Silver Bells

Silver Bells lyrics by LIVINGSTON AND EVANS

Christmas makes you feel emotional
It may bring parties or thoughts devotional
Whatever happens or what may be,
Here is what Christmas time means to me.

City sidewalk, busy sidewalks
dressed in holiday style.
In the air there's
a feeling of Christmas.
Children laughing, people passing,
meeting smile after smile,
And on every street corner you'll hear:

[Chorus]
Silver bells, silver bells,
It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring,
soon it will be Christmas day.

City street lights,
even stop lights,
blink a bright red and green,
As the shoppers rush home
with their treasures.
Hear the snow crunch,
see the kids bunch,
This is Santa's big scene,
And above all this bustle you'll hear:

[Chorus]
Silver bells, silver bells,
It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring,


I spent the weekend covering 3 arts events for my freelance gig. I heard Silver Bells a total of 3 times and now have songs from "Fiddler on the Roof" stuck in my head. I must confess that "Silver Bells" is on my top ten favorite secular holiday songs and I'm going to ask my work friend Nick to sing it with me at our office party.

I've got my holiday shopping mostly done (thank you Amazon!) and have decided to forgo the proverbial holiday card because email has kept me semi- connected to my far and dear ones.

There's one thing I'm really looking forward too. George and I have been getting asked about our permanent future A LOT and I'm keeping my manicured fingers crossed that after the 12 days of Christmas I will have a little bling :) It's been getting harder and harder to say good-bye to George after the weekend's done or date night comes to a close but hopefully by this time next year I'll get to see him every day!
I don't know when but I know he has my high school ring- the rest is up to him and his jeweler.

Learning the Lesson

It's been a year since I signed the papers to buy my condo and boy what a long, strange, trip it has been. This time last year, I had bruises up and down my arms from moving my stuff in and getting used to where things were and bumping into them again and again. Now, I can walk through my house in the dark and not bump AS hard into my furniture. I've traded some of it to my parents because it was just too big.

I have new windows (paid off finally) and some extra savings two fold that I was blessed with in the past few months. I'm looking forward to continuing to make better $$ choices and kick this burden of debt I chained myself to without even realizing it.

I was given quite a scare a few weeks ago when I was told my full-time position is possibly being reduced for budget reasons. This jump-started my job hunt once again and I met with a recruiter last week to get some help. Unfortunately, I was exhausted last week and couldn't do much on my own in terms of hunting. Hopefully this week will be better and I'll manage to get online after work and find some good leads. Officially I've been looking for a new job since last September when I broke down in front of my boss (my first time and hopefully my last) and told her I couldn't keep going on more than a few more months. It's been a few more months and that wake up call last week reminded me that I need to get out before I'm asked to leave.

One thing I've been excited about is seeing how little changes mean big things. I don't miss NetFlix and the digital cable box and now that some of my debt has been paid off in full (3 debts in 6 months, horray) I can continue to snowball my payments (thanks Dave Ramsey) and work towards really living more within my income instead of just at the tippy top.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I want to break up with you, NYC. It's been great but you are high-maintenance, expensive and stinky at times. Deep down, I'm a Jersey girl through and through. I even have a hoodie to prove it. I daydream about Memorial Day weekend at the shore and taking walks in parks that, while they pale in comparison to the largeness of Central Park, are still just the right size. In fact, George and I were thinking about taking a walk the other day. Then April showers came upon us and we headed to the movies instead.

By the way, do not see "I Love You, Man" unless you have insomnia. It was one of those films which has its best parts in the trailer. The only thing I liked about it was the funky wedding tent made from cloth draping and the bridesmaids dresses. I kept whispering to George "I'm so sorry I owe you two guy movies for this dude." As usual, he was very reasonable and said "don't worry about it." That answer is so typical him but I'm thrilled to hear it just the same.

In other random news, I had a dream last night that I couldn't find the bottle of sunscreen I own. Okay so it's about two plus years old. I think deep down, I'm really hoping to go on a vacation sometime this year to someplace warm.

Dreading Fridays

I found out my co-worker was let go this morning.All week I had a feeling that someone else was going to quit but it turns out it was a termination instead. That makes only 1 ally co-worker left for me to have as a work friend.

On the other hand, I think I might have just found my niche- web based marketing. The website hosting my company uses has great online classes and I found a solution to another challenge we've been having instead of what was acutally covered in the class. George can officially call me a Web Diva again, although I don't have the designation yet. I decided to wait another semester until I qualify for a tutition waiver where I teach (I think that will be Jan. '10).

So it's been a good day/bad day for me so far, and a Friday however.