i so need to get up and get some stuff done. yesterday i was falling asleep on the drive home. i was so tired i pulled into the garage and slept in the car for 15 minutes. mike even came down to get me and i was immovably slumbering with my sunglasses still on. today i came home and sat down on the bed right after i walked in. next thing i know it's 630pm, 3 hours later.

mike and my saturdays are all booked for the whole summer. not necessarily all day things but atleast some event or another for a few hours every saturday until september.

today i saw a mazda commercial and listened just enough to hear their catch phrase...victims vs victors...

mike vacuumed the whole house and mopped the kitchen and the bathrooms today. he always tries to help : ) i'm jealous of his free time these days though i know he has a lot on his mind..

if i could i would live on very very little and not work. learning i don't really need much from the last couple times i went shopping. shopping with gift cards is the best because you go pretty sure that you're gonna get something. but i didn't want anything...no bags, no shoes, no clothes, no nothing. i didn't want anything but to go home and sit.

food network is on and the whole show is about coffee and espresso makers. i made coffee for four years from wee morning hours to wee midnight hours. don't want to see another espresso machine for the rest of my life. making coffee gave me a ganglian cyst on my wrist that wouldn't go away. it's a lump that forms in your joints but protrudes on your wrist. once someone pushed it so hard it deflated under my skin. i've had it aspirated twice with a big hollow syringe and just recently the dr. shot it with a steroid to prevent it's return. today i saw a tiny remnant of another lump forming. i pushed down on it again so hard, i crushed it. sounds gross. it is. but don't imagine it as a pimple, it's under the skin in the joints.

I was thinking at work today that I'm way overstimulated when I'm sitting at my desk. I get in at 5am and people are already talking in the group chat room between our corporate office and the one in New York. I have another IM system between me and people inner-office. My email is full of all the emails that came in after I left work the previous day since everyone at BofA (formerly Countrywide) works sweat shop hours and never stops emailing. My bloomberg messaging system already has a gabillion msgs in it from all the east coast people that came in early, East Coast Time so pre-5am our time. I have a desk phone and and another telephone direct system that connects us to all the direct lines of all the major securities dealers,...it has a tv on it that never turns off and though I have it on mute, the guys around me have it blasting. We have big screen tvs all over the office. I have people sitting two feet to my left, right, front and 5 feet behind me. I check my cell phone and text. And it doesn't help that I have 3 monitors glaring back at me all day.

I'm not terribly busy all the time, but with all the communication channels I'm connected to while I sit in that office chair, one thing is for sure...if you need me, pick one of 8 ways to reach me. It's no wonder I have anxiety issues.

On a more peaceful note, all of that makes coming home and doing dishes and laundry so therapeutic.

I haven't posted since end of 2008 and it's already march 2009, soon to be April. At this time last year we had already gone to 7 or so weddings. It's been way less busier and life is nice and peaceful. So far this year I've....

1) been focusing on taking care of myself a little better. I've been trying to get more sleep and we joined a gym. I go to this hip hop dance workout class and the instructor told us that we're burning 600 to 700  calories per one hour class. Is that real???...because when I run on the elliptical for 15 minutes it only burns 75-ish. I'd much rather be dancing.

2) been loving that Mike and I are over the whole arguing about every little detail of how we do certain things around the house phase of being newlyweds. Does that sound so bad? I don't know if all newly weds go through this but I have a feeling I was a little extra OCD and anal compared to others. Now home is truly the haven it's supposed to be and we've always loved our time together but now we're getting used to our differences.......well except when I want to watch ANTM and he wants to watch UCLA.

3) been thinking about the relationships I haven't been so great at maintaining. Friends/family that I really, really love and think about all the time but don't know how to approach because it's been so long or we haven't had meaningful time to catch up. And there are other friends that I feel like I don't have to talk to all the time or tell everything to and we can still be friends that I just miss. Maybe because the weather is getting nicer and I'm not so all consumed with staying in and staying warm.

4) been learning a lot of valuable things about perspective and changing the wrong ones that I've had my whole life on certain things and finding it refreshing that this change starts with repentance and that I can grow by a power greater than my own. If I could do it myself, I'd have done it a long time ago hence the frustration and relief. I've known this but I feel like it's really taking root in my desire to grow and the evidence is honestly a happiness that I really feel. I've been so high strung for so long, learning how to let go is so welcomed.

5) been regretting that I didn't take more pictures during my trips to Thailand, Turkey and Korea. Mike got me a new camera because our other old, clunky one mysteriously disappeared and am itching to travel some.

6) been looking forward to what the rest of this year will bring. I'm turning 29 this year and I feel like I'm in a good place. I'm incredibly happy being a witness to all the changes in the lives of friends/family around me since we're in this transitional stage of our lives where people are achieving career goals, getting married or having kids. And I think that though it can be rough and uncertain that God's faithfulness proves itself over and over again which is exciting.

 I'm at school waiting for class to start. I slept for thirty minutes in the car and am eating a spicy italian sub from subway. Gotta love the five dollar footlong. I can't believe Thanksgiving is gone and we await Christmas just right around the corner. I worked the day after thanksgiving this year and it wasn't too bad at all. Our cousins come over on thanksgiving and hang out. This year they, including Mike did an all-nighter then headed to the apple store. I went to bed early to get up for work. I woke up in the middle of the night (maybe 2am) and didn't hear any voices. Mike wasn't in bed so I thought he must have fallen asleep downstairs. I got up to check on him and found to my surprise, every single person was still there, playing cards or scrabble but all whispering. I thought it was so cute and kind of them and I really appreciated it.

I haven't posted since October and the pictures are a little old now but what the hey. Pretty much for the past few months I've just been doing stuff for Jane's wedding. We threw her a bridal shower with a honeymoon theme, they were planning to go to Thailand.

Ellen and I have made it a weird habit to stay up until 3am doing stuff whenever we plan anything. It's fun but I'm old.

And this is the best entry to a veil contest I've seen ever....so creative...all out of tissue paper.

For her bachelorette party we took a dance class, hung out in a hotel...

went to Taste on Melrose for dinner...

(that wasn't my dish but dang did it look good)

and had a girls night out...

Pictures from the big day....I saw two other wedding parties of people I knew at Hair Day that day. It's kind of fun running into people but awkward at the same time. Hair Day is a bridal-party-making-over factory...This one of Ellen is cute I'll spare you pictures when the hair is all psycho-teased. I never knew why they always start with the teasing. Prisoner of the alien-drying thing...

After the salon we went to the brand library to take pictures. The beautiful bride on the way there.

That's me....like the wind...

The bridal party set up a candy/dessert buffet for her and though it caused me much stress, it turned out quite lovely.

I offered this ah-juh-shee some lemon drops in his bag and he said, "We only want the expensive candy." hahaha. Then he went for the Andes mints. But they cost about the same...ummm...

Here's the happy couple...

and I love this candid picture of Jane's sister fixing her veil...I'm not sure why, it makes me happy : )

I wish them lots of happiness together.

More recently we celebrated Donna's birthday, nice and cozy with just three of us.

Other than special occasions, I don't get out much at all. It's been kind of nice though. I'm getting into the holiday spirit and hoping this next year is really an amazing one. I need to make a resolutions list before January otherwise it'll never happen. I need to exercise. Please don't let me be so out-of shape, lethargic next year. I don't know who I'm asking that to, maybe everyone who reads this xanga collectively...like two of you?