Friday December 18, 2009

Woke up at like.. 4:30 or 5:00 AM. Couldn't go back to sleep. Got up. Played some games on Kongregate.

Plan for the rest of the day:

Take a shower and get dressed.

Go Christmas shopping for friends and family. Yes, I haven't done it yet. No, I'm not retarded. Yes, I've been busy as crap. Step off.

Grocery shop for Chili makings. Yes, I'm going to try my hand at actual cooking today. Who knows? Maybe it'll be awesome!

After my shopping is done, I'll come back here and cook.

Some time this evening, I believe Heather is coming over to watch movies. And perhaps taste test my chili.

And this shall be my day. I'm excited. I'm actually going to DO something rather than just sit around on my arse.

OH! Fantasy Football Update!!!

I'm in the playoffs. Only four teams (out of ten) made it this far. The playoffs take two weeks, and your combined score at the end of two weeks must be higher than your opponent's. So, last week, none of my people friggin showed up. I got 65 points out of all 9 of my players. However, most of Alec's people didn't show up either. He got 76. So he wasn't beating me too badly. So this week, I agonized for hours over who to play, who to bench, who to drop, who to pick up.. And I finally decided to go ahead and play Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne, even though the Colts have clenched homefield advantage for the playoffs. A lot of people figured that they'd pull Peyton and Reggie out of the game early, to preserve them for the actually NFL Playoffs. Well, I figured there was a chance, but I decided to take it. So, I watched the game at B Dubs with Tim, and agonized the whole time. Alec has Maurice Jones-Drew, who was going mostly crazy. Two touchdowns and a crapton of yards. Peyton wasn't doing back, but Reggie was like no where to be found. Then, all of the sudden, in the fourth quarter, Peyton throws a monster pass to Reggie Wayne who takes off and runs it in for like a 65 yard touchdown! Saved my friggin day. So, after it was all over, Peyton scored me 39 points, Reggie Wayne scored me 30, and MJD scored Alec 35. So, I'm in no way secured to win, but if this hadn't happened, I probably would be secured to lose. So, phew! What a game!

If I beat Alec, and if Tim beats Jackie, Tim and I will be in the Super Bowl against each other. The apartment will be tense those two weeks if it works out this way.

Anyway, that's all I got. I'm gonna go get ready to shop, and then shop my little heiny off.

2009

Note: This will not be just be whining about how much this year sucked. Granted, I'm writing this warning before I write the actual blog, but I have a feeling that I'll meander around to a point eventually.. Sometimes I do that.. No promises, though.

So, 2009's almost over. It's safe to say this this year was the absolute worst year of my entire life. Yes, that's true. Worse than all four years of The Meredith Saga. Worse than my freshman and sophomore years of high school. Worse than the year that I was uprooted from all of my friends and family in Gulfport and forced to move to Springfield. This year takes the cake.

I'm gonna try and do this chronologically. No, I'm not trying to get you to pity me. I just feel like taking a moment to take stock of this year, so I can see whether or not I learned from each of these.. mishaps..

Started off mostly bad. I was continuing my Masters at MSU with teachers that didn't like me and peers who thought they were better than me. Muddled through it and eventually decided to leave the program.

More bad as my anxiety increased, due to my impending move into the apartment.

Struggle to find a job. Failure repeatedly.

Roommate issues. No, we never fought. Nothing that bad. Just normal "first roommate" stuff that everyone goes through when they first live with someone who isn't their parents. At times, I wondered if he and I could ever reconcile the HUGE inequities that I'd built up in my head.

Then, of course, the powder keg that had become (what in my opinion was) the relationship that should have been the one permanent thing in my life finally exploded. Combination of my bad and her bad, but the bottom line was that the thing I cherished most in this world was ripped away from me, like a bandaid, but one where it doesn't completely come off the first time you pull. It takes MANY yanks. So imagine a bandaid and duct tape have a baby. And then you have to rip that off of you. Not pleasant. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

I could write way more about that one (seeing as how.. um.. I have..) so I'll move on. Finally got a job. My boss is probably in the top 3 of worst bosses I've ever had. Constant tedium.

And, finally, someone in my family has been steadily declining, as far as health is concerned. Nothing major has happened, yet (knock on wood) but things aren't looking promising..

What did I learn from each of them. Well, let's go in order..

With the MSU thing, I learned that my life wasn't as planned out as I wanted it to be. This was good and bad. Not having choices makes life easier, but it doesn't make it as fun. I had the opportunity to totally revamp what I wanted to do and where I saw myself. I actually took control of my future instead of blindly walking some path that I created for myself in high school.

The move was a good thing. I actually appreciate spending time with my folks. And I think living on my own has shown me that, yes, I can in fact be self sufficient. I can life, day to day, and not just randomly die or set myself on fire. This is a plus.

The job failures gave me the opportunity to learn perseverance. I fell off the horse and got back on again. And again.. And again.

My roommate and I got better. Turns out, I was making mountains out of molehills, and now that I've realized that and lightened up a LOT, things are fine. Wish I saw the guy more often, but oh well. We're both busy.

I have no earthly idea what I was supposed to learn from the ex-girlfriend situation, so I'm going to skip it.

The current job.. Well, it gave me the chance to become much better friends with my friend Megan. I'm so happy about that. AND I had the opportunity to meet some awesome new guys and girls, and I'm hoping that my relationships with them will continue to grow and that I'll see more of them (well.. A few of them..), even though I'm quitting. Oh, which, yeah, that's what I decided to do. It's not ENTIRELY because of my boss. Yes he was a huge factor, but I'm going back to school in the Spring and there's really no way I could do school and this job simultaneously. I'll have day and night classes, so, yeah. That's that.

And family health stuff. Not gonna go into huge detail. Suffice it to say that there are treatment options, but these treatments usually make the patient feel worse than the actual ailment. So, we dunno what's going to happen, but it's making me learn how to cherish every minute that I get with my family.

So, yeah. Pretty terrible year, but I suppose there are silver linings to most things; you just have to look for them.

Regardless, 2008 was probably the best year of my life. Let's hope 2010 is more like 2008 than 2009..

Wrote a big long blog to try and figure some crap out. And I think it served it's purpose. It's in my drafts. I'm not going to post it, cause I don't know if it would be appropriate. If anyone happens to be interested in the inner monologue of a crazy person, let me know. I'll trim it down and send it your way. But I don't plan on making it public.... Even though I don't really think it's offensive. It's basically me going on and on about "what do i really want?" and "what am I going to do?"

But, the overall decision I made is that I'm just going to lay back and let God take me where He wants to. And over the past few days He has been bringing me somewhere, I can feel it. I have no real clue where, but I'm up for an adventure.

So, that's what's up. I'll probably write a more in depth "Shannon's Life" blog in a couple days. Meanwhile, I'm actually.. content with my life.. For the most part. (Check with me tomorrow. I may change my mind. lol)

Sookie Stackhouse said it best.

When people love each other and then suddenly one of them isn't there anymore, it's the distance that hurts, and the distance is the same no matter who's doing the leaving.