As you all know, I moved to Vegas in 2003. I was looking for something different, a change, a chance to spread my wings away from the ever-present watchful eyes of my small hometown. I was all set to go towards the upper Midwest until a bitter cold winter in 2002-2003 had me craving warmth. Living in a home with insufficient insulation in New England will do that sort of thing to you.

I ended up in the desert Southwest, surrounded by the flashing neon lights of Las Vegas. At first, it was nice being away from home and figuring things out for myself. When fall came, I started getting homesick. It’s tough when every fiber of your being is telling you that it’s time to pull out the sweaters and get cozy when it’s still over 100 degrees outside. But I made it through the fall, the holidays, and the next 8 years. In that time I’ve found work, friends, and a sense of independence that I didn’t even know I had. I also found love and a wonderful Mister.

I always knew I’d leave Las Vegas eventually – I knew from the minute I first set foot in this town that I wouldn’t stay forever. I’ve toyed with the idea of moving somewhere else that was completely new, somewhere else that was sort of new but close to home without being too close, and actually moving back home.

Mister and I have decided that we’re moving back home.

It’s not his home of course. He’s only been there a handful of times, having grown up on the opposite coast. But he quickly fell in love with New England for all the same reasons I’ve been missing it so much lately. I miss the atmosphere, the changing seasons, the proximity to water, and most of all my family and friends. I miss being with them during the holidays, birthdays, and all those other get togethers during the year. Mister really likes my family as well and is looking forward to getting to know them better.

Mister’s worker’s comp case is nearing completion and with the house situation being what it is, we decided that it was the right time to leave the area. Sure, I have a good job, but as an accounts payable clerk, I can find work anywhere. When Mister is free to venture back into the working world, there will be more opportunities in New England for him than there will ever be in Vegas. We both feel very strongly that this is the right thing for us.

My Dad has a rental property that he’s getting ready for us, my nephew is looking forward to coming out here during his winter break to help us, and we’ve already started packing and figuring out logistics. We’ll be driving back in late February. Crazy, I know, but I can’t wait to be home. Word on the street is that my family and friends are all eagerly waiting for our arrival as well.

I’m getting toward the end of the alphabet now, and the letters are getting harder and harder to work with. I looked through my dictionary, at every U word in there, and nothing fit. Since I can’t decide what word to use, due to them all being unsuitable (see how I threw in a U word there?), I’m going with undecided. Here are some other things I’m undecided on:

• I can’t decide what I want to concentrate on when I’m online. I bounce back and forth between reading blogs, writing blog posts, Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, and clicking on all sorts of links.
• I can’t decide if I want to push myself to the point of collapse while staying up way to late to be an internet addict, or do the sensible thing and go to bed.
• I can’t decide how to approach my blog category cleanup and what to do with any posts that might be left uncategorized.
• When buying myself a treat, I can’t decide what to get myself, so often I get nothing.
• When eating at Italian restaurants, I can’t decide whether to try something new or go for a dish I know I enjoy, so I usually end up getting Fettuccine Alfredo.
• Sometimes, when I can’t decide, I end up doing nothing, and stay there for way too long.
• When my mom visits in two weeks, I can’t decide how to keep us sufficiently busy but without wearing us out so that she’s not tempted to take over my TV watching SoapNet and OWN. If I can’t decide on activities, I won’t be able to decide whether or not to cancel cable for the weekend (can I do that?).
• I can never decide what to make for dinner. When I was single, this resulted in a lot of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and other close cousins.Still does, when I can get away with it.
• I can’t decide what words to choose to finish out this series.
• I can’t decide how to neatly wrap up this post, so I’ll just end it here.

I have a tattoo. It usually surprises most people to find that out.

It’s a couple of dolphins on my right ankle, and the artwork was taken from a larger sea life scene.

I had wanted one for a long time, but the first time I went to get one, I chickened out. I guess I wasn’t ready then.

