2010 in Review

As 2010 comes to a close, I suppose it's time for a lame year in review. Here are some memorable (good and bad) events from 2010.



January 2010

-The transmission in my car was finally fixed and cost 1 month's pay. UGH!

-I signed yet another extension on the short sale I'd been trying to buy since June of 2009.

February 2010

-Much to my dismay, the aforementioned short sale did not work out (btw last I heard, it's still on the market and the asking price is now $20,000 less than I offered, perhaps they should have accepted my offer, ha!)

-Great trip to NYC to visit Jenni where I tried Indian Food, went to Serendipity, and went to The Met

March 2010

-Put an offer on another condo, which was rejected because a better offer came in at the 11th hour (or whatever that expression is)

-Went to a UNH/BC hockey game was totally torn on who to cheer for

April 2010

- Wine and Food Fest (too much good food!)

-Saw "Rent"

-Got strep throat for the first time in my life; and for the first time ever I had to take two sick days; never taken more than one in a year prior to that

-Spent way too much on car repairs

-Caught up with some good friends over April vacation

May 2010

-Made an offer on another condo

-Annual trip to the Chocolate Buffet

-Hosted another successful authors' tea at work

June 2010

-Offer on condo was accepted (darn near passed out from shock)

-Successfully co-chaired a big event at work for the first time

-Fabulous trip to Colorado, Arizona and Las Vegas (highlights of these trips have been mentioned in previous blogs so I won't bore you)

July 2010

-End of Vegas trip

-Bought a condo

-Spent a LOT of time (and $) working on said condo

August 2010

-Girls Weekend in NYC

-Fabulous cruise to Bermuda

-Moved into my condo

September 2010

-Willingly went to a football game

October 2010

-Found out I both hate and suck at priming (and painting, but mostly priming) wood siding

-Cooked my mom a birthday dinner for the first time in my life (and she actually enjoyed it); there may be hope for my cooking skills after all

November 2010

-Turned 29 again, okay, not really, hit the big 3-0, but celebrated with a surprise party so that made it bearable and the party was a great time

-Also had three Thanksgiving dinners between Nov and Dec, which was unusual

-Was wicked excited to decorate my home for Christmas; and put my tree up Thanksgiving weekend b/c I was so excited

-Learned why people complain about budget meetings

December 2010

-Christmas with the UNH girls

-Christmas with the Nashua girls

-Christmas Eve and Christmas

-Got a dishwasher finally--sorry people, but yes, this was exciting for me

-NY Eve, good times!

Certainly not perfect and it sure had it stresses, but 2010 wasn't bad, here's hoping for a great 2011. Happy New Year!

Going Jersey Shore on The Jersey Boys or something like that

I told several people that I was going to see "The Jersey Boys" on Sunday. The responses I got varied, but two common ones were, along the lines of have fun, that's supposed to be a good show and "Is that anything like Jersey Shore?" Having never seen Jersey Shore, I can't say for certain, but from what little I know about the show, my guess is no. My knowledge of JS is this: someone named Snookie is on it and she has a big poof in her hair and someone named Pauly D (or is it Paulie?) is on it and he may or may not be the DJ. Also, apparently some bar I once went to in Jersey when I was there for a wedding apparently ahd similar attendees to the people on JS. So when my friend once told me that his friend was tempted to go "Jersey Shore" on someone, I had no idea what he meant, but apparently, it meant he was going to punch someone in the face. Fear not, the guy didn't actually punch anyone, he was just mad, we all say things out of anger. I've never punched anyone in the face nor do I think I could, I might break a nail, ha ha ha, no seriously, I'm just not a violent person, I can yell 'til the cows come home, but punch someone no way, I'd be scared of what they'd do to me. However, that being said, I was getting a little Jersey Shore myself about the Jersey Boys. Here's the story...



MC's not big into musicals, but he wanted to see Jersey Boys so I got him tickets for his birthday. He was under no obligation to take me, but since I bought the tix, he asked if I wanted to go and I said yes. Well, the show was Sunday night at 7:30 as in during The Blizzard of 2010. As in the one where every newscaster in this state and at least two of the other nearby states said stay off the roads after 7 and definitely don't drive after 10. As in the Sunday night when the governor and the mayor of the state and city where the show was being held declared a state of emergency and said to stay off the roads unless there's an emergency. Seeing The Jersey Boys is not an emergency, but try telling that to a recording. Now I get that when you buy tickets to shows there are no refunds, but when the government is telling you to stay off the roads, don't you think an exception should be made? Should I really risk my safety to see a show?

