My Frilly Dilemma

I will be receiving a bonus from work so I want to go get my hair cut and colored and highlighted (I'm going all out!). I'm thinking chocolate brown with caramel highlights? Anyone have any ideas of cut and/or color? Here is my hair right now:


I'm the one on the right. haha. My hair had just been cut so I like it but they gave me a face massage and I look a little blah in the face (they wiped off all my make up!!), but you get the idea. If you can't tell, I have blue eyes. An old boyfriend called them "Thunderstorm blue" so maybe that will give you an idea that they're not bright blue. I'm just done with blonde, especially for fall and I'm thinking an edgier haircut would go well with a dark color. Any suggestions are appreciated!

I'm Out of Time!

I was given more responsibility at work which means no time to write my blog between 9:00 and 5:00. Which means, I have to remember to make time after 5:00 because I really enjoy writing here and I hope you enjoy reading. So for now, today's weird holiday (I think this is going to become a weekly thing): Today is Love Note Day! Write someone or everyone a love note. A poem, a few words, a letter, it doesn't matter. I've realized that I don't write notes telling people how much they mean to me nearly as much as I used to. So today I'm going to do it. Right here and probably on paper later: T, you are the one I waited for and prayed for. God brought you to me exactly on time and I don't thank him enough for it. I am eternally grateful and in love with for your kind heart, your perfect balance between chivalry and feminism (I understand that I am a difficult balance between a helpless woman and a screaming feminist), your complete understanding of who I am and your love of me even when I'm crazy. You're genuinely happy for me when I'm happy and genuinely sad for me when I'm sad. You know how to just sit and listen and you are learning when I need you to take action. I love spending time with you and doing even the most mundane tasks. As long as I am with you, I'm content. I hope that I am even half of these things to you. I love you and have been so happy with you the last two years.

Love Always,
Katie



Your turn! Write your love note as a comment on here and/or as a real, old fashioned note on paper. It can be to your friend, mom, boyfriend, spouse, child, whomever you would like to tell how much they matter to you.

Have a great weekend everyone!

This is a Short One

I don't have much to say right now and I think I said enough the last couple of week to cover 5 people's blogs. I just saw that tomorrow is "Innergize Day." Robin already posted about this here but I'm not sure that she knew it would be a holiday. So, in honor of Innergize Day, Energize your Inner Self by doing something you love. Whether it be taking a long bath, riding your bike, making something, spending time with friends, singing at the top of your lungs to a terrible song, indulging in a guilty pleasure, whatever! go do it. I'm starting tonight by skipping my geology class to start planning my etsy store. I haven't had enough time for it and it excites me a lot more than rocks so I'm making time I don't have tonight! Woo!

Life and the future

I've been getting excited about life again. That's not to say that before I was on the verge of something drastic. I was just in the day to day routine of life: Wake up early, go to work, come home -or go to school then come home, go to bed, do it again. My roommate is engaged and while I was a tad jealous of her at first, I now wish that we were closer so that she would let me help with her plans (is that selfish?). I want so badly to be a social event planner and I really, REALLY want to plan weddings. I know I would be so great at finding out how people want to celebrate an occasion and then doing it for them. I would love to go to stores and venues and bakeries and help my client find exactly what he/she is picturing. So I started looking at schools again. Before I had a really hard time finding anything good but I've done some reading about the industry and looked a little harder at one of my top choices and found two, count them! TWO perfect programs at two colleges near me. I sent an email to the hospitality department at one school and now I have a phone meeting with the head of the department tonight at 6:00. I hate talking on the phone, but I'm really ecstatic at the prospect of having a career I love being within reach.

I found this article on an ezine while looking for music to sing at a wedding:

What better motivation for becoming a top level wedding planner than planning your own wedding and loving every moment of the process! This is exactly the way Rebecca Stone came into being Duet Weddings in February 2006. “I was completely head over heels smitten with the wedding planning process after planning my own wedding,” she told YWD. “I loved every second of it, starting with a vision, planning the details and then seeing it all come true and experiencing the magic of the day.” And when it was all over, there was no question in Rebecca’s mind concerning what she wanted to be doing each and every day thereafter: planning weddings, whether the request be for ‘month-of’ assistance, a full-service wedding, or anything in between.

