GiST 16/365

#1. When I got in my car this morning, Sexual Healing was on the radio. Truly, a great way to start the day.

#2. Practicing some awesome procrastination annihilating tactics.

#3. Laughing really hard at The Daily Show and The Colbert Report over lunch and having Armini laugh at me because I'm laughing so hard. It was fun and felt really good.

#4. Convincing myself that being dizzy from the oppressive heat in my office after the air stopped working (for the second day in a row) is really fun and that it's just like being on a carnival ride.

#5. Looking around Etsy trying to find the perfect straw hat for the summer.


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GiST 15/365

Because my head is about to spin around Exorcist style if I don't take a second that stop thinking about all the bad things that are happening in my life the challenges that I'm dealing with right now.

#1. The eye drops that the vet gave me for Bing are doing exactly what they are supposed to do (this means fewer vet visits going forward, which, seriously, is totally awesome).

#2. Even though they are half a country away from me, I have some of the best friends that ever existed. (I'm looking at you Hilda and Ashley)

#3. SuperMama didn't yell at me in the frustrated voice-mail she left me yesterday (and I could tell that she wanted too). It's like she knew that my head was going to pop off if she did. I love my mom.

#4. Being pro-active about making meaningful changes in my life (no matter how small) that will hopefully lead me to long lasting (and, as far as I'm concerned, well deserved) happiness.

#5. Last night while watching Doubt with Armini, I recognized the old nun who was going blind as the same lady that played the librarian in the opening scene of Ghostbusters (it's true. He made me look it up to prove it.) Who's the film major now, be-atch?


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PS - Armini: while I may have super-awesome, actress spotting and recognizing abilities I still recognize that you are the film major of the apartment. For now.

GiST 12/365

1. The first lawn mower of the season making a racket outside my office window

2. SuperMama telling me that Bing is a wonderful dog and that I should let Armini take Tim with him to China (which is NOT going to happen)

3. Not putting off the cleaning

4. In my very immediate future there is a bed frame

5. Planning the perfect Easter dinner


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GiST 11/365

1. A clean living room

2. A clean bedroom

3. The fact that I made sure that when I took stuff from the living to put it back into my room, I MADE myself put everything in its place before I brought in more stuff.

4. Self realizations

5. Mom's fabric stash built up over decades, and now ripe for the picking


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GiST 10/365

1. Payday
2. Cookbooks
3. Grocery shopping at 9 pm
4. New self-commitment
5. Making new friends

GiST 9/365

#1. The smell of chlorine on my skin still, from swimming last night.

#2. Hilda - for she is awesome.

#3. 2 am snuggles

#4. Cooking that turns out well.

#5. Swatching, and finding out that the yarn you are swatching isn't the yarn that you want for the project you had in mind. (Even if knitting makes me look old. Thanks, guys)

GiST 8/365

#1. Boxed Mac and Cheese

#2. Mac and Cheese that have shapes

#3. Scooby-Doo shaped box Mac and Cheese

#4. Eating a whole box of Scooby-Doo shaped Mac and Cheese

#5. Not feeling guilty about it.

This GiST is brought to you by Scooby-Doo shaped box Mac and Cheese (in case you hadn't already figured that out).

Growing up is hard to do (recessions suck)

The news depresses me more than ever as of late ... some of you (like my mom) might remember way back when I developed a twitch that I blamed mostly on the state of the economy. I think there is still a chance that I might develop it yet again.

Growing up is hard. It sucks. You don't get to have spring break or summers off or the pleasure of skipping class. You have to go to work everyday in the same place and do pretty much the same thing everyday, which can get kind of boring (unless you count the occasional caffeine high as exciting). It's stressful trying to land your first job, getting benefits for the first time ... It's almost enough to make your head spin.

Trying to do all that in a recession? Yea ... it's about as much fun as it sounds.

Thankfully, I have a job (with benefits) and if I keep working really, really hard I will get to keep it. But reading the news makes me wonder sometimes if we aren't just zipping right along towards the end of the world. Honestly. (PS - if you didn't click on the end of the world link, you totally should. It will make you laugh).

But seriously. World banks are teetering on the edge of ruin. The stock market is slowly circling the bowl. The government is pumping million-bijillion-googolplex dollars into the economy hoping that it will jump start something but I haven't noticed a difference. Have you? It seems like the politicians are all running around scared, trying to figure something out all the while telling us, the people, to stay calm. Keep our money in the market. Keep spending.

Personally, I have not been touched by this monster of an economy. But my father's company has. They do a lot of business with California ... which is a state that is think about paying tax returns with IOU's this year.

"... state financial officials cannot say when tax refunds and other payments will begin flowing from Sacramento" from this article

My dad actually had to lay some people off in the California office, which is really sad. For the first time, when my mom tells me that "things are bad" I believe her. It's terrifying.

And on that note, I am now going to do a Grace in Small Things post to make this such a depressing post (also, I completely forgot where I was going with this post. Getting old really sucks). This is ... 6! 6 of 365.

#1. Getting in bed at 9 and reading until 11

#2. Boyfriend. Really, just him. He is pretty awesome.

#3. Knowing WHY my throat was sore when I woke up this morning. (I need to get those bed raisers from my mom ...)

#4. Knocking out the 2nd to last part of my right Prairie Boot (ravelry link) last night. Soon, I will have a set!

