I need your feedback!

Well, its been a while.  I know.  I didn't think you guys wanted an update on no changes.  So instead of boring you with my networking and job hunting, I have a question.  We haven't had too much luck on our house, I truly believe it has more to do with out of season than the state of the house.  So now what?  Stay in T-town until I get a job and see my beau on the weekend?  Rent the house?  Anyone else have experience with this?  What did you do?  Any thoughts even if you haven't been through it?  I've made my own positive and negative list about being a landlord.  Have any items that you think I should consider?

Here's Hoping

It's been a difficult week.  emotionally.  Dave started his new job and even though things are going well, it wasn't pitch perfect.  I spent the week getting the house together, applying for jobs, and starting my course work.  This whole process has really taken a toll on me.  I really expected that we would be receiving calls about the house and I would be getting call backs on the jobs I'm applying for.  While everyone says it's only been a week, it's been a week that I don't know how to define myself.  I'm in a house with two dogs cleaning, I no longer have a job and this is a tough concept for me to handle.  I get that it was our decision to leave, and I still think its the right one, I just wish everything was falling into place.  I wish I had a job, I wish I wasn't stressing out about everything.  I break down crying daily.  I feel lost on this path.  We had an open house on Sunday and had 4 groups and no offers.  I'm hoping next Sunday will be a better showing.  Its been really tough and I'm hoping this week brings much more hope.

Home Repair Take 1

Expectations:


Scene 1:  A boy and a girl sitting a dark living room.  A ceiling fan has been removed leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling.  Between the boy and girl sits a disassembled fan and a flash light.

Boy
This should be easy.  We already have the old fan down, and this fan says it should only take 5  minutes.  We'll have this up in time to watch the football game.

Girl
Great!  Let's hop to it honey!  I'm so excited that in 5 minutes we'll have a new ceiling fan!

Scene 2: 2 hours later.  Both the boy and girl have sore shoulders from holding the fan for hours.  Both are arguing at each other.  Both are in the dark with a light from the iphone flashlight app. 

Girl
(After the 100th time of dropping a black screw) I quit. Leave the damn hole.  I'm over the 5 minute fan. (Stomps away)

Boy
Please don't leave me here to hold up a none working fan while you throw a fit.

Scene 3:  An hour later. Boy and girl cuddling on couch and enjoying their new ceiling fan and watching the last 3 minutes of the game.

Big Announcement!

This is the hardest post I've ever written.  I don't typically write about my feelings and this subject has a lot of feelings involved. *sigh.*  So, here goes.

We're moving.  To Dallas.  I know so many of you have moved away from home.  That this isn't a big deal, but it's a really big deal for me.  I've lived in T-town my entire life.  I went to college here.  And even though I've talked about moving and starting a life in another city, it's very overwhelming to actually do it.  I'm freaking out and a big ball of emotions.  I cry, I'm happy, I try to convince myself that it's all going to be ok even though I don't have a job.  It will be ok.  I know that and I truly believe we're making the right move for us at the right time.  But it doesn't make it any easier.  Does that make sense?

Any ways, I'm hoping to see a lot of people that I take for granted that I'll see whenever.  I'm working on getting my  house on the market and I'm unemployed come after Friday. 

A Church Brewery, a Wedding, & a Keg

The whole reason Dave and I opted to go on vacation was because we were invited to a wedding in Pittsburgh.  I'd never been Pennsylvania and had the wonderful idea of just making a vacation trip out of it.  On the last leg of our trip was Pittsburgh and the wedding.  We didn't get to do a whole lot of sight seeing but still had an awesome time.  The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, and lots of dancing and laughter.

We found an old Catholic church that was converted into a brewery.  The atmosphere was awesome.  Back when the steel industry collapsed, Pittsburgh became almost deserted.  They found this abandoned church  and turned into a brewery.

Dave with his tall friends.  This is what the groom's side of our wedding part looked like.  

 

On our way to the rehearsal dinner we got lost.  Shocking right?! I blame this one of technology since the iPhone kept telling me to go the wrong way on a one way street.  It took an extra hour to get there. And we got to cross the bridge, go through the tunnel, and see the ball park and football stadium twice!  The rehearsal dinner was at an amazing vegan restaurant.  The restaurant was also a thrift store.  So we got browse and eat!

