A Fat Chick Trying to Find Herself: Holidays

I'm off on Vaca!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:26:04 GMT

I'll be back July 8th!

Happy Valentine's Day

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:01:05 GMT

Thank you all for your kind words. Things are beginning to settle (sort of) and I'll be back soon. I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day and let you know that today.... on this special day.... I am doing GREAT! Tomorrow might be a different story, but today is magical. I hope it can be magical for all of you too.

Take care,

~ Fat Chick

The Christmas Update That You Thought Would Never Come

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:31:20 GMT

I think I’ve put off the details of my Christmas vacation and New Years long enough. But you must endure the bullets, because that’s all I have time for today (Hey, what can I say? You’re lucky you’re even getting a post today, lol.)

q To kick off the Christmas vacation My Prince and I went to a Penguins’ hockey game and unfortunately they lost. I was so happy to be on vacation and at a hockey game that it didn’t even matter that they lost. It was still a great way to start my vacation.

q The next day we went back to My Prince’s second hometown of Little Town Nowhere, WV. It’s so little that I don’t even remember the name of the town. But My Prince and the Royal Parents like to go back at Christmas time to reminisce. We ate at one of their old hang outs, drove past their old house, and even stopped at the mall they used to shop at for some shopping. I walked away with about six new books that I bought with my Borders’ gift card. We ended the trip with a stop at a Japanese restaurant that My Prince always complains that we never stop at. He was determined to eat there at least one time! lol

q The Sunday before Christmas we went to my Mom’s house for an early Christmas celebration because unfortunately my Mom had to work on Christmas Eve. I was caught off guard with the arrival of my stepfather’s brother and his family. But I did my best to tolerate them. We all sat down for dinner, then opened presents, and finished the evening with a game. Overall it was a nice time had by all.

q For Christmas Eve My Prince’s Mom (the Queen) invited herself and her King over to my place for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. So, My Prince and I prepped most of the day and got cooking. We ate a feast fit for Royalty (how fitting, huh? lol) For the meat eaters there was: lobster, steak, shrimp, and scallops and for the vegetarian of the group there was: portabella mushrooms, rice casserole, and stuffed mushrooms. We finished off the meal with white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. After we ate we talked for a bit and decided to play a game with dominos. We all had a wonderful evening together and the Queen insisted we do it again. You can’t ask for better than that!

q On Christmas we started the day out at my Dad’s house. When we arrived we were immediately served up delicious foods and were entertained by good conversation. Shortly after we exchanged gifts it was off to My Prince’s Grandma’s house where the royal parents and Grandma were watching Christmas movies. My Prince proceeded to stuff himself silly with the leftovers at his Gram’s and when all of our belts just about busted and our eyes heavy with sleep we made the trip home. It was a great Christmas Day!

q The next day I gave us the day “off” to rest after the exciting day of Christmas and to prep for the following dinner I was hosting for my Dad and Stepmother the next day. This day we just kicked back and relaxed.

q The following day we prepped the same meal we had for the Royal parents and knocked the socks off of my Dad and Stepmother. They were highly impressed with our spread and couldn’t compliment us enough! After dinner we sat around talked for a bit until Dad and the Step Mom left. Yet another wonderful night with good company.

q On Friday we decided to jam a bunch of fun events into one day. My Prince, the Royal Parents, and I kicked our day off at the flower show. The main thing I was interested in seeing there was the outdoor train exhibit, it was amazing! We then made our way to the Carnegie Science Center where we saw the movie Sea Monsters. But we saved the best for last, which was the Bodies Exhibit. This exhibit was absolutely amazing! It was very educational to see how our bodies work and what they are made up of and see it up close and personal. I really hope to go back one more time before the exhibit closes.

q Finally it was New Years Eve and My Prince, the Royal Parents, and his Gram went out to eat for dinner. We then went to a magical Christmas Village. After seeing the huge light displays, we went indoors to see the train display, and then back outside to the bonfire. My Prince and I shared cups of hot chocolate by the fire and road in a horse drawn buggy. The evening couldn’t have been more romantic. We then came down to the city to watch the New Year’s fireworks and ended up missing them. So, we all piled into the car and went home.

