I want to win a trip!

I entered a giveaway that I'm truly in no way likely to win.  It's a giveaway for a trip for two to Panama City, FL and it includes all sorts of romantical things with it like dinner for two, massages, etc.  But us single girls like a free trip as well, so I decided to enter.

Here's my haiku:

A trip for two, eh?
Single girls like the beach, too.
A could bring a friend!

Hey, it's the best I could come up with in five minutes at my desk.

If you want to enter go here, but know that you have to take me since I told you about it!

Dear future children,

...I am so sorry...


...that you're going to have the most awesome mom EVAR! I realized this during my lunch when I was singing a little ditty to my pup.  He may be deaf, but that dog loves when I sing to him.  I swear.

Anyway, my song of choice this afternoon?  None other than this:



Bee-duble-ee-duble-arryewenn Beer Run

That's what my future babes have to look forward to.  Songs like this.  Because while "Wheels on the Bus" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" can get the job done, I prefer to sing songs that I enjoy.

And if I recall correctly (and I do), my mother's lullaby of choice for me was Guns 'N Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine," and look how I turned out!

Lesson Learned

At times I couldn't stand being in a sorority, but a handful of the friendships I made are so strong and the women so beautiful inside and out that I know that even though there were bad times (and oh, were there), in the end it was one of the best decisions of my life.  Weird that it took almost two years after college to realize that.  Thanks to my sisters who stuck with me through all the ups and downs.  I'm so glad that you're a part of my life.

Cherish your parents

...because one day they'll be gone.

I saw this video on this blog that I read and it's so incredibly sweet.  You can see the adoration the little girl has for her dad--how she lovingly looks up at him, tries so hard to get all the words right, asks mid-song if he can teach her to whistle.  Oh, and I love how she mimics how her dad whistles with his teeth.  Her dad obviously loves her, too.  He looks like such a caring, patient father while he's playing with his daughter.

<a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&from=en-us_msnhp&vid=ea6fa596-ec9f-4c7b-9422-2474408660bf&from=en-us&fg=dest" target="_new" title="'Home' By Dad And Daughter">Video: 'Home' By Dad And Daughter</a>

Now I swear I'm not getting all soapbox-preachery, but I think we take out parents for granted more often than not.  I know I'm guilty of doing so, and I've lost a parent so you'd think I'd know better.  But love them.  Because they love you so much.

Who knew folding T-shirts could be fun?

After watching this video I now want to go home and refold all of my t-shirts!

New Year's Rezzies -- Revisted

My 2011 resolutions were a bit of a fail from Day 1 (except for the bed--Thank you so much Dawn and Matt!!).  I'm going to continue to work on them though, but I also have some that I want to add!

• Learn all of the words to "Devil Went Down to Georgia" -- I know, I know...I have lofty goals
• Rid my life of flakey people and not be flakey myself. 

One of the things that most annoys me is people who say they're going to do something, and then they don't.  I realized (thanks to a wonderful old friend coming to my birthday party) that if someone says they're going to attend something or do something, then they should follow through and do it.  Even though my friend had clicked "Attending" on the Facebook invite, I expected her to not come because we hadn't seen each other in so long and the time before that we had seen each other had ended terribly with both of our feelings hurt.  It was such a lovely surprise to have her there after not seeing her for over two years.

The second part of my resolution will be harder to adhere to because while I get annoyed at people not following through, I find that I do the same thing.  Not cool, Nicole!  Not cool at all...  So from now on I'm not going to say I'll do something unless I know 100% that I can do it.  This also means I'm going to have to be more organized with my time.  I guess I'll have to get a planner or something.  Or maybe just use the calendar on my phone instead of ignoring it like I have for the past 6 months.

I've really been digging this song today.  It's so beautiful!
 

Oh!  I didn't even comment on my New Year's weekend!  It's was wonderful and crazy fun! 

There were about 20 of us that rented a lakehouse on Lake Travis and we had a ridiculous amount of champagne.  One refrigerator was completely full of just champagne.

 That huge straw in my mouth was what we all drank with.  It was hilarious to see people try to catch the straw with their mouth and have to hold their cup down so low.

We had a masquarade party on New Year's Eve and everyone dressed up.  Please excuse my sassy face.  Leopard print shrug courtesy of Kellsey!

The weekend was perfect and I hope every New Year's Eve in the future is just as wonderful as this one, if not more!

[Thanks to Steph for pictures 1-3 and especially for planning a fabulous weekend!]

Toxic Friendships

One of my best friends has the opinion that you should do what makes you happy, and I wholeheartedly agree with him unless that decision will hurt someone else.  I am way too nice to people.  I give way too many "second chances" that are actually fourth and fifth chances.  And this is how I get hurt. 

I want to believe that people are inherently good.  And that they abide by the "treat others as you'd like to be treated rule."  But as time goes on and I get older and wiser, I find that people are not all good.  In fact, people can be very bad and hurtful, and the people who are the most hurtful can be the people you're closest to.

I'm talking about toxic friendships.  The ones where you feel drained and upset and even bad about yourself after an encounter with the "friend."  I have a friend in particular that, when we first started becoming really close friends, was one of the sweetest guys I'd ever met.  So much so that I developed a very short-lived crush on him before realizing we were much better as friends than anything more.

Now that we're a lot closer he knows things about me.  Secrets and personal things that I don't tell just anyone.  Even some things that I only feel comfortable telling him.  And if he's upset with me, even if it's a situation that's out of my control, he uses the things I've told him as missiles to hurt my feelings.

Last night in particular he was very hurtful.  I'm trying very hard to forgive him, but our text message conversation in particular keeps piercing my heart each time I go back and read it.  He was just so mean!  Like every response he made he was trying to hurt my feelings.

I've said it jokingly in the past, but there's a lot of truth to it, too.  I'm a delicate flower.  Yes, I know how lame and ridiculous that sounds, but it sums up me perfectly.  I am hurt really easily.  When someone is mean to me, or forgets about me, or doesn't put as much effort or love into a relationship as I do I get very hurt.

I guess that's what's happening here.  Maybe our relationship has run it's course and we'd be better off not being so close and me not giving him so much of my heart and my attention.  Even the thought of that hurts my heart.  Friendships ending, or even having rough patches, can be just as hard if not harder than relationship problems.

Right now I need to stop intermittently crying, especially since I'm at work.  My eyes are swollen from crying myself to sleep last night so I look like I was punched in the face.  And I'm sad.  It's hard to not cry when you're sad.