...it's ma birfday...

It's my birthday WOOHOO! I love my birthday, always have, always will. Aging doesn't bother me - I am 49 this year- since I always feel young at heart (and brain lol) It's not the presents or the cake so much as the opportunity to celebrate life. My life. I like to take an assessment of where I am , where I've been and where i want to go. It's my New years eve - including the resolutions.  It's a day I get to hear from friends I don't see as much as I'd like and it's filled with love.

This year I am lucky enough to have my kid and her hubby here at my beach house for the whole weekend. Also mom and dad are down at their place too. Plus my birthday is on a Saturday which means... hello! I get a whole birthday weekend! 

I will admit that I do miss my annual party at the Blarney stone. I miss so many people that I love in one place at one time. BUT I am at the beach, we're doing a rib house - Bethanny Blues - for my b-day dinner and it's gorgeous outside!

It's been a tough year so far, and I see this next year filled with changes. 

My resolutions?

 ~I will be getting a job that allows me to make enough money that I can actually pay bills AND eat. With even some money left over to enjoy.

~I will be concentrating on getting healthy and bathing suit ready for next years big 50 trip to what's looking like Punt Cana. 

~I will start enjoying the blessing I have been given by living at the beach, instead of working until 8pm and getting home at 9pm every night.

~I will really take the time to stop and smell the ...ocean. And I will also take the time to quietly reflect on how absolutely fabulous my life truly is and will be in the coming year.

~I will work on being a better friend and reaching out to people more.

~I will finish up the "This is me Damn It book" and start the novel I have been researching. (It's about a woman who buys and renovates an Irish Bar w/ some love, friendship, murder and mayhem thrown into the mix...)

~I will seize the day; throw caution to the wind;embrace my inner child (she needs hugs lol) and give back as much as I can, to show my appreciation for all the good I have been blessed enough to receive.

                                                 

Bring it on, 49! 

Can I get an Amen?!? 

For people who love Jameson and Bad Decisions...

Love this!

Tho I must say since I was here at the beach this year, instead of at the Blarney Stone(like last year and soooo many years before) I managed to make no bad decisions. 

But sometimes those bad decisions can be so damn fun. 

I did miss the hub-bub and the crowd; 

seeing my friends and seeing the step-dancers on the bar... 

Staying in this year was a $$$ choice but in the end, better to leave it to the amateurs and enjoy myself at home - Which i actually did!

I was actually sober this year, while watching my annual trip to Ireland movie - 

The Quiet Man!

 And while i do so...

I had a few drinks alone and talked to friends on the phone, on Facebook and via text. Got to see pics from other folks - wish my 3 St. Paddy's day peeps Happy Birthday and laugh at all the great pics I could find...

Tho i'd much rather be doing this...

then counting change to buy dog food. LOL Soon... I can feel it in my bones. Something better job wise is right around the corner. After all, If i don't put that positivity out into the universe, and think that way, how am I supposed to make my dreams come true? 

Happy Thanksgiving and catch up time...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Wow it has been way too long since I blogged. I apologize. In the past 20 days, I got hired at and started 2 jobs. I left the one at KMart because the 2nd job I started is at a bank and is full time, more money and has excellent benefits. Based on the openness of my blog and the world today in general, I will simply refer to my new job as ... The Bank... What's funny, or great, is that the day after I asked a friend to say special prayers for me to find the right job, I got the call for an interview from the Bank and subsequently got the job!  

Yes, I do believe in the power of prayer. I also believe in angels, ghosts, Karma and Divine Intervention. I am a mixed up bag of spirituality.

I've gone thru 2 weeks of training and Wednesday was my first full day on the phones alone. All went great and I am loving the job, meeting some great new friends and walking almost 3 miles a day getting around the work site. Yes the call center is that big! 11 more days on the phones then back into training for 6 weeks. Christmas parties and Secret Santa's and pig in's, my own cubicle... I have missed the business world! I also like the job security. 