And finally here's the bride and groom!

During the reception I dropped my camera and it no longer worked.  So you'll just have to imagine everyone dancing and having fun!

The next morning, Dave and I were to fly home.  We had secured a ride from Mich.  However, the night before Mich decided to drink a little. He created a drink that we all named the Meeche.  Which was vodka on the rocks with a lemon wedge.  Somehow Mich ended up with the reception keg.  He also didn't drive his rental car back from the reception, so it took 15 minutes the next morning to find it.  After we found the car, disposed of the keg and picked up two extra people we were ready to hit the airport.  Only it was 45 minutes till the flight took off and it was a 15 minute drive to the airport.  I was freaking out, but we made it in time. Only to sit on a plan for hours because I didn't realize I booked the flight that went from Pittsburgh to Orlando to Houston.  OMG!  It was a long flight!  We made it home early evening and all and all we had a great time.

Fun Stay in the Big Apple

Vacation Day 2 in Philly started off better than Day 1.  We got a ride to the train station, we saw more of Philly.  We saw Betsy Ross' house.  Which by the way she was married three times.  Ross is her first married name, yet she made the flag during her third marriage.  Yet, they're not sure she actually made the flag because she didn't tell anyone until she was like 80. It was her son who petitioned for her to get recognition, so there's still a bit of mystery in regards to who made the first flag.  So there's a bit history for you!  We then found a bar and watched more of the LLWS.  Ohio was in the elimination game, so of course we cheered them on again.  And again they lost. 

Day 3 we went to NYC!  I love New York.  We took a train from Philly to NYC. So easy.  We got a cab that took us to the Amtrack station and we bought our ticket and got on the train.  It was an hour and half.  So much more room than an airplane and they have plug-ins for your phone and computers.  If you haven't taken a train, I highly recommend it.

Once we got to Penn Station, we had to maneuver over to Time Square.  We needed to get to Queens to drop our bags off at the hotel so we weren't walking around Manhattan with luggage behind us.  We easily found our train, it was of course the stop that would give us issues.  As you know from the previous post we have issues getting lost at train stops.  Our train decided to drop us off at Citi Field. Which would've been fine if it were 6 at night and we were going to the game. Not ok when we want to get to our hotel which is not at Citi Field.  Turns out we got on an express train which means they skipped our stop. 

So we followed the crowd off the train station and low and behold we end up at the US Open. We were the only people at the US Open with bags.  We didn't go inside, but we did see some practice courts.  From there we finally got on the right track and found a Holiday Inn and took a cab to our hotel.  I make this sound like we took a 15 minute detour.  It was more like an hour to an hour and a half.  We looked ridiculous walking around in Queens with luggage behind us.

We get back to Manhattan and have lunch with another of Dave's cousin. I'm so proud of Devin.  He's working for NASDAQ and has really tackled living in NY. 

Here's a view from his building.  Awesome right?

After we congratulate Devin on his awesome job and awesome view of the city, Dave and I wander around.  We end up in Bryant Park (wishing it was fashion week!).  We chilled there for a bit as I discussed Project Runway and Dave politely tuned me out. Then we found the Brooklyn Bridge. Even though I'd been to New York a few times, I never walked the bridge.  That was a long walk to view point.  We didn't make it all the way across to Brooklyn.  But it would've been fun to ride a bike across, so maybe next time!  The day was beautiful and there were tons of people outdoor biking, skating, and walking.  I loved it!

From there we went straight to Citi Field where we saw this guy!

We saw the Mets play the Marlins.  David Wright got a 2 run home run in the first inning.  Dave was ecstatic.  Even though the Mets didn't win, we had a blast!

The Day Rite-Aid Saved My Life - Vacation Day 1

Dave and I flew into Sunny Philadelphia.  Actually, it was 11pm so there was no sun.  We stayed outside of Philly in a lovey town called Havertown.  His cousin graciously offered up his home even though they went to the Jersey Shore.  We already asked for autographs, videos, and reenactments.  They assured us that it was nothing like TV and sounded a bit offended that we were disappointed.

