Hi

So, uh... hey. How ya doin'? It's been a while, so I thought perhaps we'd catch up.

So, the last time I wrote was last July. A few things have changed since then.

So where am I now? In pleasantly warm Philadelphia. Yes, Pennsylvania. I am married to a wonderful man, to whom I shall affectionately refer as The Husband. He is from Nashville, originally, so, no, I didn't marry a yankee.

We bought a house last week. It is an end-of-row row house. We have three floors. It doesn't mean we have a big house, it's just tall, with a small footprint. (Land is a scarce resource in Philadelphia.) We have a basement, too. I don't really know what to do with a basement. I mean, you can store stuff down there, I guess, but then it smells like basement. You can also go there during tornados except Pennsylvania doesn't really have those. So for now, it's empty. We don't have a garage or a driveway. We just park on the street. Luckily, there seems to be enough parking on our street and we can usually find a spot close to the house. Where we lived before, we often had to park down the street and around the corner, which sucks when it is cold/raining/hot or when you have groceries. Oh, and we have central air, which is almost unheard of in this part of town. Most homes have window units to keep the house cool.

I have a job. I am the Business Manager/Controller at Awbury Arboretum (click here or here) in east Germantown. It's a pretty casual job and I get to wear jeans. The people are great and I believe in the arboretum's mission: "to preserve and interpret Awbury's historic house and landscape, thereby connecting an urban community with nature and history." Click around on the website to find out more.

The Husband and I currently attend Circle of Hope, which is a Brethren in Christ church of Mennonite roots. You could say it's pretty different from my Southern Baptist upbringing and you wouldn't be wrong. It has taken some getting used to, but the friendly people are easing the transition.

SO... needless to say, the past year has been full of changes for me. Sometimes it's difficult for my little brain to process it all and there have been some ups and downs emotionally.

So that's where I am.

Where are you?

So what's up with you?

Wow. Lot’s of change. Hmmm… Let’s see. Where to begin...

First of all, this is the summer of weddings. I’ve been to 4 weddings and 1 reception and I have another wedding in 13 days. I think there’s something in the water.

Sad news: My friend Shad has found another job. He has already been gone a week and I miss him like crazy. I mean, he makes me crazy. I forget which one. Anyway, after having Shad as my next cube neighbor for 4.5 years, the silence I am now experiencing is deafening. I miss you, buddy!

Although, his departure will make mine that much easier. That’s right, I’m leaving my job. I still have five weeks left, but I’ll be on vacation for two of them. I’m sneaky. Hahaha. No, I haven’t found another job yet, but I’ll be starting seminary in the fall and my current job is just too far away from the school.

So that introduces another change. Moving. I’m moving in with my friends Rachel and Tasha who live in a house closer to school. It’ll be VERY nice being in a house instead of an apartment. Living in an apartment with a dog is a big pain. It’ll be nice to just open the door to let the little guy out to do his business. And no stairs!

But I’m VERY SAD about not living with Christy anymore. Can’t think about it. I’ll cry.

So the next few weeks will be INSANELY busy. I move this weekend and then the next weekend is the BIG WEDDING where I will have to fulfill maid of honor duties all weekend including the rehearsal dinner, the bachelorette party, and the actual wedding itself. It'll be fun! Then EARLY the next day, I leave for Philly for the aforementioned vacation. And then school starts two weeks after I get back! Yay!

So be praying for me to find a new job. I’ll have to work fulltime while I go to seminary cuz school ain’t cheap and I have bills to pay. So that’s the big question mark for me right now. So glad everything else is falling into place!

Although I think all the change may give me an ulcer.

Life change part I

Sometimes life changes drastically in a short period of time. Sometimes those changes are good. Other times, not so much.

We find a case of such here.

He used to be class president. He is the son of a preacher. And he got arrested for robbing a bank to pay off his online poker debts.

Can you imagine being in orchestra practice and the police bust in and arrest the cellist?

I think it would go something like this:

Cellist: What’s the problem, officer?

Officer: You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Please do not play your cello.

The dude sure looks grumpy...

Other interesting stuff I have found on the internet:
All you ever wanted to know about hot dogs
Recommended daily allowance of cuteness
Antidote to above cuteness site, just in case

Have any interesting links you’d like me to post? Send’em my way!

