Top 5: 2012 Highlights

Started a New Job

I was hired into my first real job in mid-January of last year (2012).

It was a huge stepping stone into my new, urban life.

My job means a great deal for me. It combines helping people and daily impact through feedback. My coworkers are upbeat and friendly. I look forward to going into work.

Went to Irish Fest/CONvergance/State Fair/Aquatennial Fireworks/San Francisco

New job means money for trips and paid vacation time!

Jared and I flew out to San Francisco and visited my favorite Auntie Leigh this fall. We went to Irish Fest in Milwaukee in August. I went to CONvergence in early summer. We ate our way across the fairgrounds at the Minnesota State Fair. We walked downtown and saw a great fireworks show for the Aquatennial.

What's wonderful about all these things is that they went off great and I have no complaints. (Or at least my complaints are super minor - I can complain about anything.)

New Baby! (not mine)

My cousin had a baby! He's adorable. I saw him twice this fall/winter and he was too cute to be true. I'm claiming him as my honorary nephew. I'm looking forward to watching him grow up.

Bought a Condo

Jared and I bought a beautiful condo at a great price. We're still working on moving in. I will be posting pictures once our couch is delivered. (Oh yea, we bought a new couch too!)

It's a pretty huge deal for us. Amie and Matt (Jared's brother) gave us moving boxes. It was magical - like they appeared out of no where just at the right time.

Home for the Holidays

Last year I worked the weekend of Christmas and the weekend after Thanksgiving. We didn't get to go to Wisconsin for the holidays.

This year I had my weekends off switched due to a clerical error! Awesome.

We went to Thanksgiving over a two day stretch. It was terrible and great. Seeing family and friends (Jared's friends) was great. Traveling ~11 hours in two days was not great.

Christmas was the best. We had a four day weekend. We went to Jared's grandparents that Saturday. I met a slew of cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course his grandparents. I saw Brittany on Sunday. Monday we went to Jared's family's Christmas dinner. Tuesday we went to my family's Christmas party at Aunt Sue's house. We were so busy! I loved it.

We got the best Christmas gifts too! (Not that I'm materialistic.) They were so thoughtful! Amie and Matt gave us a woodcut ornament that said "Jared, Holley and Gizmo's first home" and a cool - hard to describe without hand motions - wall art piece. Jared's parents gave us a fire extinguisher and a garbage disposal! Perfect. We also received a really great painting (like house painting, not oil... painting?) set. We'll be cracking that out this summer.


I may have left out some great things that also happened. This year has been fantastic for us. :D

Negative Nancy Says Winter Means Blahs, Dryness and Frigid Weather

I've talked about winter blues and how to stay warm. Now, it's time to talk about dryness. Dryness is a terror that deserves it's own post. It isn't a footnote in the long list of what is terrible in life about winter.

Instead of focusing on alligator skin and scarecrow hair, let's talk about suggested fixes.

Dry Skin

Aveeno! I love Aveeno. It's genius. It's cheap. It's widely available. All year round I use Aveeno Moisturizing Bars for Dry Skin. This bar is so gentle that it soothes my itchy, irritated skin. (Itchy and irritated are common words to describe me.)

In winter, I buy some kind of Aveeno lotion. It doesn't matter which; they've all been wonderful. This year I bought Aveeno Active Naturals Positively Nourishing Body Lotion, Energizing Pomegranate + Grapefruit. I'm a sucker for bath and body products that are grapefruit scented. (Sometimes, this ends badly, and I end up smelling like dish soap or worse bug spray.) This lotion smells great and once it absorbs is subtle. It does take awhile to sink in - especially on my hands and feet.

My coworker Sue introduced me to Nivea Creme. I buy it in the travel sized tins. The packaging is cute and small. It's easy to carry in the palm of my hand or throw in my purse. I find that I use it most often on the bus! I'm sitting there and BOOM my weirdo cuticles pull a run in my stockings like that is their main function. Solution: mourn the tights, silently swear, moisturize the cuticle.

Dry Eyes

Go to the drugstore. Buy five or sixty bottles of eye drops WITHOUT vasoconstrictors. Put them in your desk at work, every purse you own, in your bathroom, on your mantle. Hang them from your Christmas tree. Make earrings from them! 

Dry Hair

Sometimes lather, rinse, repeat isn't quite good enough. Here are the three things I use on my dry, coarse hair during winter - along with instructions on how to best utilize them.

Biolage by Matrix Hydrating Shampoo and Conditioner
wash hair well, massage liberal amount of conditioner into scalp and through hair focusing on roots, sit in tub until unbearably pruney, rinse in a half-assed way

Cantu Shea Butter Leave In Conditioning Repair Cream
apply utterly ridiculous amount to dry, dirty (like 3rd day dirty) hair, play video games for four hours OR watch four blood-soaked episodes of Vampire Diaries, take a normal shower

CHI Keratin Mist 
realize your hair is disgustingly dry but you have no time to do anything listed above, hold your ends altogether making your straw hair into a sort of broom, spray that shit until you drown that broom like you're a magician's assistant

Dry Lips

Lately I've been loving Maybelline Baby Lips Moisturizing Lip Balm SPF 20 Sunscreen. I bought it in cherry. It really doesn't have a color to it (which I like). It tastes good (enough). It isn't sticky.

For those with cash to burn, I do like Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15. It tastes good, has a little color (and is sticky in a good way?)

It's better to realize what you don't want than what you do want in makeup (and all things), because then it's easy to say no. What I DON'T want in a chapstick-but-not-chapstick: Glitter, stickiness, strong odor, strong taste, odor or taste that isn't based on something edible (read: floral), no SPF.