I like to look at my life like it's a series of different little adventures. Maybe it's because an "adventure" seems more thrilling and exciting rather than an "obligation" or "life progression" even. I guess by placing the label of "adventure" on to something it makes me excited and giddy and ready for something new. So instead of embracing a life change as just a life change, I am embracing it with the ferocity that one would have if they were climbing the side of a mountain or white water rafting... well... at least I'd like to think of it that way. So my new "adventure" you ask.... moving in with my boyfriend. Wow.... I must tell you that I have never lived with a boyfriend before, so that in itself is bound to be as challenging as climbing the side of that damn mountain or white water rafting...LOL
Today marks the day that Michael will "officially" be moving into my house. We've been an "official" couple going on... let's say... 11 months now?? I think it's somewhere around there... Anyways, so we're just short of a year in the relationship department and we're taking that next "big step". It's going to be real interesting because, I've never lived with a significant other before AND it's been a good 10 years or so since Michael last lived with a significant other, so I guess you could say it's probably going to take some adjustment.... strike that... ALOT of adjustment.
We had a little bit of practice in the whole "living together" department, although... it didn't exactly pan out how'd I thought it would. Michael was living in Lake Elizabeth and working in Lancaster, so that is about an hour and 40 minutes away from me. When we got together, he would just start staying with me on the weekends from Thursday night sometimes till Monday morning, and then an occasional weeknight, depending on his work load. It all started off well to be honest with you. I'd come home on Monday nights after work and see that he had left that morning after making the bed, and leaving me a little gooshy lovey dovey note about how much he was going to miss me during the week. Cute right? I thought so! Then the relationship progressed and as a wonderful girlfriend I was, I offered to take some pressure and weight off his shoulders, by just telling him to leave his laundry at my house during the week and I'd wash it for him, so he wouldn't have to spend an entire night at home doing all his laundry... Sweet right? Again.. I thought so! So as time progressed a little more I'd come home on Monday nights to the bed not being made, but yet still a sweet little note telling me how much he was going to miss me... Ok.. So I guess that makes up for the unmade bed and the few shirts and pants he left for me in a pile on the floor... Afterall... I was the one who offered to take on the domestic task. So the relationship progressed a little bit more and I'd come home on a Monday night to find the unmade bed, no lovey dovey note and his dirty clothes spread all over my entire bedroom and I was finding myself doing laundry EVERY night of the week with my stuff along with his stuff.... THEN.. the breaking point... he comes to my house one night, pulls a shirt out of the closet that *I* washed and *I* hung up in *MY* closet for *HIM* and *HE* has the audacity to say, "What happened to this shirt, it's all wrinkled, I don't like the way you do my laundry!" I was effin FURIOUS!!!!!!!
I hate laundry, despise it actually, if I had the money and could afford to just go buy new clothes everyday as opposed washing the existing ones, I'd do it in a heartbeat. The whole process of sorting, washer, dryer, taking them out of the dryer so they don't wrinkle, hanging them up and folding them just so you can do it all over again in a day or 2 makes me want to put a gun barrel to my head. In fact, I am prone to waiting to the last possible minute to do my laundry, I'll wear every pair of underwear and every piece of clothing that I have before I break down and actually do the laundry. That usually results in overly filled loads that prompt my washing machine to start making funny noises and dancing out of it's spot in the little laundry closet, in fact it's so bad that my cat will sit at the back sliding glass window with her ears pinned back, I think she thinks that one of these days that sucker is going to break through the wall. Anyways, because I hate laundry so much, I am notorious for leaving my clothes to sit in the dryer for a day or so, and since my wardrobe consists mainly of clothes whose fabric doesn't wrinkle easily(I do THAT for a reason) I don't really have to be worried about them getting wrinkled. But, enter a man's wardrobe which consists mostly of t-shirts or cotton collared shirts, they are going to get a little wrinkled sitting in that dryer for a while... Ooooopssss..... my bad!
