Boyd Family Christmas Card

Keeping with the blog theme of updates, how about a Christmas card?

As anyone who knows me knows, I am not much of a fan of the whole façade of the Facebook world in the variety of "my life is perfect" and "I do only awesome fun things with the most awesome people." The pre-internet equivalent of that would have to be the Christmas newsletter. Now, I'm not talking about the people with families who highlight the "what's happenings" of their lives. Those are lovely. I mean the "my family was perfect and awesome this year!" highlights of braggishness that are overly fabricated. I thought it would be fun to send out a braggish Christmas card in reverse. It would sound something like this:

Hello Beloved Friends and Family!

Well, 2013 marked the first full year for the Boyd house here in Aliso Viejo! It sure was a busy year, which means we must be very important people.

We started the year doing almost nothing for the first few weeks. Krystina used her college education to serve steaks to the patrons of Foothill Ranch for the first few months of the year, working only a few hours a day. Brad's good fortune allowed him to provide financially while only working a day or two a week. Amazingly it took almost a full month to put away the Christmas decorations from 2012 because we were too busy trying to break the record for watching the entire available series of "Parenthood" on Netflix in only a few weeks time. I am happy to report it was a success! Those kinds of shenanigans went on for awhile until Krystina finally got a real job in May. It was going quite well, but unfortunately she kind of got demoted after only a few months. Now, her company might call it a "restructure" but it sure looks and sounds like a demotion!

In the baby department things are really going our way, much to the chagrin of our parents. Krystina continuously remembered to take her birth control, so no accidents have been reported. The only baby in this house is our giant and awesome cat Sage.

Sage came to our house in January and really set up camp. He was meek and humble at first, but has since become more bold-- from jumping around to wake Brad up in the mornings, to bringing uninvited neighborhood friends in to tear up the curtains, Sage really feels at home now.

We had a fun year of traveling to new and local places, but we shant dwell on these sorts of things. What's really significant is that Krystina joined a local gym and Brad bought an Xbox 360, and together officially got a Costco membership. We watched several series' thanks to Netflix including but not limited to: House of Cards, Friday Night Lights, and Madmen.

Hard to think 2014 is fast approaching, and I'm sure it will be just as adventurous. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Since You've Been Gone...

Well, I suppose I am the one who has been gone. I totally abandoned this lil blog in favor of being both busy and lazy. It's been just shy of two years since my last blog entry. I remember exactly where I was when I posted that particular entry (for no important reason; just the fact that I have a memory that stores random useless details) and sitting at that reception desk feels like a lifetime ago. It also feels like yesterday. It's strange how every day seems the same, yet when you look back so much has changed (we're getting deep here, people). Here is a recap of life changes, things I have done, and things that have happened around me:

·         I got engaged, and then got married.

·         I moved twice. Using my zip code as a pin/password was a bad idea for awhile since I had 3 different zip codes in the last six months of 2012.

·         I changed jobs thrice. Apparently I can't hold a job and/or I don't like to work.

·         A bunch of my friends got married. Last time I blogged I think I had one married friend. Now I have lots. I Irish jigged my way to and fro at 9 weddings last year, toilet-papered the crap out of lots of bridal shower "brides", and fully supported said friends during their bachelorette parties.

·         I became obsessed with a cat named Sage.

·         I went to Kauai, San Francisco, Tahoe, Napa and Sonoma for the first time--and drove through most cities on the coast of California.

·         I lost a bunch of weight. And then I gained too much of it back. Then I got rid of some of that, which puts me at today; losing weight with no intention of finding it again. Getting fit for life, not an event.

·         I watched my friends start having kids. It's the weirdest but also so very cool. As much as I hate stranger's kids (unruly bastards) I love my friends' kids.

·         I wrote half a dozen or more beginnings to stories that I will never complete. Let's say we'll work on that for 2014. Writing with a purpose, please.

·         I got my cartilage pierced. My sister convinced me to be hardcore like that and get matching cartilage piercings at Claire's before we went off to work at Outback together. Next step-- me convincing her to get a tattoo with me.

·         I toned down my profuse hatred for Kohl's (see previous post). Don't get me wrong, I'm still not a fan, but now we have kind of a love/hate relationship. I still hate so much about them but also… I bought a workout shirt there for $2.00. I can't not go there, seeing as there is a location across the street from my house luring me in with fake deals and sales.

See what I mean about nothing changing and then everything is different? I mean, in February of 2012, who would have thought that a mere 22 months later I would be shopping at Kohls on Black Friday?