I had already decided that unlike previous beach vacations where we grab a book, trashy magazine, and towel and lay around all day, that we're going to site see and be tourists and do really fun stuff.  So that morning at 8am Eastern time I tried to wake up my husband who refused to get up.  At 10:30 we were finally ready to leave and be big kids and take the train to the 69th Street Station.  Havertown has their own station, which according to the cousin is less than a mile from where we stayed.  Instead of finding that station, Dave and I walked almost 3 miles directly to the 69th Street Station.  That was fun. And we were hungry and I thanked Jesus that I thought to not only pack tennis shoes, but actually put them on my feet that morning.

Once we caught the train we easily found the Independence Hall stop.  We saw history. We learned history.  We saw Benjamin Franklin's grave.  I thought it was creepy that people paid tickets to walk around a graveyard.  We did not do that. Instead, I stuck my arm through the fence and snapped the pictures.

After our site seeing we found a cute little bar and watched the Little League World Series (LLWS).  We decided to cheer on Ohio, mainly because their cute little 13 year old pitcher wasn't having a good pitching day and we really wanted to see a come back.  *Spoiler Alert* Ohio lost.  We left the bar.  It was around 8:30pm when left.

On our way home we decided that we were going to get off at the Havertown stop so that we didn't walk 3 miles in the dark in the outskirts of Philly.  On our way back both our phones ran out juice.  We felt like big kids, in a big city, taking a big train.  We exited our train at the Haverford stop.  One thing I forgot to mention is that we didn't actually know our stops name. We assumed that Haverford is directly related to Havertown and it must be close to where we're staying. WRONG!

Instead we wandered around suburbs for hours.  If this was a TV show and Dave and I were contestants, we would've been the couple arguing and snipping at each other about being lost.  Our relationship would've been on tabloids and we would've had to go on a talk show circuit to defend it.

One cute thing about Haverford is that they don't believe in sidewalks.  They also don't believe in putting a the train station near lights or stores.  So when we exited the train station and didn't have a working phone to use google maps or call someone, we just picked a direction.  We walked through neighborhoods without sidewalks.  We walked by Havertown College which gave me the false hope that we were going in the right direction.  We eventually found stop lights and businesses.  We walked into a gas station and they didn't have maps or phone chargers.  We couldn't get a cab because we didn't know where to tell them we needed to go.  Didn't have an address or phone number because they were in the phone. Side note: After telling this story to someone they asked why we didn't look up the cousin's name in a phone book. That never occurred to us.  We're too dependent on technology.   Same deal in the CVS.  Only several people were trying to help us, but since we couldn't give clear directions it was hard tell us anything than, no this isn't have Havertown.


We eventually found a Rite-Aid in Ardmore.  I love Rite-Aid.  It saved my life and marriage. They had maps and chargers!!  I went to the maps and Dave headed for the chargers.  I bought two chocolate bars and opened the map in the middle of Rite-Aid and sat on the floor to try to figure out where we were and where we need to be. Dave bought a battery powered iPod charger.  It was the only Apple charger they had.  It of course didn't work on Dave's phone. However, it did with mine.  Only you had to position the batteries just right in order for it charge the phone.

Here's a map.  I encourage you to pull up the larger version so you know how incredibly far off we truly were. 


View Larger Map

We finally got it juiced up enough so that it would turn on.  We called one of his cousins who lives next door to where we're staying.  He of course needed better location points than the Rite-Aid in Ardmore. So we left Rite-Aid and thanked them profusely for carrying maps and charges and chocolate.  We came to a nice little corner which was housing a homeless man.  Dave's cousin was on his way.  I was therefore in charge of holding the phone while it was charging. Turns out I suck at that job.  I dropped the phone along with the charger.  The phone immediately died and we couldn't get the charger to work with the phone again.  I was desperately hoping that Dave's cousin did not need more directions to find us.


He didn't. We survived and made it home at 11.  Thankfully, the Phillies were in the 16th inning and that's why his cousin was up late.  Otherwise, his phone would've been turned off and we would've lived in Rite-Aid to never blog again.

