How could anybody resist that sleepy kitty?

Stella had a ball with the wrapping paper. I had a very difficult time wrapping gifts this year.

Stella gets in the Christmas spirit.

This box used to be a fun place to hide, but now she's outgrown it!

Todd captured this picture of Stella, I think it's lovely.

Stella passes time watching the cars drive past.

Hanging out by the computer

Guess who got a second interview for TFA? That's right, me!
Yay!

It's the state of the union address day! Woohoo! Are you all ready to play my favorite game? State of the Union Bingo!!! (This can also work as a drinking game IF you don't have to work the next day.)

Last year I believe I came awfully close to a black-out on the bingo board. You can play along, too, by downloading a bingo sheet (you can find them online, just google "state of the union bingo") or have even MORE fun creating your own. In each box you can put a work that W is fond of saying. Like: "liberty" or "retreat" or "terror" or "nucUler" or "freedom."

In other news, Ani DiFranco gave birth to a baby girl this weekend. Yay for Ani!

I just need to brag for a minute about how adorable Stella is. She's got a lot of dog-like qualities. She greets us at the door when we come home from work, she licks our faces when she is happy. She will play fetch with toys (like my hair rubber band) and when she wants you to play with one of her toys, (like her feather on a string or her teddy bear) she will carry it in her mouth across the apartment and drop the toy in front of you. Last night we were going to bed and Stella jumped into bed with her feather toy like she wanted us to play with her. Such a cutie! I am so happy to have her; we really won the kitten lottery with her.

For some reason, my office smells like burps. It's really gross and I'm getting sick to my stomach. I had a nasty turkey burger for lunch today and I think it is making me ill.

Weather report: Yesterday we got 2 inches of snow - the "storm" had passed before I even woke up. Last night the news was already reporting school closings and delays for today. It seemed like every school district was delayed 1-2 hours or closed entirely! What?! By this morning, all the snow had already melted.

The newscasters in Cincinnati have been going on and on about the "winter storm" expected this morning. By winter storm, I mean our first snow-fall of the year, 1-3 inches. ONE to THREE inches. They've been warning to people to stay off the roads, and skip church this morning. So, when in Rome, do as the crazy Cincinnatians do. We decided to do our grocery shopping on Saturday evening instead of the usual Sunday afternoon. Wow. I think that was my first Saturday evening shopping trip. Everybody in the store was a mutant. They were all wearing sweatpants with holes in them and filthy t-shirts. Every person looked like they had just been beaten in the face with an ugly stick. It was really different than the Sunday afternoon crowd. I would actually recommend that you go grocery shopping on a Saturday evening sometime, just to see what it's like. If Saturday evening is your usual shopping time...then...I'm sorry.

All right, I'm averaging one wedding related nightmare a week. Lately I've been having your typical "actor's nightmare" storyline. It's the wedding day, and all the guests are seated ready for the ceremony to begin. But Tanya, Todd and I are all in jeans still trying to write the ceremony! Eeek! Then, last night's dream, in addition to no ceremony, we had also forgotten to send out invitations. Only a few people were at the wedding. I was frantically trying to call Amy Elliott and Kate Williams to see if they could still make it.

So far Todd has not had any wedding related nightmares. Lucky me.

I had my phone interview yesterday. It's so hard to get a feeling for how it went. Certainly not the worst interview, but I didn't feel like it was the best, either. I think it went fine, simply fine. I would be surprised if I did not get an in-person interview.

I think I have the strangest cat. She doesn't like kitty treats. She sniffs them, and might even lick them, but she won't eat them. Even when we put them in her food bowl, she will just eat around it. Wierdo! (We tried two kinds of treats.) I tried giving her some wet food and she ate a few bites, then ignored it and went to her dry food. Have you ever met a cat that doesn't like wet food?

Yesterday was a great day for music. My emusic subscription reset yesterday, so I was able to get my monthly 65 downloads. Then, in the mail, my BMG music club order arrived, along with 5 lala CDs. Here's all my new music:
Loretta Lynn - The Definitive Collection
Dolly Parton - The Essential Dolly Parton (Uggh, mostly it's her 80's stuff...Not essential)
Michael Jackson - Number Ones
Elton John - Greatest Hits Volume 2 (Todd informed me that I got hosed on this one, all his really great hits are on volume one. I concur.)
Liz Phair - Whip Smart
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
Al Bowlly - Love is the Sweetest Thing
M. Ward - Post War
Holly Golightly - Down The Line
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (I've boycotted Belle & Sebastian for a long time, but I thought I would give them another try)
Yo La Tengo - I am not Afraid of you and I will beat your ass
Sarah Harmer - You Were Here
Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha
The Concretes - Layyourbattleaxdown

That should keep me busy for another few weeks. I'm kind of in an old country kick right now. I really want to get some Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner. The Loretta Lynn is FANTASTIC. Of my god, she is awesome!

