The Abundant Life

In honor of my first official day as a non-student, part-time worker, part-time job seeker, and a full-time member of the 'wish I had more money for food and gas' club, I would like to promote a wonderful website I found when looking for financial/investment advice online.

Eat up, everyone!

(S just bought 4 twelve packs of this stuff during our last grocery trip, so yes, my family practices what we preach).

In other news, I had a really great last meeting with my former boss (job #2) where she told me she just gave me a really great reference for potential job #4! Life is good, no?

Stop.Go.Stop.Marco?

This past weekend was really wonderful.

I thought I was off to do some healthcare canvassing with a UM friend, but our plans got a little whacked out of shape as she realized we would need to be speaking Spanish the entire time (she speaks none, I speak little) and after that sang in the road, the organizer ended up cancelling the day of service event last minute anyway to visit someone in the hospital (oh dear).

So I made my way to College Park anyway, since I missed JJ alot and never get to see her enough. We ended up swimming at her sister L's community pool, which was a beautiful place, but the situation was kind of aggravating towards the beginning since the lifeguard was 90 minutes late and no one could swim before he got there! JJ and her wonderful guy A hung around with me, A much more enthusiastic about the water than JJ, and we had fun like little kids with doing flips, relaxing on and pestering each other with those foam noodle things, and being otherwise aquatic.



After hanging with L and helping her unload some groceries for a roommate's going away party (she got JJ fresh cherries from the store, and we devoured them immediately after our laborious - not really - water workout) JJ and I abandoned A to go to Value Village, an amazing thrift store where JJ helped me find brand new Gap jeans for $14 and some funky tops for work (think shirts with wing-like features and swirls). I figure, when one is barely employed by three mental health groups, why not dress to express one's own mental oddness? Or at least I think this now, since it is my last work week at job #2 (goodbye dresscode!!) and I will be super-scrounging until full-time days to fill up my work week with honestly billable hours at jobs #1&3 (so all shopping should be second-hand shopping). From the Village of Value, I also got S a happy, fat Buddha, since we have a Jesus and some Hindu dudes in the new place but nothing in keeping with the Asian persuasion of religious figurines. Hopefully he will be a good luck charm for the new place (My recently re-Baltimored friend J is into feng shui, so she should be able to tell me what this little chubs guy can do for us).

Speaking of Asian, after shopping, A asked JJ and I to a pho restaurant, where we ate pho. If you haven't ever had it, stop to think about what it could possibly be, and then click here! It was really good, and paired with some plum sauce, some hot sauce, and a bubble tea on the side (and minus the meat!), the whole experience was delicious.

After eating, I really had to head back to Baltimore so S and I could go dancing. That's right, we dance. We just don't invite anyone we know or love to join us when we do, so we can really cut loose without damaging our reputations as simpletons of movement. We went to Red Maple's Michael Jackson tribute (RIP from your little fan at the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, Mike!) and before we got in the cab to go there, I forgot my ID not once, but twice after leaving the apartment. Chances are if you ever take a cab with me, you should personally take an inventory of the survival items I have or haven't forgotten, or else I might not make it wherever we're going together.

On Sunday we had family time, during which K won Trivial Pursuit (What is it with the guys winning all the board games recently?! I say conspiracy!!) and M gave us some yummy gummy snacks to take home.

Then last night we saw The Hangover, which was great, but forgive me, Mike Tyson can box/chew ears better than he can act.
It was a perfect weekend until O the cat became possessed with the spirit of Satan, no exaggeration. We had to lock him in the bathroom twice so he wouldn't claw us to bits in the middle of the night, and the second time we contained him, he started eating the door. This is all because we fed him two small evening meals instead of one giant one. I worry for our safety.

Well, with a fun weekend like that, it is safe to say that the week has begun just so-so, but I am excited to get home and to cook something very creative after a 2 granola bar lunch and an applesauce breakfast. And I have high hopes for Tuesday too..

Feet (Getting back on them)

So this week so far has not been as good as the weekend. (Big surprise!)

