Roadtrip from Hell!!

And I am still on it! I am in my 8th hour now (only took 7.5 to get to OH) and I still have 120 miles to go! I sat in bumper to bumper traffic in Knoxville where it took me an hour to go 20 miles, then I had 60 miles at about 60 and now it has taken me 30 mins to go 2 miles....yep, you read that right...2!!!!!!! It sucks cause I am alone and my back hurts when I drive a long time or in traffic so doing both is certainly not good! I have only stopped once too! For those who know my bladder, that is an accomplishment but it also means lots of car time with no stretching. I am thankful that I am not traveling with any kids but some company would be good!

I had a great time in Ohio and will have to fill you all in on the apartments and gravy situation (need some help in the apartment arena). But that is all a little much to type on the bb, even only going 10 mph. Actually, according to the odometer I am going no mph and I guess if I do the math it is about 4 mph.

Also just had a client call cause she sent me an email yesterday that I didn't respond to. She knew I was outt of town. Owning your own business is tough sometimes.


So, if you are bored, give me a call!

Safe in Ohio

I made it here safely. I was really ready to be here by time I got here though. My boss left work around 12:15 so I left around 12:30 and was on the road at 12:45. I didn't hit ANY traffic anywhere...it was amazing. Atlanta always seems to have traffic on 285 and Cincinnati is sort of the same way for some reason but no traffic at either place....YAY!

On the way here I did see 5 car accidents, 10 cops, one car on fire, and one sign in the gas station/Burger King that read:

Lost Engagement Ring
1/4 ct Marquis Cut
$100 reward

I also spent 2.5 hours on the phone with my employees doing performance reviews and completed about 2.5 CDs of the book Lost and Found. I didn't look anything up about it before I got it, just picked it up at Borders because it was only $2.99. It is not bad at all...tends to have a lot of topics related to being gay...sort of. It is written pretty well, and I like that each chapter is by a different character (and the lady reading it does different voices). I will let you know if is worth a read (or listen) when I am done with it but so far, so good.

Today Craig had to work so I am here working and then going to look at two apartment buildings by myself since they aren't open this weekend.. The Landing and First Place which are both downtown. I am still trying to decide whether I want to live downtown or over near the mall/target shopping areas. Then last night Craig brought up a place that is near a park...sort of like where I am now. They have an amplitheatre at the park where they have concerts....last year there was Willie Nelson, Backstreet Boys, Flock of Seagulls and some other people that I can't remember. That might be a good place for me too. I am just going to try to look at all these places and then narrow it down. They don't seem to be much different in price but they are sometimes in the size you get for that price.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Ohio Bound

I got my packing done...didn't take as long as I thought but that is because most of the bathroom stuff will be in the morning. I also finished making the turkey cookies to use up the supplies I bought. It worked out pretty evenly so that was good. I am going to take some to work tomorrow.

Craig is sick tonight :-( Said he didn't feel good starting after lunch and seems to have a lot of symptoms. Sometimes it will only last a day with him so I really hope that is the case this time too. I would hate for him to be sick the whole time I am up there. I don't usually catch it from him but you know how boys are when they are sick...or at least he is...

On the healthy eating front, I talked to Adam and I think that I have come up with a plan to get rid of some of this nagging body fat. I am going to start when I get back from Ohio and we will see how it goes. Doesn't seem too difficult to do and pretty similar to the eating that I was doing when I was in town forever between jobs next year. He seems to think that it will help me so I am willing to give it a try.

In case people aren't going to check again, I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I will let you know how the gravy turns out.... Just to give you all a good laugh...here is a picture of the "gravy" from last year :-) Yum Yum!!

Busy Weekend

I can't believe that in 48 hours I will be in Ohio. I haven't packed or done anything. And, what am I doing instead of packing? Watching TV and knitting, of course. UGH. I will get it done tomorrow.

Yesterday I did my first actual shooting on my own at a wedding. I was really nervous but I think that it went well. The major pictures I was in charge of were the bouquet/garter toss and them leaving, plus the dancing. I will see what the photographer I work with says when he sees them.

Here is what I spent an hour doing last night instead of packing....sad, I know. These little things were harder to make than the directions implied. The cookies broke easily (I used the low fat ones). A couple tips...use dark icing instead of white to put them together so they blend in better and cut the tip off of the candy corn because it will stick to the oreo better. My family seemed to like them today when we did Thanksgiving with my Dad. They are a little sloppy though and I decided not to do eyes on them. I am going to try to finish the rest of them tomorrow ...after I pack...so I can take them to Ohio with me....

