Waaaaaaant...

There are very few things that I "Waaaaaant"-- there are things we need (like a reliable car, enough money to pay for our dental work over the coming year, and a consistent job for Jeremy), or things that would be nice to have (like a TV that isn't 6 years old), but there are very few frivolous things...

Rosie, a 2 year old Pit Mix at AHS

Coco Chanel, a 4mo old Pit Mix at AHS

Ravishing in Red Dress at ModCloth

Got it Parade Dress in Caramel at ModCloth

Dazzling Party Dress in Red at ModCloth

$500 is what I would need to get all of these things. Granted, the dogs would require a minimum of $60/mo in food and would limit our ability to travel, but they're SO CUTE. 

We'll probably get $500 for Christmas, and we'll do the responsible thing-- we'll put it in savings, pay off the rental car we had to get to see everyone at Thanksgiving, and maybe go to dinner at the U-Joint. 

I realize every day how lucky we are to have what we have. A roof over our heads, food in our pantry, gas in our tanks, and things that are honestly luxuries like internet, TV, and computers. Most of the world doesn't have these things, and I really do feel lucky to be where I am. 

All that being said... wouldn't it be nice to have disposable income? To be able to adopt a puppy (which I've wanted to do for SO long) or get a nice dress? (to be 100% honest, I'd really be happy if I could just get the Caramel one-- I'd never have anywhere to wear the other two!) 

Really, I want the puppies. Even just one. But in addition to the $100 adoption fee, there's the monthly food expense, plus any other shots or medicines that they haven't gotten already (though the AHS is pretty good about getting them all fixed up), plus whatever deposit our landlord decides he needs for this house IF he's OK with us having a dog! Average is about $300. And that's also if he doesn't have breed restrictions against Pits. 

*sigh*

I look around at others and I know how blessed we are, but then I look at others still and think-- we really don't want that much, to be honest we even give what we can charitably. We could afford a dog if we cut back on charitable spending, but I'd rather buy food for families who don't have any. But this is America, right? Why can't we get even just a little extra a month to afford this one little thing? And what does it mean for when we want to have children? Will we ever be able to afford it? 

#firstworldproblems

One of those days...

It's strange, I never really have those days where I sit down and look at my life and think, "Man, this isn't all that bad after all!" but today I kinda did. Work's been getting me down lately, as I'm sure you could tell, but I'm glad I had a good night tonight-- I could sit down and look at my photos from this weekend with a clear head and realize that I'm really lucky to have the life I do.

Living in Decatur is an absolute privilege, one I hope to give my child/ren some day, and one of the things its given me is access to a strong learning community and one that appreciates literature. Two of my favorite authors, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, came to the Decatur Public Library this weekend, and Jeremy got to go with me. They write popular novels, but are both very intelligent, very funny, and very witty. Their talk was great and then they signed books and took pictures!

This one's a little blurry, Jeremy was holding the camera weird, but from L to R is Lincoln Child, me, and Douglas Preston! I've been reading Preston's books since I was in middle school!!

After that, we walked around the square and looked at the artists booths, and we stopped in this great little shop called Taste on the back side of the square. LOVE that store so much. If you're local, you can get me a gift certificate there any time!! We poked around there a little extra because it started *pouring* down rain and we didn't have an umbrella, but Jeremy found some yummy chow chow to take back for his sandwiches and I found the most hilarious card to send to Shelby-- a print of Barack taking his presidential oath with the caption, "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear to turn this mother out."

We wandered back to the car, and since I hadn't been able to get in touch with Meg or Michael, I decided we'd "swing by" (shoulda known better!) before going home to take a nap. We got there and Michael was hanging out with Sarah (a girl Meg and I went to high school with, but I haven't seen in who knows how many years!) and trying to get Vi to sleep and Julian was running around... being Julian. He took to Jeremy like nobody's business (not surprising, kids LOVE Jeremy) and took him on the grand tour of Casa de Julian and the costumes in his closet and all his toys. We fed Julian Altoids to see his reaction and he actually liked them, then he attacked Michael like a wild man, then he decided he was going to play with Jeremy some more and continued to use him as a jungle gym. Meg and I decided he's going to be one of those grandads all the little ones use as a jungle gym whether he's actively participating or not. Then we walked up to dinner and met Meg's mom and her sister Della-- The Matador in Oakhurst was pretty decent, and not too expensive. It waited until we got inside to start raining and didn't rain on us on the way home.

Today, I went up to Apres Diem for lunch and to see Adam and Erin in from Seattle. There were, of course, tons of other people there for fantastic company and the food was to die for-- and totally one-upped Fresh Slices which is a little funny. Apres Diem is a chic type tapas place in Midtown Atlanta, and their sandwiches range from about $8-10. With these sandwiches come a side salad AND home fries, whereas at Fresh Slices you don't necissarily get fries, even! Anyway, I got to see Aihanh and Igal, and Greg was there with his new girlfriend, and Hetal and Hugh and some other Tech people I vaguely know. Erin was asking about where Jeremy and I would be when he was done with school and it turns out... they have a house they're trying to rent! It's a three bedroom, soon to be two bath, and while it's not in the bestest area ever, we could get it for about $900 a month! And since we'd know the landlords, we could probably do most anything we like to the house which would keep Jeremy busy and would be at least half funded so we could afford to do it! Yaaay!

