Tuesday, May 30, 2006

OK one more

So sorry for the heavy graphics as of late, I hope I am not causing issues for the dial up users :(

I just wanted to show one more layout I made a million years ago, but decided to scan in and showcase! Its my favorite one of me, my sister and mom - made with all Basic Grey materials!

Monday, May 29, 2006

Oh sweet lord my arms

My arms are sore. And seeing as how I didn't lift any weights on Saturday, I am assuming it is from doing 2 liter curls on Saturday night. That is just sad.

So I am doing some picture searching to finish up this "Legacy Book" class I am taking. Its bascially a scrapbook about me, my life, my family, et. all. I found a few good pics.....I thought I would share these two with you all. Some of my all time favorite pics :) Don't laugh. I thought I was the coolest. And I'll still kick your asses, with or without my catchers gear.


Sunday, May 28, 2006

Bummer

I was finally voted off the scrapbooking island this week. Pretty bummed out, but not that suprised! There was way to much crazy talent out there. So, I'm over it. And, I managed to make a few more pages this weekend. One 12x12 layout of some pics of Samson that Troy sent me, and also a two page 12x12 layout of the trip to the butterfly sanctuary when Pat O'Brien and Eunice were here.

I might not be the ultimate digiscrapper, but I still do a pretty darn good job.



paper - jen wilson rain shower, photo corner - jen wilson potter shed, ribbon & bow - anita stergiou COF, stitches - melany violette glitter madness, paper clip - shabby princess urban kiwi, love tag (really really low opacity) - trish jones - COF, tear - atomic cupcake, font - hurricane, batik - dafont.com, taple, tag, cardboard - gina cabrera bookbag school essentials


paper - jen wilson signature 01, elements jen wilson urban bohemian

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Drunk Post



you know what they say about drunk dialing / you realy shouldn't do it. Well, really, the same thing goes about drunk posting. But, I've enver been one to follow rules, so here I am.

the pic above is of me and keith at the fair a couple of hours ago. the fair is (la feria de san isidro) is half mile from our house. good thing we walked too. Because once we found the above TWO LITER bottles of your choice of TWO LITERS of corona family beer (that means corona, victoria, or leon with souviner boottle) for $100, we were ALL ABOUT IT. We walked home, and finally got home during the first quarter of the PISTONS game (whcih we get, thank the wsweet lord to ESPN INternational).

Anyway, so needess to say, 64 oz of beer is a lot for me, so I am kind of fuzzy. But I thought I would share a few pics of our adventure.

Pic 1. The flying people of somewhere. it sounds something like the bolberos de palpaloma - but I always think the flying human papaloma virus. they were totally cool



pic 2. me on some type of bull from some where. he is soo cute. his name is dumbo. the special bull from somewhere. i think i paid $20 pesos to mount him.



pic 4. me on a mechanical bull. after about 1 liter of beer. I think i paid $20 for this too. Luckily keith didn-t get video of me getting bucked off. you can see how fast i was going. so you can imagine how fuzzy i was.




pic 5. there was a baby PONY! it was soooo tiny. I think it was smaller than my cat.



so, thats about it. i'm hungry now, so i am going to get some chips while i finish
watching the 2nd half of the pistonians. btw -i finished my two liters of beer. plus one more can! wooooo hooooo!

GO STONES!

lots o' love,
karin :o)


i just realized i missed pic 3. but i cdont feel like fixing it.

Janelle's Album

So, I think I might have mentioned before that I was creating a gradutation present for my cousin - a "Life Album" if you will. I finished it last week, and uploaded the pics to a place that prints out the pages 12" by 12" (so they'll fit in the standard albums) and they sent them to Eastpointe. She got them this week, and apparently likes them pretty well ;) I thought I would post a few layouts here to share.

All the layouts were created using Melany Violettes Girl Collection.
Janelle, Karli & Nikki Layout



Janelle & Nikki "Sisters" Layout



Spring Break '06 Layout



Friends Layout

and the other......

Of a glimpse of the most dancing Alejandro Fernandez did all night!

Movies

Here are a couple of small videos I finally have uploaded. Here's the palenque.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

El Palenque....

