The Plate, She is Full Today

I can't believe it's actually happening, or that the day seems to be here so quickly. My baby brother is getting married in only 3 days. 3 DAYS! I can't wait, and yet I can't believe he's actually an adult and can do things like, oh, get married already.

The original plan was to leave early Friday morning, but we're all chomping at the bit to get up there, so plans have changed and we're leaving early tomorrow morning. That means I have a lot of stuff to do before then, including:

1. Finishing up a draft document at work (that I should have started on yesterday but didn't).

2. Going to the doctor - I think I have a bladder infection, which is perfect right before going on a long car ride, right? I mean, the constant need to go to the bathroom and not being anywhere near a bathroom for hours, especially once we hit the Upper Peninsula is bound to be a great time. Gah!

3. Doing two, maybe three, loads of laundry.

4. Packing, which I'm horrible at. I always forget two things: deodorant and pajamas. Both very important things to remember, no? I think I'm going to have to make a list today before I get home so that I can check things off and make sure I have everything I need. Also? I overpack like it's my job, and I'm very good at what I do.

5. Yoga class. I haven't been in a month and I really want to go tonight.

6. Somewhere in there I have to eat, especially since I can't lose or gain any weight between now and the end of August. I bought my dress for my friend's wedding (I'm the maid of honor, so I have to look presentable, am I right?) and it fits just perfectly. A pound either way could mess that up. Here's to maintaining.

So, yes, it's a busy day, but I can't wait until tomorrow when we leave. That should get me through it all, no problem.
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UPDATE:

I do, in fact, have a raging bladder infection, so yoga is totally out tonight and resting and drinking water and cranberry juice like my job is in.

Two other things:
1. I made my list for packing, and it was beautiful. And then I left it at work.
2. I won't be posting probably until Monday since I'll be away from any computers for a while as far as I know. Have a great rest of your week and weekend!

If you can't take the heat...

Well, it's been a great holiday weekend, and the weather has been beautiful, except for one thing: it's really incredibly freaking hot. Like 90 degrees with outrageous humidity hot. Like it was 85 degrees in our apartment afternoon which caused us to turn on our air conditioning a full month ahead of the normal schedule hot.

Needless to say we've spent the afternoons this weekend inside only venturing out in the early morning or late evening. This is not normal Michigan weather for May.

In other news, I finally decided on which shoes to wear for my brother's wedding next weekend:

It seemed to be the consensus on this post that these were the best choice, and I have to say, I agreed. So I returned the other ones (after begging Aaron to let me keep both - he said no) and got these instead. And they match beautifully.

In another follow-up from that post, there is resolution to the crocheting class screw-up. Apparently the teacher is out of town on extended leave due to a family emergency - at least that's what her work voicemail says. So I'm not mad at the teacher, just mad at the store for not following up with her to find out if she would be available to teach or not, and for not letting me know that there wasn't a confirmed class. I asked for a refund and the pattern, got both, and I have a coworker who is going to teach me next week on lunch breaks everything I need to know about crocheting. I'm also signing up for a beginning knitting class for July so I can learn how to do that to, and it is, of course, at a different, more reliable store. I won't be going through that whole mess again.

For All My Fellow Winos

Um....try this:

I know the picture sucks. For some reason my camera was more interested in focusing in on my placemat than the bottle, and the label is wet from chilling it.

Anyway...It's Famega (Caves da Cerca) Vinho Verde. I first read about this in Smart Money's June issue, and I've been bugging my wine guy to get some in since. Here's the deal: It's from Portugal, it's slightly green, but basically you couldn't tell it from a white in color, it's slightly bubbly, and it's absolutely delicious.

Here's what Smart Money said about this particular wine:

Crisp, slightly spritzy and totally lovely. Very clean, but with some minerality that adds an interesting, slightly earthy finish and gives it great grounding. Terrific acidity makes it great with cold shrimp by the pool.

That description is right on the money (hehehe). It's very totally lovely, and that's not just the wine talking. It's very drinkable and if you like fruity chardonnays you'll love this. Best part? It's only about $6 a bottle and totally worth it.

