Everyone else is doing it...NYE

So another year is coming to a close in a few short hours (it is already 2010 in many parts of the world).

I have heard many people say they did not enjoy 2009 and are happy to see it go. I am not one of them. While I always enjoy seeing what is in store for the new year, I do not hate 2009 nor do I even dislike 2009. In fact, I even kind of enjoyed 2009 quite a bit.

It was a big year for me and several close friends. My best friend got married. My brother and his fiance bought a house. My little baby brother moved out into his very own apartment. And I bought a house.

I BOUGHT a house!

I honestly never thought a house would be in my future until I was married and was buying with someone else. Or I would be a lot older than I am now if I was buying it on my own. But I did it, it really happened.

I learned more about myself and who I am and what I want out of life and relationships.

My family and friends are all happy and healthy this year.

I have a lot to be grateful for in 2009. To those who are ready to usher out 2009 and the bad juju. Here is to hoping 2010 is the year of your dreams!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Christmas has ended at my house

Christmas is over :( The dark nights are no longer filled with festive bright spots, the music on the radio has gone back to the "everyday", there are no more presents to buy or wrap or unwrap.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and survived the mandatory family time. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and we always laugh when we are together, yet because we know each other so well we know exactly which buttons to push to get an exact reaction. And sometimes even though you know, YOU KNOW, you shouldn't push that big flashing red button...you can't help yourself. And you push it with a smug little smile on your face and watch whichever family member you have singled out, completely implode. Generally for me it is one of my two brothers. And just as they are my favorite targets, I am theirs.

Maybe it's because we don't drink at our family get togethers (my mom is a recovering alcoholic and it is just easier to not drink at all then have the temptation laying around for her). So because we don't have drunken antics to entertain ourselves, we create other drama.

Ahhh, the holidays.

I am still amazed that it is almost 2010. Seriously where have the last 10 years gone? Do you all have exciting New Year's plans? Jen and I are planning on having a Wii party at her house. I plan to kick some serious Wii bowling ass!

I am ready for the nights to get shorter.

I am ready for payday.

I am ready for my 5 day weekend starting on Wednesday.

I am also ready for my TV shows to return. I miss Glee and Modern Family, oh and Castle.

But mostly I am ready for this horrendous headache to go away. I feel like my head is about to explode, I think that might actually hurt less than the headache I have right now.

And on that note, I am getting off the computer because it hurts to concentrate on it.

Good night lovelies and I hope you all had a great holiday and have a fabulous New Year!

***GO VANDALS!***

Only suckers work on Christmas Eve

There once was a girl named E and she drank way too much coffee.

She braved the cold and fog and dark and come into the office to work the day before Christmas (she was a saint like that).

The office was dead quiet, not a keyboard was typing or a phone a ringing. Not a worker was stirring…well maybe a mouse or two were scurrying (there has been a mouse problem in the office).

She was bored to tears and wished to be home, so instead of actually working she played on the Facebook and read blogs and wrote blogs. All while wishing she was sipping rum spiked eggnog (except she doesn’t like eggnog), curled on the couch with a Jackie snuggled alongside her, Mike sitting next to her with his arm around her and presents spread before her.

Merry Christmas!

It must be in the water

My best friend got married in August.

My best friend from high school just got engaged last month.

A coworker turned good friend got engaged two weeks ago.

A great friend from college became engaged this past weekend.

Another friend from college is getting married on the 30th.

My brother and his fiancé are getting married this April.

Is anyone else sensing a theme? Yeah, me too.

I can taste my envy. But it doesn’t mean I am not still super excited for everyone. I am. I just want to have that too. My heart hurts when I hear the excitement from my friends. I want it so badly. But I am still so happy for all of them and I swallow my yearning, plaster a smile on my face and become their biggest cheerleader! Because my joy for them has nothing to do with my own desires. Even as my heart aches for me, it swells with elation for all of them!

I want to get married, have the stress and excitement of planning a wedding, the thrill of trying on dresses, and the yumminess of cake tasting. But most importantly I want to start building and creating a life and future with my partner. I want to have children and create our own memories and traditions. I want to have setbacks and overdrawn checking accounts and grey hairs caused by our children and the stress they bring, but still know that we love each other and can weather these storms.

Mike and I have been together a little over 2 years. They have not always been the smoothest two years and we have had to overcome several MAJOR obstacles. We have lived together and apart. And we love each other.

There have been times when I thought...we will get married one day, I just need to give him time. And then there have been moments where I thought...we will never get married and I need to just cut my losses already (my ovaries aren’t getting any younger!).

