Just because you're thinking about a puppy doesn't mean your ready for a baby

After watching Marley and Me and hating that dog and then crying like a baby when he died at the end (too-late-spoiler-alert!), I decided that if this time next year I had my life in order we could get a puppy. Actually, we'd probably wait until the summer so that I could be at home with it to train it. I'm thinking a labradoodle or a whoodle... some kind of oodle-dog. I've only ever had bad dogs (thank you, Mattie!) so I think having a good dog might be a good thing for me.

Which leads to my new years resolution: To get my life together. "Reeeeeaaaaach for the sky!" (said in a mechanic voice - name that movie!)

So start mentally preparing... potential dog, summer of 2010.

Home again, home again...

Well all those things I was wondering about Midland feeling like home were answered. The things that I thought would be frustrating were and the things that I thought would be wonderful were. I hated the weather, but I liked wearing snowboots. I felt trapped by how small it was, but I was happy to have the half hour in the car that it takes to get to the nearest Target with family. It all seemed, for lack of a better word, very midwestern. And it's not that I'm not midwestern it's just that, well, you know, I've never liked Cracker Barrel and that's just who I am. I've never identified with the Cracker Barrel crowd. So do I identify more with the southern/Texan mentality? No, I don't think so. Someone said something about Texas and I was like, "We live in Houston, not Texas." "But isn't Houston in Texas?" "Yes, but it's not Texas-y... except for how I have to say the Texas pledge every day..." So I'm not really midwestern and I'm not really southern, which is fine because since we've moved here Matt and I have had this 6 months and thousands of miles to figure out who we are and actually live it, without anyone's (dis?)approval. It's been both liberating and frightening, but certainly good, overall. And that, my friend, just might be the beginning of being an actual grown up.

Except for how Matt got/has the stomach flu and has reverted to childhood. That sounds kind of mean, but I mean it in a cute way, I just don't know how to word it better. He wants to be cuddled (even though I won't touch him because I sure don't want the stomach flu!) and he's all, "I love you!" and whatnot. He stayed home from work today. All he keeps saying is, "I prooooooobably could have made it through the day." I keep saying, "Yes, and given everyone else the stomach flu. Do you think that's what they want? The stomach flu? Because I don't know anyone who wants that."

I'll be home for Christmas...

Tomorrow morning, extremely bright and early, we leave for Midland. We heard the whole state just got blasted with snow so it should be pretty interesting for. Currently we are having a warm spell here and the low tonight is 65. I told Matt I was scared of the snow and cold weather and I didn't know what shoes to wear and I thought my hair would be frizzy. He said I was being dramatic. That's probably (almost always) true, but it remains the same. Can you ever go home again?

...please have snow and mistletoe...

Home

With Christmas in the air, I've been thinking about comfort and home a lot lately. We are officially in our house, but it doesn't feel like home yet. I'm sure it's because we've only been in there for a few days, there are boxes of stuff everywhere, and the walls are still the blandest shade of vanilla imaginable, but still. It's even weird to think that we don't have the apartment anymore and that we won't be moving again in 6 months. This is our home now.

Midland has been in my head, too. I'm excited to be home for 10 days... see family, get presents, be knee-deep in snow... you know. But I'm wondering how home-y it will feel. Will it feel awkwardly un-homey? Like, "Hm, let's go to Pizza Sams...?" Or will it feel too homey? Like, crying when I see the snow and my mom bringing me Starbucks (no one brings me Starbucks here!). Will I want to go back to Houston or stay in Midland? Will I love or hate the weather?

There is very loose talk of doing Christmas in Houston next year. Even though I really don't think that will happen, I would love it if it did. The thought of having all our family, busy and crazy and fun, in one house seems like home to me.

The Calm Before the Storm

After Thanksgiving on Thursday and waking up before the sun on Friday to go buy our appliances, Matt and I both needed a break on Saturday and Sunday.  We absolutely lazed around yesterday and are planning on doing the same today.  I took up Simming again, which I thought was impossible with release of Sims 3 right around the corner.  It's not as exciting as I'm sure Sims 3 will be, but I've been enjoying it anyway.

This next month will be crazy for us, just like I'm sure it is crazy for everyone.  Next week we will do our first walk-through on the house and have our inspection.  Next weekend we will start to pack all of our stuff up.  Then we will have our second walk-through, and close next Tuesday or Wednesday.  Then we'll start the move-in process, which must be complete by the 14th since we need to be out of our apartment on the 15th.  Our appliances get delivered/picked up sometime between the 11th and 13th.  After all that we'll have about a week to get settled into the house and unpack before we go to Michigan for 10 days over Christmas.  Then, once we're back in Houston, my mom will come down to visit and help shop for the house.  Then I'll go back to school after New Years!