After learning the planning process so thoroughly through her own wedding, Rebecca’s main goal was to share her experiences and what she had learned and to help other brides and grooms. “I understood exactly what they are feeling -- the excitement and happiness of the engagement; the confusion and stress which comes with the abundance of choices and costs; the wedding daydreams (and inability to focus on much else); and wedding nightmares (the repeated dream of forgetting to buy shoes resulting in many sleepless nights).”

And, she shared with us, she loves being the great listener for others that her friends and family were for her. “I want to be able to reassure and help. I wanted to guide and advise. I want to allow others to enjoy the process completely and enjoy the big day knowing that everything is being handled with the greatest of love and care.”

With her own wedding serving as her initial inspiration, we asked Rebecca about the source of her continued inspiration which we simply love what we found out: her inspiration is you! Rebecca virtually beamed when she shared, “I love nothing more than the look on a couple’s face as they walk back up the aisle as husband and wife during their recessional.” She also loves the look on their faces, the wide-eyed awe, when they first walk into their reception and the way their smiles for each other actually glow during their first dance. “As much as I adore the little details and beautiful wedding ‘things,’” Rebecca says, “what inspires me most are the couples I work with.”

But she does love those wedding “things” too. “I absolutely love the details and the ability to constantly create and imagine,” she says. She admitted a little secret, that she can talk for hours about flowers, invitations, linens, and gowns, and she lists some of the wedding-planning tasks she loves the most: ‘playing’ with paper products, scouring flea markets to find the perfect vase, planning menus and tasting accompanying wines, buying fabrics and ribbons to perhaps be used later as table runners, embellishments for the napkins, or another creative endeavor. A morning at the flower mart is also among her favorite things, where she enjoys spending the afternoon arranging and rearranging the flowers she has purchased until she achieves the perfect look.

Whether your wedding is to be in Rebecca’s vicinity, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, the Santa Ynez Valley, or a destination wedding anywhere worldwide, Rebecca’s enthusiasm is infectious. “Yes, yes, yes!” she says. “I absolutely love to travel and would be completely thrilled to take on a wedding opportunity anywhere in the world. Be it exotic and remote or bustling metropolitan - destination weddings are a huge dream of mine!”

Please plan on calling Rebecca immediately after that magical day you become engaged, because she takes on only a limited number of weddings each year in order to provide you with a superior level of attention and continuing magic. “I try to plan each wedding as if it were my own.” she says.

For you, this is a good thing, because the exquisite way in which she planned her own wedding resulted in a feature article in a leading bridal magazine. Rebecca says this was a huge honor and accomplishment after pouring her love into planning each and every little detail of that beautiful day. And this is the type of exquisite wedding Rebecca and Duet Weddings will lovingly and enthusiastically plan for you.


By Susan Hart Hellman, Executive Editor


Rebecca's website was at the end of the article and on her website is this blog which I have now put on my blog roll: Duet Weddings
I could run around my office building for an hour and not get tired, I'm so deliriously happy. Rebecca is me, well except I haven't gotten married, but I just love what she loves. I feel how she must have felt a couple of years ago right after she discovered her passion. My life ISN'T over. I have a future again!

Help! Quick!

A friend and I are singing a couple songs right before a wedding in October. If we don't find some (love) songs to do, the bride's brother and sister-in-law will pick country songs for us (gag. Sorry to anyone who likes country. I detest it). Any ideas? I just need two or three love songs. Something old, something new, something popular, or something from a musical (I always think of "One Hand One Heart" from West Side Story). Help me brainstorm! The bride and groom have no knowledge of music and therefore do not care what we sing.

What

IS this?!?

Found outside our office on the outside of the screened in porch. Anyone? We've decided it's a grasshopper spider or a spidehopper or a grassder.

This and That

The other day I was listening to the radio and someone requested "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mixalot. First of all, this is a terrible, demeaning song to women, but for some reason I stayed on the station and listened to the words. He mentions magazines being all about stick thin girls and how they tell us "normal" sized women are fat but he doesn't agree (he says this in a more rap and less lame way, but you get it). While most of this song is very dirty, I'm kind of happy that someone wrote a song about it being ok if we have some curves and meat on our bones. I just wish that I could feel that way when I look in the mirror because when I see a stick thin girl with a smallish bum and size B bust (like my roommate), I wish I could be her. When will I learn?