Mmmm....I love wine, and this one is the perfect way to finish off the first hot, humid Michigan summer day.

Exhausted

So, today I did something I haven't done in like a week and a half. I worked out. I know, I've been bad, but I have an excuse. Really, I do!

Ever since I found out my annoying ear thing (which is getting much, much better by the way - Yay!) was caused by weight loss (specifically by losing weight to fast and being one of the lucky people to get a rare disorder) I have been a little more lax on my diet/exercise regime. Specifically? It's been much more junk food and much less exercise. I've only gained back two pounds, so that's good, but I decided today that if I didn't get my butt back to the gym that I was going to get my old butt back, and I didn't want that.

So I went, and did a full circuit on the weight machines and half an hour on the elliptical. But now? I'm really freaking exhausted. Good thing I convinced Aaron that he should make dinner tonight, so I can be lazy. Which I totally deserve after a workout, right? Also, I suppose it's a good thing that I was unable to convince him to order a pizza for dinner.

P.S. If you haven't given your opinion on the shoes from yesterday's post, please feel free. I need all the feedback I can get. I'm horrible at making decisions on my own.

Come on...don't you want to rain on my parade too?

Here's what I was going to post today (but couldn't because freakin' work has increased controls on the internet so I can no longer post from work. GAH!):

Today I am going to admit what a dork I am. I’ve known for quite some time that I am in fact quite a dork, but I’ve been living in denial. Now I’m over the denial and ready to let you all in on the secret.

You see, tonight I am taking a crocheting class. That’s not the dorky part; at least not according to me. Aaron thinks that definitely qualifies me as a dork. In fact when I signed up for the class, he said “I didn’t know I was married to an old woman”. Then I made fun of him playing video games all the time and we were even. The dorky part is how excited I am about this class.

I talked about it multiple times on my business trip last week. I had a long conversation about crocheting with my mom over the weekend. This morning I sprung out of bed, excited that today was the day. I am going to learn how to crochet. Woohoo!

This class is part of my “Get Off My Butt” campaign, because I’m tired of my normal routine: Get up, go to work, come home, cook dinner, plant butt in front of the television, go to bed. I’m really, incredibly tired of that routine. So, I decided to take a class to ease some of the boredom.

I have been taking yoga, but that’s just one night a week and after I get home I just plant my butt in front of the television yet again. Then, when I was in JoAnn’s a few weeks back, looking for something to occupy my time, I saw the list of classes they were offering. As I looked over the list, I thought, “Well, calligraphy would be fun, but that’s only one session. Ooh, I could take a sewing class. Wait, I already know how to sew. Cake decorating? Eh, maybe. I’m horrible at that already. OMG THERE’S A CLASS FOR CROCHETING!” And I'm sure everyone can guess what happened next: I signed up right then and there. The class only lasts for two weeks, but I will learn all the basics so that I can make other things after I finish the class.

So yes, I’m a dork. I don’t know many other people who would be this excited about learning how to make an afghan, but I am pumped. I am embracing my complete dorkiness. I cannot wait until tonight!

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So, yes. That was all very exciting, no? Can you feel the incredibly exciting anticipation I was feeling? Yeah. Then the teacher didn't show up. So? I'm a lot pissed off right now. Luckily Aaron made me a large margarita when I got home, so I'm enjoying that and it's slowly melting away the pissed-ness. But really? I'm really pissed. They didn't even call me to let me know that they hadn't been able to get in touch with the teacher - they just left a message on her machine letting her know that I had signed up for the class and left it at that. Way to run a business, JoAnn's. I won't be signing up for classes there again. GAH!

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On a completely different note, I need your opinions. I finally bought an outfit for my brother's wedding last weekend, but I need shoes. I bought this skirt (but the one I bought is a pale blue, but of course they don't have a picture of THAT COLOR ON THEIR WEBSITE. (Sorry for the yelling. This just isn't my day.) I bought the "Essential Sleeveless Wrap Shirt" in "New Navy" from Express to go with it (but of course, of course the Express website doesn't have a direct link to it). It's very 50's house-wife, especially since I'm going to wear my pearls with it. So here's the deal. Which shoes would you choose?

