Merry Christmas from Switzerland!

There are a couple of perks to being the only single child left in a family. There is the standard pity that everyone throws at you, the extra presents at christmas, the fact that I get to be the "Roamer" during family pictures standing wherever I want. These are all great, but I have to say the best thus far has been that fact that I got to come to Switzerland with my folks. My little brother, (not so little any more considering the fact that he is married and has a child), lives in Switzerland with his family. My parents planned to come and spend the holiday with them because it is their "off" year with the rest of the kids, meaning that all of their other children are with inlaws this christmas. The dilemma soon arose - What do we do with Trisha? Answer: Take her with us. And that they did. It has been absolutley amazing. I have had a chance to go for a drive through the Swiss alps, walk through a Christmas Festival in Germany and spend some quality time with my brother and his wife AND my new favorite snuggle buddy- my niece Natalie. It's times like this that I realize that my life isn't all that bad. I am living in an incredible city, I am continually shaping into this person that I always wanted to be, I have a family that loves me and supports me no matter what because they trust my decisions. And I feel so lucky right now to be in this place half a world away from my normal life with those I love.

The Results Are in!

And the biggest loser is . . . . drum roll please . . . . ME!!

I had a horrible week, health wise, and was feeling especially cruddy, so this was a nice little cap on my week. This biggest loser competition has been amazing. Combine (6 girls) we lost 105 lbs., we are all in the BEST shape we have been in, and we are all so excited for each other. I honestly think that we would have all been excited no matter who won. THEN . . . we celebrated by ordering pizzas and eating goodies from my roommate Britney's would be bridal shower (the roads were so bad and treacherous we had to cancel her shower last minute, but we still had the goodies!)

I would like to spend a little bit more time telling everyone about the mess that was Massachusetts on Thursday. We had a snow storm that started around 1 or so. School was let out early, thank goodness, and I canceled tutoring in Concord just in case it got bad. I live about 10-15 minutes away from work, and because of the snow piling so fast and the mad amounts of people trying to get home- it took me an hour and a half to get to my house. I thought that was bad, my roommate Kirsti had an hour and a half traveling time to go a total of one mile in her car, AND my other roommate Esther was in her car for three and a half hours driving a route that would usually take her twenty minutes. It was horrible. There was still rush hour traffic at eleven o'clock at night on I-95. People were running out of gas in the middle of the freeway, cars were stalled, it was just horrific. They think their were a couple of reasons that it was so bad. 1. There were three rush hours rather than the usual one. People left work at 12:30 or 1 trying to beat the storm and ended up getting stuck in it. Then there were the people who left at 2. They got stuck behind the 1 o'clock rush hour. Then we had the people who left at the normal rush hour time. 2. The snow plows and salt trucks didn't get a chance to get out on the roads ahead of the traffic. 3. People were just completely impatient with one another. As I was watching the news at 11 o'clock Thursday night, I was so grateful to be in my house, warm, fed, and free from work the next morning (they canceled school). Welcome to Massachusetts . . . I guess.

My twinkie . . .

I was parusing my sisters' blogs today and I saw this one picture of my neice Riley being a total cheese. It looked so - familiar.

My favorite things . . .

Lists are fun, lists about things that make people unique are fun, lists about things that make me unique -the most fun.

I am uber grateful for:
-Electrice blankets, no more going to bed with long johns, sweats, socks, mittens, hoodies, AND hand warmers for me hands and feet. Turn that puppy on about 15 minutes before I get in bed and I am cozy for the rest of the evening.
-The color "pumpkin". I like the color and the things I associate with it - pumpkin pie, pumpkin crisps, pumpkin carving, terms of endearment.
-Self photos at arms length. I'm really good at this, I should get paid.
-Music that moves me. When a song has the ability to drown out everything else that might be on my mind and transport me to someplace where I don't have to worry.
-Tamborines. They're just so damn happy sounding. Add a tamborine to any song and you've got a happy tune.
-Homophones. See. Sea. Si. So many possibilities.
-Pictures of people I know in their akward phases. It brings us all down to the same level. So maybe not everyone had the mullet that my mother so generously gifted me with, but not everyone's mother was "ahead of their time" (words from my mother's own lips, seriously).
-Clothes that finally fit the way they are supposed to.
-Having the kid that hated you at the beginning of the school year, smile at you in the hall and acknowledge you with out glaring. I won this victory this past week.
-Wearing soft sweaters in hopes that someone else, preferably a dashing handsome charming someone else, will appreciate your soft sweaters as much as you do someday.
-Having someone look at a family picture and say, "Wow, you can definitely tell who the Cheney's are. You look so much alike."

My music library

As I was going through my iTunes, I was realizing how eclectic the library was. I started to wonder why that was, and I thought back to all of the times that friends have either shared music with me or have implanted a love for a certain band or genre. There are even those songs that I already had that somehow became associated in my mind with certain people. Here is a tribute to all of those who have permantley damaged . . . .err, shaped my musical inclinations and the music I now tend to associate with them:

Casey: Phil Vassar
Jacki Ann: Toad the Wet Sprocket and Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Jilly: The Zolie Band (Yes! I do have them on my computer . . . crazy)
Blake : Ben Harper and G-Love and Special Sauce
Christy: Rusted Root
Arianne: The Samples
Shannon: Modest Mouse and Ani Defranco
Sam: Journey
Dave: Mason Jennings
Kerrie Anne: Blessid Union of Souls
Kirsti: Damien Rice
TJ (my bro): The Cure AND They might be Giants
Britney: Rosie Thomas
Erica: Colbie Caillat
Emmy Lou: Barbara Streisand

The list could go on forever, but those were some of the ones that stood out in my mind. Thank goodness for good friends, and thank goodness for good music. I love you all!