Archive for the ‘Updates’ Category

  • 30 Nov

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    We apologize for the disruption of service…

    1

    What? You didn’t notice? Huh. Shocking.

    Yeah so I accidentally deleted my blog. All but the database that is. Naturally I had no back up, nor could I remember the WordPress theme I had so lovingly modified to my liking. So here we are with a new design (thank you Evan Eckard), though please don’t look too closely- I’ve modified it a fair bit and it’s still a work in progress.

    If you happened by jenreally.com at any point in the last ~2 weeks you may have found yourself disappointed by its absence. Or relieved (it’s ok, you can say it). Anyway I’m back for more updates on the STUNNINGLY FUN AND ADVENTUROUS WORLD OF JEN. Big news this week: I’m getting dumber.
    That’s the only explanation I can come up with for how I screwed up this blog thing. Sadly I’ve also been unmotivated lately so I’m not really working on getting smarter: I’m a dumb slacker. I have a number of theories on how and why this might be happening but I really can’t be bother to think them through… or even finish this sentence… Yeah. Motivation. Lacking.

    So yeah, I’ve been ok. I should be working on schoolwork right now but I’m not. Christmas cards have not been purchased, parties have not been planned and my house doesn’t remember what “clean” is. I can’t seem to let go of the idea that my life has passed me by and I’ve missed so many things- and I’ve been dwelling on it way too much. I also know that’s dumb and there’s plenty of time for doing what I want- as soon as I figure out what it is. Yeah, maybe I’ll work on that after the holidays. See? Dumb slacker.

    Please review my Twitter feed– I made the effort to be Thankful last week during that season for Thanking. I’ll give it another go in a real post sometime soon. Maybe think about checking back? If it’s not too much effort…

    Ok. Nap time.

  • 16 Feb

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    Hopelessly undevoted to you

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    I know, I know. I’m hopeless at blogging. Ironically I have been doing some posting, just not that much here. But don’t be sad- you’re always be my first.

    Christmas was good aside from a miserable cold that hit Christmas Eve and would not let go. Wonderful to see the family and just hang out and relax. My brother and his wife have big plans to be pregnant again by next December (and keep telling everyone about it!) so that may be the last time we’re all together for awhile.

    Went to NYC for New Years. Had a great time with with my friends and got to see a lot while we were there. Times Square was… cold. I actually think I got frostbite because my feet have not properly recovered.

    Jenny is SO grown up! She’s standing now and oh so chatty and sweet (now that she’s cut a few teeth). She’ll be 9 months next week: crazy.

    We discovered about a week and a half ago that the beloved family dog, Maggie, has a tumor. It’s pressing against her lungs and heart and she has only a short time left. Her breathing is getting tougher and she has a hard time eating, though she’s still in good spirits.

    Maggie is a wonderful dog. She’s undoubtedly one of the best behaved dogs I’ve ever seen and so sweet! She has a great temperament but she was also trained by my father, who did a great job working with her. She’s his dog more than the rest of us and this has hit him hard. It’s been very difficult to watch it all but I know Maggie’s had a good life. I’ll miss her; we all will.

    So that’s the “highlights” for now. I’ll try not to let it go so long next time, or at least post my other stuff up here as well. Hope everyone is doing well, had a great holiday. Happy (quite belated) 2009!

  • 14 Dec

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    The General World of Jen

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    I love the holidays. There’s a purpose behind them: once a year we have to slow down and look around. Whether or not you like what you see it’s a chance for reflection and, hopefully, gratitude.

    I visited with my cousin and her daughter (cute baby at left) to exchange presents this afternoon. I won’t see them for at least three weeks and it’s bumming me out. But no present in the world can beat falling asleep with a baby on my chest while watching ‘A Muppet Christmas Carol’. That’s what life is all about right there.

    Sadly I can’t focus on the holidays quite yet. Heading home and seeing family is still a week off, and a very busy one at that. There’s Christmas parties and cards and more gifts to buy and for some reason I have tons of meetings this week. Don’t people know it’s the holidays?!

    And in others news I’m keeping busy with a new project: contributing to movie-recipes.com! No, you’ve never heard of it. It’s a site that a friend of mine does. Rather than review movies it tells you what the movie is made of. Hopefully it will give you an idea of whether or not it’s worthwhile based on the movies it’s similar to. You can check out my inaugural post here.

