In an excessive attempt to catch up I figured I'd remove myself from position of "lurker" at Sundry's blog. And Christmas was so busy and crazy that I don't have the time to recap right now. But it was great. So for the 2007 Wrap Up


1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?


The past 6 months have been full of stuff I have never done before. Moving, moving in with a boy, getting a new job, starting from scratch at a new place.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?


If I made one I know it was to lose weight, that didn't happen. But I did just join a new gym that I'll actually go to

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?


No, that will be next year

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully no.

5. What countries did you visit?

Yet again I haven't made it out of the country. Once Patrick and I are up and running with some disposable income there are numerous places I want to go.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

The confidence in myself that I can make a difference at my job. I was so convinced I would never get one that now I'm focusing on what I can do to help these kids.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

A-day game, when I met Patrick. Graduation, duh graduation. And that was when we go together. Basically a whole lot of Patrick!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Finding the courage to take a huge risk in my life and come to Prov.

9. What was your biggest failure?

There are a few relationships that I failed at this past year. Letting people get too far away for one reason or another.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Once again, I have been lucky asides the few scrapes and bruises

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Probably the couch, its still fantastic.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Locally, I would have to say Patti from my work. She's on sabbatical from her corporate job to come hang out with us at Tides. On a grander scheme? There are so many people to choose from. I would have to say the amazing women at the blogs I read, feministing and feministe (and Sundry of course!)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

I'll admit it, Britney Spears and many other celebrities. I am obsessed with all that trash.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Hm, rent, food, realizing I'm in the real world now.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The past 6 months have been nothing but excitement! Apartment, boyfriend, job, friends. I kind of live an exciting life : )

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?

You know, thats really hard to decide. I'm going to have to think on that.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
 a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?

a?happier definitely b) probably fatter yet, but I am seriously working on it. c) I can't really compare because the whole college/real world thing and waitressing/real job.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Working out, studying (actually getting that paper published). Other than really working out, I'm happy with what I did.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Okay, well maybe less physically destructive acts. Yanno, smoking and all that.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

With Barb and my family up in Mass.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?

Duh! Most amazingly

22. What was your favorite TV program?

The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother are my new favorites

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Hate is a strong word. In my personal life? Not really. Politically? Pretty much all of the Republican Presidential candidates.

24. What was the best book you read?

Mists of Avalon in my Arthurian legend class most likely.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Oh, I've made a few over the past few weeks. I would have to say my fav right now is Sarah Bareilles.

26. What did you want and get?

A big girl job! And a coffee maker from my mom.

27. What did you want and not get?

A multitude of other big girl jobs, and a whole lot of non earth shattering stuff.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Jess came down and we went out then to the SAE house. That was a rough yet amazingly fun night with great friends!!

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If I would have gotten rid of major emotional baggage much much sooner.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?

"Whatever's on sale at the mall"?
32. What kept you sane?

The roomies in Tuscaloosa and Patrick

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

There are so many. Right now I'm in love with Jennifer Love Hewitt

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

There were so many. The Jena 6 was really important to me, along with my normal political leanings and issues.

35. Who did you miss?

everyone. Mom, Dad, Breanne, Jessica, Emily, Martha, Katie, and pretty much everyone south of the Mason Dixon!

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Hands down, Patrick. But if I have to diversify my answers a little but I have to say that I have met some great people who are amazing friends up here in Prov.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.

That I'm not as much of a failure as I thought I was. There are things I can do if I actually put my mind to it. And risks aren't always so big and scary to take.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.

-Sylvia Plath. While its not a song lyric (I'll think one up) it is one a quote that has described me for a really long time. Now that I read it, the sentiment of that quote isn't who I am anymore. While I am still neurotic to some degree. Its not the same mass confusion about who I am and the whole concept of mutually assured (I always thing destruction). I can see how my life is full of compromises and every once in a while concessions. But I'm so much happier for it.



Happy New Year everyone.

