Oh my lands, look at what we have here! Leggins with multicolored leopard spots on them. And that jacket is like a real thin sweat jacket that is cinched at the waist and too big for me. Love the glasses, as usual. And what is going on with my hair??!!  Did somebody take scissors to my bangs?

Oh poor, poor me!

P.S. That cute little baby is my sister Alex back when she was adorable!

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: Way Back Wednesday: Leggings | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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Sometimes it’s hard to write about normal life here because truth be told, normal life is kind of boring. We don’t have any kids, I can’t talk too much about work because of confidentiality reasons and our dogs, while absolutely adorable to us, probably aren’t that interesting to you. I mean, for the most part, we try to get out of the house occasionally but it’s usually out to dinner with some friends or to a show downtown, but a lot of times, we spend entire weekends at home because we are, by nature, homebodies – me more than Steve because he’s usually the first one to say, “Let’s do something, we NEED to get out of this house”.

It’s particularly boring when pestilence settles over the house, which is what happened last week.

It started the Saturday before last when Steve mentioned that he thought he was getting sick, which meant he was already sick because Steve usually doesn’t indicate that anythings wrong with him. Cut to that Sunday night when he’s up and down out of bed and I can hear him wheezing as he’s sitting on the edge and he explains that he can barely sleep because every time he lays down, it feels like someone is sitting on his chest. Of course, when he stayed home the next day, I insisted he go to the doctor because the wheezing was bad, he has asthma and we had no inhaler in the house.

He turned out to have bronchitis and a sinus infection and probably an ear infection. And he was out of work for two days.

Which means I prepped myself to get sick.

I mean for the most part, when the other is sick, we try to avoid spreading it as much as possible, only kissing each other on the cheek and sleeping as far away from each other as possible. But it’s inevitable that it gets spread. It just depends on the degree that it develops in the other person.

My throat started feeling scratchy that Monday morning and by Thursday, I had full on developed a sneeze and a cough. The difference was mine was productive and was just turning into a chest cold. The doctor at work said I needed to give it ten days, especially if I’m not running a fever, because it was most likely viral and there was nothing they could do to get rid of it. By Saturday, there was still a rattle in my chest but most of it had moved into my head and I knew I had a full blown sinus infection.

Saturday was one of the most miserable days I’ve had in recent existence. I hadn’t slept well the night before because I was up late playing Skyrim and figured I could drink some wine, which didn’t help with me being sick. I tried to sleep in but I was so clogged up, I couldn’t. And the problem with being sick like that is that you don’t feel sick enough to give up and just take to the bed so you kind of sit around feeling guilty because nothing is getting done and you’re wasting away the day. But when you get up thinking you can do some stuff, your body is like, “HELL NO WOMAN! I am giving you enough energy to move from the bed to the couch and that’s it.” So I spent all day Saturday feeling like I was wasting the day away but was really sick and really miserable. I couldn’t get warm so I was huddled under two blankets. I was drinking water like it was going out of style to try and thin all the crap in my sinuses. I must of done the neti pot like four times.

And to top it all off, the dogs wanted to be right near me. Every time I got up, Baxter followed me and was in my lap before I could sit down and get situated. For the most part, this is cute on normal days but when I’m sick and just want to be left alone, having two fur faces all up in my business wanting kissed and attention is not my idea of fun.

I finally broke down and asked Steve to bring me some Sudafed and thank the lord I did because once I got some of that in me and some prescription strength Naproxen, I was definitely feeling better. And Sunday was a bit better – I actually had a bit of energy to do stuff. But the crud was still there so I actually took off this past Monday as well just to give myself a bit more time to work all the crap out of my system.

Man, it was hard though because this was the first time I’ve been really sick while trying to do this whole healthy lifestyle thing and I’ll tell you, what a setback. I didn’t exercise at all last week and when I finally got back into this week, it took me forever to work up the energy and stamina to do what came so easily before. It’s scary how quickly you can fall off the wagon and easily your body can adjust back to not working out. But I am proud of myself for not letting this set back make me want to stop forever. I hated not getting out and walking or not moving that way everyday and while it’s going to take a bit to get back into the groove of things, I want to and that’s a complete 180 from the old me who would’ve just been done with it.