I bought these shiny khaki colored espadrilles:


(That's the skirt right to the right of the shoe. So I guess you do get to see the color. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. Must be the margarita's influence.)





Then there's also these, which are also pretty, but I'm not sure how well they'll match the skirt. But so pretty!:













Then, there's these, because I was considering cream-colored shoes in the first place:












These were the shoes that I tried on with the skirt at the store that I love, but which are too high and which would cause me to break my ankle, so they're out. But I still thought I'd show them to you because they're so pretty and they made my calves look so thin!


















So, yes. Which would you pick? Also, contrary to what the title of this post says, please don't rain on my parade today. I'm kind of pissy and bitchy and would probably write you a mean email if you did. Or at least cry about it a little bit because I'm kind of a wuss.

Look! Random Pictures!

Well, I'm killing time until my friend Molly comes over and until Aaron comes home tonight (!!!), so I decided to finally upload about a million and two pictures from my camera. And I'm sharing them with you. Yes, you are very welcome. (Also, business trip in cool place plus driving rain plus really freaking cold weather equals not as much fun as I'd hope. But, what can you do?)

So here goes with the pictures:

That's my desk, where I spend day after day working (er...or something similar, I guess). I've labled it for easy identification of all the crap I have on my desk, which are mostly just piles of journal articles to read.

You wish you were me, don't you? I know you do. It's the journal articles that does that to you, right? I knew it.

What? Don't you have a giant picture of your significant other's right eye? Actually I think his eyes are really sexy, but that's not why I took this picture. This was for my mom who needed some eyes to practice drawing, and since none of us were patient enough to sit there without moving too much, she got pictures. Yes, we're thoughtful, I know.Aaron bought me some golf clubs last year, and here's me de-rooting grass with them. I'm really good--at creating divets. And okay, sometimes I get lucky and actually hit the ball. Also, here I'm styling my mother-in-law's beautiful Thomas Kincade sweatshirt. I am the height of fashion, no?

Ha! I took a picture of Aaron's butt! HA!

Homemade marinara sauce. Yum! Actually it was very good, but it gave me heartburn really really bad. But it was good enough to be worth the heartburn.

Okay, there are of course more pictures but now Blogger is being fussy and I can't get any more on here. But that was fun. And now I want pasta.

Roadtrip, with a business twist

Warning to those who haven't watched the ANTM finale yet - there are spoilers at the end of this post.

Well, I'm off today on a business trip, so I have to finish packing and I don't have much time to post. The best thing about this business trip? We're staying at a resort in one of my favorite Michigan cities. It's going to be awesome. Also, I've convinced my co-worker who's going with me that we should swing by my favorite vineyard while we're there for a wine tasting, and so that I can pick up a bottle of my favorite of their wines, that you can only buy there. I'm so pumped about this trip!

The worst part though? We're driving up with our client, so we have to be on our best behavior, and we have to come back home much earlier than we had originally planned. Also, we're missing a pizza party at work tomorrow, but that's not quite as big of a deal.

Anyway, and on a totally different subject, did anyone catch America's Next Top Model last night? I was so excited that Danielle won. I definitely thought she had the most potential, and I am so, so, so happy that Jade was not in the final two. She really just annoyed the crap out of me. I didn't think they'd pick Danielle, what with the big deal they'd been making about her accent, but I'm very happy they did. That being said, I think that the announcement of the winner on that show always lacks a certain suspense. I mean, there's suspense around who will win, but the announcement isn't all that exciting. It seems other reality shows really build up the suspense more, and on ANTM they're more like "Okay, well you win. Yippee!" Boring.

Party Report

So this past Friday was the party that I had been worried about and it actually went pretty smoothly. Aaron had a great time, which really was the point of the whole evening, so I’m really happy about that. I think everyone else had a good time too. The evening started out with a round of Settlers of Catan (our favorite game) with Aaron’s friend Joe. After the game, Alex called and said that he and his girlfriend were almost there, so Aaron headed out to the balcony to wave them in the right direction.

