Life sorta has a way of floating by without being noticed.

At first, looking back on the year, I didn’t think much had happened. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that a *lot* had happened in 2009.

• Thanks in part to the kindness of family/friends, I was given an opportunity to end my 9-month bout of unemployment. I guess you could say I got the job on my own, but if it were not for the initial door-opening, there would have been no job to get.
• My boyfriend of 3 years finally asked me to move in with him. After 2.5 years of long distance and half a year of dancing around the issue once I was back in NY, we made it official and got an apartment together. Correction… We made made it official and built a home together. Because it’s not just an apartment, it’s a home.
• I retaught myself a lot of the web skills I’d lost over the last 7 or so years. IMHO, I now have some mad skillz.
• The coolest new station in the number 1 radio market in the country called me and offered me a job! I don’t think I give this one enough appreciation. This one deserves a weekly “HOLY SHIT!”. I can’t believe I got so lucky!
• Somehow, over the last 6 months, I turned into a real, bone-fide stepmother! I pack lunches, I read bedtime stories, I give baths and I bake pies for 1st-grade holiday parties. FROM SCRATCH. I don’t know how it happened, but I am a mom!
• I worked nearly every day of every weekend through most of the spring, summer and fall and paid down my $7,000 credit card debt to $0. Of course, then my clutch died (among other things) and $3000 was promptly charged back on. But hey, I still did it.
• I made took some really solid steps forward towards advancing my voice-over career. I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped (mostly due to laziness and exhaustion), but hey, that’s what resolutions are for, right?
• I got a little of my knitting mojo back and started up a Riverdale Knitting Group! I should say I resurrected it, because Sylvia and I originally brought it to life shortly after I moved here, but it had laid dormant for nearly half a year! I’m so grateful for our Monday evenings! I look forward to them every week!
• I was able to spend a lot of time this year with Adam’s family. I’ve always really liked them, but now I {{heart}} them to pieces. I can’t tell you how much this Thanksgiving meant to us, bringing both of our families together for the first time and seeing how well everyone got along. There really are no words…
• LATE ADDITION!! A brand-new nephew joined us! BABY HAYES! I can’t believe I left him off this list initially! I was just reading Carrie’s blog and saw his smiley face and ran back here to add this! He’s the kinda of baby that makes women want babies! I’m so glad I have the privilege of knowing him…

Now, had I written this post when I meant to write it, that’s where this list would have ended. Except, at approximately 11:12pm on New Year’s Eve, when I was waiting on the couch for Adam to bring us some snacks from the kitchen, he showed up with this*:

It was just a quiet night at home. The boys were asleep and Adam and I were in our sweats, watching Lost on DVD, waiting for midnight. He had pulled a few Jim Halpert fake-outs in the past (bending down on one knee, looking like he was going to ask me something important and then just saying something like, “Will you… wait for me to tie my shoe?” They always make me laugh because hey, who doesn’t like an Office reference, right?), and due to some not-so-subtle moves on his part, I knew he’d been up to some stuff - but there we were, 11:08pm. We’d just finished watching one episode and it was time for a snack break.

“Honey,” he said, “You wait here, and I’ll go get the snacks.”

So I waited.

When he came back, he didn’t have any snacks. He started to do a fake-out, getting down on one knee and saying, “Oh, and just one more thing…” Except it wasn’t a fake-out. Instead of hummus and cheese, in his hand he held a little black box with a sparkly little ring.

“I love you very much. Will you marry me?”

In case you’re wondering, I said yes

Not a bad way to ring in a new decade.

Happy New Year, my loves. May many more blessings find us all in 2010.

* Due to the scrappy nature of our appearance on the night in question, Adam refuses to let me post our actual post-engagement pictures. Therefore, I give you this picture, which was taken the day before at an Italian restaurant with my momma. They went together to pick out my ring and in the process formed a sweet little friendship…

** For the girlie-girls in us all, I give you a close-up of the sparkly:

The diamond was from my Grandmother’s engagement ring, generously given to us by my momma. The setting was picked out by my fiancé(!!), who I think has impeccable taste

I love Christmas.

I love all of the hustle and bustle and fuss of Christmas. The lights, the cards, the shopping, the tree, I like it.

My adventures to get a tree are usually solo adventures. I borrow a van, I cruise tree lots, I make unsuspecting tree lot guys shake and twirl and fluff tree after tree after tree until I find the perfect one. Then I drive home, carry the tree in, set it up in the stand and decorate it all by myself. That’s the way it’s been for the majority of my adult life. Truthfully, I love it. I love the process and I love my tree, covered in multi-colored lights and ornaments I’ve been collecting since I was 13. It’s my TREE.