Despite already having purchased my $80 ticket, when last night rolled around I was seriously debating declining the affair. I don’t know what’s wrong with me; sometimes I just get moody and don’t want to do anything. But, I managed to somehow drag my ass in the shower and be ready by time Vero and her sister got to our house. At about 10PM, Keith oh so kindly drove us to the fair, which was about a half mile (hey, I was in heels, and it was dark!) and after walking around the huge fair area and seeing HUGE bulls, tiny ponies, a plethora of mechanical games and rides, lots of food, and purchasing a really cute blue straw cowboy hat, we finally made it to the palenque area.

We walked in, and I was impressed at the size of the place for a cock fight, and then again impressed at the smallness of the place for a concert. I guesstimate about 3000 people or so. For a big name person, that’s pretty intimate. We didn’t get the best of the best seats, but we were pretty damn close, only about 10 rows up from the floor. We started ordering our beers (seat side service, beer, food, tequila, brandy, whatever you wanted right to your chair! No lines!) and settled into watch the cock fights.

I really wanted to bet on one of the chickens, but for some reason the minimum bet at this place was $500 pesos – way to rich for my blood. Here’s how they took bets: The screens above the cock ring (hehehe) displayed the line for the upcoming fight. You could bet outright who would win (red side or green side) or take the points. I never really figured out how that worked. Anyway, the bookies stayed down in the ring area, and looked for people to signal that they wanted to bet. Then, they would throw a hallowed out tennis ball at you, from which you would withdraw your betting slip, make your bet, stuff both your slip and your money back in the ball and throw it back down. Then the bookie would throw the ball back up with your ticket. After the fight, if you won, you would find a person walking around and they would cash your ticket.

This was all pretty wild to watch. While the bets are being placed the chickens are in the ring “getting to know each other”. The owners stretch out the cocks and try to get them all riled up. Then, before the fight begins, they tie the razors on to their legs, as well as a band defining them as the red or green side. They then clear out all the miscellaneous people from the ring, and let the cocks go.

I must admit, it was a pretty impressive sight to see those birds flying around. And really, you can’t even tell they are killing each other until they stop and you notice that one bird doesn’t seem to be moving anymore. Or if you see a big chunk of feathers or bird meat flying through the air. Or if they happen to stop the fight for whatever reason and one rooster is bleeding through his mouth. The part I didn’t like is if the rooster wasn’t killed quickly. I really don’t like to see suffering. If it was a swift, quick death (i.e. either spinal cord sliced or neck broken) it was actually kind of fun to watch. They are brilliantly colored animals, and the crowd really gets into it – a pretty cool site to see.

Veronica said her brother Roberto’s roosters (he’s got a team of like, 30) fought at a fair in April, and they won! I asked what exactly do they win – she said a chicken that’s not dead. Apparently the rooster gets a nice meal and a night with a good lookin’ Polla (girl chicken)…..and I would suppose that they get some cash too, which is less important to the rooster – he’s just in it for the pride.

In between fights they sold bingo cards, and since the betting was too rich for me I figured I’d get my wagering fix in by participating in that. I love bingo. When I would come home to visit my family I would take Grandma to bingo on Saturday nights. It was a good bonding time for us! Anyway, the pots were like $1500, $3000 and the final cover all was a $5000 peso prize. I didn’t win any, but the chick two rows in front of us won the big one, so I decided I am a winner by association.

...y Alejandro Fernandez

At about Midnight, after the betting and fighting was done, it was time to set the stage for Alejandro Fernandez. The set up was pretty cool – the 10 piece mariachi band and the other instrument peeps (sax, electric guitar, keyboard, drums, et all) were set up around the outside of the ring, pointed in. Alejandro, decked out in Mariachi attire (he even donned the sombrero for a song or two) played the inside of the ring, and made his way around the ring to get exposure to all sides. And it was a pretty unobstructed view – people got really upset when you stood up and blocked the view so they would start yelling obscenities and throwing things at you, so no one really got in the way.

