Hello...i mean Goodbye September!

I can't believe that tomorrow is the start of October. I mean really, when the heck did September arrive let alone bolt outta here like a bullet train? The only real events i remember don't even feel like they were in September at all. I mean we had full on July and August sunshine all the way up til my birthday on the 24th. Heck, yesterday it got over 80 degrees! I slept with a fan and just a sheet! Where's the crisp air, the morning fog, the changing leaves?...ok i'll admit that the leaves are JUST beginning to change.

(warning, don't click on link unless you can resist Wikipedia)

Maybe if i listen closely i remember the Doppler Effect as September zooms by. And here's Sheldon for a visual:

In other news on of my birthday presents to myself arrived. Season 4 of Big Bang Theory. I only got to watch about 3 episodes before i made the leap to get rid of cable altogether. It's the only show i miss. So i bought it without having seen the episodes. Fingers crossed it doesn't disappoint...not that it ever has.

This morning, i took Boyfriend Jon to the airport, leaving the house at just after 4. I'm an early bird and i guess i finally did get to see some morning fog and feel the crisp cool air. It was invigorating, i got home at about 5:15 and flopped on my bed and didn't think i could fall asleep. I laid there for about a half hour and seriously considered getting up and just going in to work over an hour early.

The next thing i know my alarm to tell me to get out of the house to go to work went off. At this point...i'm surprised that it didn't take a come along leaver to get me out of bed. Suddenly, I was SOOO exhausted and at that point, my brain seriously began to consider calling in sick and just skipping work today.

I've already had two cups of coffee and still feel like a wrung out sack o-potatoes.....or something similar to that metaphor. Going back for a third.

The next segment of life

On Saturday, i passed the Quarter Century mark in my life. It was hailed in with an incredible gift from Boyfriend Jon which was so sweet it actually made me cry. He made me a book of pictures of us that had quotes from our many conversations.

I think my favorite out of all of them is:
A - I just got a really nice compliment. Ian called me a genius like four times in one conversation.
A - I just found sawdust in my ear.
J - LOL

That and he bought me a star globe that lights up my whole room. A perfect gift for an avid star gazer and someone who had stars painted on her ceiling until she was 21. It was wonderful.

The next day we met up with friends Annie and Ian and Ian's sister and went to the Fair where we all rode one of the more sedate roller coasters. Though i think Jon and Annie might disagree on the "sedate" part. We watched Mutton Busting (kids riding sheep like bulls) and that was hilarious if outrageously hot (no shade). We visited the animals, and ate all sorts of weird stuff. I personally didn't partake of the deep fried stick of butter or fried Oreo, but those were among the discards.

After that, was dinner with a more extensive group of friends at Red Robin after an extensive reservation debacle. For the record, restaurant chains should have consistent policies regarding reservations. Not, this one takes reservations but that one doesn't.

I visited with friends i hadn't seen in more than a year, chatted about how life was treating us, and generally had a wonderful time. But I gratefully sank into bed almost as soon as we got home. My legs were worn out.

On Sunday, i had some serious news reach my family. A long time friend of mine (from back to the tween years) was hit by an IED in Afghanistan. Thank goodness he's ok if a little beat up. His unit also made it back ok, a little worse for wear but all alive. Since his birthday is the day after mine, i personally can't think of a better birthday gift than surviving something like that.

I wish wars like this didn't come practically every generation. I hate watching real people being used as pawns up for the discard. I will gladly defend this country with my dying breath, but i don't think we should go overseas to do it. That becomes a very slippery slope in my opinion.

In other news, how is it possible that i started out with 8 drawers filled to the brim with stuff, replaced them with 8 drawers which were shallower both in deapth and height....and i now have 2 almost completely empty drawers. Especially considering that i didn't really throw anything away besides a few scraps of paper?
How odd is that?

The Stages of Furniture

Just like stages in life, most furniture goes through a relatively defined path.

