Hallo

Good morning blog readers!  So yesterday was my second big indulgence TV day, I'm sad to report.  Over the weekend, Andy and I totally got sucked into Four Weddings.  If you haven't seen this show, it's pretty hilarious.  Basically four brides go to each others' wedding and judge the wedding based on the wedding dress, food, entertainment and overall experience.  The bride with the top score wins a honeymoon for her and her husband.  It's a really cool show, especially for someone like me that doesn't really know anything about weddings, to see different culture's traditions and just how many different things you can do at your wedding.  It's also a great way to find out things you'd never think about when you're planning your own wedding, like making sure people can see over your flower decorations from the back seats and not making them do a "love walk" aka a mile hike in the blazing hot summer heat from your ceremony to your reception.  I really enjoy watching stuff like that with Andy, she has some many refreshing ideas and interesting insights that I love to hear her talk about.

Growing up, I was never one of those girls that planned their wedding, actually I didn't give it much thought, ever!  It's so much fun having a person in my life that I can really see myself spending the rest of my life with and getting excited about sharing a huge milestone, like devoting myself to her, in front of all of my family and friends.  Honestly, I don't know when we will get married.  It's sometimes sad to think that if this world we lived in accepted us more, then we would already be married.  It's like looking at heterosexual couples from the outside in, it just seems like there is a more predetermined timeline and expectations.  This feeling sometimes makes being in a same-sex relationship seem like the complete opposite, like everything is optional and if you choose the option then everything is forced or unnecessary.  I would hope that my family wouldn't feel this way.  I would hope that they would view my marrying Andy the same way they would Amy marrying whoever she marries, but sometimes my fear and insecurity get the better of me.  I do not know that I could handle rejection from my family, at least not my immediate family.  Don't get me wrong, they are nothing but supportive of my "lifestyle," and they love Andy to death.  I just think that marriage is very important to my family, and other than side comments in passing, I've never really REALLY talked to them about it as it pertains to me and Andy.

And woah, totally wedding tangent.  I never expected that to be the subject of today's blog.

revelations:  What are some of the mundane or boring things you have to do in your life that you could re-imagine and make either more fun, completely unnecessary and therefore discontinue doing them, or more efficient so that even if you have to do it, you can do it more quickly, therefore devoting less time to it and more time to things you actually enjoy?  For some reason right now in this moment, I can't think of anything.  It's strange, I can be depressed and all together not really optimistic about anything on the whole, but when I break my day down into each thing that I did, it's hard for me not to find something in it that I enjoy, can smile about, or have accepted in some way.  Perfect example, driving to work.  Unfortunately for me, I live about 45 minutes to an hour away from where I work.  As gas prices increase, it has become murder to my wallet.  Additionally, it's not a high speed drive to work on a highway, it's all on roads, main roads, but roads with lights sometimes every block.  Add in the crazy south Florida drivers that think you can make a left U-turn on a red arrow, and you definitely have to have your wits about you.  But for some reason, I love the drive.  In the mornings I listen to NPR and catch up on what's going on in Washington and around the world, and then on my way home I listen to music, right now, Lupe Fiasco's CD Lasers (which is fantastic and I would recommend it to everyone!!).  On my way to work I'm usually still pretty groggy, so it tends to go by quickly.  On my way home, I roll the windows down, turn the music up and drive.  Some may look at it like a waste of almost 2 hours everyday, but for me, it's me time and time for me to sing at the top of my lungs, or try different routes home, to me, it's free.

Things you never want to hear on the radio...

"if you like it hot and humid, you've come to the right place!" Blah...bring on the sweat and the frizzy hair! Apparently we don't get spring, we're heading straight into summer. Not sure how I feel about that...

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Hiiii-Deee-Hoooooo!

Ok, so I know, I missed another day...yesterday!  Blah..I'm sorry...I got the app for my phone and kept saying "remind me to update my blog, remind me."  And then what happened, we both forgot.  So here we are, the first day of the rest of our lives...welcome.

Have a seat, take off a load, put up your feet.  This is my home, welcome.

Ok so why should you, potential reader, read my blogs of blogs?  Well, I'll tell you, it's not for my fashion advice, let me tell you that!  Exhibit A: khaki boys shorts, gray Guster t-shirt (Hellz yeah if you know who Guster is....if not, gooogle it already!!), Rainbow sandles that are too big (cause that's the way I like 'em).  So ya, no fashion advice to be won over here.

