New job!

I started working for my former and best boss Peter again! So happy for the opportunity to work with my favorite co-workers. Plus, the current set up ain't too shabby. A girl could get used to this. Here's hoping this sticks.

When we help Stephanie...

UGH. Oh, boy was today ever a trash day. I could've thrown it away and replaced it with the day Andrew and I, originally, planned last night.

We woke up late. No alarm. No charged cell phones because Andrew was in his "I'm going to agree with Kate on everything whether it's true or not" phase and never actually plugged in the charger into his cell. -_-  Even though I asked him before we went to sleep. -_- It was my charger in the first place and he took it because he, "wants to charge his phone for sure because it's more important that he wakes up early." Okay! You win. You charge it. Except, oh yeah, he didn't. -_-

Dumby.

So he woke up late, running around the room getting ready to leave me to meet Jane and I realize, OH CRAP! We're supposed to help my cousin move! So I jump out of bed and start getting ready while he takes care of the fur balls. We're both finally ready to go when we realize we don't know where the keys are. We're searching everywhere, the mantle, the counters, the bathroom, our pockets in our jeans and jackets, everywhere. He delays his meeting with Jane and an hour and a half later, he finds them under a plastic bag in the kitchen. New rule: Keys stay on the mantle.

He's grabbing his stuff when I swing open the door in a rushed panic, and what do you know? The dogs run out. I do my Charlie Brown sigh and run to the car, while Andrew follows them on foot. I meet them in their favorite area in the next neighborhood over and have them jump in the car and rush back to the house.

We're on our way to Acworth to meet Steph and my parents help her move when we realize we hadn't eaten yet. So, we grab Zaxby's for Andrew. We pull into Rick's old neighborhood and Steph's soon to be old neighborhood. See the Uhaul trucks and park. Walk to the apartment and SHE HADN'T PACKED A SINGLE BOX. Her home was a mess, clothes everywhere, old food boxes everywhere, dirty dishes spread through out the whole counter, even on top of the stove. God knows I love her but I wanted to slap her up against the head and go home. Unfortunately, my stressed out mother and 70 year old father were going to continue helping her, so Andrew and I felt obligated. I channeled my inner boss bitch and started delegating tasks. Men, you are the gofers! Mother, you find soft clothes to wrap up delicate items! Steph, you stand there and tell us what you want to keep! Tyler, get the fuck out! There's the Goodwill bag, the trash bag, and the I'm-taking-it bag! NOW, FLY MY PRETTIES! And it worked. I helped a lot. We packed up the instruments-3 guitars- and Rick's collection of bizarre canes into our car, and, ahem, happened to forget (wink wink jab jab) to return them to her at the end of the night. Call it our payment.  And Andrew made friend's with Tyler, Bennett's older brother. We got most of it done and headed down to Buford Hwy. to meet Jane.

We hit up Jane and had some small talk. I love that girl. She brightens my day. When we left, my mom called us to meet her at Steph's new place. Perfect timing, no? We head over to Brookhaven. Yeah, this dude, Steph's new roommate is an old white rich dude who has a huge place and NICE stuff (white tufted leather seatings, a pool, old looking Asian art, NICE stuff) and is letting her stay there FREE of rent in exchange for her to "clean". His place didn't look like it needed more cleaning. Andrew says he's an old creeper. We unload the last of the stuff, slowly, and couldn't get the fuck out of there faster.

As we headed home, we stopped by Publix and loaded up on our fat kid food. When we arrived at home, Stephen informed us of Jack's unfortunate incident. His left back hind nail tore off when Stephen walked him for us. The poor baby!

 Stephen found this out because there was a trail of blood leading from the front door to our bed. Yup. Blood all over our sheets and on my nice woven blanket. Fml.

 Jack's okay now but he is slightly annoyed by the homemade sock cast we constructed for him.

The day is, finally, over. Thank Goddess or God or Buddha or whomever. I get to look forward to my first day back at Peter's store with no outfit lined up, no lunch made, and no photography homework done. But I know it's going to be infinitely better than today.