On to less depressing things. T and I went to an orchard/nursery on Saturday and bought a bunch of home grown veggies and fruit. I don't know why people waste their money at the grocery store on stuff that came all the way from California when you can get it less expensive and it came from someone's back yard. I couldn't find anyone that was selling broccoli which was sad. It's supposed to be in season here, but I could only find cauliflower. So I bought two heads of that, a ton of nectarines, purple grapes, acorn squash, butternut squash, and six ears of corn (I wasn't going to get it but I only hear good things about this particular farm's corn so I couldn't pass it up). I also bought yellow and red peppers on a whim and was pretty close to getting some yams and cooking onions when T told me to stop. I get on these kicks and I can't control myself. If someone isn't there to hold me back, I just buy everything and don't use it up in time. I have to get on with freezing this stuff though. I bought extra so I could do that and now I'm having the busiest week ever.

What about that two hours in the wetlands on a rainy day, you ask? Well, two hours turned into about one hour by the time we got there, and that was still much longer than needed. We were taken to one area which was very thick with mud and my teacher brought his dog. A big dog who likes swimming in ponds and romping through mud puddles. I was pretty convinced I was going to go sliding on my bum down a hill or fall on my face when we had to jump over a stream from one slippery hill to the other, but I did ok. The second watershed we went to was much grassier but we then had to walk through giant, wet wild flowers. I stared at the ground the whole time. It wasn't the little crickets that bothered me (of which there must have been billions! The grass appeared to move on its own and it wasn't windy!), it was the big spiders I knew must be lurking behind every weed I pushed out of the way. I tried my best not to spin around in circles looking for spiders to be crawling up my back or on my legs. I tried very hard to stay calm and look like I always stomp my way through tall grass in the middle of a fall hurricane remnant. I am not looking forward to any more of these science labs.

Rainy Days and Monday Always Get Me Down

Ok, well, it's Friday and I'm not really that sad about the rain because it's the weekend! And we got paid today! I really didn't get as much as I wanted in my paycheck and I had to pay a hefty library fine. Woops. I'm going to be short when it comes time to pay my school tuition. I need another source of income. T and I never started selling t-shirts on Etsy. I thought about making and selling jewelry but everyone does that, so would I get any attention? My friend, S, said that my jewelry is cuter than anyone else's on Etsy and I could probably do really well. It could get me a little extra money. I could pay on credit debt and put some away for savings if I made enough. What do I have to lose by joining Etsy as a seller? I wonder if there is a fee...

I have a lab for my class tomorrow. We're going to see the wetlands in our area for 2 hours. 2 hours! What is there to see for that long!? This is not my kind of science. It's supposed to rain all weekend so the wetlands will be wetter and I don't have any rainboots. Oh well. After that, T and I are going to a produce market nearby. I meant to go there all summer but they only accept cash and I never carry cash. Plus they're only open until 6:00 and I get out of work at 5:30 every day. It just wasn't meant to be...or I was really lazy on Saturdays when I could've gotten some cash out and gone. So, we're going there for the first time this summer/fall and I'm going to get some nectarines and raspberries (still in season!), broccoli, squash, and cauliflower. I'm going to freeze some so that I can have fresh, local produce all winter. I'm excited for that. I'm going to find some recipes for cauliflower so it's not so plain and weird. My mom always just steamed them and we ate them with salt. I need more variety in my food.

AND in an effort to eat more "organically," I'm going to start making my own wheat bread. I found a seemingly perfect recipe online with many, many tips and tricks from the author for the perfect sandwich, wheat bread. T hates when I stand in the bread aisle at the grocery store screaming "Everything has too much sodium!" so this seems to be a good alternative to that. I'll post the link to the recipe if it works out. I'm not sure if I'll buy everything to make it this weekend or in a couple weeks when I, hopefully, get a better paycheck. I will be Miss Suzy Homemaker if it kills me!

Have a fabulous weekend!