Perhaps this is a travel blog?  A person who lives in a denestination station lives here and shows off how awesome his/her life is...uh no.  While I might live in a destination place, Flow-Rida, I will not take you around my life....it'd be pretty linear, sleep, work, tv, sleep....you get the picture...

I gotta go pick up glasses....will pontificate later...sorry about the typos, will fix those later as well

DP Part Two

Colby made a friend!

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Dog Park Time!

Henry made a new friend!

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Tour of Homes

Well I'm still on the bus with about 7 more houses and businesses in my City to look at and judge. You see, I'm on a committee for the city I live in that gives out awards for innovative designs and landscaping. Our big annual awards banquet is coming up so I had to give up most of my Saturday to drive around with 8 old ladies looking at and commenting on other people's houses. Pretty entertaining, but it was suppose to be over 10 minutes ago and like I said, still 6 more to go. I'll keep you posted!

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Howdy Partners

Do you ever stand in a crowded room, looking around at people talking and laughing and wonder, "What the heck am I doing here?"  Well that was me last night.  I stayed late after work (because I live 45 minutes away) so that I could go to a retirement/farewell for a woman that works at my work.  I don't work with her directly, but we say "hello" to each other in passing.  I could probably take up half a page with information I know about her, but I doubt she could do the same about me.  I was glad to be going, Andy was suppose to come and it's always fun for her to see, meet and interact with people I work with, but because we have Colby and he can't be left at home alone, she stayed home with the dogs.

The party was nice, held on an outside terrace overlooking the canal and golf course.  The night was perfect, with a cool breeze softly blowing through the table umbrellas.  Mostly a mingling party with a cash bar and a small line of hot hors d'œuvres.  I knew mostly everyone there, but that's the thing, there is a big difference between knowing people and actually knowing people.  Of the sixty or so people there, I would say maybe five actually know me and me them.  These aren't best friends by any means, but people that generally know some things going on in my life, know Andy and Henry and Colby, and I know their significant others, or at least about them, their favorite places to hang out, stuff like that.  Unfortunately after the initial small talk with people you only casually know, or don't really know at all, they find someone else they casually know.  Needless to say I talked to a lot of people for a couple minutes and then I would just stand there, sipping my wine, watching other people interact.  I even took the obligatory trip to the bathroom where I stood, wasting time until I had to go back out to the party.

Please don't read into this behavior too much.  You see, as an Army Brat I've had to learn how to make acquaintances very quickly, but I've also gotten use to being alone, not being someone's best friend and generally having to keep myself entertained.  The downside is that I sometimes really question if I even have the capacity to become more than acquaintances with people.  Is the difference between a friend and an acquaintance a mixture of time and shared experiences (which in turn take time)?  If so, will I ever allow myself to reach that point? 

I had fun at the party, it's good to be visible at these types of functions.  I am the youngest person by about 5 years.  I also am the only lesbian that I know of.  Most of my co-workers know; hell, knowing the gossip mill, all of them maybe know.  People are accepting, or at least not outwardly hostile, which I appreciate.  Sometimes it just sucks knowing that it doesn't matter.  In a month and a half, I'll be on my way to Colorado to start the next year of my life.  Start over, make new acquaintances, new memories.  I guess having this blog is something I can keep as my constant.

revelations: If friendships take time and shared experiences, what do you think is the shortest amount of time one would need before they consider someone a friend and that person considers them a friend?  What are the basic foundations of a friendship versus an acquaintance?  Do you distinguish between these different levels of relationships in your own life?  By keeping people in the acquaintance file in my head am I the one limiting my own experiences, limiting my own capacity at friendships?

Happy Thursday!!

Colby the Fluff

Ok so maybe I should re-name it BEODA (Blog Every Other Day in April)...think it'll catch on??  So there has been major dramas in my life...mainly the landlord vs. adorable fluff muffin Colby.  Apparently, and I'm telling you this so you don't make the same mistake, apparently you can't get a dog without telling your landlord...even if you already have a dog that he verbally okay-ed.  $400 later and we're signing pet policies and paying pet fees.  Blah...seems crazy to me that we would be required to pay the same amount for a dog we just got vs a dog we've had for 10 months....especially when we're moving out in less than two months and have already given notice!?!

Oh well, without drama I suppose life would be rather dull.  Just glad we got through it, it's behind us, and now our landy lord lord can't be a jerk because we did everything he asked.  I sense smooth sailing from here until the finish line, but I'll keep you posted ;)  How could you not love and wanna squeeze this guy??