A crazy month, but one we've been looking forward to for a long time and still can't wait for.  The 1st is Monday!

Turkey

Our first Thanksgiving was both wonderful and slightly disastrous.  It started off with me taking a shower while Matt made cinnamon rolls and got the turkey ready for the oven.  I then shoved a bunch of herbs in its tummy, buttered it up, and popped it in the oven.  Since we had a while to wait we ran some errands.  When we got home we checked the thermometer and it said 153 degrees.  153 degrees!  That's only 12 degrees away from the 165 that the thermometer police said it would be done at!  So I rushed rushed rushed to get the stuffing and potatoes and cranberry sauce and green been casserole made.  (Super traditional, right?)  While I was working on the sides Matt was helping me by peeling the potatoes and basting the turkey and whatnot.  I made the master plan and he did the grunt work.  I was the brains; he was the brawns.  Insert obvious statement about how this is a metaphor for our marriage here.  Anywho, Matt was basting the turkey and keeping an eye on the thermometer and he told me that the temperature was actually going down.  Down!  Throughout the course of the sides cooking the turkey dropped down to 137 degrees.  No, up is the right way, turkey, not down.  You don't cool down until I take you out of the oven and put you in my belly.  Then you may cool down, but not yet.  So long story short we had to end up eating all our sides at like 3:30 because they were done and starting to get over-cooked  but the turkey didn't come out until after 6:00... at which time we figured out that Matt had only taken one of the two giblet bags out and the bottom 1/4 of the turkey was still a little  pink.  Which is why it took a 12 lb turkey almost 7 hours to be almost-done cooking.  So we salvaged what we could, which was actually kind of delicious, and threw the rest away.  We have a whole gallon size bag full of turkey, so it didn't all turn out bad, but still.  It was kind of an ordeal.  Happy first Thanksgiving, us!  We'll call this one First-time's-not-the-charm.

What's most important, though, is that we really made this Thanksgiving together.  I know I said that I was the brains and Matt was the brawns, and that's true, but we each brought our best attributes to the table... literally and figuratively.  I had the ideas and made the plan.  I knew what to buy and where to buy it and what to pay for it.  Matt helped us follow through and stay on track - making the plan come to fruition.  He also did some of the things that I just didn't want to do without complaining like I would have.  We both worked together to make it easier on the other person the whole way through.  In fact, in the end we had almost no clean up because we had each anticipated and acted on the other's needs so well.  It was kind of a cool day working side-by-side with him.  Maybe someday this can be the new metaphor for our marriage.

Christmas

November is almost over which means that it's been Christmas for a few weeks now.  It's been a different holiday season for me so far, but not really in a bad way.  It's been warmer, obviously, but I've enjoyed it.  I kind of like doing my Christmas shopping in jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a puffy vest, as opposed to a ground-length puffer parka with a wool hat and mittens layered over knit gloves.  Ok, there's a some exaggerations in that last sentence... the worst of which being me implying that I've done any kind of Christmas shopping.  Either way, I've almost enjoyed the weather.  Whenever I see that it's snowing in Michigan I get the same look on my face that I do when I (every month) think I'm pregnant: mouth agape, eyes bursting from their sockets, head shaking slowly side to side.  Luckily neither of those things will happen while I'm in Houston... probably.  I mean, it did snow here a once few years ago. ;)

Christmas always gets me on a tradition kick.  My family's not big on tradition, but we always had some associated with Christmas.  Getting to Catholic Church 3 hours before mass to get good seats (which are the ones in the back, by the way) then eating Pi's take-out while opening one present and watching whatever Christmas movie was on basic cable on Christmas Eve is probably the best one.  I plan on carrying this one with me for a while because why would you ever willing stop a tradition that involved Chinese food?  But that's the only one that I can think of.  All of the other "traditions" that we had were just things that you do with little kids, like leaving out milk and cookies for Santa.  No grown-up traditions.  So I'm making new traditions.  New city, new state, new marriage, new house, new job, new friends, new traditions.  The only thing is that these new traditions don't have very solid ground to take root in.  This year we are moving into our house a week or two into December, which means that we probably won't even get a tree.  We certainly won't put up lights or wreaths or angel-shaped jelly decals.  And even if we were here... do traditions even count as traditions when they're only between two people, not within some jumbo-sized family?  Instead of making our own traditions this year we'll go home to Michigan and do other traditions there.  At least they'll be someone's traditions so maybe I can get my tradition fix that way.  Also I'm hoping someone will announce a pregnancy over the holidays.  No one in particular, though.  Just not Heather.  I can't handle that yet.

PS I fixed the link to flickr in my last post.  It should work now.  If not, tell me.