I am having serious issues dealing with the winter wonderland that is upon us right now. Will this snow EVER melt? It was fun until I had to shovel and spend 45 minutes getting my car out of the driveway. And the slipping. Even with my rocking new boots I sill manage to bust my butt once in a while. Okay, it is pretty and playing in the snow on Thursday was fun. If I didn't spend half my time in my car things would be so much prettier. With the way its looking right now we might actually have a white Christmas. While I'm not going home *sigh* I am looking forward to Christmas. Besides the 4 whole days off Barb is coming up from DC. We're going to see some family on Christmas and just bum around here.

I know I haven't been blogging as much as I should have. There have been other things that are mildly addicting, including Facebook Scrabble. Speaking of Scrabble, Sunday night we had a Christmas party at the house. Everything turned out fantastic. There were about 10ish people over and we had a blast. The food was great. I made so many different fun things and everyone loved it all. It was really nice to be able to hang out with a bunch of our friends when it wasn't bar people or athletic dept people. Mixing different groups is the whole reason for Christmas parties. That and alcohol, which we didn't go through much of since it was sunday night and everyone had to be at work/school early. Since Monday I managed to give away most of the left over dessert and now I'm working on the chicken wings (so good) and veggies. When I realized I wasn't going to be going to Alabama for Christmas I worried I wouldn't enjoy the season, but I really really am up here. Besides the fact that I miss everyone like crazy, we're having so much fun. Barb and I will probably go up to Boston to see everything decorated and Prov is also really pretty. All is well here.

I know everyone has loved hearing about my fantastic new job. Right now all I can think about is THREE FULL DAYS OFF this weekend. I have to track tonight and my cold is getting progressively more gross and I feel horribly achy. If I could just stay in bed and sleep today life would be perfect. But alas, we have to wrap presents for everyone and I get to go play in the snow this evening and then go home and cook for our work party tomorrow. On a happy, very happy note, Patrick and I are opening presents tonight!!!! I see a little blue box with a pretty little bow under our Charlie Brown Christmas tree for me!!!! Very very excited.

Patrick and I went out looking for Christmas lights tonight only to be completely disappointed. Not many of the houses around us had any lights up and the ones that did were unremarkable. I am getting my fill of christmas lights in Woonsocket though. Some of those houses are absolutely crazy. Speaking of Woonsocket, I start tracking on my own tomorrow. I'm done with training and will be out in the wild by myself. I'm excited, but also a bit worried about getting around unaided. We'll see how it goes. I already have a few kids coming in the car so hopefully they will help me out a little bit.

In other news Christmas is coming up and I'm full steam ahead with plans. We have the apartment decorated all festive-y with our little Charlie Brown 3 ft fake tree. It has lights and presents underneath so deal. Right now we're pretty far from rolling in the dough. Yes, we can't even spend the extra $15 to get a normal tree. The tree is nice and I got pine scented candles so it at least smells like there's a tree in the apartment. I also have some of my christmas shopping done. I spent the afternoon yesterday down in Warwick hitting up some of the shops and the mall down there. That is after a good 30 minute detour getting lost. Right now I have Patrick, mom and Breanne done. Yikes, I still have tons of things to buy and barely enough money to do it. Besides being broke I also finally found a pair of winter boots that I love, so I had to buy them. Merrill boots for $50? No question there. All warm and fuzzy AND waterproof. I don't want to take them off. This week I'm also planning a little Christmas get together. The only way I figure its feasible is to provide the food and get everyone to bring alcohol. Its not sooo bad. And I have a nice menu of stuff including Connie's Golden Graham thingies that rock. Inexpensive food and decorations from the dollar store. Man, I rock.

There is so much to do and I don't even know where to start. Christmas is around the corner and I have no clue when it comes to about half of my presents. What to get Patrick's boss and his wife? What about the neighbors (who i am good friends with)? Then there are the traditional hard gifts, Dad, Emily (not hard, just I want to find something good). All this stuff stresses me out. Maybe if I actually had money. Such is Christmas I guess.