So why, you ask did I offer to be little Miss Suzy Laundry Maid for my boyfriend if I despise it so horribly?? Who freakin knows!!! I was trying to be the sweet and domestic woman who'd do her man's laundry for him to make his life easier.. and it didn't exactly work out. All that was accomplished was that I had grown to developing that twitching jaw every Monday night when I walked into my bedroom to find the array of dirty underwear and stained t-shirts and pants carelessly thrown all over, with my unmade bed that the sheets and pillows are all thrown about, with part of the mattress showing, and no little lovey dovey notes.... Oh my god... I was starting to feel like a married woman... who'd been married for 10 years! So... what do you suppose happened that blessed evening when Michael takes his wrinkled t-shirt out of the closet and points out that he's not happy with my laundry duties??? Well after I ripped the shirt out of his hand and told him where he could stuff it, he started taking his laundry home with him every Monday morning and doing it on his own again.
So, starting tonight, I will be going home to Michael every single night and waking up to him every single morning, so everything in between if going to be a hell of an experience. All kidding aside, I really am looking forward to living with him and learning how to grow even more as a couple, I guess so long as I don't do have to do his laundry, I think we might be just fine.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Looking Forward to the Leaves Changing Their Colors
I remember back in the day, I dreaded the impending doom of Fall. September meant going back to school, having homework to do every night, the days getting shorter, tans starting to fade and having to follow the rules. Lately, however, as I have gotten older, I have really grown quite fond of the Fall and Winter months, in fact, with September just a week away, I am really finding myself getting excited for the change in the seasons!
I guess the summer for me, as an adult, has always meant tons of "obligations" and less "just me" time. From the time March hit this year, I kid you not, I have been on the go every single weekend since then. The weeks are filled with the humdrum of working all day long, playing catch up with laundry and cleaning and gym responsibilities on the week nights and the weekend meant having to run from one place to the next in order to appease everybody and not appear like a social disgrace. I know that sounds awfully cheesy, because too often people complain about not having social functions to attend to, but seriously, when it seems like you are constantly on the go, and not giving yourself the time to just relax, it essentially takes the fun out of everything.
Now, for everybody who knows me, you know that I tend to be somewhat of a " I need to know when and where" type of people. Maybe it's because I've always had a bunch of people always pulling me in different directions, that the knowledge of "what's going on" makes my whole life ALOT easier to plan around. Personally, I don't really like that. The idea of not having anything planned, and then waking up and deciding, "Hey... let's go here" or "Let's go do that" is really exciting to me. I like the idea of not having to be at any certain place at any certain time to do any certain thing, I have really grown to appreciate moments like these. Since Michael and I started dating last year, I have actually been on more of those spontaneous surprise trips or adventures than I have ever been in my 25 years of life. Unfortunately since about mid-March, our schedules and lives have become so insanely hectic and upside down and inside out 95% of the time, that we really haven't had an opportunity to take advantage of those moments.
Back in December, we woke up one Saturday morning grabbed some lunch and then decided to get in the car and drive to Prescott Arizona to visit his nephews and his sister in law, before Christmas. That trip is probably one of my favorite trips ever. We had so much fun! We spent the evening pounding some Jager in the local watering holes in the 20 degree weather, we spent the next day visiting with his amazing teenage nephews and his sister in law, and we even had a chance to take in a few of the historic sites before heading back home. It was last minute, it was unplanned and it was one of the greatest trips I've ever been on. I still think back to that weekend and smile at the memories of our adventure.
With all the responsibilities and obligations that seem to invade my life the older and older I get, particularly during the summer months, I find myself aching for the leaves to start changing colors, and the breeze to start getting crisp, and my life to gently slow down. Now, this may sound totally crazy, but it's not that I want to spend my life sitting at home in front of a television set getting fat and sassy on popcorn and Milk Duds and never getting out of my PJ's(although... sometimes a day like that just sounds fabulous) I actually have a list of TONS of things I'd like to do... but the only difference is that it's things I'd *LIKE* to do, as opposed to things I *HAVE* to do... see the difference? I have a list of things that I can pick and choose from anytime that I want and if a weekend at home cuddled up on the couch, getting fat and sassy seems more enticing than a weekend picking apples in Oak Glen, then so be it.
