When animals attack!

Check out this link, and then tell me it's not one of the funniest things ever. If you have pets, I think you will agree with me.

I don't dare attempt anything like this with my cats, because I KNOW I'll lose an eye. For sure.

Best. Picture. Ever.

I renewed my driver's license last week and had to get a new picture. That always makes me cringe. So I made sure I looked extra cute when it was my turn (checked my hair several times, put on lip gloss, and smiled my prettiest natural smile). The woman who took my picture said, "Oh you're going to be happy with this picture - it's nice!" I figured she was just being kind, until it came in the mail today.

It turns out, that nice lady at the DMV was right. I have never been happier with any single picture of myself ever, with the exception of my wedding pictures. I was ecstatic. I tried to take a picture of it to share with all of you, but unfortunately it didn't turn out. I'm sure that I will show you the next time I get together with any of you.

Now, I kind of hope I'll get carded so people can see this fantastic picture. If I don't, maybe I'll just ask them if they'd like to see it anyway.

Yes, it's that good.

Back to reality.

Nothing hurts as much as hearing your alarm go off at 5:15 on a Monday morning after you've been sleeping until 9 am every day for eleven days. My first thought was how I'd love to give my left arm for another day off, until I realized two things: 1) I really like my left arm and use it quite frequently; and 2) taking another day off will only prolong the inevitability of returning to work, and really, why put it off? I had worked myself into such a frenzy last night over going back that I gave myself a headache and didn't fall asleep until almost 11:30, even though rational me kept saying, "YOU'RE WORRYING FOR NOTHING, YOU KNOW. THIS IS SILLY. STOP IT AND GO TO SLEEP. YOU'LL PAY FOR THE LACK OF SLEEP TOMORROW AND IT WILL NOT BE PRETTY."

And yet, the irrational, worrying, anxious me, said, "BE QUIET, YOU. THERE'S PROBABLY A HUGE FIRE WAITING FOR ME WHEN I GET TO WORK, ALONG WITH 34083923 E-MAILS AND 984398493 PHONE MESSAGES. I HAVE LEGITIMATE REASONS TO BE WORRIED HERE."

So this morning, with my heart fluttering a little, I turned on my computer to discover I had about 20 e-mails, none of which were earth-shatteringly important, and two phone messages. Two. Both of which were non-urgent.

I've taken countless vacations from work, and have always come back to normalcy. Why on earth should this time have been any different in terms of emergencies, ESPECIALLY since most of the free world was off last week anyway?

The answer is: I don't know. Again. I told myself last night (as you saw) that I needed to stick to my resolution and stop making myself crazy over nothing. And I KNEW it was for nothing. And yet I still went through the needless agony.

Clearly, I still have some more work to do. I think I'll head to Amazon to see if I can find a self help book on a similar topic.

On the bright side, I had a relatively good day and I'm glad to be back in my routine again. It was nice to take a break, but it was really nice to go back to eating normal food and a regular exercise routine.

If all goes as planned, I'm hoping to take the same week off again at the end of the year.

And yes, it's already on my calendar.

Now playing: the Lovin' Touchin' Squeezins!

I am officially a drummer in a band. Can you believe it? We're just starting out and don't have a big fan base yet, but we're hoping to book some gigs soon. Oh, and me and the guitar player are having a thing. Hopefully it won't go sour, or the whole band will be in trouble.

My husband got Rock Band 2 for Christmas, and we've been playing non stop since last night when we went over to a friend's house and played with them for 4 hours straight. We bought the rest of the equipment for the game today and set up our band this afternoon. We got our name from an episode of Scrubs - J.D. was telling Turk and Carla about a Journey cover band that he loved named the Lovin' Touchin' Squeezins as a suggestion for a band at their wedding.

I also did a little singing tonight, but I'm no Kim (my cousin). I don't even know some of the songs in the game, so I'll be playing the drums on those selections.

I have a feeling I'm going to be losing a lot of time in the very near future - time that should be spent on chores or other really important things.

But my drumming skills need refining at this point, so I'll make the sacrifice.

The things I do for the band.

My New Year's commitments.

Every year, I make New Year's resolutions that I never keep, like most people do. This year, I've decided to call them commitments instead of resolutions, so I can take them more seriously and actually follow through on them. Here's what I've come up with:

1. Stop chewing on my fingers when I get nervous or stressed. It's an ugly habit that I've had for most of my life and I'm bound and determined to stop this year.

2. Go back to eating lots of fruits and veggies like I used to do a couple of years ago. It really made such a difference in how I felt, and since I've done it before, I can do it again.

3. Train myself for a run. I miss the way I used to feel and want that back again.

4. Really, REALLY stop making things harder for myself than they need to be. I worry about minute things way more than I need to, and I'm realizing now that all that does is complicate things. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to do this, but I'll find a way.

I think this is a good start. I'm sure I can come up with more, but for now, this is enough for me to work on.

Happy New Year and happy new you!!

Vacation: day #5.

Ahhhhhhhhh.

I wish that I could stop time right now. I am really enjoying my time off so far. I've done a lot, and there's still more coming. Tonight, we're going over to my aunt's house for dinner with the rest of my family, and tomorrow, I get to go to the DMV to renew my license (woo hoo new picture!) and when that's over, it's shopping with my friends in Roseville (WOO HOO!). I'm really excited about it, as you can tell.

I'm sad that Christmas is over, but at least I get a little bit of time to ease back into normal life again before I have to go back to work.

I'm off to go enjoy the rest of my afternoon filled with nothing!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a wonderful and very merry Christmas!