To say that I enjoyed my vacation is an understatement. I hated the thought of coming back to work the next day but all good things must come to an end I suppose.

I know I’m a bit late in saying this but I hope you all enjoyed the holidays with you and yours.

Happy (belated) New Year,
~ Fat Chick

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:29:35 GMT

At 4:50pm today I will be out of the office and kicking off my wonderful vacation! I will be off until January 1st returning on the 2nd. I couldn't be happier! I need this break more than I can ever describe! I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday and a great Happy New Year!!! See you in 2008!

~ Fat Chick

The Christmas Spirit?

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:06:41 GMT

Yep, the Christmas Spirit can even be found in the deepest and darkest parts of hell. I spent an hour and a half this afternoon wrapping presents for a family that we adopted at work. Imagine my meanest co-workers/managers rolling their sleeves up and wrapping the presents for this family. They even nodded in agreement when I brought in my radio playing Christmas music. Color me “shocked”.

I have one hour and one day left to “survive” and then I’m on vacation until January 2^nd!

Here’s something to further entertain you:

Winter Wonderland

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends! Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy this entire post and paste into your own blog. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. 'Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? The most pretty wrapping paper that is out there adorned with a beautiful bow.

2. Real tree or artificial? Real tree with the bulb on it. But since I’m currently living alone a fake one. Once I start my family with My Prince we’ll start the tradition of real tree with the bulb still on it so that we can plant it after Christmas is over.

3. When do you put up the tree? Right after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? Probably not until the second or third week of January.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but in small doses.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My cabbage patch doll “Rosie”

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No

8. Hardest person to buy for? Dad

9. Easiest person to buy for? My Prince

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Awful smelling perfume

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Definitely mail.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? All of them!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Just before Thanksgiving

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes several times before.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My homemade fudge! YUM!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Both! But the colored lights have to be “chasers”.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Christmas Canon in D.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I’d like to go to Arizona for Xmas one year but usually I just stay home.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Yes, but can you?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Cinderella is on top of my tree

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? I like to open them better on Xmas morning. I think opening them on the Eve spoils a special part of the day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? when decorations are hung and Christmas carols are played before Halloween is over!

It's Crunch Time

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:09:41 GMT

Last weekend was great! My personal life is wonderful! Then Monday came and I was faced with the harsh reality that just because work is out of sight and out of mind doesn’t make it nonexistent.

You know they say that our government tortures POW’s well I have a suggestion for them. Bring their prisoners here to my work place. They’ll have them ‘singing’ faster than you can say “five o’clock”. Ok, so maybe I’m being a bit dramatic but really… this place is killing me.

I keep trying to console myself with the fact that I just have to make it to Friday and I’ll have a nice long vacation from the office. But that little voice in my head also reminds me that after that vacation is over (which will inevitably go by way too fast) I have to come back here. I want to rip that little voice’s head off (if it were to have one).

I’m doing my best to focus on my personal life when I’m here. For instance, I have quite a few things to do before Christmas that I’ve been putting off. I still need to write out and send my Christmas cards, wrap gifts, pick up a DVD from Best Buy which happens to be someone’s gift, I need to exchange two gifts that I bought in the wrong size, I need to go grocery shopping, and I need to clean up my apartment because My Prince’s Mom invited herself and the Royal King over for Christmas Eve dinner and I invited my Dad and Step-Mom over for dinner the week of Christmas. I know… I’m still trying to figure out why I did that too.

Which brings me to my vacation that I mentioned above. I already have a full schedule, which looks something like this:

Saturday 12-22: Go to WV with My Prince and the Royal Parents for a family tradition of going back to their old town and house where they used to live in WV.

Sunday 12-23: Go to my Mom’s house for Christmas dinner

Monday 12-24: Dinner at my house for the Royal Family

Tuesday 12-25: Go to my Dad’s house for Christmas and to My Prince’s Grandma’s house

Wednesday 12-26: REST

Thursday 12-27: Have my Dad and Step-mom over for dinner

Friday 12-28 through Sunday 12-30: REST

Monday 12-31 through Tuesday 1-08: Possibly go out to my Aunt’s house for a New Year’s party

Sounds like fun, huh?