I also started working on my pictures from Atlanta. Tonight I went and did one of the Atlanta skyline...once I get them off my camera I will post one.

Today we did Thanksgiving with my dad...and I made the turkey. This meant that I got up at 6am to put him in the oven...luckily I went back to sleep after that. The top picture plus these two are from my Dad's.

Here is Ariyana playing our fun new game....she liked to have that on her face and walk around and laugh...I put it on there just playing with her but every time she would lift her chin it would fall off, she would pick it up and run back over to me with her face out for me to put it back on there. I wish I was so easily entertained.

She does this face now...it is so funny and we have no idea why she does it but she continues to do it because we laugh at her every time :-) Alyson doesn't like it but I think that it is cute. See her little teeth? She has 7 now!!! She got 3 new ones since I had her last. Luckily for my sister she doesn't really act any different and there is just a new tooth there....don't all you moms wish it was that easy?

This helped...

The other night a couple of us where talking about how funny it is when people come out of the wordwork on Facebook. Well, today I got a friend request from the girl who lived up the street from my Grandma in NJ when I was little. We used to play all the time when I visited my Grandma...I was actually at her house on NYE in 1989 when my Grandfather passed away and I got the call from my mom. We were penpals when there were still penpals! I think that it will be cool to see how she is doing and what she is up to these days. It helped to cheer me up :-)

Cranky

I think that I am cranky today. Not really cranky but just a little bit....maybe easily annoyed is a good way to describe it. Today Dudley and I had a personal training session and the traffic was so horrendous that it took me over an hour to go about 10 miles. I was late and annoyed. Luckily it worked out and I didn't miss too much. Ran another mile...not quite as fast as the other day but still a decent time. As I was running I was thinking that maybe I wanted to work on my mile time so that I could reliably get a good time and then once I got there maybe I would add miles and try to keep the same pace, but we will see. The traffic had me already cranky (the #1 thing I will not miss about Atlanta) and then we had to get weighed and do our body fat percentage at the gym. That certainly didn't help. I swear that I am just the type of person who has to really pay attention to everything I eat if I want to get the body fat down. I just hate being like that, I hate watching everything I eat and I know that it is not something I want to do the rest of my life. I have tried to pay attention to what it is that I do so wrong. I mean, I like to cook, don't eat tons of processed foods, and don't really snack (other than string cheese or some light popcorn or dried fruit) and I work out 4 times a week where I burn about 400 calories per session. Usually when I am in town I am pretty good but it still seems like I have to pay attention to everything if I actually want to lower the body fat. I also tried to figure out if I am one of those emotional eaters....you know how they always talk about that, but I don't think that I really am. I mean sometimes when I am upset I don't eat anything and sometimes I do....there doesn't seem to be a pattern or anything that is not normal. I do eat sometimes when I am not hungry. It is mainly at night. I use the excuse that if I don't eat something then I will be starving by the morning. I guess that isn't really an excuse but more of a reality. Maybe I just need to find something different or less to eat. I also tend to eat all my food when sometimes I am full before it is all gone. Other than those two things, I can't really figure out what I do wrong. Not that I think that I am fat or anything but I do have a really high body fat percentage that I would like to lower. If anyone has an realistic ideas, let me know. I am not into doing any sort of weird no carbs, no sugar, only eat green foods sort of diets. I think that maybe I will really make an effort not to eat processed stuff (sometimes I have lean cuisines for lunch) and try to eat more veggies and stuff. I know that will be hard when I start traveling again but maybe I can form some good habits now. I might not be traveling again for a little while anyway.

I am glad that tomorrow is Friday! I don't have too much going on this weekend....helping shoot a wedding on Saturday during the day and then doing Thanksgiving with my sisters, hubbies and my Dad on Sunday. I also think that I earned good points last time I got Ariyana so I *think* that I scheduled another date with her in December. My sister said she didnt think that they had anything that day so hopefully I will get her and for longer this time!!!

