038/365: Deep Concentration

Dave and T... in deep concentration. Dave with his iPhone... Tyler with his DS... Both with their cups of hot chocolate... Life is good!


Today, I got to join Dave and Tyler on their Saturday night jaunt to the bookstore. It was an excellent time (I love Dave's Uncle Bob and friend Pete!) and I'm looking forward to doing it again...

037/365: Photography by Christen

Ohhhh... how I love a good inside joke. Unfortunately, it's sort of impossible to describe a picture when it's just one BIG inside joke.

Meet Eva. Eva is modeling for me. She is also wearing a fuzzy hat. This is because tonight we are celebrating all things Russian at our USSR party!!!

Didn't get your invite? Well... Maybe next time...

036/365: Technology Fair?

I'm back on the library's Staff Day Committee this year and today was our first meeting! It went much better than I thought it would... and I'm excited to see our ideas come to fruition.

However, I somehow got put in charge of putting together a mini tech fair for the entire staff... Ummmmm.... help?

035/365: Dinner Date

Tonight I had the pleasure of joining Dave and his son for dinner. We chowed down on hot dogs, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie (with lots of whip cream!)! Mmmmmmmmmm!!!

034/365: Birthday Presents!

Today is the magickal day! My Golden Birthday! 27 on the 27th!!! I was showered with gifts and cupcakes and birthday WONS (aka Snow)!!!!

I would also like to add that I have the GREATEST boyfriend in the whole wide world!!! I went to his place after work... and I found this note on his door... Dave hid 10 clues around his apartment that eventually led me to my birthday presents!! (The 39 Clues!! Wheeeee!!) It was very very cool and probably the most thoughtful gift I have ever gotten in my life! (If you're reading this... thank you sooooo much, Dave!)

And thank you to everyone who made this birthday absolutely amazing!!!

033/365: Carmen's

Today is Christen-akkuh Day 3... known to all who love me as "Christen Eve"! This Christen Eve was totally random and all over the place. Obviously, I loved it!

I had off from the library today, so I got to Dave's a little bit before noon. I went with him to Maple Shade to get his car photo inspected, Medford to get his car washed, Bellmawr to hit up Carmen's (please admire my yummy hoagie!), and then back to Maple Shade to test drive an Infiniti G35. Why?? Because the car is damn sexy... that's why! Oh... and there was a lot of Doctor Who thrown in, too! All-in-all... a truly fantabulous day!

P.S. This delectable looking hoagie would be a seafood salad hoagie... American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles! Mmmmmmmm!!!

032/365: Deptford Sundays

Christen-akkuh Day 2... and I'm stuck at work at the mall.

Actually, it was a pretty great day. I got to be super lazy and hang out with Dave. (Yay for Doctor Who!!) And work wasn't so bad. I helped with store set, so the night actually went by kind of quick. Now, I'm hanging with my brother and watching Family Guy... while also talking to Dave online about cars... Wheeeeee!!! Good times...

031/365: Tequila!

Today we celebrated Day 1 of Christen-akkuh!!! My parents, brother, Dave and I all took a jaunt to Philly for my birthday (a few days early)! We went to Tequila's in Center City and had a fantabulous time!

Here's a beautiful picture of my absolutely amazing margarita! Mmmmm!

030/365: Princess Party

I hosted (along with Miss Wendy) a Princess Party today at the library! We had 34 princesses, as well as caregivers and some siblings. I would say that we had over 70 people at this program! It was craziness!!!

As the princesses came in, they took a seat and got to work on their craft (a foam princess hat). After they finished up their hat, they got in line to have their hands painted (we were going to do face painting, but somehow it turned into hand painting. Go figure.) and then enjoy a princess snack of cookies and punch. Our grand finale was a Princess Parade all through the library... led by yours truly.

The program was very successful... and tiring! I'm absolutely drained tonight so I plan to spend the evening on the couch with my book. That's how I roll...

P.S. I seriously HATE my arms! UGHHHH!!!!

029/365: TAB

I had a TAB (Teen Advisory Board) meeting today. It was... interesting. I feel bad, but I kind of lost my cool in the beginning. I had been working on a project to present at this meeting for the past few days and it almost didn't happen due to some "technology" issues. I was not a happy pup, and oh boy was it obvious.

One of the roles of the TAB is to help me plan my tween and teen programs, so today we did a serious brainstorming session. I had three topics I wanted to hit on: 1. Our Spring Lock-In; 2. The Summer Reading theme ("Express Yourself"), and 3. All other miscellaneous programs that the TAB wanted to see sometime this year.