Tonight I plan on exchanging the two gifts mentioned above, wrapping presents, and picking up the final gift from Best Buy. OH!!! *just remembered* I also have to make stuffed mushrooms for Food Day at work tomorrow as well as extras for next week. Start taking bets now on how much of this I actually get done tonight. Go ahead… I don’t mind.

~ Fat Chick

Oops!

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:03:15 GMT

Yesterday was my weigh in day for Tales from the Scales and I completely forgot because I was so busy at work (again). My weight hasn’t budged from last week. I need to make better food choices and I know that. Also, now that my classes are over until January I’ll be able to put in another day at Curves.

Speaking of school my final exam wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. There were three things that I didn’t agree with but I’m pretty certain I did good overall on the test. The bad part is I won’t find out m final grade for the class until Dec. 20^th. That’s just inhumane!

Next week is my last full week of work and then I’m off for Christmas vacation, WOO-HOO!

With Christmas coming I’ve discovered that I’m playing Santa Claus more and more the closer it gets. For example, I’ve been put in charge or buying the managers' gifts this year (don’t ask me how). One of the managers we decided to get a watch for (she collects them) and I realized that she gets quite a few from my co-worker who is an Avon rep. So, I asked her if she could come up with an idea for us and it seemed like she didn’t want to put a lot of effort into it. But then I remembered that she had asked for me to print out a picture of her two grandchildren on the color printer. So, I printed it out for her and gave it to her as incentive for her to look a little harder.

Also, I was talking with a fellow computer tech and found out he was desperately searching for a Nintendo Wii for his kid for Christmas. It so happens that one of my other co-workers has a “Wii Connection”. I asked if he could hook me up and he said he would see if another shipment was coming in or not. If he pulls through on this for me then I’m going to buy him a bottle of his favorite alcohol, which I have his assistant working on finding out for me. Not to mention that if I do pull this off my tech friend will be taking me out to lunch, lol.

Christmas is exhausting my friend! Tonight I have to start writing out my Christmas cards as well. I have all of my Christmas shopping done except for one present (which is being held for me, I just have to go pick it up).

Fa La La,

~ Fat Chick

Christmas Office Party

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:14:49 GMT

Today is the office Christmas Party so I won't be here long enough to give you a proper blog post. So, have a great weekend everyone!

Thanksgiving Vacation

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:59:22 GMT

Is it really over? I can’t believe how fast Thanksgiving vacation went! It was absolutely wonderful though and I enjoyed every second of each day!

My holiday weekend started on Wednesday at 3:30pm. I was so giddy with excitement when the office manager let us leave an hour and a half early. Once I got home I changed into my gym clothes and raced off to Curves for a forty-five minute workout. Curves was closed that Thursday and Friday as well so I figured I should put in my time since I wouldn’t be able to again until Saturday.

Also, lucky for me, My Prince’s Dad scored us some hockey tickets to the Pens’ game on Wednesday night. We met up at our usual hockey night restaurant, which is a Chinese place within walking distance of my house. I walked there and put in our order and waited for the guys to show up. Unfortunately, the Pens did not win their game. We were all a bit disappointed. But it was good food, good company, and made for a good time regardless of their performance.

Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving Day and My Prince and I had two scheduled engagements. Our first was a 2:00pm Thanksgiving lunch with My Prince’s family. I love this restaurant that we go to! They had meatless lasagna for the new vegetarian of the group and lots of delicious veggie sides as well. I was happy with my options.

Then we went to my Dad’s house for dinner, which was scheduled for 3:00pm but we of course would not have been able to get there for that time and made it there at 5:30pm. We stuffed ourselves silly yet again. My Dad made green bean casserole that I love for me as well. He wanted to make sure I had a lot of veggie options. He even made a broccoli and carrot mixture that was delicious and had a raw veggie tray for me. I was also expected to eat a piece of pumpkin since it was home made and had no meat in it, YIKES! Overall my Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. I enjoyed spending time with all of the family and My Prince’s family. Usually, after we gobble ‘til we wobble (hehe, saw this on an auto insurance sign on t-day) we make our way over to Hartwood Acres Celebration of Lights to kick off the holiday season. But we were out too late and did not make it out this year. We tucked in for the night because I decided we were going out on Black Friday, something I’ve never done before.