While he was out there Joe and I decided it would be a good idea to lock Aaron out on the balcony, just to torture him a little bit. We locked the deadbolt on the door, closed the blinds, let Alex and his girlfriend in, and pretended like we didn’t hear Aaron trying to get in for about five minutes before the whole thing lost it’s hilarity. It was pretty funny though. Aaron can be an easy mark, and I sometimes feel bad for taking advantage of that, but then I remember the times he takes advantage of me being the most gullible person on earth and I don’t feel quite so bad (like the time he convinced me the sun was burning out in five years – I plead early morning before coffee on that one).

After letting him back in and letting him cool down, we got everything ready (where everything equals me – I had to do a last-minute outfit change – and the cake) and headed to the restaurant where we were meeting the rest of the group. Dinner was awesome, even if the service was even worse than on Aaron’s actual birthday , and everyone loved the Margarita Cake (including and especially me, because that is one awesome cake and because I got a new bundt pan out of the deal because it’s the cake Aaron requested and I didn’t have the right pan so I had to go out and buy one, right?).

After dinner we headed out for the bowling alley. Bowling seems to be the required birthday activity among our local friends, as we go for just about everyone’s birthday. Well, actually, just for the men’s birthdays. For the girls we usually do dinner and a movie, or just an evening at our favorite bar.

Anyway, we bowled for about three hours (well, I only bowled one game because I pretty much suck at bowling and my first game was so bad that I decided not to waste any more money by really just throwing it in the gutter) and then headed home. Alex and his girlfriend decided not to stay over so it was just Aaron, Joe and I. We ended up ordering pizza at one a.m. (something I haven’t done in years) and talking for just a little while before hitting the sack.

I was really worried about how the whole evening would turn out, mostly because I didn’t have anything else to worry about this weekend and if I’m not worrying I don’t know what to do with myself, but also because I really wanted Aaron to have a great time. He claims he did, so I guess that means mission accomplished.

On My Own

Aaron left yesterday afternoon for a business trip and is out of town until Friday. I am, of course, sad that he’s gone, but I am also kind of excited because him not being around means a few very exciting things:

1. Chinese food. Aaron hates Chinese food; I love it. So, I get to have Chinese food for dinner at some point this week. General Tso here I come!

2. Sleeping diagonally in bed. He’s going to hate this when he comes back because I’ll have gotten in the habit of taking up the whole bed and so will crowd him I’m sure. But I love spreading out as much as possible when I sleep, and so this week will be heavenly.

3. Letting my inner slob emerge a little. I was a complete slob growing up, mostly because I was too busy moving on to the next thing to clean up the last thing I made a mess with. I’ve gotten much better about this, and am generally a pretty neat person now, but Aaron is a neat freak. He can’t help it; his mother has the cleanest house I’ve ever seen, so he pretty much had no choice but to keep things in impeccable order. I appreciate this very much, because our apartment is usually company-ready at all times. Since he’s gone, this means I don’t have to pack away my cross-stitch project every night. Really that’s about as slob-ish as I’m going to be, but it feels good to not have to reorganize the threads for it every single day.

4. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. I already miss him more than I thought I would. I think the main things I miss are having him to chat and cuddle with. The chatting thing really threw me off last night. I had gone hours without talking and was going through withdrawal. I called my mother and talked for so long that she, who complains we don’t talk enough anymore, interrupted me mid-sentence to say that she really had to go. Guess I must have been getting boring or something, droning on for the 40 minutes straight I had talked.

I am going out of town for business on Thursday and Friday and Aaron’s a little sad that he’s going to miss time home alone. When I’m gone and he has the place to himself, this means two very important things: he gets to play video games for 24 hours straight if his little heart desires (which, if I weren’t there to tell him to come to bed some nights, he might actually do this) and he doesn’t have to say “excuse me” for bodily functions. At least we both have our priorities.

Happy Birthday?

Yesterday was Aaron’s birthday, and as I usually do, I made a big deal about it. The big deal/celebration is not yet over (there’s a party tomorrow night) but I thought it would be nice to take him to his favorite restaurant for a nice dinner on his birthday. He thought so too. It is just too bad that it was the worst experience we’ve ever had there, by a lot. I tried, but failed to give him the perfect birthday. At least we were able to laugh about it.