The crowd went nutz and his performance was awesome, and definitely well worth the $800 peso ticket! It was a unique concert experience for me because we were so close – and because it seemed like every single person in the entire place knew every single word to every single song. The energy was just AMAZING! I found myself more than once thinking “Wow! I can’t believe I am here, in Mexico, getting to experience this! What a great amazing thing to be able to do!”. Women brought down flowers and he would take them and give them a kiss (with his body guards close by, of course)….They all thought “maybe, he’ll pick me and then we’ll live happily ever after”. Veronica included. Every woman in that place was pampering every two seconds. As if they had a chance.

He played until about 1:30AM, then his encore lasted until 2:30. We called Keith as we were walking out, and he came and picked us up and brought us home. I was in bed by 3AM. And, I actually made it to work on time – and I even showered. Well, I had to because I smelled like a freakin ash tray. I swear, everyone in this damn country smokes. I think Vero and her sister when through a pack between the two of them, and we were only there for 5 hours.

A word about the fans – it was an interesting mix. There were fancy pants people dressed to a T, women who were wearing way too much makeup and way too many sequins, and lots of people in jeans and cowboy hats. There was a guy selling chicharrones and papas who could have passed for my cousin Junior’s twin. I had to do a double take!

Then there was this other fan that reminded me of someone I knew – and this is just funny – She looked exactly like my friend Eunice’s mom – DEAD ON. Even down to the glasses she was wearing. Yes, Theresa Lee is Chinese, but sometimes Mexican’s can have chinky eyes! Anyway, she was obviously drunk, which was funny, and she was also wearing a big white cowboy hat and a fringed jacket – which is pretty funny to think of Mrs. Lee wearing that kind of thing because she has a chic classic style, just like Eunice – definitely more Prada than Wrangler. Anyway, this woman somehow thought it was OK to take her camcorder out in the middle of the performance, and ended up wrestling with a security person, who won and took the camera away. Sucks for her. The funny part was that every time I looked at the crazy things this woman was doing, I couldn’t help but think of her as Mrs. Lee. Funny image, eh Euni?

Now a word about Alejandro Fernandez. His appeal is difficult to describe. Yes, he sings love songs and ballads, but he also does a lot of traditional Mexican Mariachi music, as well as new songs that are traditionally inspired – so the woman love him and the men think he’s pretty damn cool too. I think he has to be in his late 30’s, early 40’s, and really, he’s handsome but he’s not the ridiculously drop dead gorgeous at first glance. But when he sings he has a TON of passion and a sultry voice – and that is way sexy. Mostly he would just stand there or walk around and sing, but occasionally he would move his body just so or turn his head slightly and the crowd would just go crazy.

The only comparison I can think of is George Strait. He’s been in the industry for a while, and has a bazillion hit songs. Men think he’s the coolest and women want to bear his children. Really, he’s about as sexy as they come. Yeah, he’s a handsome man – but put a guitar in his hands and watch him sing and YOWZA. He has the little head move and this smile that he does when he’s playing his guitar and he is just oozing with sex appeal. Well, that and the tight jeans and cowboy hat don’t hurt either!

So anyway, that was my night. Now I am sitting drinking red bull to try to wake myself up, I can’t wait for lunch so I can go home and take a nap, and totally totally glad that I got to experience that!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Scraparama

I actually got a chance to do some "real" scrapping today at lunch. I had this little book that I wanted to do about our househunting trip, and finally I put it all together - its a little accordian book thingy i bought at Walgreens, then covered everything up with paper. Turned out pretty cute!

The front and back covers



Page 1 & 2



Page 3 & 4



The whole project

Orange juice and cherry stems

I forgot to mention one thing about my dinner last Friday night. Danica, if you are reading this, you are officially now famous in Mexico. While having dinner I mentioned to my coworkers that one of my best friends could tie a cherry stem in knot with her mouth/tongue. They were amazed about this concept, and very impressed with this skill (or as they called it, a gift) as apparently dumb bar tricks have not made their way south of the border yet. As a matter of fact, they all very much would like to meet you now, Danica. Then when I told them you were tall and blonde, they were even more intrigued :)

On my way to work yesterday I was noticing how many different roadside stands I pass with fresh fruit and freshly squeezed juice in the mornings. I often follow the advice of nutritionists and eat the fruit instead of the juices (which almost always have a ton of sugar added). But really, I should be enjoying this perk of my assignment. When else am I going to have access to such a plethora of fresh squeezed orange juice? NEVER! I think I will make it a point to stop once a week. After all, it is only about $10 pesos for a liter of juice.