I had a plan, wake up early, hit Wal-mart, and then venture over to the other stores that were in that area. That was exactly what we did with a breakfast stop after Wal-mart. It was great! I wasn’t one of the crazies going and waiting in line at 4am for that half priced computer or plasma tv. I just wanted the black Friday deals and that’s what I got. We went to Office Max, Best Buy, and Barnes & Noble. I bought all of the gifts on my list except for one that won’t be available until Dec. 2 or 4^th (I forget which). So, needless to say, my shopping outing was quite successful. After all of that fun I was broke so there wasn’t much we could do the rest of the day. My Prince went home and did a few things he needed to get done and I went home and began wrapping presents. Am I sick? Yes! I’m never this far ahead this time of year. I think I might like black Friday. Later on that evening My Prince’s Mom asked us to join her on a trip to Target. That’s where I fell in love with a ring we saw in the display case and it was 50% off. I drooled all over the counter. Don’t tell anyone, please, lol. Then we went over to Sam’s club and I got a beautiful new book (which I can’t find on the internet, sorry).

Saturday my Mom and I had planned a confrontation with my sister in the early afternoon and she bailed on it. Both my Mom and I agreed that we think she caught on to why she was invited over to Mom’s house because we didn’t tell her why. So, I went to Curves for another 45-minute workout and then met up with My Prince for a nice leisurely lunch out. Unfortunately, My Prince started to feel under the weather so we really didn’t do anything too exciting on Saturday.

On Sunday we watched a Christmas Movie marathon that was playing different Christmas movies all day it was great! I love watching Christmas movies even the cheesy ones. My Prince, his Mom, and I decided to go see the Celebration of Lights that we didn’t see on Thanksgiving. It was beautiful as usual! But before we left My Prince pulled me into a private room and told me he had a surprise for me. He made me close my eyes and hold out my hands. When I was able to open them I saw a ring box sitting in the palm of my hand. I opened it up to find the beautiful ring I was drooling over at Target. He told me he wanted me to have it as a reminder of his love for me until he bought me the other ring (hehe). It was one of the sweetest things he’s ever done for me. The ring is beautiful and if I wore it on that finger I know people would think it was an engagement ring because it’s just that beautiful!

That pretty much wraps up my Thanksgiving holiday. It was great and I’m sad to see that it’s over but now the count down is on for my Christmas break! YAY!!!

~ Fat Chick

Thanksgiving

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:14:57 GMT

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I'll be back next Monday! Enjoy the weekend!

Light Up Night

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:24:15 GMT

It's that time of year again... where the snow falls, christmas trees go up, and my city decides to decorate for christmas and turn all of their lights on at the same time. I love Light Up Night even though it gets terribly crowded and this year will probably be worse than those in the past because of construction getting in the way. But I don't care.

My evening will start with a walk over to my old office building where (in my opinion) the best tree in the city is. I will be greeted by a large group of children dressed up in their xmas costumes, singing xmas carols, and dancing. Then I will eagerly wait for them to light the brilliant xmas tree before me. Then, just like every year, they will begin a little ice skating show and play the "Xmas Canon in D" and I will proceed to get teary eyed. This is probably my favorite part of the whole night.

Next I will do my best at directing My Prince over the phone how to get into the city without getting blocked and tell him where to park. As I'm talking to him I will walk over to the parking garage to meet him there. Next, we will rush over to the food court to score some dinner and (depending on the time) either eat it there or bring it back to my office building to eat. We will then set up in someone's office and eat while we wait for the fireworks show to begin. We'll watch the fireworks and go back down to the city streets and do whatever we want on a whim.

It's great fun!

I'll take my camera with me and snap a bunch of beautiful pictures. We'll probably stop over at "Santa's from around the World" exhibit. One of my other favorite things to do is walk down the city streets that have lights going across the street over head, from building to building. There will also be a bunch of goodies to try. Like hot apple cider and funnel cake with hot fudge topping. YUM!

This is the my first picture of my favorite tree being lit up last year. Hopefully this year I can get a clearer pic.