Pics

Hey hey hey!  I tried to publish pictures of our house to my blog but it ended up being very, very difficult and they ended up looking oddly cryptic, so I published them on flickr instead and you can see them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattandtracie/

Oh the waaaaaiiiiiting is the hardest part!

Waiting for this house is really hard. Hence the title of this post. It's November 12th and we probably don't get to move in until December 5th. So I am dying. I just wish we got to be in there before Thanksgiving so that we could have that whole weekend to move and organize and cook turkey and mashed potatoes in our new house. Instead we will have to do that in our old apartment, which is chocked full of unpleasant memories of my past cooking misadventures. Curses. In an odd way, I'm kind of excited to do Thanksgiving with just Matt and I... our little family celebrating together. But I'm sure I'll miss my friends and family on that day, especially if all Matt wants to do is watch the Lions, which I'm sure he will. Maybe we'll have people over. They can eat on our... coffee table? Hm. Another reason for the house.

And another thing about the house... I'm already stressed out about how to decorate it. Stupid, I know. How often do you get to go out and buy all new furniture? I should be excited. But it's not like, "Oh, we need a new dresser so let's go find one and we'll get a good deal and use a coupon" or something. It's more like, "Hey, let's spend thousands and thousands of dollars on furniture that you had better like in 6 months because you can't just replace this stuff because now you like sage instead of pumpkin." The colors, not the foods. It's kind of nerve racking. Not to mention the fact that I have never decorated a house before so I don't know about size, color, proportion, weighting, or chi. I don't know how much a bed should cost. I don't know what holidays have big sales (turns out, Veterans Day! oh, too late!). Seriously, I think my heart rate is up right now just writing about it. I'm kind of a perfectionist (no way!) and even more afraid of failure (that's shocking! - said in your best Buddy the Elf voice, please) and even more afraid of having my imperfections put on display for the general public to see (ya' don't say!). And I can't think of a way that my imperfections would be more on display for the general public than if I failed at decorating this house.

It's all very 50's. Inescapably 50's. Not unlike my desire for a really great washer and dryer...

A Landmark Election...

...through the eyes of my 7th and 8th graders. Here are some of the funniest comments I've heard from my students today about the results of the election last night.

"Now in four years we'll all be Communists!"

"If McCain would have just won California he would have won the whole thing!"

Student: "I voted for McCain!"
Tori (another teacher): "You don't have the right to vote."
Student: "In the MOCK election!"

A very tiny, black student: "Now I want to be president! ...or a professional basketball player!"

Student: "Did you know Texas was a read state?"
Me: "Yes I did. Did you know Michigan was a blue state?"
Student: "Huh... figures!"

"California said no more gay marriage."
"Too bad, C, I was gonna marry you there."
"Dude, what?"

Me (to a male student): "T, are you wearing a headband?"
T: "Yes."
Me: "Why?"
T: "Because Barack Obama is gonna make gay marriage so my friend and I are wearing headbands like gay guys."
Me: "Oh. Gay guys wear headbands?"
T: "Do they ever!"

And one truly valid question, "Now that gay marriage is over in California... what happens to all the gay people who got married there? Are they still married? Or is it like it never happened?"

Well, I don't know.

A long time coming...

Well the biggest news, as I think everyone knows, is that Matt and I are in the process of buying our house! We're really excited about it. It's 2 floors, about 2500 sq.ft., has a gameroom... basically exactly what we were looking for. I told Matt that the next step is furnishing it with the entire Ikea store. He said the next step was actually closing. Touche.

Matt is getting sick. He's had a sore throat for a few days now and he wont kiss me on the lips because he's scared he'll give it to me. He just kisses my forehead. It's adorable. He's in the bedroom lying down right now, fretting over the Michigan loss to Purdue. Poor guy - rough day. He's so funny when he's sick. He's kind of reverted to being a kid again. He's super sweet and cuddly and puts on his puppy dog eyes all the time. I've heard that lots of men revert when they're sick, but this is the first time Matt's really been sick since we've lived together so I hadn't seen it in him before. It's sweet for now... I just hope he doesn't get any sicker.

Last night we went to a Halloween party but we didn't have costumes. I didn't even know that we were going until that night and I'm not allowed to wear a Halloween costume to school, what with it being a pagan holiday and this being Texas and all, so we didn't have costumes. We looked pretty sad compared to everyone else. One of Matt's friends was the hamburglar. It was cool. I talked to Tom (Steel) yesterday and he said that he and Bev were going to be Donald and Daisy duck and I seriously can't wait to see pictures!

