Uh-mazing

I'm going to gush a little bit today because I'm in the mood. I'm sure you've noticed but I'm quite fond of the The Beef. Recently at work I've been sharing a few choice pictures of him and I feel like a small fan club has formed among my coworkers. His I don't care, I'm having fun attitude can pretty much win anyone over and the fact that he's easy on the eyes probably doesn't hurt.

So here we go, some favorite memories of the my favorite person ever:

Ever the captain of fashion, when The Beef gets cold he puts basket ball shorts OVER his pajama pants.

Hunting cap, jacket, bathrobe, basket ball shorts and pajama pants are the homeless chic look for venturing outside at night.

The pajama pants, loving referred to as "the dews" are so much of a favorite that they even come swimming with him.

And when they're in the wash sometimes my pajama pants get stolen. 

No shave November means the beard that I adore is getting fuller. 

I fee like this picture sums up his personality perfectly.

He's the kind of amazing person who will win me a prize at a fair and then drive home with it strapped to his chest on the motorcycle. 

He'll let me take pictures like this of him in public.

"Nuff said.

He won the biggest fish of the year trophy and looked awesome accepting is award. 

Yeah...I like him. :)

*camera noise*

I like taking pictures, I always have. I think stuff looks neat and I want to remember it, so I snap snap away. I also like to be in charge so I used to dress my friend up so I could take tons of pictures of her in various costumes to combat boredom. I took a black and white photography class in high school and all I learned was how to fix my camera because it was so old and crappy. 

I understand the fundamentals of cameras, I have a grasp of the principles of photography, but no body pays me to take pictures so I just don't care. I'm not going to line up the perfect shot, I'm just here to capture a memory, maybe tell a little bit of a story.

I've never once come across a picture of mine and not know when it was taken and what was going on at the time. This even goes for college, I know, you're impressed. 

The above reasons are probably why I'm such a big fan of instagram. Ugh, I know, it's so trendy, I'm such a hipster for even admitting that I have it on my phone. OMG! I don't care about the filters though they're a great way to kill time and experiment. I don't care about the extra college feature I downloaded, though I do prefer condensing memories. I don't even care that I can view other peoples photos. If you took all of those features away I would still be happy because it's giving me the opportunity to create a photo diary. 

I prefer it to facebook because I know that far less people follow me on instagram and I don't have to worry about spamming anyone with my private content. Though if you really want to follow me on instagram, they just opened up their webpage feature and I've added a link to my side bar along side the websites facebook page, my twitter and pinterest links. 

**SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION**

Be warned if you follow my instagram, I will post pictures of my food. I've come to understand that not everyone likes to see that. 

Honestly though, this was one amazing seasonal meal day. Mixed vegetables, roasted chicken, sweet potato casserole, red skin garlic mashed potatoes, pumpkin egg nog, apple pie ala mode and hot chocolate with whipped cream. The snow has fallen and the house is warmer when the oven is on.

You will also occasionally be forced to view declarations of much from either myself or The Beef.

That's a dry erase board I made from a frame and some scrapbooking supplies, anything that comes after the word because isn't permanent so you can bet your behind that I'm taking a picture of it. 

And finally, on those long nights when I'm working a second shift and my social networking feeds have gone to sleep you can expect empty parking lot or landscape pictures because I feel like the only person awake in the entire world. 

But why?! You ask with disdain. Well, it's because I feel like complaining about it and I hope that perhaps if it is paired with a picture it might not be so bad. 

I'm not crazy about hashtags though so don't worry about having to fight though a sea of the after each pictures. *scouts honor*

What about you, any other instagram fans out there?

Oh New England...

I've been told that the old timers in New England have a say; "If you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes."

5 minutes may be a bit of an exaggeration but things here can certainly change quickly.

Case in point:

I took this photo on Tuesday afternoon:

I took this photo five minutes ago when I got home from work:

My coworkers think I'm crazy but I love winter nearly as much as I love autumn. As I strolled into work yesterday with our little snow storm in full swing someone shouted out "Are you happy now? You LOVE this!". 