Merry Christmas!

~ Fat Chick

Christmas of the Russian?

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:13:11 GMT

SATC quote of the day:

Stanford: I saw the way you were behaving. You’re sleeping with the beautiful man!

Carrie: The beautiful man is gay.

Stanford: Damn! An accent always throws me.

*Note: For the New Year I’m going to change this from “Carrie Quote of the Day” to “SATC quote of the day” for two reasons. The first being I’m going to run out of Carrie quotes. Secondly, after watching part of the fourth season last week I’ve decided there are too many good quotes from the other characters not to use them.

This past weekend was absolutely fabulous and I can’t help but laugh at my last post. I was crazy to think that I wouldn’t have a good time just because I wasn’t “coupled” up with anyone.

I arrived at my Aunt Bea’s house late on Friday night. Apparently two of my cousins (and their significant others) were waiting for my arrival before attending a Christmas celebration. I had just enough time to change my clothes, take the last sip of my cousin R.J.’s wine cooler, and throw my bag into my room and then we were out the door.

We ended up going to R.J.’s friend’s house for a Russian Christmas/Home for the holidays party. R.J.’s friend, Linn, is in the marines and was home on holiday leave celebrating the time that he had. To say that this party was a blast is an understatement. There were games being played, decorations everywhere you turned, and someone to talk to around every corner. I met so many new people I forget half of their names. But that could also be due to the fact that every time someone wished a person a “Merry Christmas” a Jack Daniels shot was shoved into everyone’s hands that were around to hear it (some times even if you didn’t hear it).

Somewhere during the evening I met my new gay ‘boyfriend’ Tristan. He was a handsome chap from London studying in the U.S. for a semester of school. Tristan became my new accessory once we met. He critiqued what everyone was wearing, had his own comedian act for just about any topic you could possibly think of, and talked “girl talk” with me. I think I found the best girlfriend I never knew (I told him that and he was flattered).

The next day we met up for brunch (because he insisted). We talked about love. Tristan told me of his London boyfriend and the “rules” of what was allowed and not allowed while they were apart. I told him about My Prince and he insisted that I marry him immediately before Tristan stole him from me (hehe). I told My Prince about that conversation and he said he would never marry Tristan because he simply wasn’t as pretty as me, lol.

The best part about meeting Tristan was I now had a “date” for Russian Christmas dinner. I believe he was the “belle of the ball”. He definitely provided more entertainment than we ever expected to have at dinner. The food was excellent the conversation flowed as freely as the wine! St. Nicholas was more than kind to me giving me a lotion/bath set, a bracelet/necklace/earring combo, and a $50 gift card to Borders bookstore.

After dinner the 20ish crowd stayed up talking about past Christmas memories, which prompted the idea for all of the ladies to go and model my girl cousins’ old Christmas dresses. Of course Tristan looked the best in his ensemble, which consisted of a red blouse with poinsettias on it and a green skirt. I wish I had taken pictures!

I finally passed out around 3am. The drive home was long but I hurried back to see My Prince. Unfortunately he was still sick so I just cuddled long enough to tell him about my weekend and went home. All in all I guess you can say I had a fantastic time.

~ Fat Chick

The Things I Get Myself Into

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:48:44 GMT

Carrie Quote of the Day:

Carrie: He’s online! *Ducking* Does he see me?

I watched this episode last night and laughed out loud when I saw/heard this.

Once again I prove that the best-laid plans aren’t always the best. This weekend is Russian Christmas and my Mother’s, Sister’s, husband (did you get that?) has a little Russian in him so they celebrate this holiday. I remember being excited as a child celebrating Russian Christmas with them because it meant more presents. But that was years ago and I don’t remember anything else about it.

Anyway, on New Year’s Eve my cousin, Heather, called me and wished me a Happy New Year. Heather and I used to be really close growing up. I used to spend months at her house during the summer and would see her for all of the holidays. Plus we are the same age. Then we grew up and she moved to Philadelphia (she originally lived 3 hours away from me). Now I don’t see or hear from her much but when we are together it’s like no time has passed and our relationship had stayed the same.