After I moved to Vegas, I got a call from one of my friends back home, who has a ton of tattoos herself. She told me that she saw one of the girls from my old neighborhood, and her brother – the guy I grew up next door to – was opening a tattoo shop here in Vegas. So one day I decided to go in and say hi.

Keith and I sat around catching up on old times and chatting. After I’d been there for awhile, he asked when I was going to get inked. I had been looking at his portfolio and the artwork samples and said that I had been thinking about a dolphin (I was collecting dolphin figurines at the time) but I didn’t want the typical, cartoonish looking one with a black outline. He pulled up some more artwork online and we found a sea life scene that had two dolphins together and decided to go for that. I got in the chair and Keith fired up the machinery.

I was afraid that it would hurt, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was more like rugburn, especially the next day. The only part that hurt was on the tail fins, since that got a bit too close for comfort to the tendon on the back of my ankle, but otherwise, the expectation of pain was worse than the pain itself.

I’d like another tattoo – this one on my shoulder. I’m looking at a Gemini piece, because I’m a Gemini, but I don’t want the astrological symbol. Instead, I want to be a little less obvious and get a tattoo of the constellation.

Since I did all this talking about my ink, I’m sure you want to see a picture of it. Well, here you go:

Do any of you have ink? If so, show it off!

Today is my little sister’s birthday. As you can see from the picture above, I have attempted a choke hold on her while making it look like we’re getting along. In all actuality, we probably did get along at that age – in this picture I am just shy of 4, and Sis is 2 1/2. Not long after that, Sis stopped being so cute and started being annoying, so we fought for the next 25 years or so.

We’ve had our ups and downs. She put everyone through heck and provided everyone with plenty of blonde jokes. It wasn’t easy being her sister, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

We get along now, but it took a long time. That’s not to say that everything is perfect. It isn’t, and probably never will be. As an only child, Mister can’t understand why I continue to have a relationship with Sis when she upsets me to the point of tears, but he’s learned that he will never understand that sibling bond. I’m sure those of you out there with siblings get it, though. If we weren’t related, Sis and I would most definitely not be friends, but we don’t have to be. We’re sisters, and that’s a stronger bond than any friendship can be.

Happy Birthday, Sis!

I have a bit of a love affair with the open road. There’s nothing like it, as far as I’m concerned. When I moved out to Las Vegas from Massachusetts, I drove. When I bought a new car from my dad back home, I drove it back to Vegas, taking a detour in Florida when my niece was born. And I am oozing with jealousy because my co-worker drove to Las Vegas all the way from Anchorage, Alaska. That’s one drive I’d like to do!

I watch things on TV purely to satisfy this wanderlust. It’s one of the many reasons that Ice Road Truckers is one of the few shows I won’t miss, and Dangerous Drives on Speed is one of the only shows I’ll watch on that network. Any road trip movie, or even the PBS series Great Streets will get my attention.

Even some of my favorite songs have to do with the road. Earlier in the week I was listening to my favorite online radio station, Women of Substance Radio, when I heard a song I hadn’t listened to in a long time. Another White Dash by Butterfly Boucher – hearing it made me want to jump in my car and just go, miles and miles of endless highway, leading to who knows where. In the CD mix exchanges I’ve participated in, I made not one but two road music mixes. I have a theory about what makes good road music – any song that mentions a road, place, traveling, or cars will make a good road song.

I’ve fallen out of the habit lately, but I used to take my camera with me whenever I went anywhere. I like to take pictures of unusual road signs or other mundane roadside views, or just the road itself, so that many of my pictures have my car in them, like this favorite. Mister took it when we were driving up to Reno – I was driving pretty fast, and he stuck the DSLR out the sunroof to take pictures of the sunset. I think it came out pretty good, and there’s no post production at all on it. It’s the desktop picture on my work computer, and the IT department at work loves it, because they always comment on it when they have to remote in to fix something on my computer.

Here’s the picture:

I look forward to a good road trip, because as they say, getting there is half the fun, especially when you have views like this to appreciate.