Happy 2009!?!

New Years Eve... the end of one year and the celebration of a new beginning. Hello 2010. We anxiously set up resolutions that half of us have no intentions of keeping. The gyms suddenly become more crowded. We're eagerly watching our diets - no I can't possibly have another cookie. We throw parties. Drink champagne and then its January 1st and when we wake up 2010 is going to look a lot like 2009. By March all of these hard thought out resolutions will be long forgotten, the crowds at the gym will have died down, and the diets if sticking around aren't so strict anymore.

I pretty much stopped setting resolutions. There's no point. I never do them. It sounds good on paper to say I'm going to go to the gym five times a week, lose 5lbs, get Britney abs (circa 2000), etc. but by February I'm back to where I started and my list of resolutions is in the trash can. I've said I was going to get Britney abs for the last nine years - apparently moderate exercise and a diet that does not consist of starvation aren't going to cut it and I don't have the money for a trainer.

I'm blaming it all on the fact that I'm a Gemini - too flighty to commit to a whole year of anything. (Actually technically I think I'm a cusp sign meaning I can also be a Cancer depending on the chart)....I'm not much into astrology (I read a book once hence the cusp sign knowledge) - the horoscopes I read are always Joe Generic - good things will happen to you, watch out for men with beards, something new will happen in your career. Thanks Stars for that expert forecast that could apply to any number of Gemini's out there. Maybe some of it carries weight though (a key Gemini characteristic is the twins and inability to commit to one thing for long - there is too much out there to see and do) - I fall in and out of love with hobbies like some people change their socks. I have a whole closet devoted to past resolutions - learn how to play tennis, learn how to roller skate, practice my high school French... should I keep going or do you get the picture?

The moral of my story? This year I'm not doing resolutions. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and commit myself to doing something I probably will forget about the second week of January. I did come up with an idea for the year - a sort of mini-resolution if you will. Each week (I was going to do every other week but hey it should be a semi-challenge), I'm going to come up with one thing I need to do before the end of the week. Along the way, I'll keep you posted and if you feel inspired you can join in. So what are my challenges? I haven't really decided yet... some might be easy, some might be hard, some I may talk about on Monday but by Wednesday have long since forgotten. Heck, I might even stop doing the challenges by June... I don't know where this will take us but in honor of the New Year I figured I would try something new. So, check back tomorrow and we'll see where this challenge thing takes us. Happy 2010!

Favorite Thing December 30

This week? A high-waisted dress from The Limited. I got it right before Christmas - I had a coupon and who doesn't buy presents from themselves. I like that it's work appropriate but could be fun too. I could make The Limited my favorite thing because I'm so obsessed with their clothes but alas I need to pick just one favorite this week.

I'm hoping I can score some really hot shoes to wear with it... but this week I wore it with black Nine West heels with little metal grommets (to punk it up a bit) and a short black suit jacket since it's just cap sleeves and 40 degrees outside and my new key necklace (hint my favorite thing for next week).

Photo from www.thelimited.com

February Book Club Pick

Last year this time my friend SP and I decided to start a book club. I can't brag too much because starting a book club is pretty easy. You find a few friends, you get some apps and drinks and pick a book to read and discuss. This will be my sort of online book club. I'll tell you our picks for the month. You read them and then we can discuss.

For February we're reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

Happy Reading!

Knockout Dress 3

Love it or hate it. Is there an Oscar dress that is more divided? And for the record, I personally love it. Of course Charlize would probably look like a knockout in pretty much anything she wears. I actually was debating between this dress and a blue mermaid dress but the Galliano for Dior dress with the huge bow won me over. Why? It's daring, it's out there and you have to own it to pull it off. This is the type of dress that will either chew you up and spit you out or you're the girl that could wear a sheet and make it look good. So disagree away I think this dress is a 110% a knockout.

Photo from www.ew.com.

And The Stockings Were Hung By The Chimney With Care...

What will I do when all the Christmas theme posts are done?

Now that everything is unwrapped and Christmas is officially over until next year lets take a minute to talk Christmas gifts. Remember that feeling when you were five years old, you couldn't sleep. You put out just the right cookies for Santa and maybe a carrot for the reindeer. You carefully crafted a list. You woke up at 3 am and begged your parents to please let you see if Santa came. You tore into presents with glee.

I don't have kids but growing up and having to buy presents for others I know what the parents must be feeling in the equation. Wrapping presents. Buying wrapping paper. Running out of tape. Carefully looking for coupons or standing in lines at 3am for this year's "It" present. Staying up until midnight so you can play Santa and then waking up early because your kids dog pile you begging to open presents. I always use to wonder why my Mom would get so grouchy at the holidays.

"Stop being such a Grinch." I would proclaim as I tried to cram yet another ornament on the tree.

"I'm not being a Grinch." She would shake her head. "You don't understand. Christmas is a lot of work."

I get it now Mom... Christmas is a lot of work. Are there some parts I love? Yes. I could put up a tree with my eyes close. I will bake cookies until I have no where else to put them. I will wander around light tours even though my hands are numb and I'm dying to just go inside and get warm.