So, naturally when Heather invited me to her Mom’s house for Russian Christmas I got all caught up in the moment and agreed to go. My Prince was even excited about learning about this holiday. Then My Prince got sick. I told Heather about him being sick and she asked that I let her know by Thursday (yesterday) if My Prince would be coming or not. Well, I talked to My Prince yesterday to see how he was feeling and he decided it would be best to stay home.

I just shrugged it off thinking I’d still have a good time with my family… until I realized who was going to be there. Here’s a list of the people attending, let me know if you catch on to why I’m suddenly not happy about going:

*Note: All names have been changed to protect the identity of the Fat Chick and her family

Uncle Robert and Aunt Bea

Cousin Nicole, her husband Bill, and their baby

Cousin R.J. and his fiancée Millie

Cousin Heather and her boyfriend Sean

Cousin Heather’s friend Cathy and her husband

I’ll give you a second to figure out what’s wrong with this list. Go ahead and read over it a few times. .. I’ll wait. Here’s a hint: I typed the list this way so you could notice the problem instead of just typing the names straight across with commas to separate the names.

Figure it out?

I just realized that everyone there would have his or her “other half” except for me. I’m the odd man out. In all of the conversations that I participate in I will be the third wheel. I am incredibly unhappy about this. Who am I supposed to pal around with? I have no pal, my pal will be at home in bed sick, while I’m doing my best to grin and bear the reality of the situation. Suddenly this “great idea” isn’t so great any more.

The worst part is I can’t even back out for two major reasons (besides the obvious of me accepting the invite) 1. “Saint Nicholas” already purchased me a gift and 2. it would be incredibly rude for me to cancel when they are expecting me tomorrow. I’m trying to convince My Prince that he feels well enough to go with me. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to work. Wish me luck!

~ Fat Chick

Fantastic New Year

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 17:37:41 GMT

Carrie Quote of the Day:

Carrie: That's the thing about needs. Sometimes when you get them met, you don't need them anymore.

I always get excited with the start of a New Year. It feels like a fresh clean slate, a new start, with new possibilities. I usually stay on this “new year high” for about a month or two and then realize things don’t change over night. But that doesn’t stop me from thinking about what I can make different.

Let me back track for a moment to my Christmas vacation. I had a wonderful vacation. I spent all of my time with My Prince, got in a lot of family time for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; I ate way too much food, but overall enjoyed myself. 10 days off of work was just great!

This year brings a lot of new possibilities, unfortunately for My Prince he started off the New Year being sick. But this is what I have to look forward to in the coming months:

q This weekend: celebrating Russian Christmas with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins

q Feb./March: going to Philadelphia to visit my cousin and her boyfriend.

q Feb/March: A new baby will be coming into the family (my other cousin is expecting).

q May: My Prince’s cousin is graduating from high school and we might be going. Did I mention his cousin lives in Louisiana? This is also where My Prince was born. I’ve never been there before. But I need My Prince to get over his fear of flying to make this trip.

q June 16^th: My cousin is getting married!

q June 18^th: Is MY 25^th birthday! I plan on having a huge party!

q July: My Prince and I might be going to Myrtle Beach for a week.

q Dec.: I’m planning on going to visit my Pappy for Christmas and his 80^th birthday!

I can hardly wait; I’m so excited about these events! Plus, whatever else happens to pop up in between.

Happy New Year Everyone!

~ Fat Chick

CHRISTMAS! (The snow is falling…)

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 15:11:32 GMT

Carrie Quote of the Day:
Carrie: You know it’s not your style but it’s right there and you try it on anyway.

This morning I drove into work and was listening to the radio, which was playing Christmas songs. I love Christmas songs. But I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. There were three songs (“Xmas Shoes”, “Where are you Xmas?”, and “Christmas Canon”) in a row that made me want to cry (and probably even got a little teary eyed over) and then I heard two songs that put me in an up beat mood. It’s amazing how much that music affects my emotions. But I can’t help but love it any way.

I just finished wrapping all of my gifts last night. Wednesday night I even picked up a present for myself from Santa. It was easy on Santa’s wallet though. I got a pair of $50 boots for only $20. They are very cute! (Go ahead click on it, they are worth a peek, hehe!).