But relationships are complicated. When you think you will be together forever something happens and rattles your confidence. Other times you are convinced your relationship is entering its final act, but you’re so wrong. Relationships are never simple, easy to explain, things. Especially when people’s emotions are involved.

This past weekend, at the Santa Pub Crawl I had a little bit to drink. A smidge if you will. And I drunkenly asked Mike if he thought we were going to get married. Without hesitation he replied, "Yes." **

Wha...’scuse me? How much did I drink?!

Let’s just say that Mike is not the poster child for commitment. He is committed now, but it was a journey. And in the past whenever I have asked him about marriage or the future, he has hemmed and hawed and the subject was quickly changed.

When he answered yes without even thinking, my aching heart gave a little lurch.

Who knows what will happen or when/if we will get married or engaged. But knowing that it is something Mike has thought about and sees happening, has my heart smiling and hoping.

**Mike clarified that that was NOT a marriage proposal :)

Santas crawl

The Santa Pub Crawl was quite the hit! I had a great time, drank too much, and bragged repeatedly about my homemade dress.

I mean, if you make a dress and people tell you how much they like it throughout the night, then you have every right to brag your little heart out!

I hope everyone has a fabulous week leading up to Christmas and all your presents are bought and wrapped and your family get togethers are filled with laughter and not too much yelling.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

See, I can do crafty things

So originally I was going to try and make the yarn wreath created by Gabby over at gabby, she wrote (you should totally go check out her balls). Except I couldn't find all the necessary supplies and I kind of gave up (Michael's failed me). Yeah, that's right, I gave up...for a minute. I might try again this weekend because I have discovered the essential piece of the puzzle - an 8 in metal wreath frame.

I found it at Joann Fabrics.

And I was at Joann Fabrics because when I couldn't find everything for the wreath I decided to make a dress. Yes a dress!

This Friday is the Santa Pub Crawl. Who doesn't think that sounds fun? Dressing up as Santa and meander from bar to bar and sing naughty Christmas Carols.

Except I couldn't find an outfit that did leave my butt flapping in the breeze and me looking like a sausage in the skin tight dress. When the brilliant idea of making my own dress came to me.

Here's the finished product. I am quite impressed!

Yada yada yada

I am tired and cranky. And the smallest things have the ability to irritate me at the moment.

I am nerdishly excited about Sing Off. Like, super nerdy excited. Want to jump around my living room excited (my dog thinks I am crazy).

My mom bought my dog a pirate outfit. 'Cause she thinks things like that are funny like I do. He looks hilarious.

My cat might eat my face off while I am sleeping if don't start managing to feed her at the right time in the evening. I seriously fear for my life.

Cereal for dinner sometimes makes me happy. It's the simple things.

I am going to attempt to make cookies tomorrow. I say attempt because I still need to go to the store, but right now that just seems overwhelmingly exhausting so, we will see how I feel tomorrow.

And that's all I got. Peach out, yo.

Oh and P.S. I called my boyfriend to chat, hadn't talked to him all day...he quickly got off the phone because he was busy playing WoW. Awesome.

To blog or not to blog...

Do you ever have something you are struggling with? Trying to figure out what to do? There are thoughts chasing each other around in your head and you can't grasp one before the next one is there, shoving it's way into your brain. And you just know that blogging about it would really help and getting comments from readers might help you see the light. It just might point you in the right direction and help you actually make a decision.

But you don't blog about it?

Because you know some of the people who actually read your blog. They are real life people who are your friends or family or partner (not that you all aren't "real people" too). And your intention in blogging is not to hurt anyone's feelings. You just want to work through whatever it is you are struggling with.

I am feeling confused about somethings in my life right now and I just want to let it all out. But I can't. Because I know who reads my blog and I love them and wouldn't want to hurt them just so I could work through my "issues".

Please send good juju my way and hopefully everything will just work itself out!

Interview with Aunt Becky

Aunt Becky over at Mommy Wants Vodka is having a give away on her blog and one of the ways to be entered is to answer her most awesome questions and post them on my own blog. And I kind of want to win so, here ya go! You're welcome.



1) Do you like sprinkles on your ice cream?

Nah, not really. I like my ice cream pretty plain or maybe with chocolate syrup (I also just about spelled chocolate wrong. How can I call myself a fat kid?!)

2) If you had to choose one word to banish from the English language, what would it be and why?

Well I really like words so this is hard for me, well except for the taboo words. We could get rid of those, but then people would just create new ones. Okay I really dislike cunt, so we can get rid of that one.

3) If you were a flavor, what would it be?