This weekend Todd and I registered for gifts for the wedding at Macy's and Bed Bath and Beyond. It was a strange experience; I was really looking forward to it, but when it came down to it, I was kind of disappointed. The "consultants" were really annoying; they really pushed the whole "special day" aspect. They just droned on and on about the use for different knives (which are like $70 a piece!) or the difference between fine china, casual china and everyday plates. As if we have a need or space for three full sets of dishes. If you do take a look at the registries, please do not laugh at the Macy's one. We put a few fancy candle holders and serving platters on there just so we had some things that were "special" and non-useful. I know they are hella expensive and we really don't expect to get them. Please don't judge us. I just wanted some nice sheets and a kitchen aid mixer...

I want to bring your attention to a new TV show, in case you haven't already seen it. It is on CBS and it is called "Armed and Famous." It is probably the greatest show on TV right now.

For those of you unfamiliar with the premise, they got five "celebrities" to actually go through police acadamy training in Muncie, Indiana. They become actual real, live police officers. For those of you who haven't seen the show you are probably thinking, yeah, right, what kind of police officers? Meter maids. Oh no. They are really responding to domestic violence calls, burglaries, shoplifting, even a SWAT team capture of a murder suspect. It is AWESOME. Oh, and of course, the "celebrities" are: Latoya Jackson, Erik Estrada, Wee-man from Jack-ass, Jack Osborne and some wrestler chick. Can you believe that somebody came up with this premise and they actually found a police force willing to take them?!?!

Todd and I love this show so much we skipped the Office last night in order to watch it.

Guess who got a phone interview for TFA? That's right, me!

Hurray!

Yesterday morning Todd brought Stella to the shelter to get spayed. I felt so guilty, just giving her to strangers for 30 hours. Keeping her locked up in a metal cage with no way of knowing if we would ever come back to get her. I'm going to pick her up after work today and I can't wait. While last night was very peaceful, I still missed her. She wasn't waiting for me by the door when I got home, she didn't attack my legs as I walked past her hiding spot under the coffee table.

I can't wait to get her home again. I threatened Todd that I was going to look at other kitties while I was at the shelter picking up Stella. He does not think it is funny to even think about another cat. But I know he loves Stella and misses her, too. It's not too hard to have two cats and I think that Stella needs a friend. She gets so lonely during the day.

My mom is working on a campaign to get us to hire a DJ for the wedding. Barf. She sent me a link to the website of quite possibly the cheesiest DJ in the metro Detroit area. I mean, they give you a free lightshow with every package. My mother doesn't know me at all if she thinks that a free lightshow is going to impress me. I mean smoke machine, maybe, but light shows, what a yawn. It's not just that I don't want to spend money on a DJ, I just DON'T WANT A DJ. Todd doesn't want one either, perhaps more so than me. Even if they were free, we wouldn't want one. Even if they were paying us for the privilege of working at our wedding...we wouldn't want one.

I just submitted my Teach For America application. Then I recieved an e-mail telling me that last year there was only a 13% acceptance rate. Eeek!

Thanks for keeping me from getting too cocky.

Keep me in your thoughts while I am going through the application process. I am certainly going to need all the positive vibes I can get.

Todd arrived home just in time to help me put the finishing touches on my essays. I am so happy to have him back. I missed him.

I think that I have narrowed down my top choices for placements: Charlotte, St. Louis and Memphis. Those cities have a much cheaper certification process and it is likely that I will be able to get a masters in education if I go to those areas. Combined with lower cost of living, I think those will be the best choices for Todd and I. I wish that the climates were colder, but we can always move to the north after we are done. The north will wait for us.

Who knew that envelope talk would get people all riled up?

So, I've been trying to make the most of Todd's absence by eating all sorts of junky food I would be too embarassed to consume if Todd were here. I've gone to bed with a tummy ache every night. I've also been watching the Gilmore Girls with an uncontrollable pace. I mean, I believe that I have watched 20 hours of Gilmore Girls in the last 4 days. That is not healthy. I need to be writing my teach for american essays. I am a damn fool.