A pinch of crazy

I had an amazing time travelling last week. I have lots of stories to tell and photos to share.  However, on my last day during the wedding reception I dropped my brand new Sony camera and it broke.  Stopped working completely.  I'm a bit pissed that it took a small spill and just won't work.  Not sure if this camera will be able to handle me.  My point is that I have photos, but no camera to help upload them.  I know what you're thinking, just stick the memory card in the laptop and load them that way.  No go.  I lost my laptop charger adapter during the trip and therefore cannot use it until I get another HP adapter. Which you think would be easy, but no.  Best Buy insists they do not have it and I haven't had time to check other places.

Bottom line, no pics yet.  I'll figure out a way I promise.

So instead I'm going to tell you about a dreamish experience I had.  On Sunday, we got home from our vacation around 5:30pm.  My homework was due that night at midnight.  And as luck would have it, the work I did was all on the laptop.  Which meant, I had to redo everything on the desktop.  Not fun and a lot of stress.  It ended up taking till two in the morning before I submitted everything.  The assignments were late, but turned in and that was good enough.  Cut to me going to bed exhausted.

I wake up around 2:30am.  I hadn't been asleep that long, but long enough to know I fell asleep.  I wasn't sure why I woke up.  As my eyes adjusted to being awake I saw a misty white, translucent thing to my right.  Above me I saw a floating black v shape thing.  It scared the bejesus out me.  I immediately throw myself close to my husband and simutalanously throw the sheets over my head.  Because obivisouly ghost, spirits, or whatever they were, wouldn't be able to reach under a thin sheet. Rational, I know.  I start hitting my husband asking him if hears anything. I was trying to stay calm, but I could still clearly see these two separate things when I poked my head up from the sheets.  I was trying to get my husband to pop up and start listening and then I could ask him if he sees what I'm seeing.  He didn't really bite into the plan. Instead, he moaned and pushed me off him and told me without opening his eyes he doesn't hear anything.  So with my heart pounding I take a deep breathe and reach through the misty white thing to reach my night table lamp.  I turn on the lamp and nothing is there.  My heart was still races.  This whole scene took maybe two minutes.  I didn't fall asleep until well after 3am.  I had a book light by my bed so when I turned off my lamp I kept my booklight on.  Finally, I got brave enough to turnoff my nightlight and try sleep.  I didn't see the things again.

My thinking, I was properly so exhausted that I hallucinated these things.  They never made a move for me, but just floated there.  Even though this is what I think, it's burned in my memory and I'm still on the look out for them.

A Post Without a Point

I have done something to my shoulder and it really hurts.  What did I do to make it hurt you ask?  I stretched.  And now I'm in serious pain.  I'm pretty sure I need a nice hour long massage to make this go away.

I go on vacation next week!!  I need a camera badly.  The last time I took pictures was for the KC pub crawl.  My goal is to take as many pictures as Jax. Then maybe I'll actually take some rather than none.  So any camera suggestions to someone who doesn't want to spend gobs of money and it needs to be super user friendly.

I have hit the point of my graduate school courses where I lose all motivation. Each course is 11 weeks long and apparently, I only have stamina for 5 weeks.  This has happened every single time.  Not good.  Must. Push. Through. *sigh

Random story:  Started my day by my co-worker discussing how regular his bowel movements are.  TMI!!

Gross, not gross, gross. It's that type of blog day.

Today I woke up to the smell of a bonfire.  Only it was garbage burning from one of our landfills.  Fun.  People were complaining of the smell, which if I lived closer to the source of the fire, it might have smelled disgusting.

In other non-disgusting news, I'm in graduate school hell.   Accounting and Finance should never be taken at the same time.  Especially, when my last class was a finance class.  Ug.  I better be able to understand these damn profit and loss statements now. 

Even though I haven't been blogging, I feel like I've been busy.  Work, school, floating the river twice in three weekends kind of busy. 

Have you seen this story?  Gross.  And desperate.  How sick do you have to be to drive 24 hours to have se.x with an underage boy?  Gross. Doubly gross because she was seducing him.

Weekend and Football

I had this weird box saying photo not available pop up on my blog, so I got a new template and took down my header.  I think it's fixed, but we'll see.

This weekend was super busy.  I went to OKC to see a dear friend of mine.  I finally got to see Eclipse.  It was ok, I think I expect the movie to be too much like the book and it can never reach that expectation. But I got to analyze the crap out of it with a friend who enjoyed doing the same thing.

