I have recently returned to my love of fonts. I was reading an interview with Mark Simonson (a St. Paul based typeface designer) and found one of his quotes interesting:

What upsets me most is simply ignorance about type among graphic designers — about its history or how it’s used. But I try not to take it too seriously. There are more important things in life to worry about. And for people who do care about type, thanks to the web it’s easier than ever to learn about type.

I like to think my Arial article has contributed to that. Almost all the feedback I’ve gotten has been positive. One funny story I got was from a designer who said he secretly substituted Helvetica whenever his clients asked for Arial on their jobs. They never noticed.

Now I think when I get home I might have to just download more fonts :) *sigh* oh how I love new fonts!

What can you feel when shock is all that's there?

So the other day, after a friend tried to get ahold of me to tell me some news, I called her on my way home from work. Then came the awful news:

"Laura, you know your camper Alyssa Beattie? She died this weekend...they think it was a blood clot that went to her heart."

I think that my own heart stopped beating for a second. I didn't know what to think or what to say. It never ceases to stun me when young people die. She was only a senior in high school, a CIT last summer at camp for crying out loud! She had so much life in her and so much left to live for.

I can only stop to think that there must have been some reason, some plan that it happened the way that it did and that some people get taken away way before their time, or so it seems to us.

It made me grateful for all of the friends I have in my life and how many of them have touched my life. I sent out an email to the Windjammers of 2006 (when Alyssa was my camper). This is what I wrote to them:

Hello my dear Windjammers,

I hope that despite the news that this email brings that all of you are well.

It is with great sadness that I have to write and tell you this. I am not sure if all of you have heard the sad news, but one of our Windjammers from second session 2006 is no longer with us. Alyssa Beattie died this weekend. She died at her cabin from a suspected blood clot that went to her heart. Her friend nor paramedics could revive her.

I just wanted to tell each of you that you all have touched my life and I have remembered each of you and think about you ALL from time to time. Life is too short guys, so please tell each other, your friends and family and those close to you how much they mean to you. I can honestly look back and say that your Windjammer year was by far one of the best counseling years that I have ever had the privilege of having at camp. I know that all of you will go on to do great things and now I hope that you do the things that Alyssa cannot.

I can email you again when I find out more information about the wake and the funeral. As of right now, I know that the wake is going to be Thurday evening in Anoka and the funeral on Friday afternoon. If any of you need to talk about this, I am here for you, as I always am and always will be.

Take care,
Laura

Thursday night is the visitation in Anoka and the funeral is Friday afternoon. I plan on going to both. If not for me to grieve, then to be there for my diabetic "family." We all have this unique close bond that no one but us really understands. We have never had anything quite like this happen before either, so it will definitely be a learning experience for every one of us. I think that there are going to be quite a few people there at both the visitation and the funeral from camp. She was a little fiesty ball of energy.

I am just sad that she is not ever going to be able to be a counselor. I know that is really what she wanted most out of camp. She even had high hopes of being bumped up the second week of camp, which never happened.

For anyone reading this, I want to give you some homework. I want you to go home tonight and tell those close to you, family, friends and loved ones, pets too, that you love them and what an important part of your life they are. I know that I don't ever say it enough to those special people in my life, and let's face it, you never know when it could be your last time to say it to those people, or perhaps the last time that they will hear it.

6th picture, 6th album...

1. Go to your sixth picture folder and find the sixth picture.
2. Pray you remember the details!
3. Post it on your blog.
4. Tag four others and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they've been tagged.

This one is from my work computer, jewelry from a
Christopher & Banks store from December 2008:

Firsts

This year, Derick and I are going to have a lot of "firsts." Since we just got married in October, there have already been a few of them already like...Our first puppy together (Tucker), our first Halloween together, and now just add Thanksgiving to the list! It was fun but short-lived because he had to work Thanksgiving day and then, of course, Black Friday.

We went to my aunt Marilyn's house for Thanksgiving this year and ate some FABULOUS food! We watched Jana, Matt (her boyfriend) and a couple other cousins take turns playing Rockband. Wow, that was hilarious!

