i don’t really know how this chain of events started.
maybe i’ve been boring myself since i graduated college and jumped into the Real Adult Working World. maybe it’s just my attempt at spicing up the mundane, day to day, 8-4, lifeless schedule (not to say my job is boring, i love my job, but the daily grind, on the other hand, IS!). maybe i’m still trying to “find myself”.
whatever it is, i realize the past year and a half of my life slightly resembles what one might call an identity crisis.
…enrolling myself in pole-dancing classes
…enrolling (and quitting shortly thereafter due to minor injury, idiot) in tumbling classes, in a weak attempt to rekindle my relationship with gymnastics
…3 more certifications, with a close 4th coming up at the end of the month
…4 trips to las vegas
…enrolling myself in crossfit in an attempt to die a slow, painful death get fit and stay fit
…enrolling myself in welding classes (i have no acceptable excuse, other than strangely, i really want to learn how to weld, and evidently, that is worth $350 and sacrificing all of my tuesday evenings)
…acquiring a copy of rosetta stone in swedish, because for whatever reason, i want to learn swedish, so i will
if the chain of randomness continues on its current path, i think it’s safe to say that blacksmithing and robotics can easily be added to that list in the near future. maybe even glass-blowing. or… drumroll… finally getting a masters degree.
maybe it’s a sense of accomplishment that i keep craving. or adventure. i don’t have the freedom i had in college. in college, i could skip classes to go hiking. or take a spur-of-the-moment road trip… like johnson city, tennessee, at 3AM, *just* to purchase camouflage duct tape (boone did not have a 24hr wal-mart at the time)… or carolina beach on a half-drunken bet over a game of darts. or go fishing. or go to a boss’s boss’s [extremely uncomfortable] sex toy party. or go camping. or shoot a potato cannon full of glow-stick-juice-covered potatoes off a cliff in the middle of the night. or purchase a tank of helium in the middle of the day for the sole purpose of blowing up a crapload of balloons and inhaling said helium. THE POSSIBILITIES WERE ENDLESS.
the real world doesn’t allow that luxury (unless i quit my job and took up freelancing 100%, or become a stay at home mom, which requires being a mom, which requires having a baby, i’ll wait on that one), so to fix that, i guess i’ve found ridiculous extra-curricular activities to keep things exciting. i’m also lucky to have the most ridiculous (i say that in the most *loving* way possible) other half, who completely supports this… “characteristic”. for lack of a better word.
i ran across this girl’s blog today, and it made me really happy to know i’m not alone. if anything, i feel inspired to continue on my senseless path, and she made it seem a lot less senseless. i haven’t dyed my hair a weird color in over 4 years (the corporate world kind of frowns upon that, i suppose), but i DID paint my toenails shrek-green, i DO have a pretty good activity list going on right now, and i DO appreciate ordering dessert first (or just dessert) on a semi-regular basis.
if you haven’t done something stupidly awesome today, DO IT. i fully endorse this mindset. and tonight… I WILL WELD.
welding class tomorrow night. 4 hours. of welding. that’s a lot of time to get injured.
while we’re on the topic of welding, i want to buy this ever so badly. and if anyone can find me pink coveralls for under $100, please let me know. kthx.
concert in charlotte wednesday night (we might fall asleep in the mosh pit but it will be so worth it).
crossfit thursday and friday night.
drive to UNCP on saturday (yet another exhilarating 3-hour drive) to A) catch the ASU football game on TV, and B) watch brett’s brother play in the football game.
just thinking about this week makes me tired. that and the fact that it is monday. i really hate mondays. luckily, we have next monday off (hooray, labor day!). so next week, i will really hate tuesdays.
what’s everyone’s week looking like? and who wants to go to crossfit for me?
man… so… i don’t know if i’ve temporarily acquired some offshoot of ADHD, or what. but i have gotten so much done lately. too much, actually. i don’t know where it’s all coming from.
buying a gym membership at one of the local CrossFit gyms in charleston. i need a push… and continuous pushing. running just doesn’t do it for me lately!
purchased 2 SC fishing licenses for me and brett… aaand planning to go fishing this weekend with said licenses on the lake
going to boone/seven devils the following weekend for Fan Fest… AND we get to stay in the cabin… can’t wait. will hopefully get to do some hiking while we’re there
signed up for arc welding classes this fall at a local community college. i’ve always wanted to… FINALLY did it!
