"And Here's What's Happening in My Neck of the Woods..."

Anyone a fan of Good Morning America (or is it The Today Show? I always get them confused. It's pretty much the same show with different anchors anyway, right)? I love how the weather man, Al Roker I think it is, always gives the national weather scope and then transitions to the local weather guys using this phrase. It's silly, but I like it, and it reminds me of home, so now it is officially part of my blog....just don't tell Al.

So, as I was saying, here's what's happening in my neck of the woods:
1. I'm tired. Knackered. Battered. Shattered. Exhausted. Whatever you want to call it, I am. For some reason, I've just been feeling drained lately. I really am not working all that much more than usual (though I haven't had a day of in 10 days), but I can barely drag my butt out of bed in the morning. I think it's beginning to show too because they sent me home early from work today because I wasn't looking so good. But no worries, tomorrow I don't start until noon, and then I finally, drum roll please, have my day off! Hoorah!
2. Homesick. I don't get homesick all that often but this weekend was tough. My little Miss April became Mrs. Buck, and my baby sister turned the Big 21-two events I really didn't want to miss out on. Luckily I have a very sweet and understanding boyfriend to help get me through the rough spots which brings me to....
3. SATC: The movie. Upon release, I found myself quasi-boycotting the film because it just didn't feel right to see it without my girls (that and the fact I couldn't convince anyone here to see it with me). Then last night, the unthinkable happened; a real, live, warm blooded, homosapien boyfriend OFFERED to take me to it. No, this is not something from the sci-fi channel, but an actual occurrence. The movie was entertaining, the fashion-UNBELIEVABLE, and I actually made it to the end before I teared up thinking about y'all. Side note: Chris was one of three men braving the estrogen packed theatre, and he handled it beautifully-I'm pretty sure he only gagged once during the movie. Needless to say, he scores major boyfriend points with this one.
4. I fly home in 35 days. Yes, 35 days. Crazy isn't it? Where does the time go? And, I'm starting to stress. Scratch that. I'm in full on stress out mode. The paper work for my visa still hasn't been filed, I haven't registered for my permanent National Insurance number, and I haven't worked out just what to do with all the stuff I've acquired since being here when I go home. Gah, I'm such a procrastinator; how I ever managed to make it through college, I still haven't figured out. I really just need to buckle down, make a to-do list with deadlines, and stick to it. Ha. I can barely type that without laughing. OK people, I'm really gonna try, but I need some prayers.

Okay peeps, that's all I have for now. Sorry the life of a shop girl isn't more exciting, but I'm happy to share it with you anyway. Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Buck, Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister, and Good luck to my bigger brother who moves to college this week. I love you all and am so very proud as always. Besos!

A Very Blogworthy Day

Monday I had one of those elusive days that just seems....right. Don't get me wrong, I'm generally a happy-go-lucky kinda girl who enjoys life, laughs easily, finds pleasure in the little things (well, pretty much I'm just easily amused), and doesn't even mind work most of the time. I'm not gonna lie, it takes a lot to make me have a rotten day...heck, I'd even go so far as to call myself an optimist. But still, some days just stand out and really make me appreciate life. And Monday was one such day.

To start off, it was my day off so I was in pretty good spirits; though I did have my doubts since my last two days off were a bit shaky. Days off can be tricky; you find yourself on a slippery slope if you're not careful-like you expect too much from it. Similar to what Christmas day can be like when you're little really-all of December you wait and wait for what you believe will be the best day of your life so far to FINALLY come and when the dragging days do pass and you wake up extra early on the morning of such a highly anticipated day, aren't the odds going to be highly in the favor of some sort of disapointment? Nothing in real life can really do a five year old's imagination justice though, can it? So after you open all the presents, and eat all the cakes, and sing all the carols, you can still feel (if you're not careful), oddly, a bit empty. The same theory can apply to my one day off a week: all week long I look forward to it as my saving grace, but once it comes it passes in a blur with something always amiss and all I can think is, 'crap. I have to go back to work in the morning.' But then a really great Christmas (or in my case, day off) can come along and redeem the ones that have not lived up to the self created hype, and faith is, once again, restored.

