Whoops!

OK, so we started moving this week and I'll put up pictures of the new place so you can see when I'm done filling you in on Convention (which I know you're all super excited about, but I'm not one to abandon a project!) BUT we haven't had internet so far! I'm using my wireless hotspot on my phone (man, don't I feel all tech savvy?) but we've been so busy and the hotspot can't support the blogger uploads like regular wifi that I haven't had a chance to catch up! Never fear, I will start again tonight! Lots to say here AND on the Agape blog!

Been a while... again

And no, I'm not going to start in to that AWFUL song by... Creed? Nickleback? One of those bands that melts in to the background after several years...

Things have been preeeetty busy for a while, and we DID get an apartment, which has been part of the insanity, on top of the fact that we only just got internet yesterday after several weeks! AT&T-- they still suck.

We're living a couple doors up from OBC, which is a fantastic area. It's so great being walking distance from The Matador, Palate, U Joint, Nectar, and my hair salon! Sweeeet! Well, I assume it's great, the weather only just got nice enough to walk anywhere.

I'll come back with some general updates in installments so I don't wear you thin with stories, but there's been so much going on it might take a while! There are also, as always, pictures involved!

Here's my easy peasy recipe for the day, see you next time!

Udon and Beef

2-3oz sirloin tip sliced thin and in to strips

1 package plain udon noodles

Siracha to taste

1.5 tsp Sesame Oil

Sautee beef in sesame oil until med rare and top udon noodles with beef and drippings, squirt on Siracha to taste, fill bowl with water to cover noodles, pop in microwave until the noodles are soft and enjoy.

(since things have been so busy, I'm all about easy cooking lately...)

Great news

Jeremy's here!!

Aaaaaahcrazy

This week was NUTS at work! More kids, more noise, more drama-- but all told, it went sooo smoothly.

My car did decide to punk out, but Jeremy says he's almost positive it's just the fuel filter (which my mother never ever changed, so it's the original fuel filter with 123k miles on it!) so hopefully that'll be all. Best thing? He can change it for me. Since he gets here TOMORROW! Well, I guess that's really TODAY!

My new addiction is Marc Broussard's "Home". It's actually an old addiction, he played Rhodes my sophomore year and I fell so in love with him-- I still have a picture I took with him after he autographed my shirt (since I didn't have anything else he could autograph) and my arm (just for humor value) at Rites. He's got the most amazing voice and energy-- SO GOOD. Though he's way sexier in jeans and a t-shirt than this suit they've got him in for the video I found of it...





If you want to hear the song like it ought to be heard, check it out on YouTube (since I'm not sure how to post them on the blog) because I don't think that NBA performance shows off the music as well as it should.

Anyway, I've listened to that song about a hundred times this week, I am so addicted to his music! I'm hoping to be able to see him in October when he comes to town-- tickets are $30 but it's TOTALLY worth it. Also, Florez is coming to town in September and their tickets are only $8, so maybe I can just tell myself I paid $20 each for the tickets ;)

I'm also kind of addicted to Jump by Flo Rida and Nelly Furtado-- they didn't have the song on YouTube, but you can press play and listen to the song. It was the best I could do-- the rest of them were related to G-Fail since it was one of three songs they licensed, but we all know how I feel about G-Fail...



Anyway, I'm gonna go clear out some more stuff so that when Jeremy gets here tomorrow there's somewhere for all of his things to go!

At least

At least Friday wasn't a total loss-- I finished sorting paperwork for afterschool, put the finishing touches on the database, cleaned out ALL THE OLD PAPERWORK! since we were drowning in paperwork for kids who hadn't been there in two years, organized the immunization forms and created a binder for immunization compliance, and then balanced out the ledgers and started working on a new program which will send out weekly invoices to notify people of balances and credits.

Woohoo!

Last night, I went over and hung out with the K's and was happy to see Violet doing much better than last week and playing in the coolest toy ever that Michael bought yesterday morning. It's big and clunky as far as toys go, but she looooves that thing-- it's bouncy and has lights and sounds and things she can spin, it's her new favorite thing! Julian had his usual Friday night meltdown, but it's pretty much expected at this point, so we just wait for it to happen, toss him in the bath, and put him to bed; usually about half an hour to an hour before his actual bed time. This week, the fit was about a) wanting the cherry Meg had and b) wanting a new napkin since Sarah had taken his to clean up the Mac'n'Cheese he accidentally threw at her. Sarah and I try not to laugh, obviously it's a behavioural issue and we know it would be really irritating if we had to live with it, but when Meg tells him not to splash in the bath and he goes, "Mommy noooooooo, it hurts my feeeeeeelings!" we can't help but crack up! We also hope that he grows out of it, because otherwise he's gonna get beat up a lot on the playground...

