Tap, Tap: Is This Thing On?

Cringworthy – that describes the 3 posts below this one. In an effort to summarize what’s happened in the roughly 2.5 years since updating, I will attempt to do a bullet list. I’m a consultant at heart. 

– I continued to travel for work and attempt to put my home together. It still looks like a sorority house with the occasional nice item thrown in (more on that later)

– I continued to date the same guy. We eventually got married no less than 12 years after meeting each other. There were lots of breaks in there and much growing up.

– We’ve been travelling around and figuring out this marriage thing.

– Our dog still hates people and is over-protective. 

– I rode my bicycle from San Francisco to LA and will do it all over again next June. Look for fundraising posts in the future!

I Have No Time

The irony of this statement hit me this morning as I was brushing my teeth. The area around the drain in one of the sinks in the master bath seems to be a magnet for gunk (saline remnants, listerine, toothpaste, various other by-products of the bathroom process), and it’s been bothering me for a while. Such a long while that I remember the first time it bothered me, because I immediately went to the cleaning closet and got the scrub brush out and attacked it – all while the man stood there backed against the shower (which still has no shower door – another post for another time), with a slightly alarmed look on his face. This was also at about 12:30a. Anyways – that episode was about a month ago, and I’ve yet to properly deep clean the bathroom since then. I haven’t found the 2ish hours I like to have to clean the entire house, and not just a room at a time. But I have found 2 hours to waste on an internet site (Thanks, cat ladies ;)), 2 hours to go to the gym and then socialize with the Y girls, and 2 hours to read the longest book in the world (a history of Nicholas and Alexandra – a tragic love story if there ever was one).

So for me to say I have no time, whether it is for cleaning the gross drain, writing a blog, or volunteering is crap. I’ll call myself out on it. I have always struggled with the idea of unstructured time, and the first semester of college was a testament to that. Now, the working from home days are the culprit. I am surrounded by activities that I need to start or finish, but I feel some kind of guilt if I’m away from the desk for a long period of time. And lest you think I am working all the time while at the desk, guess where I’m writing this? Today I am going to make some progress on this, starting with the blog entry, ending (hopefully) with a volunteer opportunity where I can spend an hour or so a week doing good, but not in a church-structured environment.

Also – this discussion came up the other day about fitting in. Being a hipster, a prep, a goth – is now being a HLB, a mommy blogger, a craft blogger. And I started to think about the direction that this blog would go. And then with the recent political issues and upcoming elections, I’ve decided that this is going to be a place where I can get out some of my opinions that aren’t really meant to ignite the discussions that occur via FaceBook if I put something up as meaningless as “Trying to source seeds that are non-GMO for the community garden.” Trust – that was a 20+ comment status that was really borne of frustration. So, this isn’t going to turn political because Lord knows I’m not qualified to give anything more than my lay person opinion, but that also doesn’t mean I am not entitled to said opinion. So there it is. Get ready.

Weekend Update (while wearing Tina Fey glasses)

I have decided I’m terrible at this whole blogging thing. And, not to be a jackass about it, but I’m pretty sure it’s because I have a job and a life. Yes, my job requires me to be online for a significant chunk of time, but it’s not like I have an hour uninterrupted to do a blog post. So yes. The excuses, I am full of them. I also have a fantastic boyfriend who texted me as I was getting on my flight home on Thursday PM (ragingly hung over, and delayed because of mechanical, but that is another story for another day) and asked if I wanted to head to Nashville for Friday night to see . . . Social Distortion and The Avett Brothers. The concert has special significance because there is a Social D song that I always associate with him, and I had to listen to the sound check for the Avett’s at home while we attended an outdoor wedding at the same venue. A wedding for a friend that was not mine. The sacrifices I make. . .

So needless to say, I was home around 1:30a on Friday and then woke up early to get (roughly) 8 hours of work done so we could head down to the South. Nashville holds a special place in my heart, as I spent 4 incoherent years there that I refer to as “undergrad.” We arrived in enough time to hit my favorite liquor store and pick up a bottle of hooch, and then pregame in the hotel room before the show. I was sufficiently drunk that when “The Ballad of Love and Hate” was played, tears flowed. This kid NEVER cries. So there was that. Beer tears aside, a good time was had by all and we were back in time for me to see my niece come around for some early trick or treating.

Sunday was spent shopping for furniture. I am still poor, so it’s about to be a Craigslist living room set for me. The parents are buying me a rug for Christmas/birthday (getting old is awesome!) but I’m still hoping to make this place look like a home instead of my sorority house remnant (which is it). Today is dreary and cold, and I am going to attempt to venture out for a run at some point. I also need to early vote since I’ll be in the mountains when the actual election takes place. I’m going to have to shut my eyes and poke the button because it will physically pain me to vote for someone with a (R) next to the name. However, I am deciding that if I have to live in this city, and pay taxes, and possibly raise kids here, I should forget about labels and vote on issues. And thanks to that (R) guy, I now have tons of bike lanes to ride in (and for people to use as right hand turn lanes), a thriving downtown, AND my street just got repaved. It’s the small victories.

So it begins. . .

Because like everyone else on the interwebs (which, for the record, I started using years ago before it got popular) I assume that people will be interested in my menial life. Narcissism at it’s best. However, I am neither fashionable, nor healthy, nor a mom, so there goes 3 cliques of which I could be a member of. I am simply trying to vent and occasionally make myself feel better via web lurve.