Yoga, peace and a stress-free life? Impossible?

For my New Year's resolution I had promised myself less stress. My first step was to find a yoga class that I liked and make sure to go. I went three times. I made so many excuses as to why I couldn't go, "This week I NEED to work late," or "I NEED to eat NOW, I can't go home and eat after yoga," or "My yoga pants are dirty, I have nothing to wear." So, needless to say, I got stressed. A lot. I still do. Every time I get their email newsletter I feel so guilty. Today's had a list, "Way of the Divine":

* Tolerate other peoples' weaknesses
* Give others enough time to change
* Rejoice with others and share one soul
* Soften your anger and help people change
* Do not Punish others or take revenge
* Do not allow Positive Actions to be cancelled out by negative actions
* Stand by Others even though they brought their suffering on themselves
* Do the Right Thing
* Go Beyond what others deserve
* Find a Small Place in your heart even for someone who does evil
* Focus on where a person came from and have compassion

Reading this makes me feel guilty. I don't know if there's a single thing on there I do. Over the past few years I've become so intolerant of people. In fact, I find myself often saying, "UGH I HATE EVERYONE!" I come to very harsh conclusions about them very quickly, I get joy out of people "getting what they deserve," if they're wrong/stupid/ignorant I automatically dislike them. It's sad. I used to be such a positive person, I used to love everyone. Don't get me wrong, the people I love I am ridiculously loyal to, I love them, I go out of my way for them, I want nothing more than for them to be happy and healthy and will do anything in my power to make sure they are. I feel that type of treatment should be earned, though.

After being treated badly by people I had once called my friends, on a few different occasions, my standards for people have definitely gone up. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. It protects me from getting hurt, but it also has made me a little bitter and jaded. I spend so much time being angry that I don't let myself be happy enough. Hence the stress. I want to be posi!

Not Waving but Drowning

Every so often life becomes too much. Murphy's Law kicks in and everything that can possibly go wrong actually does. Things start piling up and it's all I can do to keep my head above water. In the past few weeks:

- Our register at work broke, but we turned it into a positive situation and took the opportunity to upgrade to a Point of Sale system. Which means I've spent the last week squinting at spreadsheets, inputting products/brands/suppliers/UPC's by hand, making mock-invoice after mock-invoice trying to get used to being a member of the 21st century. Brian calls me Grandma.

- Our favorite (and only) employee Dre had to go back to school in PA so we've lost him until he comes back in December for break. He also happens to be a good friend of ours so it's sad x2. Brian's dad is working with us again so there is the silver lining. I like working with him and it's great to see him all the time. He mainly works at the warehouse, though, and the store definitely suffers with only two people working there.

- The wall that's unstable in our warehouse is getting repaired, which means workers in our way for the next week or so and the door not being able to be used.

- The day that wall started being fixed, someone knocked down, as in, destroyed, a DIFFERENT wall (holding up the only good doorway we were able to use). With our forklift. And we don't know who did it. And we're being held responsible anyway. And my dad's decided to get involved. And now it's REALLY hard to receive/transfer orders since we can't get in/out of the warehouse easily. Fun for everyone.

- Our chinchilla Sammy got sick and passed away due to a kidney problem that he was born with that just started showing itself out of nowhere. It was pretty quick and terribly sad and I still don't know if I've fully allowed myself to deal with it yet.

- The fire inspector gave us a list of things at work that he wanted us to change for this years inspection. We've been spending the past two weeks moving stuff around and putting up shelving (1. Stop using furnace closet for storage), getting an electrician to fix/put in new lighting fixtures (2. Remove all clip-lights), getting Dre's brother to build some sort of holder for CO2 tanks (3. All compressed gas cylinders must be chained/stored properly). They're reasonable requests I guess, except the furnace is OFF being that's it's been 88+ degrees for the past 2 months and we remove the boxes when we turn it on because we have common sense. And our clip-lights are not a fire hazard because we have them secured properly and nothing flammable is around them because we have common sense. The CO2 thing I can't argue about, though.

- I am so backed up on writing checks and dealing with my paperwork it's not even funny.

- Someone hit my car with their door in a parking lot and did serious damage. This is only two months after getting it fixed when someone hit it with what looked like a baseball. Silver lining: when they fixed my bumper they didn't attach it properly so this is killing two birds with one stone. I am without a car for the next few days though and I have so many errands to take care of.

