rain, running, rest

Weekend? Where did you go?

Umm, come back. I need a good long nap (again)

The past few days I have felt so tired. I don't think it's anything I've done; maybe it's just the weather. This weekend was gray and drizzly, which makes for awesome sleeping/reading/chillaxing weather.

Also, I got to wear my ugly boots and polka dotted orange raincoat! Rainy days let me look tacky without people thinking I'm too weird. 

Here are the boots. Cowboy+fall leaves+rubber = these: 

Greetings Starshine, The Earth Says Hello!

Hello dear reader,

You are indeed dear to me for reading my garbled mess of the English language over spending your time on a more productive endeavor.

I commend you.

I trust you had a happy Christmas!


I did, and I am positively wowed by the love lavished on me in gift form. If ever you want to show me you care, give me something. Wow, that came out wrong.

Gifts are wonderful, but it's the thought behind them that makes gifts especially special.

The thing that has me terribly ecstatic is the gift from my parents. It's a new Nikon digital slr (no wimpy point and shoot for me anymore!)

I have been CAMERA DEPRIVED for the past five months.
I have been bereaved ever since my sony camera DIED. It was DEAD after one year of faithfully taking pictures. My warranty expired and the machine went kaput. It's the sony conspiracy...


It's been a rough few months. I have a webcam, but that is SO not the same.

See, I have this itch, deep down, to capture things in picture form.
I'm terribly addicted.

(I worry that I have a compulsive tendency to easily become addicted to things I love. Coffee, picture-taking, etc...)

Capturing normal things in unique ways feels like a creative project I can handle.

Not that I'm an amazing photographer, but I admit, I love everything about setting up the shot, what with fixing the lighting, the angle, the zoom, the softness of the background... blah blah blah. I'd throw in some techie terms, but I'm afraid of misusing them. I'm not up to that level yet.

I'll soon be a total camera geek, but it's taking time. The last cameras I owned were simple point and shoots. They took good pictures, but my options were limited.

Not anymore.

The other gifts I've gotten have been wonderful. My Mimi knows me so well. She gave me my own four-cup coffee maker. I am LOVING it, and it will get many long years of use, I promise. She also gave me a Monet umbrella. I'm going to learn some umbrella choreography. You know the whole singing in the rain thing? Yes, that will be me.

I don't want this to become a list of gifts I've received, since that may bore you, but allow me to mention a few more things:

My Gram put together albums for each of my sisters (and me) The albums start from birth and go all the way up until now. That was quite a bit of work on her part. I love it.

My cousins gave me a coffee mug. It's PERFECT.
You may have been living under a rock, but just so you know, I love coffee. It's a tervis tumbler, no less, and it has my name inscribed in it.

I could go on and tell you about the cute owl pajamas from my sister, and chocolate/pampering supplies from the other sister...but I'm going to move on.

Before I do move on, let me tell you about my sing-a-ma-jig. It's so fun. Everyone needs one. (don't know what they are? click here to visit their website...hey look, free advertising!)


To top everything off, we had glorious SNOW on Christmas evening!

This weekend has been busier than expected. We traveled quite a bit, and I am so very relieved to be home before life starts back up again.
At noon on Christmas day, we went to the mountian-y area to visit with my Aunt, Uncle, Mimi, and cousins. We hung out until this morning, and then we drove over to my Gram's and Granddad's for another Christmas dinner.

Now we have driven home, and I'm going to go get snuggled under my purple down comforter and rest so I can take pictures and build snowmen tomorrow.

Drizzle, drizzle, drizzle

This morning, everything was gray and drizzly.
I'm not big on gray and drizzly.

When the weather gets like this, I just want to curl up with a blanket, a good book (and some PG tips) and read.
Today, I had a few potentially interesting (and yet unread) classics on my shelf, so I was all set...
...but then we decided to run out and look at the shoe sales...
WIN!
I ended up with a new journal, $10 chucks, and an "eco-friendly coffee cup". All wonderful items that made my day sunny.

....
So, the other day, we (my family) were discussing my sister's t-shirt.
Pictured on it are two wedges of cheese and a cheese grater. One cheese is being grated, the other stands (?) in horror shouting, "You Monster!", to the grater, I suppose.

Well, you can kinda see for yourself:

Asking what character my sister most closely identified with, she responded that she was like the talking cheese, because the cheese was cute.
This started a silly debate.
We determined that she WAS the grater, but just didn't like to admit it. She's nobody's victim, try as she might to look "cute".
I laughed and laugh still.

My other sister is to the point, she gets the job done. Like a hammer.
Both can be cheeses though. *wink-wink*


I was told that I'm like a fan with sharp metal blades.
Sharp metal blades that can cut off appendages.


BUT, I do have a safety grille covering the blades, so you have to do a bit of work to get hurt...
That's comforting, right?

Oh, yes...inanimate object psychology.

ANYways...

Perhaps I'll go for a quick run today.

I went running yesterday. It was beautiful outside. I appreciated the bright orangey yellow, and brown-red of the leaves of the changing trees. They were absolutely aflame with color.

It was a warm humid day and the sun was very bright. The kind of bright that requires squinting.

I was about a mile and a half from the house when I heard the thunderclap.
Then the floodgates opened.
The wind picked up. It was blustery and felt fabulous.

The downpour became stronger. The rain started coming in sideways.

The falling leaves swirled around me in the strong gusts of wind.



{You know how in movies that "sudden rainstorm" happens? I thought that was a made up thing or a very rare occurrence. Who gets caught unawares like that? Apparently, it does happen. It's fun.}



When I arrived home, I was positively drenched and my shoes were squelching with the water.

Overall, it was an agreeable experience.