Last weekend Mom and Dad came down to their beach house and brought my daughter Kelly and her fiance' DaShaun with them. The kid and DaShaun stayed with me and it was so good to see them. it had been 3 month since I had last seen the kid - tho we do talk every day- and I MISSED HER!  Mom surprised me with a fabulous early family Thanksgiving last Sunday and it was so great. Today, I spent the holiday alone and didn't even care... because I had last Sunday! 

Today I appreciated the day off, slept in until 8:30am (i have been getting up at 5am during the week)  and made a great meatloaf, asparagus w/ hollandaise sauce, a baked potato and crescent rolls.

mmmmmm cheese soup on the meatloaf!

I finally get paid next Friday - 3 weeks worth - and man will it be good to have money. Right now I have about 10 bucks in my bank account and I drive 30 miles a day back and forth to work so I am in a bit of a panic. BUT everything happens for a reason and If I had extra money in the bank right now I would be black Thursday shopping tonight... I do not need to be doing that! 

So many things to be thankful for...but that's for another blog tomorrow. 

For those of you who celebrate it (believe it or not I have a lot of readers who aren't from the US) I hope your Thanksgiving's were filled with friends, family, laughter, love and good food. 

I hope you take a moment, or hopefully longer, to truly reflect on all that you have in your life to be thankful for. Please remember to appreciate all that you can while you can, because life can be fleeting. Don't wait to say what you feel and love who you want because you've got to start living your life every day! 

"and today there was joy. Joy for life and all the beautiful people and experiences involved. I hope that all you dear hearts were able to feel that joy all around." ~Jamie Windsong Kasper

xoxoxoxox

  

Dancing with myself...

Sooo I am heading halfway thru my 2nd full week here on my own. Of course this past weekend, my friend Don was here w/ his best friend Joe. So I met up with them on Friday and Sunday. SOooo much fun! 

Then my dad was here from Thursday thru Saturday so I got to cook dinner for him one night and then he took me to dinner the next.
BUT this week, I am a bit homesick.
 “Homesickness is. . . absolutely nothing. Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time. You don't really long for another country. You long for something in yourself that you don't have, or haven't been able to find.”~Anon


I've been stressed about money and jobs and in between all that I've started really missing, as the quote above says, my family and friends. Not my apartment or West Chester but something I haven't found down here... people to hang out with. Actually more than that , I miss my people to hang out with... I am a little bit lonely.

Amiee and Nicole

Tami

Jenn and Doug

Dre

Kelly and Colleen

Bob and Barb

Vern and Jeffie

Alex

Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest.
~Henry Van Dyke

It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness…   we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.

~ Carson McCullers

Then I found this in a post I wrote in December of last year-

And so as this January roles around, and I put Christmas behind me again, I find an excitement for what's to come. Not a sadness at a another year gone by, but pride at what I have been able to accomplish. I've learned that change is good and freeing and healthy! I have an undeniable sense that the best is yet to come and it's just waiting for me to find it. And find it I will. 

So bring on 2011... it's gonna be fantastic!

I will admit that I am proud of myself and what i have accomplished. I proved to myself that 

anything is possible if you want it badly enough. I think that once I get a job (and believe me

I am applying non stop) and meet some people I will feel a bit better. i still know that I made 
the right decision by moving. I still feel that I am exactly where i belong. I have come 
"home" and i own my own place and it is coming together beautifully.

But at 47 years old... I still miss my mom. LOL I guess that all means that I am a blessed
person. i have enough people in my life that i love, and that love me, that I am missing them.

Mom and Dad

And then I go to the beach and it's quiet and beautiful and I float in the warm water of the inlet and I am at peace. I sit on my chair in the sand and watch a school of dolphin playing out in the water and I realize this is what people dream of. This is what people say they want and never get. Somehow I have been lucky enough and determined enough and blessed enough 
to not only find my bliss but to live it.

