You are the "you suck, and that's sad" happy bunny. You're truthful, but can be a bit brutal.
Which Happy Bunny Are You?

These are my co-worker Donna's favorite - "happy bunny" memorabilia. I think the best one of them all is the one that says, "Have a nice day, you worthless turd." Or maybe the one that says "whatever, you moron." Haven't we all had days that we wish we had been wearing t-shirts that said this?!? Some days, (yes - even with Suzy Sunshine!) it is just so hard to be pleasant. And working at a library you would think people would treat others respectfully, but some people act as though they are at a fast food restaurant or something! Somedays, after haggling with grouchy people over 20 cent fines, I want to say "Do you want fries with that?" and just see the reaction I'd get! So if you are reading this, just remember to be kind to a librarian today. It is not like she WANTS to squeeze you for all your spare change!

Reached the 1000 Mark!!!

Mt Rushmore Thrill
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

Well, looky there - my site has been visited over 1000 times since it's been up! I see the shock and awe in all of your eyes! Thanks ya'll for reading my blog. And thanks Becky for all your hard work and help on it!

Suzy & Pan

Suzy & Pan
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

I love cats. I especially love my two little rascals. Well, let me rephrase - my cats are not exactly "little" (as you can see by the photo)! Mr. Pan (pictured) is a Maine Coon and is probably about 23 lbs now. He is the tallest cat I've ever seen and he has often frightened our houseguests by his sheer size. Once, Pan even beat up our friends' Labrador/Retriever who was twice, if not thrice, his size! Pan plays fetch on a regular basis and loves to eat fresh roses (the punk). It is so hard to believe that he was once the runt of his family.

Juno, our other kitty, is half as tall and twice as wide and Pan! She is massive - in spite of her 3-4 year diet. I honestly think she has some sort of thyroid problem or eating disorder! She is the cuddly one, always coming when I call her. She loves to be brushed almost as much as she loves catnip. Sometimes when she lounges about the house, she favors Jabba the Hut.

I love my cats so much! They love me uncondionally (through diets and stressful moves and everything!). There is nothing I like more than curling up in the sunshine with one of my furry buddies.

Six Feet Under

Wow. I just watched the final episode of one of my favorite shows and it is just so difficult to realize that it is over. Over sixty episodes of like an hour each - that is a lot of time to invest in something, whether real or fictional! Six Feet Under, with its amazing writers and fabulous cast, is a saga about finding meaning in life and dealing with its brevity. It dealt with so many issues, ranging from dysfunctional families to religion and morality. Set in a funeral home, the Fisher family has no choice but to face death and the implications that come with it, and then learn to live life accordingly. In the Fisher house, quotes like these are common: "Yes, I know stealing a foot is weird. But...living in a house where a foot is available to be stolen is weird (Claire Fisher)." In a Flannery O'Connor-esque way (using the grotesque to tell a poignant truth), Six Feet Under creatively lives out the medieval adage, momenti mori (remember death). One of my favorite quotes is from Nate Fisher - "My whole life I've been a tourist. Now I have the chance to do some good instead of just sucking up air...". What a great show.

Tuckahoe Girl

Tuckahoe Girl
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

Home sweet home, I guess! Well, Tim and I have finally gotten our lease signed on our new apartment in Tuckahoe. (I was hesitant to blog about it until I was sure we got it - shades of last year!) Happily, we are just moving about 2 blocks away so we can stay in Tuckahoe. As you can see (more pics of Farmer's Market Sunday on my Flickr page), it is really a cute little village! We are finally starting to get used to it, knowing the good take-out restaurants and parks, so it would be a shame to uproot all that. Well, the apartment we found is really nice. It is a two bedroom and two bathroom with garage parking and laundry IN the apartment!!! It will be weird having two bathrooms - I haven't had that since college! We move in Sept. 1 when Rach and Chris get here. (Free labor - ahh yeah.)

Victory Dance

Victory
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

Happy Birthday Andy!!! (Here is a picture of my two favorite boys, at a winning Mets game.) Boy, it has been a mad crazy year, and I can honestly say I never thought my little brother and I would end up living together in NY. We've been through a whole lot, little fella - crazy landlords, pizza nights and free movies, sharing a bathroom (grrr), and exploring a great big city together. Happy birthday and good luck on your own in the Big Apple. I love you!

