My family has had a lot of good fortune lately. MY MOM BOUGHT A NEW CAR TODAY!  Its a really sexy car, its a ford fusion and brand new. This is so great, she desrves this so much. Merry Freaking Christmas right?!? And we are gonna give the Scion to Kyle… well at least until I get my license back, around March.

**this blog gets very Christmas lettery**

Everything has just been fucking excellent recently, grandma had some sweepstakes luck, which helped with getting the car. My friends are all home for Christmas, the winery is doing great, my mom is happy, jenny and kyle are well and its christmas time. I got the chance to hang out with some “old school” ARC people, including my good buddy Dustin York who powered through school and just graduated from CSU Long Beach.

Our tree was real pretty

We are going to do the Christmas the traditional Ritchie way, Chicken enchiladas for Christmas eve dinner, wake up Christmas day, open presents, have champagne and tea and coffee. Then we have mimosas and eggs Benedict and watch elf. But then were gonna change things up a bit, were gonna drive to my cousins Suzy’s place in San Francisco. She has a beautiful little townhouse in the heart of the Castro. Lots of family will be there. We have never really done a big family Christmas, its usually just the 4 of us. So that’s new. AND its my first Christmas with little kids! My cousin Mira is 2 and my new cousin Ash is 6 months. It’s gonna be real fun.

Then I will head back to Pleasanton or Hayward with Jenny or Kyle, work at the winery on Sunday and then join Maggie and Tim Muldoon for our yearly tradition of drinking beer and playing wii golf. Where me and Maggie will sing Islands in the Stream really loud over and over again to annoy Tim.

It has been a great month off of doing plays and I have wholeheartedly embraced the holiday spirit, and I was at least able to get my family presents this year.

Jenny took my Grandma and Mom out to the Rockettes Christmas show which they all enjoyed. She recently got her business license for

before the decorations....

her nannying, Jenny is a legit business owner now . Kyle has been working non stop at Any Mountain and at the winery. He is still living in Hayward with Alex and Tim. The winery will open its new tasting room in the next few weeks and were all real excited about it. My mom is still working for AT&T although she had to switch departments. Hey at least we didn’t move to Georgia like we thought we might have to. My mom is elated to have this new car and have everyone happy and healthy and home for the holidays. Grandma spends her time painting and drawing and watching god awful soap operas, she got a suprise visit my cousins Tom and Jody who drove all the way up here from LA just to surprise Grandma, super cool. And me? The usual, been doing a lot of plays, had a great year of theatre and just got my first lead! I work for the winery doing their webmaster stuff. I’m still a socialite lush of Sacramento but I am much more responsible these days, learned some lessons this year.

I’m usually much more emo and depressing around this time, but I have NOTHING to complain about right now. I’m happy to report that I am actually starting to do real good. I want everyone to know that I am extremely thankful for all the good fortune we have all

AFTER!

been having. I don’t have the words for how well Slaughterhouse 5 went or how over the moon I am about Blithe Spirit. It’s time to sit back with my family and be thankful and drink champagne and watch elf. I hope I get cool presents I haven’t been this excited about a Christmas in YEARS. Well I hope this blog finds you well. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

heres one of the cards I made

peace!

I picked up and got a criagslist ride share out to my sister Jenny’s place in Pleasanton, drank champagne and got ready. A few of our friends and our brother kyle met us up and we went to a few parties and the Livermore bars. Needless to say, we all got pretty trashed. Had a nice hangover day the next day watching How I met your Mother ALL DAY. and then go out again.

This time the Ritchie Kids went out to San Francisco and hit up bars in the Castro. Sadly, this was actually my like 4th day in a row of partying hard and my body couldn’t take it much more. I puked before I got on BART. And after. So we all just had one beer each and were pretty tame. But we walked around and got several great pictures of all the FANTASTIC COSTUMES! We called it a pretty early night but it was an awesome weekend.

Peace

Bettin on the ponys with Jenny!