- We upgraded our credit card terminal and switched our processing to our local bank. Which required me to learn new technology, set stuff up and talk to customer service people on the phone. My own personal hell so even though I said I'd call on Monday I've been avoiding it like the plague.

- Today I decided to get my work bag caught in my front door which led to it shutting on my heel and taking about 3820342 layers of skin off. I left a blood trail from my door to my bathroom and almost fainted from the pain. Definitely worst injury I've gotten in a very long time.

- We've been working on finding a venue for the wedding, which is exhausting and stressful. We've been trying to get back to our planner in a timely fashion just to get things out of the way but it's so hard when you have a thousand things going on. At 11:30 tonight we finished up looking at a list that she gave us, checking out each place and given them a quick critique. Sounds easy but with my work papers strewn all over the table, knowing that I should REALLY be dealing with them, it's kind of hard to focus on whether or not this studio is TOO studio-like or if this terrace will be large enough for a ceremony.

Feeling the way I feel right now I'd REALLY love to make some yoga time, which is laughable because you can't make something that doesn't exist at the moment. I wish I were a Hindu goddess with 10 arms, then maybe I could get all of my things done.

New Favorite Song (& video)

2 of my favorite female musicians on the same track? Yes please. Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. - Teqkilla remix. Download here: http://neetrecordings.com/blog/



Plus Kid Sis came out with a new video for Big N Bad:

Wedding Planning

In less than one year I will be getting married. I don't think that has really set in yet. I watched a few episodes of that Kleinfeld show Say Yes to the Dress and all the brides are all bubbling over with emotion. They go off on these romantic tears about how absolutely lucky they feel to be spending the rest of their life with their fiance and how their wedding is going to be the best day of their life. Is it wrong that I don't feel as excited? Don't get me wrong, I do feel that way about Brian, I just don't gush about it the way those girls do. I keep thinking of the wedding as one big party that will just finalize everything. We both knew that this was going to be the obvious next step in our relationship so it was just a matter of "when?".

I've been trying to get ideas for dresses and colors and stuff but I figure I'll wait until we get a venue so I can plan around that and visualize it all put together. To help with everything we decided to hire a wedding planner because 1. The thought of doing all of that by myself made me ridiculously anxious, 2. I attempted to find a venue on my own, called 1 place in 2 weeks and felt totally defeated after finding out about their 150 person minimum (we have like 65 guests so far) and 3. I work 6 days a week and honestly just don't have the time.

Her name is Lisa Anderson Green and so far I love her. I'll be honest, the first thing that stood out to me was the French Bulldog on her main page. Is that wrong? We set up a consultation and we all just clicked. She gets us and is everything I'm not: organized, regimented, experienced at wedding planning. Perfect. At the beginning of each month she's going to email me with what we need to accomplish and then we need to get it done. I love deadlines because I procrastinate unless I have them. Working with her is going to make everything perfect, I'm sure (especially since I don't know what "perfect" should be, and she probably does). She also has a blog that gives great planning/hiring pointers.

We have a new meeting scheduled for Tuesday (yes, she makes me schedule things...so organized) and I can't wait to get started.

Thine ever, or never.

When I was 16, my dad gave me my own copy of The Select Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I say, "my own" because from the day I discovered it I would always steal his copy (I actually still have his, despite having my own, on my bookshelf). I feel like everything I've ever needed to know in life I could learn, whether by literal interpretation or inference, from Emerson's writings.

Lately I've been feeling a little lost. Not terribly, not "winter"-lost, not quarter-life-crisis lost, just like I'm searching for SOMETHING. Some sort of answer to a question I haven't asked yet. I'm not sure I've ever felt this way before. Usually I know what's wrong. Even if nothing is actually "wrong," I can usually figure out what's causing me to feel that way. When I can't, I do some soul searching. Emerson is definitely a worst case scenario. I haven't found my answer yet, but I stumbled upon another answer in the mean time.

I've been getting emails and text messages from a friend of mine lately. I shouldn't say "friend," as-in: current...more like a once-upon-a-time friend. Long story short (sort of): we were friends, she and her bf rescued a dog that was being abused but the new dog didn't get along with the dog they already had, Bri and I wanted to help by keeping the new dog but our landlord wouldn't allow it, they were having problems in their relationship (the dog was coming between them) and placed the blame on us, stopped calling us, started avoiding us, she and I emailed back and forth which pretty much ended with her more or less saying, "I can't separate our friendship from the dog situation so I can't talk to you anymore." I know that sounds pretty nuts, but it's true. I took the whole thing pretty hard, being that she was the first friend I let into my life in awhile. I totally let my guard down and she turned out to be a mistake. Our last conversation was in March of last year.