I have been in the "Christmas spirit" already, decorating the house, and went shopping a little with Jana while she was home over Thanksgiving. I have also been BAKING! YESSS! I love to do that as well! I am going to make: Toffee Bars, Sugar cut-outs, Christmas M&M cookies, Peanut Blossoms and I might try to find one or two more that I want to try this year. I have already made the M&M ones as well as the Toffee Bars today! yay!

I went to watch my cousin Nathan's Squirt Traveling Hockey Game today. He plays goalie and is so funny to watch- all of them are! I think that this is his second or third year playing hockey, but his first year as a goalie for the whole year and the first time on a traveling team. His team was playing in a Thanksgiving tournament in Champlin, so it was really nice and close. He has another game tomorrow morning that I might try and get back for. It was $6 for the whole weekend (3 games). Nate plays for the Wayzata Trojans the B2 team (I believe). I went to a couple of his games last year and they were fun to watch as well. It is amazing to watch them and how far they have come and their gameplay! They all skate so much faster than before! But, fast skating didn't equal goals and their team lost 0-6. That was kind of a bummer, but the other team had some pretty tricky shots to get in their goals.

After the game, Nate and Gail (my aunt) came over to my house to meet Tucker. Tucker LOVED Nate! It was so funny to watch them interact. I am glad that Tucker gets along so well with other people and other dogs. When we had brought him over to meet Mitzy (my sister's dog at my mom and dad's house) I was reminded of just how bad Mitzy is with other dogs. she HATES them!

Then I hung out around home, cleaned a little, made toffee bars, and called my sister to see if we were going out to run more errands, but I ended up calling my house because she was not answering. I came to find out that she already had gone without me when Gail and Nate were still at my house. Little stinker! Oh well, I do not have ANY money to spend right now anyways! I just wish that our tax rebate would be here already! the economy sucks and money is super tight. After having a wedding, house, puppy, credit cards, car payment, every payday seems less and less fun. *sigh* oh well, what can you do but make the best of what you have? Even if I do feel like a mizer at times!

I finally deleted my Myspace account. I was tired of all of the spam on there and I have had my account hacked into once already, so I figured it was time to pull the plug. That is why I use Facebook and now this blog site!

Jana is going to come back over tonight to watch Hancock. We have it from Netflix and I have been wanting to watch it forever now!

So I guess that is all for the moment. More ramblings!

It makes me feel like a little schoolgirl again

Wow, even though this was a short work week this week, today seemed to drag on FOR-E-VER! I even got to leave early! A lot of people around me that were actually in the office today were all in the same mindset...not wanting to work, silly, and all feeling that 5'oclock couldn't get here fast enough.

I had a nice lunch today! Derick had the day off and Amy had asked if he could bring in Tucker so that she could see him. So, Derick came around 12:30 with Tucker and everyone LOVED him :) Who couldn't?! The other night even, he made me pretty mad because he knocked over one of my plants that he likes to get into and eat the leaves. Time after time when we catch him in there he gets scolded, but that night, he tipped it over right onto a heat vent. I was SO pissed! He was being naughty anyways besides that, but that was just the icing on the cake for the evening.

I am so glad that it is a long weekend! Derick has to work on Thanksgiving and the day after (Black Friday). But first we are going over to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving around noon and then just hanging tight until he has to work at 4pm. I am so excited for the food tomorrow! I don't think I am going to eat much so that I can make room for all the yummy goodness tomorrow! yay!

As for shopping the day after Thanksgiving, I don't think that I will be running out. I might want to run out to Hallmark and get an "Our First Christmas Together" ornament or something, but that can always wait until closer to Christmas. I am excited! This time of year just goes by way too fast!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

Wow, what a long week of working! I cannot believe how busy things get for retail (even on the corporate end) when the holidays come around again! I was so looking forward to the weekend because I had some plans, but even though some of them fell through, I have been actually having fun inside organizing things with Derick.

My dad came over for a couple of hours this morning to help us put up some shelving in our garage to try to make sense out of the mess in there! The bad thing about the townhouse is that there is very limited storage and you really have to maximize what you have to work with! We are going to be donating more things that we went through and realized that we do not use or do not need anymore. That was actually a pretty nice feeling.