Today I'm hoping to get some stuff cleaned up and put away so that there's less stuff in my room for when Jeremy gets here (which is ironic since I spent the rest of my summer trying to get things out of the garage and up here!) so he can fit in. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my closet-- I have so many clothes!! I may have to hit up Target for some cheap storage bins to stick some stuff in the garage. I'm not sure how much he's keeping here or sending back to Southaven, so we'll see. I know we made some room for him down there, too.

Tomorrow, Richard and I are going shopping for snacks, office supplies, and some small games stuff, and then Monday morning we're working through the day to get ready for Monday afternoon. Wheee....

Good Monday?

Who knew!

A good friend of mine (I can't say who yet) found out she's pregnant and told us today, and my friends Emily and Daniel FINALLY got engaged, and I found out Jeremy and I got the apartment!!!

It's been a really great day and I hope the rest of the week doesn't bring it down-- we have SO MANY KIDS at camp because we're the only camp that runs up until school starts! We have 80-something kids this week, and we don't have as many counselors because half of them are on beach retreat with Youth along with our vans! We go to Lake Lanier on Wednesday, though it'll be kind of nice that we'll have to have the charter buses because I can just relax on the way out and relax on the way back!

I've also got an ok schedule this week-- even though I don't like 8a, it's not too bad working 8a-1p and then coming back from 4-6p. The break is helpful, I might actually get something done this week!

I have to talk to Jeremy about the apartment tonight-- he's hesitant to sign a lease because he doesn't have a job yet, but I feel like so much went right for us to get this place that it would be silly to let it go. There are also a lot of places around that are hiring; granted, for smaller jobs, but still hiring. I don't know that we'd have any more luck if he were in Southaven and as selfish as it sounds, I spent the last nine months without him and I'm not about to have him move back to Southaven while I'm still here!

Anyway, I'm gonna go pass off the rest of my milkshake to mom, and then look in to more graduate stuff. Sigh.

Ciao.

Oh Happy Day?

This weekend was a lot of fun even though I was a little under the weather-- Sophia came to visit! I miss her soooo much! Friday night we went to El Tesoro and then hung out with Meg and Michael for a while. Saturday we got up early and helped mom set up for her yard sale, which went pretty well, then Jonathan (who was back to pick his mother up) came over for breakfast, and Michael brought Julian and Violet and I made bacon, veggie sausage, biscuits, and waffles. I was going to make eggs, but mom boiled them all and I didn't realize until everyone was about to walk in the door! Anyway, breakfast was nice and it was very family-like to hang out and shoot the breeze and play with the baby and watch Julian be a goofball.

After everyone left, we thought about going to see an IMAX at Fernbank since it's cheaper with our membership, but then we started talking about other movies and I remembered that Northlake Movie Tavern does $5 Saturday movies before 6p, so we decided to go see The Hangover after going to Fernbank. We went up and walked around the rose garden, and then went in to see the dinosaurs. Afterwards, we came back and helped mom pack up and found out which stuff from the yard sale I get to keep for the apartment. Then we went to the Movie Tavern and had a blast. The food was yummy, they had Blue Moon on draft, and it was the best $14 we ever spent at a movie! Oh, and the movie was pretty darn funny, too. :) After the movie, we did something I don't remember and hung out with the K's for a while.

Sunday we went to Target, where Sophia found a waffle maker for $7 and I got a bunch of clearance groceries! Then we went to Lenox and wandered around for a while, and stopped by a Pier One that was going out of business-- talk about a smart move! I'm hoping that by the time Friday rolls around, the dining room table I want will still be there and down to $100! If it's down to $75, and the side table I want is down to $15 then I'll just have to get both of them ;) It's my impetus to clean out my car. The table is really nice, dark wood with red legs, and it's a drop leaf to fit six-- it was originally $300!

After a while, we came home (exhausted and hungry) and then ate some more at Palate, and went over to Iggy and Wade's to watch True Blood and Hung. We all remarked on the fact that Sookie is way more annoying this season than last.

Last night things took a turn for the worse... I woke up with a fever around 2a and have had one ever since :( My ears feel like someone's shoved a Q-Tip in too far (to which Jeremy remarks that he knows how that feels... Valerie!), and I coughed so much at work this morning I almost threw up! Thankfully, VBS doesn't require as much of my attention and so I was able to slip away and do most of that in private without getting it all over someone else.