And that's when i realize, when I know deep in my beach loving soul, that all will work out and it will be wonderful.

wine and song

Feeling a bit introspective tonight. A good introspective tho, the smile, remember, and breathe deeply kind of introspection we all need a lot of. Listening to music on youtube and drinking a glass of wine. (Barefoot Reisling ice cold - my new fave) Change is in the air and it's Fabulous but friends beckon and pull at my soul.

Sometimes, maybe more then sometimes, you can remember the past and appreciate it so much more in the present. You can realize that the people and the places and the tears and the laughter have brought you where you stand.

I've usually split my life in 2 parts, pre and post divorce. When ever I wondered if I had made the right move, the right decision, I've always known I did. The people i've met, the friends i made after i left my husband and moved to west chester, have been so diverse. Each one shining a light on the prism that is me. They love, and hold up and pick up and stand by me. They lean on me and let me lean on them. They make me laugh and cry and miss them, even tho I know they are always only a phone call away.

I know that what I have learned from those I have been lucky enough to surround myself with, will stay with me forever. And while some are across the country and others right next door, it's the love I feel from them each day that makes me who I am. The unspoken bonds of true friends are strong and unbending.

To all of them, to all of you, You turned me into somebody loved!


~Thanks to Aimee for showing me this one, and so many others...

3rd times the charm??

Wow - hopefully this blog finds it's way to being published, since the first 2 I wrote did not. Maybe it was the universe's way of telling me they were too negative. The first one was about Chris Brown and his other famous woman beating friends, Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson. The second one was about being sick and tired of being sick and tired. 


So let me "reader's digest " them for ya - 

Men who beat women suck- big time! And just cause they perform on a stage or a screen - they should not get a free pass to act like like assholes and have people(ABC) "pull for them" after they manage to break a window instead of another persons face. Get help, get fixed or crawl into a hole and STFU! (actually anyone who beats anyone is a douche...)


2nd post - I got sick again, after St Patty's day - I, apparently... A) am not a rockstar and B) can not party like one with out consequences. Point Taken Universe. I spent $150 on a Dr's visit and meds yesterday, to cure a sinus infection. The antibiotic is so strong it is killing my stomach etc blah blah blah...


See, negative! So, ok, maybe I make this one positive. 


My Facebook status today quoted a Bruno Mars song -‎

When I see your face, There's not a thing that I would change
Cause you're amazing just the way you are
And when you smile,The whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause you're amazing, just the way you are."
~~This goes out to every single one of you...read it, believe it, own it. You are amazing, JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!


FYI this goes out to all of you reading this now as well. I think everyone needs to be told how amazing they are. And also how they should never change unless they want too - 


And in response to my FB status my 2 1/2 yr old great-niece sang me this exact Bruno Mars song and her mommy, my niece Shannon , taped it and posted it to me on Facebook. OMG made my day! Cutest damn thing I have ever seen! (Even cuter then the baby getting startled and laughing when his mom blows her nose! But I am biased lol) I can't figure out how to post it here(it was on FB only not youtube) but if you are my FB friend you can find it on my profile page. If you aren't my FB friend and want to be or want to see it, click on the FB badge down towards the bottom of the blog and request it. As long as you aren't a stalker, my stalker or my ex boy toy, I will accept you. : ) After 3 years of hiding, I am proud to say that now, my life is an open book. Well for the most part!


I also have a Facebook page called 'Spread the Positivity Now' that sends out positive quotes every few days along with inspiring photos. Look it up and "like" it and you'll receive them in your newsfeed.  We can never have too much positivity in our lives! Am I right?? Can I get an Amen?? 


Heading to the airport tonight with my friend Tami to pick up my favorite couple, Vern and Jeff. They've been in beautiful Orlando for the past 10 days and finally they come home tonight! Can't wait to hear about the trip and see if they packed Tinkerbell in their carry on! mmmhmm Just love my boys! 

Photo courtesy of Disney

(hey Disney are some litigious yahoo's and I already sent a letter to their baby, ABC, about them being jackholes for putting Douche Chris Brown on dancing with the stars to perform so I am covering my butt here)

This weekend, hopefully feeling better, is spring cleaning in the hizzous and a "Liquor Exchange party" with my friends Bob, Tami and Kent. Yeah I hear ya... note to self DO NOT party like a rockstar on Saturday. Maybe "Party like an American Idol reject" will work?? 