It started out with the most apologetic waitress on earth. The restaurant is a Japanese steak house, kind of like Benihana, but local. The food and service are typically incredible. The staff are foreign and sometimes hard to understand, but usually we manage to communicate enough to get just what we want. Last night was definitely the exception to all of this.

We were seated and then waited 10 minutes before the waitress came to take our drink order. Aaron wasn’t going to drink, but because we had waited so long and he was annoyed he decided on a large Sapporo (his favorite). Another 10 minutes later the drinks came with an accompanying “I so sorry” from the waitress – the phrase that was to become the chorus for the night.

Another 10 minutes later and she comes back (with an “I so sorry for taking so long”) to take our orders. The family at the other end of the table ordered with strict instructions on how the food has to be made for the elder of their two small children, including no eggs or peanut products. The younger of the two kids is excitedly jumping around because the table next to us just shot up a flame and he was impressed (i.e. screeching loudly, but he was pretty cute, so we all chuckled at his screeches of delight).

Then the waitress brought us our first course – soup. Our second course – salad – came out pretty quickly, but I had been hungry so my soup was already gone. As she leaned over to take my soup bowl, she knocked over Aaron’s beer and spilled about a quarter of it.

“I so sorry!” Aaron was annoyed, but dealt with it and she cleaned it up right away. Then our chef came to the table to start cooking. This is when the kids got really excited. As the flame shot up from our table, the screeching from both kids was so high pitched, I’m surprised that we didn’t hear dogs barking, but again, they were cute kids so they were automatically forgiven. They were having a great time and it was fun to watch them watch the chef. At this point everyone at the table begins to wonder why our sushi hasn’t arrived (which usually happens before the chef starts cooking). Cue the waitress, with a tray of sushi and another “I so sorry!” and we ate our tuna maki while watching the chef’s show.

The kids at the table were jumping around having a great time. When the chef was done we all settled in to begin feasting on the enormous amount of food that makes up every order. The younger of the two kids was jumping up and down on his chair, clearly wound up from everything, and when he was finally calmed down he started shoveling the food into his mouth. I really didn’t pay too much attention to what was going on down there though, because Aaron and I were doing our usual chatting and eating off each other’s plates. At one point I glanced down to the other end of the table and saw the dad wiping off the younger kid’s mouth. The dad caught my eye and then hurriedly took his kid to the restroom. I didn’t notice anything off, and Aaron and I continued eating and chatting.

About five minutes later the dad came and tapped me on the shoulder, and said “I’m so sorry about that”.

Huh? “Um, okay?’ I replied. I had no idea what he was talking about and neither did Aaron or the young couple sitting next to us.

“I just think he got a little too excited”, the dad said. I then informed him that I had no idea what he was talking about, just as the rest of us at the table figured out what had happened. The kid puked all over the table and floor. Thankfully he did it quietly and discreetly because none of us noticed.

Since we couldn’t see it from where we were sitting, it didn’t really bother us, and we all assured the dad that it was fine, and that we just hoped the little kid was okay.

We waited for another 10 minutes after we finished eating, and the waitress came again with an “I so sorry” and the bills. The manager came and took our cash pretty quickly and brought back our change – well, what was supposed to be our change but what was about ten dollars less than our actual change. Aaron was beginning to get a little more annoyed with the evening, so he went up and worked it out with the manager to get our correct change. As he came back to the table, the waitress brought a large platter of pineapple for us as an “I so sorry” for spilling the beer.

That’s when Aaron lost his annoyance with the situation and we both started laughing because the whole thing was pretty absurd. We went out for a nice dinner, had a cute kid puke on our table, and a waitress that had one phrase in her vocabulary. It amused us the whole way home, and we were just thankful we had gotten out of there alive and home in time to catch America’s Next Top Model (I totally have him hooked on the show and it is so great!).

He says he had a great birthday. Hopefully the party tomorrow night makes it even better!

