goodbye, 2007!

and good riddance. yes, this year really kicked my ass. financially, physically, emotionally, the whole deal, really. lessons were learned the hard way, accidents happened despite caution, harsh (almost cruel) realities were faced. and i drank a lot. three hospital visits. divorce court. aimless wandering. to quote dennis (mr. teubner if you are an 11th grade chem student) on a new year's eve years ago, "there were some trials. there were some tribulations."


i'm grateful for a new beginning, arbitrary as it may be. i kind of like that my birthday is so close to the new year, its fitting.


i hate to call them resolutions, but here are some of my plans for the new year:


-get back into volunteering more often.


-stick it to the man. more accurately, defend my principles. (debeers at northpark has no idea what's coming. seriously, i have a plan and they are gonna be pissed. mall cops can't arrest you, can they?)


-be more green. yeah, this is vague, but i'll be back with a follow up and at least three ways that i will accomplish this to my satisfaction.


-spend more time on creative endeavors. i have several good influences in this department.(cello, keyboard, crafting, sewing, writing)


-go out more, drink less. we'll see.


-study at the hance taplin school of diplomacy. this may not make sense to anyone, even hance himself, but that's ok. i know what it means.


-stay positive and make other people happy.



all of these things make me happier and a better person. ease anxieties and guilt. sounds like the makings of a good year!

tick, tick, tick

something is about to blow up in my face. i see it coming, but i'm not slowing down. nope. i'll give it a few days and then re-evaluate.

had lots of visitors at work today! jackie, hass, and kaitlyn showed up, kaitlyn yelling, "alison! alison! alison!" which was pretty awesome. ran into one of my fave bartenders and discussed last weekend's brawl. embarrasing that bartenders recognize me as their customers? yes. then hance, which created quite a buzz. "who was that guy you were flirting with?" "hey, who's that cute guy?" "is that your boyfriend? he's hot!" so basically, hance could have his pick of many of the chicks at my job. good for him.

then we went to friday's* for dinner with old pals. i must say, hass has some zingers. my favorite of the night for sure. lots of reminiscing, laughing, and bad impressions of british accents. i can't believe all the bad stuff we did when we were so young. shit, i'm never gonna believe my kid about anything.

*it had to be in addison, see? so jackie and hass wanted seafood and we went through 2 different places before giving up on that. the first one was a little too geriatric for our taste and level of energy, the second too expensive. then we tried gloria's but were turned off by the hour wait. and friday's was right there. so yeah, we ate at friday's. so what.

i'm tired. like falling-asleep-in-class tired.

p.s. friday's is gross.

bake-stravaganza!

grrrr

i have to miss yet another event i would kill to attend. stupid work and its stupid socially inhibiting hours. stupid. are felt snowflakes and icicle straws really that important for selling sweaters? really?

i'm looking for another job, and i've found a very promising one that i want really bad. wish me luck!

anyway, i did have a point. CPR (cross pollinating realities, a collaborative art show) is going down at meridian room from 6-10 pm tonight. buy some art, have some beers (monday is 1/2 price draft night), and chat with some of the coolest people around.

meanwhile, i'll be at work till at least midnight. grrrrrr.

i'm feeling a little mischevious, i think i'll wear something wildly innapropriate and freak out the squares. i feel better already.

several things

zach galifianakis was most excellent. highlights include: the pretentious illiterate, kilometers davis, and "hey everybody! here comes the choo choo!" sorry, only hayden will get those. the audience was about 99% dudes. mostly chubby, nerdy dudes. the line for the little girls room was astoundingly short. (yay!)

later that night, we headed to festivus, which turned out to be a bust-ivus. (zing!) we actually didn't go in, there were only about five people there, none of whom i knew. i can't walk into a huge, almost empty room and just sit down, pull the case of negra modelo out of my purse (yeah yeah, my purse is big, leave me alone), and chill out. no, i felt like i was walking into a freshman lecture (you know, the big ones with three hundred people in them) ten minutes late. i hated to be that guy. i would just skip class altogether to avoid being that guy.