Grossness

Root beer floats gross me out.

They feed us a lot at work. Today it's ice cream floats. People all around me are eating them. The foamy stuff disgusts me.

Ick.

Geographically illiterate

On CBSNews.com today, there was an article about how many Americans can't locate obscure places that no one ever talks about like Louisiana and Iraq on a map. Having grown up putting together puzzles that were maps of the US I just couldn't understand this. I love maps. And not just of the US. I love maps of places I've been, like Ghana. Of places I'd like to go, like Israel. Of places that I'd like to go even though they don't exist, like The Shire or Rohan.

Here is another of the findings that I found interesting:

Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.

The border between the US and MEXICO?! Freaking A, people. Crimeny, we're so freaking full of ourselves.

Two-thirds didn't know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan.

But we sure as heck know that it costs $2.89 for a gallon of gas. And WHY do we get charged that much? There are many reasons, of course, but one of them is "BECAUSE WE WILL PAY IT." We will pay out the wazoo to fuel our SUVs and H2s. But if 70,000 people die in an earthquake, we get all pissed off because the special report interrupts American Idol or some crap like that.

Sorry to rant. But stupid people get on my nerves. It's a good thing that I'm the most brilliant person to ever live. :)

Dr. Pepper at its best

I grew up drinking Dr. Pepper. Everyone in my family had a different drink. I drank DP. My brother drank Coke. My dad drank Pepsi. My mom drank caffeine free Diet Coke. (When I was young, we called in diet caffeine free Coke but I think caffeine free Diet Coke is better. Not sure why.) The fact that we all drank something different meant that going to the store for ‘coke’ was quite an expensive excursion.

As I got older, I began adding other drinks to the rotation. Coke, Root Beer (YUM!), Pepsi. Sometimes even RC Cola. But lately I’ve been sticking mainly with Coke. For some reason, Dr. Pepper just didn’t sound very appealing to me anymore and I didn’t understand why.

But yesterday, I figured it out. At work, we have a coke machine. Drinks come in a can. I get Coke. At restaurants, they have fountains. I get Coke. Why? Because out of a can or from a soda fountain is not Dr. Pepper at its best.

Dr. Pepper is best out of a 2-liter bottle. It’s weird, I know. It just tastes different. I suppose a 3-liter bottle would work, and MAYBE a 1-liter. But a 20-oz. bottle? No way. It just don’t taste right.

Questions? Comments?

Yay for food!

I’m not a big BBQ fan. It’s almost a sin to live in Texas and not love BBQ. But I don’t. There. I said it. And I’m not ashamed!! Also, I’m not a big fan of the side dishes that always accompany BBQ. There’s baked beans, coleslaw, and potato salad. What’s up with potato salad? I mean, of all the wonderful ways to fix potatoes, why do we have to go with potato salad?

I work for a tax and accounting software firm. A quick check of the calendar reveals that today is April 13th. Things are pretty busy over in the tax department. Luckily, I don’t work there. I work in the accounting department and we are painfully slow today. Our call volume always goes up the day AFTER tax season ends. Apparently people are too busy doing taxes to worry about their books right now. And I’m okay with that.

Anyway, because it’s getting near the end of tax season and the powers that be like to take pretty good care of us so that people don’t go crazy and start yelling at clients and other such nonsense, they decided it would be a good idea to feed us. And I won’t argue with that.

Monday was La Hacienda Ranch. Oh, my goodness. I LOVE La Ha. They have the BEST beef fajita meat EVER. When I go there, I order a side item of just the fajita meat. It’s scrumptious. Thinking about it now is making me hungry again!

Today was Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse. And I must say, THIS BBQ is worth something. The BBQ chicken…mmmmmmm. Yum. For real. So if you are ever in the mood for BBQ, you must see for yourself. Click here for a location near you.

Lil’ Tiny Baby Duckies!!!!

I love spring. But I guess you already know that. I particularly love it today.

At my apartment complex, we have a pond that is home to numerous birds. First off, we have swans. Swans are mean. They hiss at my dog. And so my dog is scared of them, but he hides it well. We also have these ugly turkey-looking ducks. They make cute lil’ babies, but they, too, grow up to be ugly turkey-looking ducks.


