So I’ll probably leave it up a little while longer and then kill it (after I back it up, of course). Here’s all my contact info (most will require you to request an addition to my friends-list, because almost all are set to private):

• LiveJournal
• Facebook
• Flickr
• MySpace (hardly ever use it)
• Twitter
• Email: gwingil [at] gmail [dot] com or heather [at] eyeflashes [dot] com

Please, if you send me a friend request, tell me who you are. I NEVER add random strangers who send requests; I only add friends, family and people with whom I’ve had some prior connection.

This year, instead of having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, my family and I decided to volunteer at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans. I’ve wanted to do this for years, but the timing was always off for one reason or another.  Finally, this year, the stars aligned…

It was, without a doubt, one of the most moving, humbling, fulfilling and greatest experiences of my entire life — and it was the single best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had. In fact, this is how I plan to spend all my Thanksgivings from now on. The veterans we met were so incredibly kind, so gracious, and so undeserving of their unfortunate circumstances, and although I wish we could’ve done more for them, they were so grateful for what we did do.

There’s absolutely nowhere else I would rather have spent my holiday.  It was amazing.

(Egger, you should sign up for an account!)

Of course, part of the problem is that the computer takes your height and weight and calculates your BMI, and mine was outrageous — or so I thought. Turns out, they had my height as 4′10″ instead of 5′9″. That’s a difference of a foot (basically)! So, thankfully, that was NOT my actual BMI. I don’t know what it really is, but at least it’s not what I thought it was.

But still… I have definitely gained weight since the last time I allowed myself to know what it was, and I need to drop it.  Blah. Now is the winter of my discontent fatassery.

Oh, and, please, allow me to vent about one more thing: I  am on TWELVE  daily medications, some of which are more than once a day. Granted, two are vitamins/calcium supplements — but even those were prescribed by my doctor (because some of my other meds actually deplete my natural store of vitamins). The sad thing is, there are at least two more that I may be put on soon.

SIGH.

Next step: Figure out what to do with this place.

If you haven’t read Crime and Punishment, you should. It’s amazing. AMAZING. Raskolnikov is one of, if not the most nuanced, fleshed-out characters I’ve ever encountered in literature.

 Before

 After

You can’t really see it in the photos, but the colors were done in much deeper shades this time, and look a lot better.

Me so happy.