What I hate? What I absolutely wish I didn't have to do.... buy and wrap gifts. It’s funny though – on one hand I love it and on the other I hate it. I love that thrill of finding just the right present that someone will like. But often (and maybe I don't know my friends that well or maybe we're old enough that if we really want something under $25 we buy it ourselves), I find myself running here there and everywhere looking for that elusive (and slightly inexpensive) perfect gift.


I hate that it stretches my budget thin. I'm not trying to be cheap or a Grinch about it but my salary has not kept pace with the growing size of my family and friends. And trying to tell people you don't want to exchange is really awkward and I never really have much luck at it.

K was all about me trying to tell people we don't want to do gifts. "Blah blah budget... money doesn't grow on trees... blah blah just tell them." Me... being consumed with guilt that friends and family will hate me put it off or tried a lame attempt a couple of times and decided it was just easier to buy something. Maybe next year.

There are very few people I really enjoy buying for. S is one of them. I can go into any store - find something (or twenty-somethings) I would like and know she'll love it. I also love people like my sister who said "I want x..." this being acceptable as long as x is under agreed upon limit. Don't tell me x and then x turns out to be a $50 video game or a $100 necklace. (On a side note, Sis is not said person - her x this year was a book - which I got her).

I don't love people who spout off wish list that start with items of $50 or $100. If I'm not your mother, wife or super-close relative. I'm not spending that much and you should be ashamed for asking for it.

I don't love battling crowds for good deals. I love good deals. I love shopping. I hate Christmas shopping. Good deals are truly few and far between. I'm not traipsing to Best Buy or Target at 5 am. There is nothing I need that badly (and nothing you should either). I hate wandering around stores trying in vain to find the perfect gift. Maybe I'm a perfectionist but I always feel like I never find the right gift. I agonize over gifts the way some people would agonize over buying a house (I did that too).

I guess buying gifts stresses me out. I'm glad it's over. It's the one part of Christmas I can't wait to be over. (Although I do admit when I find the perfect gift I'm really excited to see them open it). Later this week I'll try to pull together a post of gift ideas for next year.

How do you feel about Christmas shopping? Does it blow the budget or are you a good shopper? Do you agonize like me or are you an in-and-out kind of shopper?

Was It Worth The Wait?

We got up early this morning and went to church - an early New Year's Resolution. The sermon started asking if Christmas was worth the wait and then dove into how after it was prophesied Jesus was coming they waited 400 years.... I'm not going that deep... I'm going to start with the first half - Christmas - was it worth the wait?

I get so excited for the build-up for Christmas. Not quite as excited as I was at four pouring over the Toys R Us catalogue but almost. I throw myself into decorating almost as soon as Thanksgiving is over. I wrap presents, I make cookies, I plan outings to see lights. It's all a lot of build up for one day.

Now it's over, the presents unwrapped, the cookies sitting in tins, the lights still twinkling in the windows - there is a bit of a let down. Not because I didn't get that awesome toy but because now I have to wait a whole year until we can do it again and it's sad that it takes holidays to get together with family. That we don't get super excited over it just being a regular plain old Thursday.

I'm going to suggest that my family do a picnic or something in the summer. Why do we have to wait 365 days until next Christmas to see some people? Besides the weather in June is a lot better than December.

Book Review: Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

I loved The Nanny Diaries: A Novel when it first came out (I'm guessing from Amazon in the early 2000's). It was equal parts sad, funny and touching. You wanted Nanny to succeed and her little charge Grayer to make it out of his parents' messed up lives in one piece. I was super excited to hear they were writing a sequel to the book, picking up over a decade since Nanny left the X's and little Grayer behind.

Nanny might be older but she is certainly not wiser in this book. She's married the Harvard Hottie (from book one and now referred to as Ryan), she's started her own company, moved back to NY and is trying to renovate her house. When a surprise visit from Grayer thrusts her back into the X's lives. They now have a second son to screw up, Grayer is a surly teen, and the family is just as crazy as before.

I was underwhelmed by the book. Maybe with the onslaught of reality TV digging into the "real housewives" and the fact the first book came out almost a decade ago - it's nothing new this time around. The rich people Nanny deals with are annoying, self-centered and out of touch with any sort of reality. Nanny is still obsessed with making things right with Grayer, launches herself into projects without knowing the full scope and never really seems to learn from her mistakes the first time around.

The book read slow for me and I wasn't that interested in what was going to happen. I guessed one subplot pretty early on. And they never really tidied up the other with Nanny's company, the school she was working for and the teacher that got laid off. It just sort of ended.

Overall the book is no where near as good as the first. The storyline seems tired and far-fetched. Nanny becomes friends with a high-school enemy, practically adopts Grayer and Stilton (his brother), fixes the X's lives again.... all while trying to start her company, balance work, fix her new house and decide if she wants kids with Ryan. Busy month for Nanny.

Two out of five stars.