A Walk Through the History of Jessie

Well, work has been kind of busy lately, but there has been some fun interspersed with the craziness. We're having a picture contest where people are entering pictures of themselves from when they were kids and we have to vote in different categories, such as cutest, best hair, best expression, etc. Since my mom still has all my pictures from my childhood I asked her to scan some for me so that I would have a few to choose from for the contest. Here's what she sent:

Jessie's School Pictures Through the Years

Kindergarten:

First Grade:

(Side Note: This is the one I'm entering in the contest because of the toothless grin and the cat on my dress.)

Second Grade:

(aka when I most looked like Ramona Quimby, although there was a much better likeness to the old-school cover I had growing up than the one I linked to there.)

Third Grade:

Notice the stylish bangs that I styled myself each and every day that year. Everyone else got to have perms, and apparently I was feeling left out so I had do something weird with my hair too. Lovely, no?

Fourth Grade:

Surprisingly not embarrasing. I actually look fairly presentable here. That's because I was a late bloomer and didn't have my awkward phase until highschool, which of course made me ever-so-popular.

Fifth Grade: I wore that headband every-damn-day in fifth grade. You may not believe me, but it is the God's honest truth. Every day. It broke towards the end of the year and I cried so much you would have thought that I lost my best friend. I bought it at Sally's Beauty Supply, which was my favorite store ever, because oh-my-God all the makeup!

So there you have it. Jessie in grade school. The really sad thing? I still look mostly the same, only, you know, bigger and older. But there would be no mistaking me if you hadn't seen me since then. In fact, a few years back I was at the grocery store and ran into one of my mom's friends that I hadn't seen since I was about six years old, and she knew exactly who I was.

Hope you enjoyed my blasts from the past!

Oh, Brother (the Dress Edition)

As mentioned previously, my little brother is getting married next month. It’s an outdoor wedding in one of the most beautiful parks I’ve ever seen. However, even though it is in June, it’s also in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula so June does not necessarily equal warm up there. So here’s my dilemma this week: what to wear to my brother’s wedding.

To complicate matters further, I also have a wedding to attend the weekend before my brother’s wedding and since we are tightening our budget to save for a house I need to have one dress that will work for both weddings. This wedding is near Detroit and is an inside wedding, so even if it is sort-of warm the reception location may be air conditioned. Also, if there are lots of open doors/windows at this location it may be pretty cold as the hall is right on Lake Huron.

So, what do I wear? I was thinking a nice dress in some shade of pink (not too pale of a pink though because then I look sort-of washed out) and maybe a sweater to go over it. A skirt/top combo would work too. I looked in my closet for something to re-wear, but since I’ve lost weight everything is a little big and nothing looks great. I looked for something like this on Saturday when I went shopping with my mom but either I couldn’t find anything I liked in my price range (about $50 to $75). The store where I used to always find the perfect dress or outfit was Casual Corner, but since that’s now closed I need to find somewhere new.

In any case, I need suggestions. Where should I look? Has anyone seen any really cute dresses out there that I should consider? Help, please!

Late Night Flashback

When I was younger, the show The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire was one of my favorites and my little sister and I watched every week and watched the reruns in syndication. This whole mess was totally opposite the attitude I was trying to portray outside my house, but it was a fun show (or at least so I thought at the time) and I liked it.

Last night I managed to catch an episode at 3 in the morning (which is another blog entry that I don't feel like writing) and it brought back a very hilarious memory. In this particular episode Ashley (the younger daughter) went parking with a boy but decided she wasn't ready to "give it up" yet. She came back to the house after her date and Will confronted her, and she revealed that he didn't have to worry, she was still a virgin. She gave some speech about how she was too young and not ready to mess things up with sex, and so on, and Will was proud of her and there's where the show ends.

The first time this show was on, my sister and I were watching. She was probably eight or nine at the time and I was about fifteen or sixteen. After the show was over, she and I went into the kitchen to get something to drink. My mom was in there washing dishes and my sister looked up at her, with big innocent eyes and asked, "Mom, what's a virgin?".