I am happy but I feel like perhaps I am nearly alone in this.

Sure, snow is cold, wet, makes you have to clean off your car, shovel the driveway, extends your commutes 3 times as long as they should be and all the other things adults complain about. Honestly though, I find that annoying, but I've never lost the feelings amazement and wonder that snow, especially the first snow made me feel when I was a child. It still seems magical. I don't care that I ended up working an extra 8 hours because people didn't feel like driving in it to come to work. If it wasn't for that I would have been sleeping and missed the sight of the snow gently falling at 1am in the field next to the building I work in. It was absolutely beautiful. 

Because of all of this magical snow the Christmas bug that was nibbling on me has now firmly sunk it's teeth in and instead of paying attention to the fact that I've been awake for 24 hours I think I'll do some Christmas crafting today.

So, how nuts do you think I am?

Something Important I forgot to tell you.

So before I vanished from my blog the last thing I posted was about how James Hetfield is God and I was on my way to see Metallica again. I'm not here to do a festival review, I had a great time, rocked my face off as always, but something different happened this time.

Something that months later I still don't have proper words for and I may never be able to describe how this event really made me feel.

I got THISCLOSE to Him...

 Seriously, I was right there. I'll try my best to explain how this happened though I still feel star struck all this time later.

The Beef and I arrived to the festival just after it opened and decided to wander around and see what there was to see. A big tent with classic cars and motorcycles caught our eye so we headed that way. The beef made a beeline for the motorcycles and I got curious about a big crowed that had gathered around the cars so I called him over and we started towards the crowd.

Just as we reached it there was a break in the mass of people and I was able  to see what the fuss was about. James Hetfield was touring the classic cars. My reaction? Complete body shut down. No moving, no blinking, no breathing. I snapped out of it a few a few seconds and found the ability to breath, and shake like a leaf and tear up, but I still wasn't able to get my feet moving or find words other than "uhhhh uhhhh ummm uhhh".

The Beef making fun of me snapped me out of it and I approached the crowd. The nice thing about being a girl at a metal show is that you're pretty small in comparison to the other attendees and over the years I've gotten really good at squirming through crowds to get to the front of things. Which is how I ended up close enough to reach out and touch.

In the 15 minutes I was basking in his glory I took about a million pictures, the one above actually happens to be my favorite which upon first glance probably seems an odd choice. Just take a look at the face he's making; lips, pulled in, cheeks slightly puffed out. I call this face the BearMouth. Don't ask me why, for whatever reason my weird little brain decided that that's what it is called. It happens to be a face I'm very familiar with because The Beef makes it at me all the time.

Just when I thought I couldn't love either of them anymore...

*dreamy sigh* 

Anyway, what about you, ever spazzed out because of a famous person? 

Halloween Recap

So I wasn't around these blog parts for Halloween but I thought I would share my Halloween experiences with you just the same. A few days before I raided my mothers basement for whatever halloween decorations my father had left behind and then hit up the dollar store to supplement the spooky stuff.

Growing up we always decorated the front lawn much to the delight of the trick-or-treaters and this is something I've always wanted to continue but until now I haven't lived in a place where that was possible. I'd heard about the approaching storm and figured Halloween would probably be cancelled for the 2nd year in a row but I didn't care. I also knew that I do not live on a road that is going to see a single child begging for candy but I didn't care. I finally had some outside space and I was going to make use of it. Here are the results:

A front view of our pumpkins, The Beef opting for Batman face while I went with a modified Jack Skellington. 

Pumpkins all lit up.

Due to storm damage tick or treating was cancelled on local road with our town opting to hold it on the town green instead. The facility where I work also hosted trick or treating and all of the different units had a theme that they decorated for. My unit was "under the sea" and it was really great looking with pictures of sea life everywhere, streamers, stuffed animals, etc. They really went all out and did a great  job. 

For the first time ever I didn't have a halloween costume for work, so during the course of the night I ended up decorating myself so I would fit into the theme.

Streamers on the pig tails, foam sea horses in the hair, fishy stick on for the ear.