The recent emails caught me totally off-guard. She missed me and didn't know where we stood and just wanted to touch base. I told her very honestly how I felt, that she hurt me by ending our friendship over a DOG that was never my responsibility but who I still helped with, that I thought it was pretty ridiculous and I wasn't about to set myself up to be hurt like that again. She wrote back with some nutty things, making up lies ABOUT me, TO me. Things that I supposedly did or said to her that never actually happened. This whole thing took a lot out of me because up until maybe two months ago I was saying to Brian, "I still can't believe what happened with them...how crazy was that?" It still bothered me because up until the "break-up" point, I considered them to be great friends. Part of me wanted to be like, "Sure, all is forgiven, let's be friends again!" but then logic kicked in and said, "You've already seen how she reacts to stressful situations, you don't want to be on the receiving end of that again."

The whole process of meeting new people, opening up to new people, spending the time and energy feeling them out, learning them and deciding where you want things to go, eventually TRUSTING new people...it's so difficult for me. By nature I'm a private person, always have been. Take that, and the fact that I've had a whole lot of what I though to be great, unbreakable friendships turn bad out of nowhere, and you've got someone who is convinced that they don't need friends. There's always that nagging feeling that I might WANT friends, though, despite all the bad experiences I've had.

From Emerson's "Friendship" essay:

"Thus every man passes his life in the search after friendship, and if he should record his true sentiment, he might write a letter like this to each new candidate for his love: ---

Dear Friend,
If I was sure of thee, sure of thy capacity, sure to match my mood with thine, I should never think again of trifles in relation to thy comings and goings. I am not very wise; my moods are quite attainable, and I respect thy genius; it is to me as yet unfathomed; yet dare I not presume in thee a perfect intelligence of me, and so thou art to me a delicious torment. Thine ever, or never."

17 Year Old Me

"Memories of the past year seek me out. They don't want me to forget who I am, what I've seen, what I've done, and who I've become. I turn away, in hopes to solely concentrate on the present. Yet they persist...they nudge their way back in, and pry open the locked box in the back of my mind...releasing memories of all the pain and confusion I've known. I'm not that person any longer. I've moved on, turned down a different road than the one I was traveling on. I've made a new life here, wherever "here" may be. I know the wounds of the past will never heal, but the scars that face me everyday serve as a reminder of how far I've come. As the night falls down, on this small New Jersey town, my memories are a state away. Yet they're rendered back to me as consistantly as the flicker of the lightening bug that's flying around this yard. A backyard has never been so comforting, and I've never felt so at home. Stay with me, memories. I beg you.

Basically...I'm acknowledging this as a new chapter in my book of life. Change can be good, as long as you never forget your past. Distance is nothing to be afraid of. As long as I can look to the sky at night, in hopes of finding an answer, and the moon is still up above me...I know that I have a constant, and that everything will be alright. Believe me, I've been checking for it."

- written June 27, 2001

I wrote that 1st section sitting on my exboyfriend's porch in Paramus, NJ. He was older and had his own apartment - I had been staying with him for awhile to get my head straight. 17 was a rollercoaster for me. I had made the decision to leave school and work full-time, which is a decision that, to this day, I fully stand behind. It's what I wanted but by no means was it easy. In order for me to keep moving forward I had to temporarily leave the past behind me. My friends, my family, everything. I had to make myself feel like I was wholly starting over, otherwise I would have been torn in too many directions for my volatile and confused 17-year-old mind to handle. Most people at that age are being Seniors, going to prom, being stupid, immature and loving every second of it. I wanted nothing to do with all of that. I just wanted to LIVE already.

I AM ENGAGED.

It's true!

A few months ago we had a talk about getting engaged, which went something like:

Me: You know, if you want to get engaged you don't have to do that whole fancy/awkward getting down on one knee surprise thing. We're us, and that's weird, so we should just decide and do it together.

Him: So I don't have to make a whole big deal of it?

Me: No, that's not us. We should do it together.

Him: Ok, awesome. That's a relief.

Me: Good. So let's get engaged.

Him: Ok!

...and then nothing happened. We work constantly and lately have been focusing most of our non-work-related attention on making our new place look like we actually live there, so yeah, getting engaged after being together for eight and a half years really wasn't a huge priority.

