Full Disclosure

• I worked from home on Friday because I didn't feel good. Luckily it hasn't progressed beyond a sore throat and sporadic stuffiness, but I sound like Kathleen Turner.
• I went out with Brandie and had too much fun, thus preventing me from doing anything I was supposed to do on Saturday.
• I've bought myself things at Banana Republic and Paper Source instead of buying Christmas gifts.
• Making Christmas gifts and decorations = crazy messy apartment. Especially the dining room table. (See below.)
• Instead of buying peppermints for my advent calendar, I'm using leftover candy corn. (Also see below.)

• I have so much I want to do and see this season but all I am doing instead is watching "Homeland." Which is unbelievably good while also being unbelievably stressful and disconcerting.
• I've always been an "I need four seasons" kind of lady, but these last two days of 60 degree weather is making me realize I really am more of an "I need one week in each of the four seasons that is that season, but the rest can all in the sixties" kind of lady.
• For the first time in years I can listen to "I'll Be Home For Christmas" without crying and I don't know what that means. (Though I'm hoping it means it's just not making me cry yet.)
• I need this tea towel, yesterday:

• I thought I was making progress on my last things to blog about list, but now I'm not so sure:
• My jury duty experience
• Capitol tour with mom and her sisters
• Wii night with the ladies
• Pumpkin carving party
• Hurricane Sandy
• Work Halloween party
• Various happenings: New office, award, Lauren's birthday, etc.
• Old theatre
• Things that are and aren't worth the money
• Thoughts on energy and healthy eating
• Thoughts on anxiety
• Thanksgiving
• The time I used a saw
• Night out with Brandie
• Pinterest party
• Christmas decorations 
• This wasn't the original intent of this post and I can't remember what it was.

Things to Blog About

It's happened, again. I have lots to say and either no time or motivation to say them. So here is an attempt to hold myself accountable. Things I need to blog about (or else they didn't happen):

• My jury duty experience
• Capitol tour with mom and her sisters
• Wii night with the ladies
• Pumpkin carving party
• Hurricane Sandy
• Work Halloween party
• Various happenings: New office, award, Lauren's birthday, etc.
• Old theatre
• Things that are and aren't worth the money
• Thoughts on energy and healthy eating
• Thoughts on anxiety

Some Potpourri. (With neither fleeting expletives nor momentary nudity.)

It's been another stressful week with not a lot of energy to expend outside of work. So here is a mixed bag of the week's thoughts, going-ons, mishaps, etc.

• I've found the secret to not using one's credit card: Accidentally cut up a non-expired one when you meant to cut up an expired one.

• If being 28 and painting polka dots on my fingernails is wrong, I don't want to be right.

• Wearing yoga shorts under my skirts while commuting has completely changed my life. I no longer have to fight to keep my skirt from flying up every time I walk on an escalator, pass a moving metro train, walk on a windy day, pass a bus, etc.

• It's nice when a stranger or a friend tells you that you look good. But it's really, really nice when your doctor, who's treating you for anxiety and other things, tells you that you look good. (One day I'll write about my anxiety issues and how I'm dealing with them, I'm just not quite there yet.)

• I still really, really don't like baseball. At all. But I do love good seats, good friends, good food, and good giant-headed mascots. Which is why I attended my second game of the season this year, Nats. vs. Rays.

• In a Supreme Court decision today, they ruled that the FCC can't fine ABC and Fox for "fleeting expletives and momentary nudity." This is now my new favorite phrase. In the history of the world.
• I really do love Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show." I've been watching for 10 years but I got out of the habit for a few months. But now I'm back watching again and I just love it. That's all.

To Do List Update

This week has been so absolutely nuts at work that my head is spinning. And because I'm so brain dead from the week, here is an update on the to do list I set for myself three weeks ago. All in all, I'm happy with my progress.

