What a year....

The new year is almost upon us. I have to say that 2008 was full of ups and downs. What started off to be a pretty rocky year with "the break up", ended up being pretty damn good.

I'm very happy. Living with my partner Steven, whom I love more then anything. My health continues to be incredible. I never go hungry. My weight tells me that. I buy things that I want (within reason of course). We take trips around the US (ok, mainly Disneyland lately, but going to be in San Francisco next year for pride). And I have a job, which is a lot that many people now a days can't say.

I try not to dwell on the bad things. It doesn't do any good other then cause unwanted stress. Although I am pissed that my 401K lost 750 bucks this year. Stupid economy.

I hope that all of my readers can say the same, that 2008 was overall a good one. Life isn't ever going to be without it's struggles, but it's all how we handle it, learn from it and move on.

I learned to let a lot of things go this past year. Learned to love myself again. Learned what it is to be loved and to truly love someone in return. I learned who my true friends are and which ones will be around for years to come. I also learned the true nature of some 'friends'. Sometimes, you just have to clean house.

I also learned that man cannot live by Kenneth Cole alone. *sigh*

Here's to saying goodbye to 2008 and to a wonderful 2009!

Be safe and don't drink and drive.

My Warped Family

It doesn't take much to entertain my family. My niece got a new Apple laptop and she started playing around with the webcam program. This went on for an hour or more. I've never seen my brothers laugh so much as I did then. It was like they were little kids or something.

After spending an hour or more making funny faces, we retired to the downstairs area to play Guitar Hero. They have drums, base, guitar and vocals. I have tons of video of us all playing various rock songs and even a few of me singing. I haven't decided if those will ever see the light of day or not.

So far, my time home with the family has been very nice. Many family members had to spend this years Christmas with the spouses family, so our crowd was very small. We missed the other family members a lot, but had a good time despite the fact.

I hope you all have been having a wonderful Holiday with your real or extended families.

Happy Holidays!

Busy up until the last moment

We spent spent Friday night grabbing some dinner, shopping for movies and then home for a relaxing evening. Saturday we headed to Steven's parents house for the Floyd's side of the family Christmas. I'm SO not use to this whole other family thing for the holidays. I'm actually quite nervous, quiet and shy in these situations. Steven's sister gave birth the day before Thanksgiving, so everyone was pawing at her trying to spend some time with the new baby, Emerson.

While running around town, we decided to pick up Max a few things for Christmas. He needs toys too! It only took him one hour to totally destroy this huge hotdog shaped stuffed animal and have stuffing thrown all over the entire loft. THIS is why we don't buy him nice things. Here's a couple of pictures. I realized that I haven't shown a picture of our baby in quite some time. He's gotten a little heavier and much thicker then before. He's really become quite the well behaved, good dog. Except when he's given new toys.

Don't go shopping at places that sell Christmas decorations this late in the year. Everything is way over 50% and one store we walked into was 75% off. We ended up stocking up for next year and even bought a new $300 tree for only $80! Of course, we get home and after visiting Disneyland a couple weeks ago and seeing all the amazing decorations, we ended up tearing down the old one and putting up the new and improved.

In two days, I'll be hopping in the car and driving 9 hours home to Nebraska. I hope this trip is better then last year when I got stuck in a horrible blizzard and had to stay at some cheesy roadside Hotel for a day and a half. It look like weather is going to cooperate except for the temperatures in the single digits.

I'm sure I'll be posting one more time before I head out.

*sigh* I just want things back to normal

I'm tired. First of let me say that I'm very fortunate to still have a job. Working in the mortgage industry as you know, can be a touchy situation. You never know from mont to month whether or not you'll still have a job. So many of my friends have been laid off. Not just a few people, but 75% of staff have been let go. There's no end in sight to this sort of work atmosphere. I know that things will get back to normal, but it's a matter of when.