Last Sunday (6/13) Brian and I took a drive down to the Short Hills mall in NJ because I had shoes to return to Bloomingdales and he wanted to get an iPad. Of course we drove all the way there only to realize I left the shoes at home and they were sold out of iPads. Of course. Somehow we wandered into Cartier. And somehow they had the most perfect ring in a size 4 3/4. And then, somehow, we were engaged. The girl in the store was more excited than we were, I think. She offered us champagne, which we declined, and said congratulations a ton of times. It didn't really hit me until we walked out of the store and I looked down at my finger. It was so strange to be wearing an ENGAGEMENT RING. I still feel like I'm 16 years old (and look about 20-max) so it's just crazy to me. We called our parents and they were all excited. I kind of wished we had waited a week so my parents could be back in NY to congratulate us in person, but they've made up for it over the past few weeks.

So, that's it. We're playing "grown ups" and it's weird, but I'm undeniably happy.

Lomography Light Painting Party

I just received an email from the NYC Lomography store about an upcoming party they're having. They're giving out glowsticks and flashlights and will be teaching how to "light paint" with plastic cameras. I've been having a lot of fun with my Holga so I wish I could go. Unfortunately I will be driving for 7 hours tomorrow to go to a tradeshow/party in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania. Oh well, free food and drinks, give-aways and catching up with/meeting people from our industry...better than a full day of work I guess.

Anyway, more info on the lomo party: INFO.

How awesome is that picture!? It came in the email. One day I will be able to do that, I swear.

Fix Up.

I actually set foot in a gym this week. That might not seem like a big deal to anyone, but I'd never been before! Our new apartment comes with free gym membership (which NO ONE uses) so I've decided to get in shape. I noticed over Christmas break (in Miami Beach, no less...home of the ridiculously skinny people!) that I had put on a few extra pounds. Not such a huge amount that it made me too self-conscious, but enough that I wanted to do something about it (last time I checked it was 9 lbs., which I know isn't a lot but I'm only 5'2" so it's kind of noticeable). January, February and March came and went and I hadn't so much as lifted a finger. In my defense, I also moved and went on two trips during that time so my schedule was pretty packed...plus it was our busy time at work so I was usually there or at home zoning on the couch in order to recover for the next work day...excuses, excuses. The other day I got motivated, though, and finally went to check it out. So far I've been doing 3+ miles on the elliptical, which may not seem like so much to all of you "I go to the gym 3-5 times a week all year 'round"-people, but it's been kicking my ass. My calves and whatever muscles are by my hips are KILLING me, but mentally I feel pretty accomplished. I've never WORKED at being thin before. I'd always been one of those assholes who'd been blessed with a fast metabolism, who could eat an entire pizza, plus cheesy bread, PLUS ice cream, and not gain a single pound. Apparently until now. I've been eating healthier, too. Lots of veggies, fish, brown rice, no pastas or potatoes...I've been doing well and I'm proud.

New apartment! (No question mark!)

We got the apartment! I'm so ridiculously excited. Over the last week we've written way too many checks, signed way too many papers and spent way too much time looking for new furniture, but we're happy! When making semi-life-changing decisions like choosing a new place to live, I usually feel very anxious and unsure of myself, but this time I feel good. The ONLY negative thing is that they have a no pet policy (it was really hard convincing the new landlord that my chinchillas are clean, hypoallergenic and don't smell...so much so that she made us pay double the security deposit) so that means no puppies for the next two years. It's hardly a sacrifice considering all of my other "new apartment must-haves" are there (walk-in closet, bath tub, 2 parking spaces, patio area, good bathroom storage) and even some extra bonuses, like a free gym and indoor pool and having jacuzzi jets in said bathtub. Our move-in date is March 1st but we're going to take our time and do it little by little. Working 6 days a week makes things hard so we're not going to stress ourselves (hah, easier said than done).

Our current landlord started showing our place today, which meant that for the whole afternoon we were in cleaning mode. I hate that we let it get so messy but we clean up for OTHER PEOPLE, not ourselves. I would love to blame it entirely on how tired we are from work but I think it's definitely half exhausted/half lazy. I felt like a little kid, hiding things under the bed and stuffing things in my drawers or the corners of my closet hoping no one would notice. I have my fingers crossed that someone liked the place and will rent it soon. The sooner they rent it the better for us, since we're being charged for the full month of March even though we'll probably be out by the 15th. Now comes the fun part, packing our entire lives into boxes! Wee!

