Merry (Late) Christmas and Happy (Early) New Year!

Merry Christmas to all my readers...though it be a bit late!
Happy New Year to all my readers....though it's not yet the date!
I hope that Santa brought you tons of great toys
Cuz I know you've all been such good girls and good boys!
Eat plenty of candy while you still have the chance
And please don't you worrry if you'll fit in your pants
For the time for resolutions is quickly drawing near
And you can start a new diet in this coming New Year!

hehehe...written by me....today...at work...LOL
I get a kick out of myself sometimes :)

back to civilization

So our power was (finally) restored in the early morning hours on Friday. So we were powerless for a little more than 7 complete days. Hopefully I never have to go through something like that again in my lifetime. Thanks to all those who offered their support, food, shelter, showers, laundry...lol all the necessities. And thanks to Jana and Ray who came through with a generator for us. We at least had heat Thursday night! Haha though it is funny - ray fixed our furnace and we got our heat going about 6 hours before the power came back on. But anyway, thank god that's over.

Day 7

No power. Day 7. Power companies aren't answering their phones. I am permanently frozen. Extremely depressed. I have no capacity to handle this whatsoever.
Some friends finally brought us a generator last night, but guess what? Our furnace won't run. So even if the power does somehow miraculously come back on (and it would have to be miraculous cuz I haven't seen a utility truck in all these 7 days...utilities must be LYING when they say there are 500 crews out there...that is a crock of shit) we still won't have heat.
I want to go to sleep and never wake up again.

129 hrs without power and counting

A word of advice to people:
When you ask if I have power yet, and I say "no", DON'T BE A DUMBASS and say "really?" or "are you kidding?"
Yes I am definately kidding about the fact that we're almost a week without power sleeping in 44 degrees every night. Like I would have lied to you that we have no power. Like it's a joke and I said "no" just to get a rise out of you. It's really fucking annoying.

Powerless and Ridiculous Waitress Story

We haven't had power since Thursday night (December 11). It is of course now Tuesday December 16th. It is supposed to start snowing today and tomorrow, with more snow Friday. Sub-freezing temperatures will return this afternoon/evening. I feel like I haven't really slept in forever. I want to take a hot bath in MY tub and lay down on MY couch with MY blankies and watch nothing on TV and be warm and be able to have food in my kitchen and be able to see when I go to the bathroom and to not have to worry all day long whether the stupid theives out there are breaking into our home during the day and I don't want to have to worry all night long about the temperature in our condo dropping down so low that our pipes will freeze.

Much thanks to my mom for having us over the weekend and to Shelley and Eddy for having us over last night, and for the offers from Chris and Roger to spend the night at their places. NO THANKS AT ALL to the people who offered to bring us a generator to help us get our heat back and then backed out on us two nights in a row. If you can't really help don't offer and get our hopes up. That is just cruel.

So we went to Margaritas last night for a hot meal and the service was atrocious. After waiting an obscenely long time waiting for our meals without ever being offered additional chips or drinks, our waitress comes over to our table. I of course was expecting an apology and explanation. So she comes over and says (I'm not kidding):
"What's the matter? Are you waiting for your dinner?"
No dumbass, we were waiting for Santy Clause to pull up in his slay with our Christmas Presents. Lovely. Just Lovely. Idiot.

PS - I'm writing this at work. I need a vacation far far away where there is NO WINTER and it is warm and cozy and people are competent and friendly and there are lights and power and.....well that or a long hybernation. I'm losing my mind. I think it might already be gone.

Our First Christmas Tree!

So we have our very first Christmas tree! Our buddy Roger came by Wednesday night with his truck and we picked it up, and then we decorated it last night! I am so excited to have a real Christmas Tree this year. I have never had one before and I looooovveee Christmas and I am so happy! yay! Here it is:

hehe now it just need some presents underneath it!

