Sweet.

I now am a proud renter of a duplex apartment in Midtown Atlanta! I move in January 6-ish. (And school starts on January 9th. Yikes.) Yay! Come visit me, everybody!

I can't wait to post pictures but, unfortunately, I don't have any right now. Suffice it to say, it is "BE-A-U-TI-FUL."

Is that Sasquatch? No, it's just Brigham.

I was reading about how Brigham was growing a beard on his blog and wanted to post a fun comment. (Most of you know that I really like beards.) So I googled the word "beard" and came up with this crazy, awesome, unbelievable website and blog. Here's a small sample of some of the pictures on that site (though I'm pretty sure I'm copying them illegally.) Imagine the amounts of hairspray.

Apparently, there's a World Beard Championship every year with different categories. I wish I was a man. Or a hairy woman. I'd have a beard like this:

Or maybe this?


No, no. This.


And my personal favorite, the freestylin' German. Or is that a Belgian flag? (Give me a break, people. I'm not a member of the EU.)

My dad's first reaction to the above picture was "Sick. That's just sick." But I think it's great. It's an art, really.

Here are the links to the beard website and the beard blog. (Incidentally, the guy that has the blog uses the same template as Brigham. Hmm.)

Could this be my next residence?

(Oh, please. Oh, please.)

It's Official.

I'll be going to Georgia State in January. So I'm in the process of looking for a place in Atlanta which is really fun. Pictures will follow after next Tuesday.

I'll be posting more about this and jury duty (although a lot of you have already heard that story) when I have a chance. I've been busy with work and my Dreamweaver class.

I've realized that I have blogging habits -- I go awhile without posting anything and then I write a million random posts. It's pretty indicative of me, actually.

I'm thankful for: a cozy fire and a warm meal when I walk in the door every night.

One more thing.

This is a pretty good little article about what to do about always being the third or fifth wheel. I can appreciate a good article about that.

Here it is.

"What is THAT?" (or THA-yut)

Wildlife experts think they might have discovered a new animal. Here's the link.

Jury duty was like I had expected -- a lot of waiting around for nothing. I sat in a cold lemon/banana-colored seat for about three hours. And I didn't even get interviewed to see if I'm going to be on a jury. (They picked 2 out of 3 juries yesterday.) It was like sitting in a doctor's office for three hours.

Fortunately, I knew four people that I was waiting with. And by the end of the three hours, I felt like I knew everybody in the room.

There were a couple of murder trials that were about to come up (or is the correct phrase "about to be on the docket"?) in our county, but we heard this morning that both of the suspects pleaded (pled?) guilty, so those cases are being thrown out. Good 'cause we get paid $25 A DAY. I don't want to be on a long case. No matter how interesting it is.

I have to report at 9AM tomorrow.

The upside of jury duty is that I get out by 5:00. Yesterday, I went to the mall with Sara and bought a couple of books -- a collection of stories by Saul Bellow and another one by Jonathan Safron Foer. (Correction: It's SAFRAN. With two 'a's. Safron was the color of the seat I sat on for three hours.) Thought that'd hold me over for a couple more days sitting for hours at a time. I also bought three CDs -- an Ella Fitzgerald album, Johnny Cash's Christmas album, and one of the older Death Cab for Cutie albums. Though, I have to say, I'm kind of undecided about the Johnny Cash album. "The jury's still out." (Yeah, I know. I'm hilarious.) I'll let you know what I think of the books. I know you're dying to hear.

Where are they now?

I thought I'd give a little update. I was thinking of what I was doing last year at about this time. And I remembered our Christmas Tree Trimming Party. So, at the risk of being a little repetitive, I thought I'd repost those pictures and give an update on the people that were there. Kind of give an overview of what they've done over the past year.


1.) Original caption: "The Montrose Mamas" (The Youngs weren't actually at the party, but I thought I'd put them on here anyway because they were on the original post.)

They are no longer the Montrose Mamas. Now they're the, what?, S. 3rd Mamas? Doesn't quite roll off the tongue as well, huh?

Stephanie, now a high school graduate, is an employee of Target in California. She lived in NYC for a few months, decided it wasn't quite for her, and moved back to California.

Patricia graduated from Marymount. And is working for a couple (is it still a couple?) of cool places -- one of 'em is a deaf publication. Or something like that. (I promise I was listening.)

Laura just got a job at a new salon and she doesn't babysit anymore. (How's that going, by the way?)

