I did the first of my real Christmas shopping last night. I know, I’m a total procrastinator. I do this every year and every year I say I’m never going to do this again. *shrug* I only have to get one more thing for Cameron, some Build A Bear stuff for Cassidy (which is at the mall, which took 25 minutes to find a place to park 2 WEEKS ago, which every person within 50 miles of San Jose goes to to shop, which is ugh), some things for Ben (HA! vague), and my mom. My mom is SO. HARD. To. SHOP. FOR.

I already know what I’m getting from Ben. The Cingular 8525 (Also, know as the TyTn). *drool* I could make hot passionate love to this phone. Windows mobile (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), BlueTooth, 2.0 Megapixel camera, touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, NAVIGATION! The list is so long. Now, if Cingular would just GET SOME IN STOCK! *shakes fist at them*

Since I’ve had a few people ask, I wanted to compile a little wiSh list for Christmas. So here ya gO! These are just examples by the way, if you find something and think WOW ANNA!! Get it! I know I’ll love it.

From Think Geek:

T-shirt ^–^:

Geek Tags:

Carnivorous Desk Plant:

From Target:

Of course gift cards from any place is welcome. Target, Kohls, IKEA(!), MAC(!), Think Geek or any of them.

Oh yeah, and if somebody wanted to buy me these I’d be okay with that too.

Round diamond solitaire.

And maybe this Tiffany’s bracelette and necklace set:

TeeHee. Dream big right?!

How did I not know about this site till now?! I love t-shirts. I LIVE in them. 80% of my closet is screen print tee’s in various shades of color and a many different degrees of humor. From my favorite Star Wars tee with the a big Empire logo to my ‘I’m Blogging This’ tee, I just love them all. I’m extatic that they are making such a big comeback because it means when I wear my ‘video games make me do bad things’ tee out I don’t get QUITE as many disapproving looks from parents. (But every time I do I’m SO TEMPTED to tell them that CASSIDY is the one that gave it to me for Christmas. hehe)

So on the way to work today I heard about Threadless Tee’s and I want them ALL! What makes these so great is that all of them are designed by members of the threadless community. Members can submit as many designs as they like and they are added to a voting que. The rest of the memebers on the site then get to vote on them and the big wigs look at the top 300 designs every couple of weeks and pick a top 10 to print. If your design gets choosen you get $2000 and people all over the country sporting your artwork!

I spent my entire lunch break voting on shirts. heh Ones like this that I’d TOTALLY WEAR so you should go vote on it.

They don’t have a wishlist feature but that’s only because they print a limited number of shirts so they sell out pretty quick. But at $10** a pop, there’s really no reason not to buy them as you come across the one’s you like. One’s I plan to buy very very soon:

Bleeding Heart:
(this one is aligned down the left side of the shirt, duh!)

Caged:

Dark Side of the Garden:

And there are SO MANY MORE. Must resist the cuteness. MUST! RESIST!!

**Edit - Looking now, the $10 price is a holiday sale. I think they go up to $20 once it’s over… So get them now while they are cheap!! :mrgreen:\
**Edit #2 - No this is not a paid post. I can’t stand blog advertisements like Paid Per Post and the such (won’t even link the site here). I ACTUALLY heard about this on the radio on the way to work and researched it and thought it was so cool that I’d blog about it. Sheesh!
**Edit #3 - Funny. Today Heather of dooce.com has on the MEAT IS MURDER. Tasty, tasty Murder. shirt in her daily picture. DOOCE! So that means the site’s coolness factor just went up by about 17,000 points. How come nobody was sharing this t-shirt love with ME?!?!

I’m exhausted. I had two of our friends girls Saturday for a sleep over. Cassidy is exhausted too. It was a lot of fun. Arts and crafts, playing video games, watching movies, Chuck E Cheeses… when it comes to that kind of stuff I can really lose myself in the fun with the kids. I really miss that. When I was in Bakersfield we took turns with the kids and I missed being surrounded by boisterous little girls.

It’s cool to see how different two girls can be. The littlest one (five) is just a sweetheart and has SO MUCH SPUNK. Strong willed but loves to sit on your lap and cuddle when watching a movie. Smaller than the other girls but wants to try and DO everything they do. You have to have a lot of Red Bull around to keep up with her.