Gonna post this while I can (thank you Blogger Gods) and take a much needed nap. Come back tomorrow for some fun posts - gotta play catch up!

xoxoxoxo ~Stacey 

Day 10 of 30 day bc - The person i get in the most trouble with...

Day 10 - post a picture of the person you do the most messed up stuff with.


Day 10 annnnnndddd i think I may be finally caught up. So I can go back to one post a day plus my regular blog. My book is lonely waiting for me to write more of it LOL. 


So I have to admit - I really don't do too much "messed up" stuff any more - actually I never really did. So I am going to change this challenge day a little. I have had some late night drunken fun with my friends so I thought I would post some of them up here. Not really messed up stuff but it'll work. 


So you've all met Bob, Kent, my cousin Barb and Vern and Jeff. Here's some other folks I am proud to call friends that I may have had a beer or two with thru out the days...(sarcasm font needed again for that beer or two line )

Jimmy and Alex Bilotta

Many a late, late night has been spent with the Bilotta's at the Blarney Stone. Sometimes together, sometimes individual, but always a great time! 

At the Bilotta bar

They don't call the stone wall outside of the Blarney the Bilotta Bar for nothing and I am officially too old to drink outside until 5am... but I still do it sometimes anyway.

Me and Alex

And their wedding? Filled with late night hijinks. The Mendenhall had no idea what they were in for.

Dave, Nicole, Missi, Steve and Ron

Oh boy this crew is trouble just waiting to happen. Back in the day when Missi was dating Steve and Nicole and I were out all the time (pre meeting Dave) we were a force to be reckoned with. Late night stalker drive by's and girls nights with one of us Dj'ing our cd's (now Ipods) and discussing the meaning behind each song. Damn we had some serious fun. I miss those days but love that my girls are happy and in love.

Me, Aimee and Nicole

When Aimee turned 21 she got into the mix and has become over the years, the DJ MixMaster. So add her into the crew above as well. Love me some girl nights!

The Blarney stone girls - circa 2000

Leigh, Me, Sue, Dana,Ashley & Stacy O (becky's missing form this pic)

And speaking of Old School and Back in the day - here's the crew from the Blarney Stone when we all worked there in 2000,2001. No one has more fun then servers and bartenders when they get together. All these single ladies (not counting Stacy O on the right end) are now married and most have babies too. (not rushing you dana...LOL)

I can't forget Joe O

many a fun night with Joe - whether he's behind the bar serving, in the bar stool drinking or way back in the day... cooking wings while me, Becky, Dana or Ashley were serving.

Pete and Bobby O

And hell since we're back in the day, many a night of trouble with these two was had. Ahhh Good times.

Carrie and Mike

It's not a football game, a New Years Eve or a random friday without including Mike and Carrrie in the mix. I'd put Petey up here too but he's shy! I've had some great times and many a car bomb with this beautiful couple!

Janet and Mike

Coming back to present day with Janet and Mike. Many a fun late night, sporting event or quizzo game with this wonderful couple too!

Did someone say carbomb's Janet?

Tami and Me

Ahhhh my girl Tami. when we go out, it's always a good time and even when we stay in we have fun. she's heading to the beach with us for Oscars this year also. An Oscars Weekend virgin... Look for some good pics! Love you Tami!

Jenn, me and Doug

Many a fun time with these two lovebirds. One of my favorite couples and I love going out and catching up with them. Tho they never stay out too late... ahhh to be young and in love LOL. 

Me and Dre

Last but certainly not least is my girl Dre. We behave when we go out but we do have some fun.  

So there's a partial cast of characters that I have a ball (or used to have) a ball with. Actually I guess I could have done this and just put up one picture of the Blarney Stone... 

But that wouldn't have been as much fun.

PS: if you think I left your picture out (don ruberti) it's only because I don't have one. LOL