Boo!

Happy Halloween!

Today is Halloween. Hall-o-ween. That's the first of the Fall/Winter holidays (in my book). Halloween always is followed by Thanksgiving in the blink of an eye, and before you know it, its Christmas then the New Year.

Where has this year gone?

Just yesterday it was the New Year. I had lofty goals of moving out of Mom & Dad's house.....NOT that they have ever said to get out, but I want to be on my own. Its only natural. So, THAT was my goal, my resolution if you will, for 2007. With the only prospect of a roommate being a gay male I found on a room mate search site (yes, that is how HE qualified himself - not me), my goals, while still there, most likely won't be achieved in 07. And what's worse, is that I was turned down - or at least ignored by said gay male. He never responded to my email inquiring about his place. Eh, that's ok. He's a dog person. I'm a cat person. It would never have worked out!

So, here it is Halloween... And the scariest thing to me is that I have no idea when I'll be moving out - no matter how much I wish it was today.

That's ok - at least I'll have plenty of chocolates and candy to look forward to, right? After all, even if the trick-or-treaters don't come to the door, that's no excuse for not having plenty of candy on hand. Halloween thru New Year's really is the only span of time you can quasi-justify having too much candy on hand and eating it all!

Felíz Cumpleaños

Felíz Cumpleaños a mí amor!

You guessed it...its my man's birthday today!! The Big Double 3!! YAY!!

I hope you have a wonderful year and that all your wishes come true!!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

KUDOS

...no, not the food. The CONGRATS!!

I want to brag just a bit about the FABULOSO job that my man did on the web site he designed. Its for the fly shop (also known as his home away from home). He's put tons of hours into designing and researching and I'm really proud of him!

Its still a work-in-progress, so check back often for more updates and new pages.

And in the meantime, GREAT JOB ON THE WEB SITE!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY...

...TO NICOLE!!!

Yep, today is Nicole's 30th birthday....AGAIN!!!

Just want to send a shout out to her and wish her a year of great things and a lifetime of happiness!!!

Happy 30th Birthday Part Deux, Nicole!!!!

So proud...

I need to spread a little kudos here in honor of Nicole! Nicole is a huge knitting freak (in a good way, of course) and has decided to sell her knits for kids. She's created a company called "Little Pink Bunny Hand Knits" and she's finally been posted online!!

So YAY!! GO NICOLE!! WOOT WOOT!

And...that's a pretty good logo if I do say so myself... Courtesy of Luna Designs (aka, ME).

Progress, not perfection

My best friend introduced me to FlyLady.com. Its a site that helps you get your home (and in turn, your life) in order. Good site. Now, while I'm not an official member and I don't visit it daily or follow it religiously, Nicole is always there to pass on the pearls of wisdom that she learns from the Fly Lady...

So along those lines, today's topic is the fact that I should strive for progress, not perfection. The idea is that if you strive for perfection daily, you'll never achieve it and you'll never change if that's what you're trying to do (as I am).

Rather than beating myself up for missing the gym last night, for example, I made the effort to get up a little earlier this morning and go before work. Now, while it would've been ideal and perfect if I had more time and could've spent a little longer there, at least I did most of what I needed to do. Some is better than none. And I'm proud of me for getting up and going - especially since I'm not a morning person and the sun hadn't yet come up. That alone was a big incentive to stay in bed and cuddle with Luna. But instead, I figured if I'm going to change, I've got to work to do it...and staying in bed wasn't going to accomplish anything!

So I'm proud of me. Sure I'm tired. But I also know I made the effort to go, did what I had to do (well, MOST of it) and now I can feel good about doing this for myself and taking the steps to better myself.

Even if it wasn't perfect, its progress. And that's what its all about, right?

Maybe next time...

Well, sorry to disappoint, but when push came to shove, I just wasn't inspired to make any jewelry.

Maybe next time...

Go me...

Well, its Saturday night and I'm home.

Now before you give me that sympathetic look of "oooh, poor girl", its not so bad. I spent the afternoon at the craft store, and in addition to the scrap booking stuff I got the other night, I've been Ms. Crafty McCraftinstein today.

I just finished Luna's scrap book. This is a project I've wanted to do for years. Three to be exact. She came into my life on October 6, 2004, and ever since then, I've been trying to get this done. I made a lame attempt at creating one before, but it was a journal from Pottery Barn, and while it was very nice, the pages were too small and, well, the execution of it just wasn't there.

So the other night I found a great deal on a cat scrap book and grabbed it. I got some extra filler pages today at the craft store and headed home.... And it looks great. And what's best about it is that I have plenty of pages left to fill and that gives me more of an excuse to take more photos of Luna. Yeah, like I needed that!!

In addition to my scrap book finds, I also grabbed some fabulous beads. More fodder for making jewelry! Always fun! That's what I'm going to do next. Its still early.... And if you're lucky, I just might photograph what I make and post it here! We'll see.... :)

Are you kidding me???