• Cape Party
• National Cathedral Flower Mart
• Mother's Day
• Stuff I found while cleaning out my room at home -- Three posts in series so far
  
• The Asian lettuce bundles I made 3ish months ago -- Probably never
• More secrets -- Working on the next 10
• More fountains -- Soon, soon
• Thoughts on "crazy" women -- I don't even know where to begin, it may end up being an essay.
• Why I think "Sabotage" could be an appropriate wedding song -- Ok, it's not actually an appropriate wedding song. But I may like it played at mine anyway, just to mix things up.
• My new laptop
• Colored jeans?
• A quote from last week's "Girls" I really like -- This isn't getting its own post so I'll just write it here: "Some day, I'm going to write an essay about you, and I'm not going to change your name!" -Hannah, Girls
  
• Comfort shopping -- In drafts
• Phobias -- In drafts

Carolina Pride

I'm a very sad North Carolinian this week. I'll just re-post what I wrote on Facebook shortly after Amendment 1 passed, Please remember, come November, when you start complaining that a politician wants to take away your money, religion, or guns, that you took away the right of an entire segment of our state to commit to the person they love. 

However, even though I hang my head in shame at those that voted to do this, I still am proud of where I come from.

And just as a reminder to myself, and, more importantly, to any outsiders who could stumble across this blog, there are so many wonderful things about North Carolina. Here are some great things about the state and some of my favorite things:

• Barbecue—Western and Eastern (Though Eastern is better.) 
• UNC v. Duke—The greatest basketball rivalry in the country
• Pepsi—Born in New Bern
• Krispy Kreme—Born in Winston Salem
• Bojangles—Headquartered in Charlotte
• Every UNC player who ever wore the jersey, even if they aren't from here. (And even the ones who left early.) 
• Michael Jordan , Richard Petty, Josh Hamilton, Julius Peppers, and Roy Williams
• James Taylor and Ava Gardner 
• Charles Kuralt and Edward R. Murrow 
• James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson 
• Dolly Madison 
• Thomas Wolfe
• Bill Friday—Education pioneer 
• Jim Hunt—The education governor 
• Johnny Grant—Honorary mayor of Hollywood and from my hometown!
• Erskine Bowles—Has worked for multiple presidents
• Nicholas Sparks and every one of his books, which take place here
• Sarah Dessen
• The mountains
• The beach
• Tobacco (Sorry, but if you've ever enjoyed a cigarette, it may have originated in NC.) 
• The First Flight taken by the Wright Brothers
• Dogwood trees and Bradford pear trees in bloom on a spring day 
• Duke Chapel and Duke Gardens
• When a little snow shuts down a whole town 
• A field covered in snow, as far as the eye can see 
• A sudden summer rainstorm 
• The way my neighborhood smells on a Saturday after everyone's been cutting grass 
• Hunkering down with your family during a hurricane 
• And helping a neighbor clean up afterward 
• Jordan Lake and the bald eagle preserve
• The Battleship North Carolina 
• Wilmington—Filming location of Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill (and more)
• A field full of fluffy cotton, waiting to be picked 
• Bright yellow fruit stands on the side of the road and their misspelled signs 
• Getting stuck behind a tractor driving down the road at 10 mph 
• Old tobacco barns 
• Illegal fireworks on the 4th of July 
• Lightning bugs 
• Chapel Hill on a spring day
• Chapel Hill on a summer day 
• Chapel Hill on a fall day 
• Chapel Hill on a winter day 
• Chapel Hill every day 
• Roanoke Colony—First English attempt to colonize America 
• Virginia Dare—First child born in the Americas 
• The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse 
• The Cape Lookout Lighthouse 
• All the lighthouses 
• Where Blackbeard the pirate chose to settle down. (Maybe I shouldn't brag about that one.) 
• Wildflowers on the side of the highway 
• Cherry lemon sun drop 
• Pine trees everywhere
• Riding down winding roads in the country, surrounded by trees, occasionally passing a stream or a deer
• Old family cemeteries in the middle of a field

This is not an exhaustive list. And these are only the things I could recall without having to do additional research.

25 Things I Fear For Good Reason

The majority of the time I'm a very rational, level-headed person. Sure, I can be dramatic and excitable and crazy, but that's not my default. As for the rest of the time, I tend to be consumed by one dominant trait: Anxiety. Even when applying all my rationality, telling myself over and over to stop thinking about something, to stop worrying about something, it tends to just get worse. When the anxiety monster strikes, nothing will make it stop. It continues to pick and pick until I cry, scream, have a panic attack, or become immobile.

This year I've been actively working on conquering my anxiety and am getting better. But that's not what I want to talk about right now. Let's have a little fun with Anxious Bonnie first.