When we are born, we're put into cribs that our parents have purchased. In my case, being the youngest, it was a hand me down crib that had scratches on the wood, and the rattle spinners were missing in a couple places and one of them had rusted stuck. it had survived all my siblings, and many moves throughout the states. It was ugly but it worked.

Later, i shared a room with my brother and we slept in bunk beds that my father had built. To this day, i'm not sure how we never managed to knock the bunk bed over given all the flips and jumps we made out of the top bunk.

For me? ICK! 

When we got too old to share a room together, Dad took a saw and cut the bunk bed in two. Shortly thereafter, my brother and I got a little lucky. My older siblings were moving out. My brother got the older brother's thick and clunky wood bed and dresser that had under the bed storage. I got the white and gold french provincial bedroom set that my sister loved. I hated it on sight. But i had to live with that until i graduated.

(The point of that was that when we are young, we get whatever someone else buys, rarely getting a say in the matter or using hand me down pieces.)

Since i went to community college and not a university to live in the dorms, i'm going to skip over the part where you have the exact same storage as everyone else or make do with the plastic bins and drawers which are the cheapest form of storage.

Then you move out on your own. This is the point where you finally get to start making decisions for yourself. It's also the point where you realize just how expensive it really is. So you begin to build your collection from family or friend donations, sidewalk rescues, garage sales and craigslist. Sometimes you get lucky and find a nice piece. But more often than not...you get the mismatched, scratched, or painted a million times collection that just gets the job done. Sometimes it even manages to give an eclectic artistic feel. More often than not....it looks, feels and smells scavenged.

Then as your life moves on, and you get that job that pays just enough that you have some extra to play around with. It's at that point that you get the Grown-Up Furniture Set.

It's not the best materials, but it all goes together or at least looks like it does. And best of all: you got to pick it yourself! It works exactly as you need it to, it fits into your space and it looks good in your eyes.

As of today, i sold the mismatched dressers and chest of drawers that had been housing my assorted belongings. Even got more than i paid for them, thank you very much craigslist buyer. They hauled them out at lunchtime, and tonight my dad will be bringing in my new side by side 8 drawer dresser with a mirror to go with my matching night stands which i installed over the weekend.

Wanna talk lucky? Remember a ways back, i refurbished an Ikea bed frame and put it up on specially built stilts? Then those stilts were too long and i had to cut them off with a sawsall? Yeah, the nightstands are EXACTLY level with the top of the mattress. I was so shocked, i got the level out just to make sure. How unbelievable is that?

Originally, the set would have run me almost $180 but i talked them down to just over $150. Awesome sauce! Pics to follow.

Best part of all, not even a hint of white french provincial. Thank god!

Quarter Century

In short of just two weeks, it'll be my 25th birthday.

Wow. Just wow. How the heck did i get here so fast? I feel like i'm still getting used to being 21! And then i start to think back over my life and i'm just blown away by all the things that I've experienced.

In my lifetime:

• DNA is used to start convicting criminals and free innocent people
• The Berlin Wall falls
• The first President George Bush was in office
• The Hubble Telescope was launched into orbit
• The Soviet Union collapsed
• Operation Desert Storm (where my brother would end up going)
• The official end of the Cold War
• Bill Clinton elected as President 
• the LA Riots after the Rodney King verdict
• The rapid growth of the World Wide Web
• The bombing of the WTC
• OJ Simpson arrested for double murder and later freed 
• Oklahoma City Bombing
• Mad Cow Disease hits Britan 
• The divorce of Princess Diana and Prince Charles
• The Unabomber arrested
• The Hale-Bopp Commet arrives 
• Pathfinder reaches Mars and sends back pictures
• Princess Diana dies in a car crash
• A sheep named Dolly is the first successful cloning
• President Clinton has the Lewinski scandal
• Star Wars is re-released with all new digital alterations (Han originally shot first)
• Kuala-Limpor bulids the tallest buildings in the world
• Titanic becomes the most successful movie ever (scoff)
• President Clinton Impeached 
• The Y2K bug causes worldwide concern
• Horrific shooting at Columbine school
• The ILOVEYOU virus causes a heck of a lot of trouble
• Reality TV takes off (forever dropping the bar on good tv)
• George Bush the second scrapes by a win for President (537 votes)
• September 11th happens forever changing America 
• I was walking past the old Junior High School library when they made an announcement. I went in and watched the smoke and chaos on a live feed on the projector wondering if my aunt was alive since she works in NYC. (much closer to central park i later learned)
• The Xbox is introduced and Halo flys off the shelves.
• The introduction of the iPod MP3 player and iTunes
• We go to war against Iraq
• Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes Governor of CA
• MySpace and Facebook debut, Myspace being completely public gains popularity faster
• The Mars Rover lands on Mars
• George Bush wins re-election
• Facebook no longer just for college students. Quickly outstrips Myspace
• Hurricane Katrina hits the gulf causing massive destruction 
• The Introduction of YouTube and Twitter
• The Introduction of the iPhone
• Barack Obama wins the election, the US's first black president 
• Chrysler and GM go bankrupt
• Charles Sullenberger lands a plane on the Hudson River instead of crashing
• Michael Jackson dies
• the Wiki Leaks
• Haiti and Japan earthquakes
• Osama Bin Laden captured and killed
• Prince William and Kate Middleton wed
• Space Shuttle Atlantis lands, marking the end of the space shuttle flights

It's hard to believe i was alive for the birth of Email, cell phones, electric cars, media that can reach you live from the other side of the planet, satellites leaving our known solar system....it's all stuff that just as far back as my dad's generation had no concept of. I mean, even my sister, just 14 years older than me, reminds me of a time when you simply memorized everyone's number that you would need.


I'm not trying to incite a political debate about which event is most important out of all the events of the last 25 years. I just am sitting back and marveling at the path the world has taken in my lifetime.

Yes there have been horrible events mixed in with extraordinary advancements in technology, science, the women's movement, equal rights amendments, and even art. But just thirty years ago, most of this was the filler of pure science fiction.

However, the bonehead that let Reality TV in needs to be slapped with a dead fish.

Closet Shopping

I hate shopping for clothes. It's the worst, most depressing and humiliating task i can think of. Although i adore my gal pals and know they are beautiful and supportive...going shopping with them is a struggle with my ego.

They're size 8/10 and 12/14. They have entire aisles dedicated to their size. Whereas I as a 18/20 have at best a 3 foot long section to look through. And I can try on every single item in that section and not find a single thing that fits.

Since this has been the case through most of my life, I never developed an affinity for going shopping. Either nothing fit or i looked like i was dressed by my grandmother. Hence, i hate clothing shopping in general and find it to be a necessary evil. Occasionally i get lucky and find something that i like and fits, and then i buy four of them.

Over time, i found shops that catered to my size and didn't have grandma style clothes. But where jeans are normally $40, mine are $58. Where tops are normally $20, i pay $50. So i still didn't go crazy with clothes.

I've been tightening my purse strings for quite a while but with a wedding coming up, I had to find something nice. My closet currently contains:

• Slinky black dress numbers 1, 2 and 3 and slinky red dress number 1, 
• doesn't fit anymore dresses 1 through 5, 
• Red ballgown (aka totally inappropriate for a wedding)
• Super casual red print dress (aka totally inappropriate for a wedding)
• and two skirts that i love but are very uncomfortable to sit in. 

Did i mention it's going to be in the mid to high 80's on that day?

So i called the only person i could think of that would have a solution: My sister. 

She grew up very skinny and spent entire summers going shopping with our aunts on the east coast who all love to shop. I grew up on the west coast, wearing camouflage and scraping my knees. But now, ironically, we've evened out to just about the same size and shape. Although she still has about four bra sizes on me. 

She loves to shop. She has three closets (two of them are double hung) that are stuffed full of clothes. To the point that i could barely push stuff aside to look at them. From theses closets she pulled out a dozen dresses for me to choose from and borrow. 