Christmas Cards

Since this is all I have been working on for the last few days, I thought I would post a couple. They are nothing fancy since I have to design everything myself (including all the backgrounds, the stripes one by one, rudolph who is made of shapes, and the snowflake which started as lines). There are lots of people who design these backgrounds and digital papers like the cool ones that Carrie uses for Charlotte's book (although she designs some of hers too!) but none of them will let you use them for "commercial" use and even though the designer would probably never find out, I would be upset if someone used one of my pictures that I took for commercial use without telling me. Anywho, I put Ariyana in all of them to protect the innocence of my clients , even though the picture didn't always fit exactly right, and normally I would change the colors to make sure it matched their outfits.....

Too Quiet

I know that most of you don't have this problem because you either work from home, stay at home with kids, are teachers or some other sort of profession where you don't have this issue but I am lonely today. There are only a few people on my hall at work anyway...most of the offices around me are either empty or the people travel like I normally do. Today my boss is at an offsite meeting, the girls who sit next to me and across from me are both home with sick kids I am sure. I wish I could say I had a sick kid at home so I could do work from home (I don't actually want a sick kid because that doesn't sound fun and I would feel bad for them the whole time they weren't feeling well). Sometimes when it is too quiet I find that I have a hard time concentrating so I have to take little breaks. I was trying to think of what I could do today to break it up. Spin class with be good, it is pasta day in the cafe..yummy, I did just book hotels and flights in Greece (cheaply I might add) so I could look up things to do there, figure out what I am going to get people for xmas, maybe buy some things online for xmas. Hmmm, not sure what else but this took up a minute or too. Back to work...at least I am working on something that I like.

Vices and The Big Thank You

I listen to Q100 in Atlanta and this week they have each decided to give up a vice: smoking, diet pills, sleeping pills, sugar, and the Crackberry. Got me to thinking what I would give up for 5 days that would be considered a vice....I am not sure because I feel like the only thing that I am addicted to lately is chocolate. What would you guys give up?

Also Q100 is doing this Big Thank You project and whether or not you agree with where all our troops are, they are still willing to risk their lives so we can enjoy our freedoms. That is more than a lot of us can say so drop by the website above and leave them a little message!

Fun stuff

I was a little tired after my weekend but I am making A TON of progress at work today so that makes me feel a little bit better. I spent every minute that I wasn't at Drena's shower yesterday getting xmas cards made/designed and getting pictures put online so clients could look at them to decide what they wanted in their xmas card. It took a while but then today when I got the emails about how they loved their cards and pictures, it was all worth it. I have one more to do tonight and then I am going to get the rest of the pictures from my trip uploaded and try to find the receipts for all my business expenses for the year...yikes!

I had a massage on Friday after work and I HIGHLY recommend it. I went to Spa Sydell and I will admit it is a little cheesy and there were times during the thing where it really hurt, but I feel so much better now. My back doesn't feel as tight, I seem to sit up taller and my lower back which bothers me a lot hasn't bothered me at all since then. I know it is too early to tell much but I think that I could seriously get addicted if only they weren't so darn expensive. This guy I work with says if we do it at a doctor's office we can get insurance to pay for it so I am going to check into that...I really don't care about the scented candles and don't use scented oil anyway cause of my sensitive skin so I can go do a doctor if he can make my back feel this good and make me feel less stressed. We will see if I feel the same way after my personal training session tonight where he will probably make me do back/arms or something.

My countdown to Thanksgiving has officially begun. i got a lot of party evites today so I am ready for Christmas. I refuse to decorate for Xmas before T'giving so I am excited for T'giving to come. It actually starts for me this weekend when my sisters and I are getting together with my Dad on Sunday to have turkey with him :-) Then I am going to Ohio next week. Craig actually has to work the day after, but don't fear...I will be hitting the mall to see what kind of deals I can find. They have a good mall with all the normal stores and then anything that is not in the mall is right outside it in like 19 million shopping centers. They also have a place like Atlantic Station so I can also check that out and I think that there are outlets only 20-30 mins away. I am happy that I am driving there so I will have my car to get around.

Hope everyone else is having a productive Monday :-)

I survived and Greece!