Soooo... here's our Board of Ideas! Wow. I have terrible handwriting... and I can't spell... But I'm super excited to try out some of these programs that they teens suggested...

028/365: Domesticated Dave

Confession: I hate to grocery shop... however, it's a heck of a lot more fun with Dave!

I had pole tonight and it kicked my butt! I was exhausted and icky, but I still joined Dave for a 9 PM jaunt to Wegman's. I helped him buy soda, paper towels, taco mix, "meat", and (oh joy of joys!) loose tea! It was exciting! I'm not an overly domesticated lady... but I don't mind it so much when I'm with certain company...

027/365: A Good Boss

Today was a mildly crazy day for me at work... and yet... nothing really happened. I had zero photo inspiration the entire day. That is, until I happened to catch sight of my boss as I was walking out the library's door for the night!

One of our children's librarians had an emergency and she couldn't make it to her program, so my boss Jen stepped in... into the program... and into this fantabulous dress! (And in case you were curious, it's an American Girl program!)

This is definitely not the best picture I have ever taken (and I can't seem to get rid of Jen's poor red eyes)... but oh man! It's a classic! Wheeeee!!!

026/365: Ladies who Lunch

Everyone, meet Michelle and Allison! I have known these two lovely ladies for half of my life! In fact, I was their babysitter when they were still little girls...

We've danced to the Back Street Boys, made homemade ice cream (and learned the difference between whipping cream and whipped cream), enjoyed the cinematic classic The Hidden, and even watched Sailor Moon together! (Okay, okay. I might have *forced* them to watch it.)

Michelle is now a freshman in college and Allison is a junior in high school. Where have the years gone? The girls I once thought of as my little sisters have turned into beautiful young ladies!

I had off today for Martin Luther King Day... and it turned out that Michelle and Allison did, too! Soooo... I grabbed Dave and we met the girls at Fridays for lunch! I had such an awesome time! They are so funny... and entertaining! This lunch made my whole week!

025/365: Celebration!

Mmmmmm!

My Eagles might have lost on Sunday to the Cardinals... but it was still a great night! I took Dave to the Continental Midtown to celebrate his divorce being finalized last Tuesday. We had some fantabulous drinks... yummy food... and, of course, an absolutely AMAZING dessert!!! My mouth is actually salivating looking at this picture!

I can't wait to go back!

024/365: Disconnect

Not an overly exciting picture today. That's my cell phone. I took this picture at 11:30 pm. It didn't ring today... and you never sent a text.

I have that feeling in my stomach now... It's a little bit of hurt and a whole lot of sad...

023/365: Baja with the Bump

My girlfriend, Regina, and her bump (currently known as the Heritage Tomato) took me out to lunch today to celebrate my 27th birthday (a few days early!).

The three of us had a lovely lunch at Baja Fresh! My mouth is watering now just thinking about the Chicken Tortilla Soup. Yum, yum, yum! And of course we had to take pictures while we were there! Today's P365 picture is of the bump (doesn't Reg look fantabulous for being 5 months pregnant?) and the bump's love of all things Baja!

022/365: Libraries are for Books!

Today started off pretty great. I woke up to SNOW!!! (Or as my friends like to call it... "WONS"!) This is the first real snow we got in South Jersey this winter and I was psyched! I took my camera out and shot several pictures of the snow covered lake behind the library.

An hour later I received an e-mail from our Associate Director of the library. There was a Friends of the Library meeting last night where they discussed our 2009 budget. We had a line in the budget for gaming consoles for the library. This was a BIG DEAL!!! We need Wiis at all of our branches! If we want to entice people (especially teens) to come to the library, then we have to be able to give them what they want... and people want to play video games!

We were informed in this e-mail that the Friends did not approve the line for the gaming equipment. We were told that the Friends declined to fund gaming equipment because they believe libraries are for books...

I'm sorry. What?! How can anyone say that and still expect the library to stay up and running in today's technology driven society? We have to change with the times people! If we want to stay in business then we need to give the people what they want. I know it kind of sucks sometimes, but the people want Best Sellers, and DVDs, and video game programs. Okay. Confession: These are the things I want, too!!

It's now been over 6 hours and I'm still fuming. Probably because I have no one of authority here to vent to. It's just so frustrating when the people who control a nice portion of your budget can't see that they're doing more harm than good...

021/365: Poise

I love Pole days! I love spinning around... hanging upside down... doing something totally out of the ordinary that very few people know how to do...