VBS wasn't too bad, though the head lady is a little bit prickly and doesn't care much for the camp kids or the counselors, even though she doesn't want to seem to help us figure out what we're supposed to be doing! They also had some really boring music for a church that's known for having one of the best music programs in the area-- Jeremy said the second song we did this morning is a really really old one. The first one I don't even remember, which is a change from VBS when I was little-- all those songs would get stuck in my head for weeks! I always liked, "Oh Happy Day" since it was so upbeat and easy to sing. The package they have for this year is Paul and the Underground Church, which I was vaguely intrigued by, but so far it's been either half-hearted or historically (and apparently also biblically) incorrect. The Olympics started in Greece, not Rome, and Saul of Tarsus was from (get this) Tarsus, not Jerusalem. The guy who played Paul in the sketch was reading off a piece of paper, and the script for the visit to the Underground Church had high church Latin, not the traditional Latin that was spoken until post Constantine. Fran let me correct the Latin, though, so I had my happy little dork moment ;) All in all it was OK, and I think some of the church members weren't thrilled with the package either, so we'll see what the rest of the week brings. Maybe Paul will have learned his lines!

Now, to bed-- I still have a fever and I'm super exhausted!

PS- we put in our applications for the apartment this weekend and I'm really excited! If you want to see pictures, go check the place out. It's not our furniture, but I'm looking to do a similar style.

Heee

The upside of the starter being dead is that I didn't have to take dad to the doctor this morning (he rescheduled for April anyway, for the eye embolism thingy) so I've been all over BSG all day long. The marathon goes straight through to the series finale tonight, so that's just about 12 hours straight! It's been fun because I have a few other friends doing the same thing so we've been talking all day and laughing at some of the funny little things they do.

Where my wisdom teeth were is hurting really badly, like it did before I had them all taken out, which was supposed to fix them. The oral surgeon was convinced it was my molars (all four of my back molars need to be crowned thanks to that horrible horrible dentist from back in the day) that were causing the pain, but it's more of an ache. It throbs and stays with me, I really dislike it. From what I hear, if it were something to do with the roots or nerves, it would hurt a lot worse than this, it would require major painkillers. This feels better when I chew gum or something, kind of like when you have an itch that feels better when you scratch it.

Also, there is a preview for Fast and the Furious (4) which will come out next month... I'm thinking Jeremy and I might have to break our no movies rule and go see it when I go down to see him at the beginning of the month! I did get my tax return today, so I'm going to let it sit and earn interest for a short while, then leave some there, pay off completely one of my credit cards, and buy my ticket to Austin to see Dill this summer!! Whatever's left will go back to savings to sit there for the wedding and moving.

Congrats for making it this far, I know my tooth pain and penchant for cheesy movies is totally what everyone wants to hear about. I have been considering going to grad school if we end up in Memphis next year. I don't know much about U of M's graduate programs, but if we're in Memphis it's because I couldn't find a job, so going to grad school would be something to do and it would help defer my loans further so we could pay down Jeremy's (which has the higher interest rate). I've been considering a lot of different graduate programs, but I think I'd really like to study linguistics. It's a subject that's always really grabbed my attention, something that I think is at the root of everything we analyze and are confused about in the world. I'm sure there are other things that would be fun, journalism say, but I think linguistics would really challenge my brain and I would really enjoy it.

Oh, well, off to make dinner. Ciao for now!

Hooray shopping!

Went to Target today and bought some really super cute stuff for Analia, I kinda wish some of them were in my size! Apparently there was a run on all the 2T clearance stuff that was there last week, but I still got a pair of cute little twill capris, some dark pink chino-type shorts, a brown and pink tank top, a pink shirt with little gingham trim, and a multi-colored sundress. I'm trying to see if I can upload directly from the camera since I don't have a card reader for a microSD since I have a couple pictures. Aaaaand, it worked!

See, the shirts and the pants match each other and will go with several things she already has and the sundress is just flat out cute.

Also, Meg had her baby today!! Welcome to the world, Vera Kavanaugh, we're so glad you're here! She picked a beautiful day to come-- 65 and sunny, like the world was expecting her. :D

Well, here's to hoping we get a commercial break soon or I'm going to be watching Burn Notice at 1a and mom's going to be mad at me for not helping move David's stuff out; in my defense, I did help out for like 20 minutes last night without being asked and this is the only show I insist on watching at its normal time because I know that there are people who will spoil it. Also, as I have just found out, David and my brother are both type A enough that they don't want someone else getting in the way!