Zen Habits "Brief Guide to Life"



In other news, my sister sent me to this website about a month ago and it's become my new favorite place...

Zen Habits  I don't know about you, but the aforementioned story is like the story of my life.  Make a stressful decision only to have to deal with the stressful consequences.  Being told to take time to breathe is just what I need!  I recommend starting with the "Start Here" section.  The guy that runs the site has been posting for years, I don't know that I'll ever be able to catch up!

I printed out the "Brief Guide to Life" section and put it on our fridge.  I've decided that every week I'm going to focus on one or more of the lines.  Today I'm going to start at the top by watching less tv, and reading more.  I'm going to lump the computer in with TV.  "Less" is so much easier to deal with than "no."  So I can reserve my TV time for tonight when we get disc 2 of season 2 of Six Feet Under :)  Until then I'm going to try and focus on doing lots of reading today to counter act the balance.

I think I'm going to bring back a daily tidbit where I muse about some recent idea I've thought about...we'll call it revelations.  I agree, that is a word fraught with connotation, but take my "revelations" for what they're worth...it's just for fun after all :)

revelation: Ok so everyone experiences life different, we'll never see and think and feel the same way about something or a situation as another person, we're only us and others are only them.  So what if the way I saw colors was completely different from the way you saw colors.  For instance what if what I knew to be blue, if you were to look through my eyes would be what you knew to be red.  We both identify the color with the same word, but we didn't see the same color at all.  Just imagine other people seeing the word in a different palate which seems perfectly normal to them because the sky is blue, but their blue if you were to see it would be your green.  If this makes sense to you, please leave a comment.  If it doesn't, please also leave a comment.  I am a very visual person, so I might even try to draw (or find a picture) to illustrate what I'm trying to say....

Sorry Sorry Sorry...Please Forgive Me

Ok Ok Ok....I know I know I know...BEDA means I have to actually blog EVERY day and I've already missed TWO DAYS!!! I'm soooo sorry....life is crazy and twisty and crazy, oh did I mention crazy?? Especially my life, which I can understand you might not infer from my first BEDA post. Yes I can be uptight and control freaky, but I have this thing in my life, this crazy, unpredictably, spontaneous life force that rips me off my feet and takes me away on insane adventures, yes yes, Andy, she's the one…it’s all her fault, she makes me more interesting and less stick-in-the-mud-esque!

So let me recap all that has happened since my last post...

Friday night, Andy, Henry and I were hanging out. I had a lot of flex time at work because last week I had three night meetings all lasting two hours each. So I flexed my time all week, but then on Friday I still had a lot of time so I ended up being able to leave work early (not as early as I could've left, but Annual Reports demanded to be bound, so I was there, in the copy room, melting the spines to the pages, which really takes forever, especially if you have to do 25 of them!). Anywho, so I made it home around 4:30 or so and we were hanging out, drinking Woodchuck (I love cider), talking to our landlord and watching Henry swim in the pool.

Then, Andy found the cutest puppy on PetFinder, she called the shelter and in less than thirty minutes, we were packed and in the car. Why the packing you may ask, well that’s because the cutest puppy just so happened to be in a shelter outside of Atlanta. And how far away is that? Oh, you know, just around the corner, eleven hours around the corner. So yeah we had a loooooong drive ahead of us. And needless to say, my uptightyness made much of the drive unpleasant. In retrospect I’m not sure why I was being such a biotch, but at the time, I felt like I wasn’t in control. I was upset that the weekend I had envisioned was not coming into being and I was not all together sure I was ready to take on the responsibility of another dog. Despite my less than amicable attitude (more like red-faced, screaming like a lunatic), we drove and drove and drove.

We did not make it to Atlanta on Friday night. This was in large part because we didn’t even leave until 8pm. Around 1:30am, we decided we should stop and find a hotel. We were somewhere in Florida between Orlando and the Georgia border when we first started looking. Apparently there was a HUGE softball tournament and every hotel had a hand written NO VACACNCY sign posted in the window. There would be no rest for the weary and onward we went. We drove into Georgia, continuing to stop and see about checking in, with no luck we continued to drive. There was no room for us and we were getting really tired. Although we weren’t sure if it was legal, we ended up joining about 25 other cars at a rest stop where we reclined our seats and slept for roughly 3 hours in the car.