I also got lazy with my eating because the last thing I wanted to do was think about dinner or what I’m eating while I’m trying to keep myself alive. But the interesting thing is that while I didn’t make the best choices, I also kind of stuck to my ideals. The sitting around all day didn’t help at all because I am most definitely a person who eats out of boredom. If I am sitting around on the weekends doing nothing all day, I feel the urge to snack and usually on things like an entire sleeve of Club crackers. Maybe that’s partly why I feel the need to keep busy even if we’re just sitting around the house. Regardless, while I did eat the whole sleeve of Club crackers or the (small) milkshake Steve got me from Burger King or the Chick’n-Mini’s (only one pack versus two like he normally gets me), I also ate less of my usual portion size and also picked other healthy choices, still sticking to my healthy soups and chili for dinner and Kashi cereal for breakfast. I tried to avoid the yogurt as much as possible because dairy makes the mucus thicker and that was the last thing I needed.

Regardless, it is kind of nice for things to be back to normal. Yes, being sick was a setback but to be honest, the few days before I had gotten a bit lazy with the writing my food down, thinking I knew what I was doing and that was causing some discrepancies in my daily totals. So being sick kind of gave me the opportunity to start fresh and get back on track.

And the first day you wake up feeling great after feeling like crap all week is pretty awesome!

But like I said, life is pretty boring. Aside from the whole getting sick thing, we really just go to work during the day, come home and eat dinner then watch whatever’s on TV for the night or play some XBox then go to bed and repeat the same. If we stay in on the weekends, it’s housekeeping, movies, DVR catchup and more XBox.

This weekend we have an oyster roast so that should be interesting. I don’t eat oysters but they always have beer and chili and hot dogs there and I can eat that in intervals. And they have karaoke – and since it’s at the Elks club with people we don’t know, we can get up there and sing like fools if we so please and there won’t be anybody to care.

Every once in awhile, we know how to get down!

P.S. Like I said, since we don’t have kids, I get to talk about my dogs. And I guess I can’t really complain about them wanting to be around me all the time because it just means they love me. I mean, how can you get annoyed at this cuteness. This is where he stayed pretty much that whole weekend. It just makes me grin  every time I look at pictures like this. I’ll have to remember that next time he annoys the shit out of me.

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: Life as We Know It | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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This dress is proof positive that even this young, I knew what I liked and stuck with it. These two pictures were taken the same summer – the first was at the Fourth of July festival in my grandparents town and the latter was at my brother and dad’s birthday, which is on the same day in August. This was probably 1990ish, so I was maybe nine years old.

Notice the dress – same in both pictures. Nothing wrong with that, because it’s cute. Hell, I wish I could get away with wearing something like that now, especially in the summer time. I remember LOVING that dress! It was super comfortable! Also note the headband, in both pictures, on different days.

I am nothing if not consistent!

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: Way Back Wednesday: A Dress | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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Sometimes my brain has a hard time wrapping itself around the idea that we’ve been together almost half of my life. There are moments where it feels like just yesterday that we had our first date, sitting in the mall parking lot in your Bronco drinking beer and just talking while waiting to go in to see a movie. But most of the time, I feel the gravity of those twelve years, the comfort in knowing who you are and who I am and who we are together as one. It is a wonderful feeling, that comfort, because there is a sense of peace and safety in that for me. You have such a way of making me feel safe and secure in myself, in us, in my place in the world. There is nothing greater to me than knowing that I will come home to you every evening and wake up to you every morning. In knowing that the moments of silence are ok and just as special as the loud and boisterous ones. Some of the greatest moments of my life have been spent in your presence alone, enjoying a long road trip or navigating you through the rocky trails of the Poconos or enjoying a day long concert or drag racing where we are over excited, overwhelmed and just generally hyped up over how much fun we are having.

