the 101 things post

well i haven't posted in a while, so here is a huge post, i have been working on this one since last week. here we go - 101 things all about me!


1. i sell real estate, because i love houses and i can't have them all, at least this way i get to see a lot of them
2. i am a freelance graphic designer
3. i am obsessed with thrift stores
4. love lots of old things, especially items from the mid century era, plus a few years either way
5. i like to bake & cook
6. i could watch the food network & hgtv for hours and not get bored
7. i am obsessed with friends, i own every season, and i can probably recite all the words to "the one with the embryos," season 4, disk 2, last episode on this disk
8. i have a similar obsession with the gilmore girls, its just not as advanced
9. i have a christmas tree decorated completely with shoe ornaments
10. i watch way too much tv, and the writers strike is killing me
11. i love to scrapbook, but haven't in a couple of years
12. i am always the one who is taking all the pictures
13. i am still very close with most of my friends from high school
14. i wish my friends from college lived here and not all over this side of the country
15. my fiance's and my birthday are 4 days apart, we were born in the same hospital, my mom had to be in the hospital longer than usual after she had me, so we were in the hospital nursery at the same time
16. we didn't meet till we were seniors in high school
17. i have one brother, he is younger than me
18. i want to travel everywhere, and have a list of all the places i want see
19. i have europe planned in 5 easy trips
20. i can get really interested in just about anything
21. i have a burning desire to be wildly successful
22. but sometimes i have a hard time motivating myself because i am overwhelmed
23. i pretty much have 3 business right now, wedding invitations, real estate and freelance design
24. i most want to grow my wedding invitations business
25. sometimes i want to do something completely different, like own restaurant, or a paper boutique, or rebuild the gardenville community (oldest part of west seneca, where we bought our home)
26. i love animals, i took in a stray cat in college, she had 4 babies, momma and one baby live with my parents
27. i often think about being a vegetarian, but i have never tried it
28. i think recycling is great, i like to convert people to being avid recyclers, i have successfully done this with at least 2 people
29. i am excited to be able to have a compost and a vegetable garden when i move into my house
30. i love it here in buffalo, ny
31. i believe we should have a metropolitan government
32. i want to be independently wealthy
33. i don't know why, because i live for sales and thrift store shopping
34. i am always proud of my great sale finds, ie the pj pants i got from old navy last week for $3.50, actually i spent $17 total and got pj pants, tank top, zip up sweater and 3 sets of christmas ornaments - see?
35. i long to be a domestic goddess (stolen from michelle, but very true about me too)
36. i want everyone close to me to be happy. i hate when anyone is in pain and i want to fix it
37. i get very happy when good things happen to people i care about
38. i often talk so fast that people can't really understand me
39. i do this when i type too, i leave out words, and even when i proofread i think they are there as a read
40. my roommates from grad school and i have a plastic banana that we pass around between the 3 of us (we all live in different places)
41. i have a lot of problems with my stomach - mostly related to stress
42. i also clench my jaw a lot when i am stressed, and i don't know i am doing it until my head hurts
43. i used to be a runner, i stopped when i graduated high school and never really got back into it
44. i wish i was still a runner
45. cross country and track are some of the best memories i have of high school, they really influenced who i am a great deal
46. one of my coaches died when i was a junior in high school, he was the first person i knew really well that died in my life, that was 9 years ago today
47. i wrote my admissions essay for mercyhurst college about him and took my confirmation name after him. he was an inspirational person.
48. i hate to make decisions, i fear i will make the wrong one
49. i over analyze everything
50. including my wedding registry, which is insane because everything can be returned
51. my roommate from senior year and i used to eat oreos and watch golden girls at night
52. i haven't talked to her in over a year, even though we played phone tag for a couple of weeks this past fall
53. i never thought it would be this hard to write 101 things about myself
54. i had a huge phase where i loved purple, i think it started my sophomore year in high school and ended my senior year in college
55. my new phase is brown
56. i wear glasses and have since i was in 3rd grade
57. my favorite job ever was when i was the advisor to the ambassador club
58. my last job could have been really awesome, but it took a majorly bad turn
59. i quit my last job, without having another full time job, it was scary
60. my very first job was at anderson's custard and roast beef, i was 16
61. i know one day i will have kids, right now the thought of it scares the crap out of me
62. i am ashamed to say i find other peoples kids irritating and i didn't used to
63. i love class and i miss it now that i don't have anymore
64. i still haven't finished my masters thesis, i finished my coursework in winter of 06
65. i feel i have seriously messed this up and i don't know how to fix it, so i avoid it
66. sometimes i am hugely confident that my businesses will be a success, other times i doubt i will make another penny
67. i wish i dressed more stylishly and sometimes i spend a few weeks at a time pretending that i dress stylishly and wear make up
68. truth is, i rarely wear make up unless i am going out or have an important appointment
69. i love movies
70. i never remember any celebrities name, unless they are super famous, like julia roberts
71. it drives me absolutely mad when i can't remember why someone looks familiar in a movie or tv show or where i saw them last
72. my favorite movie used to be 10 things i hate about you, before that is forever young and now i don't know what my favorite movie is
    when i was a kid i collected business cards
73. i like to think of myself as an artist
74. i often hate whatever i design, until i revisit it later (months even years), then i am usually satisfied
75. i want to come up with a plan to save buffalo - or rather put it back on the map
76. i try very hard to be organized, and i have a great ability to organize things, however usually the inside of my purse ends up full of crap and a pile of clothes usually ends up on my bed, the floor and 2 of the 4 chairs in my room
77. i always fall asleep to the tv, it distracts me from my over analyzing madness long enough to fall asleep
78. i am really bad at returning phone calls from friends
79. i am also slightly afraid of the phone when i have to call someone i don't know, this works out awesome in a sales job, let me tell you
80. even though i quit my old job, i miss it, not the insanity, but the people and my actual work
81. i love popcorn
82. i also love ice cream
83. i often can't decide between the 2
84. my fiance is my first love
85. i can tell you the exact moment i knew i loved him, when he first told me he loved me, when we first kissed, and when we had our first real kiss, when he asked me out and how he did it
86. i majored in graphic design, minored in marketing
87. my masters degree will be in organizational leadership
88. i went to college with 17 college credits that i earned in high school
89. i nearly gave myself a nervous breakdown in high school because of this
90. i always felt like anything below an 80% was failing, though as far as i can remember i have only actually failed 2 tests
91. i met my fiance at a wake
92. summer is my favorite time of year, but fall is a close second
93. i have a mild purse obsession
94. i love paper, and i have an emotional disconnect from conservation of trees and my love for beautiful papers
95. i spent a whole summer and part of a winter researching recycled paper, paper from alternative fibers, paper usages and how mercyhurst could convert to a greener paper consumption plan, my plan was well received by the president of the college, i don't know if they have used it though
96. favorite current show - greys anatomy
97. i am a huge procrastinator
98. i collect vintage buffalo postcards
99. i am roman catholic, though i more closely align myself with the beliefs of the sisters of mercy, which are all based on service & compassion
100. i always went to a school where the sisters of mercy were
101. it took me 3 separate sittings to write this list