Did my tax return last night, so now I'm just waiting for it all to come back-- I'm being responsible AND having fun; half will go to pay off a credit card and the other half will go towards a ticket to Austin this summer. I can't wait!!

<3 Burn Notice!!

New House

One more day of moving and then we'll be in with the new and out of the old. There's still a ton of stuff to do at the Avery house, which I'm not too thrilled about, but c'est la vie. I have my own room now, which is sooooo nice. I also got one of the many chest/storage/table type things that mom has and it's supporting the TV and housing all of my subject/reference books that have now been happily divided in to genres-- Art, language, linguistics, sociology, psychology, theatre, and literature! We still have to pull in my chest of drawers and my vanity, but everything's kind of falling in to place. The room is strangely shaped and the window is like two feet off the ground, so I'm not really sure what the architecht thought they could do with it, buuuut that's ok. The only big problem is that the heat vents are in the ceiling and it blows directly on my bed and dries out my sinuses.

My birthday came and went without notice; I canceled the movie outing for tomorrow to Emily's dismay, but I just don't even want to deal with it. My mom didn't even bother to look for a cake at Publix since the Market didn't have one when I went yesterday.

I'm happy that I have my own space now, it'll make life easier, but I really want the next six or seven months to be over with so that Jeremy and I can get on to wherever we're going to be and start our own lives.

Sorry this update's not too cheery, but it's been a silly week. I really miss Jeremy and I hope he gets to come up for Valentine's weekend. I also hope I make enough money this week to do something to my car and also to get to go down to Savannah to see Sara! Jeremy might come up, but it depends on when Jan and Marc are getting down there for the conference, if they go Friday or Saturday.

I'll try to have something better to say soon, but for now... I'm going to put some clothes up and try to get back to sleep.

Taxes... ARGH

I really severely heinously dislike taxes. I do my stuff online at HR Block and there's a little window in the upper corner that reads out your refund as you plug in the numbers. I started on one and as I put in my W-2s (a total of $11,000 for the year) and my 1099-R (401k distribution), my refund went from over $1,000 to $800 and then when I plugged in my $1,000 in medical expenses for the year... It went down to $323!!!

Seriously? Really? I mean, I'm already insulted enough by the fact that I'd have to be making $6-7,000 to qualify for welfare or any type of assistance from the gov't to whom I have dutifully paid my taxes since I was 15 and now you have to tell me that since (with taxes and medical expenses deducted) I make $9,000 to live on for 12 months, you're not going to give me any of it back? Oh, oh, and lest we forget, the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) laws were changed last year, so since I'm not 25-65 it doesn't matter that I'm poor. Apparently they assume my parents are still supporting me?

ARGH!

People wonder what's wrong with our country, and I promise I'm not going to rant, but this has to give some kind of minor HINT as to what the deal is.

/rant

In the end I'm getting a fairly decent refund, it'll pay for the deposit on the wedding and hopefully a little more since it'll sit in a high-interest savings account until October, but it still just drives me up the wall that we (aka, the lawmakers) have such a skewed idea of what poverty is. We want people living in filth and dying because they can't afford medical care before we'll offer a helping hand. And, if you've paid taxes for almost 10 years and asked for nothing... oh, well! Wayne got fired and was making $275/week on unemployment. I work three days a week and don't make that.

/really end rant...

I didn't get much sleep last night, my brother was up and I finally had just been up so long I stayed up-- then I had an allergy issue and had to take a Benadryl so I don't think I made much sense when Jeremy called at lunch... I ended up sleeping until 2, so I didn't get any packing done, though it was raining so I wouldn't have been able to move it anyway. Work was really slow, though I did get the macadamia nut encrusted scallops and chocolate bread pudding (two of my favorites!), and basically the day ended up being pretty rotten which is kind of the story with my birthday every year. Except last year, I want to go back to last year. Jeremy made me some crazy brownie concoction, we got Papa Johns, watched Burn Notice, and he gave me my beautiful earrings (which have come off twice since-- both for surgery).

Apparently my birthday present is in the mail (from Jeremy) and he's more and more sounding like he'll come up for Valentine's day-- he says he won't if the weather is bad, but the weather was pretty rotten at Thanksgiving and he still came up. I'm also looking forward to going down to Savannah (at least, that's the plan) in a couple weeks to see Sara! I love both Savannah and Sara and haven't seen either in several years, so it ought to be a great weekend. Jan and Marc are headed down to Florida for a conference that weekend, so Jeremy doesn't know if he'll come up and meet us for Friday night or not.

