Brett H Perkins – Murfreesboro, Tennessee

My thoughts… My experiences… My life.

Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

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A Look Back :: A Look Forward

Posted by bretthperkins on December 31, 2009

So… here we are. A new year is, literally, on the horizon. Today is the end of one of the best years of my life. I am honestly quite sad to see it go!

A Look Back :: What Made 2009 So Great –

· Promotion at Deloitte: The year began with a move up for me at my previous job. It really was, in my opinion, quite an accomplishment to move up as quickly as I did at Deloitte. Granted, I have since moved on to other things, but I am still quite proud of what I did there. :)

· Wicked: I went up to Indianapolis to visit Tai and see the Musical Wicked. It is an amazing show, and I recommend seeing it if you have not already. I also had a great trip up to see Tai in Indy.

· American Idol: In the summer, Eric and I took a road trip to Orlando, Florida to audition for American Idol. It was a fantastic trip full of nothing but happiness and leisure. It wsa a HUGE break from my, then, stressful job. We met some incredible people, I met Eric’s friend Charlon, and we got to sing… in front of thousands of people. (Sort of).

· Epcot Center: On the trip to Orlando, I finally got to go to Disney World. I had never been, and I have still not been to a big chuck of Disney World, but I did get to go to Epcot with Eric, Charlon, and a couple of other friends. It was great! :)

· Moving in with Eric: I love David and Daniel like brothers. We lived together for about 6 years. That is a huge deal to me and they will forever be a part of my life… but the time was right for us to take our separate paths. Daniel has moved in with his partner Vinny and David has moved on to his own place. They are both doing very well. I do not want to live alone, so Eric and I, after talking about it for several years now, have finally moved in together. And I couldn’t be happier. We are such a perfect match and living together has, so far, been nothing but awesome!

· New Townhome: Moving out from the 3 bedroom townhome into a 2 bedroom was SUCH a great move! I got a bigger room, the place is nicer, decorated, and it just feels like home! It is in the same compex as my old place, but in a different section. I love that townhome, and I know that Eric and I will be there for at least another year.

· New Job at Kroll: I know that the first thing on this list is a promotion at my previous employer, but that is only one thing. I have since moved into a new job with career aspirations that are incompatible with the entity at Deloitte to which I was affiliated. So moving to this spot, for me, makes the absolute most sense. I am still very excited and forward looking into this job, and hope that it turns into several years of good work, a path up, and happy times!

· Weight Loss: I started thinking about my weight again last year in December… I even wrote a letter to myself. But, I did not have the discipline to follow through with a weight plan. Well, that is all different now. I have lost 23 pounds and still counting. I look better than ever and I am really excited about the coming year.

· Figuring Out More About Me: I am complex… and in that complexity comes ambiguity and question. I still did no really KNOW who I was… and to be honest, I think that I will continue to change and figure things out until I am gone… but I really starting thinking about who I REALLY am and what REALLY matters to me. I became a bit more focused on myself than I have ever been before, and you know?! It has really made a huge difference. I am still a considerate friend, but I am out for ME now. No one else!!! My friend Deana put it best when talking to her husband about a difficult situation. She told him that “I love you, but I love me more.” And that is SUCH a profound thing to say and realize. I had to learn to LOVE me more. And to be honest, I think that because of that, this year has been SO great!!!

A Look Forward :: What To Expect From 2010 –

Honestly… I haven’t the foggiest idea what to expect. I learned long ago that expectations are quite the paradox. They are good and they are bad, they are right and they are wrong… and sometimes, expectations are the HARDEST things to manage. Life is not scripted, and not everything is planned in advance. You can never know what will happen, nor should you. So with that in mind, I look into the next year with excitement and wonder. I hope that 2010 will be as great, if not greater, that 2009.

With that, I close out this year on bretthperkins.com. I am working on a decade retrospective, but I won’t have that ready for a few more days… so look for that.

I hope that everyone reading this has a safe and memorable holiday today, and if you choose to drink or otherwise party, please use good judgment and be safe! The last thing anyone wants is for 2010 to begin with tragedy.

May the new year bring happiness and good fortune to you all.

-=brett=-

Posted in Family, Friends, Health, Holidays, Parties, Randomness, Thought, Work | Leave a Comment »

Yay!! Christmas With The Family

Posted by bretthperkins on December 25, 2009

First off:  I hope that all of you reading this have had a great Christmas!  (And to those that do not celebrate Christmas, I hope you enjoyed some time off!)

Today was fun!  I woke up late, which for me is just 8:00… but it was nice! Did some stuff on the computer, watched some TV, then headed out to Hardees to grab some breakfast.  Yum!  I finished wrapping up some stuff then headed to Mom’s.  I got there and she and I swapped gifts.  I got her a new TV for the office and she got me Band Hero!  I can’t wait to play it!  I have Rock Bands 1 and 2 but Band Hero has MUCH better songs!! :)   After that, I headed to my Dad’s where we swapped gifts and visited a bit… and I installed Windows 7 on their computer.  After a bit of chit chat, I headed back to Mom’s to help her finish up the food and pack up to go to my sister’s.  We always go to my sister’s for dinner where the various families all get together and visit, have dinner, and swap gifts.