Blargh.

New Year's Resolution

I've decided what my New Year's resolution is. Yes, I know it's the end of February but I didn't want to make another unfulfilled cliche resolution. But I found it.

 I've been quite obsessed with watching women comedian writers and the stories of how they made it; Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, and Mindy Kaling. It inspired me to light a fire under my ass and start this film gig going.

I am going to write and direct a short film by next year. I know it may sound cocky but I'm going to do that and win a student award. I know that if I do it, I am going to wreck it. And I mean wreck it, as in, "I wrecked that ass from last night, until it couldn't walk straight from the bed to the shower."

My long term goal is to write something original but, right now, I will create an adaptation. I'm going to spend the next month reading as many old fairy tales (I'm talking about the creepy ones) and go forth from there. It should be fun! Next step, try and figure out how to write a script.

I've spent the majority of my life watching t.v. and films, I know I can make good use from it.

Valentine's Day Weekend

This past week has been ! I loved each and every day.

Friday 

(the day before Valentine's Day or as Leslie Knope and I like to call it, Galentine's Day)

I had dinner plans with my two best friends, Hol and Cyn. Last minute, Meig wanted to hang out so I invited her too. I recreated the Shrimp Fra Diavolo dish I made for Holen's birthday dinner and tried my hands at a new dish, bread-less Eggplant Parmesan. 

For dessert, Cynthia made the traditional Valentine's Day dessert, chocolate covered strawberries. All gluten free, of course. While we were grocery shopping for our ingredients, Hol was freaking out about her passing the NCLEX exam she took earlier that day. She already graduated nursing school and had an excellent job lined up but in order to start her first day she needed to pass this test. Usually, the better you do on the test the shorter it is. The least amount of questions you can have is 75. Holen took the entire 275 question test and this was verification enough for her that she had failed. Luckily, Meig is a nurse too. She told her that, as unfortunate as it may be, she may have been 1 in the 15 testers that had to take the entire 275 questionnaire. Meig, also, verified a way to check to see if Hol passed. Which she did. =) So proud of her. 

This is her authentic I-just-became-a-nurse smile.

I loved hanging out with the three of them. Hopefully, next time Meighan will stay longer so she can get to know them better. She's not a girl's girl, so I can understand her reluctance to hang out with two new chicks she doesn't know. She liked them though. 

Holen's Galentine card to me.

We ate, burned Cynthia's old notes, and talked until morning over a colorful roasting fire.

Saturday

Woke up to some dumb drama. I calmed down afterwards but it interferred with Andrew's sweet Valentine's Day gesture. He created this beautiful breakfast from scratch!

Homemade chocolate crepe with raspberry filling and two chocolate covered strawberries. I think I just came.

My favorite tea, English Breakfast with sugar and milk. 

He planned for us to go ice skating and watch a band downtown but I wasn't into it. I felt like staying in, so we cuddled with the furballs during the day and caught up on our shows. 

Mandy dropped by to use my Lightroom. At night, we ate at the Cuban restaurant near our place, Mambo Jambo and watched the worst movie, Jupiter Asccending. God lord, was it terrible. 

Oh, him? Just the best dude in the world. That's all.

This may be one of the first times in getting a cheese plate that none of the cheeses tasted like year old cum. It was all delish.

My lambchop dish. Not as good as Andrew's but still to die for. I know how crazy this sounds but even the RICE was amazing.

The Mambo Jambo melt-in-your-mouth-steak. Andrew recreated this on Monday. It was his best cooking yet.

Sunday

(aka Anti-Valentine's Day)

Andrew bought Patton Oswalt tickets for his aunt, Nancy and I for Christmas (!). I know, I know, Oswalt is the bees knees. 

However, we awoke to bad news. Nancy texted him with regrettable news of a stomach virus. She's the sweetest woman so it was a total bummer hearing it. I was looking forward to getting to know her a little bit better. We went over our last minute choices of who we could invite in her place and landed on Mandy! It all worked out awesome. She's not religious and his dirty offensive jokes would be welcomed amongst such a "dirty" mind. ;) When she got to our place, I was finishing up some Critical Thinking hw. We headed out to get some grub at The Counter and arrive at the Tabernacle right on time to see the opening act. 