To combat my depression from having to turn the air conditioning back on today, I decided to play some Christmas music this afternoon. I think it might be making my depression worse. Christmas music looses it's flavor when it's 85 degrees and sunny outside. I have been having kind of a hard couple of weeks with missing Michigan. The summer wasn't so bad because of course it's hot in the summer... it was just extra hot down here, which I had come to expect. But now I'm so ready for the change of seasons and it's just not coming. Last week there were a few days where the high was in the 60s and I coudn't have been happier. I thought that the low temperatures would stick, but I guess not. It's supposed to be around 80 for the next week. Enough about the weather forecast. The point is that I miss fall and home and apple cider/apple cider donuts from Bayne's and long sleeve shirts and sweaters and pumpkins and my vote counting and everything. I hate winter with a passion (from December 26th on, anyway) but I LOVE fall. It's my favorite season. It's the season that says, "Let's bunker down and get ready for winter. Better put on a sweater and make a big pot of soup." This whole fall has made me realize that I definitely want to come back to the Midwest when we're ready for babies. Can you imagine never taking your kids to a pumpkin patch? Or on a hay ride? Or doing a snow dance the night that a big storm is on its way? Or waking them up 2 hours before sunrise to whisper, "You don't have to get up this morning... it's a snow day"? Or never having a white Christmas? It's fine for Matt and I to be here and not have those things for now, knowing that it's short term, but we will definitely be coming home in a few years.

And all this Christmas/home talk has gotten me thinking about traditions. Matt and I have only been married for just over a year, so the traditions we have are few and far between. One thing we did last Christmas was get one of those dorky mall ornaments (that I, and I believe the rest of America, secretly loves) where your whole family is represented in like snowmen or something. So I think ours is two grown-up reindeer, one boy and one girl for Matt and me, and then two little reindeer for Miles and Lucy. Matt brought that up today and said that we needed to be sure to get another one this year. I was like, "Why? It's all the same people, just a different year." He was like, "That's the point. It shows how our family grows and changes, who's a part of it every year and for how long." Our family. So I think that's our first tradition. Hopefully we can eventually add on some more traditions that involve mashed potatoes.

Last thing: I've been watching John and Kate Plus 8 (much thanks to Katie!) and I really love it. The other day one of my students said to me, "Ms. Steel, do you watch John and Kate Plus 8?" I said, "Yes, Madison, I do. Do you?" She said, "Yes. I love that show! You remind me so much of Kate!" I was flattered because I like Kate. Even though she is occasionally off her rocker, she is loving and caring towards her kids. She never baby-talks to them. She knows when enough is enough and her kids know when she means business. She has created traditions for them as a family. And she runs that house like no one's business. Her kids, all 8 of them, love and respect her.

Well, Ms. Steel, that's not to darn bad!

Viva Las Vegas!

We leave in 5 hours for Las Vegas and I'm excited and a little scared that Matt will gamble away and I will shop away our down payment! :)

A Fairly Fabulous Weekend

Friday we stayed in, rented a movie, and snuggled on the couch.

Saturday we raced go karts with some of Matt's coworkers. I got the blue-move-over-and-let-others-pass flag and Matt beat everyone. Then I almost threw up all over because of the fumes and motion sickness. Then we went and saw Burn After Reading with another couple. Then we spent the rest of the night talking about the elements of both postmodern literature and Shakespearean influence we saw in the movie. (Ok, it was more like I spent the rest of the night talking about the elements of both postmodern literature and Shakespearean influence I saw in the move and Matt listened.)

Sunday we went to Ikea, which officially did not have its air conditioning on. Then Matt went to watch the Lions play (AKA lose) at a sports bar with some of his friends and I stayed home to do some stuff on my computer and eat Oreo Cookie Delight. Now Matt's home and I think we'll... I don't know... have dinner and relax?

Other than big trips or something, do weekends get much better than this?

Hurricane Ike

We survived! Here's how it went:

Thursday: At the very end of the day, our principal came over the announcements and officially said that school would be cancelled the next day. The kids rejoiced and then he said, "This is not a time to rejoice. This is a time to seriously prepare for the incoming storm." That night I went home (Matt had gotten out at 1:00) and we got all stocked up with food, flashlights, batteries, and whatnot. Matt had something of a disaster at Sam's when he tried to get supplies but they only took Mastercard, which we don't have. So he put the ice back and left. Put the ice back! So on...

Friday: Matt had to spend 4 hours in line at a free-standing ice machine waiting for it to continually make ice. I told him that he made his bed and he had to lie in it. I stayed at the apartment and got it ready - cleaning, figuring out what food to keep, showering, etc. That evening we were basically glued to the TV watching the storm come in. I got really scared. I almost cried a couple times, but I held it in. Then, at about 9:00, our power went out and we basically had no choice but to go to bed.