Todd goes away for a couple days and I turn into an impulsive fool.

I'm officially a sado-masochist.

I don't know why I bother to call my mom when I am happy about something. I mean, she's just going to make me not happy. Case and point, my wedding invitations.

I'm all excited because I found these wedding invites that are gorgeous and unique and will probably meet my mother's approval of looking like actual wedding invitations (well, without having embossed silver hearts and scripty font that you can barely read). I e-mail the woman who owns the company and within 2 hours she has sent me a mock-up of the invites exactly how I wanted them. So, yay! Right?

WRONG!

I, of course, make the horrible mistake of calling my mom because I am just...that...excited. I mean, I've known the woman for 23+ years. What the hell was I thinking? If there is one person who is going to suck the fun out of anything (wedding invitations, college graduation, Disneyworld...) It's my mom.

Here is what is wrong with the invitations.
1) They are too expensive. (But then again, anything that is more than $17 is too expensive to her.)
2) They don't have an outer and inner envelopes. (Gasp! Horror of horrors! How are people going to know who is invited? I offered two solutions, but neither was deemed appropriate.)
2b) If they don't come with inner and outer envelopes then they can't possibly be REAL wedding invitations. Because REAL wedding invitations would have two sets of envelopes.
3) We will have to include maps. But mom...that's why I created the wedding website. But Noooo, many people don't use the internet. Well then those people are idiots. How do they find their way to places? According to my mom, they use maps that are provided to them. Really? Really? You mean to tell me that every time somebody needs to go somewhere new and they don't use the internet that somebody provides them with a map? I highly doubt that. But then again, knowing my family, I guess I could believe it.


So kids. It looks like you will all be getting e-vites to the wedding. And for those of you who don't use the internet, well, it'll be loose leaf paper for you. I just can't freaking TAKE IT ANYMORE. Gah!

Seriously, I am so angry. Why should wedding invitations, which made me super happy just hours ago be causing me so much ANGER.

I honestly cannot stand my mother. How I managed to live in that house with her for 17 years I will NEVER know. She just SUCKS the life out of you. I mean, how flipping hard would it be for her to just smile and shut her freaking trap once in a while and let me be excited about something? Oh, probably impossible. Because it's my mom. And she is evil.

Happy New Year! This was a very different new years for me. I usually get all nostolgic and write up a big year in review for my personal journal. I know it sounds cliched, but this year it just snuck up on me. I just wasn't ready to reflect on the year. Maybe it's because I feel like it's my first official year as an adult and I don't really have those milestones to look forward to and gage time.

I mean, I've been ready for 2006 to be over since early last January. I've spent so much time this past year thinking about 2007 (the wedding) that I've been accidently writing 2007 on my checks since March. I just feel like 2006 had to happen, it had to exist, but only as filler space between getting me to 2007, the year I really want to be in. So it's here. And that means it's wedding crunch time. I've already had my first wedding related nightmare of 2007. Fun times!
(It's especially frusterating because I don't even CARE about wedding details. So why am I having nightmares that it's my wedding day and I don't have the proper underware, flowers or my hair done? I don't even really care about those things!)

I also have to light a fire under my butt to get in my teach for america application. It's due on Jan 7 and I still have to write my letter of intent and my essay. It's been, what, 18 months since I've written an essay? I can't even remember how I used to do it!

Let's hope that by this time next year I will be a married woman living in Philadelphia and teaching. Fingers crossed everybody! I'm quite ready to get out of Cinci. If I don't get accepted in TFA our plan is to move away from Cinci by our first wedding anniversary. So either way, I'll be moved or planning a move by next year. Then I guess I'll have to change the name of the blog. Any suggestions?

Todd is going to Orlando for a work conference tomorrow until Sunday afternoon. I wish I could go too. I'm not ready to go back to work. It is annoying that I had to spend my holiday (today) in bed/on the couch with a horrible cold. Phooey. I feel like I am always sick on work holidays.

In case you care, here are my top albums of 2006:
1. Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
2. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of this Country
3. Hello Saferide - Introducing...Hello Saferide
4. I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
5. Heikki - Heikki2
6. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
7. Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - #3
8. The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea
9. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
10. Nouvelle Vague - Band a Part