The funny man himself.

Since Monday I've been chilling out reading, watching videos, and having a really relaxing time. Tuesday, most of my classes were canceled due to "black ice". I'm okay with it. I did bump into Mr. May, the one teacher that did not cancel class at Whole Foods. His demeanor was courteous but you could tell he wasn't amused by my absence. It gave me two extra days to study for a midterm and a quiz tomorrow. Which I have not done. I did help give the furballs baths!

I could definitely use more days like this.

I'm so grateful for this blog. I know that in the future, I'll love to look back at all the great things we did. I won't have to strain myself trying to remember. Yeah, my memory is that bad. Now, I shall create my legal cheat sheet for CT and eat some Buca di Beppo left overs. 

Oh, yeah. I did find out I am two weeks late. Yeah, I did the test and, no, I'm not pregnant. Just another side symptom of Endo! I should probably find out if that's exactly what's wrong with me because if these nauseousness and mood swings last any longer I'm going to shove a pitch fork into someone.

Learning Curve

Lately, Andrew and I have been trying hard to recognize each other's love languages. I'm a quality time and gift person. Like I've mentioned before, he's an act of service person.

He mentioned lately that he feels I am not showing him signs of love. He felt unloved. I tried to understand that this was connected to the love languages and should not be taken too personally.

 I am quite a lazy person. I can let laundry baskets sit at the edge of my bed for months. I admit to being a "soaker" when it comes to cleaning dishes. I tend to forget to sweep the floors or scrub the bath. These are all things Andrew takes cares of. It's his way of showing me he loves me. He'll clean my car and make me lunch for school. It's incredibly sweet and I've learned to recognize this as his way of showing me he cares. He, however, does not buy me flowers or plan out dates.

This use to bother me. I've learned to accept his sweet actions for sweet words. I, on the other hand, love to plan out events for us to share together or buy him his favorite food or dessert. He thinks nothing of this. I'm a big birthday person too. I love to go all out for it when I can afford to. I had planned out a day in the woods for his birthday. We would hike and make lunch over a fire. Some of his favorite stuff, grilled cheese sandwiches, parmesan basil tomato soup, and homemade mulled wine. Small but effective. However, it was raining, I was sick, and he didn't feel incredibly energetic. So we went to the movies instead. I think we saw Hunger Games 3? Yes. He actually likes this series. I felt terrible because I felt I let him down. He didn't care at all. He doesn't make a big deal out of birthdays.

In order for him to feel more loved, I've been more attentive with the household chores around the house. I've been cleaning and I HATE cleaning. Yes, I do feel better after all the things are in their place but I hate cleaning. I wish I didn't but I do.  And because I couldn't buy him a birthday present, I'm getting his present a little late. Oculus Rift. YEAH BABY!

The system that will make any gamer cum in their pants. In reality.

He talked about wanting one of these for months. It wasn't cheap neither. At $350 a pop it's a pricey gift he asked for. He hardly asks for gifts or, for that matter, anything. So, when he asks for something, I feel he should get it. He deserves it. Yes, it's one of my love languages but I just want him to enjoy something for fun. He needs to 

I can't wait for him to open his present! Ironically, it may arrive around my birthday. I can't ask for anything more than to see his face light up. Now, I shall do some gaming investigation. Only the best games for my green eyes. I can't say I'm not a little excited too...

Queen of Procrastination

It's time to pass the crown. I can not be Queen of this anymore. 

Reminder: Don't wait until the last minute to do an essay. Stop procrastinating, you dumb cow! My avoidance of this essay caused a big issue this week. Everything has settled nicely but I need to learn from this experience. It's a lesson that needs to be hammered into my head. The reason, is most likely, because I'm slow.

I thought I would love my Women's Studies class. NO. It turns out HELL NO. I love the topic and the teacher but what she asks of her assignment are too unusual and vague. Hard to explain. I have, also, seemed to forget how to write an essay. 