This was also a weekend for a wedding shower and my husband's 10 year high school reunion.  He keeps up  with five friends from high school.  They had a great time.  T-town is so small that I knew a lot of people he went to school with. 

Sunday I got some exercise by playing softball.  We're terrible.  It's almost comedy to watch us play.  We have 2-3 guys that are decent players and 2 girls that know how to catch the ball.  The rest of us just stand around and chase a softball when it comes our way.  We over throw, under throw, throw way off course which results in home runs for the other team.  My batting strategy is stand there and hope they walk me.  We're 12th out of 12 teams.  We're solidly holding that position.

I'm really looking forward to football.  October is going to be crazy.  We're flying to Chicago at the end of October to stay with friends and go the TU vs Notre Dame game.  We're going to Texas to watch the TU vs SMU game and then go to Houston for the Giants vs Texans game. Somewhere in the mix we're going to the TU vs OSU game.  Can't wait for football!

5 Weeks

I'm so excited!  Dave and I finally planned our vacation. We're going to Philadelphia, New York City, and Pittsburgh late August.  We have a wedding we're attending in Pittsburgh so we thought we'd just make a whole vacation of it.  I can't wait.  I really need a vacation and while I've been to the Big Apple a few times I've never been to Pennsylvania.

So we're going to fly on planes, ride some trains, and stay with family and see great friends.  So excited!

Monday = New Week

Last week was a really rough week in regards of my career.  I felt backstabbed, not supported, and a subordinate yelled at me.  I'll admit it, I cried.  Looking back, I would of course have handled things differently.  Such as politely asking my coworker to leave my office and return when she felt she could calmly discuss things with me.  Instead, I took the abuse and it took its toll on me.  I don't do well in aggressive situations.  I typically clam up and try to make myself as small as possible to disappear.  Once, someone described me as aggressive.  I don't believe this is an accurate description of me. I may be black and white, to the point and assertive. However, aggressive is forceful, hostile, and violent. I don't believe that describes me.

Anyways, it's a new week.  A new outlook.  I'm trying to remember that it's not the struggles that make us who we are, but how we handle them.  I'm trying very hard to forgive, forget and accept.

Cash only?

Dave and I set forth a challenge for ourselves at the beginning of June.  For one month we were going to use cash only.  Now I pay all of our bills online so we kept that method.  However, we did set a budget for groceries, gas, entertainment, beer, and misc.  We had separate envelopes for each item.  We were not allowed to use the credit or debit card to supplement the money.

So how did do?

We'll after analyzing our finances, I was shocked that were over spending every month by $200.00.  We didn't notice because items were put on the credit card and then paid for later.  Let me state this, we don't have a credit card balance. We pay it off every month.  We assumed we were well within our means.  We never went without and we always put money into our savings and Roth IRA accounts.

For the month of June, we ended up having a positive balance number at the end of the month.  We did end up putting some items on the credit card.  They weren't necessities or emergencies, but we did discuss the purchases prior to making them.  I, for one, quickly realized how a dollar drink here or there adds up by the end of two weeks. 

Overall, it was a challenge.  We're going to continue with the cash method and see how we do.  I don't know if we'll keep it up forever, but it was the most beneficial with the miscellaneous purchases.  Those will zap your wallet faster than you think!

Editor's Note:  Also, if you're looking for a great way to track your expenses and set budgets, I highly recommend Mint.com. It's free and very easy to setup. 

Babe Ruth, I am not

Did I tell you I joined an adult softball team?  No? That's probably because I stopped blogging.  Anyways, I did and we suck.  I, personally suck at softball, but we also suck as team.  As in we hadn't won a game.  We play Sunday nights with each night a double-header.  So far, we've stopped one game early because the other team got so far ahead of us.  Yet, yesterday we started our first round in the loser's bracket and won our first game!  Against Channel 2 no less!  They might not of had their whole team there because of news stories, but it doesn't change the fact we got a win! And by a run rule no less, 1 - 21.  Impressive I know.  I also hit the ball.  Typically, my strategy is just stand there and hope they walk me.  So I'm proud of my crappy softball team.

