I can see!!

(Check out both posts from today!)

So, I think everyone in the family is aware that sometime between Christmas and New Years, I lost my glasses. Everyone in the family searched through their stuff and through the van looking for them for me but to no avail. What is funny though is that it took me a good two weeks or so to realize I didn't know where they were.

Not having glasses is especially discouraging to me because I spend my day at work looking at a computer screen and it strains my eyes after several days without my glasses. I don't need my glasses for general living, only really for intensive reading or if I am really tired, which I think explains why I didn't notice not having them for so long since it was Christmas/New Years and I wasn't working very much. However, after a few days of being back at work, my eyes were killing me and I had constant headaches, it was really hard to get any work done at all, however I kept holding out because I figured they would turn up somewhere, but no such luck.

So, after about a week of suffering, I called the eye doctor and made an appointment. My choices were that current day in about 20 minutes, or more than two weeks later, so I took the one that day, even though I knew I had no prayer of making it to the appointment on time (it takes about 15 minutes to drive there minimum and I wasn't even dressed yet as I called first thing after waking up before going to work). I had called the place where I got my last pair of glasses and they sent me my prescription since I had never been to an eye doctor without my old glasses and I didn't want them to have to start fresh with a new prescription since I knew what worked pretty well. I got to the appointment late (of course) and had to wait about an hour/hour and half for them to squeeze me in, but I really didn't have a choice because I could not work without them. Once I picked out the frames I wanted, I asked the woman how long it normally takes for them to come in and she said "about 5 to 7 business days" and my heart sank (I've always gotten my glasses the same day before). I told her how desperate my situation was and that I really needed them as soon as humanly possible so she put a rush order on them to be ready in two days. So off I went back to work with no glasses.

Two days later I went back to the eye doctor to pick up my new glasses and I LOVE THEM!!! Here is a picture with me wearing them (I had to do about ten takes with my camera set on auto timer before I got a half-way decent picture). The frames are the type that only surround half the lens, so there is no frame on the bottom. Also, the sides (which can't be seen in the picture) have little pattern details on them that I really like. Here they are:


If you look at the left side of the picture, you will notice that my Christmas tree is still up. And also, I thought I'd announce that I just took my Christmas lights down from my balcony about ten minutes before taking the picture. I think I'll leave the tree up.

January trip to AA

I know this is a few weeks late since this trip was about three weeks ago, but I just wanted to post some pictures from the weekend. I was there Thursday-Sunday and got to see lots of friends again, although it snowed the ENTIRE time I was there, it was my first time seeing snow this year!

Thursday night, Scott (lifetime family friend if you are not in the know) was there, whom I had not seen since his return from studying abroad in Budapest, or for a while even before that, so that was really exciting. We went to Mitch's (let's not talk about how pasty I look compared to Scott, who just spent a week on a beach in southern Florida:

Friday night, we went out to dinner at Cafe Habana with Matt's sister, Kim. It was really fun to see her and catch up. Later that night, my friend and her housemates had a party attended by almost all of my friends who are still in AA. This picture is with my friends Aaron (left) and Austin (right):


Roommate!!

The next night, one of my best friends from high school and college (and former roommate in West Quad), Sara, came in to town from Toledo (where she is attending medical school, I know, she's a smarty pants) and we made it out to the Brown Jug and Charley's (completing the South U bar crawl scene) and actually ran in to a bunch of people that I went to elementary/middle/high school with, some of whom I had not seen since high school graduation. Then we made it to yet another party where I knew pretty much nobody except the group I came with:

It was a busy weekend and I have to say, I've already lost some of the stamina I had in college. I could do three day weekends every week with no problem, but this one was a little bit of a struggle...I guess I am growing up :)

Sunday morning I got to see my family because we went to my aunt and uncle's house in AA to celebrate Christmas, and since my aunt is a spectacular cook, those visits are always superb!

Sorry it took me so long to write this post up!