Casey Worthington had his “Not 4th of July Party”, it’s exactly what you think it is. It was real fun, but one of those times when being drunk during the day gets away from you… On a similar note; I have had anger and patience issues recently. It is well documented that Ritchies can have a bit of a temper problem, and they may be catching up with me. I just need to chill more. I’m sure the hotel concierge and the “deck supervisor” at the pool at my gym aren’t really as stupid as they seem, and even if they are, no sense in being mean to them. Oh yeah! I joined a gym! Sexy DURING summer. hell yeah, I have been working out like everyday ^_^

John Farnsworth’s parents were out of town this week so I hung out there a lot this week. It’s good to just have a place where friends can gather like that with no agenda. We go to the river. We drink. We swim at someones pool. We smoke. We hang out. We go out. I live a very relaxed life. I should not have the stress to lash out at fat gingers who are apparently just paid to sit by a pool and tell people not to run and not help people if they are in need. also he has blonde eyebrows. wierd. people who don’t deserve it.

I have been doing a lot of odd jobs making money, and it keeps me afloat more than usual. but its not enough to save or contribute quite enough. Still job hunting.

Yesterday was another friends going away party, the 3rd in the last week. Times are changing and people are moving. and still a few more are moving including Ruth. But I have known that people were going to leave me. What hurt, was hearing that Michael Sunshine and his girlfriend Ella up and moved from Davis to Seattle. I found this out when I texted him about partying. Michael is one of my core friends from Livermore and we don’t see each other too often, but I have always liked having him so close just in case. I have always had the feeling that everyone else is growing up and I’m not. Most my friends from high school have real good jobs and are in serious relationships. It’s that moment in life when you realize there are a bunch of grown ups at your party. And that’s what they have become. I have always felt belittled by living my type of life. I don’t judge them, and really I’m not even mad. The reality is I feel like I lost a cornerstone of my building. In other words, shit just got real.

To add to this dejected feeling, I went and hung out with Tim and Maggie Muldoon who’s older brother got married in Davis last weekend. The epitome of growing up. Naturally we try to see each other as much as we can. So they invite me to all the pre-wedding shenanigans and parties and such. Problem is, I’m not invited to the wedding and just end up being kinda embarrassed being there at all. “That’s just Maggie and Tim’s friend who is here to party”. That’s reall not who I want to be. I left. Again I understand it, and am not mad. This is just the situation I am living. People are growing up and they need to, but they still like me to be their party vacation from life. Honestly it’s shit like this that motivates me more than anything.

moral of the story: Not seeing Peter Pan makes you want to grow up.

Oh yeah, and I’m BLONDE now

peace

<<<My theme for 09.

Thought I would check in for one last update before 2009 is officially over. I am working on a very large all inclusive year in review post that isn’t quite ready yet, plus I want to include New Years Eve in it. Speaking of which, me and a big group of people Ruthie, Johnny Farns, Terri, etc. are heading to San Francisco for new years drunken shenanagins. Well were meeting at my sisters place in Pleasanton for drinks first then taking BART into the city. I will surely report on what kinda trouble we get into.

After all, No Drink December ends today! woot, it was really good for me. Made me really realize some of my drinking habits and the fact that alcohol really isn’t my problem, my problem is excess. I learned that when I defected to other drugs while I wasn’t drinking. But I have always had a problem with excess even if its just hanging out with people; I drown in a sea of acquaintances, social activities,  and parties. But I digress, I at least know this better about myself now. And will change my habits. I was actually surprised how easy it was to not drink for a month, I feel like I should maybe take a year off. Or ya know, I could just drink responsibly.

Tomorrow (Jan. 1st) is Johnny Farns’ 21st birthday. So we will be also celebrating that at midnight tonight. Tonight will be good.

look for my 2009 year in review post in a couple days.

So long 2009, you were pretty good to me. Way better than fuckin 2008.

peace.

The Ritchie Kids

Yay, my sister finally emailed me the pictures from my 22nd birthday. My family and I went to San Francisco for lovefest. We got a hotel. Partied.  The usual. Sean Kinsey, Max Miller, Paul Telford, Terri Brindisi, and Chris Carlson all partied with us. It was ten shades of amazing. We went to lovefest during the day, got some good seafood in the wharf, partied in our hotel, and then walked around the city being drunken fools and ending up at nok nok in the Haight. Dancing my face off. Then the next day we all went to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate park.

Enjoy ^_^

peace