Please help

Hi bloggers.  My friend Leslie needs some serious prayers right now.  Her son Jace was shaken so hard that he has brain injuries.  Please visit this site and leave your prayers. This little 3 year old has already had a rough life and needs all the support we can give.

Thank you.

I'm sorry

I've noticed lately that I substitute "excuse me" with "I'm sorry." I'm not sure when this started, but I do this quite a bit throughout the day. It's not even an appropriate saying for what I'm meaning. This is a habit I'm determined to break, there's no need for me to say "I'm sorry" when I'm reaching over someone to grab a straw.

I also noticed other women doing this. There’s no reason for us to be apologetic for trying to get somewhere or something. Is this something we’re taught? To apologize for no reason?

Weekend Recaps

I had a very random weekend. It started with happy hour with a few coworkers. I had to leave early because I promised Rachel that I would babysit some adults and chaperone the sorority formal. Last time we chaperoned together, we got to kick out three couples and see the DJ get tackled by an overly intoxicated date. This time the group just had several dance offs which in comparison is boring. So afterwards, around 11:00ish I rejoined my co-workers. The group slightly changed and you could definitely tell who had been there since 5:30pm. One co-worker kindly started kneading me with her head like a cat. I wasn’t sure how to react so I just petted her head told her she was a good kitty. The night progressed into karaoke version of baby got back where my co-worker who acted like a cat was stumbling into all the booty dancing female patrons. It was quite comical seeing her bounce between people rears like a pinball. As the night continued the group decided shots was obliviously a good idea. I ended up with a regurgitation of a jack shot from the same kitty/pinball coworker. That’s when my Friday night ended and I took her and my husband home.


Saturday started slow since we had a late night. I got my hair done and decided since its Spring I should go dark. I love it! I also booked a hair cut with my stylist who moved to Denver but comes back about once a month. Dave and I ended up going out for a low-key night of coffee with friends that turned into drinking games and riding in a van with shag carpeting, no seats and a small television in the back. It’s for sale if anyone needs a creepy kidnapping van.

I have a coworker who speaks Spanish and very little English. We try to have conversations, but they usually turn out with both of saying “Como se dice…” and since she doesn’t know English her word is in Spanish and I can’t help her and vice versa for me. Pretty hysterical if you’re eavesdropping on the conversation.

Happy Monday!

At least have tinted windows

I know you've missed my work stories. This happened several weeks ago, but it was too funny not share. Fair warning you might find this vulgar.

It was a bright sunny day. I thought I had the chance to leave work relatively on time. It was a little after 5pm and our evening students were beginning to arrive for their classes. With my purse in hand I get up to head home. I get stopped by the stairs by two employees who were mumbling that they needed to tell me something. Both of their faces turn bright red and they won't look me in the eyes. Finally, one of them blurts out "a student is getting a bj in the parking lot." I naturally ask, "how do you know this?"

Apparently, this student was receiving his afternoon delight in his car without tinted windows. Another student called an instructor to report what he saw. The instructor was off campus so he called another instructor who was at the school. The instructor peeked out a window and confirmed what the student reported. The off campus instructor returned and pulled his car right up next to the love car. The girl jumps up so quickly that she bumps her head on the ceiling and the student is buttoning his pants as quickly as possible.

I got the pleasure of calling my very conservative Mormon male President and explain the situation. So of course using my most professional tact, I blurt out "a student is having oral sex in the parking lot.". This followed by a long awkward silence. He then tells me he's on the way over.

We met with the student and immediately expelled him. The student did not take this well. He stated that while it may have looked bad, his girlfriend was actually kissing his stomach. Then on the way out the door he turned to his instructor and said, "I hope you watch the ten o'clock news. That's where you'll see the report that my dad's killed me."

We have an appeal process and let the student back into school. And obiviously his dad didn't kill him. Lesson learned? Get tinted windows.

Why Get Married?

I had an interesting conversation last night. A co-worker and I started having a heated discussion about why people get married. I have learned from this discussion that this should be one of those topics people stay away from at parties, like politics and religion.

I don't remember how the conversation got started. What I do remember is her saying "Why get married when 50% get divorced and the other 50% are unhappy." This is about the time where I blew a gasket because I felt my relationship was being scrutinized. Had we both been sober, I think we could've had a calm conversation.

So, I'm going to give my reasons for why I think people get married.