Saturday wasn't a crazy time or anything, in fact the main event included hauling this really weighty cedar chest from one apartment to the other, creating yet another mess in my old place from all of the random papers and projects that had been stowed away in said chest for the past 2 years (the thing would have been completely unwieldy had I left all these packed in there).

After some needed relaxation, I became truly disgusted with all my messiness, and decided I needed to clean at least one room. I opted, for some reason, for the kitchen.

But the Saturday story ends well, because, after 4 or so hours, I had washed all the dishes, scrubbed the counters, cleaned the microwave, cleared and cleaned the table top, 3times mopped and shined the floor, and started what will be a multi-day process of de-junkifying the stove top (trust me, this took up 90 minutes or so on it's own - with minimal progress actually being made on it). The result - an impeccably clean room in an otherwise disaster of an apartment.

Sunday was an even better day, because it was Father's Day and I was meeting M&K for an early dinner. I slept in, stopped at Starbucks (broke me got the sweetened iced coffee instead of the white mocha) and traveled north to the cabin. I got there in time to catch up about the week after the wedding, and enjoyed M's dismay when we got to the restaurant and the only non-meat entre was the plate of onion rings (I opted for the salad bar instead). After dinner, we got the movie Dan in Real Life to watch, which was adorable and had great people in it like the lady who plays Holly on the US version of The Office and the lady who played Susan on Friends. After sampling the evening cartoon lineup, we just sat outside on the porch and talked. It was so nice!

This week, however, has been a tough one. I have had so much trouble sleeping at night and waking up in the morning! On Monday I arrived 2 or 3 minutes late for my first meeting of the day, on Tuesday I barely worked from home, and on Wednesday, I actually told S, "I hate going to work," evening though what I meant was, 'I hate having this dysfunctional morning schedule that makes me crabby everday before work.'

Tomorrow I have an early morning meeting, so I really need to get out of this funk (today I got to sleep somewhere between 4:30 and 5:30 in the morning). What I wouldn't give right now to be one of those automatically or regimented-through-discipline persons (I am thinking of my freshman buddy P and the gentleman in my life junior year that we lovingly know as "pre-med") who can "turn-off" at midnight and wake up by 7 the next day no matter what. I might sell a soul or two to be, beyond that, the kind of person who only needs 5 hours of sleep a night, and who can get in a gym workout or class before their shower, coffee, full breakfast, and morning devotions before getting into work at 8am like clockwork. Aah, if only I weren't so fortunuate as to have these petty issues be my only problems, right?

So this week is plodding along - hopefully things will start looking up, as I need to browse for fold-up deck furniture some time soon (MORE IKEA!) and I will be cavorting with JJ this weekend to do a healthcare day of service a few towns away (TRAVEL/VOLUNTEERISM/JJ!).

Before I know it, I will moved in, my bare feet on my deck, sitting on my fold-up deck chair, morning coffee in hand, planning the outfit I plan to wear (by outfit, I mean lame costume I am too old for) to the Harry Potter movie with JJ and L. Before I know it, so I plan to hang in there, and not sweat the small stuff (and wake up on time!).

Hope all is well in the land of other people. It's a sunny day, and I've got the "Heroes in the fight" mug on my desk, so all is truly well here.

Snooping

So, in honor of the newly re-designed blog, I have decided to do a semi-weekly, perhaps weekly, post on my favorite random blogs via the next blog function on Blogger, whereby I simply click and find something I'm really impressed with and then show it to you!

This week, I have 4 selections:

#1: http://darirantau.blogspot.com/

I was immediately taken with the family photos, the tradition, and the beauty of it all. This blogger has a pretty incredible life or so it seems, and is very generous to document it online. I would really love to sit down and just ask about all the goings-on, the generations, the weather, the language, the everything..

#2: http://bixodotrapo.blogspot.com/

What can I say? - Art, jewelry, color, buttons, SOLD! I obviously don't speak the language, but I am still trying to figure how to acquire these incredibly charming designs or how to hone the ability to make some of one's own.