I called the theater Sunday morning and they were not open yet, but the recording told me the show was going to run on time and that people should allow themselves plenty of time to get to the theater safely. Well, sure, I could leave now and get there safely, but what about getting home? The show was supposed to end at 10 during the worst of the storm. Additionally, they encouraged people to take public transportation. That's fine, I've taken public transportation many times, but there nearest public transportation to me was at least a half hour away and to get there I had to drive in the snow.



I called the theater again during business hours and could not get a real person no matter how many different options I tried. I even tried the option to speak to a recorder and got no one. So I called the agency where I ordered the tickets and got no answere there either. Called the theater again the recording continued to tell me the show would be running as scheduled. The news continued to tell me to stay off the roads. So in a very unCatlike manner, I sent a not so nice e-mail expressing my anger at how there was a blizzard coming and the mayor, the governor, and the news all said to stay off the roads and that I did not live that close to public transportation and that I did not appreciate them not caring about people's safety. Maybe it was immature, maybe it was rude, maybe they read it and laughed or maybe they read it and thought what a biznitch. I didn't particularly care. Had I been able to get to a real person I would have asked nicely, but I'm sorry what makes you think your show (no matter how good it is and how many great reviews it has gotten) is worth me getting into a car accident to go see it. You think I'm being overly dramatic? Well, maybe a little, but have you ever seen me drive in the snow? Okay so MC would have probably driven, but he can tell you from previous experience that I'm not fun as a passenger in the snow either.



Well, I was angry, but I decided not to go to the show. I did contemplate getting a hotel room so we could go and just stay down there, but that was over $130; I figured I'd rather just lose the money on my ticket. MC has four-wheel drive and no fear of driving in the snow and he lives a lot closer to the theater than I do--public transportation actually goes to his town so he reluctantly decided to go alone. Well, he got about ten minutes down the road and started skidding all over and decided perhaps it wasn't worth getting into an accident to see the show so he decided to turn around.

In the mean time (just over 2 hours before show time), I received an e-mail from the company sponsoring the show stating the show would still go on as scheduled, but if you couldn't make it due to the snow you could mail your tickets in for an exchange or a refund. Yay! So the tickets have been mailed, we'll see what happens, but I'm glad they finally decided seeing their show wasn't worth getting into a car accident. So no, I didn't have to "go Jersey Shore on the Jersey Boys."

Mugs, Books, and Underwear

While I was on the eliptical machine at the gym earlier today, I remembered that I hadn't blogged in a few days. I've been totally slacking in blogland this month. First, let me say, that I was happy that I could get a machine at the gym because come next week when all the New Year's resolutions come in, it'll be hard to find a machine at the time of day I go to the gym, but I'm still not likely to get up EARLY and go at 5:30am or wait and go after 8 at night so instead I'll just complain and get stuck with some of the less desirable machines.

To be perfectly honest, I'm being a bit hypocritical, I too make the NY resolutions to do better in terms of healthy eating and exercising. I have the exercising down okay, I mean I'm not going to be running any marathons any time soon--or ever, but I do exercise four or five times a week. Unfortunately, I mostly do cardio so I need to do some weights. It's that healthy eating business I can't seem to do well. I tell you people, if you want to lose weight, buy a house that needs a lot of work, but start working on it before you do any grocery shopping. You'll work right through all your meals and be too tired to make much of anything. It's certainly not a healthy way to lose weight, but it's how I (unintentionally) did it this summer. Unfortunately, then the holiday season came 'round and well, let's just say I've found those lost pounds. Anyway, speaking of the holidays, that brings me to today's blog topic: holiday or otherwise gifts.