The next morning we awoke, brushed our teeth in the rest stop bathroom and tried to figure out why anyone would think metal mirrors would be a good idea. I mean, hello, we’re in the humid south. Metal mirrors = rust covered pieces of metal hanging on the wall with little reflection. Back into the car and back on the road, we drove into Hot-lanta. Andy’s Aunt lives in a suburb, so we headed to her house to take showers and eat lunch before heading to the shelter. Ws my mood improved on the second day? Eh, in the morning I was grumpy from lack of sleep and the car seat-induced crick in my neck, but I was trying.

Andy’s Aunt Jill and Uncle Danny are THE BEST! They are so welcoming and friendly and funny and sweet and caring and loving and fun. We couldn’t have stayed with a better family. Jill came with us to the shelter as she has experience rescuing dogs (she’s saved nine dogs this year!). We instantly fell in love with the puppy (they were calling him Quick Silver or Silver). Even Henry started playing with him immediately. Before I knew it, Andy was filling out the paperwork, the lady was handing us his rabies tag and we were jumping back in the car with our family of four! Just look at him, he’s everything we were looking for!

Colby!!!

Hen-Hen

So to totally veer away quickly from the heaviness that was yesterday’s post, I present to you Day 2 of BEDA.

The number two (2) has always been and will always be my lucky number. I love it as two (2), twelve (12) and especially twenty-two (22). So this will be a great day!! Anyone get caught up in any crazy April Fool’s Day tricks yesterday? I always want to come up with a good joke, but never do. This year I contemplated bringing Henry’s cage home from my office, setting it and a second set of dog bowls up in the house and accuse Andy of losing our second dog that she can’t remember we even have. But in retrospect, one that would be really really mean, and two, then she would be pushing even harder for a second dog. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs and I do want a second one, but I just feel like our lives are so up in the air right now that I don’t think it’s the best time.

Please oooooo and ahhhhh over my adorable Henry here:

And here:

And check out his amazing agility feats here:

Isn’t he the cutest!! That was rhetorical because he is, duh! So tomorrow, we’re going out on our friends’ Robin and Harvey’s boat. I’m super stoked because although we live in Florida, mere minutes from the beach, I see the ocean far too infrequently for my taste. Additionally, I love boats!! So I’ll be lathering on the sunscreen and hopefully taking lots of fun pictures to share with all of you on Monday!

Happy Saturday, everybody!

BEDA

Well here goes my big attempt at Blog EveryDay in April! So I’ve decided to try my hand at Blog Every Day in April (BEDA). So to kick off this month of blogging, I thought I’d introduce myself:

My name is Sarah and I’m a 26 year-old who lives in Florida. I just celebrated one year at my place of employment. I am an Army Brat and by the time I turned 17 had moved 13 times. I attended Virginia Tech for my BA and Master’s, class of 2006 and 2008. I live with my beautiful girlfriend Andy and our hound dog mix puppy, Henry, in a small one bedroom house (with a pool…be jealous). I love to read, watch TV, debate current events and political views with Andy, walk, explore, eat good food and overall just enjoy life. My dream job would be to become an author and sustain my lifestyle writing. Unfortunately, despite my mediocre efforts, I have not made a major attempt to obtain my goal.

I could go into a whole explanation about how my parents’ values, personalities and child rearing have shaped and molded me to believe I have to follow a set path, one whose value is measured by sick days accrued, retirement money saved and the timeliness of my bill payments, however I strive for different standards. I will instead give credit of my perceived failure, to myself, the only rightful guilty party. For, as you will find out over the course of this month, I am lazy and I make excuses. Already, in writing this blog, I have excused away even my least scathing critiques. I am lazy because I’m a Libra, it is inherent. That is bullshit. I’m sorry, but it is. Over the course of BEDA I hope that by writing down my thoughts, ideas and experiences, that I will somehow obtain a new perspective. Since it is merely day one, my perspective is unchanged, unchallenged, controlled.

So what is my perspective? That is a difficult question to answer. To a certain degree, I can convince myself of anything, but perhaps we all can and that’s what makes life so difficult. I strive for efficiency in my life, which is something that has gotten me ahead in work, but I fear has shaved priceless adventures out of my own life. I wish to be more adventurous. Andy will tell you time and time again that my first instinct has always been to say “no.”

Andy- “Let’s go to the beach.” Me- “No, it’s too hot, it might be crowded, I might get sunburned.”

Andy-“I think we should get another dog.” Me–“No, it’s too expensive, it takes too much work, one day in five years we may not be able to find a place to live that will take two dogs.”

