Goodbye 2006

Goodbye 2006. You were uneventful. (Except for the whole think with my grandmother being ill and dying on Christmas Eve.)

Hello 2007. I hope you will be more eventful. I turn 30 this year, and I should receive my master's degree. So at least there are two things.

I don't make resolutions, but I'm going to do my best to try to be a little less cynical in my old age.

Before I do that, I want to go into my last rant of the year: I hope that people I know will be better at making and returning phone calls and e-mails in the new year.

I once had a friend who would say, "The phone works both ways." I hated when she said that because I and others were the ones making all the phone calls; she would just never pick up the phone herself. She made herself into a hypocrite.

It seems as though more and more people have gotten to be just like this friend. Because I have less and less contact with people who I once considered my friends, I feel it has made me more and more cynical and negative about everyone and everything. I hate that; I want to be a good person.

Every so often I feel like cutting these people who so obviously don't care out of my life, but I'm just not able to do it. Although I'm relatively happy just having my husband as my only friend, I guess I don't want to become completely antisocial.

That is all. I wish all of you and yours a wonderful 2007.

Avon Instant Manicure

I bought Avon's Instant Manicure on sale for $4.99 (regularly $8.99) and thought I would tell you all about it here. The kit comes with 16 strips of adhesive "stickers" of enamel nail color. It's pretty easy to apply to nails, but tearing at the ends can leave some chips.

Avon claims the manicure can last up to 14 days. By day 5, the paint was chipping, but didn't look too bad. I'm now at day 11. The paint looks pretty bad. I'm planning on taking it off as soon as I can. It is supposed to come off with nail polish remover. We will see. (12/21 - It came off as easily as regular nail polish.)

So, in my opinion, Instant Manicure is good for about a week, about half of what Avon claims. Maybe it would have lasted longer if I did nothing with my hands, but I'm not a pampered rich girl.

I would say give this stuff a try if you want to do your nails for a party or something that comes up short notice, but don't have a lot of time to let the polish dry. Otherwise, do it the old-fashioned way by buying a bottle of enamel and brushing it on yourself. Or go have it done at a manicure place. It will last almost as long and is a better price in the long run.

Winter Wonderland

Yesterday the Pittsburgh region got its first snowfall of the season.

Yesterday it took me four hours to get home.

It normally takes me a little under an hour.

We didn't get a lot of snow, but parts of the roads were on the icy side. So therein lies the problem. Here's the rundown on my night going from work on the North Side to home in Washington. Those from the Pittsburgh area may recognize the landmarks and exits I use, but for those of you who aren't from around here, just know that it shouldn't take this long!

I left work on the North Side at 5 p.m. Fourty-five minutes into my ride, I was still sitting on the ramp to the Fort Duquesne Bridge. Two buses with police escorts were going the opposite way at a decent speed, bypassing the traffic. There was a Steelers game last night and Heinz Field is on the North Side, so I figure it may have been part of the Browns entourage. No fair. I wanted a police escort at that moment. At 6 p.m I finally made it onto the Fort Duquesne Bridge.

The best part of the trip was the second hour. Once I made it through the Fort Pitt Tunnels, the traffic on the Parkway was slow, but not crazy slow. Once I got onto 79 south, there was no traffic at all...until I hit around the Kirwin Heights exit. Full stop. Just past the exit I hit 7 p.m.

At this point, I call my husband, who is on a business trip to Washington, DC. I ask him to make a note of the time. "Guess where I am?" I ask him. He thinks I've gone shopping or something because he hadn't reached me at home. "No, I'm still on my way home from work. I haven't even reached Bridgeville yet." He is incredulous. I tell him it snowed. He then tells me to be careful, to which I tell him it's pretty hard not to be careful when you're going less than 5 miles per hour. After getting off the phone with him, I'm approaching the Bridgeville exit. I contemplate getting off there and going the back way home, but then I think better of it. If the highway is this bad, then the back roads can't be good. I stick to 79.

By 8 p.m. I've made it to the rest area just past Bridgeville. It's taken me an hour to get somewhere that would have only taken five minutes. I stop at the rest area. I've been on the road for three hours by now...I really had to pee. I called my husband, "I've finally made it to the rest area!!!" He couldn't believe it, "You've got to be kidding me? Is it that bad?" I don't believe it's that bad, but there must be something ahead that's causing the traffic. The only thing I can figure is that it's a bit icy at the Southpointe exit. It sits on top of a hill and snow drifts onto the road. It always is a bit icier than other areas of the highway.

Back on the road, it seems as though I was right. Soon after Southpointe, the traffic speeds up. I'm in Washington by 9 p.m.

Happy Winter Everyone!

Uninspired

So, there used to be this time of my life when I was constantly writing. I was extremely prolific. I would write fiction and poetry, and I was inspired on a regular basis.

Now, this is the extent of my writing. This and all the writing I do for work and school. I'm sick of non-fiction. I feel stifled. I almost never get inspired anymore. Does anyone have any advise on how to pull myself out of this hole without quitting my job? I don't have the kind of money that would let me stay at home and just write what I want to write.