A recent post on the website Hello Giggles, 20 Things I Vaguely Fear With No Explanation, had me clicking and reading faster than anything. While only one of hers is also one of mine, it got me reminiscing. I have spent a lot of time worrying about things, mainly things that could never happen, but in order to ensure they don't happen, I've had to worry about them first. 

So these are some thoughts that have consumed me more than once, for more than 30 minutes, and some for many years. Some I've even lost sleep over, like the prison one. A lot of them no longer phase me. But some will still grab hold of my brain, like the prison one. (Prison really scares me.)

• Fainting in public and being robbed or rubbed.
• Being stalked by someone and how ineffective a restraining order would be.
• Marrying someone and having them lie to me about their identity or plot to kill me like in a Lifetime movie.
• Going to a foreign country and being accused of drug smuggling and going to jail like in "Brokedown Palace."
• Falling accidentally from a great height and people think it's suicide.
• Losing my shoes and having to walk home barefoot.
• Being swept away in a tsunami because I don't have enough upper-body strength to hold on to anything.
• Being accused of or framed for a crime I didn't commit.
• Going to prison.
• Drowning alone.
• Falling off a cruise ship and surviving in the ocean for several days before dying.
• Having my drink drugged in a bar.
• Dying from mass influenza and plague.
• Dying from or witnessing a mass and coordinated bird attack
• Being held captive and tortured, specifically involving fingernails and teeth.
• Being held at gunpoint and saying something stupid and getting shot.
• Being in a coma like in "Diving Bell and Butterfly" and only able to communicate by blinking, but no one realizes.
• Having everyone else think I'm insane but I think I'm totally sane.
• Being committed to a mental institution when I really am sane.
• Having all telecommunication networks down and no way to contact my family.* 
• Leaving my work laptop on the metro.
• Choking alone.
• Falling in shower alone.
• Falling and breaking my front teeth. 
• Being at the Zoo when animals break out of their enclosure and then they attack me. Or animals escaping from the National Zoo and running the 2 or so miles to my apartment and attacking me.

*This one is actually quite serious and outlined in terrifying detail at the Spy Museum as a potential terrorist attack. With no computers, Internet, power, etc., we'd have no ATMs or phones. So, parents, we need a plan: I'll come to NC. I know you're probably thinking that I have a terrible sense of direction and would end up in New York, but I'd realize it once I got to Maryland, and would turn around then.

Thoughts I Thought Today

• Even though it's my job to care if two words should be one word or connected with a hyphen, sometimes, I just really, really don't give a damn.
• McDonald's employs lying bastards and I'm a gullible idiot. Exhibit A:
• McDonald's employee: [handing me my order] Quarter pounder with cheese?
• Me: Without cheese?
• Employee: Yes.
• Little voice in my head: You know he's lying.
• Other little voice in my head: Meh, maybe not.
• [15 minutes later at home in my apartment as I'm scraping two slices of American cheese off my quarter pounder] Me: expletive deleted! expletive deleted! expletive deleted!
• American cheese truly sickens me.
• If I ever actually put my belongings where they belonged I wouldn’t know what to do with all the extra time I’d save not looking for my belongings. Most-often misplaced belongings include my:
• Perpetually missing “other” shoe
• Spare iPhone charger
• Earbuds (Which are always at the bottom of my bag, just to the left of where my hand didn’t graze.)
• Sunglasses (Which are always at the bottom of my bag, just to the right of my where my hand didn't graze.)
• Eyeglasses (Which are always on my nightstand yet I insist on fumbling half-blind around my bathroom and bedroom pawing at different surfaces for them. What’s that? Perhaps after 15 years of wearing glasses/contacts I should locate the glasses BEFORE removing the contacts? Well, aren’t you a smug bastard.)
• I'm so grateful for work from home days. So grateful.
• I'm also grateful for blooming cherry blossom and dogwood trees, which are all over my neighborhood.
• This actually isn't sarcasm: I really do need more Carolina blue clothing, specifically, shoes. In picking out clothes for tomorrow's game day, I've already worn it all, twice. Perhaps that's just a pitfall of my team making it to the Sweet 16. (That last part is sarcasm.)
• "Community" is too weird now and "30 Rock" isn't as good as it used to be.