Random Musings:

I've been a bit scattered lately, I must confess. So much is going on and I feel like just going on a long vacation - a financial impossibility, alas. I decided a picture of a yellow submarine would adequately describe me right now, while still seeming a bit random. (I literally did a google image search for "random musings" and got this picture. Odd how life works like that. It was between this image and a picture of Mr. T, so I felt this would be more appropriate.) Anywho, the picture describes how I am poised for departure, yet incapable of going anywhere due to the mass of people on top of me. As I tread water, I am wondering "Why can't these crazy people either just come inside or get off me!?!" All the while, I smile at them in my yellow kindness. But deep inside, I am yellow with seasickness. So what is going on in my life, you ask? What, between moving again and daily work personality issues, far away friends and loved ones, and social/financial problems, I am just an aneurysm waiting to happen! But you know, "we all live in a yellow submarine."

Birthday Girl

Birthday Girl
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

Thanks for a great b-day, ya'll! There is nothing like a birthday to make you feel special for simply being born - thanks for all the sweet notes and phone calls. Jeez, I always thought that twenty-six would feel different, somewhat more mature and more in tuned with how the world works... Well, I am still the same old Suzy!

Happy Birthday Nae

Senior Prom
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

Happy Birthday Lynnae! (A couple days late, but it was well worth it for this picture.) Remember this? You went with me to my senior prom (because my boyfriend punked out on me) and we had a blast doing all things girlie! We were the belles of the ball! I hope you had an amazing birthday, chick.

Expensive Teeth
My hubby is about to have an expensive set of choppers. There's GOLD in them-there teeth! He has been in to see the dentist and the endo-whatever guy quite a few times now because he needed a root canal done. We were budgeting for something like $1500 dollars, which is a kick in the teeth anyways (excuse the pun), but now it looks like it is going to be more like $2500 - $3000! I cannot believe this much money is going to just one tooth. And it makes me think, "Why am I studying to be a librarian?!? I should be a dentist!" I sure wish we had dental insurance right about now! Maybe it is time to become a Canadian citizen.

Real Estate Agents

Eat Their Young.

The hunt for an apartment is on and I can tell you, it is no fun. I feel like Goldilocks picking porridge. These apartments are either too big or too small, too expensive or in a bad location, has this but not that. Arrggh. Where am I going to live? Will I be the crazy homeless lady with 8 cats? And why is it that everyone here has to put a giant statue of Mother Mary circa 1980's in their front yard? Haven't these people ever heard of pink flamingos?!?

Your Mood Ring is Light Purple

Clever Witty Sharp

Mood Ring Generator

Sandy & Suzy

Sandy & Suzy
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

Guess who has a blog, now?!? Mrs. Sandy does! She and her hubby just made a huge move up to Virginia, away from the southern comforts of Savannah, to work at Equipping the Saints with my folks. (ETS is a faith-based mission that supplies much needed medical and technical equipment, as well as other stuff, to third world countries and specific missions around the globe.) I really cannot say that I am surprised that the Ihrigs have made this move though, Mrs. Sandy has always had a heart for missions. In the picture above is me and Mrs. Sandy on our way to the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. I can't wait to visit home and work with Mrs. Sandy (and my momma!) again.

Christie

Christie
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

It is so good to talk with friends. I love that warm feeling you get when you haven't talked with someone for a little while and then you get on the phone and it seems like you still live next door. That's the mark of true friendship! I love my Christie - she is strong, she is smart, and she has a heart of gold. We've shared lots of history, she and I. When we first met, she hated me because I had long hair like her! (Food for Thought - Why do girls hate other girls with long hair? I have long felt the discrimination of hair envy. But I digress...) Anyway, Christie and I have shared so much since that fateful day we met, everything from holidays and hobbies, cats and cookies, hugs and homework, dreams and discoveries. She puts her whole heart into what she does, and I really admire her for that. I cherish all of the memories we've made together - yes, even that freakish Jesus sculpture-with-the-inverted-eyes Christmas present that we didn't know was a joke! (You know what I am talking about - don't you?)

Friendship

Sepia Girls - Rachel, Kelly, Suzy
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

Since summer school ended, I've been working hard at fixing up a digital archive of all our old photos. (You may have noticed a dramatic increase of images on my flickr account!) Well, seeing pictures of old friends gets one in a sort of nostalgic sentiment. Add that, plus the fact that I haven't (as of yet) made many yankee buddies, and you end up with a big ball of lonely Suzy-ness.

