Like the sands through the hourglass...

Breaking the habit

New Year’s resolutions and I do not hold a strong track record.  However, this year WILL be different.  I’m optimistic, I can do it!  For year’s I have had a disturbing tendency towards sobriety.  I blame this on my mother.  The first time I was ever drunk it was with her and the blurred memories of the stumbling, the vomit and the weeklong hangover still haunt me.  As a result, I will rarely have a drink.  But this year I will develop a drinking habit.  I’ve always been jealous of those people who have that crutch whether its alcohol, marijuana, heroine, crack…whatever.  Those people that have that escape ready at their fingertips.  When the whistle blows at 5pm and they just can’t take anymore, they have somewhere to turn.  Now, not particularly wanting to go to jail, I’ll skip the illegal stuff and just head for the bottle.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking to go out and get roaring drunk every night (only every other night).  I simply want to embrace the numbness that comes from a healthy addiction to alcohol.  While 2007 has pretty much sucked so far, I’m happy to report that I am at least making headway on this goal.  Hello new leaf!  My name is Charlotte and it’s nice to meet you.  You’ve been a long time coming!

Top 10 Travel Tips

I have to travel frequently for business.  These travels include planes, trains, cabs and hotels.  Anyone will tell you how to pack your suitcase, or to arrive early to the airport, or to book your room/ticket ahead of time.  I've decided to share some of the wisdom that can only be gained through personal experience:

1.  ALWAYS carry cash for a cab in NYC and ALWAYS wear shoes that are comfortable enough to walk in should you not be able to hail said cab and have to walk 30 blocks.

2.  BEWARE:  If you are standing still on a nasty curb in a dirty city, it is entirely likely you will be accosted by a large roach. (I am referring to actual roaches of the bug kind, not the human kind, that's a given)

3.  You are allowed to consume alcohol on the train, though they may not sell it on board (BYOB).

4.  Nothing restores faith to the human spirit quite like the 'Religious Reflections Room' of an airport.

5.  Unless it's safely landing after an exceedingly turbulent flight filled with chatter boxes and screaming babies.

6.  ALWAYS make sure the volume is turned on when you set a hotel alarm clock (you have no idea how many times I've set the alarm only to discover in a panic the next morning that the sound was turned all the way down).

7.  When setting your alarm, set it PRIOR to when you've ordered your morning room service to arrive.

8.  Don't leave your bra and underwear lying in the middle of the floor so that it is the first thing to great the unlucky soul chosen to deliver your breakfast (while you're still half asleep with your hair sticking up since you haven't worked out the mechanics of alarm clocks yet).

9.  There really are Starbucks on every corner of every city.  If you don't see a Starbucks you may have made a wrong turn into a third world country (they only have McDonalds).

10.  Coffee.

White and Nerdy

Have you seen this video?  If not it's 3 minutes well spent -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw&eurl=

Cory and I have pontificated that this is Weird Al's best work in years (it was mostly Cory, I'm not much of a pontificater).  At any rate, any one who works with techy geeks like me, or is one themselves, will definitely appreciate it.  Mucias gracias to my brother for sending it over.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My feelings towards Valentines Day have varied from looking forward to it when I'm in a relationship (okay, well...at least at the beginning) to hating it for being a 'Hallmark' holiday to not really caring.  That's pretty much where I am these days.  Now that I think about it, that's pretty much my attitude towards all holidays/occasions.  I have become apathetic.  Before you become alarmed, I assure you, it's in a good way - I don't expect anything and when I get something, I'm pleasantly surprised.  Such was the case this year.  Having made no plans for Vday, indeed, forgetting that it was even occurring, I was all set to continue along my life path with blinders on as usual.  Then my phone rings on Vday eve.  It's Cory telling me about a fancy schmancy chinese restaurant located close by that we need to try out.  Any one who knows me knows that I love nothing more than fancy schmancy restaurants.  Before either of us realized it, we had a date...on Vday...with each other.  Of course it was like 5 minutes after we made our 'date' that it hit us both that we would be spending Vday very much like we had spent Thanksgiving - with each other, as neither of us bothered to actually make plans.  We joke about being an 80 year old married couple and for those of my friends/family located far away, let me paint you a picture of a typical weekend:

1. Wake up Saturday morning. It's practically snowing in my house because I've turned the thermostat to 40 degrees to avoid a high heating bill (but I'll spend $75 on a tube of mascara).  Turn the heat up...slightly.   Put on six layers of clothes, putz around the house, check email/work, IM or call Cory and end up going to lunch or shopping or movies or all three with him (usually with 3 trips to Starbucks thrown in there).  The whole while we are bitching about other drivers, heating bills (and all other form of bills) and various home improvements.

