I still exist!  
I even lurk successfully and generally daily.

Lots on my mind lately, but I haven't been motivated to write.  I 'm actually still not motivated to write, so don't expect a lot of substance here.

/motivation.

Packing is continuing...we are up to 23ish boxes (23 of them are numbered, anyway.  There's a few that aren't.) and the living room is turning into a box fort/maze.  Apologies to all who run into box towers in the middle of the night. 

I made an event in Facebook for moving.  And invited people to moving.  Do you want to come to moving?  There'll be food and beverages provided.  And you can see the new house.  If'n ya want.

On a vaguely related note, I think the two biggest things I will NOT miss about this place are the circuits in the bedroom blowing every time I try to dry my hair (thus relegating hair-drying activities to less optimal locations, like the kitchen) and the fucking chain smokers who live below us.  I miss being able to breathe when the window are open.

Day 7 of the 12 Days of Hell was delightfully short.  Here's hoping the next five days go fast!!

So.  We move in two weeks into our very first house.  Hooray!

Between now and then (for me, at least) is one day off, 106 hours of work (over 12 days) and an epic shit ton of packing. 

...

July is shaping up to be a crazy month.

*nods*

This pretty much sums up my feelings about "Swine Flu".

Woohoo! 

House = Get

The paperwork has been signed.  We close on July 24th.  We could close a bit earlier, but that's an extra $300 we'd have to have at closing, and we're cutting funding rather tight as it is.  We'll just have to blitzclean on Friday (we close in the morning) and move like the wind that weekend.

So.  That said, anyone want to help clean/move around then?  Pizza and (ahem) adult beverages to follow.

If  I had known that house buying was so much like playing poker, I'd have learned again.

On the plus side, we've managed to call their bluff, and we don't *hugely* care if we get this house or not.

But I can't stop laughing about this, guys.

I'll tell you the whole story when it's got an ending.


In totally unrelated news, Squeaker went MIA for a while, causing mass hysteria in 313, but was eventually found by Zoe.  She had locked herself in my dresser.  Brian found this out by asking Zoe where Squeaker was, and Zoe investigating the drawer Squeaker was in.  We knew she was part dog, but who knew she did search and rescue?

Omigdomigodomigodomigodomigod!



We just officially made an offer on a house. 

Woah.

I need a haircut soon.  I'm not sure what I want to do.  Any suggestions, internet?  Please keep in mind: while I am capable of styling my hair, I don't especially like doing it; so lower-maintenance styles are a plus.  And I have a lot of hair.  

It's worth a shot, eh?

Hi there.

You know, one thing that paper books really have over digital books is that they don't need recharging.  I've been reading books on my ipod with the Kindle app and a few others because they were free.  Works pretty well- I have a tiny library with me at most given moments.  Unfortunately, it's not that awesome to read from an ipod screen, and it needs recharging.  So, yeah.  A Kindle would be nifty, but is currently out of budget.  That and I'll wait to put it on my Christmas list, since Amazon has been suggesting that Kindle 3 will be here then.

Continuing with house hunting.  We've found one house that we really liked all around, and another that we liked the floor plan of, but not quite the location (at the corner of a quiet street and a currently-pretty-quiet-but-soon-to-be-busy street.).  More hunting on Saturday!

Today is the first day off I've had since last Thursday and I'm pooped.  I know I used to routinely pull 9 day weeks, but I didn't like it then either, and it was financially neccessary.  It's nice that circumstances have changed.  Really the only reason it happened was because both the economy and I were slackers in February, and that meant that if I couldn't pull 147ish hours in April, I'd lose my insurance in June.  Yeah, our benefits requirements are kinda screwy.  Anyway, I've saved my insurance, and should be ok now that the week from hell is over.  It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't still been pretty sick for most of it, I suppose.  Anyway, still glad that's over.

By the by, I really don't have swine flu.  I just had a particularly nasty (according to others- I don't have much personal experience with the flu)  case of regular influenza.  In fact, now that swine flu has come to Iowa, I'll probably be better off than many, since my immune system is still all pumped full of flu antibodies.  Silver lining.  Other silver lining, sort of, is that it never turned into stomach flu.  I think I would have lost even more weight than I did if I'd been pukeing my guts out AND not eating.  All told I lost 6.5 lbs in the week that I was really sick.  I've only gained a bit of it back now that I'm eating again, so I suppose that's nifty too.  I'm mostly better now.  Just some residual ick in my throat/chest. a bitty little cough (unlike the great hulking cough I had before.  I coughed so much and so hard that I apparently displaced one of my ribs.), a sore back (from the rib) and a stupid low grade pressure headache.  Note to self: no more flu.

So.  Yeah.  There I am.

Damnit Iowa... stop making me like you!

but really, good show to the Iowa Supreme Court.  And once it gets around to it, let's NOT pull a California, mmk?

