Tease

Adam was such a tease yesterday. He came home for 31 hours and then left again. We had a nice day together. Charlie was very happy to have him home. The next time he comes home will be Christmas Eve and his life should be somewhat back to normal. My life will be at a slower pace on January 4th. I am looking forward to two days off together with no calls from work and no need to check email on a frequent basis. I can't wait.

Sleep

I have not been able to sleep in for a while now. I seem to wake up between 6 and 6:30 every morning. This is partly caused by the cat representative that lives in this house, but I think it is also just some weird internal alarm clock.

Adam got home very late last night. We have not seen each other since last Tuesday. Our jobs cause a great deal of stress for both of us during the month of December. This year has been especially hard for Adam. He has been working really weird hours and getting sleep when he can. I have a feeling he will spend most of the day sleeping, but I hope I am wrong.

Charlie really missed Adam when he was gone. He hasn't really left Adam's side since he got home. Right now Charlie is sitting on my lap while I try to type and I keep telling him to go wake up Adam, but he hasn't done it yet. I know Adam needs to sleep, but I would really like to have a real conversation with him that isn't interrupted by work.

Hmmmm.....

I don't have an actual post to share, so I will share some random thoughts.

~If you want a good laugh, borrow my cat to help you wrap your Christmas presents. He tries really hard to help, but all he seems to want to do is play with the ribbon. It is too darn cute.

~Please be nice to the people who ring you up while you are finishing your Christmas shopping. We are humans too. A smile, and the words "please" and thank you" go a long way!

~It was cold in Chicago today. I really want some snow on Christmas Day.

~I am trying to find a recipe for French Toast Casserole to make on Christmas morning. Any suggestions?

~Adam's brother and his girlfriend will be in Aspen for Christmas. There is snow there right now. I am very jealous.

~Adam will be home late tomorrow night. I haven't seen him since last Tuesday. Charlie is really missing him. He wanders from room to room each night when I get home hoping Adam will be there. It is cute, but sad.

~I am watching Elf right now and the scene playing right now is when Buddy calls Walter to inquire about the radiators making scary noises. It is too funny!!!!!

I guess that is enough randomness for one night.

Furball

My life has been quite different since May 11th 2009. That is the day we brought a big fur ball into our quiet apartment. It was an adjustment at first because Charlie had some issues with doing his business in the proper place, but things are great now. It is so nice to hear a meow when I walk in the door. I am going to share some randomness about this little guy that has stolen my heart and I think Adam's heart as well.

Common Nicknames:
Dude
Handsome
Stinky
Charlieman
Sir Charles (my dad gave him this name)

Things I love:
Hearing him meow when I walk in the door
Finding him curled up next to me in the morning
Listening to him purr
Watching him bat around his fake mice
Playing "The Bug" game
Hearing him run down the hall at full force and watching him catapult onto the couch
Hearing him grunt a little when he jumps onto different pieces of furniture
Feeling him paw at my hand when he wants some lovin
Watching him watch the birds

Things that make me crazy, but I deal with because he is so damn cute:
Begin woken up at 6am because he is hungry and think he might starve
Tripping over him in the kitchen because he thinks I might drop some food
Interruptions when working on the computer because he needs attention that exact moment
Attempting to sit down on the couch and finding him quickly taking my spot
Watching him dart around the house when it's windy and hearing him cry at the noises nonstop

I can't imagine what kind of life he had before he joined our family. I hope he loves living with us and having a big apartment all to himself. I really can't imagine our lives without him. He is cute and lovable and huggable and I just love him to pieces. People who don't have pets just don't understand. He is my baby and I love him so much.

Thank you for putting up with this post and letting me profess my love for this cute fur ball. I promise I am not turning into a crazy cat lady! :-)

Snow

I LOVE snow. Some of you may be groaning and others may share my love for this fluffy white stuff. On Thursday Adam and I were running errands and I saw some really big flakes and even caught one on my tongue.

My outlook on snow changed a little bit last year because it was the first year since I began driving that I didn't have to drive in it on a regular basis. Since I don't have a car in the city I don't have to worry about scraping off my car, black ice and all the other little annoyances that that the come with the snow. I do have to walk through it. Some of the homes and businesses on my route to the Red Line are very good about clearing the sidewalks and I think some others don't even know what a shovel is. It is slightly annoying when my neighbors get out their snow blowers at 5am.

It is also really amazing to see how people will try to save the parking spaces that they have shoveled clean. After about 7pm Monday - Friday it can be very difficult to find a parking spot on my street. Add in the element of snow and it really gets interesting. Some of my neighbors use orange parking cones and others get really creative by using lawn chairs. I will try to take a picture once we get some significant accumulation.

It is supposed to snow tonight. Weather Channel is telling me there is a chance of up to 1 inch of accumulation. Yahoo!!!!!!

Absent

I have been absent from this blog for quite some time. The wonderful man I am in love with sent me an email this morning inquiring about my absence. I think I am ready to get back into this.

Where do I begin to catch you up on my life......life has been pretty busy the last few months. I will give you a brief update and then try to be more detailed in later posts.

My brother's wedding was AWESOME. I was very exhausted after the long weekend was over, but it was totally worth.

Charlie has made 2 trips to Indiana since my last post. The first car ride was a little crazy, but the second one went really well. He is such an awesome cat. Adam thinks he is awesome as well, but doesn't always want to admit it.

The crazy summer business at Navy Pier ended Labor Day weekend. Now we are beginning to see the holiday shoppers spend some moolah!

Adam is still working in Indiana and coming to be with me and Charlie in Chicago as much as possible. It sucks, but we try to make the most of our time together.

We took a much needed vacation to Colorado the first week of November. We decided to drive and we had a great time!

Adam and I had a quiet Thanksgiving at home. Adam's brother and his girlfriend stopped by for a while and we ended up staying in our pj's most of the day. It was perfect. I went to Indiana in October and we celebrated a little early with my family.

It is my turn to work Christmas Eve at work, so I will not be going to Nappanee for Christmas. My parents are coming to visit next Saturday so we can see each other before Christmas.

I have not bought a single Christmas present yet. I should probably get my butt in gear.

That is all for now. I will try to go into more detail later and also try to update a little more frequently.