Welcome to Chaos !!

A while ago I came across an article online where dying people were talking about what, if anything, the wished they would had done differently in their lives looking back. Did they have any regrets? One of the regrets was regarding friendship. It was number four on the list (out of five).
"I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying."
To me friends is the family I choose. So my friends are very important to me. I'm the kind of person that puts effort into the friendship. You have to nurture a friendship and keep a good communication going. I'm lucky to have made some wonderful friends in my life that I stayed in touch with for many years. And some people were not friends after all but that's OK......I'm better off without them. Just a few days ago a rather new friendship I've developed in the past year or so unraveled and ran it's course. I thought I would be more upset by the fact but I am relieved. Looking at the whole picture, the person I was thinking was a good friend created too many conflicts in the short time I knew them. The proof is in the pudding so they say and I have the proof. I can't help it if you are not happy with yourself and your life.
Don't take it out on me. And that's all I have to say about that. Sooooo.......I turned the page and moved along.
Life is amazing, the people you meet and connect with. I love it. Today is one of my best friend's birthday. Although you can never be certain about much in life, I am very confident that me and Rose-Marie will stay friends forever. I am pretty sure I have some more friends like that, people that I will be friends with for life. It's a great feeling! Take care of your friends, friendship is precious.

We had the best Christmas party at work last night. ❤ There was a pretty tree and the yummiest food......Cricket made a delicious potato salad, Boss Lady made a scrumptious cheese dip and a girl I work with brought in a super tasty carrot cake from the Moose Is Loose. When I walked in and saw all the food I attacked it, I loooooveeeee food and sweets so eating in itself makes me happy. ❤

We had Christmas songs streaming out of the speakers and even live music. Here is Grady, local celebrity and notorious ladies man, on the guitar.

A violinist. How often do you see somebody playing the violin in a strip club? I think we should make this a weekly event. Come see naked girls and get some culture too. Almost like Carnegie Hall. I should have a weekly book reading circle at work too! Oh.....the ideas I have.....!

Then we took a bunch of pics, acted goofy and laughed a lot. Jeremy went on stage and took everything off but his socks in less than 30 seconds. He loves getting naked for us and showing off his dingdingdong, you don't have to ask him twice about it. But I don't have any pictures of a naked Jeremy to share here. I have blurred out some faces in the pics out of respect for people's privacy. I got a few kisses from Boss Lady last night, she don't need a mistletoe she said. We had a gift exchange and got Christmas bonuses $$$ for being such good little workers.

Boss Lady is trying to lift up my skirt.

Me and my Sharon.

Seriously, SO much fun last night! I am happy to say that we all get along great despite our differences and issues that sometimes arise. I am a nice and naughty Santa. Of course!

I picked up my new body chain today......yeay!!! This is my third body chain from TatiRocks, I suspect it might be my last since I don't even wear the first one anymore because I like the second one better. So now I can alternate between the second body chain and this latest one.



I also drove around like a harried hen all over town and tried to finish my Christmas shopping. As usual I am totally overdoing it. Although I promised myself last year that I would not go overboard this year but I just can't help myself. I feel guilty if I feel that I "forgot" someone. If I continue like this I will soon have to give away Christmas presents to 50 people plus a year. Maybe after this year I will try to stop feeling guilty if I don't give something to everybody.
I just can't do it, actually I am going to eliminate giving to some people this year now that I think about it, I need to be realistic and realize that not every single person I know, even the ones that I barely know need to get a gift.....from me at least. Sure I could go to the 99 cents store and get something for a dollar and give as a gift, people say that it is the thought that counts but I think that's insulting. I'd rather get a nice Christmas card from somebody than some odd "gift" that I have absolutely no use for. Like, "here is a sample deodorant, enjoy and Merry Christmas"......ummmmm, no thanks. Put some more thought into it so it actually does count or don't bother at all I'd say.
So I see that somebody had problems commenting on my blog. The comment option is never closed, I don't know why the comments don't always want to go through. I have noticed this myself sometimes when I answer comments. Usually the comment will go through if you hit submit one more time after it says that the comment did not go through. Does that make sense? Try that. I still have to approve the comments before they post to avoid getting spam.
I also had an entry pop up today that wasn't ready to be posted, I totally overlooked it (I'm having too much on my plate right now). It's an entry that I have been saving in my archives and I had it stored and dated for today although it's far from finished, it's actually been archived for almost a year. Maybe I'll have time to work on it before 2014 is over.
Yeah.....I'm stressed right now, I'm craving lots of food and I want to sleep instead of working and doing errands. I feel cranky today. I can't promise any consistent blogging until after Christmas.....there might be some days when I just don't have the time. Tis the season for feeling stressed! Heart from yesterday, I like to leave hearts in different places......