Week 4 Entry

I didn't think I would finish it so quickly, but I wrapped it up tonight! WhoooooOOoo HOOoOooOOO! I had a seriously hard time finding a subject, but once the idea came, it just started a flowin :)

The Ultimate Digiscrapper Week 4 Submission

I'm pretty happy with the end result - especially since I forced myself to try to be "poetic" with the journaling. Not to shabby for this engineer. So, same story - we find out Sunday night, 8:30PM central time. Keep your fingers crossed. If I make it to the final round I actually get prizes and stuff. That would be totally the coolest.

Monday, May 22, 2006

AMAZING!

Amazingly enough, I was selected to move on to the second to last week of the Ultimate DigiScrapper Competition. Heck, I'm as suprised as anybody! I am officially in the top 10% of people who entered this competition. Let me break it down for you so you can grasp the scope of it all...

Week 1 - 400 people - Use your best photo (only 1)
Week 2 - 200 people - Yourself through your own eyes
Week 3 - 100 people - Storytelling, minimum three pics, 40% journaling
Week 4 - 40 people - Freestyle - no rules! Let your own style shine through!
Week 5 - 7 people
Sunday, June 4, the Ultimate Digigtal Scrapper is Crowned.

This week begins week 4. 40 people left. When I saw my name I started crying. I know, I'm a dork, but I was really proud of myself and my layout! I had totally mentally prepared myself to be voted off. This week's theme is there is no theme. Which is pretty hard for me - I really need some guidance! And I am fresh out of great pics to use. My gut tells me to scrap about some of the cool things in Mexico and my experiences, but I'm not sure yet. I'll post a link when its all said and done.

Yeeeee HAW!

I had a good weekend! I managed to have some fun while at the same time being productive! I finished a huge scrapbook project, did ALL my laundry (even put it away!), went grocery shopping, attended a first communion mass/party and had dinner with my lab folks.

First, the dinner. I was the only chick there. It was the restaurant ANGUS in La Zona Rosa in Mexico City. The waitresses were conveniently dressed in very tight very low cut semi-traditional rancher girl dresses, while the hostsess donned leather tassled miniskirts and boots. The food and drink was great. But I did understand why it was mostly middle aged business men type clientle. There was appreciation of ALL different body types by the men. These girls weren't plastic or perfect, but all very beautiful.....and the guys let them know, in very respectful ways :) I also learned the term "Tacos de Ojos". At first I thought they were talking about some gross dish, like tounge tacos or something....but turns out Eye Tacos is the euphamism used in Spanish like Eye Candy is in English. It just sound funny, doesn't it? Eye Tacos. I guess it makes about as much sense as Eye Candy; I'm just not used to it.

Saturday I went to a first communion party thingy. Which was more like a county fair / wedding reception. The two girls who made thier first communion had some serious fancy poofy wedding like white dresses, about 200 guests, games and inflatable jumpy things for kids, a clown, great food, lots of beer, music and dancing. I left for Mexico City at 7:30AM, mass was at 9 and the party didn't start until 2PM, so by 5PM I was pretty beat and had a headache, so I left. Just as I was leaving, the Mechanical Bull showed up. I wished I had been feeling better, because that would have been super fun! I talked to Veronica this morning and she said they were up until 2AM or so. I guess I am just not that hard core anymore!

Sunday was all the home stuff. It felt pretty good to get some things done, although there were about 50 other things that I didn't get done....I start my spanish classes again this week, so I probably won't be getting to those things for a while, either. Eh, what are you gonna do? I suppose I will just learn to Go With The Flow....

Friday, May 19, 2006

Oh Boy.

I looked back at the post with fat cat Milo, and started him on his diet today. He's really tubby!

Weigh In day!

