New Year's Meme

Happy Holidays everyone! We're finally back from a whirlwind family visiting adventure. I'm trying really, really, really hard NOT to think about my crazy, invasive, scary surgery that happens in 1.5 weeks. So instead, I found this meme from Ali & Sundry and I thought I'd give it a go. Feel free to do one yourself...or not...

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?
We bought a house and moved to another state..one that is far, far away from the family
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't remember if I made a resolution or not. If I did, I certainly didn't keep it. I did make a commitment to healthier living this fall, and I hope to continue with that in the next year
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No births, but lots of knocking up was going around (not me of course, but loads of friends)
4. Did anyone close to you die?
How lucky are we that we didn't experiance any death this year...
5. What countries did you visit?
We went to Canada and Ireland this year.
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
More will-power. And a job that I don't have to work very hard at, and still get paid...HAHAHAHA
7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
It's funny, but nothing in particular stands out. I can't even remember when we bought the house...maybe the end of April?
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I was really happy with the coaching I did over the summer. I felt very confident and successful.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I haven't been as good of a friend as I could have. I too easily blow off some good people for no good reason.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yeah, the whole back thing, although that started a few years ago, I've had most of the diagnosis this year. And hopefully some resolution in the coming months
11. What was the best thing you bought?
The house. I freaking love it here
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My surgeon for listening and looking for a long-term solution
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I was the subject of some bad sport's parents torment. They suck.
14. Where did most of your money go?
The big yellow house and the ridiculously expensive paint for the interior
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving and travelling. The Irleand trip was amazing and I spent 3 months in a tizzy over our recent DisneyWorld trip
16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
London Bridge and SexyBack HAHAHA
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
Right now I'm a bit sadder. At this time last year I was in Hawaii watching my best friend get married. This year I'm staring at 3 months in bed.
I'm about the same weightwise..but I did have slightly heavier points over the year.
For sure poorer...that house wasn't cheap!
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Cooking. Due to my work schedule last year, I wasn't able to cook as much as I'd like, and now that I don't work, I've just been lazy.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Being lazy. Being anti-social.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
We were at my family's house
21. Did you fall in love in 2006?
I was already deeply in love with my husband, however, now that we have much more responsibility I love him even more for taking care of me!
22. How many one-night stands?
Unless you count Ben and Jerry's, none
23. What was your favorite TV program?
Hard choice, but I think either Heroes or House...maybe Lost or Project Runway..too many choices!
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nope
25. What was the best book you read?
Rabbit Factory, I think but I have a bad habbit of forgetting books when I finish them!
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Grand National. Their record came out a few years ago, but I only recently heard them--love it!
27. What did you want and get?
I wanted a house--got it. I wanted a new king size bed--got it.
28. What did you want and not get?
A job, sort of, but not really
29. What was your favorite film of this year?
I really liked The Fountain and Cars
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I didn't really so anything special. I had to go to the hospital the next day. I made myself a birthday cake. I was 26
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Winning the lottery.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Trying not to look too much a like slobby housewife
33. What kept you sane?
The hubs and the pup
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
If by fancy, you mean respect, I would go with John Stewert or Stephen Colbert
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
How certain people want to chip away at women's rights without letting the country notice. The inability of the country to let people live their lives they way they choose.
36. Who did you miss?
My friends, esp. my best friend who I haven't seen in 6 months
37. Who was the best new person you met?
Our new neighbors. I love them!
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
Sometimes life is hard, but don't let yourself make it harder by admitting it. Suck it up. (if only I'd take that adivce myself
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I have no idea....Maybe:
"I wanna roll with the gangstas
But so far they all think I'm too
White and nerdy"
thanks Weird Al!

A new low, very low...

So, the Hubs is out Go kart racing with some car buds, so I'm left to my own devices for dinner and entertainment.

