Why I hate Illinois... a list

I made a top 20 reasons list of why I hate Illinois for your reading enjoyment:

This list will be done Letterman style:

Number 20!

• The Illinois version of stars in the sky is the lights from planes

Number 19!

• People constantly saying “this shouldn’t feel cold to you, you’re from Wisconsin!” For the last time, 100 miles doesn’t make a huge temperature difference. It’s not like I’m from the North Pole people

Number 18!

• Bears games will always show on TV before a Packer game

Number 17!

• Constant road construction that makes terrible travel times even more atrocious

And speaking of the travel times, Number 16!

• 2 million plus people packed into a tiny space means constant traffic, constant motion, constant noise, constant commotion no matter the time, no matter the day

Number 15!

• 18 miles to work takes 45 minutes, oh, and that’s traveling almost the entire time on roads that are 40+ MPH

Number 14!

• Getting crazy looks for smiling at people I catch making eye contact with me

Number 13!

• Hearing that I have a thick Wisconsin accent every day, I’m sorry, but to me, that’s a good thing

Number 12!

• Always being in charge of bringing cheese to events… seriously, so original

Number 11!

• The fact that this doesn’t feel like home, no matter how “homey” we make our apartment

Number 10!

• Flat……. Corn……. Yawn…….

Woo hoo! We’re half way done! Keep on a reading for more exciting reasons why I hate Illinois!

Number 9!

• The fact that there are no real lakes around for us to play in, fish in or anything like that

Number 8!

• The way there’s always a million things going on and yet there never seems to be anything to do

Number 7!

• Saying “hi” to people that pass by is considered weird rather then polite

Number 6!

• The fact that I feel like I’m so far away from everything that really matters to me

Number 5!

• The strange breed of rude that just seems to be the way of things here

Number 4!

• How everything can be so expensive just because of the area we’re in

Number 3!

• How much I miss my family

Number 2!

• The way I miss my friends so terribly every day

Finally… Number 1! The suspense must just be killing you all!

• The number one reason I hate Illinois…………….

Because it isn’t Wisconsin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 That is all. Can't wait to move back.... eventually.

Currently Listening Like a Boy By Ciara see related

Wow, I officially SUCK at this!

I'm sure you have all been dying, waiting ever so patiently for an update from me and alas it took me almost three full months to provide you with the entertaining bits of my life that you long for... or maybe I'm exaggerating, which is more then likely. hehehe.  I am here though! "Back" as I would normally say, not like I really went anywhere, I just got lazy and decided to stop updating for a little while... well, not so much decided as forgot. Anyway, believe it or not working all day on a computer almost makes you want to avoid the computer once you get home, or at least it has had that effect on me. But alas, I have digressed once again from the point of my entry, not that there ever is one, but let's pretend, shall we?

So let's see... March 22nd was my last entry, and what has happened since then? Well, quite a bit actually so let me start from the beginning. First, I'm 24 now. My birthday was waaay back in March and I can now officially say with much confidence that I am old. Ha. Call it a quarter life crisis if you must but yes, I am feeling old... and I have the gray hairs to prove it! Yes, GRAY! AHHH! Luckily, they are the really pretty silver-y gray, so at least I will have a good looking head when I'm old. Ahem. Anyway, moving on from that.

My sister and I had my parents party on April 1st for their 30th Anniversary. They were both very excited about the party and didn't even know the gift yet! The entire thing went really well, but the best of course was when they got to open their present. My mom read the card and looked really shocked as she was reading off all of the names of the people that contributed to it. Then they opened up the box and my mom just looked confused for a minute, but then read the name of the airline and started crying really hard. So we asked what it was and she goes, "I don't know but I see DELTA" so then we had to take everything out and explain it to them. It was so wonderful, even my dad cried! Overall a great success.

 Mike and I are no longer in the hunt for a house. We decided after much debate that looking for a house right now is just not cost effective or practical for us. We are hoping to get enough from wedding presents and from savings so that by the time we are married we can hopefully find a place of our own, but for right now, we are content with our apartment which is good because moving does not seem like a good option right now.