We are back form the Florida-land.  It was a good trip.

...I really don't have much to say, do I?

I woke up this morning only nominally tired (waking up refreshed is a fairy tale as far as I'm concerned.)

The weather was awesome.  And pretty much perfect.  At least, if you like 70 and sunny it was (and I do).

Work was alright.  Nothing special, but the day passed pretty quickly and uneventfully.

Brian and I went to see Dr. Harvey, which is always nice.

We submitted our applications for licenses to acquire so we can actually take home the pretty new gun.

Someone restored a bit of my faith in humanity by hiding my racquetball racket (which I had inadvertantly left at the clubhouse after playing last Friday) in one of the lockers where less honest/fabulous people would fail to notice/steal it.

Leslie and I went to belly dance.  Which is pretty much always the best thing ever.

Now I am home, and, even though my knee hurts because of the weather change, I am pretty happy with the world.

Apologies, ahead is just some standard bitching and moaning.

1. Me:  I've not been able to motivate myself to do things lately.  That's not very new, but it's still annoying.  I've been good about working out on days I'm at work (I've been working out on my lunch break, and even taking some extended meal breaks to work out a bit longer) but terrible on my days off.  *grump*

2.  People who smoke.  Not everyone who smokes, just the people who smoke in this building.  All winter there were people who would go down to the parking garage and smoke.  And somehow think that that's ok, even though there's NO SMOKING signs all over the place down there.  So when I do down to my car in the morning it's a fucking gas chamber down there and I got to work hacking and coughing.  Then there's the people who live directly below us.  Every day we've had so far that's been above 40 degrees they've been out on their deck smoking.  Which sucks because we like to have to door open to catch the fresh air, which is decidedly less fresh with all the smoke in it.  And they're out there ALL THE FUCKING TIME!  I mean, seroiusly, 4 AM on a Thursday morning?!  I have very little patience for smoking.  You want to smoke in your own house, or in your own car, fine.  I don't want to see it and I sure as hell don't want to have to breathe your disgusting habit either.

For the record, I have a minor allergy to cigarette smoke.  Breathing even a little causes my throat to close slightly, my eyes to tear up and my chest to become congested until I can get away from it for a while.

3.  The office not cashing rent checks in a timely manner.  Rent is due on the 1st and is considered late on the 4th.  Last month they didn't cash the check until the 9th.  They still haven't cashed it yet this month.  *grumble*  I don't like feeling like I have more money than I actually have.  



On a wholly unrelated note, and not annoying at all (to me, anyway, don't know about the rest of you), Brian and I are celebrating our 7 year anniversary today.  Yay!

I feel useless.

It'll pass, but I don't like it.  Worse, I'm only marginally motivated to change it.  >_<

Something about parenting.

Possibly other things about the meaning of life.  Mine, in particular.

There's some stuff about doctors and their opinions, but I'm tired of talking about that for now.  Feeling pretty discouraged and not terribly receptive to optimism (sorry mom).

Getting on with the flow.  Pro:  I've always got my emergency shot glass.  Con: I feel like hell.  

I might be depressed again.  Hard to tell.  Everything feels so hard these days.

Thusly, a triumphant (albeit whiny) resurfacing on lj.  Thank you and goodnight. 

...going 24 (almost 25) years as an only child and then having siblings one day.  Well, siblings-in-law, anyway.  Even odder is having been acquainted with said siblings-in-law for nearly nine years....and not really knowing them at all.  A very odd feeling indeed.  And kind of awkward, really.  What does one do about such things? 

This moment brought to you by Facebook, and the 'Relatives' app.


ALSO.  I approve of the Get Smart movie.  It was nostalgically delicious.  And it managed to be not quite too ridiculous.  Despite starring Steve Carell.  Well done.  Indeed.

New Year's went well.  Many thanks to all who were there to make it awesome.  Special thanks to Sarah and Jake for hosting/planning and to Steph for being a lovely landlord and tour guide.  I miss all you people.  

I remain uninterested in New Year's Resolutions, not out of cynicism, but out of an unwillingness to let myself wait for the changing of the year to embark on new goals.  A list of some of my current endeavors is as follows (in no particular order):

- Find my passion.  And then do something about it.
- Get in shape.  Maintain maintain maintain.
- Travel more. 
- Figure out what is going on with my health.
- Reduce clutter, spending and complaining.
- Buy a house.  Move in.  Be awesome.
- Reconnect.

Not an exhaustive list, but I think those are to big ones just now.

I'm hungry.  Time to think about lunch.

I don't look forward to getting up at 4ish in the morning (I can't stand to type that it may actually be late 3ish.).  But that's the rest of the week for me.  It was a tactical error, I freely admit.  

I don't really write here anymore.  I'm sorry if that makes you sad.  I'm pretty up on the reading though, so it only looks like I've dropped off the face of the planet.  I haven't/  I've just been lurking.