#3: http://qualityinprint.blogspot.com/

This is where the nerd in me comes out. Do I know anything about printing, or paper? Other than S telling me that the Chinese invented it, along with Slim Jims, unicorns, and vacation time, absolutely not. However, this blog is a truly intriguing read, and it mixes humor into a highly critical, highly technical, and certainly professional web space. Bravo, and I will be checking in with you whenever I need a random factoid to freak out friends and family.

and finally,

#4: http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/

Being an email subscriber to Stuff White People Like, I have to say this is a great blog with a similar feel, whether one is Christian or not. The blogger being Christian, there is reverence where reverence is due. The blogger being awesome, there is a ton of wit, gentle mockery of the hypocrisies of our common human nature, and wonderful examples of how God is great, but we often as believers are just a hot mess.

As icing on the cake, blog posts include parody song lyrics like the following:...

“Just pray. Gonna be okay.
Da-doo-doo-doo
Just pray. Spin that Bible babe.
Da-doo-doo-doo
Just pray. Gonna be okay.
Duh-duh-duh-duh
Pray. Pray. Pray. Just pray.” (To the tune of Lady Gaga's "Just Dance")

...And re-interpretations of biblical encounters like the following line from the Lord:

"I'm Jesus. Don't try to play me out."

...I'm in love!

Well, kids, have a happy Father's Day weekend.* I'll be back next week with another 7 days' worth of my own brand of blogging bravado.



*Have you noticed that there aren't a lot of funny Father's day cards out there that are not also gross and/or immasculating? Most I have seen involve in the "humor" a) farting, b) letting Dad know Mom wears the pants, c) asking for money.

The best (worst) day ever

Hello!

So today I slept in a bit, got my feet wrestled by my cat, and embarked on my work life a little later than expected, meeting with the lovely data manager at my lovely downtown office and then helping a colleague, who I think views me as the recent expert on all things higher education (he's an "adult student" - whereas I am clearly still the "dumb kid trying to grow up-type student"), figure out how use Google as the demi-god of Q&As (I used the word "mangoes" as an example of how to retrieve web sites, news info, pictures, articles, and mango-related products for sale, all in a series of Googlfied seconds! Go me, and this useless anti-use of the internet).

My lethargy today is mostly to be blamed upon a really great day yesterday, or a great day for me, that is.

You see, yesterday I woke up without the need for an alarm just after 6am. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. I should have known that the fates were toying with me and all that I hold sacred then and there, but I was naive. So I got all ready, enjoyed a CNN.com search with some morning coffee, and got out the door just after 7. I got to work before 7:30 (Also UNHEARD of) and had a marginally productive day.

I got home to find S on top of the world, because his graduation gift, a beautiful, hyper-powerful new desktop had arrived, and all his videogames were that much more fantastic.

I rejoiced in the ability for us to be a multi-computer capable family now - I broke out the wireless on the laptop and chillaxed while he played on. Then S decided to max out his new system, and max out he did, inadvertently shorting the processor. Oh, boy.

Now, I was sad for him, I pitied him, I tried to console him, but S had gone down to the depths of unspeakable tradgedy over this loss. To make matters worse, the to-remain-unnamed company from which the computer was purchased is severely lacking in their customer service. S called them, only to be put on hold to the annoying 80's beats of a California radio station for far over an hour with no assistance. At this point, sorry S, I was looking out for number one, and actually number two too, by suggesting that I run to Ikea and steal away (i.e. - purchase for a muy reasonable price) one of the two remaining double mattresses in their inventory for under $150. We need a mattress, badly, for the row house, and if these cheap Ikea options weren't available, we would be using one filled with air, no joke.

So I rushed away in S's time of need, was successful in finding and buying the ideally-priced bed (!!!), and even had an hour of store time left to grab 3 wonderful pieces for the new place - a footstool to match our tired out Ikea couch, a throw on sale and ready to dress up said couch, and a beautiful vase for the beautiful fresh flowers I vow to keep in our living room at all times in the new place.

When I got back home, on a budget-friendly, well-furnished high, S was in major need of a Chipotle dinner (aren't we all?) and I was just so happy with life. I tried to commiserate, but when we got back from dinner, the poor guy staring at his poor broken machine was too much for me yet again.