Speaking of wedding stuff, we are TOTALLY ROCKING at this wedding planning thing! WOOT! So far we have the reception site, the DJ, the transportation, the cake, my dress (and some accesories for it too!) and the photographer... and we still have 11+ months (it's less then a year though so I can officially be super excited). One of my my co-workers recommended a website for me to look at for information about invitations, and they are very reasonably priced, so hopefully we find something on their site that we both like and can get that.... the big problem that we've found though is finding a ceremony site. A lot of churches require you to be members in order to have the ceremony there, and the places that we've found that you just get an officiant for have all had "issues" with them. The Bridal Church was too "Vegas", the Weidner Center was impossible to work with, Heritage Hill doesn't have air conditioning... but we're trying and I think we're getting there. I've e-mail a few Pastors to see if we could possibly look at their churches and what their policy is, so hopefully something will work out. I'm crossing my fingers, that's for sure. Oh! We also have a lead on a florist. I almost forgot!  So yup. That's where we're at with wedding planning! So far, so good and I can honestly say that my fiance is the best in the world! He has done SO much for this and has been so helpful. I honestly think he's enjoying it a little too. Anyway, I could talk about our wedding all day, but I won't. I don't want to go nuts with that stuff just yet or you will all be sick of me by next May!

Other then that though, things in my life have been pretty mellow. My job is going great. We have performance evals coming up in September, but because I haven't been there a year yet, I don't need to participate (and my boss told me that I rock and that's another reason). I haven't found out what kind of vacation time I have for this current year yet which is kind of frustrating because I want to start picking out my vacation time and schedule time for the wedding and such (our vaca time follows a school year, so June 1st-May 31st), but considering it's early June, I'm not going to get all irritated about that just yet.

Oh! They found out what's wrong with my mom's heart! I guess there is a minor blockage in her lower valve, so that will possibly need to be cleared out. The doctors sound VERY opptimistic though and say that it will be a non-invasive procedure and that she could even return to work the next day if she chooses. That's great news and makes me feel SO much better about that situation. My mom's too young to be having this serious of health issues!

And that's about it. A very opptimist and happy entry from me. I hope all is well with you all!

~K~

She's back!

Hello everyone!

Not a very exciting update for you at this time. I'm at work right now after an amazing 3 day vacation (so awesome!). I took off Monday-Wednesday of this week so that I could get caught up on things at home and hang out with my sister who was on Spring Break. It was so great. We got SO much done for my parents party that we're having in April. We bought the rest of their present and got everything together. As a side note, the lady at the Delta Airlines counter can suck it... but alas, I digress. We are both super excited about this party. The closer it gets, the more sure I am that my parents are going to cry, and you know what? I'm so okay with that! I may post pictures on my MySpace after we do it (and probably facebook... too many darn websites to remember!).

Michael gave me my birthday/anniversary present early. He got me a digital camera! AHHH! So excited! I've been taking pictures like a mad woman! It's the same model as his which works out really well for me because I already know how to use it. I was getting frustrated looking for a camera because there are so many different options and buttons and it's like, seirously, I just want to TAKE A PICTURE! But anywho, I finally feel like I'm part of this technologically advanced world... maybe by the time they come out with something cooler then an IPOD for music, I will get one. Ha!

I got to have a great chat with my dad on Wednesday night before I came back down here... I was happy to hear that he has the same concerns about Joe (my sister's boyfriend) as I do. I don't know why that should be a good thing. I should be sad that there isn't a side of him I'm not seeing, but it's the truth. My sister is all like planning a wedding here and my dad is really not knowing what to think about Joe. It's such a pickle, but my sister tends to have this nasty habit. She basis a lot of her life on what I'm doing, so I had a great boyfriend it was "I want a boyfriend" then I got engaged and she started looking at rings and now that we're getting more into the wedding planning, she has half of hers planned out. It's really hard on me because part of me wants to be like, 'ya know what? This is for ME! Let me enjoy my time to shine!' and the other part knows that she has always looked up to me (literally, she's quite short) and that she just needs to feel like she's progressing to where I am and where she feels she should be in her life. I don't know. It's a rough situation no matter how you look at it. A lot of times I feel like I've constantly been in her shadow and now that I am the one in the spotlight, getting married and everything, she just has to find some way to get out in front of me, so she's constantly talking about her wedding plans, her ideas and everything and it's just hard on me. I just want to have the spotlight for a change, you know?

Anyway, that's about it for me. I'm about to get off of work (yay!) and tomorrow is Friday (Yay!) and it's payday (YAY!).

~K~

Currently Listening Stripped By Christina Aguilera see related

HOLY BORED!!!

Actually, ex that. Being bored is not holy, it's horrible! It's AWFUL and it's DRIVING ME CRAZY!