I was skeptical at first. Usually with a dozen i have about a 30 % chance to walk away with 1. But by dress four fitting nicely, i was actually enjoying myself. In the end all but three fit me reasonably well, but i took the four best with me to decide after spending some time in them. 

Four dresses of varying niceness, for free, in the span of about an hour from start to finish. All the hard work was already done thanks to my sister. I can go formal with the green beaded one, I can go comfortable casual with a navy one, retro with a polka dotted one, or feminine with a peachy flowered one. 

Now i understand the appeal that my skinny gal pals feel when going shopping. Shopping in my sister's closet has options. Options are FUN! Not to mention it's free. Best Shopping Trip EVER!!!

Broke, Frustrated and Getting By

Most of these last couple of weeks I've just been overwhelmed. I've had a lot of bills come in at inconvenient intervals, and lots of things i needed to spend money on. With my rent, car payment, car tabs, and a medical bill all coming out of the same paycheck, i was effectively broke. And I hate being broke. This doesn't happen often. It's gotten tight before but I've never been down this low for this long. At least looking back, i had some fun.

Two weeks ago, I attended my first Bachelorette Party. It was...interesting. I have no problem with nudity, having been an art student for several years. But paying that much to watch very skinny women took their tops off while the hunky men kept their briefs on...was kind of a let down. However, there were plenty of cirque du sole style acrobats and feats of sheer strength which were amazing to watch. I personally could have done without the furry and bondage acts though. Not my thing.

I was also designated driver. Also not a problem since i rarely drink. But it never fails to amuse me how people claim they're not drunk when they can barely walk in a straight line. And the bachelorette took the cake with her quote for the night. I showed them my bamboo parasol that i had just purchased and she took one look at it and said "Do you have any idea how big of a drink you could fit that in?" as she swayed in her heels. Everyone got home safe and had a good time.

That was the end of the festivities for a while:

I was asked to help fill in for a position that was abruptly vacated (in a good way) which had nothing to do with anything i'd ever done before. I was told that i would get written instructions, 1 on 1 training, and be able to call on the person who designed the position for help if i had questions.

Heh, yeah right. Not only were there no written instructions anywhere, i had about 2 hours of instruction before my trainer went on a week's vacation. This also took 2-3 hours of my workday away to fumble through my new appointment with no allowance for overtime. My team was not happy about loosing my assistance and made a point of telling me so like it was my fault. And the two women who have been the bane of my existence had a field day with my mess ups and passive aggressive conversations on the other side of a cubicle wall.

I've been miserable in pretty much every regard of my job for the last two weeks. Boyfriend Jon has been a saving grace listening to my broken record of "i hate this and this and that too." I know i should be grateful to even have a job in this economy, but i don't feel grateful to work in a hostile work environment where nothing ever changes no matter how much you shine.

I drove my frustrations into physical work. I think this is the first Monday where there are no clothes to be folded, no dishes piled high on the sink, and no sentient life growing in the fridge. There are still my containers of random junk that i haven't put away properly scattered all around and a large garbage bag of mixed up keep, junk and trash from my car. I had planned on getting some of them taken care of, but instead spent the time outside enjoying the rare beautiful weather at a potluck with friends, car shopping with Jon and a Poker night with more friends.

Oh the car shopping. Boyfriend Jon is looking at cars. So it's been a couple weeks of going to dealerships and trying to not cringe away from the salesmen, test driving, and hours of talking about the pros and cons of each car. But he thinks we found it, even though we went there on a lark. Watching him, reminded me so much of when i bought my first car. I remember that feeling of "I'm tired of looking, this is my car!" and the knot of anxiety in your stomach when you start taking numbers. I remember researching that car to death and in several cases, knowing more than the salesman. I was determined to not let them screw me over and in the end, and even my dad was proud of how much i got knocked off the sticker price. We'll see what happens in the near future for Boyfriend Jon. Whatever the case may be, i'm behind him 100%.