Now I fear when you read this post, you'll think I'm a horrible human being who never deserves to get another Christmas present again. Please don't think that. I'm sure at some point in your life, you have received a gift you didn't quite know what to do with (and yes, I realize I just ended a sentence with a preposition and you're not supposed to do that). Overall, I have been blessed to receive great gifts in life, sometimes, even when I probably didn't deserve them. You could give me a piece of gum and I'd be excited that you thought of me. I get excited when people send me Christmas and birthday cards. (If you don't believe me ask the MC, he's witnessed some of this excitement and gets annoyed by how long I leave my cards up. The same could be said for my mother in the past when I'd leave my cards up forever when I lived at home.) Anyway, given my profession, I've gotten some stereotypical gifts over the year.

Let's start with the mug. Now, I don't mind getting a mug because I'm a klutz and always break things so it's good to have back ups and usually, I get really cute ones. However, I don't drink coffee or tea so I tend to use my cute mugs for milk. A former roommate told me I am the only person she knows who drinks milk out of a mug. Fear not, if you ever come visit, I will serve you your drink in a glass, but if I'm eating alone, which I often am, it's completely normal to see me drinking my milk out of a mug at dinner or my apple juice in one at breakfast. I also don't mind the stereotypical ornaments. This year I was very excited to get an ornament with my name on it--it doesn't take much to excite me, I know.

But let's think back to some strange other things I've received in the past: what do you do with a piece of jewlery you know you'll never wear? Well, perhaps I could save it for a Halloween costume. The thought was really nice and I know the person who gave it to me was very excited to give it to me and I really did appreciate the thought. But do I wear it even though it's not my style (or the style of anyone I know)? Do I lie and say I'm saving it for a special occassion? (I've heard of people doing this, I didn't come up with this lie on my own!). What about a book, you're not interested in? Actually, truth be told, I got that at a Yankee Swap a few weeks ago so it's not like I'd really be hurting anyone's feelings if I didn't read it, but should I donate it to someone? Read it even though I'm not interested? Or try to return it? Regift? I've offered it to a few people who I thought might like it and they all said no.

Years ago if I received clothing that wasn't my style, I could sometimes switch it with my mother (back when we were the same size, but then she had to go and stay skinny; once or twice we got sweaters from a relative and I liked hers better and she liked mine so she switched with me) or I'd just wear it around the house on a lazy day when I wasn't going anywhere so I could at least say I wore it and not feel as guilty about not liking it because the thought was nice. Here's one more: underwear. Yes, I said underwear. One year in front of a bunch of friends someone gave me underwear and not just regular underwear, but sexy underwear. Now you might not know it from my blog, but I can be shy sometimes, especially about sexy underwear. It was a little embarrassing to open it in front of everyone, I turned about as red as an apple, but I got over it, but the thing was two of the pairs were too small. That would have been a legit excuse to return something right, it didn't fit, but no, I was too embarrassed to go into a store and say hi, I'd like to return this sexy underwear because I'm too fat to fit into it. So instead it just sits in a drawer.

A friend of mine once got an ugly clock for a gift, it sat in the backseat of her car for weeks, not sure what she did with it. Another friend of mine got a Chia (sp?) pet and he really wasn't into those. I think if you looked hard enough you could probably find it hidden in his room somewhere.

Have you goten any strange gifts that you didn't know what to do with? What did you do?

Merry Christmas! I believe all of my blog readers (you know since there's so many of them ha ha ha) celebrate Christmas so it's PC of me to say it. Since it's Christmas Eve Day, I wanted to do a Christmasy blog, but I've all ready done decorations, shopping, and lights. So here are some high-lights and low-lights of the Christmas season thus far. We'll get the lows over with first:

-Receiving (or perhaps I should say getting stuck with) a Sarah Palin book and non-winning scratch tickets at a Yankee Swap (I mean no disrespect to Ms. Palin, but seriously, who brings that to a swap? I also got a bizarre gift last year too...)

-Burning my fingers multiple times on snowball cookies (you think I'd learn to let them cool)

-Driving in the snow to get two Christmas cards (because you know I couldn't possibly remember to get them the first time I went out)

-Not getting to go check out all the holiday lights because the two nights we were supposed to do it, it snowed and the roads were crap

Now the good stuff:

-Two sets of neighbors surprising me with little Christmas gifts (and the low light would be I feel like an arse b/c I totally didn't expect it so I had NOTHING for them) when they came today

-Christmas with the UNH girls followed by Christmas with the Nashua girls last night (love seeing the girls)

-Pictures of previous Christmas gatherings with the Nashua girls

-Three fun Christmas parties (two of which produced good Yankee swap gifts hee hee)

-Holiday thoughtfulness from my students

-Cheesy Christmas movies (I loved them! Even found time to fit one in today)

-Christmas carols, lights, and decorations

-Reading The Night Before Christmas to my class yesterday (love that book, but I guess I was deprived as a child b/c my family never read it on Christmas Eve and apparently half the Christmas celebrating world reads it on Christmas Eve; once upon a time when I heard this as a youngin' I would read it to myself on Christmas Eve, yes people, I was "cool" even then ha)

-Christmas cards from friends far and near

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

$75 for What Exactly?

