all by myself

Posted on by

Dave’s company has an office in Massachusetts, and he has to go there for a couple of days this week for some work-related thing. This only happens a couple of times a year, it’s not exactly the extensive travel requirements of my current job. So I dropped him off at the airport yesterday, and he’ll be back home on Wednesday. And for some unexplainable reason, I got totally freaked at the idea of staying here by myself. I mean, I’ve lived alone for the better part of the last 6 years, but I’ve always been in an apartment. There is something about living out in the country, and knowing that if I were to scream for help, there’s not even a remote chance that anyone would hear me. Also, the house is really big, so if I were upstairs in the bedroom, someone could break in the house and I wouldn’t necessarily hear them. So even though it’s somewhat irrational, I got kind of spooked. Before Dave left, I made him hang up the curtains in the living room (which we had taken down when we painted). There’s a huge bay window in there, and at nighttime, you can see inside from the street, which didn’t sit too well with me. There’s also a sliding glass door that leads to the backyard, but that doesn’t freak me out as much – I think because there’s two huge floodlights there, so if a crazy man with an axe comes running out of the woods toward the house, I’ll see him and have a chance to get a head start out the front door.

Speaking of the woods behind the house, yesterday when I got back from the airport, this was in the backyard. Shortly thereafter, one of her friends showed up. (It’s a bad photo, so I labeled it.) They’re really cute, but they confuse the hell out of the cats. Particularly Beaumont, who can’t seem to decide if they’re just super-huge mice that he should be hunting, or if he should run back in the house where it’s safe. He did get pretty close before deciding to vacate the premises, though.

Anyway, back to my spooked-out self, Dave pointed out that with 2 cars in the driveway and a light or two turned on, no one would be stupid enough to try to break in. So last night I left several lights on throughout the house, took 2 over-the-counter sleep aids (ahh, Tylenol PM, how do I love thee?), set the sleep timer on the TV to drown out any mysterious noises that I might hear while I was trying to fall asleep, and managed to sleep soundly through the whole night. So I think I’ll be fine if I stick with that routine. One night down, two nights to go.

irresponsible pet owners

Posted on by

It appears that we have acquired semi-partial ownership of a dog. Dave mentioned to me before that there’s a brown lab that sometimes shows up at the house, and if it’s cold and/or rainy, he lets her in to hang out for a while. Apparently that was the case at about 5 a.m. this morning; I vaguely remember him telling me that the dog was here, but I was half-asleep at the time. When I went downstairs at 8:30 a.m., she was sleeping in the living room. (The cats, meanwhile, were keeping a safe distance upstairs.) She’s very sweet and friendly, but I noticed there was an I.D. tag on her collar. It says her name is Rose, and there was a phone number. So I called the number, got the answering machine, and left a message basically saying that I hope they aren’t worried about Rose, but she’s at our house, left our number, and that we’d like to know where she lives so we can take her home. I didn’t say, “And you should build a freaking fence,” even though that’s what I was thinking. I gave Rose a turkey dog, which she gobbled down in about 1/2 a second, and then I put her outside so I could make breakfast. She has since wandered off – hopefully she’s gone home, but who knows.

In other news, the job drama continues. It occurred to me that I’ve never mentioned the name of my company on here, so I’d probably be safe to talk about what’s going on. In short: They wanted me to go to California every week for 3 months. I don’t know if y’all remember how depressed I got when I did that last summer, but it was awful. I really don’t want to do it again. Nevermind the fact that I’m in the middle of a move, and if I’m gone 5 days a week, all I want to do on the weekends is collapse, and there’s no way I’ll have the energy to pack. It’s more about the fact that I hate traveling for work, I hate airports/flying, and I’m getting settled into this new life routine here with Dave, and I don’t want to get immediately yanked out of it. And 3 months? Is a damn long time. Plus, who knows if the project will end up getting extended longer than that, or if I’ll immediately get put on a different project that requires me to fly somewhere else every week, etc. So Dave & I talked about it and we decided that I should quit, and we could get by on one income for a while. (Which is very scary for me, since I’m not used to being dependent on anyone.) I told this to my career manager, and he’s going to see if I can possibly get a spot in the company’s internal IT group, which would keep me based in Seattle, rather than being a consultant for the western region. Meanwhile, I’m on the job hunt, just in case. So even though it’ll most likely work out fine no matter what happens, it’s still a very stressful in-between time right now.

