525,600 Minutes

Okay guys, we're gonna lower the lights down, we have one song left for tonight, grab a partner and pull 'em close.

I know I have about a month and two days before the official end of this year but I'm feeling sentimental. Wow, what a busy year for me, for us. This time last year we weren't feeling too Christmas-y because we had to keep the house spare and clean for prospective buyers. Sometimes we'd spend a full day inside a cold camper trying to explain to an upset kitty cat that there were strangers in the house, and that was the reason she couldn't go and play in her room.

I was worried about getting to New York, some time in April to get married, then later upset that we had to move in April so we moved the wedding to March.

A long drive down to our new home, worrying over Soot hiding in the closet, worrying that we'd die in a horrible accident because we couldn't pull ourselves together over laughing so hard at Brian Regan, worrying that the person in front of us was weaving back and forth because they were on the phone, worrying that I wouldn't get any good fried chicken when I got there.

Busy with work and weddings. Exploring the new surroundings and going to Disney and having family visits.

New job, new people, new environment, new weather, new house, new routes, new schedules, new sunsets and sunrises.

How does one measure a year in the life? I don't drink coffee, but I measure it in laughter and strife, food, and sunsets, midnights, in inches and miles, in journeys to plan, in looove.

Seasons of love...

Me.

P.S. Didn't see Rent and probably wont see it. But I love that song.

"Thou who hast given so much to me, give me one more thing—a grateful heart!"
[George Herbert 1593- 1633]

So, how was your Thanksgiving? Stuffed your face, I suppose.

We went to the Hollywood Brown Derby for Thanksgiving, instead of eating home. The food was excellent, however, I was praying to God that if he got me home to the bathroom, without having an accident in the car, I would be forever thankful.

We suspect it was the appetizer of scallops and pork. I am deathly allergic to scallops and have since avoided them, which, at that time I did, but I had a bit of the pork which was rubbed up against the scallops and perhaps they sprinkled scallop juice on top of the whole thing. The other two or three incidents with scallops were worse because I woke up in the middle of the night ready to vomit my guts out. But it coulda been the fish I had, or the three rolls with slabs of butter that I ate or the cream cheese icing on the grapefruit cake... Note, that was the only meal I had that day, besides a bit of soup early that morning. Then I had the shats again yesterday morning twice in a row. That's with only having had dinner the night before.

So thankful I was that I didn't have the shats in the car ride home I praised the lord in all his glory, making it a truly wonderful Thanksgiving.

We had planned a week earlier that we would have a big thanksgiving the day after with pies and rolls and the works. NO TURKEY. I dislike turkey immensely. And we did. We have food to last us until the middle of next week. All good, yummy-nummy food. I wont start my wedding diet until the week after...

I am also thankful for having a wonderful family, who came for a visit and with whom I had a wonderful time with and Mick was in our thoughts 'though he could not come down. :o(

I am extremely thankful that I got my dress yesterday!!!!! I drove amidst the waves upon waves of crazy black friday shoppers, like a woman on a devine mission, parting the sea and calming the masses. I got there 20 minutes before the store opened and resisted all urges to enter at 9:50 when they placed their "open" sign up. Yes, I need to practice patience. But I got there, my dress was waiting for me and the best part I got it for under $500. Well, alterations will fix that but I still wont have bought a wedding dress for $1000. The thrifty side of me repels.

And now it hangs in a closet in the other room waiting for 7 months and 2 days when I shall unveil it and parade it around in all its glorious splendor for around 5 hours and then put it away, never to wear again. That's $100 an hour.

Ooh, I hope I have a daughter and I hope she wears it. heehee.

I'm thankful for many things this year, wont go into it now, just know that I am.

Me.

Cinderella: Oh, no... er, I mean, I do, but don't you think my dress...
Fairy Godmother: Yes, it's lovely, dear, I...
Fairy Godmother: Good Heavens, child. You can't go in that.