Sarcasm, oh wait that’s not a flavor (but it should be, sweet in the mouth, bitter in the heart).

4) What’s the most pointless annoying chore you can think of that you do on a daily/weekly basis?

Making the bed. I mean seriously, I am going to mess it up in less than 12 hours. What’s the point?

5) Of all the nicknames I’ve ever had in my life, Aunt Becky is the most widely known and probably my favorite. What’s your favorite nickname? (for yourself)

Perky. Apparently I was a really happy child and one of my little friends couldn’t pronounce Erica (it’s a 3 syllable word and that’s hard for the little peeps to handle when they are first learning to talk, yo) so he called me Erky. My nickname quickly became Perky Erky. As I got older the Erky seemed to drop off and now my mom and a few close friends from childhood call me Perky. Or Perks or Perkster, etc you get the idea. And it is also the reason for the name of my blog.

6) You’re stuck on a desert island with the collective works of 5 (and only five) musical artists for the rest of your life. Who are they?

*Mariah Carey
*Rascal Flatts
*Michael Jackson (although I would only listen to his older stuff)
*Stevie Wonder
*Britney Spears (SHUT THE HELL UP! She is entertaining and makes me smile and if I am stuck on a desert island I want some upbeat dance music.)

7) Everything is better with bacon. True or false?

True, but as a Jew I am pretty sure I am supposed to say no because bacon isn’t kosher. Good thing I don’t keep kosher! Phew!

8 ) If I could go back in time and tell Young Aunt Becky one thing, it would be that out of chaos, order will emerge. Also: tutus go with everything. What would you tell young self?

Relax, don't be so serious. And study aboard in college, take that extra year in school, you will never regret it and lots of people take more than 4 years for one degree, let alone two.

I like shiny things :)

Jen and I survived Black Friday. We were up at the crack of dawn...wait, no, it wasn't even close to dawn when we were up. It became dawn as we were wrapping up our adventure. We set out at 3:30 am, armed with coffee and an agenda.

We hit 8 stores in 5 hours, including drive time and breakfast and coffee stops. And we managed to find everything on our list. We also decided that Wal-Mart is not worth it for the most part. We found the stuff we were looking for in the most random places in Wal-Mart, but we found them relatively quickly and then spent about 45 minutes in line waiting to check out, lame. Wal-Mart took us the longest and Home Depot was our quickest and most impressive store. It opened at 6am, we walked up to the door as they were opening them, slipped in through the exit, found an associate to help us find exactly what we were looking for, and checked out at customer service. It took a whooping 7 minutes! *ARM PUMP*

I have to say, that although I am not normally a fan of rising before the sun on any occasion I did enjoy Black Friday. It was fun. And we will probably do it again next year. And the KEY is to have a list and plan out which stores to hit at certain times.

Then on Sunday I hung up my Christmas lights outside. There was some arguing between myself and Mike, but in the end they were put up and all are straight and the timer is working.

And as Jen says...Nothing says the Hauks (pronounced hawk like the bird yo) like Christmas lights on the house and Hanukkah "shit" in the window. Aw yeah, aw yeah!

Don't hate. My mom may be Jewish but she loves any holiday where she can decorate her house, especially if it means she can bring out all the bells and whistles AND string lights along her roofline. And I learned from the best.

So Sunday night my house is completely decked out for the holidays. Monday morning I wake up to my alarm and feel like I have been hit by a freaking bus!

My throat is sore, my nose is all congested, my eyes are watering, and I am utterly miserable. Calling in sick on the Monday after a long weekend always makes me feel a little guilty. And I think that everyone else thinks I am really trying to sleep off a hangover (pssh, I wish).

I basically slept through all of Monday and most of yesterday. And drug my sorry sick ass into the office today. I am tired, but definitely on the mend.

When I get to the office I am clearing out my emails and there is one letting us all know that mice have invaded the building. About ten minutes after reading that email I turn to my mini filing cabinet and as I go to pull out the top drawer I hear the scrambling on little feet as they scurry away.

Awesome-sauce, I have mice in MY cubicle, in MY filing cabinet, munching on MY oatmeal packets! And no I am not scared of mice so it didn't freak me out. I am a little sad knowing they are going to be killed. I mean they are just doing what mice do, but hey, I know we really can't have them running free and loose all over the office. Besides, I want to know my oatmeal is safe.



And Christmas lights are pretty and make me happy and help me feel better.

YEA for the holidays!

Oh and P.S. My jack russell is insane and currently running around the house and growling and barking at miss Margaret (the cat). She is less than amused, but I am laughing hysterically!