Friday night: It was really hot. The hurricane came on strong at about 1:00 a.m. Matt wanted to know what a hurricane felt like so he decided to go outside. He did this multiple times throughout the night, effectively letting out all of our carefully stored up air conditioning. The whole night was loud with storm and I didn't sleep well. Matt could barely keep himself in bed, he was so excited for the hurricane.

Saturday: It was so, so hot and humid. The air in the apartment was completely stagnant. It was like living in a giant gym locker. So we got the heck out of dodge and went for a car ride because at least the car is air conditioned. We saw lots of crazy stuff. Giant trees down in the road and through roofs and in pools. People driving under street lights that had been torn off their posts and were hanging 2 feet above driving cars by one small cable, wafting back and forth in the traffic's breeze. Saturday night at midnight the front half of our apartment complex got power back. We live in the back half. The back of the back half.

Sunday: We waited in line for an hour at Burger King. That was pretty much the highlight of the day.

Monday: Repeat of Sunday, except add on completing an entire puzzle. The puzzle was a picture of a diorama. The weather started to be GORGEOUS on Monday, and should be gorgeous this whole week. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the low 60s. We haven't turned our air conditioning on since we got power because it's just so beautiful out.

Tuesday: Matt went to work for the first half of the day. He said that everyone that came in was only there to charge stuff. Then he came home to pick me up for lunch and we saw the Centerpoint truck outside. Matt basically jumped off the balcony to talk to the guys, and I woot-ed at them. You know, "Woot-woot!" Like if you were a rapper or something. I'm sure they get that a lot. When we got back from lunch, we did a once-around the apartment complex so as to not get our hopes up unnecessarily if there wasn't power. We scouted out lights and fans in our half of the apartment and there were a bunch. We basically lots our minds and got our hopes totally up, which was OK because we had power! Of course, we immediately turned the TV on. It's good to have you back, old friend. Of course the first thing we watched were pictures of Galveston and the bay... turns out it is really bad down there. We had no idea.

The one thing I actually accomplished was reading all of "Slaughter House Five," which I really liked. Now I want to read "Cat's Cradle," but Barnes & Noble is closed. I don't even know where the library is around here, but I can't imagine that it's a high-priority place to get open again.

So now you know!

Hangin' on!

Busy busy busy - the start of a new year is always crazy but this one seems especially so. At the beginning of last year I had fairly low expectations for myself as a teacher, although at the time those expectations seemed very high. I would summarize them as: show up daily, have something planned for each class, put up a couple posters, and survive. Now that I've taught a year I feel like I should have all my bananas in a row, but I don't. My bananas are everywhere! I'm setting up my room and getting ready for kids and all I can think is, "I need one more week! Or one more month!" Really, you don't get into the flow of the year on the first day of school - it takes time. My expectations are unreasonably high (story of my life) but I can't be talked out of them (also the story of my life).

I took a personality quiz at a Quantum Learning session on Tuesday that matched my personality with a color. The colors are...

Gold - perfectionist, aligns with tradition
Blue - feeling, caring, emotional
Green - analytical, thinking, process-oriented
Orange - energetic, kinesthetic, tactile

Guess which one I scored highest in? Blue! Then a tie between green and gold. I guess this just solidifies it - teaching has changed me. It's brought out a caring, nurturing side that I don't know that I had before. Maybe it's good that I landed in middle school. They need my blue nurture.

School

I love to teach. I really do. I feel alive when I'm doing it and I love the back-of-my-mind sense of reassurance that I am doing something to positively contribute to the future. What I don't like about teaching is all of the non-teaching things about it. Since it's the public sector, there's so many rules and forms and red tape that you have to wade through. It's a legalistic business... counting minutes, calculating percentages, filling your gradebook with performance statistics... basically CYA-ing. I've never been good at following the rules, even though I wanted all authority-figures in my life to think that I was. :) Anywho, the point is that the new school year is starting and I'm... um... intimidated by it? There will be so much to learn and do, so many boxes to check, so many papers to fill out. And now that I'm in a huge district/school I fear that everything will become very impersonal. I miss Shelby so much right now. I think that I under-calculated the value and comfort of going back to a place/system/people I already know. I wish that my mindset right now was, "How am I going to improve this year?" instead of "Where's my room? How do I use my keys? Where do I even get keys??" Again.

But the grass is always greener, you know?

iPodPhone

It's truly addictive. The games, the internet, the sheer entertainment of it all. The only thing that makes me sad is that I can't take pictures of all of my contacts because none of them are around! My new number is 713-594-0760.

Has anyone ever thought about using Twitter?