  • 15 Oct

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    Fall Frolicking

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    Well, I still feel bad about having dropped my class but there’s no doubt in my mind that was the solution for me. Things have been much easier without a class to worry about, although I do still owe my professor a project from the Spring. But I am good at procrastinating and having flexibility does wonders for my mood– so much less stress! Really makes me not want to go back to grad school, too…

    The last few nights I’ve just been home, doing laundry and watching TV. Sure, I still work from home, check email, update Drupal etc., but it’s easier now that I don’t get home at 8:00pm twice a week.

    Tonight I got to baby-sit my niece, Jenny, which would have been nearly impossible when taking classes. I’m not sure she had a great time but we’ll give it another shot post-teething and on a night when she’s in a better mood.
    Tomorrow night I’m considering getting a cheap ticket to the NCSU v. Florida St. football game, blowing off work early and tailgating with friends.
    Friday night is improv. Saturday, a wedding (Congrats Amy and Garrison!). Next week: meteor shower, haunted trail, pumpkin carving and Halloween Party. I love fall.

    In other news, I got a Mac! Well, work got a Mac and they let me use it; I could never have afforded it myself. I am a visual person so, well… it didn’t take long to impress me. I’m not saying I’m a Mac person yet (I don’t want to be that) but I would say I’m a little more evenly divided on the issue. And someone asked me the other day if it was hard to go back and forth (PC desktop at work, Mac laptop) and I realized I hadn’t even thought about it.

    Finally, I may not be a Mac user but I do want an iPhone. That thing is hot. H-O-T. I spent last Friday night sitting on my couch, watching a 30-minute iPhone informational video. I’m dating the iPhone. Sad.

    That’s it for me. Enjoy the leaves and the crisp fall breezes. Go Canes!

  • 25 Aug

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    I’m cheating on you, baby

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    Since I was feelin’ like there wasn’t much going on [LIE] I thought I’d come up with something else to do: how about a year-long course on how to be a leader? What can I say, work doesn’t pay for training much [EVER] so I thought I should take advantage.

    Now as part of my sharing and leading and learning and growing I have a new blog, for which the co-workers who kindly agreed to judge me during this process can keep up-to-date with my “progress”. I’ll be honest, I’m having a hard time keeping the sarcasm in check on there. Not because I don’t think this is worthwhile, just because apparently that’s how I communicate. And yes, I know it’s a problem.

    This actually comes during a time of introspection and personal reflection. The “Year of Jen” has turned into the “Year of Improving Jen” which is fine as long as I get somewhere with it. The last class for the program was the Myers-Briggs test and that was very eye-opening for me. Apparently I’m an introvert. So many things make more sense when I understand that. I thought it was weird that I feel shy so often when I’m also quite outgoing. Aside from people I know, most others make me really uncomfortable [STILL SINGLE].

    Speaking of being single, guess what I have this weekend? Family reunion! Once every 5 years I, conspicuously-alone, get to go visit my great big mostly-married, baby-breedin’ extended family. Don’t me wrong, I love them and I can’t wait to see them. But if my dear cousin points out that I’m the oldest one at the party alone (again) I will not be responsible for my actions. At least I’m not the lard-ass I was 5 years ago (see photo at right and then print and burn).

    Anyway, to get back on topic, I’m supposed to post on my other blog at least once every other week. So… yeah. You may need to go there for your Jen fix for awhile. But I still love you.

    Oh and the [BLOCK] thing. Just ignore it. [HABIT].

  • 02 Aug

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    Giddy with Technology

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    Not all of you starved-for-entertainment readers know me that well, but I’m a little high-strung. I stay busy anyway and if you’ve been reading you know the last 10-11 months or so have been extra crazy. So the vacation was a blissful break and I honestly didn’t realize how stressed I’d been until I got back.
    The last week or two post-vacation has also been somewhat dreamy. Sure, it’s been busy but it also feels like time has slowed down. I can’t believe, for example, that I have only been back for two weeks. It feels like a month!
    So for the first week and a half or so I was able to stay mostly detached and not let stuff bother me so much. Slowly things have started to get to me again but I’m trying to remind myself not to over-react and that things don’t need to be a crisis. I’m trying to enjoy things away from work more and remember to smile, even when I don’t feel like it.