I look forward to the holidays and birthdays because it is the only time our family really gets together, and my family has always gotten along very well.  I love spending time with them, playing games, playing with my 8 nieces and nephews, and just visiting.  I love my family, and I have always loved how close we all are…  Unfortunately, some situations earlier in this year have challenged that closeness and I am having a really difficult time. I hope that everyone can find the strength to forgive what needs to be forgiven, forget what is not worth remembering, and find comfort that beyond any situation, we are a family and we all love each other.

Anywho… back to the day.  I got my little niece Isabella (Ryan and Amber’s daughter) some My Little Pony stuff and she was SO excited!  My sister Staci and her husband Doug have 4 kids, all of the age that I really don’t know what they would want, or what store they would shop, so I went with Visa gift cards.  That always works! :)   I got my other nephews Dawson and Landon (Vance and Julie’s) various toys of the stuff they are into (Pokemon and Bakugan), and they’re baby brother got some clothes.  The grown-ups (my brothers, sister, and their significant others) do dirty santa and I scored an Outback gift card. Woo!  My mom made me wait until we did gifts at my sister’s before I opened the other gift from her.  She got me art from an elephant!!!  This super cool elephant actually PAINTED this art!!!  It’s so cool!  I have been wanting something to hang over my desk at home, so this will be PERFECT!

I am looking forward to this weekend, I am taking my Christmas money to Target and getting a Keirug coffee maker.  I am SO excited.

Saturday is Opry, jerrica, and Tribe.  Can’t wait!  :)

-=brett=-

Posted in Family, Holidays | Leave a Comment »

Opryland 2009 – The Best EVER… so far!

Posted by bretthperkins on December 23, 2009

So… as I said yesterday, Eric and I made some ad hoc plans to head to Opryland Hotel for pictures. He invited Victoria and Chris and we all met at Opry Mills. After a few minutes of parking mayhem and some shopping, we headed to the Hotel. It was, as expected, VERY pretty this year. Victoria and Chris had never been, so it was awesome to introduce them to the place. It really is a magnificent hotel! We went to some pizza place in the Delta, an area of the Hotel, where we had some dinner and started the picture taking fun!!!

It started with a few risqué pics on a light pole and move onto some very nice pics of some other areas. We were going to go to the water-fountains show, but we missed the last one, so we will have to catch that another time. :( We walked through the Hotel, taking routes we had never taken before. See, usually, we do the same thing every year. We get there, hit the water show, then walk around, go to the spinny bar (a bar on a round platform that rotates very slowly) in the Cascades, then take pics around the Sky Garden and other areas before heading outside to play with the Three Wisemen. Well, we changed that up this year, and QUICKLY learned our lessons. We kept hitting dead ends!!! So, we went back to our old route, which seemed to work much better, anyway.

We walked through the hotel and finally got to the Cascades areas of the Hotel. We took a seat in the Spinny Bar and had a drink. It was funny, though, when we sat down, V and Chris were surprised… They were like, “Are we moving.” Awesome! :) After one full rotaion, our typical duration of the spinny bar, and some fun picture taking with the drinks, we hopped up and went through the Sky Garden. In the Sky Garden area, there is a Jack Daniel’s restaurant… so we took a picture with the sign there when a few girls asked the hostess a very obvious question: “Do you have a bar?” I CRACKED UP!!! I was like, really? Why would you have to ask if there is a bar at a Jack Daniel’s Restaurant. The more appropriate question would be “Hey, do you have to be 21 to get in here?” Anywho… we moved onto taking pics with a lit up bear that was next to the restaurant. Or did we do that before the question? Oh well… that was fun. :) We then did something new, we went out in front of the Hotel. They do a REALLY good job of lighting up the trees outside of the Hotel, and they have some really pretty sculptures, nativity scenes, light poinsettias, etc… I was able to get a LOT of really good pics of the lights, so I will be able to use them in art for next Christmas! W00t! We got some pics by the lit trees and then moved back inside to finish the night. We took some great pics by this REALLY big fireplace in the main lobby of the Hotel then headed back to the Delta to get pics in front of the large Christmas Tree. Unfortunately, during those pics, Victoria slightly injured her foot. She jumped down off of a platform and a sharp pain travelled up from her foot. She was down for the count and couldn’t walk for a bit. We headed out and I grabbed the car to come pick everyone up. Luckily, her injury was short-lived as the pain went away pretty quickly. Thank goodness for that!! I was worried.

The pictures all came out really good!! I got about 90 good pics. They are all posted on my Facebook, so you should head over there and check them out!!

We’re going to get dressed up on Saturday and head back to take more pics! I can’t wait!! :)

-=brett=-

Posted in Friends, Holidays | Leave a Comment »

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