Anyway, I'm gonna see if I can't get a couple bags packed up before I go to bed since I'm watching a House Hunters in Austin! Oooh, maybe I can use part of my refund to put towards my ticket to the best bridal party EVER this summer with Dill and Osso Buco by Casey! Yeehaw!

A little something

So I'm seriously considering starting up my own custom cards business. I hand make most of my special events cards and while Christmas got a little out of hand this year (as I custom-tailored each card for each family), almost all of the cards usually end up pretty sharp and darned cute, I think. I don't have the capability to do anything super fancy, but I can do some nice, hand-made cards and get the envelopes to go with them from like PaperDirect (if I need special colors) or something. I could sell them on Etsy and possibly market them to some of the boutiques in Decatur-- have some stock designs and then offer custom type stuff on a website? Plus, the materials aren't that expensive and since I only work part-time, my time isn't all that valuable...

I don't know, what do you guys think? I know there are lots of you who come by, but nobody ever says anything! Well, with the exception of Em who left a note last night :)

Things are going along here, I ordered my save-the-dates tonight and I'm really excited! Hopefully I'll have them out in the next week and a half/two weeks. The template that I ordered ($3 to save myself hours of screwing around with layout in Microsoft Word? Hells yeah!) is downloadable, so I can go ahead and figure out fonts and layouts and all that sort of thing before the actual paper gets here so I'll just print 'em out and address them on slow nights at work, maybe have Em over to help with the rest.

Work hasn't been too bad, and I have my car back which is a huge weight off my shoulders, so now I have to replace the Mass Air Flow sensor and plug the exhaust leak, which will hopefully get done by mid to late February so I can drive down and see Jeremy! He's also talking about coming up here for Valentine's day weekend, which would be really sweet. I have to work Valentine's night, but there's a good chance the dishwasher won't show up, so maybe he can make himself useful during that time and do some dishes... hey, it'd be an extra $30-50!

I'm finally exhausted enough to fall asleep without tossing and turning (not that I wasn't exhausted when I got home, but mom was still packing so I ended up waking up a little bit which was awful), so I'm going to hit the hay and try to prepare for the whirlwind of packing tomorrow morning...

Insomnia strikes again!

Well, it's 5a (almost 6) and a multitude of things are keeping me awake. Appropriately enough, the only thing on TV that isn't infomercials or baseball is an old episode of MY personal high school favorite-- Angel! And, even more appropriately enough, Angel can't sleep. Not even during the day... (y'know, since he's a vampire and all) though I totally forgot how cute Charisma Carpenter is.

Anyway, not much to report really but since nobody's on, here I am! Work's been getting slowly better, made enough tonight to make tires feasible tomorrow, which is really awesome! I'll finally have my own transportation again! I think instead of dealing with the changing the tire and jumping the car, I might just get the darn thing towed up there and let Tires Plus charge up the battery for me. Then I can be off to cash my paycheck, and head out for my candlelight and dinner with the AOIIs!

Semi-formal was a lot of fun, more than I thought it would be. The girls were really great, very well behaved, even if their dates weren't for the most part. I ended up having to clean up someone's vomit off a table, but the president is going to be asking him to write me an apology for having to do that. Other than that, things went really well! Here are a few pictures:


Me and India (madam president)

Me and Danielle
(social chair and one
of my advisees)

Becky (another AAC member)
Katie (most recent president)
Me and
Natalie (whose office I can't remember right now!)





(let's see if that spacing works...)


I continue to love and adore all my new sisters, not that I'm terribly surprised, but it's always wonderful to have a group of friends wherever you go who love you so unconditionally!

I'm trying to think about what else has gone on since I last updated (pre-sickness, blech!), but there isn't really too much. This week should be exciting and busy, which will be really nice since I've been getting a little bit of cabin depression (I totally stop functioning without anything to do...) and poor Jeremy's had to listen to it all.

Tuesday: Tires on the car, INAUGURATION DAY!! HURRAY PRESIDENT OBAMA!
Wednesday: Moving and Work
Thursday: Moving and vodka tasting at work, dad and Emmy are coming, possibly lots of other people I haven't seen in entirely too long
Friday: Moving stuff day
Saturday: Dress fittings at David's (pictures to come, I promise!) and then spa afternoon with Emmy, Becky, mom, and possibly Vicki and BC.
Sunday: More moving! Whoo!