I guess the summer for me, as an adult, has always meant tons of "obligations" and less "just me" time. From the time March hit this year, I kid you not, I have been on the go every single weekend since then. The weeks are filled with the humdrum of working all day long, playing catch up with laundry and cleaning and gym responsibilities on the week nights and the weekend meant having to run from one place to the next in order to appease everybody and not appear like a social disgrace. I know that sounds awfully cheesy, because too often people complain about not having social functions to attend to, but seriously, when it seems like you are constantly on the go, and not giving yourself the time to just relax, it essentially takes the fun out of everything.
Now, for everybody who knows me, you know that I tend to be somewhat of a " I need to know when and where" type of people. Maybe it's because I've always had a bunch of people always pulling me in different directions, that the knowledge of "what's going on" makes my whole life ALOT easier to plan around. Personally, I don't really like that. The idea of not having anything planned, and then waking up and deciding, "Hey... let's go here" or "Let's go do that" is really exciting to me. I like the idea of not having to be at any certain place at any certain time to do any certain thing, I have really grown to appreciate moments like these. Since Michael and I started dating last year, I have actually been on more of those spontaneous surprise trips or adventures than I have ever been in my 25 years of life. Unfortunately since about mid-March, our schedules and lives have become so insanely hectic and upside down and inside out 95% of the time, that we really haven't had an opportunity to take advantage of those moments.
Back in December, we woke up one Saturday morning grabbed some lunch and then decided to get in the car and drive to Prescott Arizona to visit his nephews and his sister in law, before Christmas. That trip is probably one of my favorite trips ever. We had so much fun! We spent the evening pounding some Jager in the local watering holes in the 20 degree weather, we spent the next day visiting with his amazing teenage nephews and his sister in law, and we even had a chance to take in a few of the historic sites before heading back home. It was last minute, it was unplanned and it was one of the greatest trips I've ever been on. I still think back to that weekend and smile at the memories of our adventure.
With all the responsibilities and obligations that seem to invade my life the older and older I get, particularly during the summer months, I find myself aching for the leaves to start changing colors, and the breeze to start getting crisp, and my life to gently slow down. Now, this may sound totally crazy, but it's not that I want to spend my life sitting at home in front of a television set getting fat and sassy on popcorn and Milk Duds and never getting out of my PJ's(although... sometimes a day like that just sounds fabulous) I actually have a list of TONS of things I'd like to do... but the only difference is that it's things I'd *LIKE* to do, as opposed to things I *HAVE* to do... see the difference? I have a list of things that I can pick and choose from anytime that I want and if a weekend at home cuddled up on the couch, getting fat and sassy seems more enticing than a weekend picking apples in Oak Glen, then so be it.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Rookie Status- Can I Follow Through?
Well, paint my ass yellow and call me a rookie! I have finally decided, thanks to Kim and Hannah whose Blogs I enjoy on a weekly basis, to create my very own Blog... YAY!!! It's not like I don't chatter enough with the verbal word, but I've now decided to create a blog to chatter with the written word. The wonderful part about about a Blog though, is if somebody gets tired of what your saying, there are no interruptions or people challenging what you are saying.. Nope.. if they don't like what you are saying, or get bored with your ramblings they can just close the web browser!!
So my intention with this Blog is I'd like to use it weekly, or even daily if I feel like it, to update my friends and family on the happenings in my sometimes hectic, sometimes like a Lifetime Original Movie, sometimes disastrous, but ALWAYS an adventure of a life. Hopefully I can actually follow through with this Blog, but..... If this ends up being the only post you see, you'll know that I didn't follow through like I had originally planned. In a perfect world, I am hoping to have weekly blogs equipped with pictures and all that jazzy stuff, but.... we'll see. I've said for 5 months that I was going to start taking up scrap-booking, but I've yet to actually buy a scrapbook to even start on.... so hopefully this will pan out much better than my scrapbook idea.
Yesterday I was admiring the scrapbook that my brother's girlfriend Alex started on a mere 5 days ago.. Wow.... I was soooo impressed with that little masterpiece that she says, "Isn't even close to being done". In 5 days she managed to put 9 months of her and my brother's year and a half long relationship on these beautifully decorated pages. There were movie tickets, brochures, menus, even parking passes from essentially EVERYTHING they had done together as a couple and they were strategically arranged on these bright pieces of paper with all these cute stickers and decorations surrounding the pictures of their happy smiling faces! I was really impressed! Of course I immediately got inspired and asked her if she'd help me start one of my own because I had been talking about doing one, but... of course.. NEVER FOLLOWED THROUGH with it!