So I kind of alluded (sp?) to some recent electrical problems in a recent blog, but I did not full out blog about them and since I just paid a bill for said electrical problems, now seems like an appropriate time to blog. Also, I think I can be less bitter about said problems since they've since been resolved--well, at least temporarily resolved, but I digress...

Nov. 18th, I had to work late and then I went to my dance class after work so by the time I got home after 9:00pm (I'd left the house before 7:30am), I was tired. I had a few things to do (i.e. make my lunch for the next day, check e-mail, and of course check the ever important blogs, FB, etc). Anyway, I was kind of warm from dance so it took me a little while to realize my heat wasn't working in the living room, or the hall, or ANYWHERE. I'm one of those people that's always cold so as you can imagine I was slightly (translation: EXTREMELY) irritated. Several people had suggestions of things I could do to make my heat work again, but nothing worked, but I did get to practice using the fuse box multiple times. So eventually, I went to bed, piled on the blankets, got up, piled on more blankets and woke up freezing around 12:30. I eventually fell back to sleep and woke up at 5:30. Something seemed different and eventually I realized I couldn't see the clock on my VCR. Yes, I said VCR. I have a DVD player downstairs in the living room, but I still own a VCR and it's in my bedroom, though truth be told now I use it more for seeing what time it is if I wake up in the night than to watch tapes. Anyway, as it turned out I had NO electricity. A quick cold look out the window showed the people on one side of me had power as did the people two houses down. I called PSNH around 6 and after having a lovely one-sided conversation with a recording was transferred to a real person. In the midst of our conversation, I saw my next door neighbor's light come on. The PSNH lady said they could send someone out, but since it was not business hours it could cost over $200 if it was something internal. So I went to work extra early that day (should have just slept there since I wasn't even gone for 12 hours) and called an electrician at 7:30. My boss said I could leave work 5 minutes early so I could be home to meet the electrician. He was early! I thought electricians, plumbers, cable people, etc, were always late. Go figure! Anyway, after approximately 15-20 cold dark minutes he told me I had to call PSNH, there was nothing he could do. And yes, darlings, I paid him $75 for that. I got my bill the other day and I understand that they're not going to come out for free and there was nothing they could do, but I still feel the need to complain about spending $75 for them to tell me to call PSNH. He offered to call for me, but I was capable of doing it, do you think if I'd let him call it would have made the $75 seem more reasonable?
I actually had to have the electrician come back the following week for a problem they could fix and I tried to get a frequent customer discount since this was my third call in 5 months, but no luck. :) So I called PSNH and had another lovely one-sided conversation with a recording. Then a real person actually called me back and asked if I really wanted them to send someone. Now the woman was very nice, but there was a teeny tiny part of me that wanted to pull out the sarcasm and say, "No, I don't. I really enjoy freezing, not being able to see, and not being able to do anything besides pace around my living room because it's too cold to do anything and too hard to see anything since it's getting dark out. Thanks for asking though!" But like I said, she was nice and I'm not quite that rude so I just said something along the lines of yes, please. I just had an electrician here and he told me I had to call you. I think he knows what he's talking about so please send someone.
They had someone there within an hour, but they couldn't fix it so they had to call for back up. I loved that one of the back ups stood there smoking a cigarette and holding a flashlight while the other guys worked. How much do you think he gets paid to do that? :-p Anyway, a couple of hours later, I was a happy girl because I had heat and electricity. However, they couldn't permanently fix the burned out underground wire since they had to dig up the road etc so they ran a wire across my carport, up the side of my house, around some trees, across the top of my house to my neighbor's house and said they should be able to dig up the ground and replace the burned out wire in the spring. Pray for no ice storms or falling trees people or else I might be asking to come stay at your house.
But at least I had my heat back.
Unfortunately, the next day, I had no hot water. It took a call to PSNH (who was very nice this time, but unable to help me) and a friend's husband to restore my hot water. Apparently, even though my breaker was on, it wasn't really on and needed to be updated--hence the aforementioend call to the electrician a few days later. Anyway, my friend's husband fixed my breaker so it was really on and I finally had everything working again. Yay! Next up: replace hot water heater and dishwasher.