We picked up most of our decorations after christmas last year for 75% off. My mom gave me a few, like the my first christmas pink ball and my puppy on a sled. We also have a beautiful glass ball that we got from Greg's mom for Christmas last year. Here are a couple of our favorite decorations:

So wishing everyone a very merry Christmas! I hope your month is filled with joy and love and friends and family! (and candy and pies and christmas cookies!!!! hehehe)

Wedding Woes and Catching Up

So I haven't written a meaningful post in quite a while - my apologies. (Not that anyone actually reads this). There hasn't been much to say except that I am always bored and restless. I don't know how to fix that...but I always tend to get really restless this time of year because it's too cold to play outdoor summer sports, but there is no snow to do winter outdoor activities (ie - snowshoeing, sledding, etc.) So I've pretty much just been working, eating, playing WoW, and sleeping.

Which of course leads directly to the wedding. Everyone seems to be wondering how I can be bored when I have a wedding to plan. I will try to explain.

1) Planning: I am not much of a planner. I like to think of something, and then do it. I don't want to go on a vacation where every moment of my trip is slated on a to do list...that is just my personality. So motivating myself just to plan in and of itself is difficult for me.

2) Budget: Everything is so bleeping expensive that even looking at costs and budgets stresses me out. My sister says I should really budget 10 grand, and she is right, but hello! don't have that kind of money floating around.

3) Ceremony/reception: I want a nice simple elegant (not extravagent) wedding. But to have a nice elegant wedding takes us back to item #2. So that is discouraging.

4) Guest list....need I explain? Again, item #2 severely limits the guest list, which of course, will piss people off when they don't get the invite.

5) Honeymoon: Item #2, again. We can either afford to have a nice reception OR have a nice honeymoon. Cannot have both. I would rather have a honeymoon, all our guests would prefer a nice meal. Planning a honeymoon I would definately enjoy, but whats the point in looking at all these great honeymoon packages when you know you won't be able to afford any of them?

6) Details: Flowers? Cake? Location? Religon? Buffet or Plated? Catered or Restaurant? Colors of dresses? Music? Photographer? DJ? Attendants? oh my god the list keeps going. It is too overwhelming. I don't even like flowers - they make me sneeze.

So yeah those are just a few of the reasons that in all of my boredom I am not doing any wedding planning right now...hope that clears it up for everyone.

BUT DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME HERE!!!! I really do want to get married. I am madly in love with Greg and I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with him. It's just this whole planning thing that sucks.

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words, Except my Desk is a lot more Messy

what i want for christmas

I want this for christmas (the sheet music booklet - I already have the CD)

so so bored

I am bored, so very bored.

Yes I am bored...oh so so bored.

The seconds seem like hours - Time basically stands still.

If I knew work would be this boring I would have never gone to school. I could have stayed home all day and played and live off the taxes of poor shmucks like me under Obama's economic plan to have the working class pay for the non working class (who should have to pass a urine screening to receive benefits - at least in my mind - no welfare for druggies!). blah grr ugh. I am having a mid-life crisis at 26.

oh what shall i ever do? Anyone? Any thoughts? suggestions?

Before and After - The Den

So the second bedroom was the first project we tackled. Unfortunately we didn't get a "true" before picture. The walls were originally a horrid peach color - we primed them (white) before we took our first "before" set of photos. So here's how it was just after before: (please forgive my fatness - it was really hot)

Until the day a little kiddie comes into our lives, we are going to use this room as our office / den. I really love the green color we found. This room also has a fairly large closet with shelves that you can't see in any of the pictures - but it's a super handy storage area.

Bridge Climbing!

Hey Everyone...here are the pictures from the last week of my inspection work when we inspected the suspender cables by rope access. It was by far the most exciting piece of work that we did while we were down there.

Ring!

Here are a couple pictures of the ring and the happy couple. The bear came as a gift for our donation to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital that we made at the time of purchase.

ENGAGEMENT!

For those of you who have not heard, Greg and I got engaged on Friday October 3, 2008!!! I'm sorry if I did not call or email you personally - too many people to inform.

Here are the details for all of you who have been asking:

I have been away for 4 weeks for work, and I got home on Friday night. I had made dinner for Greg and then we were supposed to go up to Vermont for the weekend. We went upstairs to pack and he came up behind me and gave me a big hug (which I love). We started talking (with hugs and kisses :) ) about how much we missed each other and how much we love each other and how awesome the last three years of our lives have been. He asked me if I loved him, to which I was like, Yes! You know I love you! And he said "Good cuz it will make it easier to do this!" And he got down on a knee and said "Rebekah Joelle Briggs will you marry me?" To which I pulled him up off the floor and said "YEEEESSSS!!!"