2. Sunday morning - wake up, eat pancakes with Cory (location alternates between our houses, each of which is equally cold).  We then repeat the "lunch or shopping or movies or all three" part from yesterday.   Then it's night-skiing in the evening at Jiminy Peak.

I look at the above and it's no wonder I'm single...but oddly, I'm pretty happy with the situation.  Cory and I may spend a lot of time together, but we're usually laughing the entire time.  This is the case with my other friends here as well.  We are certainly capable of deep, meaningful, intelligent conversation, but 80% of the time we spend laughing at ridiculous jokes.

So yes, Vday isn't going to be spent with the future Mr. Kelly.  I'm going to spend it with Cory and we'll probably end up in a food fight and getting tossed out of the restaurant...but I'm looking forward to it.

Home for the holidays

After a completely nightmarish experience, I am once again a homeowner.  If you've noticed my pics, yessirree, one of them is now officially 'my house'.  And now that's it's all said and done, I'm glad I managed to get through it...without committing homicide (which really was an option I was considering at one point).  I've started working on the remodeling and am very inspired by the livingroom which I absolutely love now that I've painted it.  I've managed to paint the dining room as well which I also like and I promise to post some before and after pic's soon.  Cory and I *tried* switching out the faucet on the kitchen sink, but it was Jeff to the rescue when we discovered the old faucet was fastened on with some indestructable alien material from a galaxy far far away.  The solution? CUT THE PIPES!!!  But that's really it for the kitchen for now.  I plan on procrastinating that as long as humanly possible.

Now I'm focused on getting through the holidays - I'm in charge of my company's 'Adopt-a-Famiy' which I love doing, but it's very time consuming.  I think I just love shopping and spending money.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I DO like that we get to make some family's holiday better.  All in all, I love the Christmas season and can't get enough of the cheesy movies and Christmas carols.  Anyway, Merry Christmas to all!!! See you after the new year!

Home Buyer Hell and the Holidays

I have *almost* purchased the house.  The entire experience has been quite a circus - complete with a psychotic clown masquerading as an attorney (bring on the lawyer jokes).  With any luck I will be closing next week. Yippee!  Hopefully all with go well from here on out, if it does not, I will rent forever.  Or at least for a few years.  I don't think I could stomach going through the process again anytime soon.

On a happier note, I am volunteering at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving with a friend and am really looking forward to this.  I am also coordinating our 'Adopt-A-Family' at work.  That's a go for launch on 'holiday charity mode'.  I am a total junkie for the Christmas season and can't wait to start hearing the carols on the radio.  Mostly I relish the thought of singing loudly along until the blood runs out of Cory's ears (how's that for holiday spirit?).

Coming soon...Charlotte's Christmas List

House Hunting

It's that time.  Time for me to quit living like I'm in college and buy a house...again.  I ventured out into the exciting world of real estate after actually being given a loan by a bank - I'm somewhat amazed by this as I've accumulated debt equal to slightly less than half the national deficit thanks to law school.  I've placed a bid on a house and it looks like it has been accepted (see pic above if you're interested).  I love the location and the outside of the house (enclosed front porch, nice deck out back).  It will take some TLC inside, but most of it I have some experience with due to my last home owning experience.  It's a good size - 3bd, 1 1/2 ba, laundry room.  Anybody with experience in tiling, cabinetry, painting, carpeting, etc. is welcome to visit and stay with me at Christmas! :-)

Mermaids are mythical

This past weekend saw me visiting the shores of Cape Cod.  I was very disappointed as I did not spot even one mermaid.  "Splash" apparently was a big lie.  The trip was for the most part uneventful (oh, except that part where I was driving my friends car and drove it right into someone else.  All her fault though! Who turns left into 4 lanes of heavy traffic?!?!?!).  We also went to the 'Pilgrim Monument' and 'Provincetown Museum'.  The walk up to the top of the monument was only 116 steps (they lie!!! must be more!!!) but it felt like 6 million - my calves are still aching.  I recommend going on this little trip during the 'season'.  Most of the fun stuff was closed. Oh! And I could NOT find a coffeeshop to save my life! BE WARNED.

Boston

I went to Boston over the weekend.  The city seems nice enough except for ALL THE GODDAMNED CONSTRUCTION.  Any joy I might have taken from the city was completely ruined by the migraine I developed trying to navigate through it.  When I complained about this to one of my friends living there, he was like 'oh yeah, the big dig. That's been going on for 10 years.'  Super. 

Traitorous Fiend

Cory is leaving me.  I am distraught.  I am desperate.  My one true love.  My sanity check in a crazy world (my crazy check in a sane world?).  Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Don't leave!  Despite assundrious pleadings, begging, crying, bribing - he insists on leaving me to the turmoil that is my life to suffer alone.  That traitorous bastard had the nerve to get a new job and has up and left me.  I publish my pain here for all to see and share so that they may understand the mental strife I must now endure without my Cory.