There is always so much to say that goes unsaid but that is ok because I know that things don’t need to be spoken to be felt. I feel your love every day of my life. I feel it when you kiss me goodbye before you leave and kiss me hello when you get home. I feel it when you remind me that I need to get out of bed and when you force me to take medicine when I’m sick. I feel it when you hug me because I’m hurt (which happens more often that it should) and when you shake your head and laugh at me during my blonde moments. I feel it when you are protective of me and when you are gentle with me and when you are firm with me.

I am infinitely grateful to you for showing me so many things that I never would have had any interest in trying or doing without you in my life. There are so many awesome experiences we’ve had, experiences that would’ve never even entered my mind before we were together. Car shows, drag racing, monster trucks, four wheeling, video games, awesomely amazingly bad B-movies (which I pay back with my awesomely bad chick flicks), geocaching, long road trips to no where. Every single one of these things has not only turned out to be ridiculously fun but gives me such an awesome feeling knowing that we can share them and enjoy them together.

We all have our quirks and I know I can be a pain in the ass, as we all can be. And I’m grateful everyday that you put up with that, that you stay and understand that the good moments always outweigh the bad and are infinitely worth sticking around for.

There is so much that I love and enjoy about you. I love the way you are with the dogs and how much love you have to give them. I love what a dedicated and honest worker you are – I am constantly amazed by your integrity, particularly when it comes to work you don’t particularly care for. Your intellect amazes me and I love how funny you are. Your quick wit is always there for a perfectly timed joke and this gives me so many days and years filled with laughs. You are ridiculously good at whatever you set your mind to and I am always in awe of how you are able to take projects and produce them almost exactly how you envision them in your head (since this rarely happens for me). I love that you make the effort to be half of our relationship, whether it’s to take care of parts of the house when needed or to feed the dogs. I always feel like I can count on you if there’s something I need. I never need to feel like you’ll let me down because I know you will try your hardest to do whatever it is that needs to be done.

Twelve years is a long time. We were barely in our 20s and now we are entering our 30s together. It is bittersweet – part of me is sad because there are times it feels like life is rushing by so quickly. But part of me is happy because I got to spend such an amazing time with you and there is only more to come. I am immensely proud of who you have become over the years – a hardworking, honest, proud, successful man with a ridiculous amount of integrity and strength, strength that I can lean on when I need it and count on to be there in times when I have none left.

Thank you for that. Thank you for being there to pick me up, to hold me when I needed support, to encourage me when I needed to be encouraged, to cheer for me when I needed a cheerleader. Thank you for believing in me, for calling me on my bullshit, for holding me, for teaching me and for never giving up on me. Thank you for coming into my life and thank you for staying.

I love you so much more than I can ever put into words. I am so very happy to have you in my life and ridiculously proud to call you my boyfriend, my love, my copilot and my Valentine.

Love, Me

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: For My Valentine | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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Back in October, after seeing posts about it all over blogs and the Internets, I decided to go ahead and join Birchbox. There were quite a few reasons to justify it but mostly it was that I like beauty things and for $10 bucks a month, it seemed a worthy little pick me up to have some samples of higher end beauty products that I would probably never buy show up at my door.

It’s been three months and that pretty little box has appeared in my mailbox like clockwork. To date, I’m satisfied with the program. With my initial box I was a bit skeptical but I went in and tweaked my profile a bit and have been nothing but happy with the last two boxes.

I haven’t found anything worth purchasing as a full size yet but I have found things that I love and use regularly. I’m just still not okay with spending $125 on moisturizer. My philosophy is that I’ll enjoy it for a month and then something else will come in my next box that I can enjoy just as much.

In the spirit of a good review, I figured I’d post up the contents of each box for the past three months and offer my opinions about them.

For starters, can I just say that I love the packaging. Everything is wrapped up so pretty and it even arrives in a bright pink shipping box, which can be a nice little surprise if you’re having a gloomy day. And inside, there’s a card that explains what the current month’s “theme” is and how the products relate to that theme, how to use them and how much they are. It’s like opening a little gift to myself once a month.