Yesterday, Tuesday, November 22 2005 I went with both parents to go dress hunting. I had found a store that stocked the dress that I wanted. First store: I had a page from a magazine I had that I ripped out, the model number and anything else they could've wished for. I even had a telescope and floss in my purse just in case Monty Hall was waiting around the corner for me.

Was met at the door and I handed over the dress and the model number, a few minutes I was told that it was in one of their dressing rooms waiting for me to fit into. In I stepped, away with street clothes and I donned on the dress, which literally weighed 75 lbs.

It was PERFECT.

I stood there waiting for the lady to help lace up the back of the dress and I told her, "this is the first store and first dress I've tried and I this is the only store and dress I'm gonna try,"
she laughed scoffingly but I knew.

One little, itty-bitty problem.
IT'S NOT Virginal WHITE...

It wasn't a problem for me, like I said, it was perfect, but if you're shopping with your mother... there are other issues.

It's gold and ivory.

So we stood there while we discussed why I can't have a gold and ivory dress. So I looked at other dresses, my heart not in it at all.

We went to another store, looked and found nothing, of course.

Thank God for fathers. He asked why I didn't get the dress in the other store and mom said, "oh she didn't want a dress that wasn't white," and dad said, "i think it's you that didn't want a dress that wasn't white, Michelle probably liked the dress." Then mom started laughing and said, "you're right," then dad said, "what's the problem? If that's the dress that Michelle wanted then you shoulda just gotten it."

And that's how I got the dress I wanted.

But not really, I'm waiting for Friday because then it'll be 40% off, making it officially $450 instead of $750.

Here's a preview. (I forgot my camera of course.) God I love it and I know the gods wont like that.

Hubris.

Wish me luck, and if you love me do something to distract the gods.

Michelle.

File It Under "H" For Hectic

Been busy and crazy. Trying to get everything done. Have lots more to go.

Wedding paperwork, work, parents, invitations, dresses, colors, emails and emails, clean room, cat vomit, laundry, plant grass, new costumes, show id at front desk, write out individual messages for Christmas cards, worry, stress, tv, diet, tempting cakes and chocolates everywhere.

EVERYWHERE!

I'm afraid I'm not spending enough time with my cat.

I'm afraid I wont be able to see the Potter movie soon enough.

I'm afraid that I'll buy a dress I wont like it too much because it's the ONLY. ONE. that I like marginally.

I'm afraid my mother will talk me into a dress that I don't like at all because she's my mother and she has that power.

I'm afraid that no one will show up or stay at a Disney hotel and I wont get my free night at a cottage suite!

I'm afraid to entertain my parents without my brother.

I'm afraid that I'll eat too much this WHOLE. ENTIRE. WEEK. and have to lose twenty pounds by the end of it instead of ten.

I'm afraid that someone will catch me wearing socks under my pantyhose and point it out to me and I'll get in trouble.

I'm afraid that I'll forget all my deadlines and other things that are floating around in the ether because I'm just not concentrating quite enough.

I'm afraid I will spontaneously combust and only the smokers will notice, and only to light their cigarettes with my burning effigy.


But:
It'll be all over sometime soon.

Have a good weekend and rest of the week all.

Me.

Accomplishment

I have a dirty little secret to share with you all. I know, you're all on the edge of your seats just ready to hear something that would finally confirm what you've all thought about me!

I know some of you are like "Nah, she can't be that innocent, that sweet, I know there's a hidden secret lurking in there somewhere." Well today, lucky readers, I will divulge on one of my dirtiest little secrets.

Why?
Because I've finally cleaned it up.

Here it is:
For years I have let the email in my first ever yahoo address just pile up with spam. I didn't want to get rid of it because it's so old that my password is only 4 characters long. How can I get rid of such a relic? Or to put it more kindly, an antique!?

How much spam and other emails? Nearly in the hundred thousands! Hmm, I should have taken a picture of it before I decided to clean it up.

So about a month ago I decided that I would clean it out slowly. I set the minimum views per page at 200 emails and then everyday I would wipe out maybe 2000, doing so everyday until reaching the end, which was about 10 minutes ago.