2011 By The Numbers

800+ personal emails sent
694 tweets
323 items watched in Netflix Instant history
262 Pinterest pins
204 listens of the most played song on my iPod (Save Me by Nicki Minaj)
168 Gchat conversations
158 blog posts
55 books read
42 songs bought through iTunes
41 Facebook status updates
37 sub folders in my "2011 Pictures" folder
27 years
20 miles walked each week (if I don't cheat and take bus)
20 albums bought through Amazon
13 plays, ballets, or concerts
11 Amazon orders
11 book club meetings
8 hours in several happy "hours"
6 albums bought through iTunes
6 personal essay classes
5 trips home
5 "I'll be late because of metro" work emails
4 doctor visits
4 major sporting events
3 days in San Francisco
3 days in Pennsylvania
3 haircuts
3 first dates
2 fights in stairwells
2 critiqued essays
2 $35 cab rides
2 natural disasters
1 huge leap
1 bruised heart
1 night at the Carolina Inn
1 telephone number given to a boy on the street
1 suicidal mouse
1 severe burn
1 case of pink eye

Lists of Things

Things about leaving DC that give me a thrill:
• Putting my metro card, work door pass, and work key away, knowing I won't need them for 2 weeks.
• Knowing I won't need my metro or bus apps or bookmarked metro and bus web sites for 2 weeks.

Things I'll miss about D.C.:
• My queen bed
• DVR

Things I hate about travelling:
• My inability to not overpack. (Two suitcases, a book bag, and a purse=100 lbs. of stuff.)
• The travelling public and their inconsiderate slow walking and over sharing phone conversations.

Things I'm looking forward to at home:
• Reclining couches
• Wedding soup
• My parents
• Spending potentially days in my pajamas and glasses without brushing my hair or putting on makeup.
• Spending an hour travelling and ending somewhere that's more than just 10 miles away.

Things I'm looking forward to about my 2 days in Chapel Hill:
• Everything

Things I'm not looking forward to at home:
• Turning almost 30.

The thing I hate most about Union Station:
• The pigeon that just waltzed on by like it belongs here.



Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.

A lot of random and a little leopard

This weekend was the perfect mix of activity and relaxation.

Friday 

• Went to the Kennedy Center to catch their free 6 p.m. performance. They do a free performance every day on their Millennium Stage and I haven't been in awhile. This show was some interpretive dance which was only alright, but I love any chance to do something different.
• Walked back to Foggy Bottom and took the bus to Tenleytown. I'm getting pretty good at navigating the city via bus. It's cheaper and less stressful than the metro and lets me see so much more of the city.
• Called mom while walking from Tenleytown to my apartment since it was a slightly different route than I'm used to. Mom will tell you I got lost but really it was just my bearings that got lost a little when I forgot you have to cross Nebraska before Reno. Obviously.
• Got home, changed into my jammies, and had leftover Chinese food on the couch while watching mindless TV.

Saturday

• Took my time in the morning and then headed out (via bus) to my favorite thrift store. I got a silk blouse for $3 and a brand new Target jacket/top for $12.
• Headed to Friendship Heights to grab lunch (Panera), hunt for Halloween accessories (no luck), and browse some stores (bought nothing). 
• Walked back to the apartment to relax and then shower and get fancy before dinner with Brandie.
• Ate at a great Italian place in Eastern Market where we split a cheese/meat tray and a bottle of wine. I also had spinach cannelloni and tiramisu. Despite stuffing ourselves we were still happy/tipsy enough to have a very enjoyable walk back to her apartment. And thanks to having trouble finding a cab and then ending up on metro anyway, I didn't crash into bed until 2 a.m.
• Took one picture the entire weekend, in the metro, of my new leopard heels. Part of my Mighty Life List is to be comfortable walking in heels. I made myself wear these from the metro to B's apartment, from there to dinner, and then from dinner back to her apartment. My ankles hate me. Though I did switch to flats during the hunt for a cab and yet again lost my shoe in the crosswalk. For the sixth time?

Sunday

• Woke before 9 -- despite not going to bed until 2 and waking up at 4:30 -- and started reading my book for book club.
• Stayed on couch most of day reading my book and watching football. (Though I did clean bathroom and vacuum living room.)

Random tidbits

• My neighborhood gets really into decorating for Halloween. I saw at least five front yard graveyards on Saturday.
• I very strongly dislike Tim Tebow.
• The Saints scored 62 points against the Colts. 62 points in a football game. I still can't believe this.
• Sort of like how Clemson scored 59 points on my Tar Heels. (But at least we also put up 35.)