A Day to Remember

Seven years ago was my first semester at community college. Seven years ago today I had just come out of my English class and met my best friend, J in the cafeteria. We got our bagel/danish and J went to sit in the actual cafeteria; however, I had caught a glimpse of the TV on the way through and noticed many students sitting around a breaking news report. "Wait," I said to J, "Where are you going?" "To sit by the windows," J replied with much confusion. "No, there's something going on. I want to see the TV," I said. Hesitantly, J walked with me back to the TV and we sat down, just in time to see the second plane run into the second trade tower in New York. I had barely sat down and wasn't even sure of what I was seeing...until the first tower collapsed. This was my morning on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. Hundreds of students gathered around us very quickly and watched the devastating news with us. Our college was basically evacuated as there is a power plant nearby and there were concerns that it could be a target. I went to work that night and finally cried for the thousands of lost lives, the heartless attack on our country, the families who had no idea where their loved ones were, the fear that people must have felt on the planes and in the towers - just the shock of it all.

Seven years later, I still grieve and make sure to take a moment and remember that day. But now, I've also become more aware. There are wars all over the world. Thousands of people die in other countries all the time because of hatred, disease, poverty. 9/11 brought us together as a country but then it made us turn in the wrong direction. We became a country full of hatred and war. People with bumper stickers on their cars saying things like, "It's God's job to forgive Bin Laden. It's our job to arrange the meeting." Why didn't this tragedy bring us together as in "United We Stand" and then turn us toward helping and aiding others? How are we, as a nation, helping the poor, the hungry, the diseased, the war-ravaged? Instead of realizing that we're not above everything just because we're a powerful and rich country, we turned around and started shooting at the next country that pissed us off. Sometimes, tragedies have no good outcome except to smack us in the face and show us that we are not invincible, nor are we above others who have had "some bad luck" along the way. 9/11 should have humbled us but it didn't. I'm sorry to anyone that I offend, but I am ashamed of the people in our country who use 9/11 as a way to elevate themselves above other countries and other people, and to be unaccepting of any other culture other than their own. Wake up everyone! You have become the people you most hate.

I'm sorry these last two days weren't so frilly. The next days surely will be back to the norm.

Have a great day and never forget.

I'm Cheating Today

I posted this on my other blog, but I wanted it on here, too. Even though it's not too "frilly." Enjoy some deep, important-to-life thinking today :-)

I read Dear Abby every day and here is what is said on Saturday:

DEAR ABBY: Please let the world know that kind people still exist. I was on my way to two job interviews. Not surprisingly, I was nervous, so before I got off my train, I took my phone out to check the directions to the first one. A short walk later, I reached the subway, but when I went into my purse for my wallet to buy a MetroCard, lo and behold, my wallet and new glasses were missing.
I retraced my steps and ran to the courtesy counter to ask if anyone had turned in my wallet and glass case. The woman in the booth told me the train was still in the station and to hurry there immediately to check for my things. Long story short, no luck.

Heartbroken, I returned to the courtesy desk. Not only would I miss both my appointments, but I was stranded with no money. I burst into tears as I explained the situation to the woman in the booth. Abby, she reached into her purse and handed me $7! "It's all I have right now," she said, "use it to get to your interviews." I went to my interviews and aced them both. When I came back to thank her, she was gone, but she had described me to the woman on the next shift who handed me a courtesy ticket home.

Abby, that woman's kindness was overwhelming. And just when the day couldn't get any better, I received a call. A conductor had found my wallet and glasses and would meet me on the train the next day.

I just want to share that kindness can happen when we least expect it. When it happens, we should pay it forward. -- S. SMITH, ASBURY PARK, N.J.

Abby's response was really corny so I'll spare you, but I just thought this was such an awesome story. I hope you see it as more than a heart warming story. See it as what the writer says: When someone does something nice for you, pay it forward. If no one has done anything nice, be the first to start the chain.

I feel like we have become so unfeeling and disconnected anymore. Wouldn't it be great if people just started being nice and compassionate toward everyone, even perfect strangers? There is a guy in my class that annoys me everytime I look at him. He just reminds me of someone that I don't like and he talks too much. He acts like he knows everything, and that is a huge pet peeve of mine. Last night, I just happened to glance at him while he was deep in thought about something and he just seemed so... human. I saw a person that I could love - not romantically, just someone I could be friends with and care deeply about. He made me realize how God must feel about us. He made us, but then somehow we ended up with all these annoying characteristics that would make even a mother stop loving her child. God sees that but he looks through it and sees how human and fragile we are and he loves us. He goes past the tough exterior and sees who we really are deep inside. I'm so happy when I get a glimpse into someone's soul and see them for the sweet, soft-hearted person they probably would be if I got to know them. It reminds me of how I come off at first glance to other people and how much I love it when others take the time to get to know me before judging my personality. Anyway, I'm rambling. I probably won't make another one of these "speeches" for at least another year. ha.