Now the only problem is the upkeep. That means every few days I'll have to sign on and clean it up again.

That's the part I hate, the upkeep. That is true with almost everything. You can't just go on a diet once and lose all the weight and then go back to eating like a pig and not gain any weight. You can't get into an exercise regimen once and not keep it up for the rest of your life. You can't shower once and be clean forever, you gotta shower everyday, or else you're dirty again! And of course if you fall off you gotta get back on again and do double time to maintain. This is all to maintain!!! How horrible is that? I hate the upkeep.

The secret is to find everything you do awesome, that way you wouldn't hate it. Like I read all your blogs almost on a daily basis. Who am I kidding? I do read it on a daily basis. How can I do that but not something else everyday? Because reading about someone's life is awesome. Even the more boring ones. You know who you are...

So, in short, do everything with an open mind and willingness and all you'll have to upkeep is your love for life.

This was brought to you by the saint hellegood foundation for reading blindness.

Me.

Just Ad Lib It

Below is a true tale, but thanks to y'all it's now a wacky tale. Thanks all for participating in the 2005 Hellegood Mad Libs fiasco. And now without further ado, I present to you your mad libs:


The other day Colon and I were walking through the cd-rom. After a few lightyears of flying on the main road we decided to take a smaller path used for pedestrians. We meandered through the opera singer, near neighbors and goats. Then that path hopelessly grew denser, with vines creeping closer to us.

We followed it to the end and were about to turn back when we spotted a hidden saxophone and penlight walkway through the brambles. All along the path there were trees and branches strewn, leaving our way but we pumped beneath or mitigated over each one.

We continued on the path when suddenly he let out a "Oh snap!" and there, beside him was the prettiest alarm clock I had ever seen only a nautical mile from his face. I let out a crap! and we both made a mad dash past it. We continued on, livers bursting out of our chests.

Slowly we made our way through the banana which was getting denser by the century. We had to keep a finger out for spiders above us and missing planks below us. Eventually the boards rotted out altogether and we found ourselves walking on neon, decaying ground.

Suddenly we stepped away from the dense forest and found ourselves in what appeared to be a dome of vines, trees and leaves. "Why are we in this human moist tank?" I asked. That was when we found out that the trail had stopped. We had reached a carbonated end.

Then we heard something creeping along behind us. Would we survive? Stay tuned.

If you think Colon and Helle should run back towards the sound turn to page 28.
If you think Colon and Helle should avoid the sound behind them by making a new trail past the dome turn to page 74.

-Me.
(Since I don't get to sign off at the bottom, why not sign off right here.)


Alrighty!! Hello boys and girls! Since it will be a long weekend for me I will not be able to post anything for the next few days, therefore we will play a little game. Okay?

Have you all ever played mad libs? That happened to be a big game for us when I was little and also a game Rich and I played while driving down to Florida. I wasn't a good player because I managed to always guess a good word so that the story never sounded outlandish or stupid, no matter how silly I thought the word was.

But now you get to participate! Be creative and have fun. On Monday I will post the story with your choice of words in it. No need to leave your name or anything, just type in the number that's next and the appropriate word, in the comments section of my blog.

Here is an example.
1. Adjective
2. Verb past tense
3. Noun

The red-headed girl jumped to the whale.

Got it?

Without further ado I now present to you Hellegood's Mad Libs c.


1. Male Name
2. Noun
3. Unit of Distance
4. Verb ending in -ing
5. Noun
6. Plural noun
7. Plural noun
8. Adverb
9. Noun
10. Noun
11. Verb ending in -ing
12. Verb past tense
13. Verb past tense
14. Exclamation
15. Adjective (ending in -est)
16. Noun
17. Unit of distance
18. Exclamation
19. Plural human organ
20. Adverb
21. Noun
22. Unit of time
23. Part of the human body
24. Adjective
25. Adjective
26. Adjective