superbowl commercials

were there really this many bad commercials this year? it's like advertisers weren't even trying. here's usa today's ranking by popularity of this year's commercials. which was your favorite? call me crazy, but i was a little distracted by the stuff between the commercials this year ...

the unbelievable

i thought i was excited when the colts were just the afc champions. now that they're superbowl champs i am elated! i didn't know that i was going to be so happy when the final seconds ticked off the clock and my hometeam was declared superbowl victors that i would almost cry. i didn't know that i cared so much about a game. i didn't know that a football team could unite a city. i didn't know i could feel more proud to say that i am from indiana.

work today has been nothing but a field of blue and white, a sea of conversation about celebrations, and constant chatter about favorite players. it has been wonderful and it's been about goddamn time. i've grown up a colt's fan and have never known that this is what it's like to cheer for a winning team. this must be how boston was after the red sox won the world series.

i need a makeover

'member how i said i hate reality tv? ok, that may not be entirely accurate. i have recently become addicted to tlc's what not to wear. although technically i'm not sure if this is reality tv or not. the show takes ordinary women (and sometimes men) and gives them $5,000 to completely overhaul their wardrobes. i watched a few episodes of the british version of this show a couple of years ago but never really got into it like i have the american version. i can't get enough ...

... with that said, i am really in the mood to revamp my own style.

i ordered new glasses. time to say goodbye to the frames i've been wearing for the past three years. i have contacts to wear sometimes too but i usually wear my glasses. i love these frames but my prescription has changed and times have changed and now that i'm no longer in my twenties maybe it's time to amp up the sophistication a little, huh? i pick up the new specs either friday night or saturday afternoon. i'll post an updated photo when i get a chance. :)

i'm also toying with the idea of changing my hair. right now it's a little blah. my hair grows so stinkin' fast. it's hard to keep up! i cut about 7 inches off my hair in august so that my hair fell just to my shoulders and now it's as long as it was when it cut it the first time. ugggh! it's a never-ending battle. anywho, i'm thinking of changing it up a little. i love eva longoria's hair.

i'm think a cut something like hers and maybe darkening my hair back to my original, chocolatly brown hair color. the red hair has been with me since i graduated from high school but it isn't my natural color and maybe i should try to go with what god gave me?

i really would love to buy an entirely new wardrobe but since we're so close to being finished building our new home i would much rather spend the money on new things for the house - like new furniture, blinds, etc. the clothes will have to take a back seat for now until i can more of an investment into myself.

this would be so much easier if stacy and clinton would sneak attack me and wisk me away to new york to be on the show! :)

behold, the power of photoshop

ok, so i get bored and i play with photoshop. i can do some pretty cool stuff. i can zap away zits and wrinkles. i can take years off your face. i can even make myself look so polished and beautiful that i look practically look like a different person. witness the photos below:

before

after

i've been re-reading my old posts and was inspired by this post that shows something similar to the photos of me above. the site i linked in my old post is interactive and my photos are not. however, there's a lesson to be learned here. you can't always believe what you see. :)

now, if only i can get my lips to look like that in real life without surgery i'd be all set ...


edit: looking back at my "after" photo, i realize now that i look more like a transvestite than a beautiful and polished woman. lmao. hmm ... still like the lips though.

update on the new house

1. there's now a foundation and we now have exterior walls and a roof
2. they've finished putting in the windows, front door, patio doors, and garage door
3. work begins on installing the heating system this week

if you drive by our lot, it actually looks like a home. sure, it's a house without siding, interior walls, shingles, gutters, or a driveway, but it actually resembles a house ....

it's going to be time to move in before we know it!

did i just see what i think i just saw?

hoe
lee
shit



the colts are going to the superbowl.


i am speechless.


when i can form full coherent sentences again i will type a real post.

an anniversary

it was eleven years ago today, on a bitterly cold day that i stood in the wind and snow huddled with my parents and watched our home be gutted by a fire. i have never felt more helpless, more confused, and more angry in my life and i hope that never will again - all of the sirens, the firefighters, the thoughtless onlookers pointing and staring, the horrible aftermath and the realization that we were now homeless, it was truly awful. to this day, the sound of a firetruck's siren can still make me sick to my stomach. after all these years, this is one of the most difficult things from my past for me to talk about.