November 2011

• Anastasia Beverly Hills HydraFull Gloss in Sugar Pink
• Guerlain Shalimar Parfum
• Two Paperdolls coasters
• Borghese Fango Brillante – face mask
• JR Watkins Peppermint Foot Salve

I really like the color of the gloss but that’s about it. I’m picky about what I put on my lips as it is and generally don’t wear any lipstick or gloss because I usually don’t like how it feels and end up wiping it off. This gloss, unfortunately, was one of those. I found that it became sticky and dry and it was actually a bit flaky on my lips. I never like to feel the gloss and this was one where I did. It was also a bit thick and tough to spread evenly. It’s just not really my bag.

The perfume I immediately threw away. It smelled like something my grandmother would wear.

The coasters were cute but I guess I was a bit disappointed that they were part of the samples and not an extra thrown in, especially considering that they were just heavy cardboard. I keep them on the desk in the office to keep my drinks from ruining the cheap laminated desktop. But they’re not really something I would buy to keep around the house.

The face mask I used once and didn’t mind it. I have a hard time judging “face stuff” because I never seem to notice a visible change. It tingled a bit when I had it on, which felt odd but it did seem to make my skin softer. Maybe if I used it more often, it would do something but I always seem to forget to do these things regularly.

The foot salve was nice. My feet always get dry and cracked during the winter months so I’ve been putting it on at night and sleeping with socks on and it seems to help. It hasn’t fixed the major cracking but it has helped with the dryness. Not sure if this is any different than what a cheaper foot lotion would do but it’s certainly nice for the time being.

Overall, the November box was slightly disappointing. The only thing I’ve used regularly is the foot salve and I really considering cancelling my membership if the boxes were going to be similar to these contents everything month. But I did go in and modify my profile a bit and decided to give it another shot and am actually thankful I did.

December 2011

• Jouer Mositurizing Lip Gloss in Birchbox Pink
• Harvey Prince Ageless – Pink Grapefruit perfume
• Showstoppers Designer Fashion Tape
• Benefit The POREfessional
• EBOOST Orange Natural Energy Booster
• L’Oreal Professional Mythic Oil

I was actually delighted when I got December’s box because the choices seemed to improve over all.

The lip gloss was much better than November’s sample, though I will say that the pink was a bit shocking and looked slightly garish on me (I preferred November’s color better). However, the texture of this gloss is smoother and it glides on my lips so much nicer than November’s. I actually entertained the thought of purchasing a full size of this until I realized I ended up wiping this off in under a half hour, not because I didn’t like the gloss itself but because I just don’t like anything on my lips. However, when I do feel like being adventurous, I do use this gloss because it has proved to be the most tolerable that I’ve tried.

I LOVED the perfume, so much that I actually had used the sample tube up in about two weeks because I wore it every day. It was fruity and light and hung around for most of the day. They say it’s supposed to make people think you’re younger (because you smell younger?! WTF?!) but I can’t speak to that because it’s not like people stop me on the street or anything. I think it smells like the scent a younger person would wear but then again, I love Britney Spears Fantasy perfume so who I am to judge. At the very least, this one was versatile enough to wear to work and extend into a night out without being too overwhelming.

The POREFessional from Benefit I just love to! I tend to have large visible pores in the area under my eyes, surrounding my nose, and I’ve been using primer for a year or so to hide them but it never seemed to do as good of a job as this stuff. It just goes on smooth and light and masks the pores long enough to satisfy me. It’s even light enough that I’ve used it by itself to just even out the skin in that area. This is another thing from this box that I have considered buying full size. Plus, I’ve heard nothing but good things about Benefit products.

The Mythic Oil was nice enough. I have fine hair but have always had a lot of it and it tends to get a bit frizzy and poufy so I need some kind of oil/product to smooth it out and give it that just come out of a salon look. I go back and forth with different types of Moroccan oil, smoothing milk, etc. and this acts the same as all those. It was nothing phenomenal compared to other products I’ve used but it did the job I expected.