The wonderful world of SkyMall

I went to Ann Arbor last weekend and on the flight, I was doing my usual skymall catalog perusal and came across this item for sale:

This of course immediately reminded me of the Snuggie commercials we had all been watching over Christmas break, so I had to take a picture of it. Then, I decided it would be hilarious to take pictures of the most ridiculous things I saw for sale in the catalog. Later on, I was talking to mom about what I had done, and she suggested I make a blog post about it, which hadn't even occured to me, but I thought was a brilliant idea, so here goes. O, and for those of you who may not have realized, here is what the text actually says in this ad: "Until now "Footed Pajamas" have been typically hard to find in adult sizes. Well, your search is over!!! World famous Jumpin Jammerz are great for dancing, goofing around and let's not forget sleeping too. Jumpin Jammerz makes a great gift for that hard-to-shop for person. Perfect for pre-teens, teenagers, adults and even you!" If that is not blogging gold, I do not know what is...

Well, I guess this stuff is (you have to click on the images to truly appreciate their madness/read the hilarious descriptions):

Is that really large, cheap, crappy looking piece of plastic on your front lawn actually a massive boulder?? You could have fooled me!


If I saw someone sitting next to me on a plane with one of these things, I think I would die laughing, even if he is sleeping comfortably and I'm stuck sitting between two people I don't know

Worried about people seeing your cat's litter box? Don't worry, just get this fake planter/litter box hybrid and no one will ever know...aside from the smell taking over your entire living room...

This was just cute, and also kinda funny. Imagine how Kody would like to be stuffed in a roller bag

Who would not want a "Bigfoot: the garden yeti" sculpture in their front lawn?

Same comment for this one except for replace "Bigfoot: the garden yeti" with "alien gnome bandits!" And in case you are wondering, the ceramic gnome is included, in two sizes, 8" and 15"!!


This is just absolutely utterly ridiculous looking

Too cool for a hearing aid? Why not get this hearing aid disguised as a blue tooth device! You will be able to hear AND look like a bad ass grandpa


Yeah, right...

That managed to take up most of the duration of my flight, so that was good. Does anyone else enjoy skymall as much as I do??

NYE in DC!!

After Christmas, I came back to DC and Matt came to visit for NYE and the weekend!! We went to my friend John's place in DC for the beginning of NYE and watched some movies/tv and played games the start the evening. John's friend's fiance is a chef at the four seasons hotel, so since it was only a few blocks from where we were, we decided to go there for the countdown and post-ball dropping festivities. We got lots of free hats and headbands that said "happy new years" and they also gave everyone free champagne at midnight! We had a really good time and the bar was surprisingly uncrowded and the best part, there was no cover charge! We were worried about being able to get in to a bar that night because places required pre-purchased tickets or very steep cover charges, so this worked out great.

Then Matt got to stay for the rest of the week and weekend, which was awesome, it is so much nicer when we get to have longer visits. We mostly hung out hermit style on the couch watching Lost or other movies from Christmas and playing with our new Christmas presents. We each got each other ipods without knowing it, so we had alot of fun playing with them! It was a really fun weekend that went by too fast. Tomorrow it is back to the grind after two easy two-day work weeks in a row.

Happy 2009 everyone!

Christmas in Florida!

So, I'm going a little out of order here, I know I already did a new years eve post, but I'm doing Christmas now and then another new years eve one later because it is my blog and I can.

I went to Florida for Christmas and got to see the family, including the star of the show (and really the only person anyone cared about seeing), my niece Leili! She is such a bundle of cuteness, it is almost too much to take. I took lots of pictures until my camera battery died about 10 minutes in to Christmas morning, luckily, mom was nice enough to let me use her camera and pictures.

We were all (meaning me, sister, brother, sister-in-law, mom, dad, niece, grandma, and grandpa) there for 4 days, from Christmas eve until Sunday the 28th and had a great time. We did lots of movie watching and game playing, including (what I think is becoming) the annual family poker game, and some new games, including scattergories and apples to apples.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures from the visit: