Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Things That I Love--Haven't Done This In A While Edition

I've decided to give up shopping for Lent this year, with a specific focus placed upon clothes, shoes, bags, makeup and books.  That's just where most of my money goes, and it's frequently when I'm bored or need a pick-me-up that I browse online shops and money just tap dances right out the door.  Last year, I gave up Facebook and Twitter, and it was a huge sacrifice (as ridiculous as that sounds) but I came back from it realizing that I really could live without Twitter in my life.  I'm still just as Facebook addicted, but I maybe after 40 days separation from Banana Republic and White House Black Market, I'll realize I don't need quite as much consumerism in my life to be happy.

Anyway, to help myself in this transition from shopping compulsion to shopping avoidance, I wanted to share some of the things I've been loving lately.

Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Palette
I am so, so, so in love with this eyeshadow palette.  I think my love for Alice in Wonderland is pretty well documented here--I adore the books, all of the movies, and I cannot wait to see the Tim Burton version coming out next month.  I had never tried Urban Decay eyeshadow before, but I had heard good things, and once they came out with an Alice themed palette, all resistance was futile.

At first, the $52 price tag seemed a bit steep, but when I broke it down I realized that it was actually less than $3 per item in the palette which is definitely comparable to drug store prices.  And the colors are absolutely gorgeous.  There are a few that I'm still working up the courage to use--namely the bright teal--but the shadows are beautifully pigmented, the glitters have a bit of fallout, but give a lovely shimmer.  I'm not much of a matte eyeshadow girl, but those of you that are may be disappointed at the lack of matte colors (I think there are maybe 2 or 3?).  Overall I am incredibly pleased with the product, both in the makeup that's included and the adorable packaging.  I'm having fun playing with different applications, so maybe at some point I'll share a few of my favorite combinations!

Hudson Jeans the Economic Way

Hudson jeans are, simply put, the greatest jeans I have ever put on my body.  They are soft and comfortable.  The legs are slimming and the perfect length for heels, but also work with flats.  The way the pockets are placed give me a Gisele Bundchen butt and the low rise waistline is ever so slightly higher in the back which keeps any worry of a plumber's crack at bay.  That said, as perfect as these jeans are, they are also crazy expensive.  Expensive as in $170-$190ish before tax.  So, I've only been able to bring myself to buy a pair once, and that was when both Colby and I were working well-paying jobs.

Sadly, this was also a couple of years ago when I was a few pounds heavier, and while the jeans still fit, they're definitely beginning to border on "loose fit" territory.  I really wanted to buy another pair, but couldn't bring myself to pay that much for a pair of jeans right now.  Then suddenly it struck me, if I can buy Coach and Louboutin on eBay, then why on earth can't I buy Hudsons?  And lo and behold, they were there in spades just waiting for me to swoop in at the last second and steal them from unsuspecting bidders.  I bid just the teensiest bit too early on the auction because I got so excited, and ended up paying about $10 more than I should have otherwise, but still managed to get a brand new pair for $55.50 and they should be arriving on my doorstep today.  Color me excited.

Michael Sowa Prints
Well, I'm cheating a little bit on this one, because I don't actually own it *yet*, but I'm already pretending that I do.  I'm picturing our bedroom painted in a calming slate blue, with this lovely print hanging over our bed.  I absolutely love bears, and it's sort of a running joke between Colby and I that I'm always on the lookout for a bear in the wild, so I love the image of the little girl strolling by a pond with her bear friend.  It's so absurd, yet lovely.

I first heard about Michael Sowa when I was reading an article about home decor inspired by the movie Amelie, and my second favorite print of his is "His Master's Voice".  How can you not love art that inspires both beauty and giggles?

So how about you, anything you're loving lately that I'm not allowed to buy until Easter?  Have you given anything up for Lent?

Down the Rabbit Hole

It has been quite an eventful week here at Chez Blackwood.  We've been here, there and everywhere and life doesn't show much sign of slowing down.

After I left you last, we dropped off the pups at the House of Disease and headed down to Florida to visit some friends and see the shuttle launch.  Unfortunately, the clouds didn't cooperate and at 4:14 am they made the decision to cancel the launch.  This was a pretty big bummer, but we loaded ourselves back in the car and started the drive back to our friend's house.  When I glanced over at a red light and notice that Colby's blinks had become extremely extended, I made the decision that I needed to be driving.  If anyone is going to kill me, I want it to be me, you know?  So, we got home around 7:15 in the morning and all collapsed into bed for a pre-Super Bowl nap.

The Super Bowl was amazing to watch, made even more so by the fact that I was able to find lambic at the liquor store next door, so I could pretend to drink beer with everyone else!  It was an incredible feeling to see the Saints win, and I think all of us Louisianians are still having a really difficult time believing that actually happened.  We managed to settle ourselves in for another short winter's nap, then woke up again at 3 am to drive to the Jacksonville beach in the hopes of seeing the shuttle launch in the distance.  And I can't lie--I wasn't all that hyped up for the launch, but I have to admit, seeing that shuttle blast up into space and bend around the horizon was awe inspiring.  We could even see the two rocket boosters drop off the shuttle and fall back to the ocean.  Crazy cool.

We got back home all in one piece later that day and picked up the dogs, who seemed fine at the time, but since then, poor sweet Jack seems to have incubated a lovely case of kennel cough.  He's been through much worse, so for now I'm just keeping an eye on him to see if it gets any worse over the next day or two.  Everything I've read says to keep infected dogs isolated from other dogs, but that's really just unrealistic in our house, so we'll also watch Ellie and hope that she doesn't come down with a case.

This weekend was another one filled with fun.  We celebrated a friend's birthday on Friday with good food and strong margaritas, then Valentine's Day rolled around and we decided to stay in and make our own delicious dinner.  Chef Colby started the parade of gourmet delights with homemade bruschetta, then followed up with bacon wrapped filet mignon with goat cheese and a balsalmic vinegar reduction, garlic and basil penne, and grilled asparagus.  It... was... fantastic.  The only thing that could have possibly been better in a restaurant is the fact that someone else did the dishes!

Last night I went to my first wine shop book club meeting and enjoyed a glass of merlot and wonderful conversation with some great ladies then came home to not one, but TWO king cakes.  And of course we've been watching the Olympics and I am completely flummoxed by the figure skating scoring system, but was thrilled to see Shen and Zhao win after hearing their beautiful story.  Part of what I love about the Olympics is the joy of rooting for the home team, but also the support and love you begin to feel for competitors from other countries.

This week will be spent prepping for my parents to visit next week and my weekend trip to Atlanta to visit my dear, sweet friend Melissa who I haven't seen since my New York City bachelorette party.  I usually take the couple of days before my parents get here to frantically clean and organize the house, but since I won't be here I'll have to trust that Colby doesn't cause too much destruction while I'm gone.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, and don't forget to indulge today on Mardi Gras!  Drink an Abita, eat some Zapps and then proceed to feel immensely guilty and attempt to atone for all of you indiscretions over the next 40 days!

To Infinity And Beyond

Colby is on his way home!  He's spent the last five weeks at school in Montgomery, so while we've definitely had more contact than we do during his aeroplane flying trips, it's still been hard to be in this awesome new place without him.  I can't wait for him to get back so he can start experiencing the city with me.  And I plan to enjoy every moment he has at home, because from the sounds of things, he'll probably be spending the greater portion of the next three years away from home.

But before we explore the city, we're heading down to Florida for the weekend to visit some friends and see the shuttle launch eeeeeeaaaaarly on Sunday morning.  Early as in, the launch is at 4:30 am and we're supposed to show up THE NIGHT BEFORE.  And then stay awake for the black and gold Super Bowl!  Heh.  I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm not quiiiite as excited about the launch as Space Nerd Captain Colby.

I'm also happy to say that I'm starting to feel more excited about blogging agan.  I'm not sure I'll ever be back up to the once a day posting, but I've started adding blogs back to my reader and I'm feeling the urge to come here and write much more often than I have in the recent past.  I'd pretty much deleted my entire blog roll just because of the pressure I felt every time I logged in by the hundreds of unread blog posts.  I had also started to feel a quid pro quo pressure that every time someone visited here, I had to add them to my blog roll and start reading and commenting religiously.  Before I knew it I was getting hundreds of page views a day, but I also had hundreds of blogs that I felt like I "had" to read.  Anyway, point is, I'm getting back into it again, and it's so nice jumping back into blogs that I hadn't visited in months.

Well, Colby will be here in about 8 hours and I still have many miles to go to make it appear that the house has been spotless for the entire time he's been gone.  I hope you all have a marvelous weekend and in honor of the Super Bowl, I'll say something that is embarrassingly grammatically incorrect:

Who dat!  Who dat!  Who dat say dey gonna beat dem SAINTS!!!

The Friend Fade

I don't believe it's possible to live a life without regrets.  Do I think that people should wallow in regrets or let those regrets hold them back in any way?  Absolutely not.  But show me a person who says they truly have no regrets, and I'll show you a liar.  Heck, just today I've racked up at least a dozen--I regret not going for a run, I regret that I forgot to file my unemployment claim last week so now I won't get paid, I regret not making a hair appointment sooner because my hair is driving me absolutely batty.  I could go on at length, but those are a pretty telling random sampling.

But I have big lifetime regrets as well.

There are two people whose friendship meant the world to me for a brief moment in my life, but because of time or immaturity I didn't hold on to.

One was a friendship that died because of the inevitable impossibility of three teenage girls being able to sustain the "best friends" relationship long term.  I'm not even sure that three adult women are capable of being best friends without any friction or hurt feelings, but leave this task in the hands of three fifteen to sixteen year old girls and there are bound to be fireworks.  The bad kind.  More like Surface to Air Missiles, actually.

The other girl was one with whom I became close friends my senior year in high school and then bonded with further through our college years.  In retrospect, I realize that friendship also started out with three of us, and quickly deteriorated into a two person situation.  I'm like the Grim Reaper of friendship--make friends with me and fear for the life of your outside relationships.  I leave behind a blazing trail of razed and mangled friendships.  Anyway, that one was all well and good until I graduated from college and moved out of state, leading to an ever-slowing trickle of emails and phone calls which eventually ground to a halt.

The first friend, I actually did hear from when I was in college.  She emailed me with a much justified and understandable, "Hey, so after all of these years, can we talk about what the hell happened?"  I wrote back and we traded a couple of emails and talked about meeting up, but then I went through a nightmare of a breakup, the whole world became all about me and my woes and heartache, and I can't exactly remember how that correspondence fell off the wheels.  I was too busy starving myself and reading self-help books and angsty poetry.

There are still days when I think about reaching out.  Through the magic of the internet and my overwhelming curiosity, I have a basic idea of how their lives have turned out, at least in the big picture sense.  If I really wanted to, I know that it would be pretty easy to get in touch with both of them.  So, I guess my biggest regret is not losing their friendship in the first place, but knowing that I'm not brave enough to make the first step toward reconnecting.  Is it a regret that I lose sleep over, or that haunts my every waking moment, no.  But it is one that crops up in a big way from time to time when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic.

I know that even if we did touch base again and exchange a couple of emails, nothing would ever change the hurt that I caused one friend or compensate for the length of time we've been out of touch.  It's a sort of "let sleeping dogs lie" response, and sure, that may be cowardly, but after all of this time I find it hard to believe that they're sitting at home on a Monday night wondering about me.  So, that's the excuse I've allowed myself to use, and I just make do with a google or facebook search here and there to quell any lingering curiosity.

Oh my God, I am such a stalker.  I definitely regret that, but not as much as I regret the fact that I haven't eaten a brownie today.  At least that last one can be fixed, pronto.