The designer fashion tape and the EBOOST Energy booster were two things I just didn’t use. Mainly because I didn’t go anywhere that required the use of the fashion tape and I’m just not that into “energy boosting” powders or things of that nature.

January 2011

• FIX Malibu Immaculat Complexion Advanced Antioxidant Serum
• Juciy Coture – Juciy Coture
• Zoya Feel Collection in Kendal
• Algensit Firming and Lifting Cream
• ‘wichcraft Granola

Can I just say that I LOVED January’s box?! I mean, it just keeps better and better. I used every product in this box, with the excpetion of the granola because I’m not too excited about food items. Also, since I’m trying to regulate what I eat and there wasn’t nutritional value on the packaging, I just bypassed it completely. The other things, however … still using them and still loving them.

The FIX serum is heavenly! I use it before applying moisturizer and it makes my skin so soft. It smells amazing too, light and a little fruity. The card says a little goes a long way and it’s not kidding. I think this is the one I’m going to miss the most when I run out (there’s no way I can justify spending $125 on it right now).

The Juicy Coture perfume was another one that was gone in a week or so. This is a very feminine and girly smelling fragrance (so another youthful scent! Guess I told my profile I wanted to be younger than I am! LOL) but it’s light and soft enough that when you’re wearing it, you get hints of it throughout the day. It’s long lasting too, which I like. This might be one that I buy to replace some of my current scents when they run out.

I can’t say anything bad about Zoya because you all should know that I sit firmly in the fangirl camp for them. The shade of this sample is from the Winter FEEL collection and I had actually already ordered it (along with three other colors from the same collection) and used it before this box so that speaks to my love for this brand and this color.

Finally, there’s the Algenist moisturizing cream, which I also love. I’ve been using it almost every day for the past few weeks and it seems to have helped firm my skin up a bit. It also makes my skin soft. It goes on easily and is not oily at all which tends to be my biggest problem with moisturizers because I’m susceptible to breakouts. This is another product that I’m going to miss when I run out because it is also rather pricy ($94 for 2oz!)

Overall, I’d say this was a successful first quarter with Birchbox and I’m really happy things improved after the first box because it really is a treat getting new products to try each month. I like that I have the option of going back and looking over all the box contents if I want to purchase things at a later date. And I love that I get reward points towards my purchases not only for referring others but also for filling out surveys on the products.

If you’re interested in joining Birchbox and getting awesome quality beauty samples delivered once a month, I’d love for you to do it through my referral link. Then maybe I can buy the moisturizer for $100 bucks!

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: Birchbox – First Quarter | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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1992 – eleven or close to twelve years old. I am the one on the far left, in case you can’t recognize me under that atrocious perm and behind those windshields that someone called glasses. My mom used to get perms all of the time and they looked nice on her – and let’s face, it was the style back then. I thought I wanted a perm because my stick straight hair did nothing and I like the idea of curls. So mom relented and let me have one. Now I live with these cringeworthy pictures. And the glasses – my vision has always been horribly bad so the lenses needed to be large so they wouldn’t be so thick. Thankfully it wouldn’t be to long after this shot that I got contacts.

Please note the black stretch pants – they started this early and continued well into my middle school years and apparently into my high school years, just in different variations. However, also note that my shoes and socks all match my bitchin’ Carolina Tarhells hoodie. While I wouldn’t rock that outfit now, it was kind of the shit back in the day.

Psst – the other people in this photo are, from right to left, my dad, my younger brother and my stepmother at the time (her and my dad have since divorced). Also a waterbed, because waterbeds were the rage back in the day. And love how my dad’s shirt matches the bedspread, which is satin, might I point out!

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: Way Back Wednesday: The Perm | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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There are days when I wish had I more hours. There are weeks when I wish I had the luxury of not working and be able to do nothing but things I enjoy. I just always feel like I’m juggling three thousand things, between things I have to do (*cough* work *cough*) and things I want do (everything else in life!). Eventually, I have to let some balls drop in order to make sure others stay in the air.