Saturday Mourning

When we were in Wisconsin & Ludington my favorite part of the week was Saturday morning. After staying up as late as we could on Friday night, we'd sleep in late on Saturday. After we woke up we'd lay in bed for a long time, sometimes for hours, just talking, cudding, playing around, petting the cats... doing absolutely nothing. After we felt sufficiently ready to get up we'd get breakfast, take showers, get ready... all at the slowest possible pace. Then we'd go do whatever together - grocery shop, go to the beach, maybe fly our kites. I remember being in the car with him on Saturdays, looking at the clock and thinking, "Oh! It's 1:00. I wish that it was only 11:00 so that we could have more Saturday left together." All-in-all it was my favorite, lazy, hang out time of the entire week.

Since we've been here, though, Matt's worked every possible Saturday. Sometimes it's just until noon, sometimes it's not (today he won't be home until at least 3:00). It's been a really hard adjustment for me. Not only have we lost Saturday, but we've lost Friday night as well since Matt has to got to bed at 10:30 or 11:00. Matt's tried really hard to make the best of it. He tries to find times to see me when he can and he also tries to make our time together special. And ultimately it's not his fault - it's not like he's volunteering for Saturday work. He's low man on the totem pole at a company with a culture of working on Saturday. So I try not to blame him, but it's hard. I miss him.

My horoscope from yesterday:
Love may come easily today, but it probably won't turn out as expected. It's hard to tell whether you have changed, but apparently something is different now. Even if you don't like it at first, you'll quickly get used to the new situation as long as you don't stubbornly try to alter a course that cannot be changed.

But stubbornly trying to alter a course that cannot be changed is my specialty!

Three down, three to go...

Today we, at the peak of impulsiveness, went out and bought a Wii. So, obviously, that's what we've been doing pretty much all day and it's been awesome... other than the fact that Matt is way better than I am at every Wii game in history. I plan on downloading some old school Super Mario tomorrow while he's at work so that I can show him what's up. Although I just plain enjoy playing the Wii, I'm hoping it will help us make friends, too. It's a super-social activity and not a whole ton of people have Wii's so maybe people will want to use us for our Wii and then decide we're cool and be friends with us. Maybe, just maybe.

PS Katie and Tom got home from their honeymoon. Matt called them to see how it went and they said that they saw a woman get BIT by a SHARK! Can you believe that??

Things I Want

Last night Matt and I went out to try to get my new phone. They're all sold out, but we went to Best Buy anyway to try to get a case for it anyway. While we were there we were browsing around, which is the most dangerous thing to do at Best Buy. I found about a hundred things that I want, which just got me thinking about all the other things that I want. It's a sad, consumerist list, but it's true. So, in the spirit of honesty, here are all the things I am craving right now:

1. A Wii
2. A car
3. An iPhone
4. A Blue Ray player
5. A bike
6. A Macbook Air

Grand total for all my new boredom-relieving toys: $21,300.

Two days late and at least two dollars short....

Well it turns out that it's much harder to take a still picture of movement than I thought. Also, I'm a procrastinator. Shocking, right?




You can see the river flowing through downtown. That building to the far left is kind of characteristic to Houston. It has these three peaks. I like it. When I was taking this picture there was a girl next to me taking pictures with her super-professional camera. She gave the stink eye to me and my 5 year old Sony.

Every day when I hear the first boom of thunder I get so excited. I have always loved rain and to get to have rain every day down here is one of my favorite things. This is the view from our back porch. Almost every other apartment looks either into someone else's window or over the parking lot, so I think we got one of the best views.

The fireworks from our fantastic behind-this-tree view.

Ikea

Matt and I just tried to order a bed from Ikea but it wasn't in stock at any Ikea in Texas and the shipping cost more than the bed itself.

Will I ever not be sleeping on a mattress on the floor??

Maybe you should read a book...

It's almost 1am and I am up because, you know what, I just do not want to go to bed at a responsible hour. Sadly, staying up late is only fun when you have stuff to do or people to do that stuff with. So basically I'm just up... Facebook stalking with HGTV muted in the background. We've all been there. It's turning out to be kind of hard to just piss my summer away. I'm bored already and it's only been 2 weeks. I need a project, or friends, or something. Actually, there's plenty of stuff that I could be doing but I'm terribly resistant to it all. This is not only a summer of laziness, it's a summer of revenge. A time to even the laziness score. But I'm not sure if this system is really going to help me in the end.

Home is...

...where the pool is.

...where I eat the last bite of tomato and basil salad.

...where Lucy sleeps in my mom's suitcase.

I haven't blogged since the last photoblog. I'll try to be more responsible in the future. Next week's topic is...

Movement.

Straight Lines

I took this from the car at the U-Haul return

The railing on our porch

There is a wine rack above our fridge. We keep our booze in it.

Everybody's workin' for the weekend... except Matt.