Cue me turning bright red but trying not to be embarrassed in front of my mom and so pretending that I didn't hear anything.

"A virgin is someone who is not yet married" replied my mom. A perfectly acceptable, dodgy response for an eight-year-old in a Christian household.

"So, I'm a virgin?" she asked, to which my mom responded, "Yes."

"And Jessie's a virgin?" she asked.

My mother's response was priceless and completely mortifying all at once.

"She better be."

Fog Redux

I take back some of what I said about the fog yesterday – I actually like the fog, I just don’t like driving in it. It was a beautiful morning, the air was heavy but it was silent save for one mourning dove cooing from the stand of trees near our building. It was the perfect Michigan morning temperature, which is around fifty degrees.

There are many routes I could take to work, but the one I prefer is through the countryside between my apartment and my office. There is one section of the road that is heavily wooded and the trees form a canopy over the road for about a quarter mile. Yesterday morning there was fog hanging near the ground, a bright green canopy overhead, and sun peaking through the trees. It was incredibly beautiful and calming. I think I like that section of the drive so much because it is just so full of nature and you can’t see anything man-made, except the road, when you are in the thick of it.

Another area along my drive that I love is a tiny cemetery off to the side of the road that is actually in someone’s side yard. There are probably twenty ancient-looking gravestones scattered about in no particular pattern. There are a few graveyards similar to this one around the area and for some reason I am captivated by them. I plan to eventually take pictures of them and this morning made me wish that I had chosen today to capture this particular one on film. Again, it was the fog hanging close to the ground and the way the sunlight slipped through the leaves that gave it a very peaceful appearance.

(As a side note, Aaron thinks I’m a little creepy for being so obsessed with these “mini-ancient cemeteries” as I call them. I just think they’re so incredibly cool, although I don’t know if I’d want to be the one with a cemetery in my side or front yard. That might be a little much for me. Looking at them while I’m driving past and maybe capturing a picture or two will be enough for me.)

If I decide on an alternate route in the morning, I pass by many farms, including one field that’s full of sheep, one donkey and one llama, another with countless cows (including calves this time of year – too adorable), and another which is a miniature horse farm. I don’t think there’s anything cuter than a baby miniature horse. They’re so tiny!

Aaron and I have been discussing for a long time how much we’d like to move back to my home town. There are many attractive qualities to living there, including being closer to both my family and his and a great, close-knit community. However, if we do ever get the chance to move back, I think that I would truly miss my drive to work and all the associated sights along the way. The peaceful drive to work really starts off my day in the right way.

Busy, Busy, and ACK! Busier

So yesterday turned out to be a very bad day for reasons I can't really go into, but suffice it to say that I'm blogging before work because I don't have time to do it at work for a while. I'm glad to be busy, but also kind of sad that I won't have time to post or read other blogs at work for the foreseeable future. Thankfully I will have time once I get home because I think I'd go through major withdrawal if I weren't able to read the blogs I normally read.

To make it worse, I'd like to head into work late this morning because there's less than .1 mile visibility out there due to fog, but I don't think that's a possibility. I hate driving in fog and just to make my phobia worse, I'm sure, last year there was a 200 car accident because of fog on the freeway that runs right behind my office. That was a horrible day - people were driving too fast for the conditions and then they'd come up on previous accidents before they could stop. Two people died (one less than 1/2 a mile from my office) and both were young men - one grade school aged and one college aged. The whole thing was a huge mess and it took more than a day for the police to open the freeway again.

Although, I worry more about Aaron than I worry about myself. I only have a short commute to the office - about 10 minutes down country roads. Aaron on the other hand works about 45 minutes away from here and he has to take two different freeways to get there. He thinks I'm a bit of a nag when I tell him to drive safe and to call me when he gets there, but I think it's just my wifely duty to worry about him until I know he's safe and sound.

So yes, I have a very busy time ahead of me and to make it even more stressful/exciting some changes may be afoot. At least I hope they will be.