So, I gained a pound - 164 this morning.....Not really that surprising since I pretty much pigged out the whole time in Chicago. Well, that and I have been eating nothing but Sal y Limon fritos with cream cheese. I did make a commitment to start eating better again though, so I'm not completely off the wagon. I think I will start.....tommorrow :) I'm still keeping track of what I eat and I have managed to still do light exercise, so I will be stepping it up a notch soon.

Tonight I will be heading to DF with co workers for a yummy dinner and some tequila. Its basically a celebration for those who work here but are contract employees. Basically, Apasco peeps get their bonus, and the contract people don't, so they try to be nice and give them some good steak. I'm kinda excited because the restaurant we're going to imports all the beef from the US. So I won't be afraid that its dog meat or something.

Oh yeah, and I decided its retarded to be embarrassed about my submission, so here it is. Week 3 Submission. Just be forewarned, its kinda mushy and personal and pathetic. Really, I swear I am a strong confident person not dependent on a man for my happiness.....Its just kinda hard that first night apart, and that's when I wrote this.

I think I am also kinda embarrassed because my layout doesn't have as many comments as others. It makes me feel bad when I have the same amount of comments as the layouts that I think aren't that great. Which makes me think that mine isn't that great. But I really like my layout, so it shouldn't matter what anyone thinks......so I still say its a great layout, and that's all that matters, right?

Heck, I made it two rounds past where I thought I would, and I got the free kit, so I got what I came for. Aww who the heck am I kidding. I really don't enter a competition with the expectation of not winning. I'm way too competitive for that. I get mad when I lose at Word Racer or Dominos when I'm playing against Pat O'Brien on Yahoo! Games. So really, I'll be bummed if I get voted off the scrapbook island, but I'll manage to deal.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

NOW I REMEMBER!

Well, i don't actually think this is what I was thinking about earlier, but its news just the same!

We finally worked out a deal with the peeps, and Pat signed the contract last night! He has the inspection tomorrow afternoon, then has to work out some business with a real estate lawyer (don't ask, its some sort of crazy Illinois law that I don't understand) and if all goes well the closing date will be June 14!!!!!

Thats pretty darn exciting, if you ask me. I will actually have a home address before I move back. Do you know how much stress that is going to take out of my repatriation??? Also less stress for my cats, since they will just have to make one flight and only be moved to one place. Thats if I can fit Milo back into the under the seat fitting cat carriers......he's gained a bit of weight. He's back up to 16 1/2 pounds.....

Happy Thursday

As I was driving into work today I had a very important idea that I wanted to write about, it was incredibly poignent and very intellegent. But I have forgotten. So, here are a few other random updates:

I made it to Week 3 of the Ultimate Digiscrapper - but i feel more comfortable sharing my layout with strangers than with people that actually know me, because now that I re-read it, I made myself sound pretty pathetic. So, I haven't decided if I am going to put a link up or not. We'll see, I'll decide later.

I was supposed to go to an Alejandro Fernandez concert tonight.....well, its actually a Palenque (cock fight) with a concert at the end. Anywho - its rescheduled for next wednesday. Which is better because then maybe Keith can drive us there and pick us up, so we don't have to walk the whole two blocks to the fair grounds. Its retarded close, but it will be dark and there are no street lights and there are rabid dogs running rampant, so I don't think I want to walk. We can't get Keith an extra ticket, so he's SOL, not like he wanted to see a romantic ballad singer anyway.

Speaking of Keith - I'm excited he's coming back so I can stop being a homebody. It's getting kind of stale. Its like I don't even want to go outside of my house after I get in from work. he'll be back here on Monday............

So, thats about it. Nothing else new or exciting. I'll check you all later, gators.

Monday, May 15, 2006

My Kind of Town - CHICAGO!

This weekend was a whirlwind, but definitely a good time! We saw SPAM-A-LOT, which was hilarious, shopped for jeans and shoes, went to a graduation party for my Cousin Wil, saw about 1000 homes, and actually managed to get the list down to two and make some offers. Our first choice was a bit out of our price range, but we threw out an offer just to see what would happen. They didn't come down as much as we wanted, so, we decided to persue our other choice. Its definitely a cute one! Here's a couple of pics.....





