"But wait! There's more!"

I've decided to start journaling about all of the habits I need to break and replace. (This list is long, therefore plenty of blogging material.) But first, I want to look at what I have accomplished (or been a part of) over the past ten years....

"Laura Shetley, this is your life..............."

1. Rang in 2001 in Kenya, baby! (Fireworks + local bushmen = scared 16 year olds.)

2. Graduated high school. Barely.

3. Spent a confusing 1st semester of college in the D.C. area.

4. Slacked off. A LOT.

5. Attended school for 8 semesters at a community college, only to realize my true goals in life and get an Associates in Arts to transfer. (See #4.) (Still have Spring and Summer before fully finished with said community college. And yes, my mom is proud.)

6. Earned my drivers' license, two speeding tickets in differing states, and an accident that wasn't my fault. No, really.

7. Held 13 different jobs, including the ones in academy, summers, the semester in DC, and then everything else. (For the record, I can hold down a job just fine, thank you. Now, anyway.)

8. Have done some really stupid things. The kind of stuff that, if your mom found out about it? She'd be in the fetal position rocking and crying out, "What have I done? What went so, so wrong?"   (Hi Mom!)

9. Have made and lost some amazing and not-so-amazing friends.

10. Finally pinpointed what I wanted to do for the next ten years!

So much has happened that's shaped who I am now. I could have done without some of the lessons I learned, but I sleep at night knowing I've learned from them and they weren't wasted mistakes. I'm liking who I'm turning out to be, but there's so much more to do, to see, to learn, and to become. And hopefully, with a lot of hard work and even more prayer, I'll get there.

Scrooged.

AM SO GLAD HOLIDAYS ARE ALMOST OVER.

Being the Type 'A' chick that I am, I need routine. And if there's one thing we all know about the holidays, it means routines are out the window. I really do love my family and having special things going on, but now that we're through the thick of it, I want normalcy back.

Friends are having a New Year's party that I will probably be at, but the problem is being able to enjoy it. In North Carolina, there's a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol on major drinking holidays, and if they so much as smell champagne on my clothes (somebody bumped into me, officer, I swear!), I'll get the DUI treatment. It just really kills the buzz (pun totally intended...).

After two 12-hour days in the office, my head is in a fog and my coffee hasn't jump-started my nervous system yet. And now I'm about to go fill my GI tract with grease and chicken. Wings anybody?

It's the day after Thanksgiving, I'm on vacation, and I am doing nothing but homework. You feel sad for me, right?