I went away for a day but now I'm back home. I got up at 5 am yesterday to drive to Anchorage, had a facial booked at 10 and thought I needed plenty of time to get there. Which I did. The road from here to Anchorage is dark (when there is no sun), majority of it has no lights whatsoever and yesterday long stretches of it were completely engulfed in a thick fog plus it was icy. Not a fun drive. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing Russian roulette when driving that stretch, about 140 miles. You have to constantly watch out for moose also. I was gone all day and did not get home until midnight. I think I got most of my Christmas shopping taken care of, most of it.....I still have a few more ideas. Chhaya was not amused at all, she came with me of course. Driving to Anchorage with me so I can do boring stuff like errands is not high on Chhaya's fun list. But she survived the torture and was very happy when we got back home. The facial was wonderful, 1 hour and 45 minutes of bliss, except during the extractions that is. Anastassia opened up a salon inside Captain Cook so that's where I had the facial. She used some new products on me this time that some Russian woman in Portland makes, all natural stuff. Like papaya, crushed amber and lots of vitamin C. I can feel that the vitamin C worked because my skin is a bit dry today, the old skin will come off and reveal new skin. Anastassia wondered if I want to do another green peel, I think I had one done like two years ago or so, maybe it's been longer? I might do another green peel, or not. The last one hurt a lot. And then you shed all the skin on your face like a snake. Supposedly the green peel has a new formula now that is better and doesn't hurt, supposedly only stings a little. I know Anastassia is very schooled on everything regarding facials and products, she never pushes products or treatments like many other beauticians do (I find that annoying). I will think about the green peel, not committing to anything yet.

I had the avocado melt at Middle Way Cafe. This is probably my favorite sandwich ever, soooooo tasty. My mouth waters when I think about it. And the carrot cake with walnuts is absolutely delicious too. When I lived in Anchorage I used to go to Middle Way Cafe a lot.

I found a pair running shoes at REI for a great price plus I love that they are purple with bright orange laces. CUTE!

Saw these books at Barnes & Noble, I love faerie tales plus I love that mushroom.

One of the Christmas gifts I remember the most from growing up is when I got a doll house. I think I was eight or nine years old, I was so happy when I saw the package all wrapped up by the tree because I knew it was a dollhouse from the size of the package. I saw this doll house yesterday made by a Swedish company.....the Lundby Smaland dollhouse. Although in Sweden we say Småland, it's a province and I lived there for a few years, in a town called Växjö. This dollhouse and all the furniture you can buy for it is the cutest! That would had been my Christmas gift wish for myself if I had been a little girl right now.

Today I had a latte at Coffee Roaster with my friend Jim that also took this pic. Thank You Jim!

And this is today's selfie.

I took Chhaya out for a frosty walk earlier.

And now I'm feeling tired, I kind of want to go to sleep and it's not even 6 30. Or get ice cream and stay in all night and read a book. I am re reading * Gone Girl * by Gillian Flynn, I'm savoring every word - it is SO good!

I had a vision of holding a cluster of colorful balloons floating above me in my Christmas pic this year. Well, it did not pan out. I went and got balloons a few weeks ago and headed to Arc lake to take some pics. First of all, I guess the balloons were "helium quality" something I did not pay attention to whatsoever. I thought they were just regular balloons, I can't recall last time I bought balloons if I ever bought them. So the balloons just flopped around in the wind and laid on the ground and I also got to the lake too late and it was getting dark, meaning the light was bad. I took some pics but were not too happy with the results.
I went back to the store and got, from my understanding regular balloons that would float by just blowing them up with air. I was supposed to go back to Arc lake today and re take the pics. I set my alarm and got up around 11, started blowing up the balloons and noticed that the new ones did not float either. I don't get it, as a kid in Sweden we would blow up balloons by blowing into them and they would float. I never used helium and don't know where to even get helium, although we do have a helium tank at work that looks like a bomb from World War II.
So no balloon pics for me. Maybe next year? I will use one of the pics I took a few weeks ago at Arc lake as my annual Christmas pic although I am not happy with them. But I don't have the energy or the time to figure out something else. Bleh. Disappointing. Oh well......
Tonight I am doing the trivia at Odie's again, I'm excited!

Today when walking out of Coffee Roasters I looked down on the ground by my car and saw eleven cents laying there. I find eleven all the time, eleven is my favorite number. Whether I find eleven cents outside on the ground, at work, in the washer machine (when I used to have to go to a public place to do laundry) or see it on the clock.....eleven is my number. Since I've mentioned to some people that eleven is my fave number, for a long time now, they too all of a sudden decided that it's their special number also. Strange. People are funny. Full of weirdness. I guess it can be their special number as well, maybe they find eleven everywhere too but I smell BS.