I'm excited about getting in to the new house and having my own room and breaking out my old furniture from when I was little. Since the desk is staying in Southaven until we know where we're moving, I'm going to get out my old dresser/vanity to use and my old chest of drawers (the set mom got smells really funky and makes my clothes smell bad...) and if I get particularly motivated this summer, I may even finally strip them down and re-paint them since we'll have a deck and it will take QUITE some time to get off a bajillion layers of 30 year old paint!

Well, that'll do it for now. Probably won't get to update with anything interesting until after the vodka tasting on Thursday-- and will definitely update this weekend with pictures from the dress fittings. I'm going to Morrow and dealing with this David's Bridal crap, I will be trying on several gowns, believe you me! I won't have enough money to buy one this weekend, so I may take my leftovers and split it between getting a webcam for me and one for Jeremy so we can get on Skype and talk to each other and the multiple peoples we know around the world including Valerie and Ana, and Megan in Chile!

Oh, and here's your daily dose of cute-- Feist on Sesame Street:

Southern nights

This weekend, I helped Jeremy move down to his new place in Daytona Beach (he didn't transfer all the pictures to my memory chip, so only about half are up) on Saturday, then drove back with his parents Sunday. The drive down was nice-- 75S isn't nearly as bad as 75N, and the scenery is really nice. Passed Ocmulgee and Warner-Robbins AFB, and went through Tifton (shout out to the Dill family) and Valdosta (where pecans are born), then on through Jacksonville (where we ran in to Georgia fans taunting Florida fans in traffic... too bad they couldn't live up to it) and St. Augustine to Daytona. It's a really nice little area, and it's convenient to a few pretty nifty cities (Historical St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and Orlando), and it's not directly in Daytona so they won't be plagued by tourists when the time comes.

The house was really nice, but the previous tenants just about tore the heck out of the place-- cracked floor tiles, damaged fans/remotes, damage to the walls... I spent like all day adding things to the list I started, and Jeremy said he was still adding stuff last night. Most of it is minor, but we just want to make sure she doesn't try to charge them since she wasn't going to bother being there to do a walkthrough. It's also really easy to get to all your basic stuff from his place-- Target, Publix, gas, pharmacy, even a game shop. Got the bike off the back of the truck easier than we thought, and so Jeremy and his dad and mom worked on the futon and I put his massive stores of food up in the insane storage in the kitchen. I want this kitchen, no lie.

After things had gotten a little more settled, we went out to find the school, drove down to the beach (I LOVE THE OCEAN!) and came back and had some Steak and Shake for dinner before finishing up the futon and hitting the hay. Marc took some pictures of me and Jeremy part for me and part for Valerie, and I think this one's my favorite:

It just sums it all up, I think!

Drive back was uneventful, then spent most of last night keeping Jeremy company on the phone until his roommate Jeff got there. Today, I go apply for more jobs and try to get this tire situation figured out on my car. Bugger.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Weekend Update

But not the funny SNL kind-- though I have to give Will Ferrell props for being the best George W. Bush impersonator ever; I don't care who you voted for it's true.

Jeremy came in Thursday night, stayed through this morning, which was really great. I'm sad I won't really see him much over the next nine months, but since the mechanic's school thing was in part my doing... I can't be too upset about it. We were hoping that I could stable pony him down to Daytona from Atlanta since he didn't have anyone to ride with, that way we could get some things straightened up and ready for his parents to bring some more stuff down, then I'd ride back up with them through Atlanta (as it's the best way to go between Memphis and Daytona Beach). Now, however, it looks like they're thinking about doing it all in two days (down one day, back the next) to be back for something on Sunday and I'm not sure I can handle that travel schedule! Jan and Marc amaze me with their marathon driving schedules sometimes, I'm not sure I could keep up!

As much as I'd love to go down and see the place, I'll probably be up the weekend before Thanksgiving so I guess that's not too much longer to wait. Hopefully (everyone cross their fingers, rub lucky rabbit feet, all that jazz) I'll land a job at Bath and Body Works with Emily, and work like every shift Kendra needs covered between now and whenever-- she said if HR approves it (long story involving my previous employment under a lying, cheating manager at Victoria's Secret) and I'll work Thanksgiving and Christmas week then I'm hired. That would be... so very nice. I'm going to hold off on calling back on the GA Dems job (which apparently would alienate me distinctly from some people...), because even though I'd be driving to Gwinett, I'd probably end up making more money. And if there are two long days in a row, I can just stay with Emily.