Tonight I’m going to see “The Christmas Carol” with my Mom. I’m very excited about this! I’m going to take her out to dinner at a fancy restaurant. I’ve wanted to do something like this with her for a long time. I’m just afraid I’m going to have so much fun that I’m not going to want to let her go home afterwards, lol. I think she spend the night at my house, lol.

The first part of my Christmas vacation is pretty well packed. Tonight I have the show with my Mom, tomorrow I’m going to West Virginia with My Prince and his family, Sunday we have an afternoon dinner with My Prince’s parents, then an evening dinner with my Mom at her house, then on Monday we have an afternoon dinner with My Prince’s family, and an evening dinner with my dad and his family. There’s so much do with so little time! I have the whole week off next week. I’m very happy about this break.

This post is so random so I’m going to finish it off here. Happy holidays everyone!!!

Happy New Year too,
~ Fat Chick

Christmas Proposal

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 14:52:17 GMT

Carrie Quote of the Day:

Charlotte: I proposed to myself!

Carrie: What?

Charlotte: Yes. I suggested he have a tomato salad, then I suggested we get married.

Carrie: Wait. What exactly did he say?

Charlotte: Alrighty!

Carrie: Alrighty? He said alrighty? Now I’m thinking the upsetting thing isn’t that you proposed, it’s that you proposed to a guy that says, “alrighty”.

Charlotte: Oh, Carrie stop!

Carrie: Alrighty.

My sister called me last night and told me the “big news”. Her current boyfriend is proposing to her on Christmas Day. They went to the jewelry store last weekend and “looked” at engagement rings. My sister found the “perfect” ring and then had to run to their car to retrieve something. While she was gone she discovered through the sales clerk woman that her boyfriend had purchased the ring while she was gone. She cried and he said he wanted to propose “the proper” way to her but she’d have to wait to find out when. He then had a talk with my father asking for his blessing for them to get married and my father gave it to him. My sister’s boyfriend also asked if he could propose to her in front of everyone on Christmas day at his house and my father approved of that as well.

It’s amazing how many people around me are getting engaged and are getting married recently. I’ve been with My Prince for 7 years, 4 months, and 5 days (but who’s counting?) and we are not engaged. It’s not that we aren’t ready emotionally we’re just not ready financially.

My stepbrother just got married last month, my sister is getting engaged on Christmas, and my cousin is getting married next June. Some times I just feel like, “when is it going to be my turn?” The feeling doesn’t last because I like the excitement of just thinking about getting married and once you are that’s gone, you don’t get that back. It just sucks when I’ve been in the longest relationship out of all of the people getting married around me and yet I’m still in the “single” box on any form I fill out.

I guess it has me a little bummed but I’ll move past it. I know that when it does happen for My Prince and I it will be magical.

Just to give you an idea of the track records of the couples recently married and those soon-to-be married:

- My sister and her boyfriend have been dating for 1 year (Side note: she was supposed to get married in Oct. 2005 but her finance bailed at the last minute. They were dating for 1 year when they got engaged)

- My stepbrother dated his now wife for 2 months before getting married (they are coming up on their 1 month wedding anniversary)

- My cousin and his fiancé dated for 1 year before getting engaged

- My other cousin was dating her now husband for 2 years when they became engaged (and they are still happily married with one baby and the second one on the way)

- My Mom got engaged 1 year after she started dating her now husband

- My Dad got engaged after dating his now wife for 1 year and 6 months

My one hope is that since My Prince and I have been together for this long before becoming engaged (and goodness only knows when we actually will) that we’ll be most likely to last because we have such a long history to us.

~ Fat Chick

“Bells will be ringing

this sad sad news

Oh what a Christmas

To have the blues”

~ Eagles

Please Come Home for Christmas

Office Xmas Party Part II

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:29:39 GMT

Carrie Quote of the Day:

Carrie: Are there some women put in the world just to make you feel bad about yourself?

The office party wasn’t too bad. But like I posted earlier, the best part of the day is that we get to go home afterwards giving us a half a workday. After running around the office like crazy for three hours we went to a fancy restaurant with a great view of the city.