So I rushed off to rowhouse land, where to my great joy, the electricity had been turned on (did I mention that I have assembled multiple furniture pieces there in the dark, just too excited to move to conceive only a lunactic would do this? - no, I probably haven't shared this with you yet). But yes, the lights were on, so though it was night, I could see the beautiful new place all lit up and enjoy putting the mattress on the bed frame and decking out the living room without running into the walls. Bliss.

Sadly, S's computer has yet to be fixed. Happily, we will be dropping it off at some sketchy computer geek's house tomorrow afternoon, and for a bargain rate, it should soon be restored.

What turned out to be a great day for me - awake, productive, lucky, frugal, and even stuffed full of Chipotle, was quite a sad day for S, which made it all the more bittersweet. That's the way life is, I guess.
Now back to work, I have lots to catch up on.

Just an overdue thought

In summary of what I'm grateful for:


Life
Babies
Chubby Cheeks
Chocolate
Smiles
Denim

Simple Moments of Happiness

Hum diddy hum hum - You're my blue skies, you're my sunny day

It's another Monday, and yet I don't have a "case of the Mondays" - oh, Office Space, you epitomize what's great in life - because yesterday I got the honor of taking part in such a beautiful wedding!!!

M&K had the perfect day to be married, complete with gorgeous skies, an idyllic woodland setting, sun, cool breezes, and a remote location to which all the guests miraculously found their way! Speaking of which, S and I got fairly lost, thanks to me not using the bride and groom's reccommended directions and googlemapsing lat minutes instead, and also, if I can be picky here, partially due to a navigator napping on the job when we started off past the freeway. But all went well - we arrived 90 minutes early, almost as planned, and the place looked perfect, with M&K super excited and looking dazzling!

Even the potential disasters ended up picture perfect, when the location's wedding coordinator for instance was unable to get in touch with the tech guy onsite and thought we wouldn't have music - yes, the music S and I specifically playlisted for the happy couple, and yes, the only music available for the whole event. But then lo and behold!, lovely Miss Coordinator ended up riding up on the site's golf cart within minutes of the reception's start with a useable iPod dock, and no one noticed any instrumental absences!

There were so many things to be thankful for - that so many family members were there, that such good friends met other good friends and got along together so well, that the photographer was simply priceless and such a pleasure to work with, and that S's haircut was such a big hit with the bride that she recommended he use me as his stylist from now on (I heartily agree - hee). Oh, and the vegetarian dish deliciousness, the sweet toast by an old highschool friend, and the best end to a wedding dinner imaginable in my esteem - an amazingly smooth cup of coffee for the addict, and leftovers for the wedding party to take home (the caterers must have gotten a sense of our penchant for food by the end of the evening!).

To the bride and groom, I couldn't be happier for you, and I couldn't think of anyone else better for either of you than each other. To the rest of the guests - woo hoo! I hope you had as much fun as I did, and it meant so much that you came out to celebrate.

Ah, love, true love, and marriage. They have convinced me to search high and low in the old apartment tonight to find that camera USB cord and fully document a wonderful yesterday...

The Wedding Countdown!!

So it's almost 3am, and in 5 hours I will be on the road to a really early dress rehearsal, well, actually, a regularly dressed-rehearsal of the wedding tomorrow. I am really excited to see the beautiful location, and to celebrate the upcoming big day for M&K!

Yesterday I had my final interview (2nd interview) for a job I have been interested in for a while, and I hope I get an offer. The thing with the prospects I have had is that they are all really different - international work versus virtually no commute, lots of writing versus lots of speaking/presentations, different public health focuses, everything. It's hard to know what to think of as a "pro" or a "con" to a particular position when they are really not able to be compared to one or another at the end of the day. I just wish for the best and think that if I get to move forward with any one opportunity that is very fortunate.

In a side note, since all things are the wedding this weekend, I am finishing up a playlist for the big day, I have noticed that a lot of songs I thought were lovely and appropriate are actually a bit sad/creepy when it comes to this type of music. I didn't realize for instance, that the beautiful song "Feels like home" (see those awkward moments in between 2:20-2:36) by Chantal Kreviazuk has lyrics in it like "a window breaks down a long, dark street/And a siren wails in the night." Not as sentimental as I remembered it from my adolescent days listening to the Dawson's Creek soundtrack - Ha. Also not as pleasant as they first appear - classical songs, that often get depressed or aggressive 3/4 of the way in.

