant other, but you also want to spend it with YOUR family.  And there the problem begins. 

If you want to spend the holiday with your family and your significant other wants to spend it with theirs, but you want to spend it together as well…well, you can’t be at three places at once, so you have to make a decision.  And it’s not an easy one. 

To solve this problem, Ed and I, from the very beginning of our relationship, started the rotation.  Christmas in Natchez, Thanksgiving in Iowa…the next year, Christmas in Iowa, Thanksgiving in Natchez.  We’ve managed to keep the rotation until last year.  Ed got his first job, and me being jobless, we just couldn’t afford to travel at all for the holidays.  So we just put the rotation on hold in general.  We stopped with Christmas in Iowa and Thanksgiving in Natchez.  So this year, continuing the rotation, we should have Christmas in Natchez, and Thanksgiving in Iowa. 

And here comes the next problem.  Ed doesn’t get enough time off to go anywhere for Thanksgiving.  But there’s no way in HELL I’m not going to go see him.  But that makes our rotation now unfair, because it’s Iowa’s turn for Thanksgiving.  Ed’s family understands, but I want it to be equal.  So it gets tricky.  Since we are having Christmas in Natchez, we thought, why not have Ed’s family here too!  We’ve been trying to do it for years and not going back for Thanksgiving creates “demand,” as Ed would say.  So I’m going to Florida for Thanksgiving and we are ALL going to Natchez for Christmas.  Problem kinda solved.

Kinda?  Well, I haven’t factored in yet, siblings.  Now, brother married SIL. And her family has their own holiday traditions, as every family does.  However, they aren’t willing to waiver.  For example, growing up, we use to all pile in a car and ride around and look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve.  Will the SIL has made it clear that Christmas Eve will never be spent in Natchez and they live out in the boonies with too many other family members making it impossible for us to continue our tradition of the Christmas light ride with her family, THUS killing our tradition.

Enter sister and BIL.  They sort of have their own thing going on.  They arne’t really on a rotation, they just kinda float.  I’ve been trying to convince everyone to get on the same rotation so that every once in a while, we can ALL be home for Christmas and do our traditional Christmas things.  But sister and brother and their respectives, don’t find this important at all it seems.

So I’m kinda pissed about this Christmas.  We, Ed and I, were unable to come home for Christmas last year, Ed’s dad just passed away and the Burton’s are all coming for Christmas, but sister and BIL don’t want to come, and who knows what brother and SIL are going to do.  They spend more time at SIL’s than here anyway, even when they claim to be coming here.  Seems like we can never get it all together.  And I’ve been telling everyone since we found out we couldn’t come last Christmas that THIS Christmas we should all be together… I know it’s hard to coordinate everything.  I know it’s hard to not piss each others families off.  But if we all get organized and try, we could.  And if some people would give in and allow someone else’s traditions to take place, then there would be more compromise and less animosity towards one another when everyone IS here. 

I was just hoping for a big ol Christmas, cause it’s always killed me not to be home for Christmas and this last year was especially hard.  So sue me if all I want is our Christmas traditions and everyone to be together again like it use to be.  Life is too full of missed moments and sometimes I feel like you have to make them happen.  We finally got the Burtons on board and the rest of the crew jumped ship. 

I know things can’t be like they use to be, but it would be nice to have something familiar and be surrounded by friends and family this holiday.  This year has just been really hard.

on 26....

Thanks Mississippi, you got something right!

On being girly....

I’ve never been one to be girly… I mean, I do bathe…and wash my hair every day.  But it takes me literally 25 minutes from the time I step into the bathroom, until I’m fully dressed and ready to go.

However, to my surprise, I have become interested in painting my nails.  But not like hot pink or any pink for that matter…dark colors.  I’ve discovered that, even though it may be expensive, OPI nail polish seems to dry quickly and stay on pretty well.  I made the mistake of buying a Dior nail polish because I LOVED the color.  Come to find out that it is thick, gloppy, and the application brush just plain sucks.  Then I found the same color in OPI and kicked myself for not doing more research, how unlike me!