I will say that 6 hours of photographing kids will wear me out faster than 8 hours of my regular job but I was pleased with the results. You know what that means, tomorrow I get to go through all those pictures and get them in albums for parents so they can order them and get their xmas cards out on time. I have one more session tomorrow but he is only a month and a half old so he will not be crawling, crying, hiding, walking away, tearing the background, or pitching a fit at all which will be a lot easier than I can say for some of the sessions today. Also, for all you moms out there...PLEASE, if you ever go to a photographer who works out of their house or meets you somewhere (ie, not a chain when they are there from 9-5 whether you show up or not), be on time....or at least within 5 mins. It is hard when someone is late and you are the only one working and have another session coming soon. After talking to Meghan today (checking up on her kiddos), I realized that I haven't really written that much in the private blog lately (was telling her some stories from today). I will try to do that tomorrow to catch you guys up and fill you in on today. (after the pictures from today are all up).

Tonight Dudley came over and we booked hotels and flights for our island hopping in Greece in February. I know you said not to do that Molly but we couldn't play it by ear so we decide to go ahead....I got lots of advice from people who have been so I feel good about our decisions. It was hard to find places that would sleep more than 2 people (my sister Jennifer is going too). Here are our hotels for Athens, Crete, and Santorini! I am very excited!! I can't believe that it is only 3 months away because it seems like we have been planning it forever!

In other news....Alyson sent me this video tonight of Ariyana very clearly saying baby!! HOW CUTE!!

TGIF

I have no idea where the day went! I had meeting after meeting, after meeting! UGH, I don't feel like I really accomplished anything today! Oh well, it is FRIDAY! I decided to book myself a little massage today and I am pretty excited about that. It is with some guy name Robert who apparently is the 4th most requested massage therapist out of 40 at this location (or at least that is what the guy told me on the phone :-) ) After the massage I have to go home and clean though to get ready for my Holiday photo sessions tomorrow. Hopefully those will be fun. I don't have a Santa so I figured I can avoid all the screaming kids and will just have to deal with the kids who are too young to sit still for you! I am used to it so that is ok with me.

I am going to start a little Atlanta photo project before I move to Ohio...I would like to have some really good images to take with me since this city is always changing and evolving and it will be fun to see what it will look like in 5 or 10 years. Any suggestions of those must-have shots? I don't want to leave anything out!

A mile is a mile is a mile

No funny stories for you today....feeling a little stressed today...being an adult is hard sometimes. I have tons of projects that people all want done by year end but they are all hard, and since they don't want my staff to do them, I have to do them.....which means I have to shift some work to my staff but they have a ton of stuff to do too so now I have to have a talk with them about being efficient and maybe working a few extra hours..that is an awkward phone conversation. If they were in Atlanta then they would hopefully just see me working late and take the hint but there isn't that on the road so I have to actually mention it. I also have to do their raises and year end reviews soon and all that comes with that, and I am supposed to have vacation coming up and Craig is actually going to come here for the whole week!!

On the up side and to go with the title of this post...I went to the personal trainer today and after all the stuff we did (including a 10 min warm up light jog and lots of weights and squats) I had to run a timed mile...he wanted me to do it in under 10 mins....I had my doubts because I have always run around a 10 min mile when I did long runs and it has been forever since I have run at all....I tried my best and walked for about 10 seconds two or three times to catch my breath and when I finished he said I did in 8:55! That is great for me (though I know a lot of you probably run faster). I was very happy with myself and it made me happy....it is all about the little things.

Now I am deciding whether I want to enter all my financial stuff into my accounting software to make my taxes easier in a few months or if I want to work on a hat that I am making...hmmmmm.

I pulled a Molly

Sorry Molly, you know I love you, but this is totally something that you would do!!

On Wednesdays I have a routine at lunch. First I go to spin class, take a shower, go up to our cafe for yummy made to order pasta and then go upstairs and eat it at my desk. Since I go straight from the gym to the cafe, I have to bring my wallet to the gym. Normally when I get back to my office, I stick my wallet back in my purse. You can probably see where this is going.