Today is the first time in months, yes months, many, many looooonnnnnnnggg months that it's actually been decent outside, so all of us here at work (which is where I am now) were hoping the day would go by quickly, but has it? No! Every minute feels like an hour, every hour, a decade. I'm going CRAZY HERE!

So, let's do a long update, shall we? It's been a while since I've done that.

First, wedding planning is going along pretty well.  We already have the hall booked (which is super exciting) and the DJ booked and paid for. We've been looking at places online for our rehearsal dinner, and I think we found a location that we both like, so that's great! We have more then a year to get this done, and I'm starting to feel a little ahead of schedule which is how I like it.

My sister and I are throwing my parents a 30th Anniversary party. The party itself is not a surprise, but their present is and luckily, other people have been willing to chip in and help with it. We're sending them on vacation to the Bahama's!  They had their first honeymoon there (obviously) 30 years ago and now they can have a second. The party planning is a little stressful because Carolyn can't help very much (she's in school full time and lives with my parents, so it would be hard to hide details about the trip), but I'm getting there. I sent out invitations, started getting RSVP's. It's only been a week and we're already up to 14 guests, so that's good I think! I'm sure more will be attending, and that makes me happy. My parents deserve a big party and I hope they enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed organizing it. I kind of see it as wedding planning training. It's not nearly as stressful (obviously), but it's still good practice.

This weekend should be exciting too. I'm hanging out with the group formally known as the Clique (get it? Like Prince? Hahaha. I crack myself up when I'm bored!). We're going out to lunch, shopping and then maybe to a movie and possibly doing some scrapbooking too (pretty exciting!). I'm very happy that we're all getting together. It seems like the longer that we've been out of high school, the harder and harder it is for us to get together and hang out. Somtimes having a weekend with the girls is all you need to make you feel better you know? Not like anything is wrong, but with them, I feel the most like myself and that's a great feeling.

Work is also going well. It's really, really, really slow today though, so I'm kind of losing my mind. I had a lot of work to do today, but it's all done and now I'm just sitting here. Besides being bored though, I am liking it here. I feel more and more like I fit in every day, and I really like my co-workers. Everyone is very nice, friendly and understanding when I don't know how to do things or am confused on things. I can't believe I've almost been here four months! How time does fly sometimes! My job is pretty easy and I've caught on pretty fast I think, so fast that they're already talking about promoting me! That's pretty amazing I think and I hope it happens. I didn't originally plan on doing financial aid, but it's really not that bad. It is hard sometimes because you know that people hate us, I mean, you mess with people's money and you instantly become the enemy, but it's okay. I haven't gotten yelled at too much (just one really notable one recently), so that's fine... and let me tell you, if you ever have a question about financial aid, I can answer it!

Well, this is a long entry, so I guess you all will need some time to digest it and I suppose I should stop typing. Only 40 more minutes to go today (UGH!). This is seriously the slowest day ever!

~K~

Thoughts to Ponder.... by Kristina

So I was looking at things the other day, and I don't know, I started feeling down about myself. This is going to sound INCREDIBLY stupid and petty, and that's fine, I don't care. I was feeling jealous that it seems like my friends have so many friends. Is that a weird thing to be upset about? I think it is. I don't know. Sometimes I just feel like I wish there were more people missing me, wanting to talk to me, who, well, love me darnit!

But then I realized that it isn't the number that matters. I have my friends that are true friends, that I love dearly and that I would do anything for and they would do anything for me, and these few make everything worth while. I'm getting married in a little over a year (holy crap excited!), and I was thinking about bridesmaids and I have 6 REALLY great girlfriends to have stand up with me... 6! Sure, I have more girlfriends then that, but the fact that I have 6 that I absolutely cannot live without in my wedding just makes me feel, well, blessed. I have 6 girls that I can call at all hours of the night to vent to, can see chick flicks with and cry, can sing loudly with in the car (and not feel stupid). 6.

For some reason, it reminds me of high school. Everyone wants to have the tons of friends, to be super popular because the more friends you have, the happier you are, right? And yet I read these things online about these super popular people (from high school) who are super depressed, who have no one to turn to and are simply miserable and it makes me think... I'm happy with high school. I had a tight circle (and some other circles outside of it too!). Sure, I wasn't voted prom queen and I'm sure the majority of the people I went to school with don't remember me, but I don't care. I'm so happy with my friends and I'm so thankful for them and I'm even more thankful that they've lasted the test of time because to me, that shows how true of friends they are. I love you!

~K~