It was very sweet and unexpected. The best welcome home present I ever could have hoped for! It was perfect and we are super excited!

What I've Been UP To...

So for those of you who didn't know I have been down in Bourne, MA inspecting the Bourne Bridge for the last 3 weeks. The first two weeks we worked over land out of a lift (as seen in the above photos). It was really fun to operate! Last week we were actually climbing on the truss over places we couldn't get to on the lift (like over power lines). Next week we are doing rope drops (sounds kind of scary) to look at the suspender cables over the water. So yeah that is what i have been up to lately (literally).

Economic Politics

A non-partisan view of the economics of the coming election:

A president's pension currently is $191,300 per year, until he is 80 years old.

• Assuming the next president lives to age 80, Sen. McCain would receive ZERO pension as he would reach 80 at the end of two terms as president.
• Sen. Obama would be retired for 26 years after two terms and would receive $4,973,800 in pension.

Therefore, economically, we should elect McCain in November.

Happy Birthday Greg!

Just wanted to wish the love of my life the best most wonderful birthday ever!

Our Own Backyard!

So we took this picture in our very own backyard!!! I am wearing the dress that Greg's mom got me this summer and Greg is looking smashing in his suit. This is the view from our kitchen, back deck and our bedroom upstairs...without the gorgeous couple of course. It is so nice to look out the window and see trees instead of Route 108!

This picture is of the two of us with my Grammie. She was down with my mom to visit on Labor Day and we had a great time together. I love every moment I spend with her! She is the greatest. This picture was taken in our neighbors backyard...she's done a nice job with the flowers!

Homeowner!

Well all it is official! Greg and I are homeowners. We closed on our condo last night! very exciting. We're moving on Saturday. If anyone wants to come help me paint in the next couple weeks just let me know...lol

Fort Foster

So the fam all met up at Fort Foster Saturday...the weather gods worked things out for us and we ended up having a really nice day. We got cut a little short due to some thunderstorms, but all in all it was a sunny warm day. I loved seeing my sisters and their families, my mom, and my dad, all of whom I don't see very often anymore. I wish I could spend more time with them, but it almost makes days like Saturday seem all the more special.

True Story - I love these lyrics

I am a gifted artist. I've learned to paint this canvas well. I work until I've finished an ideal image of myself, but you know better.
I am a storyteller; quite brilliant if I do say so. I tell them tales they want to hear, and they believe it's me they know. But you know better.
The world might think me foolish if they could see beneath my mask. They might find my dreams laughable or be embarrassed by my past, but you know better...

You see my imperfections, still you say I'm a masterpiece. A marvelous reflection - the image of yourself in me. You paint with strokes of grace undoing my disguise. You say beauty lies in the true story.


If only we could all see the true story...in ourselves and in each other...

Rain

Anyone sick of the weather pattern yet? Got to be setting a record for the number of days with rain in a summer...what crap.

Shout Out

Just wanted to give a shout out to the best carbonated beverage of all time! I hope you agree. If you don't, well, then you have inferior taste buds. That's all for today. Thanks for reading my blog.

spreadsheets

Having to use someone else's spreadsheet is like having to wear someone else's pair of underwear....you just shouldn't do it. And if you're forced to do it, well, that's like having to wear someone else's pair of underwear that has skidmarks in it. I know, disgusting. If you've ever had to use someone elses spreadsheet you know what I mean.

Buying a Condo

So yeah purchasing a home is really a royal pain. We had narrowed down to two condos. The nicer of the two had an oil furnace on life support, so we made an offer that would account for the cost of replacing the furnace. Well the seller wouldn't negotiate, so we said forget it and made an offer on the other place. That offer got rejected, couteroffered, which we counteroffered, and then was finally accepted. YAY! So after getting all the loans approved, searching for a condo, running the prices by the lender, and then finally getting our offer accepted, our lender informs us, oh by the way, the FHA loan you have is only VALID ON CERTAIN PROPERTIES, and your property is NOT ON THE LIST! Great! Thanks for telling us this when we took that type of loan, thanks for looking to see if the property we gave you prices for was on this list prior to us making an offer! Totally irresponsible on behalf of the lender. Ridiculous. So now we may not even be able to get a loan on this place, without 10% down. Anyone have a few grand floating around that they don't need? Sucks ass.

