never fully-clothed or intentionally misinforming

My best friend deploys in a couple weeks. My friend is currently stationed in Afghanistan. I miss them. I can't even put it into words. My friends should be home. My heart hurts watching this movie. And I want to keep my friends safe and warm and close to me.

I plan to blog about in the not-too-distant future: 1. The 2010 Fest 2. My home with Jon-Michael 3. My career(s) 4. My friends visiting all the way from Austria 5. My parents 6. My top personal goals for 2011 7. 8. 9. 0. ... okay, okay. Maybe I can only think of six right now. So sue me. I'll be back.

There are people in this world too kind to turn a blind eye when they know they have the potential to help. Adversely, there are people in this world too devoid of conscience to stop themselves from milking that compassion for all its worth. It sickens me to hear about people taking advantage of the kindness of others. The pure thought of using someone for their willingness to give is immoral and wrought with greed and the idea of deservedness (which, ironically, is seldom the case). Most people willing to abuse someone's pure-hearted goodness generally aren't deserving of it to begin with. The sad thing is, this happens all the time. I gave money to a homeless person once on my way home. I was a bit richer that day than usual because I hadn't had lunch. The next week, things were financially tighter for me -- I couldn't even afford to eat lunch, and he asked me again. This time I politely said, "sorry, I can't afford it today," and he scoffed at me. As if

One of my greatest mentors passed away last month. And as sad as it was for his family -- and myself, it was also eye-opening for me. In my head, this man, my fifth grade teacher, and one of my greatest role models in school, was unstoppable. He was a military man, with a stern, no-nonsense policy, a kind heart, a strict classroom, and a penchant for making his students want to learn. It broke my heart to hear of him passing away -- especially to hear something as malicious as cancer had taken him. Though it was no surprise he'd fought a long, hard battle with it before finally succumbing. He was a brilliant, inspirational man. And, as an adult, I never told him that. (Also, I'm sure I never told him as a child either.) His passing truly opened my eyes. Who else had I also not told of their impact on my young life? Of my other mentors and teachers, who had the greatest impact, and who did I feel needed to know. At a point when I was extremely impressionable, Mr. Mielnicki put h

I'm just going to bypass the whole where I've been and why I've been M.I.A. mumbo jumbo. I ran out of things to say, my life got boring, things didn't happen, things DID happen, whatever. I wasn't around. Now, here's why I'm writing today. 1.I still have multiple paying jobs because none of them will offer me full time. 2.Business endeavors. 3.I just moved in with my boyfriend, future husband, and soul mate. Let's talk about number three. We just took the plunge. No, not marriage, although our phone company seems to think so – I received a rebate check address to Alison Scott Soracchi. It's a damn good thing I work at a bank. They deposited it, no problem. We moved in together. We took that step. After four and a half grueling years of battling the side effects of living a long distance relationship, we actually moved in together. And I can say without question now, that getting laid off from the labor union was the best thing to ever happen to my li

Right now I'm sitting back-to-back with my future husband, while he works and I play. We're at his office and I really don't like the sound of the space bar on this keyboard -- it's as if there's a spring loose -- but I'd rather be here, plucking away at a new blog and listening to this space bar make bizarre noises, while he sits behind me piecing together tomorrow's newspaper than be anywhere else on the planet. Today I went to the Easter service at a friend's church. And, in all honesty, the service made me want to come back. I've only ever been there for holidays, so I'm not entirely sure every Sunday is as energetic as I've witnessed, but it'd be nice to find out. Also, they have a mission to Haiti and Belize this year. Aid and assistance work is something I've had an interest in doing for a long time and I'm starting to wonder if her church came into my life right now for a reason. I guess we'll find out, won't we

Probably short and sweet tonight -- I don't want to overwhelm you. I should probably start with a quick game of catch--you-up. 1. I'm still in love with my boyfriend, Jon-Michael. We're this close to living together and one day he will ask me to marry him. And I say this because he already asked my dad. Eeeeeee! I know I say this every time, but I can't think of any point ever in our whole relationship that we've ever been this happy. 2. I have five jobs, four of which are actually paying me right now. Most recently, I'm a bank teller -- and I LOVE it. The job obviously requires a high sense of responsibility, but it's fun and enables me to be social, network, and help people -- all things I DEFINITELY love to do. And at the risk of tooting my own horn, I'm really pretty good at it so far. My other three paying jobs are web design (the office for this job is rectangular in shape, comes with pillows, and faces the television in my living room), a lingerie

Let me start from the beginning. Let me be completely and openly honest. And let me not leave a thought out. I haven't lost any weight since June of last year. That was the point when I had to stop losing to fit into a dress for a friend's wedding. I wasn't happy being part of her wedding. I did it for her and she was less than thankful. And, physically, I've been in a frozen state since then... until December. It was in December that I stepped on the scale for the first time in a month or more and realized I'd gained six pounds back. I can't even pinpoint when it happened, but I can certainly identify the habits that enabled it to creep back on. Rewind to August and I've just returned to work from a memorial service for my Aunt who had just passed away and I receive an e-mail from my boss, whose desk was immediately behind mine, stating that effective immediately, I will be cut back to four days a week. Which, coincidentally, equated to me needing to immedi

I think it's safe to say everyone knows someone who isn't happy with their life, or where it appears they're headed. As sad as it may be, it's probably fair to say that most times people don't become the things they truly aspire to be. All too often, we settle. And you know, settling is essentially becoming a part of life. People are being born and developing higher aspirations. But with those aspirations, it seems far too many people are caring too little about the journey toward accomplishing them. I'm pretty certain that people forget their actions along the way directly affect the results of their life. I can't spend my youth stealing cars and selling drugs and still plan to become an astronaut when I grow up. The two things do not correlate. They do not compute. If a person lives their entire life being mediocre, what makes them think they're deserving of such grandiose luxuries as so many gluttonous, greedy Americans do? It honestly boggles me. But