I don't wish severe weather (or the aftermath thereof) on anyone....but this is so unfair!!

The photo here is of the Oklahoma City area. For those of you who are not weather freaks (like I am), those red boxes indicate tornado watches for the areas within them. And yes, that yellow circle indicates the area where Harrah is. Harrah, for those of you who don't know, is where Nicole (my best friend) lives. Harrah is where I spent 4 sun-filled, severe weather void days in June.

HARRAH IS SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF A TORNADO WATCH AND PART OF WHAT MANY METEOROLOGISTS ARE THINKING MIGHT BE A TORNADO OUTBREAK IN THE NEXT 24HRS OR SO.

Harrah is so lucky. Why couldn't I have been so lucky in June?

WHY OH WHY????

Tell me why is it that I traveled all the way to Oklahoma in June to visit my best friend in hopes of finding some of that severe weather they're famous for and had 4 days of beautiful weather? In fact, my best friend's husband said it was the first stretch of that many days that they'd had that were sunny. OF COURSE IT WAS!

I mean, their weather is so famous, Rogers and Hammerstein wrote it into one of their songs...

OKLAHOMA!
Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain....
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet,
When the wind comes right behind the rain...

If they're so famous for their severe weather, why wasn't I privy to it? I even went to my own personal mecca - The National Weather Center! I toured it and their 360˚ tower that provides a fabulous view of severe weather coming in from any direction. Nope. Sun. Just sun is all I saw.

And now my friend posts this today.

Its so unfair.

But I do have to say, that photo is FABULOUS! Now if only I could see weather like that some day!! NJ is too tame!! Oh well...maybe next time I'm out there...

Ouch - Part Deux

Explain to me why I hurt more TODAY than yesterday?!!

Ok, maybe its because I went to the gym again last night (I don't want to talk about it). But last night I worked my upper body (versus lower the first night)...so you'd think that I could at least WALK today.

Not so much my friend. Not so much.

I feel like a 95 year old needing a walker! I woke up today and my eyelids hurt! What is that about?

Walk it off...work through the pain.... Ok, think of EVERY sports-related cliché you could think of, and right about now, none of them work! Just like my body. Still in rebellion. Still not liking me much!!

You know what it DOES like though?? ADVIL!!

OUCH!

Ok, I made a valiant attempt at bettering myself last night... I went somewhere, but I don't want to talk about it. Ok, I do...

I went back to the gym! And OMG - I am in PAIN this morning!!

The last time I was there was April 30th. That's what my card said. APRIL 30th! SO MUCH has changed since then! I wasn't even legally an Ortiz the last time I was there (perish the thought!). Its been 5 1/2 months since I stepped in the gym (unless you count visiting Mr. Bill on July 4th to say HI - which I don't). So basically my body is in rebellion this morning. I woke up and the only part of me that didn't hurt is a small part of my left ear lobe - and that now hurts because I poked it putting on my earrings this morning! So basically, I'm a ball of OUCH!

But I feel good...and I'm going back for more tonight!

Go figure!

Bragging momma

So I headed into the bathroom this morning to take a shower, and couldn't find Luna on her usual table watching the world go by. She always sits on a table right inside the bathroom door watching down the front steps and has a birds-eye view of basically the whole upstairs. She likes to keep an eye on us.

This morning, she wasn't in her usual spot. I thought I'd find her on my bed, but no dice. So I headed back in the bathroom to get ready for work, and lo and behold, what do I find?

There was my little baby girl - curled up IN the towels. I guess it was a nice toasty warm nest for her on a chilly fall morning! She basically spent the entire morning there....so I guess that's her new bed! Could be worse - at least the towels are clean!

Fall has arrived in NJ....

Well, we went apple picking today!! And it was fabulous! After a thorough search online of "local" NY/NJ apple picking orchards last night, we found the "perfect" place to go...

After a fabulous home-cooked breakfast, we got ourselves together this morning and headed about 35 minutes north of home up to Masker Orchards in Warwick, NY. When we finally got there, it took a little while to scope things out, but we finally got the lay of the land and decided what areas we'd pick from and we had a ball!! We picked mainly Red Delicious (and delicious they were) and Empire apples. We tried to find Mitsu apples but those were either done with their season or we were entirely inept at reading the map of the orchard. Needless to say, no Mitsu apples made their way home with us. Maybe next year!

We did, however, pick a bushel of fabulous apples!! Including THE PERFECT apple...

All in all it was a fabulous day!! We roamed the orchard looking for the just the right apples and had so much fun doing it! The scenery was incredible, and the apples were YUMMY!!

So this year, we've so far gone pumpkin picking (that was last weekend - and you can see our "perfect" pumpkins in the image above) and then this weekend apple picking! We're just becoming regular farm folks!! HA!

