My Year in Status

Usually around New Years I can't put a pen down. Typically, the longest entry in my journal is the first one of the New Year. But this year...the urge seemed to pass me by. I didn't even look at my journal. I guess there have been other things to think about and do. Nothing major, just life.

So I've cheated. Facebook has this awesome application that collects your status lines for the year and puts them all together. It was fun to read over them and try to remember what the heck I was going on about. It's amazing how much you can remember with one line of text. Where you wrote it from. What you were doing. Kind of like an old song.


So the major events:
Working with my friends at Combibos
Oxford snow days
Moved back to the States from England
First African American President - we voted from England!
My nephew Issac was born
Ran my first 10K race
Started a new job at JWT/Team Detroit as a copywriter

I could go on, 2009 was a busy year...but I'll end it here with the hope that I will find my writing motivation again soon.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

This Christmas wasn't all I expected to it to be. But then, is it ever? How is it that we always look at Christmas past with rose colored glasses? As if we were all ever sitting around a tree, drinking cider, laughing and singing songs? As if there was ever a year when everyone kept the gift they were given and actually liked it, no one debated politics or religion, and no one brought a Weight Watchers dish to the pot luck.

Okay, I tried to be grumpy about it...but I'm still an optimist. Somehow, I will only remember the good things and get selective amnesia concerning everything that wasn't ideal. And that's why I have and always will love Christmas.

The highlights:
Giving my Nephews their gifts. Ian's first bike and Issac's first teddy bear.
Giving my Mom her new camera to take pictures of said Nephews.
Making an over-sized picture frame of our London/Paris trip for my Sis.
Making Christmas brunch with my Sister and Brother.
Finding out that my Aunt Viki is pregnant.
Playing board games late into the night with my In-Laws.
Opening presents with everyone!

And that's what I want to remember. In between all these happy highlights was a little drama, stress, and frustration. But if I put it here, it will be there for me to remember. So I'll just stick with the good stuff. And the Ghost of Christmas Past will do his work to make us all forget and do it all again next year.

Here's to the New Year and a 'perfect' Christmas...maybe next year.

Aspiring to Be So Much More Than Mediocre

Most days it is so easy to just let life happen. And so it goes, the days pass to weeks, weeks to months and then to years. Then you have a day when all the old aspirations and dreams you once had come flooding in. The ideas of who you were or at least what you wanted to be pinch at your ego like a bully. Not enough to hurt much. But enough to bruise. I can’t help but admire people who live everyday with the motivation not to just let life happen to them but to make life happen (and still get the family taken care of, laundry, and dishes done).

Maybe it’s the stillness that makes me want to stir things up. I am a hopeless dreamer and always have been. I can’t watch a ‘sponsor a child’ ad without wanting to pack up and fly to Africa and feed them myself, I can’t close a good book without wishing I had written such moving words, or see a beautiful painting and wish I had the patience and talent to bring crowds with just brush, paint, and canvas.

Patience, I know it my Achilles heal. I.e. kitting. My Mom is an amazing knitter and teacher. And I would happily learn to knit every piece of my wardrobe (with the exception of underwear, ouch). But as soon as I see the instruction set or my fingers begin to ache, it’s over. As with so many things, I might be interested but can’t stay motivated. So, maybe this is what we call ADD? Jewelry making, pottery, acting, writing a childrens book (done, with no publisher yet), kitting, painting are just a few of the things I’ve started with a big heart and open mind that shut down a little too soon. Laziness with a bit of circumstantial convenience?

I doubt that when you started reading this you thought it would end with me as an aspiring knitter! In classic Amy style, I start off BIG and end up small. But who’s not to say I’ll be kitting clothes for impoverished children in Alaska?

Just another day in Amy’s Attic. So, what sort have aspirations have you put on the back burner? For the sake of money, time, family? No matter how big or small, they deserves some attention! Feel free to share.

All I Want for Christmas and Every Other Day of the Year

We can't always be everywhere we'd like to be. Or have everything we feel we need. But it is great that at this time of year we can stop and appreciate where we are, what we do have, and those we love.

It's a feeling I am going to work on carrying throughout the coming year.

Any time I am far away from friends or family, I've found comfort in looking up into the night sky and knowing that they too could look up and see the same sky.

To all my friends and family who are far away, I'm not wishing I were on a tropical beach somewhere laying on a beach, I am wishing that I could be with you all. My thoughts are with you as you gather together for the Holidays. Next time your out on a starry night look up and remember I'm thinking of you! I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Christmas.

Love to you all!

Re-Americanized

For weeks I have been dying to write about the funny things we have come to notice after spending 2 years living outside the States. I'll get to it more, I hope, eventually. But for now I found this at www.whynot.net - a hilarious website with all kinds of ideas, thoughts, and why not(s)? They've hit a few of them right on the nose!

1. Only in America......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
2. Only in America......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.
3. Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
4. Only in America......do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet Coke.
5. Only in America......do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters.
6. Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
7. Only in America......do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.
8. Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
9. Only in America......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.
10. Only in America......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

A few quick ones of my own:
We are fine with letting people through a door ahead of us into the store. But would never do so in line.
We say excuse me even if we are passing by someone 12 feet away from us.
There's a gym on every corner, everyone has a membership but the gym is always empty.

Number 1, sad but true. Last night I ordered a pizza online and got a status update on who was putting my pizza in the oven and when. Also, when it was in the car for delivery and who would be delivering it!

Honestly never thought about #2. Number 4 is classic! And very true! (I worked in a coffee shop, I know!)

I'm sure I could add more to this list...maybe later. How I missed home! :)

Martha Would Know What to Do!

This is the hard part. There's a lot of clutter here. Where do you start? How do you begin to compartmentalize your mind into nice organized bits of information, thoughts, ideas, concerns, musings? The amazing thing is you can get by everyday with the clutter that is up here. And if you're anything like me, there's a lot of crap up there. You don't really even need to look at it to know it's all there. But you always know it's there and it haunts you.

So, this is it. Where I will be attempting to organize and write, if anything just to free up some space. So stop by and see how things are going every once in awhile. Give your own brain a break and clear out the cobwebs!