Happy Holidays

In these few early morning moments I have before I need to start getting ready for the not one but three Christmases I am attending over the next two days I thought I would take a minute to wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever your pleasure is this time of year. Its been a long, crazy year for this girl but I'm looking forward to spending some time with my friends and family in the coming days and excited about ushering in a new year. I wish the same for all of you.

Cheers!
Tiff


PS - Please ignore the bar thing hanging out behind the Christmas tree there... Home improvement never ends, not even for Christmas.

PPS - The cat is currently laying in that exact location, only this time he's chewing on the ends of all the ribbon on people's gifts. That would explain the cat-retching sounds that woke me earlier. Its a good thing that cat is cute I tell you what.

The Christmas Spirit

As a child Christmas was my favorite holiday, even more exciting than my birthday, which I didn't start loathing until sometime around 18 or 20. I loved the lights, the chill in the air and the fact that my mom and I always had company. I think that is the part of Christmas that I have tried to hold on to as an adult, the happiness of being with friends and family. Even if I haven't spoken to someone as often as I should have, at Christmas getting together becomes a priority. I love that.

What I don't love is the commercialism and materialism that surrounds the holidays. I'm sorry to all of my readers who love getting presents or delight in selecting the perfect item to bestow on a loved one. Gift giving to me is stressful at best and gift receiving makes me highly uncomfortable. Like I'm sitting in the room in my panties and have to pretend its totally normal behavior.

This Christmas in particular I've noticed that I have had numerous opportunities for reconciliation with my past. And for some reason my instinct has changed from "run screaming from that jerk who broke my heart or the ghost of fathers past" to "maybe its time to forgive and move on with my life." We'll see if anything comes of any of this but I've decided as a New Year's resolution of sorts to just relax and be open to communications I might otherwise not have been.

It's the craz-, craziest time of the year!

You know I used to be one of those annoying people that had all their holiday shopping done by mid-October AT THE LATEST. The key phrase in that sentence being "used to be". It seems that between the wedding and the honeymoon and the being unemployed and the career change I somehow... forgot to buy presents. In fact, before tonight I had only purchased one (1) gift for Christmas at all and that was something I intended to send to a friend on the east coast.

No, I have not in fact actually MAILED said gift to the east coast. Ahem.

But lord all mighty was it insane out there tonight! I'm not stupid (or desperate) enough to even remotely attempt anything resembling a mall but I did swing by a local book store to take a look at some things on my way home from work this morning and it was not pretty. The traffic, the lines, the rain, the harassed looking staff... Why do we put ourselves through this every year again? I've forgotten.

Though I do now have more than one (1) gift purchased. In fact, if I play my cards right I may not even need to go to another store again until well after the new year! Fingers crossed!

Brrrr....

Dear State of California,

I know you and I have had a love/hate relationship over the years. Really its been more of a tolerate/hate at best but that's neither here nor there. The fact is that I've remained faithful to you for almost 17 years, I've paid the exorbitant rent prices, I even bought an overpriced home! I've endured the higher average price per gallon at the pump (though I do thank you for lowering prices down from $5 a gallon - I can actually afford to drive to the gas station now!). I've even learned to cope with the millions of people constantly in my space and the houses popping up one on top of the other every where.

You, on the other hand, have not kept up YOUR end of this bargain. I endure the people, the expensive cost of living, the traffic and the high gas prices and YOU provide tolerable weather year-round. Considering that it took me 5 minutes (and most of a cup of much needed coffee) to get myself into my frozen over car yesterday morning, and then an additional 15-20 minutes to de-ice the windshield enough to drive (at least the side windows roll down), I would say this definitely does not fall under the definition of tolerable weather by any stretch.

The final straw was when I noticed snow (SNOW!) on the hills directly to the north of my home yeasterday and when they had to actually close all but one lane over the pass due to snow and ice on the roadway. You know, California, as well as I do that the people who call you home are TERRIBLE drivers and do not understand the concept of wetness coming from the sky. When this "wetness" appears to freeze... It's like a holy armageddon!

I would appreciate your immediate attention to this matter. I'd hate to have to sell my home and move away, especially since this over-priced real estate? Totally not worth the money, but anyway! Moving on! At least bring me back my mild winter weather. Please?

Sincerely,

T.

Living the Good Life

Having spoken to many bloggers "off the record", I've noticed a common theme among us regarding posting. Our best writing is done when fueled by angst or anger or worry or sadness; we find it harder to put together coherent posts when we are happy. How many posts on weekend updates or how much one loves one's job/house/husband/wife/life can you write after all? Day 1 - very happy... Day 12 - still very happy. It gets a little stunted.

That is sort of where I am. I am happier than I have been in years. I no longer wake up in the morning with an ever-present sense of dread, I am no longer uneasy for no reason, I no longer well up with tears unexpectedly or cry to myself in the car for no discernible reason other than I feel sadness. Now I wake up happy, I feel optimistic, I laugh, I mean really laugh, and I do so frequently. Unfortunately I feel like the details of this happiness aren't exactly blog worthy.

And though there are a couple things going on in my life right now that I DO lose sleep over, alas I can not blog about them here either as the audience is inappropriate. So I am at a loss. Do I post superfluous posts about how much I love my new job, how happy I am to finally be doing something I actually ENJOY as opposed to doing something I am simply good at? How many times I can post about loving matrimony? How many times I can I fail miserably at explaining why I love being married and why a stupid piece of paper made me feel safe, secure, hopeful about the future?

Or do I just throw all caution to the wind and post about what is REALLY on my mind, backlash be damned?