Trip up to Mapleton

Last weekend I went up with Greg, my mom, my sister Karen, and my niece Natalie up to Mapleton, ME (waaayyyy North) for Mapleton Daze. Mapleton Daze is a weekend long celebration for alumni of Mapleton School. More importantly, it is a weekend where most of my mother's side of the family all gets together. We had a great time visiting with my grandmother. We also had a big cookout up at my Aunt Nancy's new beautiful house in Fort Fairfield, where we spent the afternoon with Aunt Karen, Sarah and her kids, Jessica, Aunt Judy and Uncle Ken, Abby and Ryan, Chris and Katie, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Steve, Nikki and Matt, Uncle Darryl, Aunt Jan, Aunt Barbara and Uncle Keith, and probably more that I am forgetting. But yeah it was great to see the extended family.

Celtics Win!

The Celtics are the World Champions!

That is so awesome. I remember watching the Celtics with my dad when they used to be good. I was only 4, 5, 6 years old in the 80's, and I don't really remember details, but I do remember watching them. In all the years since then I've watched them pretty much suck, so to see the kind of domination that they were able to attain this season has been incredible. Then to finish it off by totally schooling the most arrogant player in the league...cough cough Kobe you are definately not Jordan...and crushing the lakers is just so great. Makes me want to go shoot some hoops!

Spaghetti

For several years, a man was having an affair with an Italian woman. One night, she confided in him that she was pregnant. Not wanting to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he paid her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child. If she stayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18. She agreed, but asked how he would know when the baby was born. To keep it discrete, he told her to simply mail him a post card, and write 'Spaghetti' on the back. He would then arrange for the child support payments to begin.

One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife. 'Honey, 'she said, 'You received a very strange post card today.''Oh, just give it to me and I'll explain it later,' he said. The wife obeyed and watched as her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted.

On the card was written:
'Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.
Three with meatballs, two without.
Send extra sauce

apartment hunting

yeah so we are still apartment hunting...been doing so for about a month. Such a pain in the ass! This has been the most frustrating dissapointing and long apartment searches I have ever had. We've seen several dumps, including one last night that was just horrendous. We want to get a puppy, but it seems like the only apartments where you can have pets are the crappy disgusting ones. We did see a really nice apartment last night too, but its expensive, includes no utilites, can't have pets, and flooded in both the 2004 and 2006 floods. AAAHHHH! It sucks! I guess we'll just never really find what we are looking for until we get a house. I wish we hadn't put our money in a CD now...cuz the rent we'll pay for the place we saw last night is the same as a freikin mortgage.

A couple quotes

Some of my favorites:
"Confusion is always the most honest response." - Marty Indik

"I never said most of the things I said" - Yogi Berra

"A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice." - Bill Cosby

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein

And a couple for the times we're in:

"Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented immigrant" is like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist.""

"Recession is when a neighbour loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours." - Ronald Reagan

Mind Boggled Part 2

This comment was so amazing I had to post it. Kudos to its author, Karen, who I want to see clogging with a frog!

beck, your blogging boggles my noggin!!!
its like jogging through a thick bog through foggy smog!
or clogging with a bullfrog!!
or swimming to prague on a bulldog while drinking eggnog!
or believing that this is the prologue when its really a comment blog!
does that boggle your nog?

frickin hilarious...i love it!

Mind Boggled

LOL yeah so i am loving the word "boggled" right now. What a sweet word. Boggled. LOL. Boggle = to overwhelm or bewilder, as with the magnitude, complexity, or abnormality of...I'm loving "to bewilder with the abnormality of..." So anyone who gets to know me must certainly be boggled.

So instead of saying "that blows my mind" I'll say "that boggles my mind". HAHA does that make you mind-boggled? Sweet. I am mind boggled.