It amazes me sometimes. I am often told I am a very creative person, in fact, I know I am a very creative person. You can ask me to sit down and write an article or a short story, or better yet and more fitting, a racing press release and I could come up with something amazing and dazzling in less than 10 minutes without even trying. But, somehow when it comes to actually putting my creative energy to work, I don't exactly produce the greatest and well... lets be honest here, FINISHED results! I am pretty sure that if I was actually productive with all these creative juices that flow through me... hell... I'd probably have a lot of things to be proud of! I bet my house would just be awesome and well decorated with recent pictures on my walls, maybe even a cute little patio scene going on on my porch.... geez maybe even a herb garden of some sorts. I'd even settle for a plant that I could keep alive for more than 2 months! I know I'd have updated photo albums, so that when I am 85 years old and covered with grand children, I have SOMETHING to show them of my life, as opposed to busting out a computer and showing them my Myspace..... That's it... I'll be 85 years old and still have a Myspace showing pictures of me rockin' some Bingo at the old folks home.... sticking my tongue out and throwing the horns when I've had a bit too much Geritol and I feel like busting out of my girdle and shaking that prosthetic hip like it's no one else's business... YEAH BUDDY!!!
Funny thing, looking at Alex's scrapbook it dawned on me, it takes a lot of time to do something like that. Not just to cut out the little sayings and pictures and pasting them on the pages of the album, but actually getting digital photos printed on photo paper and grabbing those little, what seem to be insignificant to most people, but very much significant, items of memorabilia to accompany those Kodak moments. You know I look back to my first real relationship and I used to save stuff like that constantly and I kept them in a little shoe box, which found it's way to a dumpster not too long after the relationship ended. I had saved everything; flowers he had given me, which I had dried out and pressed to save forever, little cards he had written out to me, old movie tickets, receipts from outings we had gone to... you name it I saved it and for no other reason than just being "sentimental".
Sadly, I don't really do that anymore. Me, the freakin pack rat that I am, that manages to save every phonebook that's placed on my doorstep, every coupon that comes in the mail from Bed Bath and Beyond, that has long ago expired, that I swore I was going to use when I initially got it, every bottle of lotion or perfume that I know I will never wear or use because the scent disgusts me but think I should keep "just in case".... Yes... THAT person can't seem to hold on to a few movie tickets or take an extra second out of my day, while in a new place, to grab a map or brochure or even a freakin cocktail napkin that I rest my drink on, to put on the pages of a scrapbook validating that I was in FACT there and that my photos aren't just a product of photoshop.
Maybe I am just too damn impatient. Maybe that's what the problem is. I have all this steam and all this energy when THINKING about the idea of doing something, but when it comes to actually doing it and it miraculously doesn't just appear before my pretty little face at that exact moment, I get impatient and then don't follow through. What a concept right? "I want it now.. butttttt... I don't want to put any of the labor into making it happen, I just want it to happen right now!" Ahhhhh the story of my spoiled little life! LOL
So as of this moment I am making a vow, somewhat of a New Years Resolution about 9 months too late. I am going to actually start things I talk about starting and I am actually going to FINISH them once I start them! What a novel idea! Why hasn't anybody thought of that before?? LOL! I am also NOT going to get so damn impatient when I don't get what I want, and then give up before giving it a chance to take shape.... and I mean this in ALL aspects of my life. Hey, I may be 25 years old and "technically" considered an adult... but I still have a little bit of growing up to do.... and I am working on it.... :-)
So my intention with this Blog is I'd like to use it weekly, or even daily if I feel like it, to update my friends and family on the happenings in my sometimes hectic, sometimes like a Lifetime Original Movie, sometimes disastrous, but ALWAYS an adventure of a life. Hopefully I can actually follow through with this Blog, but..... If this ends up being the only post you see, you'll know that I didn't follow through like I had originally planned. In a perfect world, I am hoping to have weekly blogs equipped with pictures and all that jazzy stuff, but.... we'll see. I've said for 5 months that I was going to start taking up scrap-booking, but I've yet to actually buy a scrapbook to even start on.... so hopefully this will pan out much better than my scrapbook idea.
