Saturday, January 8, 2011

2011 - I have mixed feelings about it

I'd like to send out my sincerest apologies to my 4 dedicated readers and 8 dedicated stalkers: I've been away far too long. I've neglected you. But if it's any consolation - I've been thinking about you a lot.

Unfortunately, I've only been able to think about you for the last week, because our internet has been down at our house for most of the week. Blurgle-flurgle!

But I have a lot to tell you. My Christmas Vacation at favorite sister Abby's house was fabulous, and on New Year's Eve, we decided to make a little list of everything we needed to tell you. I don't know where that list is now, but I think I remember it rather well. Abby, you can remind me of anything I miss, deal? Deal.

But so far, I'm not so sure how I feel about this year. It seems rather balanced - but not in like a smooth-sailing, good flow sort of way. More of a "for every action, there is an equal reaction" kind of deal. Here's how it started:

New Year's Day
12:10am: Abby and I are playing our first Yahtzee game of the New Year (a new year's tradition that we started last new year's eve/day - yahtzee to send out the old and bring out the new. I'm a fan of it.), and I roll a yahtzee with 4's. We're pretty sure it's the 1st yahtzee rolled in the whole world in 2011, but since we're one of the last parts of the world to hit New Year's, we settle for it being the 1st yahtzee in the United States, at least.
NYD, 12:19am: I roll my 2nd yahtzee, in the same game, this time with 5's. Abby and I are pretty excited about this great omen of good things to come in my year.
NYD, 12:21: I roll 3 6's. I don't need 6's, 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind, or anything that 3 6's would be useful for. But it's a good roll, so I tell Abby I'm going for my 3rd yahtzee, giggle giggle. Two rolls later, I have my 3rd yahtzee - of the SAME game! - now with 6's. I've officially regained my "dice whisperer" status of my 12-year-old days.
*I end the game with 484 points, doubling my lowest score on that pad of paper. Abby and I are pretty confident that 2011 is going to be my year. After spending a little more time planning my wedding (well, it's my year, yeah?), looking at potential dresses, and trying to sell Abby on the lime green pantsuit she will be wearing with the rest of my bridesmaids, we go to bed, content with the start of 2011.

Then I have to go home that afternoon. I'm so bummed about it, and the weather is beautiful, which earns it some choice curse words from my thoughts - how can a flight home be cancelled when it's 56 degrees and sunny?

I spend my evening travelling - 2 flights broken up with a 3-hour layover to keep busy with. I'm really tired and a little bit grumpy, but all is well, and I make it home. I'm starting to feel a little better about everything, and I'm fully appreciative of roommates who were willing to drive an hour to pick me up at the airport at 11:45pm. We get some delicious Dennys for "dinner" and head home. My spirits are improving and I am once again feeling really good about 2011.

Then I walk into our house...to a disaster sight. Next to our door, our fridge stops its swing, and our microwave greets me across the front room. The stove is hiding on the other side of the fride, not wanting to be too far from the kitchen.

Our kitchen is being completely renovated, which is awesome, right? Not when you already live in a shoebox, and all your kitchen belongings now reside in your closet-sized front room, and you have to walk through the kitchen everytime you want to go to your room.

Plus, I found a giant spider in my room again - twice. Some welcome home, Nature.

It will eventually look really nice. But this last week - the week of the biggest messes, change-ups, and noisy work - has been probably the worst 1st week of a new year that I've ever experienced. The work is very slow-going, and our homeowner's dad is the person doing all the work, and he starts his work at 6am and sometimes doesn't stop until about 11:30pm. I can't be angry at him, because I really appreciate all the work he's doing to make it go faster. But I am angry in general - it just has no direction to be thrown at. I went from such a high from being at Abby's house and loving life, to quite a low from never wanting to be at my house and hating the chaos all around me. My mind feels scattered - the chaos in my house (it's so dirty, everywhere!) has planted itself in my brain, and it goes with me everywhere. So work was also a bit of a challenge this week as well.

I've been carrying that around a lot, so it feels good to really unload (sorry, I know that wasn't quite the pick-me-up you might've preferred to get...), but unfortunately, it doesn't get rid of the feelings. It just makes me feel like now other people get to carry those feelings with me. So thanks for wallowing with me a little bit, it makes me feel good having company.

Well dangit, I have so many other posts to work on, and I fear I've scared you away by writing too much here. But 2011 has started in such a strange fashion. I'm just not sure what to think of it. But I'm still determined that this is MY year. I'm going to make it MY year. I'll report back.

In the meantime, enjoy the following (below) & upcoming (to come) happier posts. Don't worry, good stuff is coming - my present to you after this mess of a kitchen brain brought you down a little.

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