Play my little part in something big.

It's been an eventful January. Even though work has been pretty slow, school starting back definitely had an impact. Both classes I'm taking are online, so I don't actually have to *go* to school, but they are both a lot of work! So far, I'm doing pretty well and for now, I'm just praying the semester flies by!

A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night because my thumb was killing me. I tried to ignore it and go back to bed, as it was 3:30am and I had little motivation to actually do anything to remedy the situation but I did end up finding my metal water bottle (which was freezing because my house is always freezing! ugh!) and positioned it against my thumb to cool it down.

I got up the next morning to meet my parents at the gym and noticed that it was really swollen and red. I showed my parents and my mother suggested that it was from texting (har har har...) while my dad guess that I had an infection. I started popping some ibueprofen and went to work, where my parents showed up a few hours later with icthamol to try and draw out the infection.

I was being stubborn (suprise, suprise) and didn't really want to go to the doctor, but by Monday, it hadn't gotten any better-so swollen I couldn't move it, really warm and red-so I ended up going to the doctors.

I know they are pretty gross-sorry!

The doctor decided to try and puncture it to see if it would drain, but first wanted to inject some lidocaine to numb it. She stuck the needle in, and I swear to god, it was one of the worst pain I've ever felt. I have a really high pain tolerance and that really threw me for a loop! I almost fainted-saw stars, felt nauseas, clammy, the whole nine yards. She ended up not trying again (Thanks God!) but instead sent me home with antibiotics.

It took a few days, but the swelling finally went down (as Hannah told everyone "Let's just say, there was puss involved") but finally it seems back to normal. Although the skin in peeling, but it doens't really hurt anymore so I'm not too worried. It was kind of scary though-I mean, just wake up and my thumb is 3x its normal size. So weird.

Also, a few friends of mine got married this past weekend (Congrats Eileen and Gino!). Well actually, they had a vow renewal as they got married last year, but didn't get to have an actual ceremony. They are the absolute sweetest couple, and I was there when they fell in love canoeing down the river hehe

The day was pretty eventful in and of itself! It started with me driving all the way to the gym before realzing I wasn't wearing a bra, having to go get one and then drive all the way back to actually start my work out! After that, my mother and I ran some errands, which included finding something for me to wear since what I had wasn't "classy" enough (...grr).

Although, I probably shouldn't complain too much, because she did buy me this...

(Michael Kors Sequin Tunic in Dark Camel)

And I'm in love with it.

It was a little short, but I totally rocked it as a dress with black tights and Steve Madden black patent leather pumps. I've been racking my brain to try and find another event I can wear it to soon, but so far, no luck :-( haha

The night before, I had packed all my stuff-hair products, make up, jewlery options, tights, etc-because I figured I'd end up getting ready at my parents. So I get out of shower, do my hair make up and go to put on my tights and suddenly realized I had grabbed not one, but THREE pairs of brown and not a single pair of black! All I could do was laugh, especially considering the bra incident earlier in the day! I rushed home and luckily, was able to find some black ones quickly. But in the process, I forgot my earring and my cute clutch-oh well. I'm sure my dress brought me all the attention I needed :-)

Working at the bakery, I was able to provide a cake for them as a wedding gift. The cake ladies did such a fantastic job-I gave them the invitation and they just went at it! Everyone raved about how great they looked and tasted-It was great! The sheet cake was cut up for the guests and the couple took home the smaller cake to enjoy themselves.

My mom and I have decided that we are going to try and see all the films nominated for Best Picture this year. We were able to cross another off the list when we saw:

It was pretty good. I *adore* Helena Bonham Carter and Colin Firth was really excellent as well. It kept my attention, which isn't always an easy thing to do. All in all, I really liked it! Can't say whether or not it's the best picture of the year, as I still have a few more to see :-)

The List

1. Black Swan
2. The Fighter
3. Inception
4. The Kids Are Alright
5. The Kings Speech
6. 127 Hours
7. The Social Network
8. Toy Story 3
9. True Grit
10. Winter's Bone

Well, I think I've wasted enough time at work hehe I'm going to go listen to Something Corporate Radio on Pandora and *try* to be productive :-)

So this is the New Year and I have no resolutions, for self assigned penance, for problems with easy solutions

My New Year's was completely different than what I had imagined (and to be honest, kind of wanted...) but I'm so happy with the way it turned out! I ended up having about 10 or 15 people over to my place and we had such a great time! We played Apples to Apples which is the best game ever, watched some football and had a sparkling juice toast at midnight.

My day started at 6 am to work out then off to Meijer and Target for some last minute supplies. I got home about 11 and immeadiately started baking and doing some *much needed* laundry. (Seriously, during the holiday season I may have done 5 loads tops and four of those were probably my jeans).

While the cupcakes were baking, I worked on the dips. I made a Jalepeno Popper dip, a recipe from a friend at work, and a Garlic Feta dip, from my room mate. They were both sooo delicious! I'll definitely be keeping the recipes handy for more parties.

After the cupcakes were cooled, I decided to be adventurous and pipe the frosting on to them.

They look pretty good, huh?

My mother loaned me all sorts of serving dishes and decorations so I made a little table scape.

I was really happy with how it turned out :-)

But I think the best part was watching all of this:

Turn into this:

All in all, it looks pretty darn good, I think!

I was pretty much in the kitchen from 11 am till 4:30 and then finished up cleaning shortly there after. I did get to give myself a nice New Years Manicure though:

(I know it looks like I have some sort of deformed foot, but oh well)

I got two new polishes from the Sonia Kashuk at Target line. The base is silver-it almost looks like tin foil on my nails! The top is black and it has some silver sparkles in it that are kind of hard to see.

Last weekend my mom's brother and his family were in town. It was bearable at best, but we did get to see True Grit, which I really, really liked. Besides seeing the movie with them, I didn't see them too much. I had to work and stuff and they were only here a few days. I know my mom was pretty happy they were here though.

My January 1, 2011 was spent working and following the Michigan and Michigan State games on ESPN.com. After work, I jetted home, packed up mom's stuff to bring back and went over to watch the Winter Classic with my dad. The Capitals ended up beating the Penguins 3-1. I fell asleep before the end (I'm old! :-( I was so exhausted and I was in bed before 2!). I ended up falling asleep in the guest room haha

Also, we've had a pretty crazy winter so far. We've only had one snowstorm, which was more like an ice storm. We had about 6inches from that, so it wasn't too bad at all. Then, n Dec. 31st, it rained and all the snow melted!

So weird!

It's snowing a bit now, but nothing's sticking. I just can't believe it's December and we have basically no snow on the ground.

To sum it up, it was a pretty good NYE/NYD. I wish I would've been at home watching football, instead of at work, but besides that everything was A+!