Well, S's back from an insane middle of the night walk now, so it's time to get to snoozin.

Sweet dreams!

(By the way, best wedding song - EVER.)

Hopes, dreams, and sheep doggies

With life so up in the air and summer approaching, it's fun to think about some of the exciting times I'll be plunking into my wish list for the future, and by future, I don't mean this Friday, which still seems like an eternity all on its own. I mean events in life and accomplishments of the light-hearted kind that are a good 5-45 years away, but that tantalize me none-the-less.

The first of these is raising a puppy. Sure, I could convince a breeder or the SPCA that I am currently capable for caring for a young dog, as I starting out in work life hoping to travel, overtime it, and commute as much as is necessary. I am sure that in some kind of reality show set up, I might even win a challenge or two given the task of training a puppy to sit, stay, and refraining from chewing/barking/shedding/emitting puppiness, but it is not yet time. Also, there is the great puppy debate - S likes huskies, malamutes, and wolf-like creature's Ala Grimm's Fairy tales, and I like 100lb. plus floppy-eared beasts like English mastiffs and Bernese mountain dogs. Lately, though, I have been falling in love with the Old English Sheep Dog. Do you think this guy qualifies as a possible big, bad wolf for S?

I am hoping that within a few years, I will work out a career schedule that includes either the necessary flexible time or close proximity from home, not to mention a home with a yard (though the alley behind the row house does have trees to lift a leg to), in order to find an appropriate buddy for Oliver (like the shep!).

Next is travel! My gifted friend and his bros from Brown started a travel organization that plans to head to North Korea late summer, and I am beyond frustrated that I promised myself pre-trip announcement that I wanted to 1) save emergency fund money (seriously???!?) and 2) pay off one of my grad school loans straight up. I dream of doing a communist country circuit one of these days, including Cuba, China, and North Korea, but I don't honestly know when I will get another opportunity. Hopefully, and prayerfully, a thrifty lifestyle from now until August and getting one of those job-thingies might convince me to jump on a plane this time around (given that I've saved at least the loan money by then and can save the emergency money by December), but I doubt it. So here's to my tour in 2050, in addition to my necessary ventures to the Greek isles, to India a few more times, and as a victorious participant in the Amazing Race one of these days (a new promise I made to an old friend).

These I suppose are the 5-10 year dreams, spattered with some travel that may occur a little later than that, or in the case of the Amazing Race, only in the imagination.

The 10-45 year goals include:

Owning 1 home and never selling it
Children - conceiving, adopting, fostering, loving
Old white woman sports like boating, hiking, kayaking, and maybe golf
Public Health Mission trips to Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the US (it should stand for "us"!)
Art installations
Lots of gardening (File under 'Old white woman' section??)
Eating and sleeping well

And once I hit 70, all bets are off!

The house that Landlord VanDyke's son built

So if you ask family or friends of mine, they would probably agree that I am fairly consumed by a desire to get the rowhouse apartment all set up for move in, which will happen sometime, somewhere between July and August. Evidence of this is also written all over the blog (Note any previous post that occurred after I signed the lease, and I bet you will see 'row' and 'house' used in close promixity to one another).

Last weekend we put together the new bed, which left me triumphant with only a few scratches, and so far this week, despite work, torrential rain, and the multiple job interviews (one which which perhaps went a little wobbly today, but I am hoping I get a call back second chance at a second interview), I have still managed to complete a DIY project framing one of my mom's 1914 Vogue posters for a bathroom art piece, and, randomly acquired a hornbeam tree sapling for the back deck (City Parks and Rec was giving them away outside the downtown office building when I exited my interview mid-morning).

I expect that once I find my USB camera cord, and after the wedding of the century - aka my mom's! - I will start showing off what I have done to the place.

Heroes in the fight

..Or so says the cup that I am drinking coffee in currently - it's from NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and it is 2x the size of a regular mug, so there's the benefit in it of itself.