That's all for today...boggled yet by my blogging?

Becoming Pro-Active for your Own Life

So I've been really stressed out lately...just ask Greg...he doesn't know what to make of me. It rains every weekend, my job sucks, I'm saving for a house, finding a new apartment until then, sucking at hockey and wishing I were better so that I don't have to play with people who have no clue, family stuff...blah blah blah blah blah!

Enough already! After a weekend of total emotional chaos, I said something about someone else that I realized that I need to apply to myself. Actually, we all could probably apply it in our lives.

BE PROACTIVE FOR YOUR OWN LIFE!

People in life will screw you over...your job will suck at times...the weather will be rainy...but guess what? I don't have to let that take over my emotions. I can be proactive.

But what does that mean? Do we just ignore people that cheat us or hurt us? Absolutely not. Ignoring those things just leads to internal pain that will eventually manifest itself in our thoughts, moods, words...etc. Being proactive means dealing with the situation and THEN moving on from it. Dealing with the situation may be as simple as an apology or may be as serious as removing that source of pain from your life entirely...
And when thoughts of it get you down, hold the door for the little old lady at the store...let the guy trying to take a left on a busy road go in front of you (instead of getting pissed off when he tries to cut you off and take 10 seconds away from your day)...find a nice card to send to your grandmother to let her know how much you love her...

Good things don't happen to people. Good things happen to people who look for the good things in life.

Bad things do happen to people. Bad things only consume people who put themselves in a place to be consumed.

It's time to be proactive... Any thoughts???

Me in a dress

Hey check it out! It's me in a dress. Yikes! Run! Hide! Get scared! Don't put a mirror up to your screen or it will break!

HAHA yeah so I just got back from Arizona. I was at Amanda's wedding. She was sooooo gorgeous! We had a good time and it was really nice to spend some time with her and her family.

This is the dress I wore to the wedding. Shelley and Michelle helped me pick it out. Thanks to Meagan for straightening my hair cuz God knows I can't do it.

Arizona

Hello to anyone who reads this - I am writing from Prescott, Arizona. It's 7:00 AM here and I wish I were still sleeping, but its all good. I am here visiting friends and will be attending a wedding saturday. I'll be wearing a dress (I know, OMG!) so I'll post a picture if there's one taking that I actually like. It's only 34 degrees here this morning which is just as cold as New Hampshire, which is kind of surprising. OK well that is where I am and what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll snag some yummy mexican food while I am here. I fly back Sunday. Bye!

An Alliteration

The sweet serenity of a saturday summer sunrise surrounds my senses...
I wake and wonder whether winter will withdraw its whipping winds
So I can bask in the brilliant beauty of a bright balmy bay...
Rather than drudge through the dreary draftiness of these dark days

Oh dear God. It is the last day of March. It is snowing again.

Piano!

So the Easter Bunny came for me yesterday night ( a day late I know) and dropped off a new digital piano!!! I am so excited. It is full length, touch sensitive with weighted keys. I played it quite a bit last night. It's still not as amazing as playing a real piano but it is light years better than the keyboard I had before. I am so stoked.

baltimore

So I'm headed out to Baltimore, MD bright and early tomorrow morning. I have to speak at Federal Highway Administration Accelerated Bridge Conference. I need to stop agreeing to do these things. I'll be up at 4:00AM and heading to Manchvegas to catch my flight. I am going to spend the night with the Knights and go to their Easter play. I have a morning flight back on Saturday, from which I'm basically gonna go home and then straight to my mom's for Easter Dinner. I'll be tired but it'll be so great to see everyone - especially the kids.

No more snow!

I drove to work this morning....in the snow...again. Enough already. Whoever is wishing for more snow should be flogged. Is Cindy praying again or something? God. I'm so sick of it. I want it to be warm and sunny.

New Thing

Hello All!

Welcome to my blogspot. Since I rarely get to see anyone anymore, especially my family, I figured I'd try out this blog thing to keep you all up to date with what is going on with me! We'll see how it goes though - I've never been able to keep a diary going longer than a week in my entire life. Probably I'll just write when major things happen or when I am really bored.

So welcome...enjoy...feel free to comment.