Hopefully we'll find out if they accepted our soon. The suspense is killing me! If all works out well, Pat O'Brien will close at the end of June and have July to leisurly move his stuff to the new place. Then, at the end of July I will come to help unpack, and also make a quick trip to MI to go to the Diaz family reunion......thats if I can find a ticket......

Other highlights - Pat wanted to buy me a new pair of nice good jeans, but that whole experience didn't quite work out. Apparently Seven and True Religion designers don't want to showcase thier jeans on anyone larger than a size 8! I've lost some weight, but i'm not quite down that small, yet. But, shoes always fit! He saw some Pumas that some chick was wearing a while ago that he thought were pimp tight, so we went looking for those. It took us a few tries - the Puma Store, Bloomingdale's and finally, we found THE pair at Nordstrom's. So, I got some new kicks. They are way too cute on me, and make my feet look even cuter (if that is possible!), and are super duper comfey. I almost didn't take them off last night I like them sooooo much.



Now, its back to work. I am trying my best to maintain a good attitude, but its really hard for me to fake it. I will say that I am faring much better much sooner than other trips.......so maybe I am finally adjusting.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

The Ultimate DigiScrapper - Week 2

Since I leave for Chicago on Wednesday, and I am definitely NOT taking my computer with me, I had to finish my challenge early. I actually meant to start it tonight, then finish it tomorrow, but I figured what the heck - just finish it off and send it in. So, here it is.

Week 2 Submission - Click Here!

You may recall the journalling from a similar post I had here in April 2005. Its pretty much the same, just edited to fit onto the page.....it was a tough challenge, but I ended up getting a couple decent shots of me (after lots of photoshoping, anyway) using my timer, and I thought the journaling fit me pretty well perfectly. I hope you all like it!

OK, time for sleepy now.......its pretty late.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Digiscrapping et. all.

Sucessful weekend of scrapping. Man, the national scrapbook day activities at A Cherry On Top were addicting. The only time I wasn't on the computer this weekend was when I was sleeping. Lots of games and free stuff. Way way cool. This layout was one of my favorites from the weekend. Loose translation "You went from bad to worse". I was trying to take a good, classy, self portrait that day, and I took about 200 pictures and could not get a good one!



Also, I made it to the second round of the Ultimate Digiscrapper! 380 people started, 200 people remain. 100 people will go on to round 3. I was pretty stoked, happy, suprised, etc. It was a cool rush waiting for the names to be called!

Friday, May 05, 2006

Weigh In day!




Sweet. Karin likey when things go down! Especially considering I had a pretty bad week, meaning that I didn't follow my plan completely, and I definitely didn't exercise enough. But, thanks to some encouragement from some peeps - I am now back on track. I don't know if I will be running anytime soon, but I did go to the gym yesterday, and will tomorrow (for my 2x a week goal) and I will definitely get my pilates or yoga in tonight and Sunday. Yay for me!

Also a shout out to my Parents, who are kicking some serious arse in the Weight Loss department as well. Thanks for being an inspiration!

Oh yeah, and happy Cinco de Mayo. BTW - its not a big deal here, at all, unless you live in Puebla which is where the battle that was won took place. Thats right, Cinco de Mayo commemorates a day that a small battle was won in the city of Puebla. The Mexican Independance Day is September 16. But hey, any reason to throw a few back, right?

Check Out Blinkyou.com for thousands of custom glitters and layouts

Thursday, May 04, 2006



Yes, I know, I am a dork.

I decided to take a swing at entering a contest online. There are a plethora of various ones to enter, but I thought this one sounded the coolest. About 400 people entered, and there is like $2000 in prizes (which can go pretty far in the digiscrap world). This is the first week - about 200 people will be eliminated. More and more will be eliminated until there is just one person left standing. I thought it was a cool concept.

There is no way I am even close to the level of some of these people, but you get free stuff just for entering so I figure I really can't lose!

Click Here to see my submission!