I am so lazy (and I can't believe I am one of THOSE women) that I couldn't even be bothered to put on real clothes to go pick up my Thai food. Sweats, flip flops and...wait for it...completly commando. All because I was too lazy (and cold in my own defense) to properly change into presentable clothing.

I, of course, tried to justify it. You can't tell. I'm only going to be in the restaurant for 2 minutes. I'm coming right home to eat on the couch.

No, there is NO excuse for this kind of behavior, especially when you take into consideration that I am a bigger girl. And no support---well, you know that song "Do you ears hang low?"..it can be applied to other body parts.

It gets worse. I am going to sit on my couch and watch not one, but two, TIVOed episodes of "Texas Cheer Moms." I have never seen this show, but I did TIVO it, and dog gone it, I'm going to watch.

Is there no end to the embarassing things that I will share?

Where I Proclaim my Awesomeness

I made marshmallows today. You can all drool if you'd like, but keep clear of your keyboard. I don't want to be responsible for a short or something. They need to sit for a few hours to dry out a bit, but I have to tell you...they're pretty darn tasty in their soft and gooey form. I cannot wait until they're ready to be rolled in graham cracker crumbs and dipped in chocolate.

Which leads me to my next point. I love giving gifts. The aforementioned candies will be given to the neighbors with some homemade hot cocoa mix. I'm pretty sure they'll all enjoy them. I know gift giving really stresses people out--for me it's no picnic. But, honestly, I love finding something that I know the person will love...even if they've never thought of it before. In my family there are lots of people who can just buy whatever strikes their fancy and for them it's especially hard to pick things out. I was lucky this year. I came across a lot of fun things that were well withing my budget AND I could buy them online. Perfect! But on the other hand, I constantly worry that what I picked out isn't actually as cool as I thought it was. We shall see Christmas morning. The other issue I found myself with this year is a totaly inability to come up with things for my own list. Seriously, I couldn't think of one thing that I could tell people I'd want. That's never happened before.

I did, however, come up with some pretty kick-ass ideas for DH's fam (because he certainly wasn't working too hard on it--you know, having to earn a living and everything). So I feel pretty good about our trip home.

Oh, and by the way...not having power freaking sucks. We lost it for about 2 days last weekend due to a huge storm. But I should feel super thankful, there are still people without, almost a week later.

So a recipe you might ask...
Marshmallows
I made the vanilla version. As long as you have a stand mixer and a candy thermometer, they are actually really easy.

My Treatise on the American Population

Over the 10 days we spent traveling to and around Walt Disney World, we were able to make a number of observations on why people suck. It's kind of an interesting sub-society because you have everyone from those who can spend $500 a night on a hotel room and think nothing of it to those who scrimp and save to be able to afford 75/night and then need to take PB&J to the park because they can't afford the burgers. And of course, all of us who fall somewhere in the middle.

What you come to realize is that people suck no matter what. Or at least have the ability to suck. Of course 95% of the people we encountered were fine human beings. It's just the 5% that really gets to ya.

1. Rude vs. Stupid
We began to notice this conundrum as early as out 7:30 am flight out to the East Coast. It's sort of a chicken or the egg deal. Are people rude simply in response to the stupidity of others---or do people use stupidity as a defense mechanism against rudeness? We tend to think stupid comes first, at least by the examples we saw, mostly those in the customer service industry dealing with the general population.

Of course there's those who are both rude and stupid, like the woman throwing a tantrum because she came 2 minutes early to a show and was surprised to find it packed. I'm not exactly sure what she wanted the worker types to do--kick out people who had lined up a good 30 minutes before the show so they would ensure a seat?

2. Those with a compelling need to break the rules
Look, I'm not a stickler for the rules, in general. Take your flash picture if you need to (even though it won't come out) but for the love of God, when they say "for the safety of our performers, no flash photography," seriously, pay attention. Do you really want to be the cause of some poor acrobat's tumbling accident.

