2010 is MY YEAR

As much as I love fall, it also means that winter is right around the corner and that is exactly where I'm at. January is the worst month of the year for me, blech. I'm so thankful to have a summer birthday because I wouldn't be able to enjoy my birthday if it fell right in the middle of this frigid hell they call winter. Ok, enough negativity. I'm trying to make the best of it and have decided to slowly improve and enrich myself as my resolution for the new year. I am cross-country skiing (I bought new equipment and a season pass at the Dartmouth cross-country ski center) and am looking to take a class...either sign language or Spanish. I also looked into piano lessons and yoga but I had to tell myself to simmer down. One thing at a time.

I have 3 months to cover. It's still longer than I was hoping but better than the period I had to cover when I wrote my last entry. October was a busy month. Brandi, Laura and I had a Manchester weekend on the 10th where we did our usual...food court lunch, shopping, hotel check-in, and dinner at the OG. The topic of children was a predominant part of our discussions that day. We hung out, laughed, and watched the Hangover in bed...good times! It concluded with a trip to Starbucks before heading home.

My roommate (I will probably always refer to her as my roommate even though we haven't lived together in over 2 1/2 years) came home from a couple weeks in October. It was so nice to see her, spend time with her and catch when she was here. She is not doing well and I feel like a helpless bystander as her life just deteriorates around her. She can't find full-time work, is in financial trouble, is dating a guy who is pretty much living off of her, is at odds with her family here, and to top it off Friendly Jeff died the second week in Nov after moving out to CO. He will be missed.

Ashley had her second cerclage on the 23rd of Oct and everything went well and as far as I'm concerned is still going well. Her last ultrasound showed that the baby may have clubfeet. The next ultrasound should show for sure and we will go from there. I'm going to be optimistic for a mild case and that this baby won't have to go through what Adam did as a baby and the first few years of his life.

Betsy, Cort, and I went to NYC for Halloween weekend and spent it with Amy and Brian (who just got engaged New Year's weekend). It was definately an interesting and eye-opening weekend and I feel badly that Betsy and Cort had to be there after singing praises about how much fun we were going to have. I'm not getting into now but the events of that weekend and the feelings and thoughts involved are pretty much in a series of emails between Amy and I afterwards. She has confronted some demons, made some choices and is a better person for it. Our friendship has entered a different level and I look forward to being in their wedding!

November and December were fairly uneventful except for a few things. Had a staycation and replaced my second-hand, mismatched living room furniture with seemingly nice, matching Target furniture. My uncle Paul had surgery and my friend Kelly is expecting a little girl. She is one of strongest individuals I know. I was charge nurse on Thanksgiving...thank god it was managable. Denise and Sherry had turkey day festivities at the house in Henniker they are sharing post Denise and Marek separation :( I had a nice day in Milford the first Saturday in December with Danielle, Jaime, and little miss Madison.

I had 6 days off for Christmas AND New Year's...my schedule rocks. Xander and I spent Xmas with Heather and Dave. Jeff and I went with them to their friend's Xmas Eve party (a recent and exciting development in my life stems from this party), I spent the night at their house and we did stockings and had a yummy Xmas morning breakfast. Heather and Dave had Xmas dinner at their house...sans Sherry. I went to Rye for New Years...good times at Jake and Alyssa's new house. Thankfully, the weather cooperated. It started snowing earlier that day when Betsy was giving me my first snowboarding lesson in Lyme.

Ok so romance is in the air for me...I am seeing someone I really like. It's a fucking miracle. I will wait until my next entry to go into detail about it because it's still in the early stages. I would prefer the relationship to be more established and concrete before I start the verbal diarrhea lol. This year is shaping up quite nicely...babies and weddings and good time with friends! Headed to Kittery this weekend to meet a newly-pregnant Brandi (shhh) for a fun filled day of shopping and food! Laura cannot come because her recently lasered eyes cannot handle the journey.

I'm going to climb in my cozy bed and read some there and back again :)