i wonder if people will think i am totally insane now...don't judge too harshly...

evil temptresses

have you seen that commercial for caramel Quaker rice cakes? the one where the girl is driving along and every coffee shop, donut store and fast food place she sees she can't help but look? and then she sees the giant sign, that just says EAT CAKE. i've decided - that's me. Quaker stole my personality and used it for a commercial.

temptation is everywhere calling my name. i go into the office, almond M&Ms and Godiva chocolates. great. 20 M&Ms and 2 chocolates by the time i leave there. then this is me driving home: tim hortons...oooo cafe mocha/sour cream donut; mcdonalds....french fires, yum; denny's...wow bacon and eggs sounds good; picassos .... cheesy pizza, i can't live without you.

seriously? i think i am being killed by subliminal messaging...

theeeeeen i get home, and my mom and aunt are there, ready to do shower planning, with cups of tea and a big hunk of fudge. (at least there was also a clementine & a slice of white pizza)

how is a girl ever going to fit in her wedding dress i ask you?????

a new look

hi. my blog needs a makeover. any ideas? that's right. the graphic designer has no ideas....

Beautiful Buffalo Fridays: Hockeytown, USA

i know. i know. i know. i have been MIA for almost 3 weeks. but i am back. i promise. it's sunday - but this is a beautiful buffalo friday post. hope everyone had a really fabulous holiday season - happy 2008!

____

waaaaaaay back in october, the hometown favorites - the buffalo sabres, were presented with the nhl presidents trophy (for the best record in the 06-07 season). the sabres were on fire last year. the team gained tons of national attention - and so did the fans.

buffalo has always been a hardcore hockeytown - but finally the fans got the recognition they've always deserved here. buffalo was officially named, HOCKEYTOWN, USA. along with this honor, buffalo got to host the nhl's largest outdoor hockey event in the united states - the Winter Classic. good, old fashioned, outdoor hockey. 71,000+ in attendance, nationally televised, tickets nearly impossible to get - and we were there. oh yeah and we were on NBC & ESPN.

fans stop at nothing to deck out their cars.....

the entire Ralph Wilson Stadium (home of the buffalo bills) was completely transformed in a mere 7 days, an ice rink in the middle of the football field...

parking lot packed, absolutely packed with tailgaters, live music and entertainment, hockey players on stilts, jugglers throwing flames, face painting for kids, and over sized vintage blow up jerseys - oh yes and i did i mention this was all on New Years day? - it was quite the party

there was an awesome energy in the stadium when the teams came out, plus it was the perfect snow throughout all the play - funnily enough - it did not snow during intermissions.

(sign reads: New years in Buffalo: Classic - our sign is not what got us on tv either) we were all certainly bundled up tight as you can see. just to give you an idea: i had on 2 hats, 2 pairs of gloves, cami tank, long john type shirt, short sleeve shirt, ski coat, sweatshirt, cuddle dud pants, sweatpants, ski pants, ski socks, boots and a nice supply of hand warmers and hot chocolate....

all in all we had an awesome time. yep. i'm pretty sure all 71,000+ fans had a pretty rockin' new years.