This was most of January.

The biggest attraction to the life I was leading before this whole “make me healthy” kick I got on was that it required absolutely no effort. This is obvious since I never exercised, avoided anything but the normal daily movements and never gave any thought to what I ate except how delicious it was and how much I looked forward to eating it again.

Now, I’m finding that this exercising and eating better requires quite a bit of effort and thought. I have never been and will never be a morning person so getting up early to work out just ain’t happening. So I’ve been squeezing them into an hour of time between when I get off at 4:30 and when Steve gets home about 5:30. But this means that if I’m late leaving work, I am completely off schedule and everything else in the evening is delayed. The difference is that in the past, I would’ve used it as an excuse to NOT do it whereas now, I’m just sucking it up and doing it.

The food though – oh man, that is tough! I already hated thinking of what to cook before I was trying to eat well. The laziness of not exercising extended into a laziness of not wanting to put a lot of effort into cooking, especially after a long day of work. Now, that’s still there but it’s even more of a pain because I have to think about what’s good for me and balance it out with something Steve will eat as well. (Note: he is on board with this and will generally try anything I cook, but he is inherently picky and he won’t survive on plain chicken breasts and veggies which is what I would probably eat if I was on my own).

Again, the required effort doesn’t mean that I’m not doing it. On the contrary, I am trying as hard as I can. And it is exceedingly difficult, especially during times like last week when I had a hectic week and worked really late at least three days in a row and missed my work out time and just wanted to go through the drive thru (one night I actually did). I have cheated. Even today, I cheated a bit. But I’m not gorging myself on awfulness. I’ll have a sweet here or there and maybe a breakfast burrito from Sonic. It’s not the best I can do but it’s not the worst. I still choose the fish over anything when we go out to eat. I load my plate up with veggies and lean protein when we cook at home.

I eat spinach now! Never would touch the stuff before but find it actually quite delicious with a pinch of salt and some of that I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray.

Dinner Monday night -turkey tenderloin, small bit of rice a roni, spinach and broccoli - YUM!

But I spent most of January just trying to figure out how to rebalance my life to include these new things. It has been tough but I have stuck with it and I’m actually enjoying it. I look forward to eating veggies. I feel anxious if I miss my workout. I am enjoying the Kinect but I’m finding that I really, really love walking around the neighborhood. There’s something about setting off on a nice afternoon with my pop fitness station playing on Pandora and the sun shining that just makes me feel awesome and wonder why I ever missed out on it in the first place.

I told myself I’d give it a month before I invested any really money into it. And while I’ve slightly deviated from my schedule this past week because of circumstances unforeseen, I decided it was time to get back to where I belong and keep to my four days a week of exercise and my healthy choices.

And that it was time to buy a pair of sneakers.

This if the first pair of sneakers that I bought for a purpose and not because they were comfortable and I wanted to wear them casually. I am such a newcomer to this life that I don’t need shoes perfectly designed for running or cross training. I just needed something that was comfortable and supportive and would not make my feet hurt to the point where I wanted to give up.  I decided to go with running shoes because I read online that when you’re overweight, it’s better to start off with them because they offer extra cushioning and support. I also needed something wider in the toe than the Adidas & K-Swiss ones I’ve for years because I have a callus underneath the pinky toe that gets irritated and my feet kind of tingle and go a bit number around the ball of my foot. These Asics were on sale at Sports Authority and weren’t god awful ugly and I figure the yellow would help when I’m walking as it’s getting dark.

Next up, a heart monitor that counts my calories and possibly a small elliptical for the house.

Baby steps!

Regardless, I am still not going at this as hard as I should. Others would probably still call me a novice, an amateur. It takes all of my willpower to not completely give up or to just think “I can cheat today because there’s always tomorrow”. I have to remind myself that there are a thousand tomorrows but only one today and that the only way I can keep from constantly starting over is to not give up.