But then we have NORMAL ducks.

I’m not particularly fond of birds normally. I’m afraid they will bite me or poop on me. Or both. But in the springtime, ducks make duck babies. And this morning I saw them!! About 10 lil’ tiny baby duckies!

Dey was so coot!!! I dust want to pick dem up and queeeeeze dem!!!! But I fink Dywan might twy to eat dem.

NOTE: To understand the above, you must say it in the “talk to the dog/baby/cute-little-anything” voice.

Another random survey

I took a survey today.

Here's what it said about me:

"You are constantly trying to make a favourable impression and endeavouring to be considered as that someone 'special'. You are pretty good at using various tactics and strategies that give the impression that you are in control. Maybe you are - but you are constantly watching to see whether or not your endeavours are truly appreciated. Be careful... just as 'you' may be endeavouring to influence others, 'they' may indeed be influencing you.

You 'need to be needed'. As an idealist you are intolerant of anything short of special consideration from those close to you. If you do not get what you seek you are apt to become reclusive and you will close the doors on all those within your sphere of influence.

You feel tired - worn out and listless. The last thing that you want to do is to be in an open conflict with those around you that are forever tormenting you. What to do? That's the rub. You are feeling that you are being choked - unable to breathe.

You pretend that you are a carefree individual and that nothing really bothers you - that you are so self-sufficient that whatever problems beset you they simply flow off you as water flows off a ducks back. You are experiencing considerable stress, trying to conceal yourself from the rest of the world. In actual fact - deep down, you are not at all happy. You feel lonely and you need someone with whom you can 'Let your hair down' and share your hopes, dreams and high standards. You are imposing unnecessary self restraint on yourself. You would like to demonstrate the unique quality of your character to all and sundry.

Sometimes one fears that its not worth formulating new ideas and projects because whatever you seem to have done in the past has never worked out and you are tired of, as they say, banging your head against a brick wall. No one seems to care. So now you are trying to get away from it all by withdrawing into a 'fantasy land' but unfortunately 'fantasy land' is just that and sooner or later you will have to return to reality so why delay the inevitable? When you do return, you will find that the situation is not as tough as perhaps you thought it was."

It's pretty interesting, although I think there's some imperfect grammar in there... I wonder what THAT says about me.

So what do you want to know?

I read my friend Jocelyn's blog today. She posted a very honest assessment of herself, listing all kinds of things about her, both good and bad. It sort of inspired me, so I will attempt to do the same.

I'm a big chicken and can't watch scary movies. I frequently dream about tornadoes. I think that guys lie about their height. I used to listen to country music and I know how to two-step. I know how to say, "You wanna fight?" in Korean. I am the queen of the snooze button. I once snoozed for 4 hours in college. Snoozed right through my class. My dog is on a diet. I love reality TV shows like Fear Factor, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Beauty and the Geek and The Biggest Loser. I'm in love with Fitzwilliam Darcy. I get grumpy when I'm tired. It's worse if I'm hungry too. I think 'your mama' jokes never get old. (But your mama is old.) I'm scared of sushi. I operate on Jan Standard Time, which is roughly 10 minutes behind Central Standard Time. My mind works best late at night, but that makes it hard to go to bed, which means that it's hard to get up so I snooze a lot. My parents are divorced. It freaks my mom out that I'm 28 and not married. But I think she's really only afraid that it freaks me out that I'm 28 and not married. I'm not freaked out that I'm 28 and not married. I'd like to adopt someday. I don't have cable TV and I get 99.9% of my news from here and here. I hate using the mouse and prefer to use hotkeys. I love Quicken. I like to paint my nails weird colors. I think manicures are awesome. I love Barq's Root Beer. (It has caffeine.) I'm self-centered. I'm a control freak. Sometimes people just don't get my sense of humor. Sometimes some pretty outlandish things come out of my mouth, but I rarely wish that I could take them back. I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. You wanna know something about me? Just ask. I'll probably tell you. I'm a commitment-phobe. Marriage scares me. I still wish I could be an astronaut when I grow up. I loved Sudoku way before it was cool. My favorite movie is The Princess Bride. I wish my name was Buttercup. I like to talk about myself. (Hence, the blog.) I love asking hard questions. Oh, yeah. And I'm human.