Pole is more than just "hanging on a pole" though. During these past 16 months, I've found a self confidence that I never knew existed. I'm stronger... both physically and mentally. I also feel like I have a very naughty secret. ("I can do something you can't do... and it's kind of hot!") It makes me more self aware and sure. It's a pretty great feeling.

I could take pole classes anywhere, but I love taking them at Poise. Like I said before, it's more than just "hanging on a pole". I've met some amazing women here and built some great friendships. Women who have let me cry at their kitchen table when I've been heartbroken... shared some of their juiciest secrets with me over a beer... discussed love and lust and everything in between...

I looooove being a Poise girl and everything that goes along with it!

020/365: Screeners

Today was a pretty big day! Dave got divorced today... I got to meet his (now) ex-wife... She gave me a hug... (Think she wished me "good luck", too. Hmmmmm...)

Looking back, I wish I got a picture of the hug. That would have been pretty fantabulous. Alas, I was trying to just hang in the background. I was there for support... (I think I did an okay job if I do say so myself!) Not there to snap a hundred pictures...

I was pretty amped up when I got to work. Not a lot gone done today. Oh! OH! But I finally managed to think of some great ideas for my Teen Anime Club (not to be confused with the Adult Club that met last Tuesday). I then took said "great ideas" and created a survey to find out what my teens really wanted to do at their meetings. It's official... We're making candy sushi next month! Some other ideas that they liked... a Naruto eat-a-like contest, tarot card readings, Japanese lessons, bubble tea taste test...

They tore my very neat screener bag apart today! Here's the pile that they left for me to clean up. I hate cleaning. At least they were enthusiastic though...

019/365: Lemon Yellow

Yeah. 11 PM and no photo inspiration for the day! So I decided to play with my macro button and take some pictures of this lonely lemon.

Not my most exciting picture to date... but I really love the colors! I find yellow to be so soothing and refreshing. This is like my "moment of zen" for the day...

018/365: Bloody Kitten

What do you get when you combine two human poles and two "pole-ees" doing a Baby Lunch Box, a Baby Slinky, and a Kitten with Kelly's long legs?! A bloody lip for Maddy (affectionately known as a "Bloody Kitten")!

That's right! We were just a *lil* too close to each other... and Kelly's foot connected with Maddy's lip. She was a champ though! She took care of the bleeding and then was right back out on the floor... slithering like the sexy snake that she is!

017/365: B&N Crash

Tonight was my first Saturday off in over a month!! As much as I need the money from my part time job, it was really great having an entire weekend to myself! I think it's been 10 months since I've had a full weekend off. Wow.

My boyfriend, Dave, goes to Barnes & Noble every Saturday night with his brother, uncle, and brother-in-law for "bookstore night". After being invited almost every Saturday for the past 6 weeks, I *finally* was able to attend and see what all of the hype was about. It was a really great night! I had some good conversations (thanks Pete!), laughed quite a bit (thanks Bob!), and even got a free hot tea out of it (thanks again Bob!).

Yay for Saturdays off!

016/365: Zach's 1st

My family can be a bit... what's the word... oh right... overwhelming... But my dad, brother, and I braved the craziness today to celebrate my cousin Zach's 1st birthday!

People who know me will confirm that I am not exactly maternal. But I sure do love my lil cousin (affectionately known to me as Piglet!). He is just the cutest guy in the whole wide world and I kind of wanted to put him in my purse and take him home with me!! (My roommates would have loved it!)

Here he is, chowing down on his birthday cake, having the time of his life. Happy birthday, Zach!

015/365: Magickal Moon

It's been a rough day. I've been overly emotional and am stressing personal matters. Right now, it is freezing outside! Cold, bitter winds. Not my kind of weather at all! As I drove home from work (I worked til 9 tonight), I dreamt about putting on my comfy clothes and curling up in bed with my book (Book 1 of Rachel's Caine's Morganville Vampires series, Glass Houses). I just wanted this day to end...

As I ran from my car to my house, I caught a glimpse of the moon and I froze. There's something very magickal about the moon. It pulls at me. I dropped my bags, took out my camera, and hung outside (in the freezing cold) for a few minutes trying to catch the perfect picture.

Tonight's moon makes me wish I was a better photographer...

014/365: Inverted Crucifix

I'm cheating today. I'm actually posting two pictures. The picture above is my Project 365 picture for the day (that I took). The picture below is just to show you what I was doing in the above picture (except I had my hands down to hold the camera and take the picture! My friend, Kelly, took this picture for me.). This move is called the Inverted Crucifix... and yes that is a pole I'm leaning against... and yes I am upside down... and yes! No hands!!!