But it’s a step forward and I’d much rather go forward than stay where I am. Because where I am is not the place I want to be a year from now. It’s not the place I want to be right now.

And I’m the only one that can change that!

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On the general life front …

My blogs make it seem like I’m entrenched in this fitness thing – that’s far from the truth. It’s really not a huge change but it’s there. Work has taken a lot of my time, especially here lately. Last week was the kind of week where everything I touched seemed to fall apart or fall through the cracks. Add the fact that I skipped workouts because I got home late and I was PMSing and I was just a giant ball of stress.

There has been a lot of downtime in the house. Steve is sick this weekend so it’s been a stay at home kind of time. The few weekends before that were the same though none of us were sick. I think we just needed some winding down from the holidays. We’ve peppered that with quite a few dinners out with friends and quality time with the awesome ones in our life. I decorated our mantle and gave it a spring look.

Did some organizing around the house, cleaned pretty much everything I could get my hands. I’m kind of over winter and ready for the spring to get here so I can open the windows and let the world in. We’ve had weather nice enough for us to have them open but it’s not consistent so that leads to sickness.

Pretty much all the normal things that normal boring grown ups do.

Such is life I guess!

All in all, I’m pretty darn happy with it.

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I’m also trying to do the February photo a day on Instagram. You can follow along here if you’d like.

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: Only One Today | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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Happy February!

January has been a busy month for me and February kicked off in a fairly crappy way. Since it’s the first of the month though, it’s time for some poetry and since February is  the month of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d share with you one of my all time favorite love poems.

This has always been and always will be one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read!

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

~ Pablo Neruda

[via]

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: February Poem | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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I think the look I’m giving whoever is taking this picture perfectly sums up this outfit. Oh poor me! I just want to reach back and shake that girl and tell her everything that is wrong here. I guess we all have to go through this stage. Unfortunately, I had to go through it all at the same time. Note the baggy button up shirt and stirrup pants. My mother would tell you this was my uniform back then. I also used to wear a headband everyday – looks like I had either progressed past that stage here or figured I didn’t need one since I was home. Also note the socks that don’t match the outfit and aren’t even passable as special occasion or decorative socks. They’re just teal. With a light purple shirt. (I remember it distinctly – it was a lavender color, despite coming off as white in this shot).

Also note I had yet discovered eyebrow plucking.

But I had discovered books! This was also a staple, me always having my nose stuck in a book. It’s pretty much the same now, only I have an electronic reader and I’ve graduated from Sweet Valley to Harry Potter or The Hunger Games.  LOL

AND …. the kicker is, I’m wearing almost exactly the same thing in this photo, which was taken probably sometime around 1994 or 1995 (making me about 13 or 14) as I am in this photo, which was taken probably four or five years later in the summer before my junior year, so I would’ve been about sixteen there. Except in the later one, the pants aren’t stirrup pants but flared dressy club pants. Same concept though. At least this shirt wasn’t see through.

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: Way Back Wednesday: Those Awkward Years | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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This is a picture of a badly taken Polaroid so bear with the quality please.

This is the same crew I talked about running with back in this photo. Sadly, the only people I can remember are the guys directly around me (I’m fourth from the right, if you couldn’t tell). The people on the outer part of the group I couldn’t tell you their names if I tried. This is us on a non-clubbing night at the local pool hall slash game room. Note: the local pool hall slash game room is a town of about 4,000 people in the middle of rural North Carolina.

I actually like this picture of me for the most part except that I feel like you can kind of see through my shirt. Actually, you totally can. And someone should’ve told me that in this case, I should’ve worn a tank top underneath it. Except maybe I was going for that look back then. I think we’ve already established the skankiness factor (note: in appearance only, not practice, thank you very much!)

I did have some great times with this crew! They brought life into what would’ve been a few quiet summers.

© Kristy for four23.org, 2012. Leave a Comment: Way Back Wednesday: Rollin’ With the Homies | Read: No comment Elsewhere: Twitter | Flickr | Tumblr | Interesting Reads

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