New cameras, new apartment?

After the Kid Cudi show we went to a few weeks ago, Bri got bummed on the quality of photos and videos we took. Obviously they weren't great, they were taken with our cell phones because he didn't want to bring the giant Nikon D40 (even though I bought him a cute, wait no not cute, MASCULINE, camera bag from Supreme). So that weekend we went to New Jersey to get him a new digital camera. He is a brat/geek and has to have the best of everything, so he was dead set on buying a Leica, just to have a small point-and-shoot camera that he can easily bring with him anywhere. After about ten minutes of boring camera talk, I wandered away to entertain myself. That is when I came across their Lomography section.

I'd always wanted some sort of lomo camera. At one point I NEEDED to have their four-lens ActionSampler, then the SuperSampler, and my most recent (recent, as in, for the past 6 years) necessity was the classic Holga. I finally bought it! The guys at the store were awesome, they showed me what film to use, what speed is best, how to load/unload it, etc. They were really helpful and kept laughing about how Brian and I are polar opposites in regards to our cameras.

We went back to the store this past Saturday. B wanted a portable tripod, I had some questions after reading the Holga book and I had my first roll of 120 film that needed to be developed. After asking all my questions about film types and cross-processing I picked up some 120 slide film also. I'm pretty surprised that they cross-process (and they also scan negatives! I can't wait to try some 35mm film in the camera and hopefully get photos printed past the sprockets. I'm going back Thursday night to get my film. I hope the photos come out good but it was my first time with this camera, I'm not expecting too much. Again, the guys were REALLY helpful and awesome. If you're in the NY/NJ area, go to Bergen County Camera (we've been going to the Westwood location). There's honestly no need to go to B&H anymore, they have everything and are even more helpful.

New apartment! Well, not yet, but we looked at places last week and we really like this one. It's a condo unit but it has its own entrance (not in a building where you have to take the stairs or elevator to your floor), it has two bedrooms and two marble/granite bathrooms (one bedroom will be our office/chinchilla room), a washer and dryer, a little patio area, views of the Hudson River and TZ Bridge, an AWESOME kitchen with marble counters and custom tiles...I loooove it. We put down a deposit and filed an application, fingers crossed! The worst part was having to call my current landlord to ask if we could get out of our lease a few months early. Ugh, terrible. He said ok, though, after sounding totally hurt and confused. Now I'm just going to wait anxiously and see what happens!

A silent sleeper, you won't hear a peep.

Tonight I saw Kid Cudi live with Chip tha Ripper and Consequence. Not only were the openers actually good (like Consequence from Tribe isn't good...) Kid Cudi was one of the best live performers I've seen in a LONG time. He's so good live, plus his personality on stage (and I'm assuming off) is awesome. I was very impressed. We were in VIP so I got to take some photos and videos (it was PACKED downstairs, I wouldn't have been able to even see the stage!). I took a video of the entire Day 'N Nite performance (just realized how close that is to my blog name!) only to come home, upload it and find that it recorded with no sound. SO mad. I have one of Poke Her Face and Pursuit of Happiness, but I'd much rather post this video I DIDN'T take, of my most favorite Kid Cudi song (and unfortunately one he didn't play tonight):

OK and I'll post one I took tonight, too...here's Poke Her Face (sorry for quality, iPhone!)

EDIT: Apparently the real name of that song is Make Her Say. Whatever. Poke Her Face is better.

Tick Tock

Time. It seems like no matter who you ask, people always want more time. I constantly hope that tomorrow I will wake up and there are suddenly more hours in the day.

I am blessed with the fact that my job doesn't "officially" start until 11am, but not so blessed because that means absolutely nothing. I usually either have a ton of paperwork to take care of before we open, or a customer calls me and asks me to come in early. Which is, in and of itself, ridiculous...much like the majority of my customers.

I work 6 days a week just so I am available for everyone. I figure our hours have a wide enough range that everyone, regardless of their schedule, can find time to come and purchase their goods. This doesn't stop them from, at least 4 out of the 6 days per week, calling and asking me to stay late/come in early for them. Depending on how much I like them and how good of a mood they catch me in, I will probably say yes. But if you're a pain in the ass or I've had a shitty day, forget it. "These are my hours, Monday-Saturday. You can't make it, too bad."