    One thing that has really helped with this goal is that my roommate moves out this weekend. I do like my roommate as a person, but not as much as a roommate. The other piece of awesomeness about her moving out is that now I get to buy a new TV. I take the TV very seriously so I’ve decided to invest/splurge. I’ll be picking up a 37′ flat-screen LCD HD TV (Samsung, in case you’re curious) later this afternoon. I can’t wait to watch some HD Olympics and play some hi-res Wii and I’m thinking out hooking up a computer too. Sweet, sweet technology. I enclose a picture here as further proof that I am a geek.

  • 11 Jun

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    Really Bag Blogger

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    I think 4 or 5 people have told me that I accidentally entitled my last post “Bag Blogger”, which was exciting since I had no idea that many people were reading! Hi people! I am a really bad blogger.

    In my defense, things have been very busy and I have been thinking about blogging. I actually have 3 or 4 things in mind to write about, starting with the story of baby. But I want to give that story it’s full weight so I’ll save it for next time. And by “next time” I don’t mean 3 months from now.

    I don’t really have any great updates; work is still busy, I’m still stressed. On the plus side I’m 21 days away from my vacation: 2-weeks in a beautiful Bob Ross-wilderness of Canada. I’ve also been working on my nice back yard with help from my cute little brother, who probably wouldn’t like to be called “cute” or “little”. More soon.

  • 10 May

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    Bag blogger!

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    Yes, I am a bad blogger.

    School’s out- for summer this time. Was going to take a summer class but since I haven’t officially completed all assignments for my spring class (taking an incomplete) and work is not slowing down that seems a bad idea.

    Cuzin Yorii is due in less than a week and is completely ready to pop. I have to review my “to do” list and maybe reread a few chapters of the baby book to get myself psyched up. I’m missing mom’s day and my dad’s birthday at home this weekend, just in case she goes early but all signs seem to be pointing to ‘Junior’ wanting to stay put for the long haul. It’s bizarre to have something so big and important waiting on the horizon but not have a date to go with it.

    My Wii is A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Downloaded Mario Bros (3, the good one) and Galaga and have purchased myself some Mario Kart plus extra controllers and other misc. toys. Must stop sending money on it but it’s so fun! (both the Wii and the spending money) and, well, Dr. Mario comes out next week so I’ll stop buying things after that.

    Went camping last weekend and it was wonderful. I don’t usually like spring but it just seems like I’ve been cold lately (I have lost some weight, yay!) and it’s so nice to be outside in the sun. Anyway, the weather was great and this was the kind of camping with a bathroom a short walk away so it wasn’t exactly a hardship. I’m supposed to be going to the mountains in June for more camping and I’m really looking forward to it. Might buy myself a tent if I can stop spending money on my Wii.

    And I’ll say nothing about work here, except that’s Saturday afternoon (and sunny out) and I’m posting this from work. So there you go.

  • 04 Apr

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    Will You Like to Play?

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    My never-ending workload recently caused my boss to nominate me for an award at work and, I’m pretty happy to say, I won! The reward was some time off, which I don’t have time to take, and $250. I decided to use that money to reward myself and so (after a lot of hunting; these things are hard to find!) I bought myself a Wii.

    Let me stop you quickly– I am not a video game person. Aside from the occasional arcade Galaga fun I have never spent a lot of time playing video games. We had a Nintendo in my house for about 5 minutes when I was growing up. Then one of my brother tripped over something and the damn thing didn’t work anymore. We only had two games anyway. So this was not something that I felt I had to have, but when the time came I decided to splurge.

    So far I’ve only bought Wii Play (comes with an extra controller) and Guitar Hero. I love Guitar Hero. It’s totally absorbing, mindless fun, which I need after a crappy day. I really don’t know when I’ll have time to play, but it is nice to have the option. Then again I might just get frustrated and smash my guitar when I can’t master ‘Through the Fire and Flames’…

  • 29 Mar

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    I’ll be the one talking to myself in the corner…

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    My boss made a joke the other day – a “joke” – that I can’t have a boyfriend because I don’t have time. Well, it’s 11:30pm on a Saturday night, date night, and I am at work. I really hope this is as low as it’s going to get but I just don’t know.

    Last two weeks in 30 seconds or less:
    Saw shop-happy aunt and uncle for a day which was great but depressingly short; won an award for working so much; trying to find a wii so I can can wail on some Banjo Hero (Legends of Bluegrass); cuzin moved to cute new house; schoolwork is really cramping any social life I might have had; ‘Canes making the run for the playoffs- go boys, go!

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