Things That Happen

These are some things that happen that may or may not make me a terrible grown up.

To see if a shirt is see through, I go around to the different windows in my apartment holding a mirror in natural light to check.

Related: If I'm just running an errand, sometimes I don't care if it's a little see through.

To avoid going to the grocery store, I will walk to a restaurant almost at the grocery store to buy dinner.

Related: I won't make a grocery list but will make a Sephora list.

Instead of hanging up clean clothes after wearing or trying them on, I pile them on the bed to hang them up, and then move them from bed to floor and back for days on end.

Related: Since I wear skirts every other day in the summer, instead of hanging and rehanging, I've been keeping them in a pile by the bed.

Deciding at 9 a.m. that I'm going to have champagne and a cupcake for dinner and being really excited about that choice.

Related: Worrying that outsiders don't understand that I love my life and the choices I've made and that even though it's never pefect, it's where I want to be. And that champagne and a cupcake for dinner is fucking awesome.

Things I Don't Find Annoying This Week

Some good things I'm thinking about this week:

• I missed the awesome Women's World Cup game on Sunday but have seen the replay and was able to catch the last half of today's game. So proud of U.S. women and in particular the Tar Heels on the team.
• Thanks to the odd beauty of Twitter I've re-connected with an old, very good friend. And this makes me very happy.
• The next book I'm going to read is a Diana Vreeland biography. I'm not really into the book I'm currently reading but this is on the shelf to read next.
• I'm headed west in a few weeks to San Francisco for a long weekend with a good friend and I'm getting very excited.
• We had a huge storm today while I was at work and it was incredibly soothing to hear the rain pound on the windows and skylights. And even more soothing when it dropped the temperature by about 20 degrees.
• There really are more things I don't find annoying than things I do find annoying but I'm stopping here because I'm tired.

Things I Find Annoying This Week

This week, I'm finding it annoying:

• When someone refers to a mixed-gender or female-only group of people as "you guys." (To be fair, this bothers me ALL THE TIME.) I don't understand how we've turned "guys" into meaning "guys and gals" or just "gals." I was watching the WOMEN'S World Cup game today and my (male) coworkers kept calling them "guys." THERE ARE ONLY WOMEN ON THE FIELD. HOW HARD IS IT TO SAY LADIES? (They insist that guys doesn't mean just men anymore, but I have to vehemently disagree.)
• That I bought a very nice, not cheap dress from Anthropologie and today, only the second time I've worn it, the hem came out in the back. And in case you don't know already, my daily life doesn't involve gymnastics, pole vaulting, or marathon running; there is no reason why sitting at a desk all day should cause a bum hem.
• For three nights in a row I've been waking up around 4 a.m. because of anxiety dreams. Except the dreams are about things I'm not actually anxious about. And I have A LOT of anxieties, so if I'm going to lose sleep over something, I'd actually prefer it to be something I'm legitimately worried about.
• I have a pair of brown sandals I've had for about 4 years and in the past month or so I've started "falling off" them repeatedly, every time I wear them. I say "falling off" because they are only about a 1/2 inch off the ground.
• That I signed up for Amazon one click ordering at some point and also connected my iTunes to my debit card so that I don't think twice about buying song after song after album after album.
• That last week I went home and have many good things to write about and many pictures to post but instead I'm writing this annoying post. But it feels really good to vent so I hope you all forgive me.

Things I Learned This Weekend

Fridays are still Fridays even without a drink.

Not that I learned that this Friday, but maybe next?

Sometimes you just have to give in and sleep.

I slept outrageously late on Saturday due to not sleeping well Friday night and several other nights in the week because... 

Allergies truly are awful.

As I've whined about before, after moving to D.C. I developed spring allergies. This year they appeared to have cured themselves as I didn't have any trouble. Until this week, however, when in the middle of three record-breaking hot days, I was all sore throat and runny nose.

X Men: First Class is a really good movie.

Despite the allergies, I made myself leave the apartment and decided to see any random movie that was playing, which happened to be the new X Men. I loved the first one, not so much the next two, so I was worried about this one but saw it anyway. I'm glad I did because it was a great distraction and just good fun.

There was no new episode of Friday Night Lights.

