Where are you, Christmas?

                                                  Our xmas tree. Not perfect, but it works.

It's hard to believe that another semester of graduate school is over. Only two more semesters then I'm
a woman with a Masters in Museum Studies--don't make fun. I'm not entirely sure when I'll actually work in a museum, but I do plan on using (for lack of a better word) my degree sometime in the near future. The thing is, I have such a sweet job right now; I may be too spoiled to ever leave unless we pack up and move to a different city. I don't think I'll ever find a job that has such amazing benefits as mine. I mean I get 4 free days to take in December whenever I want, all of which do not count against my personal leave time, hence the word "free"!  I have to say though that using two free days to study for finals this semester was one smart move on my part, especially when both counted for %40 of my grade. But, I have finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel, and I am ready to put on my Santa hat and sing Christmas carols! Not literally, but I am ready to jump into the Christmas spirit! It just doesn't feel like Christmas yet. And, it doesn't help either when the shopping centers and malls here do an amatuer, if not pathetic, job decorating, and no one says "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays."  People seriously seem so off guard when I wish them a Happy Holiday....like it's not a week before Christmas or something. They're the weird ones, not me. Again, this is just another reality reminder that I am in DC, where people battle over parking spots, shove their way through the grocery store w/o saying "excuse me," and think it's the end of the world if they miss the Metro, when another train is 2 minutes away. I try very hard to resist succumbing to this mentality, but I have to admit that I do get annoyed when people don't understand escalator ediquette around here: stand on the right, walk on the left--the difference is I'm polite about it. Well, at any rate, now that I'm finished with school for the semester, I'm on a mission to find Christmas. What better way to begin than to bake some cookies tonight and attend my office Christmas party tomorrow! Again, how can I leave an office that throws a Christmas party during the day with a fully stocked bar??? Chardonnay or Grey Goose??? I know, my decisions are so tough...

My xmas cookies...never as good as my mom's and Jeff's famous nuts.

Home is truly where the heart is...

I am caught up with my work, work and have already given up reading about "contracts" for one of my classes, so I figured it would be an ideal time to update my blog! Now this is a good use of my precious time these days ;-) I'm not a slacker student, but I figured once I started reading sentences two to three times that it's time to take a break...and reflect upon my wonderful time in Roswell, GA over Thanksgiving. 

Well to begin with, the drive down was in adventure, as I was expecting it to be. Let me just say that I have now been forbidden to make any hotel reservations without my husband's thorough review. I planned for us to crash in Charlotte, and then finish the rest of our 10 hour drive the next day to Atlanta. My logic was thus: Why spend a lot of money for a quick snooze? Well, we got what we paid for to say the least. The toilet was pretty much detached from the wall, the bedding was handed-down from a 1982 Holiday Inn, AND there was no clock in the room. What hotel these days cannot afford a $5.99 clock from Walmart??--- apparently, the Ramada Inn on Equipment Drive, Charlotte, NC. From this breif description I may sound upidity, but I don't deal well with unhygienic sleeping quarters, and this is just the inside-- heck, my dog wouldn't even sleep on the comforter! When we arrived, couples were concluding their one-night-stand rendezvous, and when we left we found evidence of someone's wild night on an injected substance. Worse yet, when we complained to management about this lovely recreational tool, they calmly said, "oh, yes, let me get the gloves..." ---wait a second, is this a regular occurence?!!? All I can say is I'm glad we got that experience out of the way before children because I already felt badly enough when I saw the disgust on my pup's face! On the bright side though, it is an experience we can look back upon and laugh, maybe.

Finally, Roswell, GA, my childhood stomping grounds! It had been SEVERAL months since I'd been there, but I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by a sense of nostalgia. However, this may have been my most nostalgic visit yet being that it was my first Thanksgiving with my husband... in my childhood home. It was that simple and obvious realization that spurred my nostalgic tidal wave, and made the meaning of the holiday season even more prominent. While being at my house added a special touch, I realized that my home, no matter where it physically may be, is with those I love, and that in and of itself made my Thanksgiving truly special. Okay, okay, I'll divert myself from this sappy sidewalk.