Also, I have a Microsoft certification exam tomorrow. This is the re-take of the exam that I flunked 6 months ago. I usually re-take them immediately, while the material is still fresh in my mind. But at the time, I was planning to go to Atlanta to say good-bye to my cousin, who died a week later, and somehow studying just managed to slip off of my to-do list. But I’m doing it now. So Friday around 2:30 p.m. Pacific time, send lots of smart vibes in my direction. Much appreciated.

As for last night’s Project Runway, there’s a great recap of it over on Catoptric, so I’ll defer to that rather than repeat what’s already been said.

Sunday catch-up

Posted on by

Sorry it’s been a week since I’ve written anything. Life has been a bit crazy lately, but the main reason for my lack of posting is because last week, our high-speed modem broke. So for nearly 4 days, Dave and I were sharing one measly little dial-up connection. Blogging at 32K? I think not.

So let’s see, what did I do last week? Well, I went to the dentist (twice), went to my regular doc and finally got some drugs to get rid of this sinus thing that’s been driving me crazy since November, we cleaned (most of) Dave’s garage, and moved a lot of stuff out of my apartment and into said garage. Oh yeah, and we goofed off a lot. Having limited Internet access seems to make for a perfect time to catch up on junk TV and video games. [Speaking of which, I did watch Project Runway this past week, but couldn’t post anything about it because it was while we were on dial-up. All I can say is that I am glad Kevin is gone. I was tired of listening to his whiny voice and looking at his buck teeth. Next, they must destroy Wendy and her horrible skunk-striped highlights.]

Movies we rented this week:
* Wicker Park – We made it through the first 15 or 20 minutes, and we were both so totally bored and uninterested that we turned it off. Josh Hartnett should really just stop. I’m not kidding.
* Saved – So great! It was such a reminder of my good little Christian high school, where the girls back-stab you in the name of Jesus. That movie has totally solidified Mandy Moore as a brilliant actress in my mind.
* Dogville – Has anyone else seen this?? It was so strange. I mean, it was good, but my god, that was a dark, rough movie to watch. Plus the fact that it’s 3 hours long. And don’t get me wrong, I really love Nicole Kidman. I think she’s a great actress and a beautiful woman. But she needs to stop with the botox and the collagen now. She should be playing roles that are her age, not 20-something-ish ingenue types. It’s starting to get silly. We all remember you in Dead Calm, Nic, and we know that movie was a long time ago. You’re pushing 40, and you’re still hot. Accept it.

On a more serious note, there’s a lot of crazy changes/stress-inducing stuff that started happening with my job this past week, which I can’t really talk about in too much detail right now. (Paranoid, I know, but you never know who’s reading this stuff. If you really want to know, email me & I’ll tell you.) It could end up being something really positive, but right now it’s a nebulous gray area, and I’m a bit freaked. All I can do is ask everyone who reads this to send happy-job vibes in my direction. It’d be much appreciated.

The Vegas Recap

Posted on by

The trip to Las Vegas was fun. I just got the pictures online, so feel free to check those out, along with the ones from my birthday, which I also posted today. Here’s the blow-by-blow:

Thursday afternoon: Flew to Vegas. Relatively uneventful flight. Checked in at the Golden Nugget, which is one of the older casinos in Las Vegas (it’s downtown, not on the strip). We ate dinner at the casino, and went to bed early.

Friday: My all-day meeting. Ho-hum, boring work stuff. Dave and I met up in the hotel room that evening (he had a great time playing slots all afternoon), changed clothes and went to my company’s dinner/event thing. Which was, of course, at a bowling alley. The perk was that this time, there was an open bar. Which would’ve been great, except that I felt sick after my first drink (I’m still not sure why), and Dave already had a headache, so we were there for less than an hour total.