The other girl is nine and is SO SMART. There are still times that I can fool Cassidy but not her. And it’s not just that she’s older, it’s that you just aren’t going to get anything past her. She seems to be a very analytical thinker. After I give her an explanation she thinks about if for a bit and will come back and tell me how that is not at all possible. It’s awsome. Kept me on my toes for sure.

Anyway, I really am exhausted. I have some pics to upload and post but I don’t even have the energy to walk to the desktop. I’m camped out on the couch with some chocolate Millanos, a warm blanket, an every warmer kitty and the heat of the laptop. So, until the time that I can motivate myself away from all this warmth, you’ll just have to take my word on the absurd amount of cuteness.

I asked Ben to start emailing me idea’s for Christmas gifts so he sent me a link to a nice set of headphones for work. Then he retracted with this:

from: Benjamin
to: Me
date: Dec 4, 2006 12:41 PM
subject: I only want one of these for xmas

link
–
Ben

from: Me
to: Benjamin
date: Dec 4, 2006 12:41 PM
subject: RE: I only want one of these for xmas

I’ll add this to my list of things to pick up this weekend!
–
Anna

Silly, silly man! Although, if I could I totally would. And I’d even let him drive it sometimes!!

Saturday my mom, Cassidy, Cameron and I went shopping… after we spent 25 minutes driving around looking for a parking place. Good. Lord. I love to shop, and I will endure a lot of things to do so, but 258,153 people who have no clue what the hell they are doing or where they are going or what’s going on around them almost kills the passion. Almost. I left my mom busy in Coldwater Creek trying on cruise clothes after about 5 minutes and told her the old people smell was getting to me and she could meet me at MAC. HA! She didn’t look nearly as amused as Cameron did.

After the three of them got done gorging themselves on Cold Stone, my mom told Cassidy that she could get a Build A Bear for Christmas. And since we were already at the mall, we could get it TODAY!

Once we got there she picked out the doll she wanted and we stood in line for 20 minutes before I started to go a little stir crazy so I headed to the bathroom and Cassidy started looking at clothes for Hello Kitty (which she later named Stacy). When I got out of the bathroom she had just started looking so I told her to hurry up because we needed to get back into line then went to see if my mom was getting close to the front. I left Cassidy for NO MORE than 45 seconds. Seriously. “Hi mom, oh you aren’t that close, I’ll go help Cassidy.”

In that 45 seconds she had managed to grab four outfits, four pair of shoes, a PJ set, slippers, a backpack, a purse, a set of hair bows, a pack of school supplies, a sleeping bag and a pillow.

Me: GOOD! LORD!!
Cassidy: What?
Me: What IS ALL THAT?
Cassidy: Everyting she needs!!
Me: I don’t think so. Put this back.
*put back sleeping bag and pillow*
Cassidy: What will she SLEEP IN?
Me: YOUR BED!
Cassidy: *sigh*
Me: And put three of the outfits back.
Cassidy: What will she wear TOMORROW?!
Me: The same thing she wore TODAY!
Cassidy: *rolls eyes*
Me: And put all this stuff back.
*puts back backpack, purse, school supplies, and bows*
Cassidy: But mom…
Me: You have this EXACT SAME Hello Kitty purse, Cassidy!! She can borrow yours! You have PLENTY of school supplies to share, you have at least 5 mini backpacks in your closet you never use, and enough hair things to dress up 2,000 little girls!
Me: And pick ONE pair of shoes.
Cassidy: ONE PAIR?! But… but. One pair?? Seriously?
Me: ONE PAIR! Nana isn’t going to buy you FOUR pair of shoes today. You can get enough for ONE outfit and maybe Santa will bring you some more, or get you a gift certificate to come get more, or you can spend some of YOUR money on these things. Now, pick ONE pair.

When I was telling my mom about all this Cassidy interrupted me…

Cassidy: And I had to pick ONE PAIR of shoes, Nana.