2.)

Original caption: Genevieve, Lexia, and me

First of all, the wall is now white. RIP.

G: Still working at EMI. Considering school back in the UK. (Eventually. :) )

Lexia: is finishing up her thesis and will graduate this semester, right?

Me: I'm (obviously) back in Georgia and waiting to hear (any day now) if I'll be going to Georgia State in the Spring.

3.)Original caption: Kool Keith (from 2D). Closest thing I've got to a picture of the actual Christmas tree.

Keith: After a few trips back to Hong Kong this year, Keith "decided" that he'd become a student at NYU. (It was a visa thing.) But last I heard, he was enjoying his classes.

4.) Original caption: Matt, from 2D, stringing popcorn.

Matt: Hmm, Matt. Haven't really talked to Matt in a while. Last time I talked to him, he was working every once in a while and dating younger girls. :)

5.)Original caption: One of my favorite folks.

Sara: Sara graduated from UWG in, um, July? August? Anyway, she graduated over the summer. And after much deliberation, she decided she'd stick around here for a while. (Yay!) She just started a job last Thursday as a Web Content Manager at West Georgia.

6.)

Original caption: Two of the hunkiest guys I know.

Josh: Well, Hunky Guy to the left, is now a hunky married guy. That's all I know. That Josh is a drifter. Nobody can keep up with him.

Alejandro: Hunky Guy to the right spent 6 months in Le Grande Paris this year. Niiiice. Or, I mean, "Fantastique."

I'm REALLY thankful for: all of the memories I have with y'all over the 18 months I was in New York. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

I have jury duty.

I have jury duty starting today. Should be interesting. I'm kind of looking forward to it in a nerdy "I-like-to-read-detective-stories" kind of way. (Actually, I don't read detective stories. But when I was as kid I loved the Boxcar Children.)

So, yeah, maybe I'll get an interesting case. But it's Carrollton, Georgia. How interesting could it really be, right?

I'm thankful for: thunderstorms.

You want pictures? You want pictures?

I'll give you pictures.

I was kind of cleaning out the digital camera this afternoon, so I thought I'd post some of these.


This one's from way back in the day. Sara, Lexi, and I drove all the way to Birmingham, AL to see Coldplay. It was in a pretty small venue (with seats) and the girls behind us kept getting ticked because apparently, Sara or Lexia were flicking their hair or something. Something...the memory's a little hazy. Do I still have the pictures I took of the band? No. They were great. But I'm pretty sure that my mom erased them from off the face of the earth.

These next few are from Hawaii last summer:

The view from Hana:

Tyler was anxious to see all the waterfalls that were supposed to be on the Road to Hana. So he took a picture of this "waterfall" that was actually run-off from an irrigation ditch. Looks pretty good, though, doesn't it?

We got off of the beaten path a little on the way to Hana and, though I'm pretty sure we were trepassing and we never did find the waterfall at the end of the trail that everybody we met was raving about, there were some pretty cool little places along the trail. Such as this bamboo forest.

Here's a couple more views from Hana.

Here's a picture of the inside of our resort.

And here's the Duffey family at its best.

'Cause everybody has to take a picture of their own feet in the surf at some point of their lives, right? I mean, c'mon, those were some really cool lava rocks.

Okay, that's enough of the Hawaii pictures. 'Cause how many scenic photos can one really look at before they start scrolling?

Here are a couple from Gettysburg.

Sarah "Gotta-Love-Her" Duffey:

The lovely tour guide at the battlefield explained to us "Southerners" that many of the Confederate soldiers' bodies were either shipped back to the South or buried under as little as 18 inches of earth. "When rigamortis set in," as the lovely tour guide explained, "sometimes the farmers around the area would see arms and legs sticking up out of the ground." Thanks for that, tour guide. Really. Thanks.

I know some of you might get sick of seeing pictures of my dogs. Get over it.



AND...last and least -- pictures from the Cloud Room show I went to while I was in New York. The best part of that show was that a lot of my friends were able to be there. Not that impressed with the band itself.

Yeah, there was a band somewhere on that stage. Look hard enough and you'll see some of 'em.

All right. Peace out.

Geez.

I'm lonely. This morning I checked my email and I had two (Count 'em -- two.) emails. One was from Target.com and the other was my "Daily Single's Horoscope." C'mon, people, write me some emails. Personalized ones. :)