Saturday: We went to check out the Strip. See photos. We had lunch at the New York, New York, and then stopped at some random little bar on the strip for a strawberry daiquiri, which I had been craving ever since we arrived. We walked a few more blocks to the Paris, which I didn’t realize was owned by the Hiltons, and probably has some affiliation with that skank ho daughter of theirs. Around the time we got there, I got sicker than I have been in recent memory. I still don’t know what happened, if it was the daiquiri or the food we had for lunch, but my stomach was in knots. I’ll spare you all the gruesome details, suffice it to say that I thought I was going to have to go to the emergency room, but we decided to just go back to the hotel so I could lie down for a while and see if that helped. I almost fainted while we waited in line for a taxi; Dave got us out of the line and sat me down until the cold sweats passed and I stopped seeing spots. We finally got back to the hotel, and I sent Dave out of the room so I could be miserable on my own. (I don’t like witnesses to be present when I’m violently ill.)

Three hours later, I was fine. I went down to the casino floor to find Dave – he had won $180 on the penny slot machines. (After all was said and done, I think he lost $20 total, but he played the damn things for about 8 hours over the weekend, so he did pretty well.) We went to dinner because after my little… um, unintended purge, I was suddenly hungry. Then we crashed for the night.

Sunday: We learned the hard way that everyone and their grandma flies to Vegas for the weekend, and they all fly back home on Sunday. The airport was insane. I haven’t seen security lines like that since the time I tried to fly less than a week after 9/11. We thought we had allowed plenty of time, but it turns out we were sadly mistaken. We finally got through the security line at exactly the time our plane was supposed to be leaving. We speed-walked to the gate, figuring that we were probably going to have to go standby on the next flight, but hoping that maybe our plane was delayed. And what do you know, they were still boarding the flight when we got there. Hooray! So we made it, just barely.

Then we came home, ate Thai leftovers for dinner, and watched “Surreal Life,” “Strange Love” and “Celebrity Fit Club” on VH-1. (For the record, I hate “Celebrity Fit Club” because I think it’s cruel and mean-spirited, but I can’t stop watching it.)

Dodgeball, Vegas-style

Posted on by

With all the excitement about cohabitating, I forgot to mention that this weekend is my company’s semi-annual meeting. Which, same as last year, is in Las Vegas. But this will be cooler than last time, because (a) last time I had only been with the company for 3 weeks and I didn’t know anyone there; and (b) Dave is coming with me. So we’ll fly down on Thursday evening, we have our meeting all day Friday (somehow I think I might come down with a suspicious headache before it’s all over and have to retire to my room), and then we have some kind of company “fun” activity that night. Last time it was bowling. Whee. Luckily, attendance isn’t required for that last part. We’re opting to spend Saturday night there too, because there’s nothing like taking a 3-day weekend vacation when you’re in the middle of trying to move. (Actually, that decision was made before the move thing started.)

Also, one of the HR ladies sent out this meeting’s agenda, and as you may recall, last time all the new hires (which included me) had to put on some type of poem/skit thing, which was completely horrible and humiliating. Seriously, I still wince when I think about it. This year, all of the new hires have to play dodgeball. WTF?? Why couldn’t I be in THAT group? Not that I’m a fan of dodgeball at all, but somehow it just doesn’t seem quite as embarassing as the skit that we had to do. Whatever.

Back to normal life: the apartment drama continues. It turns out that it’s actually more expensive to break my lease than to just pay rent every month until it expires (which will be in April). And if I don’t break my lease, I have at least a slight chance of getting my deposit back. Plus, this way I can pay it per month, rather than trying to come up with some exorbitant penalty fee up front. So I think that’s what I’m going to do, even though I’m still moving to Dave’s. It’s cool because it means that I can take my sweet time moving my stuff out. Which is good, because before I can move my stuff out, we have to make room for my stuff at the house.

TV stuff: Does anyone still watch “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”? Last night I caught the re-run of last week’s episode, where they fixed the guy up for his wedding before he was deployed to Iraq. I cried for pretty much the whole hour. If you get a chance to watch it, please do so. It was great.

I am 29.

Posted on by

Today is my birthday. There isn’t a whole lot to say about turning 29, it’s not really a landmark age, it’s just starting to sink in that I’m about thisclose to 30, which isn’t entirely happy. But hey, I’m still officially in my 20’s, at least for the next 364 days. (And I haven’t decided if I’m going to turn 30 next year, or if I’ll just turn 29 again.)

Yesterday, Dave went shopping for my birthday present(s) while I played video games at the house. (I am addicted to Paper Mario.) He called about 10 minutes before he got there, and told me to leave the house because he had to make preparations. So I went to the supermarket to kill half an hour. When I came back, I found that the coffee table in the living room had a balloon tied to each leg, a cake on the table (complete with number candles, which he reversed so it said I was 92 instead of 29), and assorted presents and goodies. Whee! That was so cool, I really wasn’t expecting a big presentation like that at all.