Since we laid so many people off, that means the rest of us take on all of the workload. Same amount of clients, same amount of work, fewer people. I feel like my job is my life lately. I get up at 6am, drive an hour to work, work 8 hour days, no lunch (so that makes it 9 hours), often have to work late, drive an hour or more in traffic home. Often, I have to come home and sign back on for a production release for us or one for the client. Not once but often twice or three times a week. Last night was a conference call for the client that lasted from 9:30 until 12:45am. I did nothing but sit on the phone listening to them test. I just had to be there just in case. But over 3 fucking hours. Sunday, I get to do it all over again.

I come home too tired to do anything. I want to nap all the time. Too tired to go see a movie, run errands, grab dinner with friends. Too tired to get on here to put up a post.

I can't get that song Madeline Kahn sang in the movie Blazing Saddles. Great. Going to be running through my head all day.

"I'm.....so.........tired......." *insert speach impediment*

Crazy weather

It seems that almost everyone around the country is experiencing some sort of sever weather. The northeast is getting covered in ice, the north west is getting covered in snow. It's snowing in places that haven't seen snow since Jebus was a child. Did you hear that it snowed in Las Vegas today? I mean, what the fuck? Houston and New Orleans even got a layer of white stuff recently.

The end times are coming.

We've had our typical icey day on Tuesday. I got to stay home, wear my pj's and watch all the daytime shows while working. I wish I could do that every day.

But the weather we're having is depressing. One day we're sitting outside on the patio with a cool 70 degee, sunny day and the next day it's a high of 32, windy and cloudy. Today it's suppose to get back up in the 70's and by the weekend, it will be freezing again. No wonder Steven and I have been battling the sniffles the past month.

But lately, we've dealt with dense fog. We only live 3 blocks from downtown, yet when you look out our front door, downtown doesn't exist. Nothing but grey. Not even the faint sight of buildings or lights. I find fog to be depressing.

This shit needs to roll out.

And could SOMEONE tell me why the fuck blogger won't allow me to put spaces in between paragraphs consistently!!!?????? Argh!

What is today, the 14th? Damn. It's like I totally forgot I had a blog. Sorry for the brain fart. Someone reminded me tonight that I hadn't updated my blog since before Steven and I left for Disneyland.

Well, we made it to Disneyland last weekend and had one of the most amazing times. Being the big Disneydorks that we are, I can't tell you how amazing it was to see the place during the Holidays. Absolutely beautiful. We couldn't stop wandering around with our mouths wide open, staring at everything. If you ever thought the place was magical before, visit during the Holidays.

During the three days, we got to see all of our favorite attractions numerous times, ate at our favorite restaurants, visit both parks and buy way too much stuff. We had to work carefully at packing our luggage so we wouldn't have to mail shit home. That's pretty bad.

It wasn't until the final night when it was snowing (snow machines) on Mainstreet after the Holiday fireworks. We were wandering around, staring at the castle when Steven we suggested we go to the Wishing Well by Sleeping Beauty's Castle. It was so romantic. There's even a pic of our new rings on the Well.

Click here for a link to about 200 of the best photo's out of the 750 that we took.

Busy Busy Busy

I know we all probably say this every year, but damn how time has been flying. I can't believe we're in December already and soon it will be over before you know it. This year definitely has been a year full of ups and downs. I'm just happy that it's going to be ending on the up side of things it seems. I won't get into a year in review or anything like that. Save that for another day. We have the month of December to live through.

Speaking of which, I've been busy. We've been busy. Every weekend, we have some sort of dinner or party to go to. Mix shopping and getting ready for our trip to California and my trip home into everything else. Plus, I've been spending most of my nights drawing portraits for a few people on commission. Nice extra cash during this time of year, that's for sure.

Luckily, I only have a few gifts to buy so I don't have to tackle the Malls.

With the mortgage crisis still looming over everyones heads, I'm glad that I still have a job. So many rumors. You never know what to think about your own company or your own position.

Crossing my fingers.