My food adventures are also exciting as usual. My upstairs neighbor made a comment about how coming up the stairs always smells good. I proceeded to offer her chicken and dumplings. For my first endeavor it was pretty good. The dumplings weren't very dumpling-y and I needed more veggies and seasoning. But a good first try. There is also the soup. Holy crap this stuff is good. I got it from work, my co worker Tiffany made it and I got the recipe. Its just a veggie soup with some Lipton's chicken noodle mix in it. LOTS of veggies. It might be the most amazing thing on the face of the earth, seriously. I'm getting more and more into cooking. Its just a great way to be creative and its relaxing. Tonight we went out for dinner because we ran out of meat in the house and there wasn't really any protein at all. We went for gyros (not so good). It was probably the first time in a few weeks, maybe 3 or 4 that we have been out to dinner. Not so bad. Now I kind of actually want to puke. We also went to Whole Foods and split a slice of cake. Good but very rich.

I'm trying to figure out what exactly I need to do to keep our living room warm. I walked out there to drink my coffee and watch the news this morning after Patrick left and it had to have been at LEAST 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house. We have a bunch of windows including one big one. Ugh, like I can afford to buy curtains right now. Like I can afford to buy anything...but I digress.

Tonight I get to start my tracking. Not by myself, but at least I'm driving. Last night I made it to the high school and back without any help! I have to clean out my car and I'm going to drive everyone around tonight. Sucks for who ever's in the back though. Hopefully we can get through the evening without any of the fun we've been having lately. Tracking and outreach, you never know what these kids will be up to.

I am currently wearing my jacket, scarf AND a blanket while sitting at the computer. yes, it is that cold. to be exact, 22 degrees. for some strange reason the warmest room in the house right now is the bathroom. I'm seriously considering bundling up and chilling out in the tub with a book. Its cold enough that even with the space heater on in the living room that I had to turn on the heat. I may be all about saving money and the environment, but 22 degrees? That is no joke. The fun and games are over, its officially winter and I am super jealous of patrick for going to Florida for christmas. right now it looks like I'm going to my uncle's to hang out with them. Well, I hope so because they will be the only people around.


Even now there are little things I'm still learning about RI. Last night Patrick and I went over to a friend's house and it was our job to buy beer. That would have been all well and good except you a) can't buy beer anywhere but liquor stores and b) they all close at 10 ON A FRIDAY! Is that not the most absurd thing? It's bad enough that the liquor stores have a monopoly on beer and whatnot, but closing so early? Its a conspiracy I tell you!! So we all ended up playing Catchphrase and hanging out. Tonight is a friend's birthday party so we're going to this cool new bar. I'm supposed to be dressing up but I'm conflicted about wearing a dress, ITS TOO COLD. I am not exactly sure what I'm going to do because currently I don't have any desire to change out of my sweats which are nice and warm.


I also finished my first week of work yesterday. Actually, I didn't even go into the office. Instead I stayed in Pawtucket doing classes. I pretty much have classes up the wazoo this month for training. Its not bad, they aren't too boring and rather informative. Any extra certification I can get is a-okay to me. I'm hoping that I will start tracking by myself not this week but next week. The only thing I worry about is getting around Woonsocket. There are a few houses I can get to, but overall I'm still having trouble getting around. One of my clients said she would come with my my first night out because she knows all the houses. I gladly accepted her offer. It doesn't hurt that she's a complete darling. They are all pretty cool and I love it. Its kind of absurd how excited and happy I am about the new job. The money thing is also nice, but the main thing is that I'm out in the community doing something. After all my searching and feeling bad for myself and all that, I finally found something that I am not only good at, but I love. We're thinking about trying to start a homework help group once or twice a week. I might give it a few weeks and then email one of my old teachers from UHP and ask her for her advice. That's her big deal down in Tuscaloosa. Maybe it would even be an opportunity for me to learn some grant writing. They have a book at the library and I could email Star. It's something I need to learn how to do anyway if I'm going to stay in this line of work. Non profit work is a bitch man.