Anyway, again, it was great having Jeremy here. We went to Sage on Friday for dinner and it was AMAZING, and then to Emily's on Saturday for the Grand Illumination. It wasn't extremely grand, but it was a nice time and we got to watch Silver Bullet and Van Helsing. Everyone loves a good cheesy Halloween movie. We went out for several walks, since Decatur is walk-friendly, and hit up Dairy Queen a few times. Also got to finish out Burn Notice, Season 1, which is awesome.

Not sure what else to say, just hanging out watching Heroes now, and I'm ridiculously excited about Halloween Office on Thursday.

Ciao for now!

Oh, oh, I- I can't wait to see you again

That's right, I'm goin' Miley Cyrus on you. What then?

Yesterday ended up ok-- got all my books out of the car and my wicker toiletries drawers, so hopefully now nothing will get hot and explode in my car since it's mostly empty!

Tomorrow/today will be full, but more relaxed since I don't have to go to Smyrna and dodge the 18 wheelers on 285 (THE worst part about Atlanta driving!), I just have to try and get things a little organized so that we can squeeze Jeremy in, hopefully tonight when he gets in on the 9p!

I'm going to also need to make a birthday card for Melissa, my Indiana Rose Buddy, and send my little her surprise package. I keep getting confused on Facebook because one of our new girls has the exact same name as Jeremy's sister (well, her maiden name, actually), so even though I know Valerie Clark isn't Jeremy's sister it still makes me do a double take. Speaking of which, Analia is starting to take steps on her own now! She was such a sweet baby, and continues to be it seems, and Jeremy and I can't wait to see her again. She thinks he's the best thing since a fresh bottle, so I think maybe I'll get dad to take a picture of us to send to her and I'll take a super goofy one of him since that's what she likes most. I'll just have to preoccupy myself with Ana, 'cause I don't need one for a while yet...

Oh, and cooking. Definitely cooking. The fall social last night definitely re-energized me a bit, so now I think I can pick myself up and do what I oughtta. We have butternut squash, chicken, and potatoes and leeks that need something done with, so I'll be cleaning out the fridge and freezer and digging in.

Naan-- it cures all ills

In the midst of trying to figure out what on earth I'm going to do with my car since it apparently has an exhaust leak and I don't have my handy dandy boyfriend to fix it, nor do I have any money, I decided I needed Naan. There's a little Indo Pak groceries up the street and so I stopped in and picked up some frozen garlic naan, completely missing the fresh stuff until after I had gotten in the checkout line. It took a lot of maneuvering to get to the line, too. I'm sure a market in real India is much more chaotic, but for the tiny little grocery, there were too many carts, babies, and (yes) jackhammers for the space. No worries, though, I liked it there. The smells were great, the people completely unbothered by anything else-- it was nice. I also was reminded how much easier it'll be to cook different stuff now that I'm back in Atlanta than it ever was in Memphis. I did, however, forget my mole sauce and curry mix at Jeremy's.

It was a somewhat stressful day, apparently I'm psychic which is a bigger burden than I thought it might be, but things will settle soon enough. Mom and I are going to look at houses and apartments, and hopefully by this time next month I'll have my own room and our bathroom will be at least mildly more functional than this one. I do enjoy my bed, though. I have a daybed in the living room next to the windows that look out on to the street. The neighborhood is quiet, but since it's not a dead end like Westchester, there's still through traffic to watch. Loads more bikes than I remember from a few years ago, so hopefully that bodes well for possible mechanics jobs in Atlanta-- it would be nice if we don't have to go anywhere near Memphis again, we're both pretty sick of that city.

Anyway, I'm watching Jericho (which is awesome) and considering thawing out a chicken breast to cook up with some herbs de provance or something. Since it would appear my family's new version of dinner is cereal and whatever the heck my brother decides to dig up for himself. This will have to change.

Loooong Weekend

Last Wednesday, we left for Indiana for the Inaugural Indianapolis MotoGP (Grand Prix) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It effing rocked. The rest of the time, however... well, here's a brief timeline...

Wednesday: Travel Day
Drive up was good, leisurely. We dropped off my bid day CDs (which were a big hit) and cookies for the chapter, and sauntered on up. Lost our way a couple times, but then I discovered Google maps for the Blackberry which is FREAKING AWESOME and Jeremy and I were thoroughly amused for the rest of the trip.