I’m a worst case scenario-er to the extreme. Give me a situation, a decision needing to be made, and I will take hours, possibly days, to come up with every scenario, how to approach it, avoid it, mitigate it, and overcome it. I want to make a plan, predict the unpredictable; take control of the potential chaos. I am, in short, a control freak, not scared of change as much as completely opposed to it in theory, taking much time and thought and cajoling to convince that it will be a good thing. It is this extreme that contradicts my yearning for adventure and for exploration. My fear of the unknown (e.g. what will happen if I fail) completely negates my exhilaration and curiosity of the unknown and I feel the polar sides competing often and the fear taking over much more often than not.

So, how do I break this cycle? How do I take a deep breath and make the big leap? How do I quiet my “what-if’s?” Honestly, I do not know. But I think I’ll start small, I think I’ll try to make a decision every day and not consider the consequences. I’m not talking about risk taking, I’m talking about every day decisions in which I usually weigh the pros, the cons and even imagine how that decision will affect the outcome of my day, my week, my month, my life.

Ok so this post was pretty heavy…I’m not going to be posting shiz like this too often, I just wanted to give context to what I do post. I may be an Army Brat, but I’m far from conservative. I may be a control freak, but I’m far from high maintenance and actually, most people would say I’m pretty laid back. I may be lazy, but I think most people would also say I’m proactive and have great initiative. As you can see, I’m a life of contradictions. In some ways that works to my benefit, I am truly a jack of all trades, even down to my work ethic and political views. I strive for continued learning and higher level thinking. So, welcome to my blog and welcome to BEDA.

The Perfect Shot...Just a Blink Away

Alright Alright, epic fail...I called it! Thank goodness I didn't even attempt BEDA (Blog EveryDay in April) cause then I just would've gotten my hopes up...much like the 2010 50 Book Challenge I started on January 1, 2010...which at 7 books, I'm pretty far behind in. I'm hoping my new *Incredible* with handy dandy eReader will help me at least get to 25 by year's end. Granted it'll be a lot of the "Classics" due to the fact that all books are free, public domain, but I've been meaning to read those books anyway ;)

In other amazing news! My wifey and I officially started moving into our new place! We have a 3 month over lap, which aside from putting us in debt means that we can slowly move and paint and paint and move oh yeah and paint. We are doing a full performance of Furniture: The Redux and painting almost everything we are keeping so it'll look shiny and new. Sure it'll have the same shape as our old stuff, but hello?! A gray bedframe is soooooo much different from a wraught iron one...duh! So in the words of Fergie....Check it out:

View from entrance into living room

View of pool (private)

More pictures to come! Sorry about the quality they were taken by my new *Incredible* Oh and sorry about all this *Incredible* nonsense...I just got my first smartphone, the *Incredible* maybe you've heard of it...anyway it's pretty awesome and I'm super excited about it!

In other, other news, I have decided to start another section of my blog called: Crazy Stuff Thought Up in the Shower that Might Happen in the Future (CSTUSMHF...ugh no! That won't work)...so we'll just called it Future Talk. Eh, we'll see how it goes!

Also I think I might come up with some sort of Giveaway...my first "Official" (Apparently there are a few "unofficial" lurkers out there ::Waves:: hi lurkey lurkers...I love you!) Blog Reader Susie (Not Susan) is doing a Disney one now that I'm super excited about. So yeah, stay tuned for that!

Future Talk (if you can come up with a better name for this section, leave it in the comments): In the future, you're going to be able to take a picture with your eye, in otherwords in your eye will be a camera. I'm so tired of seeing the perfect shot and then it turning out like crap on my camera. So one day (and I'm sure the government can already do this) you'll be able to take snapshots and focus with your Eye Cam (I think there was an episode of Dollhouse like this except they were video cameras and it made her blind). Also in your brain will be a version of Photoshop where you can take your digital Eye Pic and manipulate it by just imagining it. Just don't ask me where you print the pictures out ;)

DOFP: Unfortunetly aside from the usual personal phone calls and creeper comments this front has been pretty uneventful..today a guest post from Daily Craigslist Creep will have to do. Yesterday in the "Wanted" section of "For Sale" on C-List some creep wanted to wine and dine (oh and "shower you with gifts") a girl for her 18th birthday...His proposal was to take said 17 year-old out the night before she turned 18 so that when she was legal he could "and more" her... First of all, who would respond to this?!? Second of all...an 17 year-old can't be "wine"-ed...hello!? And third of all, your name is Barry...Creep-ER ALERT!