Of New Years 2009, Sucky Cancer, and Gnarly GPS

Well, another year has gone down the Potty of History, my friends, and I sincerely hope I don't jinx myself and my family's financial well-being for years to come when I say that, in our case, it really wasn't that bad! I mean, I received my Masters and Alyssa is on the verge of completing her bachelor's; we both have jobs (mine is with a company whose leader is more powerful than Oprah! OPRAH!); we're steadily saving up for what will no doubt be an extremely cheap house; and we're on our way toward adopting. Oh yeah, and gas is the cheapest it's been since before September 11th. Can't complain there! Not everything is perfect, of course. We recently learned that my uncle Dave has a serious form of cancer. Sucks. I think Dave has always been my favorite uncle and I hope and pray that everything turns out for the best.

Alyssa and I went to St. George for Christmas this year. Good times were had in abundance. Granted, we didn't do a whole lot there--do we ever?--but when I'm on vacation I don't really want to do stuff. That's just the Ben Creed. Alyssa, who has to be doing something every second or she'll implode, may think differently, but she can go eat cheese. I mean... umm... I love you, sweetie! Ahem. Besides opening presents, we Guitar Hero'd it up (well, everyone else did, I played it once and decided I'd had enough); hung out with my friends (including the long-departed Russell and Kenley); and had my mother take pictures of us for our online adoption profile. That's about it. Oh yeah, we got a gnarly GPS for our car. Now we'll never get lost again! Bwa ha ha! (Just watch me somehow wind up in Nevada later this week...)

For New Year's Eve, we went to Alyssa's parents' house for games and snackage, but probably only stayed until 10:30ish because Alyssa got sick somehow (she claims it was because she "didn't blow-dry her hair in time"). So we missed out on some midnight drunken revelry in Times Square, no doubt, but I think we'll pull through. Somehow.

Of Eating Babies (boo!), Janessawedding (yay), and Roller Skating (ow...my aching butt)

Okay. I've been bad. REAL bad. Two months go by, with all sorts of crazy blogworthy malarkey going on, and what do I have to show for it here? Squatarooney, that's what. I guess I've been pretty busy, what with my new internship I've been doing for the last three weeks (even though I'm not supposed to have officially started yet because the semester started two days ago--oops, did I type that out loud?). I'm now working for Big Tree Arts, a non-profit organization that promotes poetry events in the Boise community. It's fairly liberal in nature, but I'm trying to keep an open mind...which isn't as easy as I'd thought it would be. For instance, I just discovered yesterday that about half of the poems on their website are focused around the concept of EATING BABIES. Not literally, but still, I'm sure there are better ways of reducing overpopulation.

Christmas was jolly good fun. We spent Christmas Day with Alyssa's family in Utah, then we drove to Idaho Falls with my mom so Alyssa could be in charge of catering at Janessa's wedding reception. She kicked some catering butt, I tell you. And as for me, I tore it up on the dance floor. After we spent a few days there, we rode back to Salt Lake with my mom and spent New Year's with Alyssa's family as well. Not much else to say, except that I lost my keys. I think maybe they're buried in the snow in Alyssa's parents' back yard, so maybe they'll turn up come March or April. I also tried roller skating, for the first time since Brad Bundy's birthday party in sixth grade. Holy goodness gracious! I think my butt is STILL sore. But on the bright side, I made it all the way around the rink without grabbing on to anything! Go me!