The Illusive Hangover

Nothing like down to the wire- I’ve finally finished ALL of my Christmas shopping!  Last night I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen.  The hardest gift to track down was for my brother.  And I’ll talk about it because I’m 99% positive he doesn’t read this.  If he does- Merry Christmas, Marty- act surprised!  Believe it or not, I could not find a store that still had a copy of The Hangover.  Yes, now that I’ve bought it, I’ve seen it everywhere I’ve gone today (even the grocery store I went to during my lunch to grab a nice bottle of champagne for my boss had it).  Naturally…  Two Targets and two Best Buys.  I have never been so persistent about finding something in my life.  At some point, it became less about the movie and more about the quest.  When I finally grabbed a copy (one of ten left at the final Best Buy I went to), I felt victorious.  I would have leapt for joy in the store (but my doctor still advises against that for another three weeks at least).

Good news!  I had a monster salad today- thanks to the craving I had yesterday.  As I went by said grocery store, I was able to hit up the salad bar they have.  And I loaded up on fresh veggies which were soooo good.  That made me feel a little better, given my empty refrigerator situation at home.  I might have taken a pic of it for you, but I was starved by the time I got to eat, so it didn’t last long.

Bad news- check out this weather forecast:

My driving conditions are far from ideal.  I either get off of work at 6:00 tomorrow night and drive through the snow and the night and get to my parent’s house by 2:00ish.  OR, I can chance it, wake up super super early on Christmas Eve and possibly drive through snow and ice and wind to make it home before Christmas Eve mass.  I don’t really like either option.  Last year, my roommate and I chose the driving through the stormy night.  I was slap happy and simple-minded by the time I got there, but I made it.  It’ll probably be a last-minute decision.  Actually, I’m almost positive I’ll just say “fuck it” and go tomorrow night.  As long as I don’t almost die in Lincoln, IL like I did last time…

Tonight I went to the gym again.  Arms and abs, arms and abs, arms and abs….  It felt good, but my longing for the treadmill still made me pout.

At least I didn’t have much packing to do.  Most of it was still done from last weekend (I didn’t really unpack alot- and have been living out of my oversized duffel bag).  It’s just that this time I have all the gifts that need to go.

Sooooo…. here’s one last shot of the pretty tree and presents:

Yes, that is a mighty nice bottle of wine over there… it’s called Fat Bastard.  My mom’s gonna shoot me.  But in defense of mixing drinking and vulgarity, it’s supposed to be really good!

Ahhhhh…. Christmas vacation is right around the corner…. hooray!

Mid-June Update!

So much is happening… but it still seems like all work, no play!  Well…. almost.

Annie’s Birthday was Sunday.  We celebrated the good ol’ Amy way with an unnecessarily extravagant cookie cake after her dance recitals!  Good thing I was able to hit the trail a few times this weekend and get quite the workout after moving a few carloads of things.  God knows I gained about five pounds by just baking the silly thing.  Who’s idea was it to make a double layered cookie cake anyways?  Geez…

The roomie and I saw The Hangover last week at a $5 showing in Lake Zurich.  It was easily one of the best movies I had seen  in theaters in a long time.  I am now recruiting people to be a member of my currently one-girl wolfpack…  ha ha.

Best Movie Ever!

Back to work… back to work.  My boss is gone this week on a cruise (“I’m on a boat!”).  That leaves Jaime and I to hold down the office and take care of all the agents while he is gone.  Stressful…  Next week I have a random day off in the middle of the week.  I’m calling it my mental health day as to recover from his being gone and prepare for Jaime’s vacation the week after.

It’s also nice to have that day off because I have now begun the process of moving… again.  Yes, I  picked up my keys today and now am officially a member of both the Village of Palatine and Arlington Heights.  I feel like a baller because I have two places right now.  ‘Holla.

Yet I do not feel like a baller because I realized that the process of moving and all the expenses that go along with it may cancel out any hope I had of traveling to Philidelphia/Boston/New England with Laura to see my friend Jessi.  Laura had a fantastic vacation in Hawaii, so she may also be canceling out the idea.  Damn.

I did, however, rediscover my love of browsing craigslist.  The roomie and I quickly got rid of the ugly (but extremely comfy) couch we acquired when we first moved in.  I also scored a glass coffee table that I had been eyeing at Ikea.  It was on clearance at Ikea for $70.  I got it for $30.  Loves it…

Someone at work came down with the swine flu.  They’re better now (it’s just the flu, people!), but it did turn into an HR disaster within the company and building management.  Apparently there was no protocol for swine flu (like there really needed to be one in the first place) and this caused disorder for two days.  Again, another reason why work has been quite stressful.

I’m in preparation for Miss Annie’s big wedding that is less than a month away.  I’m quite anxious to see what the bill will be for the work I’m getting done on the bridesmaid dress.  All the girls in the wedding have whatever style of dress they liked (in sailor blue, of course) and have been given the freedom to do what they like with it.  I’m keeping mine pretty simple- but I had some overall “shrinking”of the dress to get done.  I cringed at every little “snip” the seamstress made because I know from past experience (I’m currently in the process of transforming into Katherine Heigl’s character in 27 Dresses) what this costs.  Yikes!  At least I’ll be stylin’!