I could tell my mom was about to give in and let her go back and get more but I gave her that look of SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU’VE SPOILED HER ENOUGH TODAY and she didn’t. Instead she quipped:

Mom: Well, we know where she gets THAT from.
*stares daggers into me*
Me: Yeah, the shopping gene has been passed down from ONE generation to the NEXT for MANY YEARS NOW.
*puts up shield, deflects daggers, gains +2 defense and inflicts +3 damage to enemy*

I like that my mom is a shopping pal now instead of the overbearing mother she was a few years ago. And that she finally is starting to understand my humor.

P.S. - RUN to your nearest MAC and pick up some Glitter Liner. It’s fantastic and only available for a limited time. It goes on perfectly and dry’s quicky to set in place for hours and is SO MUCH FUN.

About a month ago I joined 365. I really thought that taking a single picture of myself everyday would not be too far reaching since I have the SK at my side pretty much every second of every minute of every day. I like email. And AIM. And knowing that I can navigate my way home if I get lost - which happens pretty much every single day. *drops 1st Christmas hint ;)*

I have a scattered mind today. So, I wanted to get back into doing this. It’s not even about the picture itself, it’s the TIME. I was reading the blog of another one of the participants and when she’s been telling people about it she said that the overwhelming reaction from her peer’s is that she’s too vain. This reminded me that not too long ago I myself was accused of being vain because, well, let me quote exaclty:

There was one post in particular,
that you talked all this trash about myspace pages and the girls with
their vanity shots***…..are you blind Anna? You probably take more vanity
shots with your sidekick than anyone I know.

So it wasn’t really an accusation. It was more finger pointing than anything but it reminded me that a lot of non-bloggers just… don’t get it. And she didn’t come out and CALL me vain, but the implication was clear. I shouldn’t call somebody else out for taking “vanity shots” because I have so many. Because I’m vain.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that I’m not vain at all. Everybody has some level of vanity. Some people like to dress well, some like to drive fancy cars, some like to be the best gamer, or the best bowler, some like to have awsome makeup… It’s human nature to want to look nice or have nice things. I like those things too! But by the very definition of the word, I am not vain.

Main Entry: vain
Pronunciation: ‘vAn
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, empty, futile, from Latin vanus — more at WANE
1 : having no real value : IDLE, WORTHLESS
2 : marked by futility or ineffectualness : UNSUCCESSFUL, USELESS
3 archaic : FOOLISH, SILLY
4 : having or showing undue or excessive pride in one’s appearance or achievements : CONCEITED

Undue or excessive pride? Hardly. I have flaws. I’m 40+ pounds over weight. I have a monster zip on my left cheek. I went to work today in jeans, a Harvard t-shirt (HA! Harvard! Get it?), a pony tail, tennis shoes and 25% of my makeup done. I have to take medicine to control a naturally occurring chemical in my brain to keep from slamming my own head with the freezer door while singing Mary Had a Little Lamb and blinking 67 times a minute. I take zero pride in actually admitting that!

I have flaws that I am not proud of.

Main Entry: con·fi·dent
Pronunciation: ‘kän-f&-d&nt, -”dent
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin confident-, confidens, from present participle of confidere
1 : full of conviction : CERTAIN
2 : having or showing assurance and self-reliance

Now that definition is much more realistic. My flaws are MY flaws. They make me who I am and they remind me that I’m real. Human. Like the other 6,560,157,869 people in the world.

I guess what it comes down to is that my website is about ME. Not you, or the kid next door, or even Ben or Cassidy. It’s about me so I will showcase ME on MY site. I don’t walk around telling people about my weight fluctuations, or my clothes, or how pretty I am. I don’t push my self confidence on others when I see them in real life. I do it on my site where people can choose to read or not. That’s like telling somebody who has an autobiography they are vain for writing a book about themselves. It’s ALL ABOUT ME!

Such is the way of blogs. It’s the very core of every personal blog out there. So what these people are saying is, every blogger is vain. *shrug* Bloggers have been hearing that for years. Either people get it or they don’t. In 50 years, I’ll get to look back and see how I’ve grown and progressed and looked and changed and read how I felt and struggled and overcame. I don’t, and will never, feel bad about that. Or care about the opinion of somebody who doesn’t understand and is just using it to try and pass judgment on me.

***For the record, the post she was talking about is here and I never mention vanity shots in it anywhere. heh