Bits & Pieces

So today I heard a door close. Slam, really. And loudly.

And … I think it’s a good thing, because closed doors make it way easier to move on. As much as I don’t like it, I’m realizing lately that I am really one of those “bigger, better” types, always looking for the next best thing.

I’m learning, though.

So I have this problem lately with daydreaming. I thought it was something that would end after I left my last job, but maybe it’s something that I have to actually take action toward. Not now … but someday.

I want to travel. I want to do more than sit and write from my relatively comfortable Alabama life. I want to … sit and write in Europe. Or Mexico. Or somewhere completely random and crazy.

I know that’s not going to happen right now. It doesn’t need to. Right now, I am living and working and paying bills here, and that’s as it should be.

But I think I might need to get up and run off somewhere random before I get over this. Or maybe it’s just part of being in my 20s. 🙂

Have there been moments in your life that you look back on with a sort of tantalizing bittersweetness? Where life seems to teeter on the edge of “just right” — but you know, with the benefit of hindsight, that the scale never quite tips in your favor?

I was making a list tonight of songs I’ve referred to in my journal over the past year and a half. I’m just a list-making, nostalgic sort of girl. But this journey took me back to a series of days (months, really) that were (are) sort of achingly sweet, despite their lack of fulfillment.

It left me craving my “Songs for the Almost” CD, and maybe that elusive fulfillment (that will not come). It left me, if not exactly sad, perhaps a bit melancholy.

Every time my computer dies, I’m convinced that it’s for good.

It does this obnoxious thing where it won’t turn on for, say, a week or so at a

I think that’s enough for now. If you want me to blog more, you should buy me a computer. 🙂

IT’S SNOWING!!!!

gimme a break – I haven’t seen snow since ’89.

Some observations from the weekend:

Apparently you don’t need to arrive at the airport hours in advance for holiday travel. Or at the very least, it wasn’t necessary for me on Friday. I got to the airport around 1:50 or so … and to my gate around 2. I had an hour and a half to chill out (so after returning some phone calls, I picked up the USA Today … I’d already read my paper, the Birmingham News, the Tuscaloosa News and the New York Times by that point. OK. Not in full. But all I wanted to, at least).
My mom bought jingle bell collars for the girl cats (that’s three of five, for those who are keeping score). Whenever they run around the house there’s a merry ringing. I think sometimes they shake their heads just to generate that sound.
Speaking of mom, while looking through the pictures I’ve taken since my last visit, she reached the conclusion that Philip looks like my brother. Now my sister has been saying this for years and years, but I didn’t agree until this summer, when I saw a picture of Philip from middle school at Jen’s house. It looked almost exactly like my brother. Anyway, mom made both Chad and my dad come to the computer and look at the picture, and then Chad went in the bathroom and practiced smiling the way Philip did in the picture and pretending to be frightened at the similarities. Sadly, the rest of my pictures from the Florida game didn’t elicit such an enthusiastic reaction. (C’mon mom! It’s the scoreboard! It says 31-3! We KILLED them! That was an amazing game! CARE A LITTLE!)
I am apparently an old woman. I have been exhausted by around 10 p.m. eastern, even though my bedtime is really 10 p.m. central. I am only awake now because I took a two hour nap after the turkey.
Nintendo DS is overrated (but don’t tell my little brother). Then again, I think most gaming systems are overrated. Just give me Mario Kart and Dance Dance Revolution and I’m set. (Nintendo DS *does* have Mario Kart, but it’s not as fun as on Game Cube, which isn’t as enjoyable as on SNES.)
Back to getting old — all day on Saturday, my brother kept announcing “I can’t wait until tomorrow!” All but the VERY LAST TIME he said it, my reaction was, “Why, what’s tomorrow?” I did figure it out (Christmas) before the words left my mouth. When I told my mom, she was very proud of me.
I think my New Year’s resolution will be to switch to decaf coffee. Now I’m not especially a caffeine addict, though a good cup does perk me up in the mornings. But I really think someday I’ll start having panic attacks/become OCD/something if I don’t take care of myself. I’m a big stress ball anyway, y’know? So I’ve decided I should reduce my caffeine intake, because that only exacerbates things, and also try to be less of a workaholic. (It’s not that I’m always working, but I am always thinking about work.) Plus I think I’d break out less with less caffeine, and I’ve been dehydrated a LOT the past several months. So once I finish the coffee I’ve already got (which is quite a bit — thanks Cristin, Cheryl and Aunt Laura!!!! and Alisa, but I’ve almost finished hers), I’m gonna go decaf for a while, with special occasions as an exception.
Not that y’all care.
I am apparently the cat whisperer. One of our cats had surgery recently and has to have a hot compress twice daily. He kept jumping out of my mom’s arms, but I took hold of him and rocked him through the rest of the treatment. Perhaps I am destined to be the crazy cat lady.
Speaking of crazy cat ladies, I miss Emma.
In Sunday School this morning, the guy opened by talking about how if you didn’t have the King James Version of the Bible, you needed to throw it away. OK, so he really started by saying that if your Bible didn’t say Mary was a virgin, but it quickly went the 1611 route. Because I am a snob and a pain in the butt, I tuned out the rest of his lesson. I read my NIV instead.
That’s all I’ve got. 🙂 I’d apologize for being dull, but eh, you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. 🙂

Merry Christmas, y’all. 🙂 I’m going to bed.