New Beginnings, Blah, Blah, Blah

 This is just one of the many images appearing on Facebook today. I mean, I like it. It's cute and all, but...

I'm so over it.

I really hate this time of year. The time between Christmas and New Year's Eve is just kind of depressing for me. It has been for as long as I can remember. I hate things coming to an end. I just do. It's hard for me to explain. Over lunch yesterday, my friend commented that she feels this way around her birthday, because it's like a reminder of what she still hasn't accomplished. 

Brief commercial break: Check out this video. The videography is awesome, and I can relate. I believe most of you will as well.

But I digress.

I guess you can call me a New Year's Eve Scrooge. Whatever. Not only do I get a little sad about the end of another year (except for 2008. I GLADLY said goodbye to that year!!!); I also get tired of people talking about how wonderful the next year is going to be, and how "this is going to be 'the' year. I just know it. There's so much in store for me this coming year, blah, blah, blah..." Call me a pessimist, but didn't you say that last year? And the year before? And the year before that? And at the end of those same years, you talked about how you couldn't wait to see them go. Whatever.

I just feel like New Year's Eve and its celebrations bring too many expectations. I hate expectations. I don't like having them, and I don't like them imposed on me. Do I hope things go well next year? Absolutely. But am I setting myself up to believe that just because the last digit in the year changed, all of a sudden, the heavens will open wide and pour down millions of dollars upon my head and my life will be perfect? Um, not quite.

Believe it or not, I'm actually not in a bad mood right now. I had an awesome day!! I went to lunch with friends from high school, then happy hour with Stephanie, and now I'm home, relaxing, listening to music, and blogging. Earlier, I sent a video production to a client for review before her event next weekend, and she was in tears. That's always a good thing in my line of work!!! ☺ Today was great. Overall, things are going well. I would just rather skip all the fanfare of New Year's Eve. So...

Auld Lang Syne, my friends. Auld Lang Syne...

Church & Technology

Lee and I have been attending this church (Impact) for a while (admittedly, not very regularly).

I'm sure you know my thoughts, if you know anything about me. I fully embrace technology in this setting, and I agree that it's not going anywhere. By the way, I got this link from the pastor's tweet last week. I think that's kinda cool.

What do you think?

Plight

I stayed home from work today, because I felt a little under the weather when I woke up. Headache, sniffles, low-grade fever, soup, and old General Hospital episodes have all been close friends of mine today...and so have tears.

Today is Nala's 3rd birthday. It's been almost a year since she went to live with her new family, but I still miss her so much - many times, to the point of tears. And they flowed today. Perhaps it's because I'm already not feeling well, and the fact that it's her birthday doesn't help (although the irony is that she doesn't even know it's her birthday ☺).

As I've mentioned before, I used to have a complete lack of understanding for people who got overly emotional about their pets. And perhaps, people are feeling the same way about me while reading this. But all I can say is that I get it. I completely understand. Lee and I still haven't been to visit Nala since the day we left her with her new family. We're just not ready, and now, almost one year later, I wonder if I ever will be. I think about her all the time, and I still choke back the tears...except for today. I let them flow.

Last week. my sister-in-law posted this picture on Facebook. "Plight" was one of Diallo's (her son, our nephew) vocabulary words. His uncle, to whom he refers, of course, is Lee.

Yes, Diallo, the feeling of not having Nala living with us and missing her so much is a bad condition or situation. But it does help to keep reminding myself that her living situation is not. It's what's best for her, and she's so happy! ☺

Google Recognizing History

December 1, 1955 is the day Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama. If you use iGoogle* like I do, chances are you may have missed Google's home page image that day. Luckily, I tweet, and one of my friends mentioned it on Twitter. I thought it was pretty cool, so I thought I'd share:

* For those who don't know, iGoogle is a personalized Google page. This is mine, as it stands right now. It has Chat on the side, Calendar, Gmail, Date & Time, Weather, Daily Bible Verse, Reader, Things to Ponder, CNN, Top Stories, and Sudoku. Yeah, Google's pretty cool. ☺

Nostalgia

There has been a trend this past week on Facebook, to change your profile picture to an image from a cartoon from your childhood. The instructions are along these lines:

This week, change your profile picture to an image from a cartoon from your childhood. The goal of the game? Not to have a single human face on Facebook, but an invasion of our collective childhood memories for a week. It's up to you to take action and to forward this message-- join the fun!

As the week went on, it turned into a campaign to raise awareness about violence against children, and the wording of the instructions changed slightly. Whatever the reason, it has been so much fun to see all of the pictures people have been posting, and to take a walk down memory lane!! There has been so much excitement exuding from people's comments, remembering long-forgotten cartoon characters and shows. It's pretty cool.

For the sake of posterity, I decided to compile all of the ones I've seen...and could relate to. There were definitely some that I couldn't quite relate to, which is also pretty funny, because this trend has made it pretty easy to tell the ages of your Facebook friends!☺

Do any of these take you back?

Beagle Boys	Care Bears
Charlie Brown	Darkwing Duck
David the Gnome	Fat Albert
The Flintstones	Fraggle Rock
Garfield & Friends	Gumbi
Gummi Bears	He-Man
Heathcliff	Inspector Gadget
Jem	Jessica ("Who Framed Roger Rabbit?")
The Jetsons	Maple Town
Mighty Mouse	My Little Pony
Paddington Bear	The Pink Panther
Pinky and the Brain	Popeye
Popples	Rainbow Brite
She-Ra	Smurfs
Strawberry Shortcake	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Thundercats	Tiny Toon Adventures
Tom & Jerry	Winnie the Pooh
Woody Woodpecker	Wuzzles

Here are some that I thought of, but I have not yet seen posted:

Alvin & the Chipmunks	Camp Candy
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers	Duck Tales
James Bond, Jr.	Muppet Babies
TaleSpin

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