The worst is over.

So we have had the winter solstice, Christmas is over, and friends and family are returning to town. Now I can look forward to work kicking into high gear, longer days and my birthday.

I'm never sure why, but even though I get older every year, I still love my birthday. It's like my whole life I never felt like I was special enough for a fuss, but my birthday was always my day. My ex-husband used to joke that it was my birthday season because I started celebrating two weeks before and it lasted until a week after.

I also got asked out on a date by a very interesting man from match yesterday. We can't see each other until after the new year because of our schedules, but I am really looking forward to meeting him.

The diet continues, but I will be going off it for the new years weekend since I will have a guest in town and I want to show him a good time.

I think this is going to be a very good year.

Christmas... it's the little things

So here I was sitting at home all alone feeling sad because it's christmas and I don't have a tree or presents or anyone to spend it with and then I get this email.

See, I got myself new dishes for christmas and so I had a full set of my old ones including a bunch of matching extras. So I decided to give them to someone who needed them. A young mother answered my ad and yesterday I delivered the dishes to her. Today I got this email.

Hello Ms.Elliott, this is micah the one who you gave the dishes to, i just wanted to thank you again for blessing me with the beautiful dish set, its truley more than i hoped for. So Thank you and you , your family and friends have a very Merry Christmas and holidays thereafter.

It definitely made me feel so much better that someone out there was helped by me, even if it was in a small way.

It really is about what you give, not what you get.

Tookie

I am so wishy washy when it comes to the death penalty. In general, I am for it. If you are immoral enough to take a life, then you should pay with your own.

But Tookie Williams is giving me a very real reason to think that the death penalty is wrong. This man has done all he can to reverse the damage he has caused. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He has written books against gang violence. He is being judged based on something he did when he was young and foolish. Today Arnold Schwarzenegger denied his clemency.

When I was young I was a very bad person. Well at least I appeared that way from the outside. In reality I was very hurt and scared and really didn't care if I lived or died. But I never purposely tried to hurt anyone. I was just thoughtless and careless and the drugs and the people that I was surrounded by put me into bad situations.

I have turned my life around and now I am a very moral responsible person. I think that Tookie is trying to be as well. If he is being judged based on what he did when he was young and stupid and surrounded by drugs and bad people, then why shouldn't I also be judged that way?

Isn't life itself important enough to give everyone at least some chance to redeem themselves?

I am an atheist. That means that I firmly believe there is no god and no afterlife. This life is all we get. If we blow it, then we blow it. So that means that the harshest thing you can do to someone is to take away their chance. Life becomes the ultimate possession one can have.

Happy Holidays!

I can't believe the holidays are going by so quickly. Thanksgiving was fun, though I totally wore the wrong shoes. We had to do quite a bit of walking and my feet were killing me by the end of the night. Thankfully, when we got to JP's we took our shoes off and I got some relief.

Now that Christmas is coming, I guess I should get motivated to send out my cards. I am not doing gift exchange this year because of the financial situation. Hopefully next year will be better.

I miss noodle. My house is much cleaner and I don't have to vacuum or pick up any accidents, but I really miss her happy little face and her cute bark. I miss her fluffiness and watching her wrestle with Bailey. I hope she is happy and is being taken care of.

Dating life is getting semi interesting. I've gone on a couple of good dates and am having a good time.

I am starting on Nutisystem next week and hopefully I can finally drop some weight.

Work has picked up and any day now we will start billing again. On Tuesday we are heading up to New York for a conference. It should be fun.