A Tall Girl's Adventures in a Tiny World

I spent time today with a new friend from my neighborhood, and right now I'm basking in the glow of a good first friend-date. I feel happy to have a new friend. Sounds so corny, doesn't it? She's easy-going and down to earth, we both have young kids, we have similar tastes in books and movies and music, so conversation is easy. I like her sense of humor, too; she's intelligent and there's a spark mischief in her smile that is just fun. We joked about today our "first date" -- you know, the first time you get together as a twosome and try to get to know each other -- and as much as we were joking about it, it really did feel like a first date...mentioning snippets about our personal lives in that off-hand, quick-summary-of-me sort of way that says this is who I am, like it or not; giving small compliments; laughing at one another's jokes. And then when we parted company, I had a moment of "oh, I hope she liked me!" and "oh, I hope I didn...

Well, ok, not really raining money, per se. A girl can dream... But evidently there will be some extra money sent my way in the coming weeks---some for freelance work (yippee!), some because of this save-the-economy rebate (OK, cool), and some because of a whopping big tax return (which I do get a bit jazzed about, but really, it's my money to begin with...so it's kinda like wearing a pair of pants that hasn't fit in a while, then getting a compliment about your hot new pants). Anyway, I'm not entirely sure how much any of these checks will really be for, and a portion of the money will have to go toward paying off my credit card debt (boo!), but for the fun of this posting, let's just say I'll have a thousand bucks to burn this spring. Hmm...a thousand dollars, all to myself. I've been living a pretty frugal existance for some time now, so a thousand duckets in my bucket sounds like a fortune...and I'm finding myself daydreaming about all the fun I mi...

Holy cannoli, it's 2008. I'm not big on New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day is generally just a downer because it means my vacation is over, another Christmas has passed, and I have to face the January blahs. Ick. January is not my favorite -- so gray and cold, and not a whole lot to look forward to. In fact, I don't really like February, either, and usually it's not until about the Ides of March that my mood starts to perk up again. So, you see, New Year's Day is usually a bummer. This year, though, I'm approaching this day and this month in a new way. I want it to truly be a HAPPY new year. So I'm reflecting here on 2007 -- a year that was definitely challenging for me personally -- and I'd like to set some goals for myself for 2008 -- a year that has started with me in a very content, happy, peaceful state of mind. I hope this personal "ohm" can carry through the next 12 months...wouldn't that be nice? At times in 2007 I felt at t...