So, as mentioned in the previous post, I needed a hair dryer. While I was at Target I decided to pick up the remaining ingredients I needed for the food I am making for Drena's shower, some things I needed anyway and then saw that some of the Thanksgiving stuff was on sale (side note: Today I told Craig what I was going to make for Thanksgiving and left off gravy completely by accident. He replied "are you going to try gravy again this year?" HAHAHA So, in case my new plan fails, I got a jar of turkey gravy at Target so either way, I am set. End side note) so I got some of that since I will be getting to Dayton the day before Thanksgiving and I like to have the stuff I like, you know. Go to the cash register to check out and go to get my wallet as she is ringing me up...yep, you guess it, still in the gym bag at work (I only change out the clothes every day and just leave all the shower stuff and shoes in there). Hmmm, I remembered that I had my checkbook in my computer bag in the car so I asked her if I could write a check. On my way to the car I realized that she is probably going to need my DL# and I don't know it. Awesome. BUT, I remember that I have my credit card number memorized. I go back in and tell her I know the credit card number or I can write the check (I have $100 worth of stuff by the way). She says it is fine to write a check. She puts it in the screen....and it asks for DL#. Problem. I know some of the numbers so I ask her how many are in the whole number thinking that I know most so maybe I can remember the other one. She is not from here and says she has no idea. I tell her again that I can use the credit card so she tries that. Then we get to the end and because it was hand entered she has to call over a manager to put in a pin to approve it. We were both worried that she would ask for the card but she didn't. On the one hand, not very good internal controls or security but on the other hand, I am so glad that I didn't have to put everything back and in my defense, I did have my work badge with my name and picture on it.

My day is providing lots of entertainment for you guys :-)

Oh, and one other thing...one of the new loft places in Dayton (they are renovating a factory) emailed me back and said they would be happy to show me a place but they hadn't started construction yet and would not be available for 14 months.....odd that the website says Spring 09. Reminds me of when H&M was supposed to come in Spring 08 and it was really like June or July...except this was on a much worse scale.

Think I can get sympathy for this?

So, funny story (or maybe not so funny, but I am telling it anyway). While we were on our trip I kept hurting my feet...sounds weird I know but it happened. The second day in Death Valley I got out of the car and scraped my foot against this awful hard, cactus-like bush thingy and it HURT! I was in some serious pain. Craig looked at me sort of the way that boys tend to look at you when they think that you are being a wuss ....then fast forward an hour and my foot is hurting! The plant had drawn blood and I was resolved to the fact that this was some exotic plant that had poison in it and while it would not be enough to amputate, it would annoy the crap out of me. My foot starts to get a little red and puffy around the site (it was near my arch on the inside of my foot) and shoes were starting to bother it. I also had a dull pain like a bee sting (or what I remember a bee sting feeling like since it was like 1st grade the last time I got stung). I whined a little but didn't get much sympathy and was told I would be fine. Fast forward two days and it looked a little more puffy and sort of like a zit...infection, right? So I thought that maybe I should try to see if there was anything in there.....too hard to tell so I will let it be. Now, fast forward about 3 weeks to yesterday and I happened to look at it in the gym when I was changing my shoes...hmm, still a little round hole and while not puffy, it was tender if I touched it...and now there seems to be a red line underneath the skin that is spreading from it. This didn't seem good...why would it be tender 3 weeks later. I told Craig last night about it and he suggested that I have a doctor look at it. I joked that I had my yearly appt tomorrow and she was a doctor, right, so I would just ask her. I asked him if he felt bad for making fun of me and he said 'a little'. In all reality I would feel like an idiot if I went to the doctor for this thing so I asked him what they would possibly do. He said that they would probably pull out whatever might be in there and then see if it was infected. Hmm, that didn't sound like fun. I decided that I would try the age old trick of putting neosporin on it and a band-aid....that is what we always did when we were little if we couldn't get a splinter from the dock out...surely it would still work. Of course, you get splinters on your hand and my skin on my feet is a lot rougher but I decided to try it. My next step was going to be to ask Erin what she thought :-) So, neosporin, band-aid, shower and left it on. Then I went to the gym and another shower and band-aid was done so I took it off....just looked at my foot and it felt more tender and I could see something poking out...so I started to try to get it...and sure enough...out came a 1/4 inch piece of that darn bush! I measured it..that thing was in my foot for 3 weeks...boy will Craig feel bad for acting like I was a wuss now and not believing me when I told him my foot was red and tender! It also sort of feels weird now so I think that I will put some more neosporin on it with another band-aid until it heals...thanks for tuning in....definitely one of my more exciting posts! :-)

Off to get a hairdryer since my sparked this morning and the last thing that I need is to catch my hair on fire one morning!

Business is booming

So, I found out more about the layoffs and it really had nothing to do with the economy so I feel good about that now...the flip side of it is that some things were not being done correctly and guess whose group gets to clean that up?? Mine! And, they don't want my staff to do it, they want me to do it....I guess that is job security. They want it done by the end of the year but I just don't see that happening....it is a lot to clean up with only a few weeks to go....we will see.