So, uploading those pictures to Facebook and Flickr, I looked at my life and realized that there are some really amazing people in my life-- I have a fiancee I love and sometimes still can't believe, there are a couple of pretty cute kids who think I'm swell and I love them to death, I'm re-acquainting myself with friends from high school who are wonderful people, and I feel kind of like I'm a part of a big family here, which is what's so great about Decatur in the first place. We'll be a little farther away, about 20 minutes, if we're at Adam and Erin's place, but we'll still be ITP and we'll have room for folks to stay the night which they just might.

Memphis was where I lived for five years, and I think I almost forgot what home meant while I was there. Now, I'm remembering it and I couldn't be happier.

Ciao for now.

Oh, right, the organizing...

Now I just have to organize all my stuff in the new house... we're trying to figure out the heat because it's doing some strange stuff. Mine and Casey's side of the house is always hot, but Mom and David's side is always cold, which explains the thermostat wars we've been having the last couple nights. We think we're going to get a digital (programmable, hopefully) thermostat to put in so we know exactly what the temperature is-- right now, it's one of those tap the lever just so kinds that you can't really get any accuracy on.

I'm in a little better mood going in to this next week, but still anxious. I feel like my days are an exercise in futility at work, I just don't make that much money. If I make enough to do something to my car and do gas down to Savannah and have an extra $15, I may go to the brandy tasting. I may go anyway since dad's going and it's a nice neutral place for us to spend time and not worry about anyone getting bent out of shape. It's also nice to spend time with Jill, my boss, who rocks my world-- for the vodka tasting we got a free glass of our Prosecco (my FAVORITE of our new wines) which totally made my night! Emily might also get to go, so that would be fun. I need at least one night a week out, but I also can't afford to spend the money. I'll do Savannah this weekend (and may have to miss the staff meeting-- I mean, how often do I get to go to Savannah? Hint: Last time, I was wearing a green Girl Scouts uniform!), then Daytona at the beginning of March, and I need to get to Memphis hopefully by the end of March or April, but definitely in May for graduation-- All my babies are graduating! I can't believe my last little sis and my grand little are seniors!

I don't have any major expenses for the wedding coming up in the near future, but I need to be careful about making sure I save since there's going to be about $2k paid out between October and December. We've kind of come to the conclusion that I'll put my money towards paying down my bills and paying for the wedding, Jan and Marc are giving us some money that we'll use partially to pay for postage (insanely expensive, I tell you what!) and then put the rest in a high-interest savings account for our Singapore/Thailand/Japan honeymoon! Jeremy's money in savings will go towards paying for moving and a deposit on where we live, and then we'll combine our debts and try to pay them all off in the first 8 months after school. This should be utterly feasible with the exception of the student loans which could be done with in two years. Ambitious goals, but we really don't want to end up in debt. It might mean we won't have the fanciest place to live and we'll have to hold on to our dinky old cars, but we want to make sure we can pay for prenatal care when we have kids, give them a good house and get safe cars to drive them around in.

As for the wedding itself, I know TJ's (Trader Joe's) will give me a good price on the wine (sorry kids, no Nobul at the reception!) and there's a great place my friend Julie hooked me up with that will give me a phenomenal price on the beer (since I want to do all local brews- whooo Sweetwater!!) and I've been to weddings without a champagne toast before so I'm not sure it's necessary, and it would save us a couple, maybe a few hundred. I'm doing all the gifts for bridesmaids, family, and groomsmen by hand, and the parts that aren't by hand are either inexpensive or I can get a deal on them with Jill's distributor contacts. I got a Martha Stewart Weddings last night and I'm not that big of a fan; I liked the bit on bows, gave me some cute decorating ideas, and I did find a cool candy site, but everything was so expensive! Come on, this is supposed to be Wal-Mart's chic DIY queen! I think I'm just going to take it back to CVS and see what the other magazines look like. I also found a bunch of silver ornaments that my mom has packed away that are really cute and simple, so I've already got decoration! Next up, white tulle! HEY, DILL! WHAT TIME IS IT?!

As of now, and this will hold if we're living in Georgia, Jeremy's going to bake the cake, and I'm going to make some of Paula Deen's sausage balls and get my bridal party to chop cheese like there's no tomorrow! I think between Costco and the Farmer's Market I can throw a darn good party!

Anyway, it's bedtime. I'm trying to get to bed by 2/230a at the latest. I would like to work my way down to 1a, then to midnight. I'm thinking about getting a second job part time and need to get myself on some kind of regular sleep schedule! Hopefully, I can keep myself busy catching up on my teevee on Hulu (they're running this season of Battlestar Galactica!! Geek alert!!), running through my queue on Netflix, and organizing all the boxes that need to be unpacked!!