The Past 3 Days

Things I've Loved:

1. The warm weather

2. My at loves to be in the freezer which makes us both happy

3. Moving to a cheaper apartment

4. The quiet in my new surroundings

5. Spending time with my Mom painting

6. Living by Michael and Mallory

7. My new organizational tools from The Container Store

8. New Furniture from Dave's Mom

Things I don't Really Love:

1. Sweating so bad that Dave and I both took about 4 showers a day and my cat were literally panting!

2. My cat loving the freezer so much that he is planted in front of the fridge daily scratching at the door waiting for me to put him at ease in the heat. 

3. Having to paint

4. Trying to fit all of our new furniture in our home and figuring out what piece doesn't make the cut

5. Having to spend 1 hour on getting Will in his carrier...more on this later, this requires a separate post.

In all, we like it! I think I can handle not living o the Hill, but I will throughly miss it! Come see my new house....

Eat, Pray, Love

I received this book ages ago and devoured it in a day. Happily, I just found out it is to be a movie! Not just any movie, a movie starring Julia Roberts. I throughly enjoy her films. She is like daisies or ice cream from the carton....always smiling, welcoming, and guaranteed to create a bounce in my step. This is one book-to-film I am excited to see!

Similarly, how exciting is it that I read Julia Child's book in Paris a few months ago, only to see last night that there is a Julia Child's film coming out in August! And, Meryl Steep and Amy Adams are in it! I just love when there are several movie options out...it feels like December when all the good movies are out but without the 90 degree weather!

Also along these lines, Dave and I have been trying to become more fiscally aware, and we have taken to it grandly! We DO NOT eat out unless it is on the weekend and only once. We create mean plans every Sunday (snaps to Mrs. Smith for the idea!), and we have been cooking together every night! I so look forward to our chaos in the kitchen as we navigate through another phase in our relationship called: downsizing! What fun it has been looking forward to dinner...

Because of our dinner nights, I feel closer to Dave, like we have achieved something together. It is just one more element of our life together that I haven't stopped to appreciate. We love food. We love grocery shopping. We love cooking in our tiny and intensely hot kitchen. Who knew I would fall more in love with Dave over polenta?!

When was the switch?

Last night I jolted awake at 3am hearing an odd combo of Enya meets The Cranberries blaring in my window. I tried, half awake, to discover where and what apartment it was coming from and while doing so, woke Dave up as well. We discovered, after turning on every light in the house and now fully awake, that the noise was coming from one floor up and one apartment over. I finally put my glasses on to see that the culprit had all of her (assuming it is a "she" by the music selection) lights were on and she was dancing around with ALL of her windows open. I calmly opened the window and screamed slightly for her to turn it down or close her windows. She did not respond, rather from the apartment across from us came billows of laughter and agreement that the lady should turn it down.

Being polite but rather frustrated, we closed all of the windows and tried to sleep. I tossed and turned while both Dave and I have each others hands cupped over our ears. Again, I jerked up with a brilliant idea! Earplugs!!!! I ran to the bathroom and searched for our Paris First Class bags and found empty cases because Mrs. Smith and I used them whilst in our Paris loft....rats!!!

I try again to lay and be peaceful until I realize that she is playing the same 3 songs over and over and over again! UGH:( Finally I get so annoying to Dave that he starts to put clothes on to knock on her door. Grumbling the whole way, I sweetly thank him and wait for the noise to cease.

YEAH!!!! Dave is the hero! She doesn't answer the door, but turns the music waaaaayyyy down and I can finally sleep soundly. It was 4:15am.

Fast forward to this morning, one of my favorite kids at work hit her hip on the playground. She gets an ice pack and comes to sit in my office while I am on the phone, talking loudly, emailing, and using an annoying and always loud walkie-talkie. I turn around 3 minutes later, and she is fast asleep in the chair with an ice pack to her hip.

I am mystified! When did I loose the ability to fall asleep anywhere with any sort of noise? I miss that and I don't even remember when I was able to do that! She slept for a good 45 minutes, woke up, told me the ice pack was warm, that when her dad was in her grandma's tummy he had a dog named Sparky, and off she went. A-m-a-z-i-n-g! Wish I still had it in me:)

Will.I.Am

On Friday I helped my amazing ex-boss out and watched her 3 girls for the afternoon. They are 3 of the sweetest, kindest, fun kids ever (Miss Joan and Finny still reign as #1). I brought the girls over to my house because they have heard and seen so many pictures of the boys and wanted to see the kitties. 