Have a great day!

The Last Weekend of Summer?

I actually came back to work this morning feelings VERY rested. I almost felt like I had had a vacation! T and I camped out in the backyard all weekend. I know, it's kind of weird but it made me happy! We set up the tent, a TV, and two coolers as end tables and stayed outside as much as possible. I'm sure it looked a little strange, but it was so relaxing. Unfortunately, it rained all weekend long so no campfire, but I do love the sound of rain when I go to sleep and wake up. It was a good exchange.

Since we were "camping" I went by my camping motto (which I stole from T's mom): "I'm camping, I'll eat whatever I want" and ate everything I could find. I started my morning with Fruity Pebbles, followed by two small Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, then Oreo's, then popcorn, then we went to our friends' house and had chips and dip and homemade ice cream (with caramel!). My stomach was sooooo angry. I'm actually getting sick just thinking about everything I ate on Saturday. I won't be doing that for awhile. I'm trying to lose weight.

A couple of friends (the friends whose house we went to on Saturday) have a Nintendo Wii and recently bought Wii Fit. I tried out a couple of exercises and took a fit test. It told me my fit age was 45!!! Wow. I need to exercise more. I keep vowing to ride my bike more since it's almost time to put it in my parents' garage for the winter and to run on the treadmill more, but it makes me tired just thinking about it. I always think I'm going to just start running and I'll feel great and the pounds will just magically melt off by the time I get home but I usually run for like 30 seconds and then I almost throw up. Then I go home and all the same pudgey bits are still there. It's so hard to stick with something when it makes you so sad. I want to have shapely legs and arms and a flat tummy by next spring but who am I kidding? The winter days and holidays are looming just around the corner and all I want to do is get under a blanket and eat mashed potatoes and gravy while watching movies and TV on DVD. Do you know how many cookies I put away between Christmas and Valentine's Day? Someone show me the light!

Nighttime Ponderings

I've been so tired the last couple of days. I have a cold which came out of nowhere. A few people at work have the same thing. So, by the time I get home from work or class (depending on which day it is), I'm ready to collapse onto the couch in front of the TV. I usually don't even have enough energy to eat something, which I'm sure doesn't help a cold. Well, maybe it does. Isn't the saying, "Starve a cold; feed a fever?"

Anyway, I went to a couple of geology classes and while the teacher is painfully boring and quiet, I find it a little interesting. Granted we're at the very beginning of the class where we learn about how the Universe, our solar system, and Earth were all formed and I don't necessarily agree with everything the scientists have come up with but it's fascinating nonetheless. I am also absolutely thrilled by maps, globes, tectonic plates...is that weird? We did start talking about rocks last night which was a little paralyzing with dullness. I hope this isn't how the entire semester will be now that we've actually gotten into the geological part.

What science is more about maps? That's what I want. Maybe geology will get into it later on.

I left the school last night in some kind of serene state of mind. It was mostly dark, with a little orange and pink to the south and I could see the sillouhette of an airplane passing through. With the dark trees framing the skyline, it was just really amazing. I wished I had a camera so I could share it with someone. I couldn't stop staring up but then I would realize that I was walking and I should pay attention lest I trip over a piece of broken sidewalk or run into another person. It was so quiet outside that any small sound was magnified several times. Even the sound of someone else's keys jangling 50 feet ahead sounded like they were standing right beside me. For some reason, fall and winter are so incredibly quiet at night; maybe there aren't as many animals and birds around to make noise? Whatever the reason, these are my favorite seasons to be outside at night. It's the most peace a person will ever find. The best time for thinking and realizing who you are and what you're about. I plan to spend many a night outside in the dark, clearing my mind and materializing where I've been and where I'm going; who I really am; what I really want; how I will get to where I want to be. Whenever I do this, I'm really looking forward to sharing it with you. Maybe anyone who reads this can try it too and we'll all share our experiences. It could be a fun/rewarding exercise, yes?