1. Her argument was that 50% of marriages end in divorce, so why get married with a high failure rate.

I can't find actual data on this statistic, but I know this number is generally accepted among the public. I'm going to accept this number for simplicity reasons. I'm also going to assume that even though we do not have to register for every romantic relationship we have, more non-martial relationships end versus marriages ending in divorce. So if we're going to go with her argument of why get married if you have a 50% chance of getting divorce, why enter a relationship if you have a higher chance of it ending?

2. I want to wake up every day and have a choice with whom I’m with.

Let’s go back to the 50% of marriages ending in divorce. Doesn’t that mean that the other 50% are choosing to stay married? It’s still a choice regardless of the legal document or not. I know there out there who feel trapped in a relationship, married or not. Every day is a choice when you’re a relationship and both parties choose to stay together. That’s what makes a relationship.

3. I asked her why wouldn’t you get married? She responded why would I?

Because marriage is a ceremony where you stand up in front God, family and friends and make a verbal commitment to your partner. You become accountable for your relationship and the actions you take towards your partner. By making public vows, you’re saying you will respect and work with your partner. This is a public way of saying you're in a long-term committed relationship. If this is what you're seeking from your partner why wouldn't you get married?

Lent

I'm giving up social media for Lent. I'll post my experience after Easter. Happy blogging and I'll see you in 40 days.

Name conversation

This is a typical conversation that I have with just about any new person I meet.  In one form or another they ask about my name.  Some are more polite than this guy.

Me: Hi, I'm Blaze. How can I help you?
Guy: Blaze?  Really?  Why?
Me: Why?
Guy: Yea, why Blaze?
Stare at Guy as if I don't comprehend his question
Guy: slowly as if I'm idiot Why are you named Blaze?
Me: Sir, I think Sara may be more capable of helping you at this time.  And walk away.

Lover's Day and Sushi

Tis the weekend for love.  My husband and I don't really celebrate in this holiday.  Too much pressure and setup for disappointment.  He did however buy me a box of chocolates.  But before he could give it to me the dog got into and ate the whole box!

Last night I needed to relieve some stress.  So a small group of us went to a local sushi restaurant.  Turns out Maria and Jackie were there with their own separate groups.  Also, Maria was with a friend who used to lifeguard with Jackie and I.  T-town only allows 2 degrees of separation at the most.  It cool to see so many people you know in a small restaurant.  I guess sushi was the it thing last night. 

I'm reading The Chronicles of Narnia.  I know the basic story line, but I never read it as a kid.  My husband insisted that I read these books.  So the last time I ventured to the book store I picked up the whole collection.  They're really good.

Oh and I'm seriously trying to plan a vacation.  Just knowing that I'm going somewhere, sometime is really helping the February blues.

I'm alive

I think I might ban blogging until T-town decides it’s no longer Green Bay. Monday became crazy for me last night at about 11pm. I received an email from my boss that caused me not to sleep until well past 1am. I don't want to go into detail. But it had me stating why I should be allowed to handle certain situations without bringing in other people. 

It's been very cold here. Too cold. I want a warm vacation, like now. I'm thinking St. Lucia, Belize, or Cabo. Suggestions?

This weekend was random. I saw a dodge ball tournament. Seriously! And there were some pretty serious teams. Each game was 5 minutes with 2.5 minute halves. Dave's team didn't last through the first half before they were eliminated. Pretty entertaining nonetheless.

Saturday, I celebrated a friend’s birthday by riding in a 15-passenger van to Eischen’s which is the oldest bar in Oklahoma. This happens to be next to the oldest bank. It’s in a little town outside of OKC and it was packed! We waited an hour to find a table big enough for our group. One interesting social experiment – each person in our group was assigned an area to be on the lookout for a table. One member decided he was going to form a line and so he did. He just told everyone looking at tables that he was next and they stood behind him. They were all guys. All the females were still scouring tables and not being aggressive. Guess where we got our table? In the room with the line. Little fact Eischen’s was on the food network for Dive, Drives and Dinners. It was good food and something different.

I hope everyone's Monday is better than mine. And that you're staying warm. I'm so over winter, seriously we've never received this much snow before. I miss those days...