They walked into the door and Fluffy was all about it! I could hear his little, I mean really little, mind screaming, "Yeah 3 more people who can pet me!!!" Meanwhile, I look over to Will and his ears instantly plastered back and he got fluffy tail....ummmm, ok. We walk down the hall only to catch his enormous body flattening and squeezing underneath the sofa. Right, point taken, Will does not like kids. 

And there he stayed until 20 minutes ago. 2 and 1/2 days later!!!! That's right, my cat pouted all weekend and would NOT come out from underneath the sofa. It didn't matter that I was showering Fluffy in attention, laying out every treat imaginable, or offering people food, no matter, my cat would not budge. We would lean down and shove toys and he would literally bat them back out at us, as to say, "Fuck OFF!!!!" 

Now that he is out, he is wondering around like "Hey, now where is all that delicious shit you planned on giving me, but I had to make my point very clear?" We are currently giving him anything and everything he wants in order to keep him out from under the sofa. I think our neighbors across the way who can see in our apartment think we are very odd as they are watching us follow him around like a two year old does it's mother. I am currently my cat's obedient slave. How sad.

Must run, my Sofa Cat is demanding attention and snacks while threatening sofa time if his needs are not met RIGHT NOW!

A Stick in My Wheel

After a Friday night of pure fun, I awoke on Saturday morning feeling a bit groggy. No worries, I have more fun to do! Wrong! By 9 pm with my best friends ever celebrating my birthday, I was a mess. My head felt like bowling ball, by body was shivering, and my nose had turned into a hose. I came home, promptly put on all the sweat pants I own and shivered Michelin man self to sleep. 

3:24 am, I'm awake because I am literally sweating away my body fat because I have so many clothes on. 

4 am, still not asleep it must be the snot running down my face and the cracked lips. Fun.

Finally I wake up to go out to breakfast with Deb and Tarilyn only to be Debbie Downer because I still feel like I am underwater and sweating like a whore in church. We go to the Sounders Game where I decide that jersey or no jersey, I now remember why I don't wear synthetic fibers. Now, off to Steve and Pam's for another birthday celebration and I am taking a nap through appetizers and downing cold tablets like meth addict during dinner. 

Monday morning. I'm exhausted because I have only slept for 3 hours with an adorable cat on my chest compressing my lungs just a bit more than they already are. Awesome. What a girl will do for a cat on her chest. 

Go to work, only to snap at Kim Hood and having a echo/humming noise in my ear for 3 hours. Finally, I drag my sorry-ass home and sleep for 6 hours and get some homework done. Is this the universe saying slow down or i'll make you slow down? Or, is this punishment? I hate karma....hopefully this is a 3 day cold and I am on the upside:)

Could do with, Could do without

5 Things I could have done without this week:

1) A phone call that should have ruined my week, but alas, I have learned to expect nothing, therefore feel nothing. 

2) 60+ hours of work, moving, closing a site, and caring for very sad children. That kicked my ass and my feet hurt really bad.

3) Only seeing Leslie once when I wanted to see her every day of the week!

4) Having a stupid amount of homework due and really not having time for it. 

5) Knowing that I am going to run like a mad woman tomorrow as I turn 25 and not being able to throughly enjoy it:(

5 Things I could NOT have done without this week:

1) Dave helping my in anything and everything I did this week because he knew we wouldn't be able to spend time together, instead he did all the bitch work right beside me.

2) Seeing Leslie today!

3) Setting up our new site for the summer and knowing that it looks amazing and feeling like this could be the best summer for some kid in W. Seattle and I get to be a part of it!

4) Although this week with be equally crazy, Annie is in town and I get to do a lot of fun family things!

5) Today. Today I get to be with all of my people and celebrate birthdays, Father's Day, and everything in between. I really love that I get today!

The Woes of a Grad Student

Sorry, it has been too long. Want the fill-in of what I have been doing? Well, it's really simple: worrying like a mad woman about how is God's green earth people afford to live while in school. Recently Mrs. Smith posted about how she contributes to society yet there are no benefits for her and so on, and I agree completely. How is it possible that our country pushes me to go to more school and more school, yet my punishment is financial ruin? I am hanging in by a thread, literally. I have contemplated the unimaginable to make ends meet for me, yet I know the real rough patch is yet to come. One word for you: internship. Three long, rough, demanding, scary, unpaid internship semesters of HELL. 

Let me break it down further: 

I have no job in September.

I have an internship that I still need to find that starts in January and must last for THREE semesters, the equivalent of 9 months! U-N-P-A-I-D!!!!!!!!!!

I have to move because I can no longer afford my rent.

I have had to rely financially on Da and I hate putting him in that position.

I'm turning 25 next week and I feel like a 4th grader.

To top it off, all of this combined makes me feel like I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 

How do I afford life?