Photography is going AWESOME. I haven't been too busy as far as time taking photos but my new pricing structure definitely changed my clients and I just got my biggest order ever! Very excited about that. This weekend is my Holiday card special so hopefully people will need to send out lots of cards (and like the pictures).

I realized that I never finished up on the whole Dayton thing....so here is the scoop, which I think that most of you know by now, but anyway..
I am going to move to Dayton in March..I know, it seems far away but not really. I wanted to finish out the holidays here and honestly, you can't drive a moving truck through the KY mountains in the winter (Jan/Feb) and I go to Greece at the end of Feb. The plan is to move when I get back from Greece. I decided to get my own place for 6 months because we have never lived in the same town and I don't want to put undue stress on us. We are going to look at apartments over Thanksgiving (which I spent my morning making appointments for) and I am very excited! It is amazing how at peace I felt with it all after making the decision, so thanks everyone who listened to me and Meghan for putting it all in perspective. It is nice to have a countdown date too...makes it not as hard to be away. I didn't say anything for a while because I didn't want to jinx it. I am still a little worried about the job aspect. I really love what I do and I feel like now is a bad time to rock the boat but I am going to talk to my boss about it at my year end review. Hopefully it will go well, and I will find an apartment and even though I will miss you all, I am ready for the next step in my life.

My latest project

Since I pretty much had a whole day yesterday where I didn't really have to do anything I decided to make my little bb a new hat. Last year a made her a bunny hat with ears and everything but she has outgrown it now. So, for those of you who were at Meghan's, here is one from the book....It isn't perfect because I had to learn some of the stitches, but what do you think? Ignore the unclean photos, I just put it down and took a picture.

Layoffs

Not me. Yet. This morning a guy (the only guy from the floor above me that ever comes down to talk to us) came in and said that he had been laid off and they had restructured one of our departments in finance. He had no warning...you think that Mondays are normally bad, this has to be the worst. I didn't believe him at first because he always jokes about stuff but finally he convinced me. It scared me. I know our economy is bad...how could you live in America and not know it...actually, how could you be alive and not know it. This just hit really close to home. Usually accounting is a pretty safe profession. You still have to pay bills, save money and account for things, right?? Well, this department did those things for one of our business segments and now they are gone. It has me wondering many things....will they let my employees go before me, will it just be all of us, are the layoffs over, will I be able to find another job? I will say that at least for that last one I looked up jobs both here and in Dayton and there are some things out there but who knows if that stuff is just put out there all the time in case they need someone, but really they aren't hiring. So, what could I do if I lost my job? Hmm, any suggestions :-) Sorry to be a bummer, but I just feel a little shocked today!

Update: Just talked to my boss and the layoffs had nothing to do with the economy and they are actually rehiring for the same positions but to get more qualified people since the people who were in those positions just sort of migrated there and were not the most qualified for the positions they were in. I feel better! Sad for them though.

Exhausted!

I haven't really slept as well lately and I was wide awake at 8:30 this morning...not a problem since I was going to get Ariyana today and knew I wouldn't get much done once I had her so at least this way I could get some stuff done....nothing exciting, I just needed to do laundry and boring stuff. Went to the farmer's market and then off to get Ariyana. My sister had her at Target for pictues, insulting to me, but whatever she wants to do :-) and that was really crowded so it took forever. Finally I got her at about 1:15 and brough her back to my house. I fed her and then we played for a while before heading over to Dudley's for her party. Ariyana was really shy when we got there and all she wanted to do was lay on my chest but she warmed up pretty quickly to Drena (she was sitting next to me) and was walking around a little bit. We didn't get to stay that long because I had to drive her back to the mall of Ga to return her by 6:45. It was a short day but we had fun and I was glad that I got to spend it with her. I certainly feel like it is later than 8:40 and since Craig went to a friend's house to watch a game, I think that I am going to go to bed early! I have a ton that I want to get done tomorrow.

Dawgs barely pulled out a win so it is probably good that Craig and I didn't go.....last time he went to that game was when we lost :-( not that it matters much for our season now, but I would hate to lose to them twice in KY in a row!!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Here are some pictures that I took of her today while I had her at my place...Alyson wanted one of her in her Halloween costume! The other one is in a new prop that I got for Christmas :-)

Gator in Jean Shorts...and Cutoffs to boot!