Matt starts work today. I understand why he's excited. It's a new place, new people, new learning, etc. I understand why I'm excited. I'll get to relax a little, we'll finally have some money, 24 hrs a day for 2 weeks is too much "togetherness," etc. But this marks the start of real life in Houston. The grind, as they say, and I don't know that I'm ready for that. So far it's felt like vacation. It's hot, we don't know our way around, we eat out every night, I don't do my hair... sounds like vacation to me. But when Matt left for work this morning it was a very real reminder that, eventually, I will have to live in the real world again, too. Will I like Houston as a home and not a vacation? Only time will tell. I like it so far, right?

I'll post my photoblog in a little bit. I'm not quite ready. I procrastinated.

H.E.B.

It stands for Here Everything's Better. I think it's the stupidest name ever for a grocery store (reminds me of B.C., Best Choice, Pizza in Evart), but hey, I would shop at a store called Dead Puppies if they had a large selection of food and organics... and no actual dead puppies. And this place has that (selection and organics, I mean, not the dead puppies), so I think we found our grocery store! This is a major accomplishment. In Appleton we couldn't find a grocery store. There was a Piggly Wiggly, which was super-crappy and didn't even seem totally sanitary... shocking with a name like Piggly Wiggly. Then there was Copps, which was clean and big but shockingly disorganized and had nothing organic. Woodman's was like the local equivalent of Wal-Mart. Festival was pretty nice, but 25 minutes away from our apartment. Seriously, I think we went to each of these grocery stores once and didn't go back. Then we moved to Ludington and the choices were Meijer and Wal-Mart, so we chose Meijer, which I like, but it was like baby-sized. Seriously. Our meat choices were (old) steak, (old) chicken, and (old) bacon. It was such a struggle - you don't realize how important a good grocery store is until you don't have one! So finding HEB here in Houston is really exciting. It has the feel of Whole Foods but not the insane prices. It's big and bright with tons of beautiful produce and seafood cases and organic garlic and everything I want in a grocery store. They also make a ton of cool breads there, which is exciting because I kind of love anything home-made-y that I can just buy without making myself.

Yesterday we found a big produce market to the south where I think the Mexican vendors gave me a deal for speaking Spanish to them, and a bakery called El Bolillo. I think the technical translation for bolillo is a white bread roll, but it's also a slang term for a white person in Spanish. Needless to say, I will shop at that bakery forever because I think it's so funny to be the only white person in a place that's basically called White Person.

We made it!

Alive, well, and with relatively few problems, Matt and I got to Houston today. Seeing the skyline for the first time was really exciting. I only got to see it from a distance because we don't live very close to downtown and we just went right to our apartment. So far the feel that I get from this place is good. I like the way the roads feel, how the plants grow, how close we are to everything, the pace, and, mostly, the fact that we live like 5 seconds from PF Chang's.

We are kind of moved in to our apartment, but not really. It's really nice, but it seems so small after having a two bedroom. I have to keep reminding myself that it's only for 6 months and we don't want to pay to air condition anything more than we have to. When we were signing the lease the girl was super nice, but I was SO over it. Matt and I kept looking at each other like, "We know..." Mentally, we're very ready to buy our first house down here. Financially, we need a few months. Wouldn't it be cool if instead of moving all this stuff into this random apartment we were moving into our first house? I know.

We broke half the front bumper off Matt's car taking it off the trailer. I told Matt to just forget it and buy a new car. He told me I was only saying that because I was hot and tired. I said he was probably right so he should take me up on it before I changed my mind.

The cats officially hate us. After shoving sedatives down their throat, forcing them into cages for hours, bouncing them out of their soma vacation on the highway, and then giving them a bath when they finally got to their new home, you really can't blame them. There's as many of them as there are of us, so we think they might be staging a mutiny. Only time, and the litter box, will tell.

Drive drive drive

Well we made it halfway in just one day. We're in Charleston, MO and if this is any indication of what Texas is going to be like, I'm a little less excited. Super backwoods. At least Houston is a big city. I'm anxious to get there and see our new home but we still have a day and a half of driving before that happens! Tomorrow we stay in Texarkana to see Troy, which is fun because Troy's so insanely smart that I always leave hanging out with him with a brain full of mush. It's a good mush, though, like mashed potatoes.

D Day

Tomorrow morning we leave. I feel like a marshmallow inside, even though I don't exactly know what that means. I don't know how I'm supposed to do this so I will either figure it out as I go or fake it 'til I make it. Not sure which one yet. Really, I'm leaving everything I know and only taking one accessory: Matt. Arguably the best thing I could bring, but still, that's only ONE thing. I don't know if we're "starting over," or just in a new place, or if this is just the next step in life. Either way, I think this falls under my top three biggest events of life thus far. I'm disjointed and discombobulated. I'm starting to cry more often. This isn't like moving to Ludington (close) or Wisconsin (short-term). This is like moving to... Houston. Far away, new culture, new job, new highways, new weather, new people, new accent, new everything. I don't even know how I'm going to do my hair down there. My hair! If you should be able to control one thing it's your own hair! Sooner or later I'll figure it out... with my learning curve, probably later. But I'll adapt. That's just what you do. Adapt and flourish. Or fail to adapt and go extinct, I guess. But I'm really going to try to flourish.