So what was so darn great about Monday you might ask. Well, to start off, I visited Stirling Castle! I know I'm a dork, but I love history. And museums. And old buildings. And with castles you pretty much get a three for one deal on these things so I'm in paradise. Plus, we don't have castles in America or anything much older than 300 years so I go a bit crazy in a country that actually has a medieval period. And, this is the best bit, I suckered Chris, Tony, and Claire to go with me. I enjoy stuff like that by myself, but it was much nicer having company for a change. We started off our visit with a tour of Argyll's Lodging-a 17th century residence just across the way and through a cemetary from the castle (weird fact: I love graveyards. Not sure why, just do). We had a very enthusiastic tour guide, one of those people who just seems so eager that you want to listen that much more. Then Tony and Chris treated themselves to ice cream for being so well behaved before we wandered around the castle. I think my favorite parts were the great views (the castle sits up on a volcanic rock above the city) and the architecture of the buildings. After we had our fill of exploring, we checked out, what else, the gift shop. To be fair, they have some pretty awesome toys in castle gift shops....especially the boys section. I would buy a styrofoam sword over a unicorn anyday. Oh, and Tony and Chris did. Buy styrofoam swords that is. Good thing they got their ice-cream before that purchase or they might have lost the priveledge. Claire and I just stuck them in back of the car on the ride home so they could beat up each other without bothering us...much. Also, between swordfighting and ice-cream eating Chris managed to make another purchase....earrings (don't worry, they weren't for him). He bought them under false pretenses of purchasing chocolate and then suprised me with them as a gift on the ride home. Pretty smooth huh? And he actually chose very well-buying jewelry for a girl is no easy task, especially for one as particular as me. They are swirly and silver and have a purple gem and I heart them.
After our educational yet enjoyable afternoon of castle exploration, we had a relaxing evening in complete with cheese, champagne, and Ratatouille. Very classy if I do say so myself even if we did drink the champagne out of pint glasses and watch a children's film (hey-we don't exactly have an excess of champagne flutes in the staff house and pixar rocks my socks off). As great as a day as we had, it made it that much harder to go back to work Tuesday morning, and it didn't help that Chris got ANOTHER day off. Spoiled brat. Only kidding. Sort of. Anyways, y'all know how much my amateur photog butt loves pictures, so here's a few more from my lovely day at Stirling Castle for your viewing pleasure....

Girly Time

Cindy Lauper says it best: girls-they wanna have fu-un, o-oh girls just wanna have fuuuun. Well, realistically speaking, the fairer sex wouldn't come off looking too good if that was strictly true, but sometimes a girl does need to just let her hair down and have some good old fashioned

fu-un.

This week, I had me some serious girly time fun. To start, Veronika turned the big 2-9 on Monday, so we had a wee party at the pub after work. I had a few ciders, played some really bad pool (but looked very cute while losing-Veronika and I were the "green team" so we chalked up our noses to help distinguish that. Unfortunately, my camera was dead so I have no documentation. Crap.), and even ate a little tiramisu cake. Nice. Then on Wednesday, I had a rather crappy day off involving me running all my errands I never get around to (because I always put them off), wildy misinterpreting the bus system (buses and I just don't get along), and missing my ride for Monika's birthday party because I got back too late from Stirling (again, I blame the public transportation system). So I was feeling really down and frustrated when I got home. However, upon my arrival I ran into an equally down and frustrated Catriona, so we decided to do something about it. I jumped in her car, we picked up her girls, and headed off to Stirling (don't worry, no buses involved in this trip). We enjoyed a lovely meal where we stuffed our faces and died of laughter over the silliest things. Just what I needed.

Now here's where it gets real girly; Friday after work, Veronika came up to my room to give me some eyewash (yes, my silly eyes are still being ornery), and we ended up shopping for makeup online (thanks to Ivy's email---thanks loml!) which led to talk about makeup which led to me pulling out all my makeup which led to me giving Veronika a makeover. So fun. She almost NEVER wears makeup and I absolutely love playing with the stuff. So after I finished dolling her up, she started to ask me how she should wear her hair. I mentioned she would look good with some fringe bangs and the next thing I knew we had pulled out a pair of scissors, thrown my apron over her shoulders, and started cutting away. Not bad if I do say so myself... I think it makes her look like Goldie Hawn. Or Kate Hudson. Can't remember which. Anywho, check it out for yourself....

BEFORE

(to be fair, I did pick the absolute worst picture I possibly could-but that's what you're supposed to do-right?)

AFTER...Ta-Dah! A la Goldie Hawn....

Finally, I put the icing on my girly cake last night when we broke in Catriona's new barbeque, played Veronika's new Pretty Woman CD, opened a bottle of Merlot, and had a dance party. What a hoot. There's nothing like dancing barefoot out in the yard while the chicken burns on the barbie. Don't worry, I have tons of pictures since I got camera happy as I tend to do...

Veronika's first BBQ...and she's already burning the meat

Family Dinner...Girl StyleI Heart Laughing

And the dancing begins....