Here you go Rebecca, mind you this was taken in line at Panera with Morgan's bb but it is a classic shot! I wish you could have seen the front of his hat...it was also awesome and almost airbrush like!

Vitamins

Nothing political :-) YAY! So, I was curious, do any of you take vitamins other than maybe a multi? I have been really tired lately even though I get 7-8 of sleep and people always say to take vitamins..then there are all the specialty vitamins that make your hair/nails grow, make you have good skin or whatever else seems to be the hype de jour.....just curious if any of you have taken anything that you felt like really worked. How long did you have to take it before you saw a difference? Just curious.

History....

I am obviously very happy today that Obama is our President-elect and I am aware that most of you don't share the sentiment. I have a little photo essay for you guys from yesterday but I will have to wait until tonight to post it. It is basically just the line I waited in and then Jenn, Drena, Adam and I running around town to get our freebies. Couple things that I wanted to mention.

1. I am very happy that our country was able to elect a black president. I have mixed feelings about the news coverage though. I understand that it is a wonderful thing that one of the last racial barriers was broken and now we just have to work on the gender barriers (which I feel will be closely behind). I was a little disappointed by the coverage though. I literally kept switching channels because every single channel had the one black anchor that they would go to and all they talked about was the fact that Obama was black and this was such a victory for them. It was a racial barrier victory, no doubt, but it was also a victory for change. Not one of them mentioned the fact that 60% of white people also voted for him, along with a huge percentage of the Latino population or the fact that he is half white. It was like they completely ignored the fact that some of us voted for him because we believe that a change in this country is needed and we agree with his policies. That angered me a little bit and almost spoiled it for me. I don't like that it was made into black people vs everyone else issue. It is a victory for them on the racial front but I believe that it is a victory on the political front for all of us.

2. I think that McCain gave a very classy speech. I actually really like McCain except that he went a little far right for me in this election. I think that before he was forced to the right he was a really good senator and I think that he has some wonderful ideas (I even agree with some of his more than Obama but you have to make a choice on election day). Sometimes I wish that it was back to the old days when the runner-up was VP...I think that Obama and McCain would be exactly what we could use. So, having said that, I really hope that McCain keeps his word and continues to help. I am not dilusional and I don't think that one party can do this all on their own. We need both parties to fix the mess our coutry is in and I feel like McCain is a very good person to help fill that role. I am sorry, but I am glad that Palin is going back to Alaska. She is not the woman that I want to represent the first woman elected to the White House.

3. Again, I am not dilusional and I don't think that things are going to happen overnight. I know that Obama has a long road ahead of him and he has a lot of support yet to win. No President would be able to step up and fix this right away. I hope that he lives up to my expectations of change and no more "business as usual". I really want something different and one of the main reasons that I got involved so much in this election is that I have been disappointed in the last 8 years (the only years that I have been able to vote in a Presential election). I will be very disappointed if he just goes back to the same old, same old that we have had in the last 8 years. I hope and trust that he will pick good people to take with him to the White House.

4. I am comforted by the fact that he won by so much and the fact that most of the wealthiest states (the ones who will end up paying for his tax increases and such) voted for him. It gives me hope that there are more people that agree with me and don't mind paying for programs that they think will help people or improve our country. Looks like they aren't ready to pack up and move quite yet.

5. I learned a lot about myself in this election. I learned that I am more compassionate and generous than I ever thought I would be. I know you can argue that the higher tax rate will not affect me but it might one day and I really do feel at peace with that. I learned that even the reasons people gave me for why we shouldn't have some of the social programs that I agree with didn't outweigh my genuine feeling of wanting to help people and believe in people. I learned a lot about my friends. I was glad that some people shared their views because I am of the mindset that you should learn how people who don't agree with you think. You should learn where they get their information and how they interpret information. I learned that I agreed with them on some things that I didn't know I did and strongly disagreed on others, not because their facts were wrong, but just because my opinion was different. That is an important difference to me. I also realized that I don't think like very many of my friends but I like that we are still friends and that we don't let politics get in the way because it really never should.

Ok, I know you are all sick of politics so I will end it here...I just felt I had to post something since I was the one who started the whole political discussion....pictures from election day later (not political though, just funny). All any of us can do now is wait and see.

done!