After my dad left, Derick and I had lunch and then decided to pack up Tucker and bring him over to my mom and dad's place to help my dad put up their outdoor Christmas lights. Derick pretty much only helped because I had to be on puppy patrol. Mitzy (Jana's dog) did NOT enjoy Tucker on her turf and she let us ALL know that. Mom and I took both dogs for a walk and by the end of it, Mitzy was a tad more tolerable of Tucker. She is such a spoiled baby dog, and they have had her for four years already! Almost five!

In the midst of that, I also realized that I only have two storage totes of Christmas decorations in total! Ornaments, wrapping accessories, and other misc. decorations! That is about 8 less than my parents have!

So after that was done, for the most part tonight, I started decorating part of the house. That was actually fun, given the fact that I had to decorate the office at work this year. That meant that I had to help assemble, fluff and decorate three full size Christmas Trees, fluff and place about 8 small Christmas trees, fluff and place one large garland strand, and fluff and place about 6 wreaths. whew! It took 2 full days almost to complete all of that! Needless to say, all three of us who were working on it were Scrooges by the time we left. Ugh!

Now I am really excited to start baking! YUM! I am also SUPER excited that we have a short work week next week because of Thanksgiving! YAY I also LOVE Thanksgiving! The food, friends, family and football! The four F's?! I guess, whatever works!

Now I just have to figure out what I am going to accomplish tomorrow. Gotta love the weekends!

Baby, it's cold outside

Brr, it is certainly getting colder and colder out! Makes me think that it is going to be Thanksgiving soon or something! I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving. I think that I love it even more than Christmas! Thanksgiving just seems to be focused more about the family, food and relaxing! Christmas time seems to be more and more about rushing around and gifts. Really, don't we run around and rush enough already?! Whew! Don't get me wrong, I love both holidays and am equally excited for them and the fact that I don't have to wait much longer until they arrive!

A new challenge and excitement will be in place though this year. This year, since Derick and I are now married, we have to figure out where we will be going for the holidays! Well Thanksgiving Derick has to work, so I will probably end up going over to my aunt's house since she is hosting it this year. Or Derick and I talked about doing our own mini-thanksgiving since we both LOVE the food (and of course, the leftovers! mmm).

There have been snow flurries all day so far today and I like it. I don't mind the snow, except for when driving and traffic become a nuisance. Not a fan. Although, Derick turned on the fireplace this morning before he left for work and I must say that I am a big fan of them and how quickly they warm up the house!

Last night I was watching a few home improvement type shows and I think it was Trading Spaces I was watching at the time they were putting in hard wood flooring. This made me really want to do this in our own house. If you have been over to our townhouse, you can probably agree that the downstairs carpet to tile ratio set up is a little out of the ordinary. I would like to unify the whole area by putting down wood flooring from the front door all the way through the kitchen to the back door! I can't imagine having kids someday in this house and still having carpeting in the dining room! yuck!

Wow, I realized that I haven't written in a long time. I should really get better at updating this. If not for anyone else to read, at least for my own sanity!

Let's see, a wedding update should probably be in order!

The day went SO well! It was a little chilly outside for the pictures and the ceremony, but at the time, I think the adrenaline was running so much that we hardly noticed! (we meaning Derick and I!) It is nice to have it behind us now, no more planning or worrying about any of the small details, though I do have to say that planning went really well, given the fact that I did pretty much everything myself. Derick, being a guy, didn't want to do much of anything. It did frustrate me at times, but I knew that he wanted me to plan it because he trusts my judgment and likes the way that I "do" things like this I guess. Whatever that means.

It is kind of funny though because now that we are married, I am on the opposite end of wedding things, for other friends now. Jenny just had her first bridal shower and it was fun to watch her go through some of the same anxieties that I did when I had my showers! Becky got married and it was so awesome. Justin is so perfect for her! I know that they are going to be so happy together.

I think that this winter I am going to try to subject Derick to a Minneapolis Christmas! I want to take him to the Holidazzle parade in downtown Mpls, the Macy's Christmas display as well as a few other little things around the area that we can discover together! Hmm, maybe Paul and Jenny would like to do some of that with us as well! They are sort of like our other "couple in crime."

Well, I think that I am going to pull this ramble into a conclusion for now. I will update more later!