Last year, I didn’t have my own tree. I was living half with my mother and half with my boyfriend and both of them let me share their trees, but neither of them really belonged to me. It was also an odd year because I knew I was at a crossroads and that everything was about to change and SOMEHOW, the tree became a symbol of that, leading to a tiny nervous breakdown wherein there was sobbing and pitiful-ness and the muttering of something like, “I’m never going to have *my* tree again!”

At the time, I was sitting in my bf’s apartment, watching his 5-year old string lights and plastic ornaments on a scrawny fake tree. (I never said I was a rational woman. Everyone has their lapses. Besides, have you ever seen what it looks like when a 5-year old does the lights?)

This year, things are a lot different. Adam and I are now living together, my stuff is out of storage and I have a new home. A new life. Adam graciously tossed the plastic ornaments and offered up the fake tree to his ex for her to use. (I think maybe he understands about the Tree, even though it doesn’t really make sense to him… which is sorta nice ).

Still… I was nervous. Were we going to be able to merge over a decade of DIY single-girl Christmas tradition with those of the lost boys tribe? Were they going to like having a real tree when they kept asking to put together the fake one? Was I going to be able to let go of my anal-retentiveness concerning ornament placement?

This year, my tree became our tree.

Our First Tree.

* Adam carried that tree on his shoulder for the *entire* 15-minute walk home, UPHILL.
** Only two ornaments were harmed in the decorating of this tree and of those, only one of them made me cringe (but only a tiny bit!).
*** mention the stockings and get a beat-down.

Elias: Is tomorrow Friday?

Elias: YES! That means tomorrow is the WEEKEND!

Although, it just occurred to me YESTERDAY that 5 adults, 1 kid and an adorable baby are going to descend upon our 2-bedroom apartment for a 5 day stay in T-minus 17 days. Also? Thanksgiving is in 20 days. The 5 adults, 1 child and adorable baby will, at that time, be joined by another 5 adults and 2 children. NO! WAIT! I forgot that Adam invited *another* 2 adults and 1 child so make that 7 adults and 3 children. HAHAAHA HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH AAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAHAHAHA HAHAHA. Wow.

In case you are too lazy to do the math, that would be, including the four of us, 14 adults, 6 children and one adorable baby in a two-bedroom apartment for Thanksgiving. 21 peoples.

How. In. The. Hell. Did. I. Get. Myself. Into. This!?!?!??

I’m actually really excited about it because I love love love all these people, but seriously, WTF? Adam and I must be clinically insane. Actually, of the two of us, Adam is the one whose screws are a little bit looser because he actually tried to invite MORE people two nights ago. Luckily, they had other plans.

Currently, I am attempting to do three things at the same time, which is not something I’m known to do very well, but I had to pop on and say hi. I’m determined to not let this blog die! That said, I have nothing interesting to report, no pictures to post and no rants to rant. OH! ALTHOUGH! You might be interested to know that someone from B&H commented on my B&H rant-post! For what reason, I’m not sure, since it was clearly not to reach out to me and make things right. I am skeptical:

See? Skeptical Face.

Suck it, B&H, suck it.

In honor of Halloween, I bring you scary sights from the house of vibe:

MY ROOTS! AHHHH!

What are they, like, 3″ long? THE HELL? Apparently, since I refuse to buy hair dye of the drug-store variety (for fear of dying more than my hair or ending up with a wack color) and since I’m hoarding my money to pay off debt and whatnot, I have to discuss these roots with nearly EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. I meet. Seriously. If I go out somewhere, someone inevitably asks me if I’ve purposely lightened that streak in the front, makes a comment about Rogue or the Bride of Frankenstein, or WORSE! Flat out tells me I “need to fix that”. I KNOW, OK? I KNOW!

spooooky jack o’ lanterns

The boys drew, we cut. Everyone keeps their digits and eyeballs this way. Elias’ (the one on the right) is actually double-sided! Very creepy and cute! Which leaves the scariest for last:

HOLY F’IN SHIT WHAT HTE HELL IS THAT?!!?!?

Picture this: You’re naked. Wet. Soapy. You are happily standing in the shower with your eyes closed, lathering your hair. Then, as one is prone to do sometimes while in the shower, you open your eyes and look down. There, on the ground, IN THE SHOWER, is a HUGE, MOTHER-F’IN COCKROACH!

Adam thinks that there is nothing that will freak me out. He is wrong. See Exhibit A (above).

Now, since (if you are sane) I have likely given you nightmares for a week, I shall leave you with this non-scary image:

Sunset view from our apartment.

{{sigh}}

Feel better?

Happy Halloween!!!!

PS- 5!! posts for the month of October! In semi-regular intervals! I don’t want to jinx myself, but it appears the blog might have a pulse again!