Dear Facebook...

I think we need to part ways.

I'm sorry, but you stress me out. Yes, I have enjoyed finding old friends. Yes, it was exciting to see the friend requests. Bottom line, and you can call me an old lady...I just don't really get it. Farmville? Mafia Wars? Wha?

It's become rather unweildy to keep up with you. I DO update my status once-in-awhile, and believe me when I say the anxiety I feel is not because I have SO MANY friend requests that I can't keep up! There's just too much going on there! How do you hit someone back with a pillow? Or send a heart? Or find out what your Jersey Shore name is?

Plus, and this is hard to say, I feel as though you are drawing my BFFs away from their blogs. I know! You may say I'm jealous. So be it. I miss them.

It was fun while it lasted, Facebook. I will miss you. Sort of...

Finding a groove...

Heels have always been my footwear of choice. The higher the better. I feel dressed up and girly and professional, and my posture is WAY better when I'm wearing these. I might sometimes feel sexy, too. I wear them to work, out on dates with Scott, lunch with girlfriends. Just L.O.V.E. them. In these shoes, I feel powerful and in control...like the manager I used to be, the independent, can-scrapbook-anytime-I-like-and-eat-popcorn-or-greenbeans-for-dinner-girl who had a clean (nay, spotless) apartment (which was decorated very decidedly "girly"). I also feel a teeny, tiny bit uptight in them, a little rigid...ok...maybe a lot rigid.




You know what? You can't catch a curve ball wearing those bad boys...and I've had a few pitched my way lately. Since tendonitis moved in (and HOLY SCHNIKEES it hurts) I've been sportin' these guys instead:

Cute? Yeah. Girly? OK. Powerful and sexy? Not so much. I like 'em, though. I realize I'm more relaxed, like I can catch up with my life. You know what else? Everything is kind of settling into a groove, too. Life is not perfectly clean, tidy, wrapped up in a bow, or shiny and sexy with a flexed calf all the time. Just ain't happening. Sometimes I have my act together enough that we sit down to dinner together. Sometimes we have cereal. The house is "mostly" clean. The world will NOT end if kid #1 doesn't want to wash her hair for a week. Eventually, she'll do it. Or if kid #2 wears 5 outfits in one day? Fine, too.

I know. You might be thinking, "Ann is overmedicated." Nah. It's just the shoes...

Mentor of the Year

Last Saturday we attended a banquet in Phoenix at which Scott was awarded Mentor of the Year for his work with graduate students and AZ Game and Fish. I was so proud of him as he accepted his award; he gave a great speech and was so at ease in front of all those people.

That done, I need to figure out why we look like the Bonar family of Amazons. What is up with our giant-ness?!

Hooray!!!!

I LOVE Laurie Notaro. She is hilarious, insightful, wise...and says all the things that we only WISH we could say. This one, her second book of fiction, ships April 13th, and I could not be happier about it.

You can pre-order from Amazon right now. New release...in paperback...for only 11 bucks and change. Awesome, huh? Check out her website at http://www.laurienotaro.com/ . Funny stuff, my friends. Please note, in particular, "Death of a Catchphrase," in the archives.

Edited: I just tried to access the archives on Laurie's website at work and it is blocked here because it comes up as porn. It is NOT porn. I promise... :)

My dear friends...

...usually don't look quite this crazy. :) The group shot from the Winter Formal includes Sara (a math teacher and fellow scrapbooker) as Alice, Michelle (a PE teacher) as the White Rabbit, Nina (a math teacher) as Queen of Hearts (in a slick Fancy Nancy crown), and yours truly as The Mad Hatter.

Yes...we did go to dinner that night in costume. Really.

Happy New Year Randomness

1. Contemplating whether I will say two thousand ten...or twenty-ten. Twenty-ten sounds weird, but I didn't say nineteen-thousand-ninety-nine. Nor did I say twenty-oh-nine.

2. Deciding on new hair style. Things are working out better since I bought a flat-iron that cost more than 4.99.

3. Recovering from cross-country skiing. Tendonitis has officially moved in to join chin hair, bifocals, and droopy bra straps in permanent residence.

4. Snuggling with Rikki, the previously NOT so loveable pomeranian who moved in when the kids did.

5. Recommiting to WW (put 8 lbs back on--dammit). Don't remember the fiber increase having this same impact last year. whoa. (One might think that I'm only dining at Cafe Rio, Lori!)

6. Enjoying the "fresh start" feeling of January.

7. Thinking, praying, hoping for two different friends whose husbands have lost jobs.

8. Feeling joyous, thankful, ecstatic for another friend who is finally pregnant. :)

9. Loving my husband for trying SO hard to be tidy and organized. (You have NO idea!)

10. Anxiously awaiting new books from my fave authors: Laurie Notaro (June), Charlaine Harris (May), Jodi Picoult (March).