#5. Making up with friends after avoiding the issue for almost 3 months.

GiST 5 of 365

I only have 360 more GiST posts to go before I am done with it (or will I be? I could do it for infinity for all I know). Yay!

1. Waking up from a nightmare to get snuggled by Boyfriend who was still awake.

2. Tiny dogs who sneak into Boyfriend's bed at night because they want to sleep with me SO BAD.

3. Cold medicine.

4. Only two hours until I get to go home (you know, instead of the three hours it was an hour ago). I supposed I could also phrase this as: the fact that time keeps moving forward, even if it's at a snail's pace, so that I don't have to spend my life in the office.

5. Bing who really likes his obedience class and will (hopefully) do just fine tonight even though we have practiced exactly ZERO times over the last two weeks.

I am SO bored.

Yup. Not a whole lot happening right now ...

Except this!!

GiST 4 of 365 (yup - I'm going for a year's worth)

#1. Being able to sit around all day in an office instead of doing any sort of manual labor

#2. Having the kind of co-workers who don't get mad when you start to nod off during training because you just ate your lunch (and ate too much of it)

#3. Having the sort of co-workers who will pause a second so that you can run and get a coke to perk up so that you can pay attention to the training

#4. Beauty salon's that have last minute appointments so that I can get all prettied up for tomorrow

#5. Boyfriend, who comes into my room almost every night now when he comes home because he knows that I like it

I hope that you all have a wonderful Valentine's day tomorrow with significant others or your BFFs.

GiST #3 + Short Post = Trying to Stay Awake

Do you ever have days where it feels like you're in a fog? That your body just isn't working the right way even though you're on your third cup of coffee? I feel like that today. And the fact that it's raining outside today isn't helping things.

If I were still in school (sob) I would spend the day in my bed with my dogs having a snuggle fest/sleep-a-thon. But now that I'm a "grown up" and have to do super lame stuff like "go to work" and "earn a paycheck" so that I can "pay the rent and the utility bills" I don't get to stay home and have snuggle fests anymore unless I also happen to be feeling very ill at the time.

But seriously, today is going to be like yesterday where I try so hard to work hard. Sometimes I just can't concentrate and I just HAVE to spend 15 minutes doodling on my notepad or making myself another totally awesome spreadsheet to print out and write on (and highlight with the right colors).

GiST #3:
1. A FOLLOWER!

2. Being so close to finishing a knitting project that is so much cooler than my other knitting projects to this point.

3. Planning ahead to my next super cool and much more complicated knitting pattern and dreaming of the lovely yarn shop and spending tons of money on yarn (yes, I know that's technically three things ... lay off me. I'm on my third cup of coffee)

4. Boyfriend coming in my room at 3 am when he gets home to give me smooches because he misses me.

5. Good food and good friends and treadmills (just pretend it's one thing ... ok?)

GiST #2

I know this is long overdue ... and I promise to start doing it more. Please don't hate me. But you wouldn't do that because that is against pretty much everything that GiST is about.

1. Fuzzy puppy blanket after being gone for 4 days

2. Traveling with Boyfriend (who gets very snugly on airplanes)

3. Having a way better time in Vegas than I did last time

4. Coming home from Vegas with less money than I went with, but still having some to come home with

5. Good friends who can talk me into staying awake until 6 am, getting up at 10:30 am and laughing until I can feel every muscle in my stomach.

and a BONUS:
6. KU winning my friends money (but not me because I wasn't smart enough to bet on the game. Oh well)

If you couldn't figure it out, I spent this past weekend in Vegas with some very wonderful friends and having a wonderful time staying up really late, drinking too much and hemorrhaging money. It's late however and I need to sleep because on a scale of 1 to 10, I was functioning at a level of .5 today and I think that I need to let my batteries recharge a little. Or a lot. It is quite possible that I will need to sleep for about 2 days straight before I feel like a normal person again.

I try to keep telling myself that I can sleep when I'm dead, but somehow it isn't making me feel any better/any more awake.

Probably I should go to bed before 11 pm when I have to get up at 6 for work.

GiST #1 + CPU Update

CPU Update: Fixed but (you knew that was coming, right?) for some reason it refuses to acquire the IP address for the wireless. Le Sigh. It is the way of the Super Careo ... nothing ever works right the first time (or second time, or third time, and sometimes not even the fourth time). Thank goodness I spend all day on a computer with internet access or my Google reader would be in the 1,000+ area for posts and then I would probably cry.

In other news: I joined the Grace in Small Things network (well, I'm not an official member quite yet, I have to be approved first) and I will probably be doing that a whole lot. And by whole lot, I mean every week or so. If my computer gets it's act together and will let me onto the internet, then maybe I'll do it every other day. Or everyday. There really isn't much to do around the house when Boyfriend isn't there to entertain me/annoy. And so ... here is my first go at it!

Grace in Small Things (1 of ??):
1. A brand spankin' new salary and benefits! (yup - I finally got that raise!)
2. Two small furries who act like I've been missing for years when they come in from the patio after being out there for 5 minutes.
3. Two small furries who still snuggle me even when I forget to feed them dinner.
4. Boyfriend who can't sleep but will tell me to go back to sleep when he wakes me up.
5. The Joy of Cooking (seriously, if you don't have this cookbook and want to learn how to cook good food, then you need to get this on your bookshelf ASAP)