Light Up My Life or at least December

As you know from a previous post, I love Christmas. What is it about Christmas lights that makes me so happy? Maybe because it's depressing that it gets so dark and so cold, that it's nice to see some happy lights. I just love seeing them when I drive, perhaps too much because coming home from work the other night, I had to run an errand so I took a different route home and nearly drove off the road looking at a house that had like a million lights on it. Perhaps I should watch the road and not the insane amount of lights on that one house. Aside from that crazy decorated house in JP several years ago that made the news, I have never seen a house with that many lights. I wonder what that electric bill is. Anyway, I love it. I don't have any bushes or anything in front of my house to decorate so I just have a lighted wreath hanging on the front of my house. My neighbor put lights on her bushes and they look pretty. I did hang icicle lights on my deck, which is kind of silly because I think I'm the only one who can see them, actually the neighbors in back of me can probably glimpse them. My ballet teacher says as long as I can see them and they make me happy, that's all that matters. Aww. I have lights on my tree. And I bought lighted garland that goes up my railing to go upstairs. I even have a little Christmas village on top of my entertainment center that lights up. Yep, I'm a dork! I'm trying to convince MC that we need to go drive through the city to check out all the nicely decorated houses. He tried to take me to some in Dedham, MA last year, but I guess the people moved because there were very few where we went. Recently, I find myself taking the long way to get places so I check out various Christmas lights and I put my tree lights on when I get home from work before I turn the heat up. Do you think I have a weird obsession or something? Don't answer that. One of my neighbors put up his lights that same weekend I did and this weekend two more neighbors just put up their lights. They look great! I love it! Brightens up the whole neighborhood, and people we need more light in this neighborhood, I have to make my guests bring flashlights to walk to my home from guest parking. Hope you're all having a happy holiday season!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

You've heard the expression that goes something like "She's like a kid on Christmas." Yeah, that's me. Thanksgiving night, when the turkey was still digesting, I put up my Christmas tree. Don't most people wait 'til after Thanksgiving to do that? Now in my defense, I did wait 'til the next day to take down my Thanksgiving decorations and decorate my tree and the rest of my home. This is the first year I get to decorate a whole home. I've decorated my parents' tree, my classroom, and my bedroom at previous apartments and the 'rents house, but never my very own home. My decorations aren't even that exciting, in fact some of them are old and some of them are cheesy, but I was just so excited to put them up. After the Black Friday crazies, it was time to decorate!



Let's start with Black Friday. Now, I like to sleep in on my days off so I was not at Kohls at 3am or the mall at 4am. I headed out a little after 9. You hear about all kinds of crazy and rude people coming out on BF, but actually, most of the people I encountered were very nice. They had manners, they were patient, and some of them even made small talk while I was in line. And speaking of lines, they were long, but they kept moving. I went to Bob's and waited in line for 15 minutes to buy two Christmas presents, but aside from that, the lines moved quickly. When I was in high school and part of the time I was in college, I worked on Black Firday (thankfully NOT at 4 am) and despite the long lines and sometimes crazy people, I actually enjoyed working that day because you were so busy that the day would fly. Anyway, I hit up the non-mall stores, then went to the mall, where I spent nearly 45 minutes in the parking lot then met up with a friend to shop with. By the time we were done and I'd only made a small dent in my shopping, it was about 3. 6 hours of shopping? I'm crazy! So it was time to head home and decorate! I put on the Christmas carols, put lights on the tree (well, I tried to, but they didn't work so I got another set, which wasn't long enough so two trips to the Christmas Tree Shop and one trip to CVS later I finally had enough matching sets), set up my little Christmas village, and put decorations on the tables and doors. I also wrapped some presents. I'm so excted! And people in the neighborhood are putting up Christmas lights, I love it!