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January 28, 2005
Sitting at the airport...
Waiting for my plane. Going to North Carolina. The flights before mine were both cancelled. I'm a little nervous about that. It says they were delayed because of lack of flight crews. Hmmm. So, I'm going to Pittsburgh first, hoping to have a happy flight crew. I imagine they might be a little overworked. Everyone should really be super nice to their flight attendants. I plan on doing that... I always do, but I want to be super nice today!
Posted by karen at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2005
Where has the time gone?
Holy Cow. Suddenly, it's January 25! How is that even possible? The last entry I posted was two weeks ago! Yeesh. I feel like such a slacker.
I've seen a couple movies since then (Elektra, In Good Company, The Aviator)... seen my boyfriend when he came up here to visit, cleaned my house! The list goes on and on!
So, I'm travelling again this weekend. I'm pretty excited. I just can't seem to spend enough time with Robin! It's frustrating to live so far apart. I would like things much better if we were, say, even an hour apart, but no... we have to live stinkin' 7 hours apart. Oh well. God has a purpose for everything. I just need to remind myself of that evey once in awhile.
So, apparently, yesterday was the 'worst day of the year.' Stray told me that this morning. So, I looked it up, and some British psychologist has a formula that scientifically says that yesterday would be the most depressing day of 2005. I think that's good news! It's already out of the way. Things are only going to get better from here on out. Right on! That's something to be happy about, now isn't it?
Posted by karen at 03:22 PM | Comments (1)
January 07, 2005
Christmas is Over
The last of the Christmas presents have been opened, and the Epiphany is past. For me, that definitely signals the end of the Christmas season. It was time for the decorations to come down, so last night, that's exactly what happened. Isn't it amazing how much faster it is to take down, than to put up? I had all of my Christmas decorations stipped from the walls and the tree in under 3 hours. It easily took me four times that to get the house decorated. What's up with that?
I even have most of my Christmas presents in their new homes. I was on a mission last night. In order to get my life back to a semblance of normalcy, I needed my house to be in a semblance of normalcy. Now, it is. Whew. Sigh of relief. I even got most of my laundry done last night, which was a major accomplishment, coming home from a week long trip.
My next step is to organize my 2004 receipts, in preparation for taxes. I'm ready. I have my PA State tax booklet, and my Federal Tax booklet. All I need are the W-2's. I'm ready. Bring it.
Posted by karen at 12:45 PM | Comments (2)
January 06, 2005
I'm back...
Today is Thursday. I got home from North Carolina last night. I'm sad. I miss Robin. I wish I was still with him.
My house is a mess. It's like it exploded or something. I tried to unpack some stuff last night, but I was too tired to finish. I want my Christmas decorations to be gone, but they're still up. My mail from the past week is all over my kitchen. My laundry is desperately needing to be done, and there is no food in my house, so the grocery shopping also needs to be done. Give me a couple days, and my life will be re-organized, but right now, I totally hate it. My brain is still in North Carolina. My heart is still in North Carolina.
It was good to get off the plane last night and see my parents. That was definitely a good thing. It was also nice to come back to work and have not much change, but, well, last week was such a great week, I didn't want to come back!
So, Robin will be here in a little over a week for our Staff retreat, so that's a good thing. That may be just enough time to get my life back in order from Christmas and travelling. Maybe enough to keep my mind on something else while I'm waiting for next Saturday. :)
Posted by karen at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2005
Time to come home
Much to my dismay, my stay here in North Carolina has almost come to an end. Tomorrow is the day that I have to return home. I have to admit, I'm pretty sad about that. This has been an outstanding weekend. Full of actual 'dates,' and time spent with my boyfriend...in person. That is a hot commodity when you live seven hours apart. By the end of this trip, we will have spent just about an entire week together, just about 24/7. I got to spend time with Robin's family and friends. We went shopping together, and church, and just about everywhere. It's been great. I don't want to come home.
On the other side, I miss my friends and family, although I have had contact with them via IM and the phone. Not quite the same, but I guess if I end up moving down here, that's going to be the way it is. It's hard to imagine. Kind of weird, but I do like it here a lot. They have sweet tea! Have you ever had good Southern sweet tea? It's outstanding. No, really. TOTALLY OUTSTANDING. If I needed a reason to move down here, that would almost be good enough. I don't need that excuse, of course, but there it is, if I would.