I can't actually post the submission on any other website, message board or blog, but you can post the link. And please visit - it will boost my self esteem if the number of hits goes up :o)

Waiting and waiting and waiting

Yesterday was an OK day. I actually got to communicate a lot in Spanish with people in the field, and they seemed to understand me well, which is a big plus. I'm sure I sound like an idiot, but as long as I get my point across I suppose all is well.

The crappy part of yesterday is that we stood around waiting for people a good part of the day. Two hours waiting for clearence to enter the airport grounds to go to our plant, waiting for the plant manager, waiting to be picked up after lunch, waiting for my coworker to get checked out by medics on the airfield (he had a low blood sugar episode, dizzy, fuzzy arms and hands, etc).

I finally got home after a long day, only to have to drain my flooded balcony - it was holding about 4 inches of water, and the drain was clogged. I disovered it in the morning, but I couldn't do anything about it because I had to meet my coworker. Turns out it was full for three or four days, (we've had torrential downpours every day for the past week or so) and had seeped through to the maids quarters below, which is used as my storage area. It ruined two boxes full of stuff, which were going to Charity anyway, but it still sucked to clean it all up.

On the positive note, I am working on a project for my cousin for her graduation. Its a scrapbook of her life :) She's going to display the finished products at her graduation party, which sadly I can't attend. So, i'm going to do digital pages, and then have them printed and sent to her. I've done a few so far, and the one I did today is my favorite (so far). It got me all choked up - A. because I'm really emotional, B. because its cool to see my grandpa all soft on this little teeny girl, and C. because I miss him. He was a cool dude.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Blah Weekend, again.

I had the day off yesterday in celebration of Labor Day. It made for a long weekend, but I didn't have much to do so it didn't amount to much of anything except for being lonely. Kinda stinks. I really wish I was the type of person who could go and explore things alone, but I am not. On top of that, I don't really feel that safe travelling here by myself, so even if I was super adventerous I wouldn't be going out much alone anyway.

Not that I have all sorts of extra cash to travel. Which brings me to a question - do you rack up all sorts of credit card debt in the name of the once in a lifetime opportunity to travel and see things you normally wouldn't see in a country you live in? Or do you stay bored and dull stuck in your house because you are being responsible and not incurring any more debt than is absolutely necessary???

Ack. I'm in a super terrible mood. Its been sticking with me since last Friday. I was in a fantastic mood until I drove home - then saw all sorts of poverty and had all sorts of ass wipes trying to T bone me (yeah, 4 different times on ONE drive home), kinda put me in a shitty mood. And I haven't come out of it. I went out on Saturday to eat and hang out with friends for a bit, but Sunday and Monday I don't think I left the house except to grocery shop. I think I am in a crappy mood because I feel lonely. I hate feeling lonely.

I tried to keep myself busy with projects, but it didn't work well for long. I did some scrapbooking. I took about 1 million photos of myself trying to capture a good self potrait. I went through and threw out a bunch of pictures, negatives I will never use, trying to organize them or at least display them in photo albums. You're supposed to toss doubles and pics that are crappy, and only keep the ones you really enjoy. I've gone from two big rubbermaid totes full of pics down to one small cardboard box, and a few photo albums. I still don't know what to do with all my wedding photos. I don't really want to keep the 10,000 that I have, but I can't seem to throw them away, either. I have the ones I really like in a scrapbook already. Question - if you were in a wedding, would you want copies of pics you were in after the couple was divorced? I found a whole slew of copies of pics I was supposed to send out to the wedding party, but never got around to it - not sure if I should still send them out 5 years after the fact.....

Then I was destroying all sorts of old bills and such. Apparently you don't need to keep them for more than 2 years, and I have about 10 years worth!!! Tax stuff you keep for 7 years, and reciepts you can get rid of right away. Until my shredder decided to bite the dust. I'm still holding out hope that maybe it was just resting, but the realist in me doesn't think so. That will stink because I have about three other boxes of stuff to shred, and I really don't feel like hand tearing everything - and a new shredder isn't really in the budget. I need to busy myself with paring down my belongings.....simplifying. Watching Clean Sweep on TLC has helped quite a bit, thats where I learned the tidbits above. I have to face the reality that I don't want to live like a pack rat, and I want to have a more simple decluttered life when I return to the US. Might as well start now.