Thursday: Pit Walk
Talk about fun. I've never been to a race of any kind, so it was a totally new experience. Pit walk involved looking at all the bikes in the pits while the mechanics and techs worked on them to get them ready for qualifying rounds the next day. There was also a stunt show going on which was loads of fun.

The Rossi team (Fiat Yamaha) revs up the bike













15 year old Aaron Colton smokes out his back tire at the stunt show with Christian Pfeiffer









Friday: Qualifying Day 1
Otherwise known as the day the stupid crackhead in the Hyundai ruined my week. On the way from Martinsville to Indy, some lady who was letting the whole world in front of her (since talking on her cell phone was more important than driving) slammed on the brakes to let someone in last minute to get on the highway. The roads were wet, but not soaking, so all the oil and crap was all over the place and when we had to slam on OUR brakes, the brakes locked, we skidded, and rear ended her. The Toyota was a 97, which of course is apparently the year BEFORE Toyota started getting good crash ratings, so the car was entirely totalled. To make matters better, the car was only liability. Awesome. Jeremy's sister in law came and picked us up, and we went home for the rest of the day. Later that afternoon, my mom called to tell me my brother and dad had gone up to Muscle Shoals because my grandfather had a stroke the night before and probably wouldn't make it through the night.

If you're ever in a wreck in Indy, don't let the police set up the wrecker service, they are running a massive scam. A total of less than 20 miles, 200 bucks. Ruh-diculous.















Saturday: Qualifying Day 2
Otherwise known as... Qualifying Day 2! My grandfather passed about 5a, but it's ok. He was really really sick at the end, he needed to be able to rest. The day was actually beautiful, nice breeze, sunshine, perfect for pictures. We walked around a bit to try and keep my joints loose (I strained all the muscles in my knees and thighs because of how I was sitting in the car), and watched all the qualifying rounds which was awesome. Ben Spies rocked the track out, finishing 5th in qualifying which put him behind Nicky Hayden and next to Casey Stoner for starting positions the next day. It was amazing to see the GP riders in person, not just on TV. Completely stunning the things they do with these bikes going as fast as they do! I'm going to be putting all the pictures up on my flickr page, so just check it out over the next couple days.

Sunday: Race Day
I didn't go to race day, there was only one extra ticket so Jeremy took his brother, which was probably for the best. That day, it poured down rain like nobody's business and the winds were gusting up to about 70mph and sustained around 45mph. They red flagged almost every race that day, cancelling the one that wasn't red flagged, including the GP race at 7 laps to go. Rossi led the pack after lap 12, when Hayden's lead fell, probably because he's not comfortable in wet conditions. Casey Stoner took 4th, and Spies took 6th. We think he would have done better, but apparently there was a problem with his visor so he couldn't see well enough to pass without causing some major issues. I watched on tv from home and stayed dry, and not windblown. Rossi says it's the worst weather he's ever raced in.

Monday: Travel Day... oh, wait
We were supposed to travel back today, but that didn't quite work out so much. I was waiting to hear from the shop about my car, then they called back with $2500 which would be a new freaking car just because Toyota couldn't build a sturdy front end. Panic attacks ensue. Start trying to find a salvage yard and the title for the car.

Tuesday: Sit and wait day...
Tuesday there wasn't much I could do. Mom was supposed to mail the title, so I just decided to forget about all of it. Jeremy and I drove around and went up to the Oliver vineyard in Bloomington which was actually a nice little winery. But, in tradition of the weekend being awful, when we went for the tasting, we discovered Jeremy's ID expired the day after the accident (which, by the way, was his birthday)! Went home, had burritos, watched the premire of House and the second episode of Fringe (which I think is awesome).

Wednesday: Actual travel day
Since Jeremy's license was expired, I had to drive the whole way back. Illinois is boring and you have to go exactly the speed limit or they give you a ticket, so it felt like I'd driven 5 hours after 2. We made it back safely, though, and cleaned up a bit before watching a movie and having some of the cider we brought back from the winery.


So now, I wait for the headlamp assembly for my Hyundai and try to get everything ready to leave Mississippi. I'll probably leave progressively because I want to see Jeremy a few more times before he starts school. Also, it'll just be easier than trying to shove everything in a car and go. I got a position as a substitute for the City Schools of Decatur, so the orientation is on Thursday next and I'll hopefully start getting calls after that. I'm excited, I love CSD, and it'll be fun to be back in my old school system for a while. Plus, I found out that CSD pays first year teachers with a bachelor's upwards of $38k and THAT my friends is almost incentive to talk Jeremy in to staying in Atlanta after he's done with school...