So, the moral of this story is that I don't really want to come home, because it's harder and harder to spend time away from Robin, but I know I have to, so I will.
Posted by karen at 04:57 PM | Comments (1)
January 02, 2005
What Day is It?
Were you ever on a trip and you just couldn't figure out what day it was? Well, that's how my trip is starting to become. Days are flowing into each other... I can't remember what's going on. It's kind of a great feeling. Stuff just keeps happening, and I just keep rolling with it. It's nice.
I'm still in North Carolina. Having an awesome time. Tonight, Robin & I went out with some friends to a cool pizza and wings place and then back to their house to play some games. It was a nice, relaxing evening. I really, really enjoyed it. These were the same cool folks who hosted the New Year's Eve party two nights ago.
Last night, Robin's brother and his family came over for dinner, and then his neice, Kara spent the night. She is an incredibly cute little girl of five. She has an overwhelming abundance of energy and talking skills. She opened my Christmas present to her last night, and we proceeded to have an excess of tea parties for the rest of the evening and also this morning, as soon as I woke up. It really was a lot of fun. We also got to watch Barbie's 'The Princess and the Pauper," and a portion of a Care Bear's video. This morning, we all went to church together and had lunch afterwards where Kara was reunited with her family and went home.
This afternoon, Robin got the work done he needed to do, and I perused a very cool Cake book his Mom has. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon. I also packaged up some of my stuff to ship back because on the trip down here, my luggage was already over-weight, and I got Christmas presents to boot! Needless to say, I needed to create some space in my luggage, not add to it. Best solution, ship it back. When Robin was done working, we took a walk around the neighborhood behind his house and then left to meet Todd & Tina, and their adorable daughter, Savannah.
So, the trip goes well. I'm having a fantastic time. It's really going to be hard to leave on Wednesday. But I suppose I will have to come back to work. Oh! I was just thinking of great things about North Carolina, and I don't believe I mentioned that we went to a real Krispy Kreme restaurant for breakfast yesterday morning. How cool is that? So, there you have it. Good times, my friends, good times.
Posted by karen at 09:16 PM | Comments (2)
January 01, 2005
Happy 2005!
Ok, it's now 2005. I resolve to try really hard to keep up with my blog. I have been very very delinquent the past month. So much is going on, it's really hard to keep up. But it's a new year, with new opportunitues and a completely blank slate. I'm going to give it a shot.
Today, I am in North Carolina, celebrating the New Year with my boyfriend, Robin. Robin is one of the many many blessing God has bestowed upon me this year. With everything going on in the world today, I have really begun to notice just how blessed I am. I am so thankful for that. Life's little problems just aren't worth getting upset over, when there is so much tragedy in the rest of the world.
I recently took an on-line test that characterized my strengths by category, out of a choice of 34 different categories. By taking a series of 180 questions, it determined my 'strength' categories. Here's what it came up with for me... 'Adaptability,' 'Developer,' 'Belief,' Responsibility,' and 'Relator.' Each category had a little description... see if you think it's me... Adaptability means I like to take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time... Developer means I see and cultivate the potential in others, and derive satisfaction from spotting signs of small imporovements... Belief says that I have core values that are unchanging and define a purpose for my life... Responsibility says that I take psychological ownership of what I say I will do, and am committed to honesty and loyalty, and Relator says that I enjoy close relationships with others, and find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal. Overall, I think it's pretty accurate. It was interesting to do and see the results.
Last night, New Year's Eve, was a super fun evening here in North Carolina. We went to a nice little party with Robin's Care Group from church. We ate super good food, played some fun party games and rang in the New Year. There were three couples, two kids, and one person whose husband and son were sick so they had to stay home. It was a fun little party, an event that I haven't been able to enjoy on New Year's for some time, but I had a really really fun time.
So, the New Year is upon me. 2005. This would be the year of my 15 year High School Reunion, if I did such things. My 11 year College Reunion, if they had such things, and 13 years at my current job. I have a feeling that 2005 is going to be bringing a lot of changes in my life, new and exciting ones, but I am totally trusting God to lead me where He will. Thank goodness it's out of my hands and He is in control.
So, I pray humongous blessings on all of my friends and family this year. I pray everyone loves each other whole-heartedly and takes care of each other. Happy 2005!
Posted by karen at 09:36 AM | Comments (1)