Sassy Black Friend

Ugly day, ugly mood

I’m in a serious funk today. And I have no idea why. Just woke up frowning. The weather isn’t helping. All gray and rainy. Not Christmasy, just crappy. Here’s a look at my world today (click to expand):

The theme matching current weather was a stupid choice.

I’m supposed to be wrapping stuff up so I can get ready for this semi-formal holiday party. Could not be less interested in getting all fancied up. See? Funk.

Just be quiet next time

You know, I just can’t keep my big mouth shut sometimes. Most of the time, actually. I’m frantically trying to get things mailed out to family and friends all over the place, and it is really stressing me out. Because I left it until the last minute. I’m aware how dumb that is. But I hadn’t decided what to send folks until this week.

Anyway, in my previous post I mentioned that I had some unexpected free time coming in the next couple of weeks. Rest assured that is no longer the case. Some ex-colleagues are working on a project, and I’ve been fully drafted. That’s fine, it’ll be fun.

Less fun is the family reunion assignemt I just got from my mother. I didn’t even know we were having a family reunion. But we are. In May. And I’m on the invitations committee. Which means tracking down contact information for people I’ve never met, based on a nickname from the grandparents of a 5th cousin or some such nonsense. Then there will be the actual invitation design/selection process. That will doubtlessly kill me. I’d really hoped to make it to my 30th birthday in March, but it seems unlikely now. How sad. There’s so much I wanted to do with my life.

There goes that plan

Damn. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks driving myself crazy trying to keep the last two weeks of the year clear of work. I wanted to have some time to spend with the family, and the boyfriend and I were going to take a couple days to go to the beach. I love, love, love the beach in the winter. No people, and it’s beautiful.

But now, the family events have been scattered, and he couldn’t get out of work between Christmas and New Year’s. Lame. So, instead of sitting around doing nothing, I’m going to spend the time looking into some of the online freelancing sites. There are so many, and it seems like there’s a fair amount of work out there. Besides, it’s not like I have too much money. Tax time is looming.  Being productive can be fun. Sigh.

My new favorite things

I’ve recently discovered a few new things that I’m now obsessed with. They are:

Good Wine Under $20 Blog – What’s not to like? My limit for everyday wine is $15. I don’t know enough about wine to be fancy about it. As long as it tastes good, I’m happy. I’ve heard Trader Joe’s has some really good stuff under $5, which is worth a trip to GW.

PaperBackSwap.com – This is a pretty neat service, I have to say. You can trade books with people, you just pay the media mail shipping. I’ve been able to get a bunch of things from old lists of books I wanted to read. I do wish they did recommendations based on your ratings though, to help find new things to read.

NARS Lip Lacquer in Cabiria – As horrifying as it is for me to spend this much on lip gloss, I love it. The color is perfect, it actually stays on,  isn’t too shiny, and doesn’t feel gross or gloopy. That’s basically perfect, so I sucked it up.

Old Bay Cocktail Sauce – Old Bay isn’t new to me, but the boyfriend bought the cocktail sauce over, and I freaking love it. The Old Bayiness flavor cuts the sweetness of cocktail sauce that I don’t usually like. Yum. Plus, the “directions” on the website are funny.

Do not dip a second time. Unless it’s your birthday. Or you’re the oldest person at the party. Then do whatever you want. (Go you.)

The Pricess Bride – Really not new, but I forgot how much I like this movie. My hangover and I watched it yesterday, and I fell in love all over again.

Hooray for napping

So uh, yeah. Last night was fantastic, tons of fun had. But, wow. I’m so tired that I might have actually cried when I woke up this morning. As to the predictions I made, they came true and more. I’m currently negotiating with the participants to see what I can share, but it was full of craziness, in a good way.

Today was spetn recovering with lots of tasty and some bacon-related food (but not this… ewww), a ton of coffee and water, and two naps. The first one got interrupted by the telephone. Why is it that everyone in my family calls at the same time? I swear they schedule it to keep me on the phone for hours. Then I decided to clean, which was a terrible mistake, inspiring nap #2. Right now I’m trying to find inspiration to cook dinner, but I don’t see it happening. Now that I got a good nap in, I’m feeling much better. Guess mom was right, sleeping is good for you.

Update: Had cookies for dinner. Even better.

Hanging with my girls

I must say, I’m very excited today. After finishing two big annoying projects, I’m about to go out for a long awaited afternoon and evening with my favorite girls, J and Little Sister. We’re going to the movies, a little shopping, dinner somewhere nice, and then who knows. A couple of party invites, but we might just wing it. I was looking over my calendar, and it has been over two months since we all got together, and much longer since we had a whole day to do something. My predictions for the evening are:

• J will complain about some specific people being assholes. Then get drunk and mutter about politics and her mother.She will feel bad for skipping some cookie baking party.
• Little Sister will be late, and disappear a lot. She’ll hit on some guy who will be from half way across the world, and then be sad. Cookie talk with send her into a rant about New Year’s resolutions and diet pills.
• I will turn into the group cheerleader for no good reason and annoy myself. Then I’ll have three drinks and need to go to sleep once the excitement of being with my girls wears off.

Let’s see what comes true.