Why hello December...

First things first I have to send a big internet hug to BFL whose birthday is today!!! Happy Birthday darlin', can't wait to celebrate with you on Sunday!

*****

So... Did November just up and disappear all abrupt like on anyone else?? I swear between being gone for 11 days and Thanksgiving I misplaced half a month y'all! Here it is 3 days into December and I'm just now feeling like life is returning to normal. We're home safe, back to work, the laundry is almost done and the bags 98% unpacked. AND I'm blogging! A girl has to have priorities I guess. :D

The honeymoon was fantastic, better than either of us imagined or dared hope for. We stayed at this awesome all inclusive resort outside of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and yes, it really is as beautiful as it looks in the pictures on their website. You know how sometimes at the end of a vacation you are sad to be leaving but also kind of ready to go home? Yeah well this trip was NOTHING like that. Neither TheBoy or I wanted to leave and it was SO hard getting up that last morning to pack.

The only downside of the whole trip was that flying there from the West Coast is terrible! On the way out there we had three flights with a 2 hour lay-over in LA and a 3 hour lay-over in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fact that TheBoy is 6'7" and doesn't fit into any normal sized airplane seats comfortably didn't help as he spent each flight (including the 6 hour one between LA and Puerto Rico) with either his knees jammed into the seat back of the person in front of him or stretched out into the aisle where the stewardesses I swear were aiming for his knees with those drink carts. Also, since I was still sick (am still sick, whatever) 3 take offs and landings did a number on my sinuses!

Of course once we got there and breathed in the warm tropical air and felt the sunshine on our backs all complaining ceased. I reserved a private taxi through the resort because the #1 thing people kept telling me about the DR was that pretty much anyone can drive out to the airport, call themselves a taxi and pick you up to take to your hotel. Which is fine if they do in fact take you to your hotel directly as opposed to taking a little side trip out to the middle of nowhere and robbing you first. And after seeing the hour long drive out to the beach from the airport I can see would be pretty easy to do! We went through cow country on these crazy rough roads with HUGE potholes and even bigger speed bumps, there are no street signs to speak of and ideas such as "right side of the road" and "two cars abreast" don't seem to matter there. It was definitely an experience!

The people at the resort welcomed us with a cool towel, a glass of champagne and a chorus of "welcome home", it was fantastic. Pretty much after that we never left the resort. Unfortunately because I was still sick, my energy level was not what I hoped it would be but TheBoy was content to let me sleep in and spend most days laying out by the pool reading (or napping) or swimming around lazily. This was our first time at an all inclusive so we weren't sure what to expect but the food was great in all the restaurants though we didn't care too much for the Asian fusion restaurant (I think because we have such awesome Japanese and Thai food here at home) and we definitely LOVED the french restaurant best. And all the booze included too? It was awesome! From the bars in and around the pool to the daily re-stocked mini-bar in our room (including bottle service!) we never were far from our next CocoLoco, Crazy Monkey, Mai Tai or glass of champagne. It was heaven.

Believe it or not we actually managed to take about 70 pictures! I know that may not seem like a lot to some of you who come home with hundreds and hundreds of photos from your vacations but trust me, TheBoy and I usually get home from some fabulous trip only to discover we took 12 photos and 10 of them were on the last day when we discovered we didn't have any pictures! So without further ado...

Room, the first.

View from room #1

Dinner, first night, totally jet lagged and with the ONLY tequila we drank the whole entire trip. Crazy no? They're into this thing called "rum" down there and you know, when in Rome...


Room, the second. Upgraded to swim up suite in the "excellence club" area. VIP. That's how we roll y'all. Woot!

View from the pool, looking at our "porch" of the room #2. Notice the hammock? TheBoy Had. To. Have. the hammock. He spent as much time as possible, when it wasn't raining, the the hammock.


Even though we never left the resort really, there were tons of things to do. We played pool in one of the most lopsided and damp tables ever in the sports bar and TheBoy even tried his hand at the archery they had set up.


Here is TheBoy enjoying the pool and waiting for the next round of pool volleyball to start up. He actually played quite a bit of pool volleyball and water polo though I think he might have had an unfair advantage since 4' deep water is like waist deep for him but... he certainly was a popular choice on people's teams!


In our rooms they provided these super plush robes and slippers to wear as part of the whole "spa" experience. They were of course too big for me but comically too small for The Boy. Check out the one-size-fits-most slippers y'all.


Here we are hanging out in the hammock after dinner one night...


Did I mention the birds? There are a ton of birds all over the resort. Flamingos, parrots, geese, ducks, peacocks... You name it and they are wandering around. Normally I think birds are dirty and gross but somehow in paradise I didn't mind so much. Which was good since they like to come up and visit you in your room and hop onto your hand while you are taking pictures of them.



Also, TheBoy got all artistic on me with the camera one night in the bar after maybe one too many Mama Juana shots. (I know that article says it tastes like port but it most certainly doesn't taste like any port I've ever had... It tastes like maple syrup. Seriously.)




Of course it did rain about half the time we were there. Funny I didn't mind it... Probably because it was still 85 degrees and someone was always still at the pool bar which was right outside our room.


Mere hours after that rain photo was taken, TheBoy was outside in the pool building a raft out of all the floating mats that blew to our end of the pool during the storm.


And last, but not least, I wouldn't be me if I didn't have my own night of too many Mama Juana shots and convinced this nice girl who was also there on her honeymoon to go swimming with me at midnight even thought the pools are technically closed. Y'all know you love me.