Mixed

Lately I've been thinking about how much it sucks to be an adult sometimes. You have to make decisions about things that are more important and have a bigger impact than where you want to go with your friends on a Saturday night, or what constitutes the perfect first-day-of-school outfit (which was my biggest decision growing up). You have to make life-changing decisions and decisions that you don't like but are probably for the best. Preference isn't the only thing that matters any more and that's really freaking hard.

So, in addition to the health issues I've been dealing with lately that have left me feeling decidedly "mixed" (my ear is better than it was before, but still not 100% and I'm really freaking depressed about it, but glad that it has been getting better...see? Mixed) we've had to make another decision that has me currently feeling pretty mixed. I wasn't going to blog about it because I thought we weren't telling "real life" people about it, but Aaron got drunk and spilled the beans on Saturday night to my one friend who knows about this site, so here it is.

Before Aaron and I got married we thought that we would try to have a baby right away because we'd been together for a while and we both had baby fever. Then once we got married we decided to wait a year and see how we felt then. By the time a year was up we decided that we couldn't start trying then because the timing was wrong and if we did get pregnant right away it would be born in November or December, which contain my birthday, our anniversary and Christmas, which would just be too much all in one month. So we decided to put it off until June.

Then I opened up my big mouth about it on Amalah's site in her comments, because I was dying to tell someone about it, and as usually happens when I tell someone something I'm excited about but which has not yet happened, it changed. We're not going to be trying for a baby in June, because the situation isn't quite right yet. We're putting it off until September at least.

Now, I'm feeling mixed about a baby right now to begin with. I definitely have a bad case of baby fever, but I've only been out of school and getting a good paycheck for about a year and we're having a lot of fun. We're traveling some, buying some fun toys and stuff like that. It's a fun life, and I'm not sure how ready I am to give it up. But then baby fever comes calling again and I'm ready to give it up in a second.

I know I'm not the only one who has ever felt so mixed about such things. I just wish it wasn't so hard to decide.

What's That Smell?

First things first - thanks for all the comments on the last entry which made me not feel so completely horrible about the whole situation. I talked to Aaron about it and he said he knows that I'm not Alex's biggest fan but he's glad I invited him. Well, there was a much longer conversation involved, but that's the gist of it.

Now for the "What's That Smell?" portion of today's entry:

Yesterday was laundry day at our apartment. We are very lucky in the apartment-laundry situation because we own our own washer and drier and have them hooked up in our very own laundry room. However, they are in the utility room which also houses things like the furnace and water heater and therefore has vents going every-which-way. This means that we often get smells from other apartments in the building in this room (and thankfully only in this room), which is not always a good thing. In fact, it's usually not a good thing, and it definitely was a very, very bad thing yesterday afternoon.

During my first load of laundry, Aaron waked into the laundry room and loudly proclaimed "It stinks in here!", to which I responded "It always stinks in there!". Because it does.

When I walked in to put the clothes into the drier the strong aroma of something poo-like hit me. Aaron didn't think it was nearly that bad, but really? It was that bad. The people next to us and the people below them have diaper-aged kids, so maybe their diaper pail is in their utility room. Who knows. What I do know is that it was horrible.

About two loads later (I did a total of 4 loads of laundry yesterday and folded it all and put it all away - yay me!) I walked in to what smelled like a broccoli farm. Not quite as bad, but definitely not what I'd characterize as "good". I don't know if it was just the smell from before mixed with the smell of fabric softener or what, but I had to hold my breath to keep from gagging a couple of times.

Later on that night when it was Aaron's turn to do his laundry (because we do our laundry separately because apparently I do it wrong) the smell had morphed into more of a garlic/laundry detergent smell which was equally as unpleasant as the previous two. It was then decided that we have to figure out what to do about these smells.

I proposed an air freshener, but Aaron quite rightly pointed out that it might just make it an even more unpleasant bouquet of smells if we just add something to it. He didn't really have any other ideas though, so it may be what we try. I think we're just going to have to chalk it up to living in an apartment and deal with it until we get off our asses and buy a house. Unfortunately that's just over a year away (in our planned budget which could still go totally awry because I could so use a tropical vacation!) so until then I guess I'll just have to hope that it doesn't get so strong that it escapes the laundry room.