i hope you can forgive me for rambling a little in this post, but i just feel the need to write about the fire and i really don't have a point to make.

at the time i was young and 19 and i remember thinking that i would never recover from the terrible hand life had dealt me. one minute life is great. one minute life is shit. i went through a HUGE depression. but first there was the anger. god, was i angry. first, i remember being mad because i was being passed from relative to relative. "gretchen, stay with your brother. gretchen, stay with your grandma." now, looking back i realize how ungrateful i was being and i am thankful for the family i have that would take me in. i also wish that i could go back and apologize to my grandma because she's no longer with us and although i'm sure she knows that i loved her i wish i would've let her know that her letting me stay with her meant the world to me.

i can't write anymore about my anger because it's actually making me sad if that makes any sense at all. and the sadness was the worst part. i was sad for a very long time. sure, i was sad about losing everything but i was more sad about having to grow up. i literally felt like i was expected to go from being a child to an adult overnight and the prospect made me sad because i wasn't ready to be a grown up. all of the things that most people get to say goodbye to gradually i was forced to say goodbye to immediately. things like toys, yearbooks, mementos. it was scary and i wasn't ready for it and so i mourned. those things were more to me than just things though. i had allowed them to define who i was and had come to rely on them for security. in some small ways i've never really got over their loss and i'm sure i'll always feel sad about not having anything from my past to pass on to my children. i will always miss my "stuff" from before the fire. my yearbooks. all of the photos and mementos i'd collected. toys from when i was a little kid. christmas ornaments that i'd made for my parents to put on the tree. essentially, the fire killed my childhood and forced me to grow up.

i have actually learned something as a result of the fire. and it's one of the most important things i want to pass along to people and if you get nothing else from this post i hope you get this: things are only things and do not make you who you are. you hear that people!? that means that you are not your things and the things you own are not a reflection of you. in other words, the stuff you own is not what makes you you. that fancy car you own or the designer clothes you spend thousands of dollars or the beautiful jewelry you have does not tell me didly squat about who you are except that you spend your money on expensive things. don't allow yourself to get wrapped up in image or in material things because those things are not what are important. you know what is important? family and friends. you can't replace those and the thought of losing them in a fire is a pretty scary though dear readers. i spent many sleepless nights thinking about it so trust me, i know first-hand. anywho, this lesson was a biggie for me. maybe you've already learned it. if so pass it on. if not, ask questions, maybe i'm not explaining it very well ...

again, sorry for the rambling of this post. i am groggy, tired, and a little depressed about this anniversary (even though i know i've come a long way and that says a lot) and so i don't really feel like i'm firing on all 4 cylinders tonight. comments?

goodbye, bp

racing legend and broadcaster, benny parsons has passed away at the age of 65.

i will miss your commentary and your southern charm on the long, long afternoons when eric has the remote and i'm faced with hour upon hour of racing. you helped to make the prospect of watching a 20-hour race more enjoyable.

the colts and superstition

i have been afraid to talk or blog too much about the colts for fear that i will jinx them and their chances to win and go to the big game. my recent post about how jeff saturday and some of his teammates were going to the pro-bowl was pushing it. what's weird is that my not blogging about the colts is not really my style. i'm not normally superstitious about stuff. but too many times the colts have teased their fans by getting tantalizingly close to winning only to have victory slip through their fingers. eric says the reason we'll never win goes something like this:

dungy + manning = no superbowl.

i say it's more like this:

indianapolis + stealing a team from baltimore in the middle night = superbowl curse.

however you want to look at it, there's something majorly messed up at play here folks and it's gonna take a lot more than shear talent to break free. this team needs good karma. so break out your favorite good luck charm (my mom has her touchdown monkey - which btw, does anyone remember this from the commercials from a couple of years ago besides my family?), paint yourself from head-to-toe in blue and white, and scream at the top of your lungs until the home team wins because the colts need some help and they'll take it anyway they can get it!