What really made this Thanksgiving particularly fun was witnessing my parents' new deer watching/feeding fetish (it's a horrible reaction to the empty-nest syndrome), catching my hubby and brother-in-law secretly sip Jagermeister from travel size bottles like they were still in high school (so random), and listening to an impromptu, live John Mayer performance while eating Thanksgiving dinner. I'm pretty sure John Mayer's performance made my brother-in-law's night, and probably his whole visit. You can view it yourself compliments of Will, and the amazing recording capability his Droid.file:///Users/lorisundberg/Desktop/video-2009-11-26-21-41-04.3gp  I mean, I never really know what to expect when I go home! I should actually say, I never know what to expect when being with my family and how our love inspires us to be true to ourselves--whether we want engage in new hobbies...listen to live music at the dinner table...or even revert back to our adolescent years by being terribly conspicuous about our alcohol consumption (even though we're now way over the legal age)!

When you think about it, a home isn't a place to shelter us from the rain, but a place that lies within us and is shared with and shaped by the people we love. I feel blessed to be able to call many places my "home."

Tired, but sleepless

I just called off my every Saturday, good-Samaritan, volunteer commitment in hopes of being able to catch up on some much needed z's. But, as it is already obviously evident by this post, my plan has not been followed through as anticipated. No matter how heavy my eyes feel and my head aches, I can't bring myself to lie down back in bed. Granted it is 10am, but I had to wake up at 8 to drop Pops off in downtown DC for a business meeting he had this morning (all while Will and Mandy remained passed out asleep, unaware of me stumbling to get ready, in our King size bed). My dad came in town yesterday and will be staying in our lovely living establishment right behind the Pentagon until Tuesday. It's always such a treat to have him come in town, even if it is surely for business purposes. Being such late notice, Will and I had nothing special planned for the weekend, besides our usual movie date nights, which my will now be accompanied by my father. I'm thinking tonight I will be making the movie choice...New Moon! I have to admit I'm a little insecure about seeing it with these two men of mine because I just know they'll think I'm crazy for liking this kind of thing....but then again, maybe they won't be surprised...I'm terrible at predicting how other people perceive me!

Even though I am swamped and exhausted from what seems like never-ending school work, I am never opposed to finding another reason to procrastinate.  After his meetings, Pops and I are heading over to my bro's house in Herndon, VA to visit my undeniably precious, newborn niece, Autumn Elizabeth Sundberg--whom I have yet to see her with her eyes open.  Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, but she is literally always sleeping!!! I'm sure this baby is such a relief after having twins almost 6 years ago. Giving that this is such a hectic time of the year for me with school, etc., I figured I might as well take advantage of this opportunity to visit the new generation of Sundbergs because before I know it they'll be in braces, driving cars, and dating. That's so weird to think of that now but we all know it will happen.

Hooray for Turkey Day!

I don't know exactly why I am looking forward so much to this year's Thanksgiving. It could be because it will be my first Thanksgiving in Atlanta in 3 years! Now that my siblings and I are all married adults, our family get-togethers are nothing short of a sh*t show--pardon my language but I really couldn't think of a better adjective! And  if you've ever been to my house around the holidays you know what I'm talking about. I was so sad to hear in 2007 I missed witnessing one of our "kid's" tables completely collapsing in the middle of dinner! (yes, we do still have to set up separate extensions of our main dining table, once known as the dreaded "kids" table, which should actually be renamed to the young adult/ fun table.) I am expecting this year to be just as interesting. If I am counting correctly, there will be about 18 people for dinner, and 11 dogs running around the house. My husband and I just couldn't bear not bringing our Mandy down with us; it would simply be a crime not to celebrate our first Thanksgiving together as a family! So of course, we are making our way down there via a 10-hour car ride......that's going to be an adventure in and of itself! My husband and I had very contrasting experiences with car rides as children, which of course has affected our perseptions of them as adults. I'm already preparing myself to hear the question, "Are we there yet?" fifty bagillion times. Oh, the joys of traveling!

I like the story, not the celebrity hype!