I take pole classes at a dance studio in South Philly called Poise (you should all come and check it out!!). I've been bad though. I haven't gone in about a month and boy did I feel it tonight. Stupid holidays messed up my diet and my workout schedule!

It was actually my dad's idea that I try pole dancing. He saw it on Oprah and thought I would enjoy the challenge of it. (I'm super competitive!) I've now been a Poise Girl for 16 months and I would say it has changed my life! Not only am I in great shape, but I now possess a confidence that I never thought I would attain. I love my pole class and the friends I've made because of it! Be prepared to see many more pole pics over the course of this year...

P.S. Thanks ladies for helping me find the perfect pole picture for today! I appreciated all of the ideas!

013/365: Anime Club

When I was in high school I was obsessed with Sailor Moon! I wanted to be her: fight bad guys... have cosmic powers... date Tuxedo Mask!!

Sailor Moon is pretty much all I know about anime. Imagine my surprise to find out that I have not just one, but TWO Anime Clubs that I'm in charge of at the library! I have one for teens and one for adults. I usually dread the days this club meets. It's not that I don't enjoy the anime. I'm just not in my milieu (and oh boy is it obvious!).

Lucky for me, my boyfriend watches A LOT of anime. He's helping me expand my horizons and my anime "street cred". Today was the first meeting we had where I actually felt like I could almost/sort of/maybe hang. It was a nice feeling!! I could take part in some of the conversations and actually sound informed.

This is a picture of the screener we watched at the meeting. Thanks Dave for the recommendation!

012/365: "Naked Ladies"

I was working at my part time job on Saturday when a grandmom asked me if her grandson could use our bathroom. As we walked into the back, the little boy saw a row of mannequins and yelled out, "naked ladies"!

Two days later and that row of mannequins was still there. I couldn't help myself... I had to take a picture of that boy's "naked ladies"!

011/365: $35 Movie Night

Today the Eagles played the Vikings in the playoffs. I did watch the first three quarters... but then I stepped away from the tv to go on a "jaunt" with Dave. We went to the movies to see The Spirit.

$20 for tickets!!!!!!

$15 for two pretzel bites and a large diet coke!!!!!

Holy Rip-Off, Batman!

I still had fun though! The pretzel bites were yummy, the movie was entertaining, and the company was (of course) fantabulous!

P.S. The Eagles WON!!!!!!!

010/365: Resolutions

I usually make random resolutions: learn to do a split... read 100 books over the course of a year... master the Heelys...

This year I decided to be a little bit more grown up with my resolutions.

I messed up my credit pretty bad about a year and a half ago. It wasn't all my fault, but I feel that I need to take responsibility for at least some of my problems. I've done a great job over the past 10 months of getting my credit back together... but now I need to be a little more proactive and start budgeting and saving. (My mother, the accountant, can't understand why those two words scare me so much!) I started a weekly direct deposit from my checking account to my ING account so that I can build up a "Rainy Day Fund" for those unforeseen incidents that love to cross my path.

I also had some help (thank you Michelle and Deb!) putting together a budget to help me keep better track of my money and what I do with it. I took this picture after I updated my checking account register this morning... this is a BIG step for me!! From here, I enter everything into my handy dandy 2009 Budget Excel Spread Sheet! (I feel so grown up today, it's crazy!)

Wish me luck with this. I'm so going to need it...

009/365: Home Sweet Home

Stitches was very excited to be home after spending the last 2 nights at Dave's condo! We had a great New Year's Eve and Day (hanging with my friends on the Eve and being nice and lazy on the Day!)... but it's always nice to come back home.

After jumping on my dad for several minutes, Stitches went to her box of toys and immediately took out her Kong. Here she is, chilling out on her couch, playing with her favorite toy. She is home sweet home... and boy is it sweet!

008/365: 12:01 A.M.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... Happy New Year!!!!! (Now lets make out!!)

Goodbye 2008. Hello 2009! Tonight, Dave and I spent our New Year's Eve at my friends' Kat and Pat's house! We drank some Woodchuck, played Rock Band, and had a great time with my awesome friends!

Looking back, 2008 was a good year for me. There were some rough spots here and there (i.e. the "stolen identity" incident)... but all-in-all, it was very good. I lost a lil weight (close to 25 lbs), got a promotion, made new friends, and tried some cool new things...

I loved my 2008. And now I'm really looking forward to an even more amazing 2009!!