Gift-wise, the boy did good again: I got a Henry Rollins DVD (not the one that was filmed last year in Seattle, this is a different one), a video game, the soundtrack to “Garden State” (happy sigh), a cookbook (which I wanted, it wasn’t some “get in the kitchen and make me dinner” kind of gift), a coffee mug, a teddy bear… oh yeah, and a mountain bike! That was my big surprise gift. Dave hid it so I thought I was done with presents, and I was damn happy with what I had gotten. Then he told me that I should come see something cute that Greta was doing in the laundry room, and when he opened the door, this was waiting for me. How cool is that? I had been talking about getting a bike for a while, because I really enjoyed it when I borrowed Krissy’s roommate’s bike a few months ago. So what do you know, now I have a bike. Now if only it’ll stop raining long enough (and if the temperature would rise about 20 degrees) to allow me a chance to ride it…

The big news for the weekend, which I think I can safely blog about now since our families know: Dave and I are moving in together! Obviously, Test Week went really well, so we had a big talk on Thursday night and decided that this is what we both want. We’re really happy and excited about it. I have to talk to my apartment people tomorrow to find out how soon I can move, since I’ll be breaking my lease. I’m pretty sure this means that I can kiss my deposit good-bye, but it looks like I should save enough money by living with Dave that I’ll make up for it within the next two months. My parents, being the lifelong Southerners that they are, aren’t too thrilled about it. They both think that Dave is great, but they don’t like the idea of us living together before we’re married. I tried explaining that in my generation, living together is a pretty standard phase of courtship, but I don’t think they’re buying it. But they acknowledge the fact that we’re both adults, and they’re glad that I’m happy, so they’re keeping their disapproval to a minimum. Although my mom did say that I shouldn’t tell anyone in the family about it. (Hi, Cat!) Dave’s mom is thrilled for both of us, so at least we have support on that side.

So yeah, it’s been an exceptionally good birthday. I look forward to turning 29 again next year.

Only 3 more shopping days until my birthday!

Posted on by

Test Week is still going very well. Yesterday, Dave wasn’t feeling well, so he stayed home and worked from his laptop in bed. I worked on my laptop in his office. It was strange, we hardly spoke to each other all day, but it was nice to know that he was in the house. We eventually got ourselves dressed, just in time to go out for dinner. I’ve cooked something every night this week – in addition to super-fancy omelets for breakfast – so I needed a break. We went to one of those standardized chain Mexican places, which was quite yummy. We were going to watch “Shaun of the Dead” when we got home, but we (or rather, I) got caught up in “Project Runway” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Girl” (possibly my favorite new show), and the movie idea kind of collapsed.

On the subject of Project Runway: The challenge this week was for the designers to make a wedding dress, but the models were the “clients” and got to have input as to what type of dress they wanted. The idea is that the designers have to come up with something that fits what they want to design, and that also makes the models happy. I have to say, my favorite was Kara’s, who won. That dress was gorgeous. But I’ve pretty much decided that I like all of Kara’s clothes (so far). The one who lost was whiny, crying Nora, who I was very happy to see go. The dress wasn’t all that bad, really, it was just a little too standard-bridal-gown – which should be expected, when the model who gets to choose the dress’s design is 16 years old. But as Angie has already mentioned, the worst dress by a mile was Austin’s. Good lord, what was he thinking? Teal and hot pink and animal print on a wedding dress? WTF?? It was horrifying.

Back to real life: today Dave is at work, and I’m home with the cats. Usually, Dave’s cats go outside during the day, so I just have Teenie inside (who’s old & sleeps most of the time), so I can work in relative peace. Today, however, Cleo (the 6-toed cat – I swear she has thumbs) doesn’t want to go out, and she has been a ball of neediness. I cannot keep the damn cat off of me. I don’t know what her deal is. It was cute for a while, but now it’s starting to annoy me. Especially when she does that bread-kneading thing with her very long claws. Ow.

Oh, have any of you seen Dave’s mum’s cottage? Apparently we have it for a week in June. Yay, I can’t wait!