Thank God for my Andrew. He saved my ass. Again. God, I love that man.

The Sun is Coming Back

Today was short but sweet. I should have been reading my women studies materials but I traded that for a day with Andrew and the pups at the dog park. It was beautiful today! One of the warmest days we've had in a while. And everybody took advantage of it. I have never seen the park so full of pups! There must have been 20 to 30 dogs there with their owners.  It's one of my favorite places to talk to people because they're dog lovers and dog lovers are, usually, awesome laid-back down-to-earth people.

1. Got my Classic Chai tea latte from Starbucks.
2. Dropped off old junk at Goodwill. 
3. Had some fun at the dog park with Jack and Leia.
4. Stopped by Sprint for some cell issues.
5. Headed to Plato's closet for some cheap but cute and comfortable clothes.
6. Then we shopped at Target for a black cardigan and some dinner essentials.

Short but sweet! See? It's amazing how the outdoors can transform the soul. Andrew and I both enjoyed our short time outside and it lifted our moods tremendously. Hopefully, tomorrow, if we don't wake up too late, we can go to the park for another day out in the sun. Seems like a nice way to do hw. 

Teenage Nostalgia

Superbowl Sunday held so much love and heartache. It had nothing to do with football or the crazy half-time show everyone's talking about. Well, sort of.

Chris had a Superbowl party at his house and invited Andrew and I. Most of the party goers are church friends of Chris', so I had to do some coaxing to influence Andrew to come. Church people are all too nice but they freak Andrew and I out. It's a generalization, of course, but you get a room full of people that believe a crazy thing and anybody who does not believe in that crazy thing will, of course, be a little weirded out. Nothing personal. We would never let that influence our behavior towards that person, it will just linger in the back of our mind. It was a cute party, with cute people, and cute food (a cake that looked like a football!).

The fun part had to do with Cynthia purging her home the past week or two and finding old notes from high school. Ohhhhh, yes. Holen, Cynthia, and I left the party to retrieve Holen's NOLA souvenirs and then returned to Chris' bedroom (away from the party like the anti-social beings we are) to look through ancient teenage notes and pictures from over ten years ago.

Yes. We went through most of this. Thanks, Cyn. 

This is Cyn. A beautiful quiet Asian creature that loves sleep and chocolate.

Most of it seemed to be from me. I don't know why, maybe because I avoided more school work and wrote notes instead of paying attention in class. Maybe I was more of a spaz and wrote entertaining (and mean) notes, like the one below. I'm not sure. But it was like a glimpse into a peephole of my teenage years. I forgot what an asshole I was. I forgot the hurt that I went through. I forgot the good times too. It made me appreciate how far I've come and the positive people and experiences I have now. The good things stuck. The bad ones left. The way it should be.

 I didn't mean most of the below, but I definitely had a sailor's mouth.

I was a turd.

A dirty mouthed turd.

An really rude terrible dirty mouthed turd.

Yet sometimes considerate. 

I was obsessed with Adult Swim. You know, back when the intro was adults swimming in an actual pool. "All kids out of the pool!"

We were reminiscing for hours. So long that Chris cleaned up the entire downstairs (good dude) and eventually joined us with old yearbooks. 

Freshmeat.

I remember this picture as "Bobby's Doppelganger". 

Andrew as a Chicago something fan. Look at those 13 yr old cheeks! I could pinch 'em.

Chris, also, brought down old photos. Mostly, teenage snapshots of random events where everyone was looking away from the camera or discussing some revolutionary new form of teenage torment. Then, there was this beauty:

Senior year at some seedy bar. Probably, North River.

Love it! We've been friends for over 14 years. THAT'S HALF OF OUR LIVES, MAN! Now my mission is to find photos of me with Holen and Jane. It may take a while but hopefully there are some floating around in a Sketchers box in some musty attic somewhere.

Just proves that I may want pictures of my dear friends and I in decades to come. I need to be more attentive about taking pictures. I feel like it's an annoyance but after looking at all these old pictures, I know it will be worth it in the long run.