Since, I have bought three more OPI dark colors.  I have “Get in the espresso lane,” which was the first color I tried.  It is kind of deceiving because it’s a pretty dark brown in the bottle, but for all intents and purposes looks pure black when dry on your fingers, UNLESS you’re holding your hand directly under a bright light.

Then I bought the three others,

“You don’t know Jacques”

“Ski teal we drop”

“Houston we have a purple”

and “Houston we have a purple,” which looked so much darker in the bottle, but came out pretty bright (and thin) in the actual paint.  I think next weekend I want to try and get a couple more colors.  The place I got the last three didn’t have very many and I wanted to see “A-taupe the space needle,” “Suzi loves cowboys,” and I’m still looking for a grey that I like.  I don’t want metallic just can’t find what I’m looking for yet.

So that is my adventure in being girly for now…we’ll see if anything else comes up in the near future.

The big 2-9...

In other words, the crapiest birthday yet.

Background

I was supposed to be born on Halloween, or so my mother says.  But I came a few days early.  Now for some, having a birthday so close to Halloween would make them hate it…not me.  Halloween is one of my most favorite times of the year.  I love the costumes, the decorating, the parties, and most importantly the candy…because I’m a sugar addict, you know?

Some of my fondest memories are of my Halloween birthday parties.  In kindergarten, we had the whole class over and we bobbed for apples, had a piñata, and had a sort of haunted house through an old part of our house that was unfinished, complete with fog machine, scary lights and sounds, and some pretty creepy looking gouly fake people.  Fun was had by all.

I went through a patch about 4^th grade, where I just wasn’t cool enough, and no one wanted to come to my birthday parties.  One year, only one of my sister’s friends showed up.  But then about 7^th grade, it picked back up.  I had a Halloween dance at the house.  It was awesome.

Throughout the years, we always put up this scene on the dining room table, complete with a tree (a real tree branch), a cemetery, a witch and her caldron, a cat some ghosts, etc., allll handmade.  It’s still around here somewhere.  But I remember the first year we had it all set up.  It was awesome and I’m sure it still is if we still have it.  Not sure, I should ask mom.  I think some of it was starting to deteriorate, I mean, it is 20+ years old.

Birthdays were good for a while.  In college, I remember having some pretty awesome birthdays.  I think my favorite was a Halloween party we threw at the apartment we lived in.  Not many people came, but my closests were there.  And that’s all that really mattered to me.  I decorated, made some goulish treats, music and dancing, fun was had by all.

Even in to grad school I had some pretty awesome birthdays.  Since time was of the essence (no one had any because we were always studying), the parties became calmer (?).  I had a pumpkin carving party.  It turned out pretty awesome because a few of us, after carving the pumpkins, took them over to a professors house.  We rang her doorbell and hid in the bushes.  We gave ourselves away because we couldn’t stop laughing.  Fun times…fun times…

Even my birthdays in Germany were pretty awesome.  Germans don’t have Halloween, but once I told them about it AND that my birthday was so close and I LOVED having Halloween inspired birthday parties, they jumped on board.  I would venture to say that Germans were more enthusiastic about it than my American friends.

Back in the states, the joy died down.  Everyone always had somewhere else to go, a better Halloween party to attend.  It’s like you have to book people years in advance, but they still have plans and don’t want to just have a “lame” Halloween birthday party.  It’s been a while since I had a birthday party in general, much less a Halloween one.  And that comes from many reasons, one being that all my friends are spread out over the world, well Europe and the states.  No one really wants to travel for a birthday party, and they always have something better to do anyway that involves cooler people. And now I’m whining, sappy sappy, bblah, blah..

Today

This year however, seemed to be one of the most forgetful and sucky.  One, because I couldn’t even spend my birthday with my husband and two, because there was absolutely no cake to be had.  I mean, I might as well say my birthday didn’t even happen.  A birthday without cake is just another day.  So for all intent and purposes, I did not have a birthday this year.  I guess that means that I’m not actually 29, but I’m still 28 (?). 

This was also the first year that I wasn’t excited at all about Halloween.  Just too much going on to think about things like Halloween.  Between school work, grad school work, long distance relationship, commuting, and trying not to get killed, I’ve been a little preoccupied.

Maybe next year will be better, because I love Halloween and this year was just totally unacceptable.