At almost midnight on Saturday I finally settled in front of my DVR to watch my beloved FNL. But, gasp! Apparently there wasn't one played due to hockey. (So it wasn't just an NC thing, Mom.) I'm still a very angry Panther/Lion.

Naps in a cool, air conditioned room with hair wet from the pool are the best naps.

Sunday morning/afternoon was spent again by the apartment pool soaking up the sun. I also got in the pool and floated around for a bit, just perfectly content. I had a light lunch of tomatoes soaked in Italian dressing and then took a short nap. Happy summer day.

Things I Learned This (Last) Weekend

The margaritas at Lauriol Plaza are just as strong as I remember.
Friday night I went to dinner with B and K at an old favorite, Lauriol Plaza. Though always loud and busy, the ambiance is great, as is the food and the drinks. I'd vote their margaritas top 3, maybe top top, in D.C. And trust me, I know my margaritas.

Sometimes D.C. is just good fun.
After our margarita and other Dupont adventures we went to a 24-hour diner a few blocks from our apartment to get hot fudge sundaes.

It's not officially summer until you're in your bathing suit by the pool.
The best part of living in a cookie cutter apartment building: the pool. Saturday morning was spent with trashy magazines in the sun by the water.

A 27-year-old can can sometimes be mistaken for a less than 18-year-old.
I went to see "The Hangover 2," got carded, and then was told that I am "way older than you look." More on this at a later date.

Sometimes laundry is better than sleep.
Woke up early Sunday to do laundry, which made me feel very productive. And then very sleepy.

Cuban ballet > all other ballet?
Also on Sunday I went to the Kennedy Center to see the visiting Cuban Ballet's production of "Don Quixote." I believe this makes my sixth ballet and it definitely had some of the most powerful and beautiful dancing I've seen. After each solo the dancer would bow to the audience and the audience clapped and cheered each time.

Things I Learned This Weekend

Baseball is infinitely more entertaining and interesting when there is alcohol involved.
I attended Friday's rainy but fun Nationals game with some coworkers. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've ever been tipsy at a sporting event. Maybe that shouldn't be a surpising fact, but it is, and I'm ok with that.

Living without a roommate for a month has some perks, but nothing beats spending a day with her watching stupid movies and episodes of "Sex and the City."
My roomie's back in town after being gone for awhile.

J Crew makes clothes in the prettiest shade of Carolina blue.
I bought a new summer dress shirt. Though the last thing on Earth I need is another blue dress shirt. I resisted the shorts.

White denim jeans are surprisingly cute on. But very, very white.
I tried on a pair but, in the words of Carrie Bradshaw, "I will never be the woman who can wear white and not spill on it." Accepting our faults is a key aspect of adulthood and that is certainly one of mine. And I embrace it. From a safe distance in my blue denim jeans.

It's possible and preferable to go two weekends in a row without using the metro at all.
Only used my feet or a bus. It was hot and my feet hurt, but I think it was worth it.

A hamburger from Burger King is not the same as a hamburger cooked on the grill.
This was my Memorial Day lunch. I'll make up for the anti-holildayness of it when I go home for the Fourth.

My last name is not the only part of my name that can be grossly misspelled:

I went to Z Burger in Tenleytown and this is how they recorded my name. AFTER I spelled it for them. Who would look at a little baby girl and think, "I know what we shall name her: Bollid! Huzzah!" (Because apparently Bollid is medieval?)

Long time, no write

Well, hello there, three people who still read this. It's been awhile. And here's why:

• A day after writing this homesick-riddled post, the work trip that was keeping me from heading South was cancelled, and a trip home was booked within 10 minutes.
• But the day after booking the trip, I slept 0 hours and developed a cough. I made it to work only to be practically forcefully removed from the building by my officemates because I "looked like shit."
• I was able to rally enough to head home that Friday and spend a glorious 36 hours in the Old North State, soaking up some much-needed family time.
• A day after I got back, still in possession of my Kathleen Turner-esque husky/phlegmy voice and a cough, I also contracted pink eye.
• Yes, pink eye, for the first time in my 27 years. I looked part Terminator and part Black Swan and spent three days in my apartment with my contact limited to a doctor's visit and many visits to CVS.
• Wine and sleep helped alleviate the last vestiges of The Plague and I spent the bulk of the weekend happily in bed watching movies.
• Which was good as the next week was consumed by work to such a degree that I didn't have time to cry, hyperventilate, or drink. Just work.
• The weekend was busy with book club, a movie (Water for Elephants), bottomless mimosa brunch with Brandie, shopping for B, an epic nap, shopping for me on Sunday, and a play. Whew.
• And now we are to this week. Which started off rough as well and has been up and down but manageable. 
• But it's all second tier next to the happenings of this weekend, which starts around 6 p.m. tomorrow when my MOM comes into town! We have grand Royal Wedding watching plans and then general D.C. shenanigans.