Yesterday I was admiring the scrapbook that my brother's girlfriend Alex started on a mere 5 days ago.. Wow.... I was soooo impressed with that little masterpiece that she says, "Isn't even close to being done". In 5 days she managed to put 9 months of her and my brother's year and a half long relationship on these beautifully decorated pages. There were movie tickets, brochures, menus, even parking passes from essentially EVERYTHING they had done together as a couple and they were strategically arranged on these bright pieces of paper with all these cute stickers and decorations surrounding the pictures of their happy smiling faces! I was really impressed! Of course I immediately got inspired and asked her if she'd help me start one of my own because I had been talking about doing one, but... of course.. NEVER FOLLOWED THROUGH with it!
It amazes me sometimes. I am often told I am a very creative person, in fact, I know I am a very creative person. You can ask me to sit down and write an article or a short story, or better yet and more fitting, a racing press release and I could come up with something amazing and dazzling in less than 10 minutes without even trying. But, somehow when it comes to actually putting my creative energy to work, I don't exactly produce the greatest and well... lets be honest here, FINISHED results! I am pretty sure that if I was actually productive with all these creative juices that flow through me... hell... I'd probably have a lot of things to be proud of! I bet my house would just be awesome and well decorated with recent pictures on my walls, maybe even a cute little patio scene going on on my porch.... geez maybe even a herb garden of some sorts. I'd even settle for a plant that I could keep alive for more than 2 months! I know I'd have updated photo albums, so that when I am 85 years old and covered with grand children, I have SOMETHING to show them of my life, as opposed to busting out a computer and showing them my Myspace..... That's it... I'll be 85 years old and still have a Myspace showing pictures of me rockin' some Bingo at the old folks home.... sticking my tongue out and throwing the horns when I've had a bit too much Geritol and I feel like busting out of my girdle and shaking that prosthetic hip like it's no one else's business... YEAH BUDDY!!!
Funny thing, looking at Alex's scrapbook it dawned on me, it takes a lot of time to do something like that. Not just to cut out the little sayings and pictures and pasting them on the pages of the album, but actually getting digital photos printed on photo paper and grabbing those little, what seem to be insignificant to most people, but very much significant, items of memorabilia to accompany those Kodak moments. You know I look back to my first real relationship and I used to save stuff like that constantly and I kept them in a little shoe box, which found it's way to a dumpster not too long after the relationship ended. I had saved everything; flowers he had given me, which I had dried out and pressed to save forever, little cards he had written out to me, old movie tickets, receipts from outings we had gone to... you name it I saved it and for no other reason than just being "sentimental".
Sadly, I don't really do that anymore. Me, the freakin pack rat that I am, that manages to save every phonebook that's placed on my doorstep, every coupon that comes in the mail from Bed Bath and Beyond, that has long ago expired, that I swore I was going to use when I initially got it, every bottle of lotion or perfume that I know I will never wear or use because the scent disgusts me but think I should keep "just in case".... Yes... THAT person can't seem to hold on to a few movie tickets or take an extra second out of my day, while in a new place, to grab a map or brochure or even a freakin cocktail napkin that I rest my drink on, to put on the pages of a scrapbook validating that I was in FACT there and that my photos aren't just a product of photoshop.
Maybe I am just too damn impatient. Maybe that's what the problem is. I have all this steam and all this energy when THINKING about the idea of doing something, but when it comes to actually doing it and it miraculously doesn't just appear before my pretty little face at that exact moment, I get impatient and then don't follow through. What a concept right? "I want it now.. butttttt... I don't want to put any of the labor into making it happen, I just want it to happen right now!" Ahhhhh the story of my spoiled little life! LOL
So as of this moment I am making a vow, somewhat of a New Years Resolution about 9 months too late. I am going to actually start things I talk about starting and I am actually going to FINISH them once I start them! What a novel idea! Why hasn't anybody thought of that before?? LOL! I am also NOT going to get so damn impatient when I don't get what I want, and then give up before giving it a chance to take shape.... and I mean this in ALL aspects of my life. Hey, I may be 25 years old and "technically" considered an adult... but I still have a little bit of growing up to do.... and I am working on it.... :-)
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