Further Proof That I Married The Perfect Man

I'm having an Ugly Duckling Day.

You know, the kind of day when you wake up in the morning and, upon perusing your reflection in the mirror, wonder just why in the hell it doesn't break? 

Today, my hair is frizzy, my skin is badly broken out (stress and chocolate does that to a girl,) and my jeans are feeling too tight. I didn't even bother with makeup this morning. "What's the point?" I thought to myself as I tossed the mascara tube back into the bag. "This isn't going to hide the ugly that's all up on my face."

In short, I felt like this:

I slapped on some chap stick, picked the scab off of a nasty zit, and called it a day.

As I wandered into the living room, Brian beamed up at me from the couch. "Good morning, pretty lady," he said, and kissed me with some enthusiasm.

A small piece of ugly cracked off and fell to the floor.

Then, completely unaware of the inner dialogue I had going on in my Ugly Duckling brain, he said to me, "You look cute today."

Another piece of ugly was blasted away by his kind words.

And just a few minutes ago, he looked up at me and said, with utter sincerity, "You're the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world."

I won't go so far as to say that, after a few sweet sentiments from my husband, that I'm feeling like a swan. However, I'm feeling a lot less Ugly Duckling, and a lot more:

Thanks, honey. You always know what to say to this lucky ducky.

Can I Get A Woo-Hoo??

BRIAN OFFICIALLY PASSED HIS STATE BOARDS!!!

I knew you could do it, honey!! Congratulations!! We're all SUPER proud of the two little initials you now get to put behind your name. XOXOXO

Ooooh. That means I'm OFFICIALLY married to a nurse now. I've always had a thing for men in uniform. 

Woooooo! Zzzzz...

Where in the cotton-pickin' world have I been lately?

Good question, readers.

You see, I've had a lot of folks ask me just what takes so darn long between one post and another. Well, folks, there are a couple of answers for the time lapse as of late. And they are as follows:

I've been busy decorating for Christmas.

Because what's the point of having a New Kids on the Block shelf
if I don't get to decorate it with tiny Santa hats and a teeny tree?

I've been blowin' up Pinterest with fun and festive holiday ideas.

Because we're so broke, everyone in my family will be lucky
to get these candles instead of a pair of socks for Christmas this year!

I've been helping Brian plan for his big graduation from nursing school on 12/12/12.

He has to wear a tux,  y'all!!!

I've been wishing my pal, Arielle, a happy birthday in a most-Laverne inspired way.

Arielle is a Leo girl all the way (particularly Leonardo Circa Titanic.)

I think that about covers it. I mean, that's how I've been spending most of my free time. But I feel like there was something else....

...oh, right, I've been WRITING A BOOK SINCE NOVEMBER 1st!

That's right! I did it! I completed the 50,000 words necessary to win NaNoWriMo 2012. Paired with last year's half-manuscript, I now have almost 250 pages worth of book. I don't know about you, but that's a serious reason to throw around confetti.

The only problem? Things have been so busy (and stressful) around here lately that I haven't had much time to really think about my major accomplishment. I actually finished Nano on Monday, after an 11,000 word marathon on Saturday afternoon. (Yes, I actually meant to include that many zeros.) I finalized my word count, posted on Facebook that I was all finished, and then promptly went to sleep.

Hence, my big celebratory WOOHOO!!! moment was actually more like WooZZzzzzzz.....

But the good news is that now that I've wrapped up the intense writing of NaNo, it frees me up to start blogging regularly again. Hooray for December! And oh, boy do I have some awesome posts coming up.

(None of which are as awesome as the one my friend, Leslie, wrote over on The Bearded Iris today. Especially if you're a fan of Dancing with the Stars. Seriously. If you need a laugh, go read it. I promise. It's awesome.)

So bust out the signs, readers! Balloons are welcome, too! And if there are enough of you to line up and do the wave, I'd be most appreciative. Because I am officially a NaNoWriMo 2012 Winner!!!

Sometimes, I Pretend Like I'm Tina Fey...

...not just because she's funny, and pretty, and really, really, really rich. But because she has, at her very rich fingertips, and entire entourage of people ready to make her funny ideas become reality. Producers, and camera men, and sound guys, and make-up artists....if Tina has a dream to shoot a silly montage for her show, she just snaps her fingers, and POOF...there it is.

Like today, for instance. I was sitting around in my pajamas, moping into my cereal bowl, missing my husband (who started back to school today.) And I found myself thinking about how I could reach out to him and make him laugh, to help relieve the first-day-of-school jitters. As I often do, I found myself thinking about a certain episode of "Friends," where Joey moves out and he and Chandler miss each other. And I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be totally awesome to film something like that? With myself sitting in front of a window, peering out as the sad, cold rain pours down over the city?"

If I were Tina Fey, I could have done just that, with brilliant writing, perfect lighting, and an honest-to-goodness window with rain water sluicing down the pane.

Instead, there's just me, my computer monitor, and a JVC camcorder.

So he got this instead:




True, the production value is in the crapper. But I think my point was pretty clear. I'm so sad and lonely...

After publishing the rain video to youtube, I began to wonder if it would make Brian laugh. Maybe it wouldn't. Maybe it would make him feel guilty instead. So I began to think about previous posts I've done for him....turning him into superheros and telling stories about how he changed an old couple's tire.

And there was that nagging voice in the back of my head again. "If only you were Tina Fey..."

If I was Tina Fey, I would have created a meaningful montage, with video of our perfectly-staged first kiss, a clip of beautiful us holding hands and splashing in the surf, and other meaningful stuff. It would have been timed with the perfect music, and it would have been award worthy.

But I'm not Tina Fey. I'm Abby. So I created this extremely-silly-but-still-heartfelt montage instead:



In conclusion, I really wish I had Tina Fey's job, life, and money. But I don't want her husband. Because I have the perfect husband already.

Hope your first day back was a huge success! Love you honey!