Along the same lines, height requirements at rides were not designed to ruin your trip. They were designed to keep your kids safe. You look like an asshole if your kid is 6 inches to short to go on some scary ass ride and you're fighting with the teenager making 6 bucks an hour. Especially when your kid starts crying and you blame said teenager for ruining your trip. Perhaps you should have, oh I don't know, measured your kid so you know which rides are or are not appropriate.

3. Rudeness multiplies in crowds
We encountered several large groups of people traveling together, from 12 year old cheerleaders to 17 year old Brazilians to late middle aged folks. And as a whole, pretty much everyone traveling in a group of 8 or more sucked. I think it's the pack mentality, like if you're in a group, you can't be attacked by a giant shark. That could be the only possible explanation why these groups (sometimes numbering up to 20 or 25 people) attempted to take up as much room as possible while sticking together EVERYWHERE they went. Including the rides. Because it's so much more fun to have all 15 of you on the same car (even though you only sit next to one person).

And BTW, you are not automatically cooler because you're in a big group. It just makes the whole group that much lamer.

4. Parents who suck
People, people, please. Ducks should not eat pizza or french fries. I don't really care if your 2 year old is crying. Letting him feed the ducks high-fat foods is probably the lamest thing you could do to try and get him to stop. Also, see above RE: height restrictions.
Furthermore, if you're 2 year old usually goes to bed around 7:30 or 8, perhaps an 8 pm dinner reservation is not the way to go. I don't mind crying kids, especially at a family friendly place like WDW, but you possibly can't be enjoying yourself and I know the kidlet is miserable. Think about that for the future.

5. You are not disabled, just lazy
This one kills me. I have a serious injury. Not to the point where I can't walk, but enough that I have pain with pretty much anything I do, and I still didn't find the need for a wheelchair or one of those scooter things. If I had a nickel for every lazy person I saw using one of those devices, it might have paid for the whole trip. I of all people understand that not everyone has a visible disability (you certainly can't tell looking at me), but it's quite clear when you keep switching the vehicle around the various members of your party, you don't need it that much. And for those asshats who were drinking margaritas and running down small children, I pretty much wanted them to drive the lazy mobiles into the nearest deep water.

I feel so much better getting that out. We truly had a fabulous time. I'm just always on the lookout for blog fodder!

And Now I'm Back...From Outer Space...

I can't sleep, being on East Coast time, so even though I fell asleep at 1:30 am (darn those late night flights) West Coast time, I only made it to 6:30 am!

So instead, I'm checking the 1000's of emails I recieved while gone. Ok, there was only 800. And 90% of them were spam. But I did get tagged for my first meme from QofD, so maybe I'll do that too!

Six weird things about me:

1. I've had over 100 stitches (though not at one time). I am a klutz through and through and have a variety of interesting scars to prove it.

2. I used to think my dad was in the mob. I was 7, but I didn't understand what he did (computer stuff) and he worked weird hours. We're also Italian. Therefore...mob.

3. I've travelled to loads of places, and loved every one of them (4 continents: Europe, N. America, Asia and Africa) and Disney World is still my favorite place to visit. Most people would consider that really weird.

4. I have a broken internal thermostat, or so says the Hubs. Even though I'm well padded, I'm NEVER the right temperature, usually I'm pretty cold. The Hubs is really thin and I'm always colder than him. Yet, I hate being hot. I get very grumpy when over heated, so I deal with the cold.

5. I always take home leftovers....and never eat them. By the end of the week, there are just boxes of food in the fridge that was good once, but now....

6. I have to hear talking while I'm falling asleep. Music doesn't cut it--it has to be voices, like talk radio or even better, TV (esp. late night talkshows.) Early on in our living together stage, the Hubs and I had a tiff over this, which ended with me sleeping on our living room floor with the radio on. I can't sleep at other people's houses because they usually don't have the required equipment for my optimal sleeping conditions!

I will post my pet peeves about the general American population soon. Disney World is an excellent case-study.