There was a cocktail hour, at which I walked around with a glass of wine and took pictures of all of my co-workers. I mixed and mingled a little bit. All in all that wasn’t too bad. Then we sat down to lunch. The meal started with a salad that I almost didn’t get because I wasn’t at my seat when they were passing them out. I had a steak, veggies, and rice for my main course. My steak was followed up by some kind of custard type dessert. The food was pretty good.

The bad part is the entertainment started just as we started our dessert. My co-worker who was giving me a ride home had planned on us leaving after dessert and before the entertainment started. Well, since it would have been rude to leave during the entertainment we stayed longer than we had planned. But I was still happy getting home at 3:00pm.

The entertainment was two comedians. The opening act had me so embarrassed my face was probably the same shade as my red sweater I was wearing. He made a lot of inappropriate jokes. The second comedian made a lot of jokes about people from West Virginia, which was equally inappropriate because we had the people from our WV office at the luncheon. One of those people sat near me and I kept looking over at him to see his reaction to what the guy was saying and needless to say he didn’t look too happy. So the “entertainment” stunk to say the least.

Aren’t office parties wonderful? lol

~ Fat Chick

Office Xmas Party

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:32:32 GMT

Carrie Quote of the Day:

Carrie: Later that day I got to thinking about fairy tales. What if Princ Charming had never shown up? Would Snow White have laid in theat glass box forever? Or would she have gotten up, spit out the apple, gotten a job and a health care plan and moved on with her life?

Today is my office Xmas party and I am less than thrilled. I can't wait for the party to be over so I can go home early!!! That is the best part of this day. But I'm planning on finishing up the rest of my Xmas decorating and cleaning with this extra time I'll have on my hands. Last night I successfully finished decorating my xmas tree.

The past two xmas parties I went to were pretty lame. This year I had an offer from a co-worker to not only drive me to the place we're having the party but to take me home afterwards. She is going to drive me all the way home and she is going to be leaving early. Everyone criticizes her for leaving early every year but I'm not turning down a free ride home. Plus, I don't like hanging around all afternoon with a bunch of people I really don't like. So this year I have an "out". We'll see how much I'm frowned upon for leaving early with my ride.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

~ Fat Chick

10 business days until my Christmas vacaion!

Light Up Night

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:09:47 GMT

Carrie Quote of the Day:

Carrie: It was a typical downtown male mix. Ten percent Wall Street, ten percent real estate, and ten percent Samantha had already slept with.

Even though it’s still a little early for Christmas we here in the ‘burgh kicked off the holiday season by lighting up all of the Christmas trees last Friday.

The best part of it was that my sister and my Mom came in to the city to enjoy the festivities with me. My stepsister came too which was a disappointment but I still had a good time. For whatever the reason when my sister, my Mom, and I go out we almost always have a good time together. Friday was no exception.

I started off Light Up Night the same way I do every year. I walked outside of my building and watched the tree lighting ceremony of the Christmas tree that I complained about seeing in October. It’s a nice ceremony to see though. Since the tree is surrounded by an ice rink they have Santa and some of his “helpers” skate around on the ice while they play Canon in D. Every year this little display makes me cry. I guess it’s a good thing I do it alone. Then they have some little kid hold the switch to the lights while we count down from ten and the next thing you know everything is lighted. I love this part of Light Up Night I just wish I could share it with someone one year (preferably My Prince).

Then I got a call from my sister saying that she, my Mom, and stepsister were in the car downtown… lost. I tried talking them through the streets and finding them only to have my Mom (who was driving) freak out at the last minute and pull into a parking garage four blocks down from where I wanted her to park.

I then showed them the tree in front of my building, the names that I paid for on the American Cancer society board for those who were lost to cancer and those who are cancer survivors, and then we ate.

I then showed them the “Santas Around the World” exhibit in the Winter Garden

Along with the tree they have in there.

Finally, at 9:00pm it was time for the fireworks show. One of the advantages to working in this office building is the great seats we have for the fireworks show. They explode right in front of you. There’s no looking up, no fighting the crowds, and best of all no freezing to watch the fireworks.

All in all we had a great time.

Now it’s Turkey time! I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

~ Fat Chick

UPDATE: Photos removed due to problems with internet browser.