It 42% kills me that these bullets are not parallel. But that's a worry for another day.

2010 By the Numbers

Before I get to all the holiday happenings of the past few weeks, here's a quick and painless recap of 2010. In number form. Which is odd, considering how much I hate numbers.

• 333 steps climbed to the top of the National Cathedral bell tower
• 300+ work emails sent
• 250+ metro trips
• 200+ personal emails sent
• 110 blog posts
• 69 inches of snow (Total includes the December 2009 blizzard and NC Christmas snow.)
• 64 applications downloaded to my iPhone
• 50 books read
• 47 sub-folders in my "2010 Pictures" folder
• 26 years under my belt
• 24 dollars made at my pre-moving yard sale
• 17 movies seen in the theatre
• 16 s'more surprise cupcakes
• 12 book club meetings
• 11 orders placed through Amazon
• 11 plays, ballets, or concerts
• 5 celebrity sightings
• 4 seasons watched of Friday Night Lights 
• 3.5 days of jury duty
• 3 sections in the GRE
• 3 trips to new places
• 3 trips home
• 3 apartments visited before finding a new one
• 2 lost SmarTrip cards
• 2 days of photo shoots attended for work
• 2 haircuts
• 1 call to 911 (Not for me or anything to do with me.)
• 1 graduation attended
• 1 sick day
• 1 computer re-formatted by me
• 1 Rally for Sanity
• 1 autographed UNC basketball

And that was 2010, in the most simplified manner imaginable. It wasn't the greatest year ever, but it wasn't the worst year ever either.

One Day I Will:

• Write a post sans bullets.
• Talk about my new apartment.
• Finish decorating my new apartment.
• Take pictures of my new apartment.
• Do two hampers worth of laundry.
• Pay for doing said laundry thanks to no longer having a W/D in my apartment.
• Post about how life stresses are making me regress.
• Stop getting so worked up about certain political viewpoints and events.
• Read every book on my shelf before buying new ones or placing them on hold at the library.
• Probably not stop getting worked up about certain political viewpoints and events.
• Hang up the clothes I don't wear after trying them on in the morning instead of throwing them on the floor or in the hamper to be sorted later.
• Conquer insomnia.
• Eat something before I leave the apartment so I don't get faint on the metro.
• Figure out how to keep my shoes on so I don't lose one three times in one morning on the walk to the metro.
• Not lose said shoe in a crosswalk, for the third time in my life.
• Just be thankful that this stunningly long short-week is over and a pretty-weather weekend is taking its place.

And now I see the long, the short, the middle, and what's in between

I've been in a funk lately, both blogging- and life-wise, so here are some bullet points to wake me up:

• Nothing makes me miss college less than being amongst the throngs of new students shopping at Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. As amazing as college turned out to be, being on the precipice of the unknown--full of shower buckets, mini fridges, and hot pots--was just too scary.
  
• I don't get all the hype about Whole Foods.
• It's weird enough when people my age that I actually know and converse with get married and have kids. But when Carolina basketball players my age do it, it seems even more weird. It's like they're frozen in my head standing outside the dining hall or winning championships, and if they are growing up, it means I should be, too.
• One day I want to walk up to a hipster--decked out in her fedora, neon wayfarers, dress with a too-high waist, and saddleshoes--and just go, "Really? Do you think you look good? Really?"
• My new shampoo and conditioner is making my hair super silky and smooth. I just want to touch it all the time but I think that might be weird.
• When she went to Charlotte recently, my mom bought me some Cherry Lemon Sun Drop, which I brought back here when I was home last weekend. I've been subsisting on it ever since. This may be why it's almost 11 p.m. but I'm wide awake and my fingers are twitching.
• And because this post needs just a little more random, me kissing a Lego Yoda:

When Yoda says, "Kiss me, you must," it's hard to say no.