Can you answer this...?

I just saw a video on Yahoo! that was about a Cat Fancier's cat show in NYC this weekend. Lots of cute cats competing for best in show and talent contests. And in addition to that they have other cats that will be there up for adoption. While I know deep inside that Luna could beat them all (not that I'm biased, but she is the prettiest and sweetest!), I fear for the safety and well being of any judge who might try to handle her there! She has mellowed out, but I'm not so sure she's too keen on strangers and I doubt there are enough bandages to help the poor soul who tries to pick her up!!

And the adoption part of the show got me to thinking about homeless animals and their fate...

Each year, millions of cats (and dogs, too) are euthanized in shelters simply because they have no room in the shelter and no one wants them. On the flip side, breeders (and even some non-breeders) breed their pets just to make a buck. I personally know of private people (non-breeders that is) that have "pimped" out their dog because they were able to sell the puppies for several hundred dollars a pop. Now, while no one can deny the adorability of a rolly-polly puppy (or kitten), those 5 or 6 animals took the place of 5 or 6 people going to the local shelter and saving 5 or 6 puppies.

There is no excuse for this.

Its a shame and its not fair to the millions of animals who will die this year simply because no one wants them. Just imagine your own life being ended because no one wants you next time someone you know (or maybe even you yourself?) decide to get an animal from a breeder rather than rescuing one!!

Cat, dog, person, or "other" - everyone deserves to live and be loved....everyone!

Elizabeth Gilbert Book Excerpt & Discussion

This is definitely worth checking out:
**this is a long video and really only the reading itself is the best part - and that's only the first 10 minutes or so)

STILL?

Ok, its 2 HOURS LATER and I'm still at work... What have I accomplished in that time? Eating lunch and not much else my friend. Not much else...

Its official...

...its now mid-day at work and I've officially done nothing. Well, not NOTHING. I am blogging. And I checked my email. AND I did finally send the last few pages of our HUGE hellish issue to the press this morning! So I guess I was quasi-productive. But after a 3 week period of non-stop work (my butt print is permanently indented into my work chair), I need a little mental break.

A wise friend of mine told me yesterday that I've gone into a downward spiral. For someone who made such strides and made such progress over the past year, the past couple weeks have been very destructive to me. I knew I was miserable...and I guess I still am somewhat - I can't just assume to be presto-chango perfect now - however, I made it through a rough time at work in tact. And while I can blame part of it on stress and lack of sleep (all caused by my work life), it really isn't fair to dole all that badness out on my friends and family. So...this is a public (ok, who reads this stuff?) apology to my friends and family - and primarily to my best friend and my wonderful boyfriend. Both of them have supported me and seen me through a rough time....not just the past 3 weeks, but the last year and, in Nicole's case, the past DECADE. So thank you for being there for me and thank you for understanding and still standing by me...

I'm making a resolution (a not-so-new-year's resolution) to try to go back to seeing the positive things in my life rather than dwelling on the icky stuff. And I'm going to make a resolution to try new things (which I've been pretty good at doing the past year, but have slipped lately). And in homage to that...I'm going to make an effort to try to write on here more often! So check once, check often.... Not that I have any kind of theme or general topics I like to write on, but I guess that's the beauty of a blog, right?? Just ramble on and someone is bound to be interested in what you're saying!!

Cats and my humble opinion...

I read something very interesting and true online today... It was an article about loving cats and how cat people tend to think of their cats as their offspring - their own children. Dog people do too - but this is about cats...! The piece of the article that really hit home for me (and really made me tear up) read the following:

"Our thoughts often evolve to women when we think of humans who treat cats as their 'children.' Almost everyone knows a woman who live alone with her cat(s), and these relationships are always symbiotic in nature. One might wonder who benefits the most, human or cat. The cat thrives on the constant attention and pampering, and the 'cat mom' glows with the knowledge that in this sometimes cold world there is at least one sentient creature who gives her unconditional love, who will be there for her day-in and day-out, regardless of what society as a whole throws at her. Not a bad trade-off at all, I think. I would have no fears of choosing that lifestyle, should circumstances dictate."

"The knowledge that in this sometimes cold world there is at least one sentient creature who gives her unconditional love." The idea is so simple. And this is one of the most important things that I love about Luna. She is always there for me. Always has been. Always will be. Even when I have a bad day, she still loves me. She doesn't care if I shower, wear make-up or do my hair. She doesn't care if I'm rich or poor. She doesn't care if I gain or loose weight. I always know where I stand with her. If she's happy, she shows it, and if she's not, well, I have the scratch marks to prove when she's shown that too! Point is, I can always turn to her even when I feel like there is no one else to turn to.

THAT is what unconditional love and acceptance is all about.

And its something we should all strive to feel for each other.