Our House...

"Our house is a very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you
And our la,la,la, la,la, la, la, la, la, la, la....."

- "Our House", Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Well folks, get your party hats, shoes or bottles ready... I found a house! Barring any craziness, I should be moving in about a month. Don't want to talk too much until I have some keys in my hand... but needless to say I AM HYPE!

Happy Birthday to Ya!

You know it doesn’t make much sense
There ought to be a law against
Anyone who takes offense
At a day in your celebration
‘cause we all know in our minds
That there ought to be a time
That we can set aside
To show just how much we love you
And I’m sure you would agree
It couldn’t fit more perfectly
Than to have a world party on the day you came to be

“Happy Birthday”, Stevie Wonder

The 25^th marked my father’s 57^th birthday and as usual he took the low-key route. It’s funny to me how he has always been the stand-behind the scenes person, but always in the right place when you needed him. Most people are looking to party and celebrate another year on the planet, and my father treats it like any other day – he went with me to go look at a house, and got his license renewed. Whoever says humility is a lost art, they apparently don’t know my father. Happy Birthday (and many, many more), pops!

"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want." - Ben Stein

Do you ever feel like you're just completely sidetracked by something? Like you have tons of work to do, but there's that one thing (usually not work related) that just keeps you completely captivated. Well, my achilles heel right now is finding a house. I feel like I've been staring at this laptop screen for the past three months and dragging my real estate agent all over south Fulton and north Fayette county looking at countless houses all for nothing - either the house is too screwed up to be worth fixing, or someone beats me to the punch with an offer. Finding a house isn't what it used to be - my first house (affectionately known to some of my friends as the party house) was the first and only house I looked at. Sure, it only had one bathroom, and only one really decent sized bedroom, but it was only me, so it was perfect. My hunting now has to take into consideration where I might be in the future - married, kids, etc. The decisions don't get any easier... until I don't have to make them anymore - hmmm.... alright let me go - I have a decision to make.

Got a bullet to spare, don't want to send it your way...

"I could aim
But I could not fire
Got a bullet to spare
To kill my desire

Who's calling the shots
One of us must make the peace
To have or to have not
The fire has got to cease" - "War of the Hearts", Sade

I probably had one of the best Saturday nights that I have had in a while this past weekend - no ifs, and's, or but's about it. One of my friends from college (AGGIE PRIDE!!!) has set the bar very high for celebrating their 30th birthday with a huge party at the 1420 Room in Dunwoody. Cash bar, a magnificent spread of food, VIP seating, and a great DJ were just some of the highlights of the evening. Many mental notes were taken about the setup, and expect a little reproduction in a few months! I can't say enough about the great time that I had with my girlfriend and I thank all of my friends that came to the party that night for welcoming her to the group.

The one negative on the night for me was my interaction with my ex. One of my biggest fears at the onset of our relationship was that should things not work out, our common friends would have to pick sides or not feel comfortable with both of us in the same room. The entire night progressed with the two of us trying our best not to even look at each other after the initial introductions. All of which is incredibly childish in retrospect. If we can't be friends now, then what were we doing in the past? Perhaps I am sticking to my resolution for 2006 and making sure any baggage from last year gets dumped because there is no place for it in my future, or anyone else associated with me. Hopefully, I am imagining all of this and we only spoke once all evening because there were just so many people at the party. Whatever is going on, I know that I am in a happy place right now and I want all of those around me (regardless of our past relationship) to bask in that happiness with me.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

"I'm feeling good from my hat to my shoe,
know where I am going and I know what to do,
I've tidied up my point of view,
I've got a new attitude."
- "New Attitude", by Patti LaBelle

I hope that everyone has recovered nicely from their 2006 celebrations and is ready to get down to business after a long break (I actually am not drunk in this pic). Now is the time to implement those New Years Resolutions that we have repeated over and over again for countless years. I will say that I have achieved as least one of my goals from 2005 in keeping a record of my thoughts and accounts. There are some other things that did not come out like I planned, but with another year of failure comes another year of knowledge. I have certainly learned more from my mistakes than just about anything that I have learned in school. With my 30th birthday rapidly approaching (only 9 more months of shopping days left for all of you), I definitely intend to make 2006 one of the most productive years of my life. I won't sit here and list out all of my goals for the year, but suffice it to say that I do not intend to relive to recreate any of my low points of 2005. Having said that, I would like to extend a special thanks to the people that made me get some of that "bought sense" as my late grandmother so lovingly put it. I will not forget nor will I repeat the mistakes I made both personally and professionally in the past year. I will admit that I have a bad habit holding grudges and allowing them to rule the way I think and make decisions - this year I vow that I will start a clean slate with everyone regardless of where our relationship was left in the past few years. If you were in my life in the past, it was for a reason, and I can no longer allow my anger control my life as it has in the past.

So let me be the first to tell everyone Happy New Year - I wish all of you a prosperous 2006 and as much of a "NEW ATTITUDE" as I plan to have as well.