I am working on redoing the blog a little - see last post - in order to make it a more expressive place for me I suppose, but also to make it a bit more accessible. I edited a few former posts a bit and took out the Narrative post entirely, except for the title, to commemorate the day when I started writing what may well be the second book I have attempted to author, and the first I have begun to write in adulthood.

While I was typing away the original "Narrative 1 Bowie" it ended up being a good 7 full pages of text and I had delusions of grandeur as I imagined Stephen King critiquing my work and thinking it not too bad. After reading his books, I often think how amazing it would be to write like that, both talent-wise and as a profession, where you slowly go mad imagining false worlds and your boss - you - never has to tell you, "No, you can't say it that way," or "No, that absolutely can't happen," because it's fiction, and it can. Of course, there's always an editor in life I suppose. But at any rate, I always figured if I ever wrote a published book, it would be a non-fiction commentary sort of thing, based on the profession I was in or a life experience close to my field of work. Fiction would be so much more rich though. A fantasy lifestyle of waking up a 1 in the afternoon and with my "Heroes in the fight" mug, beginning to make up some BS that will pay the bills and take us all on a vacation when we re-read it. That'd be nice. Maybe I will have a mental break one of these days and start doing that.

Up!..

...Like the movie, minus the talking dog, plus a cat that attacks my toes in the morning and likes Mickey Mouse shaped ice cubes in his water bowl.

So as the title also implies, this week things of looking a bit up. There's beautiful weather outside and I am still riding off a high I got yesterday after suriving a terrible caffeine withdrawl headache and nursing myself back to health with plenty of 7-Eleven coffee and home improvement projects in the row house.

It was the Charles Village festival this weekend, which meant no sleeping in for the weary as jazz music started well before noon in the dell and the streets were combing with people trying to pick up funky art, clothes, and accessories from all the booths lining the stained glass encrusted street of southbound North Charles. I picked up a miniature flower vase that was really like a small beaker encased in a block of mahogany wood that the deal had repurposed from bits and pieces he got from a carpenter friend who had used the wood to build cabinets for the Smithsonian. So it's like a little piece of my childhood, now holding hopefully a little piece of nature once we move into the row house and I can buy (or snip from a rougue Wyman park area) a fresh bud of flowers to put on our pub table.

S enjoyed the festival by consuming sweet Italian sausage two days out of two, so in addition to my headache, there was also a pretty weighty stomach ache in the apartment this weekend. Only Oliver, the cat, surived unscathed.

I have been looking and somewhat keeping up with some southern belle blogs recently, which I find very interesting in that the majority of them, despite the different personalities of the girls that keep them, have tons of pictures of clothes, beautiful scenes, and of course the girls themselves. I guess this makes sense - it is their blog, their snippet of time and space to jazz up, but if got me wondering how many niched blogging communities there are out there, whether I should "join" one, and if so, where I would fit. Pretty much the story of my life otherwise - with friends, school, careers, church, political views, relationships, SES's, everything, I seem to mutate in and out of groups while maintaining a strong personal identity that is hopefully capatible with others but doesn't fit a comfortable mold. I think some of this might be a defense mechanism, a fear of getting too cozy with people and ideas, but elsewise I guess I prefer to sample a lot more than others, I'm not sure.

But returning to the postively-focused theme, I have two interviews this week for seemingly to really great positions, though they are quite different than the other. I am really hoping to fit in well with the second organization I meet up with this week, but am ideally hoping to have great interviews at both so that I have more options, just like in life. Wishful thinking, and I should be happy I have any prospects that work for the area I live in and the career choices on which I'd like to focus. Fingers crossed, though, I'd really like to sign onto something meaningful soon and start making a splash in whatever specific field I am in!

For now, I should focus on keeping up with the work I've got for at least the next month or so.

But..for the grand "Up!" finale - M&K are getting married this weekend!! What joy and bliss!!! On the scary list - I am giving the bride's side toast/speech, and short of a sweet little marriage blessing I picked up online and an idea to get K's his first Father's Day card ever, I am at a loss. I imagine myself burning the midnight oil on this one - literally - I imagine myself in the early 1800's with some parchment and a quill at a sewing desk or out in the barn as to not disturb those in the farm house, writing this masterpiece. Oh my, and up, up and away!