Anyway, I was reading a magazine yesterday about the "Ten Friends that Every Woman Needs" by Dr. Jan Yager and I found it to be really helpful. She says research shows that by having at least one close friend you can physically improve and extend your life! She defines a friend as "someone you are not related to either by birth or by marriage." (Sorry Tim!) Yager, who has studied friendship for almost twenty-five years, came up with a list of ten types of friends, some of which may overlap. (Thank goodness! I don't think I even have ten non-related friends!) Here they are:

1. Casual Friend = Someone with whom you have a connection with, but it is far from intimate, something more than an a acquaintance and less than a close friend. This is someone to share "information and activities." (I need a shopping buddy!)
2. Close Friend = Someone you feel comfortable enough with to be yourself, regardless of the situation. You can "confide your private thoughts or feelings" with a close friend because you share a mutual trust.
3. Best Friend = Someone with whom you share a high level of intimacy, with "an assumption of exclusivity, " regardless of living distance.
4. Same-Sex Friend = Someone of the same gender that helps you "validate or challenge your own perspectives and is able to share about similar experiences... with issues related to fashion, career, romantic relationships, or childbearing."
5. Opposite-Sex Friend = Someone who provides you with "a break from those gender-specific ways of connecting" and provides a difference of opinion. (I miss my boys from the theater in Johnson City!)
6. Nostalia Friend = "A nostalgia friend reminds you of where you've been as a way of reaffirming how far you've traveled in life." This friend supplies continuity as well as structure.
7. Role Model Friend = This friend takes you to the next level. This is someone you admire for their life choices and who inspires you to push forward.
8. Motivator Friend = When you feel defeated or overwhelmed, this friend picks you up out of the mud and inspires you to keep trying. (Usually, this is my mom's role...)
9. Realist Friend = This friend "tempers your enthusiasm and wild plans with welcome and well-meaning realism." The realist helps you keep your feet on the ground by supplying other ideas and options you may not have explored yet. (This is also mom!)
10. Nurturer Friend = This friend supports both physically and emotionally, empathizing with your joys and sadness on "a deep level that it helps you feel safer and stronger."

Yager says that these are all friends we need to feel fulfilled and that it is important that we also fulfill these roles as friends. Just something to think about!

See Holohans Blog
Guess who has joined the family of blogs?!? None other than the world's cutest redheaded couple! (Are you "reddy?!?" teehee) Now everyone can read about the infamous adventures of crazy Chris and rambunctious Rachel in South Africa right here. Welcome to the Circus, right Chris?

On The Porch Swing With Rach...

Chillin' with my Buddy
Originally uploaded by peachicken.

This is one of my dearest friends, Rachel Holohan. Rach and I have grown up together; we've shared everything from barbie dolls to religion. She is like a sister to me. We can sit together and reminisce about "the good ole days" when life was simple and we lived two doors down from each other. We can even talk about the difficult times, like about evil stepfathers or tragic deaths. Through the thick and the thin, we've been there for each other, almost like a marriage of two souls! She is definitely, as Anne of Green Gables would say, my "kindred spirit."
Rachel is moving this September to South Africa, a whole continent away. She and her husband plan on being there for quite a while. This will be one of those hard times. But I can't wait till the day when we are old and sitting back on my porch swing, (she will live two doors down again) chatting about the "good ole days" when life was simple and when life was hard, and how our friendship lasted through all of it.

Dukes of Whaaaa?

I just went to see the remake of this old TV show, not expecting a whole lot - but hey, it was free. (Thanks Andy!) Know, first of all, that I feel much depends on the person's state of mind going into the movie. This plays a big part of what makes or breaks a flick to an active participant in the movie-going experience. (Remember, Beck, when we wanted to go see Nell and ended up suffering through Dumb and Dumber?!?) The truth is, when you already have little-to-no expectations for a movie, sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised! In spite of all the "Southern" stereotypes and Simpson skin-flashing, this movie was quite entertaining. Of course, Simpson sucked (she is so NOT Daisy) and so did Burt Reynolds, for that matter, but the rest of the cast was hilarious. Bo was such a cutie-pie! Naturally, the movie is total fluff, but if you are in the mood for a bit of southern-fried fancy, this is the movie for you. It was the Appalachian goodness I needed in this land poverty stricken of "Southern Hospitality." (And did anyone else notice the current Republican President slander in the beginning? All in good fun, ehh?)

This is what it feels like to finish a paper you didn't think you could finish. (Why do I always make things WAY harder than they should be?!?) And the best part about this paper is that I even like it! Whoopie for me!