I just finished voting. It took almost exactly 2 hours which is not that bad! I even ran into Morgan's parents and chatted to them for a minute.

Happy voting everyone!

halfway there

It has been an hour and I estimate that I am about halfway there. Tried to get a couple shots but might come down around lunch to document then with my real camera (only have the point and shoot right now). Everyone around me is taking pictures too so I guess mine won't be special :-( it seems to be moving faster now and the line is shorter (good thing cause this latte is going to kick in soon :-) and you know my small bladder!)

just got in line

To vote. I have to admit that the line is a lot longer than I thought it would be but I also came earlier than I had planned so I am in line with the before work people. The lines on the news didn't look that bad so I figured I would try and now I have walked down here. I got in line at 8:35am. I will let you know when I am done :-). I know you guys don't care but at least this gives me something to do besides breath in the fumes of atlantans going to work. I did snap one pic but it is hard to get the line without being across the street (or better in it). I see people snapping from across the street so maybe once traffic dies down and I don't have to play frogger I will attempt it. Made friends with people behind me so that is good!

Hard to Concentrate and Time with Ariyana

I am having a hard time concentrating today...I have read WAY too many articles about the stupid election and whether I will spend all day on line tomorrow. I didn't pre-vote because my precinct is small and I thought I would have a better chance tomorrow than the pre-voting with everyone from the whole county. We shall see. I thought about taking my camera to document the long lines but then I felt a little weird. I always do that...I think that if I take my camera somewhere then everyon around me will suddenly be looking right at me and wondering why I am taking a picture...I get so shy. I am sure they could care less. We always see all those photos from long lines for other things in history and I just thought it would be cool to document it here...not sure I am so good at that type of photography though. We will see....I hope my line isn't that long and there is nothing to document!

I am already counting down to this Saturday...why you might ask? Well, let me tell you...I am going to get to have Ariyana all day on Saturday. I am very excited about it...though so does know that she has me wrapped around her little finger so who knows how that could turn out. My sister is going to meet me so I can get her on Saturday morning and then I am going to return her on Saturday night :-) I have been trying to spend a whole day with her for a while now but it just never seems to work out and I never seem to have a weekend day free. I was supposed to go to Kentucky this weekend to see Craig and the game but I never got tickets (though I am sure they are cheap now) and I have been gone the last 3 weekends so I don't feel like I ever have time to get anything done so I am going to stay here. I am sad about not seeing Craig but at least I will see him 3 weeks from tomorrow when I go there for Thanksgiving...which brings me back to the gravy problem. I get along great with his mom and all but she definitely likes to spoil Craig...and anything he wants he gets (though he doesn't really ask for anything anymore but since she knows that he liked certain foods when he was younger, she will still make them for Thanksgiving). I ran into this last year because she makes this fruit salad that seems pretty nasty to me, but he likes it so she sent me the recipe and pretty much told me that I had to make it for him (nicely but that was the jist). I also asked for the gravy recipe. I succeeded on the fruit concoction but not so much on the gravy. Maybe it is all in my head but I think that secretly she was relieved that I couldn't do it....I am the only one who has tried to make him Thanksgiving besides her so I think that she was a little sad that I would take over and maybe a little happy when I couldn't do it...not in any sort of mean way at all, but sort of like when those of you talk about how sad you are that your babies are growing up...that sort of sad. So, now I feel even more like I have to do it this year...ugh. I really think that the main problem last year was that our turkey didn't have enough juices because he was lean....so, back to the drawing board..I do think that I will get a jar of it just in case though. Thanks for the recipes!

Gators wear Jean Shorts and we still can't beat them :-(

It was miserable to witness the game today....worse than the Alabama game and I didn't think that it could get worses than that...our day started so well too. Rebecca, we saw our first Florida fan sporting the cut off jean shorts early at Panera while getting coffee this morning. Morgan got a picture so I will upload soon! I will also say that a lot of the UGA girls wore very little clothing and it was cold here today! By the end of the game I think that the four of us were four of about 200 UGA fans that were left...it was so sad. Morgan, Jenn, and I decided that we will not make the trip down here again until we have at least a two game winning streak.

We did see Carrie Miller something. I can't remember her married name but she sat a couple rows in front of us for those who remember her. She has two little boys and lives in Jacksonville now. That was about the highlight once we got into the stadium :-( Oh well!