I even decorated the hair streamers with more foam sea life for extra fun.

My residents got a big kick out of it and I know the staff did too because I was encouraged to do it again the following evening. It's Halloween, there is no room to take yourself seriously.

So, how was your Halloween?

Thankful Tuesday!

A recent trend on facebook has people posting one thing they are Thankful for every day for the month of November. I remember this last year and that most people didn't keep up with it. I thought I might have a better shot at it if I did it here and made my lists weekly. This is obviously aslo a really good way to jump on this particular band wagon 6 days late.

November 1: 

My job, I am so thankful for my job as a CNA it's not even funny. 

I've found myself in a situation where I'm making a difference in the lives of others everyday and finding fulfillment that I've never experienced.

November 2:

My car, not to toot it's own horn but I made it from Maryland to Connecticut on a half a tank of gas this weekend. 

November 3:

My outlook on life, shaped by everything that has ever happened to me and everyone I've ever come in contact with, I've finally managed a way to look on the bright side of situations. Life is so much more enjoyable when you're not cranky all of the time. Stopping to smell the roses isn't something to scoff at.

November 4:

My house, it may not be big but it's private space that I get to share with my favorite person in the entire world. I like to think of it as my training course for when we eventually find ourselves in a bigger place. In the past six months I've learned so much about running a household, this experience has been invaluable. 

November 5:

My sense of humor, finding laughter in almost every situation is what keeps me going.

November 6:

My Blog, I may not update it as often as I'd like but it's a great place to sound off and something I really enjoy looking back on every so often. 

And what are you thankful for? 

P.S. Go Vote Today!

Babies...WTF

I don't know if this is just in my little world or if there's an countrywide movement that I'm unaware of, but there are babies everywhere. Both inside and out of the womb I am surrounded. For clarification, there are none inside MY womb, though apparently that would be just fine with the world, more on that later.

I feel like I shouldn't be surprised and that this just comes with the territory of being 28 years old. People are married, people are buying houses, people are having babies. According to the Beef people are beasting out on these activities.

Long gone are the days of hearing someone is pregnant and respond with "Oh Sh*t!" and wondering if they'll get shipped off to Wyoming or wherever those unwed mothers go. I'm kidding about that last part, much to my dismay the town I live in is seemingly full of teenaged unwed mothers. Not that I'm saying teenagers should get married, but they probably shouldn't be having babies. *shrug* Just my two cents.

But alas, as young as I may still feel at times my teenaged days are more than a decade behind me, and as I continue to age my social counterparts who feel more sure of themselves in adult roles are going to start doing more and more adult like things.

I myself am not physically, financially or emotionally ready to have a baby. I feel blessed to be surrounded by so many people who are and even more blessed that I've managed to keep my wits around me and not succumb to the every popular baby-fever.

However, there was a disturbance in my little world a little while ago when I posted the following status of facebook: Well it's official!! We have some amazing yet shocking news... We are expecting!! 10 weeks and 4 days! I know, I am in shock too! I can hardly believe it myself. I wasn't going to post it on facebook but since you are my wonderful friends and some like family I wanted to make it official. I'm too over whelmed to keep it a secret. Who would have guessed that us of all people would be expecting, We are expecting SANTA in just 10 and a 1/2 weeks. . Re-post if you have a good sense of humor. ;-)

Now, if you're like most people you only half read things on your facebook feed and after skimming the above blurb you probably thought I was pregnant. Even after I made SANTA pretty obvious there was still some confusion. The disturbance to my world came when I realized that had I actually announced my pregnancy via facebook for the most part it would be alright. Though there would be a few exceptions, the most notable being my father who responded with "Just picked myself off the floor." 

I just had the pleasure of spending the weekend with a pregnant friend and gained some insight to some of those things that no one ever tells you about being pregnant. It's just another situation where I'm mentally taking notes in the hopes one day all of this baby stuff will make sense and I won't be completely clueless when I grow up. 

In the mean time I'm just waiting for everyone else's babies to be old enough to babysit.

Hard Fact: 41% of my facebook friends are parents.