so anyway, we went around the corner to fallout. there was a pretty cool band there, a pleasant surprise. i'm not sure if i would like them today, but it was just what i needed to hear right then. shins-ish. much better than the midget-sized goth band who were playing there on tuesday night. geez. anyway, the place was pretty packed with a lot of regulars but also a group of "frat daddies" (that's what hayden calls them, maybe its a tech thing, i dunno...) which is weird. i'm not really sure why or how but a fight broke out several times. i saw some guy fall face first onto the concrete floor and come up with a bloody nose, only to be choked and dragged out of the bar by robbie (a bartender there). turns out robbie will throw down if you mess with him. he seems so mild-mannered. it was weird to watch. a few minutes later there was another scuffle in the back room. not sure what happened, but a shoe went flying, glasses were thrown to the floor, and another dude was tossed from the bar. keep it clean, kids.

this weekend was also my BAKE-STRAVAGANZA, which did not go down as i had planned, but went down none the less. i always underestimate how long things will take. always. jackie surprised and delighted me with her limitless creativity and disregard for the rules while we were baking on saturday. cookie cutters? heck no, not for jackie. she freehands it. christmas trees? fuck that, try a skull and crossbones. welcome to jackie's world. we also had a chance to discuss our various adventures in cake making this year. combine my technical skills with her ideas and you get a powerful force. our collaborations are greatness, and i feel pretty good about saying that, even though it sounds like bragging. we need our own diy show, like, now. help me think of a name for it so i can pitch it to hgtv. hope you fellas enjoy the treats!

i'm tired, but staying positive. looking forward to 26. don't know what i'm doing for my birthday, but i do know there will be sparklers.

top ten things i want for christmas

10. sugar cookies. you know, the homemade, cut-out, decorated kind.

9. time off from work. i'm missing a lot of fun stuff.

8. a night of driving around and looking at lights. preferably with coffee. i LOVE christmas lights.

7. a santa visit with kaitlyn. hopefully she won't cry this time.

6. successful food drive results.

5. a day of baking treats in frilly aprons with my girls.

4. open mic night with hasan. (see, now you have to do it, it's on my official christmas list)

3. a massage and facial.

2. a real christmas tree.

1. a bike (!) with a basket and a bell.

finally!

check it!

still waiting on that hoverboard.

i'm bored

writing about myself is boring. especially when i have a job and far less free time for shenanigans.

art con III this weekend. sunday at 6 at the door (gypsy). it'll be cool. be there and be square.

weekend recap

friday

-suckfest!
-i had to work till midnight and missed out on brian gibb's opening at public trust, the black angels show, and the hot flash party at fallout

saturday

-worked on a habitat house again
-twas rainy and therefore not too much work was done
-no one fun to joke around with
-went shopping with julian and lauren
-i got yiddish magnetic poetry and lauren got a ridiculous sequiny hat, but those are the only things worth mentioning
-delicious dinner at monica's with the spears duo and seth
-i had a watermelon margarita and it was liquid candy (in a good way)
-we drank a few beers, watched tv, and youtubed funny things (i like how youtube is a verb now, just like google)
-seth thinks i'm a weirdo, his exact words: "hm, that's an interesting disposition..."

sunday

-i got a facial for the first time and it was awesome
-this is a big deal, i hate when anyone touches my face, and i don't even touch it myself without washing my hands first
-my aesthetician was on old french lady and we talked about france a lot, she's kickass!
-the only bad part is you have to take your shirt off, who knew
-oh and one thing she put on my face was quite smelly, kinda smelled like southern comfort, which made me want to throw up
-anyway, i'm hooked, i already made my next appointment
-lauren and i saw romance & cigarettes and it was terrible
-i would use the words disgusting and obnoxious to describe it
-after about an hour i leaned over to lauren and said, "this is the worst movie i've ever seen in my life"
-seriously, it's bad, and i hope no one takes my mention of it in the previous post as an implicit endorsement



any ideas for what i can do with my giant stack of polaroids? i have somewhere between 50 and 60 of them. there must be something cool i could do, but i'm at a loss.