Chasing my own tail

I feel like this:

I hope I don't end up like this:

Yesterday, I felt like I was just trying to catch up with myself.  Today I feel so far behind and my to-do list just keeps growing.  Along with that is school and getting an email from my professor saying, "I'm guessing this paper was written quickly."  It was because I didn't think it was due till this Sunday and it was due last Sunday.  I received an email from her yesterday asking for the paper so I typed it out and hit submit.  Apparently that's not acceptable and I have to make some adjustments. *sigh*

I'm hosting bookclub tonight.  If I don't get my act together everyone will be sitting in my dirty house and helping me fold laundry instead of eating and discussing the book.

Have you ever had one thing that consumed your every thought?

That happened to me yesterday. Every thought I had was around pop and how much I wish I could taste its deliciousness.

I gave up pop. I don't know why. It’s definitely not a health kick since I’m consuming more calories now than I did drinking pop. For some unknown reason, I just decided yesterday that instead of grabbing my normal diet Dr. Pepper that I would go for juice. I gave up pop cold turkey.

I swear I was crack addict coming down from a high. I had a huge headache that wouldn’t go away and I couldn’t stop thinking about my believed DP. Last night my temperature dropped way down and I was freezing in my warm house. It was sad people, sad. I snapped at my husband for every little thing that he did or didn’t do. Sorry babe!

I’m back to being sane. I don’t have a headache today. I haven’t craved for a pop yet either. I think I’m just glad I survived. I’m restarting the couch to 5K tonight. So hopefully I’ll still be able to reach my goal of running a 5K in March.

Random Post

What the hell is wrong with Facebook? I guess I'm not cool enough for the inside joke of blah blah blah because that's how I roll. Or misspelling tomorrow. Seriously people! That word reuses the same vowel, I promise. Rant over.

I've been having writer's block in almost every aspect of my life. Even my facebook statuses have been haulted by the block.  I've had ideas for posts and I can't seem to conceptualize them. I blame grad school, work, and Pat Robertson.

This week I worked like crazy, tried to stay on top of my school work and pretended to workout. My pretend workout consisted of walking at a local park but it was so muddy from all the snow that my workout partner and I just went for beers. I think I mentally benefited from the talk more than the walk. However, my couch to 5K challenge has resulted in more couch activity than anything else. I need to get back into that groove, especially since people keep reminding me that I’m running a 5K in March. Sometimes I need to learn to not tell people my goals.

I’ll leave you with a typical conversation of introducing myself to someone.

Me: “Hi. I’m Blaze, it’s nice to meet you.”
Someone: “Blaze huh? Were you born in a blaze of glory?”
Me: trying not to roll my eyes “No, but why don’t you tell me why you’ve applied for a position at this company?”

Grad School + Blaze =

I'm overwhelmed.  As you may know, I'm taking two graduate courses this semester.  I seriously feel like the dumbest person to enter grad school.  All we had to do day 1 was post a bio about ourselves.  I posted the damn thing in the wrong spot. And of course, once you post you can't take it away.  When I finally figured out where all my assignments are located, it appears that my entire class has already fulfilled the assignment.  How is that possible??  It's day one! Aren't we supposed to just get used to being in class?  I seriously didn't think being out of school for *gasp* 7 years would make a difference, but I think it has.

In other news, I no longer have a life, so I'm sure my posts will be boring.  I understand if you no longer want to read.

Happy New Year

Things I've already learned in 2010:

• Toasti Toes do not actually work on your feet, but are excellent thigh warmers.
• I will not die at a freezing cold football as long as I have long johns, jeans, two pair of socks, two tank tops, long sleeve shirt, two sweatshirts, two gloves, two hats, thermal back warmer, Toasti Toes.
• I will however, still be cold, but not dead.
• Memphis Domino's will give you free pizza without you complaining, if the box looks smashed.
• I love my snow boots that I bought in Houston.  So much so this is the first day in a week that I haven't worn them. I'll probably put them on after work.
• I'm horrible at chess
• I'm descent at scrabble.
• I start school today.  I'm nervous and excited and I already feel behind.

Happy 2010!  Oh and what is everyone calling the year?  I've been saying twenty-ten, but have heard oh ten, aught ten, and two thousand and ten.