No school!

Now that it's actually light out when I get to work, I have to wear my sunglasses to school in the morning. Well, I recently came into some new sunglasses and I was wearing them this morning when I walked into school because my hands were too full to take them off. As I walked in and looked down the hall I looked at another teacher and yelled (loud enough for about 20 freshmen to hear me), "Geeze - these sunglasses are amazing! It looks pitch black in here! I can't even see my door!" As quietly as she could, so as to spare me further embarrassment, she replied, "Actually, the power's out." Right. No power. So I go into my room to drop my load of stuff. (Honestly, it was mostly 6 dozen tamales, not papers or books or anything.) Then I scurry right down to the office to see what's going on. I swear, the teachers were swarming around our principal worse than any of the kids were swarming around us. "How am I supposed to take attendance with no power? Will we still have exams tomorrow? How are my exams going to get copied? Will school be canceled today? If so, will we have to make the day up? If so, can I call in sick?" (No one said that last one but I was thinking it.) All in all, the morning was a little slice of madness. On the other hand, the kids were totally calm. They were just excited that they got to legally use their cell phones in school as mini-flashlights to open their lockers with. As it turned out, something happened with the transformer (probably a cat, that seems like something you'd hear) and it wouldn't be fixed all day so I got a free day!

We're going sailing on Sunday. I'll be sure to report back all the cool words I learn.

:*(

Matt and I are watching Animal Cops: Houston on Animal Planet. Hey, we'd like to know something about this city before we move there! Unfortunately, I don't think that Animal Cops is the best place to get your information. It is, possibly, the saddest show ever. We just saw an old, blind Shih Tzu with matted hair, a debilitating spinal injury, and maggots coming out of her bottom get put to sleep because no matter what they did she would never have any quality of life ever again. Is there a sadder animal than that?? No, there is not. So of course, I'm crying. (Thank you, Yaz.) I want to go volunteer at this animal place and then bring all the animals home, but then I would probably be arrested for animal cruelty just like everyone else on the show because there's no way anyone can take care of that many pets. But still.

Home sweet home?

We went home this weekend and it got me all thinking about the move. Everyone kept asking me if I was excited and I was like, "No," which shocked them. "But it's a new adventure!" So I asked myself: Why am I not excited? Well, moving always, always blows. So that led me to another, more interesting question: How would I feel if I wasn't moving to Houston, if we were staying here in Ludington or moving somewhere else? Well that made me make my icky face... you know, the face you make when you smell feet, with your nose all scrunched up and and your shoulders pulled up around your earlobes? That one. I don't want to stay here and I don't want to move anywhere else. I know in my head that Houston is the rightest place for us. It has everything we want: lots of culture, sports, great jobs, parks, beautiful weather (except for sweltering summer), low housing prices, palm trees, tons of unique restaurants, shopping out the wazoo... everything. But still, it's a move to a brand new place. I remember moving to Ann Arbor and Wisconsin. It's a new "adventure" that involves leaving everything currently in your world, not knowing anyone, and being lost all the time. Not easy things, especially for someone who doesn't like change. But I trust that, with time, I'll adjust and be fine and, probably, pretty happy.

Matt's reading the list of foreign language-speaking doctors to me from "Physicians, Hospitals, and Other Health Care Professionals," the directory of covered medical type people that his new employer/insurance sent him. There's about a million doctors in there that speak the most obscure languages - like Hausa, Kannada (what they speak in Canada?), Igbo, and Sinhalese. Diversity: One more reason I'm excited for the city.

Aaaand we're back!

Well I did the same thing I always do - not blog for a while and then talk to Heather and get talked into blogging again. :) She's right. It is good for keeping people informed and up to date on what's happening in my life. Every time I start to blog again, though, I have the same thought... "What am I going to say??" But I remind myself that I'm rusty and that soon I'll start constantly hearing the little voice in my head that says, "You should blog this!" As if my getting down in electronic form makes it more real.

I decided to keep this same blog and allow everyone to see it and enable comments from anyone and everything. Can you say healing? I was really close to starting fresh on a brand new blog, but then a few issues came up: 1. That would imply that I'm going through some kind of a fresh start (life's too linear and circular and quadrangle-y for that), 2. I can get the feel of a new blog just by rearranging this blog, and 3. It's hard to think of another name for a blog.

It's raining today. I love rain. When I'm inside.