My favorite is when they call my cell after hours to have me COME BACK to the store after I've already gone home for the day. Case in point: last week one day I worked about an hour and a half late. After work I went to Staples to pick up some supplies to bring with me to the store the next day. I was in the parking lot and my Nextel started going off (yes, I actually had to cheat on my iPhone and get a cheap work phone just so I could turn it off on the weekends/vacation), it was a guy asking me to come back to the store so he could pick up an order. It was already 8:30pm at this point, I had just spent more time than necessary there, I just wanted to go home, eat dinner with Brian and sit on my couch. So...I lied to him. I told him his order was in the warehouse which gets locked up at 7pm so he couldn't get his stuff even if I said yes, which I assured him I would have. I seem like the good guy and I don't have to go back to work...win, win. Anyway, this happens often. Absolutely insane. I think anyone else would be a lot meaner than I am about it.

Oh! Another favorite: they call me on Sundays asking me to come in. Sundays are sacred to me and not in the religious sense. It's my day for: peace, quiet, chores, fun, family, etc...everything BUT work. I would have to REALLY like you or feel totally compassionate to come in to work on a Sunday, or if you want to spend a lot of money...maybe. It would take a lot.

I'm learning to say no more. It was another New Years' resolution of mine, to put myself before the business more. What good is running a successful business if you can't take the time to live, breathe and enjoy yourself? Or at least do laundry, cook meals and return phone calls?

The Wire

Brian and I started watching the HBO show, The Wire, from the beginning. Apparently it first premiered in 2002 and, depending on who you ask, was one of the best TV shows of all time. I don't know how I never saw it, I was up on all of those HBO shows, The Sopranos, Sex in the City, OZ, etc. Somehow this one flew under my radar, which is actually better because now I don't have to wait every week for a new episode, I can watch is straight through whenever I want. The first time I heard of The Wire was when I was watching The Office with Brian and they had Charles come and watch over the Scranton branch. When they introduced him Brian said, "Oh shit, Stringer Bell," which made no sense to me so he had to explain about the Wire a little bit. It sounded good but I never really had the motivation to watch it. Now that we're on Season 2, I see why the whole Stringer Bell thing was funny.


In The Wire he's the brains behind every operation and a total bad-ass, it's hilarious to see him pushing pencils in a shirt and tie in the Office.

So, 2010, huh?

It is January 3rd so, in true Lindsey fashion, I'm already a few days late making this blog entry. There goes one resolution (to be more punctual). Brian and I spent our annual Christmas-New Years vacation in Miami Beach (recap to come soon) which was much less relaxing than our last vacation to Staniel Cay, Bahamas. The two can't even be compared, though. Staniel is a true tropical paradise while Miami is still part of the hustle-and-bustle of the States.

While in Miami we reflected on the past year and any improvements we can make in the coming year. There are plenty of things we can do differently, it's honestly just a matter of making changes within ourselves, which neither of us are very good at. Here is our list-in-progress:

1. Cook dinner more

2. Move to a new, bigger apartment

3. Start yoga in order to de-stress, learn to breathe, have more time to think and get in shape (mine)

4. Stay late at work if I have things I need to finish (mine)

5. Eat healthier

6. Eat at a new restaurant in the city at least once a week

7. Keep our apartment clean

8. Do laundry more often

9. Make more us-time and date nights

10. Go to the MoMA with Jaime and Dave for the Tim Burton exhibit

11. Have more follow-through (this was originally B's, but I could benefit from it, too)

12. Be nicer and have less of an attitude (another one of his that I could also do)

13. Do dishes more often (B's)

14. Start getting ready for bed early so we can clean up after ourselves before going to bed

15. Wake up earlier for work

16. Put shelfguards in Davis and Junior's cage (B's)

17. Take down the Christmas tree and decorations on Little Christmas instead of, like, March like last year.

This brings to mind my To-Do list from last year. I checked off all that I had accomplished, which left me feeling proficient/sad. I did way better than I thought but I did leave a lot unfinished. I'm especially sad about not doing the things I wanted to do with my parents while they were home.

While we were in Miami they left to get the boat in Stuart, FL, which didn't leave them enough time to come down and meet us. I pretty much knew that would happen, but there was still a little hope that they would make it. Now they'll be gone until July. Brian and I talked about how much I missed them last winter and we decided that if it ever becomes truly unbearable for me I can take a long weekend to go see them. It's great to know that he's reached a point where he can take of the store in my absence. Just knowing that relieves some of my stress.

So here's to 2010, the beginning of a great (stress-free) year and hopefully a great decade. It has to be better than the last, right?