I was so excited to find the book Breaking Dawn on my desk this morning! My co-workers and I have been exchanging the books for the past several months. However, with school I had to take a short hiatus from pleasure book reading. This morning, I was able to squeeze in a few pages while waiting for my computer to boot up, but it will take me a while to get through this monstrous book! The suspense of whether or not Bella Swan becomes a vampire is killing me! For those of you who may not know about the 'Twilight Saga,'--Robert Pattinson, Kristen Steware, hello?!?!-- it is comprised of a 4-book series: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn. I usually don't like to read books in a series. (In fact, I think the last series I read was The Boxcar Children in second grade.) But, I couldn't help myself after seeing the movie.  With that being said, Bella and Edward will always look like Rob and Kristen to me. All my imagination when out of the window when I read Twilight, but to me it is the casting of Twilight that made it such a great movie. I love the story and the connection you feel onscreen between Rob and Kristen. It's like the modern day Romeo and Juliet (kind of). Long story short, I am so excited for NEW MOON to come out in theatres Nov. 20th!

Agassi a meth-head. What?!?!

My husband and I were getting ready for work the other morning, when he turns and says to me, "Did you hear that Agassi used to do meth?" I laughed slightly (and probably made one of my faces) at how random his question was, and thought he was just trying to lure me into the "you're so gullable" trap, again. But sure enough, ESPN had Agassi's picture enlarged on the tv screen, as Mike & Mike in the morning explained his recent meth confession. Okay, STOP right there. One of the world's best professional tennis players of all time willingly confesses to using meth back in 1997. And, what does he stand to gain by this? He's done so many great things for the sport in his retirement; what in the world would possess him to now share this deep, dark secret? I mean don't get me wrong or anything, I'm happy he's not still a user and was able to yet again make tennis history in the early 2000s with his astounding comeback (that even had me cheering for him). He has such a great following of fans, is married to another incredible athlete, and has two adorable children.  His almost sub-human athleticism is inspirational enough; the public doesn't need, nor want to know about his druggie days. In my opinion, he's just opened a bad can of worms, for a reason I have yet to figure out. 

My hypothesis as it stands right now is perhaps he can inspire those who do use, to stop. But, it's just not that simple (just watch Intervention on A&E, or the late DJ AM's show Gone Too Far on MTV). Rather, it can be interpreted that his confession is only going to reinforce drug (meth) usage. I mean he managed to make a tennis comeback, and he is alive and well today. Who knew he was using drugs? Obviously, nobody! Don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating that society keep drug usage a secret, because for many people it is their reality. All I'm saying is why willingly tarnish your image to so many people who idolize you? Is relieving your guilt worth disappointing your fans?

Apparently, he always had a reason for failing a drug test while on the ATP tour. It's just sad. While I was always I a Sampras fan, I cannot help but feel a little let down and disappointed.

Meth... really Agassi?

With that being said, let bygones be bygones, and lets move on with our lives.

Babies, babies, babies.

I'm due to have a new niece any hour now! The name is still unknown, but I think that just intensifies the anticipation and excitement. This little blessing will be latest addition to my brother's twins, Edward and Daphne.

All I can say is...I'm pretty much going to be surrounded by babies! One of my friends just had a baby (the most precious thing ever!) in early October...my sister-in-law is due today...my sister is due in March...and my other friend just told me she's due in June! If anyone else wants to break their news, now is the time!

Despite all this wonderful news for my friends and family, my husband and I are not planning for one of our own, just yet. I believe many are speculating we will be jumping on the baby bandwagon--but actually I can say the opposite is true. Not that we don't like babies, that's not it at all. We know how much they change your life, and undoubtedly in an amazing way, but a part of me wants to relish in this phase of life I am in right now. Usually when I feel in a routine, I want to tackle another "challenge," but with having a baby next on the list, I have realized it's okay to take things slowly. 

I'm a newly-wed with a 10-month old puppy. Right now, she is truly me and my husband's bundle of joy. It's very important to us to give her the best life we can. She makes us laugh everyday with the things she'll do, even if it's snoring (randomly and loudly!) in her sleep! I can already tell by the way we are with her that we will be one heck of a team as parents. I can say with 100% certainty that right now Life is Good. It's better than good; it's simply Amazing.