purchased 2 tickets to see avenged sevenfold, disturbed, stone sour, halestorm, and others in charlotte 9/1. i splurged and got us pit tickets. it’s just so much more *exciting*
studying for/taking the CEH 9/24… actually can’t wait until that one is OVER
aside from all that, when i’m not working on websites, i’m cooking or baking. i’ve been on a ROLL since brett and i moved into the new apartment. i cook like… every night. i love it. i never used to like cooking until i had someone to cook for. when brett’s brother and one of our friends came down for a visit a few weeks ago, i made THE best (grandma’s recipe) twice baked potatoes, green beans, and sirloins. he and i are huge meat eaters… we eat steak entirely too much, so i’ve been trying to mix it up a bit. she gave me the inspiration for tonight’s dinner (BREAKFAST. BURRITOS. YUM.) it’s gonna be good.
other things i’ve made lately… barbecue chicken & onions (thanks, dad!) and steamed carrots, fried chicken and my homemade mashed taters (i have *completely* perfected this recipe, srsly), buffalo chicken sandwiches, scratch-made macaroni & cheese casserole, chicken & rice casserole, taco casserole (last casserole, but SO good), homemade chili with pasta, breaded pork chops with veggies, chocolate chip cheesecake (mom’s recipe, it will give you a heart attack), cake balls, red velvet cupcakes i’ve made sure to have at least 1 vegetable with each meal… whether it’s green beans and potatoes, carrots, fresh cut salad, or succotash. just something.
i’m so hungry now.
i feel like i escape when i’m making dinner every night. the only other thing that gives me that feeling is pumping out code and, well, after being in front of a computer all day at work it can sometimes be too much. it’s nice to have found another hobby.
also, SCRABBLE. i’ve been addicted since i got Words With Friends on my old iphone. they finally came out with an app for the droid, and i feel whole again.
and for the Not So Active activities… we also finished watching season 4 of dexter. HUGE BUMMER. huge. brett and i both yelled at the TV after we watched the final episode this weekend. i don’t know if any of you watch dexter, but it’s impossible to quit after you watch a few. we’ve been watching an episode or more a night for the last several weeks and now we have no idea what to do with ourselves. well, we do, actually. he will play more NCAA football, i will play more scrabble and watch even more seinfeld. but… seriously. september can NOT come soon enough with season 5. i’m just so MAD about the last episode.
let me start out by saying that… my weirdness is not random. at all. my mom is weird. my dad is weird. my weirdness was, unavoidably, inherited. and i can never thank my parents enough.
HOWEVER, they still catch me off guard from time to time.
i received an e-mail from my dad this morning. its only contents were “IFP.” obviously, having no idea, i called and asked him what the hell “IFP” meant.
me: dad, what is IFP?
dad: welllllllllllllll you know BRB… and you know LOL… and you don’t know IFP?
me: yes, dad
dad: it means…. Index Finger Pinky! i made it up!
me: wow
dad: you know, you really should use it!
awesome.
on a side note, i’ve been absent from the blogosphere lately. not really on purpose. since brett and i moved into the new apartment, i’ve found that having a separate room for the computers has significantly minimized my time spent staring at my laptop… it’s SO fantastic. although, my addiction to my droid, online scrabble, and TBS sitcoms keep me entirely occupied, and probably just as useless.
i’ve also been a bit of a traveler lately. home for my birthday, hilton head with brett, annapolis/DC for work, vegas for work DEFCON!!!
doing more, writing less. there is such a thing as technology overload, and until last month, i think i was just about there.
to make up for the hiatus, here are happy fun pictures from the last month.
i made cake balls last night. cake balls that turned into more of… cake lumps. brett and i went the lazy route for dinner and made a freschetta pizza, and in doing so, i decided to direct all my extra energy into creating these… things. these lumps of gooey, unhealthy, awesomeness.
mine look nothing like the ones over at bakerella, and mine appear to be… bleeding, but they still taste good, according to coworkers.
ingredients:
1 box of red velvet cake mix (which requires 3 eggs and 1/3 cup vegetable oil)
this was like… the easiest baking experience of my life.
beat eggs, vegetable oil, water, and cake mix in bowl
pour mixture into pan
cook at 350 degrees for 35 minutes
transfer cake to bowl and mash cake into tiny bits (this was especially fun, and i mashed the cake while we watched awakenings, awesome!!!)
mix with 16oz of cream cheese (if you want a ridiculous arm workout, try doing this while cream cheese is still cold)
roll into tiny balls (i happened to get 63 out of 1 box of cake mix)
place balls on baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes
melt chocolate bark in microwave for 2 minutes, stir, melt again if necessary (do not use ziploc/glad plastic tupperware containers, they burn/melt/smoke, TRUST ME)
dunk frozen balls in chocolate and place on sheet to harden
seriously. i didn’t even break anything until this morning (don’t keep glass casserole dishes on top of refrigerators! refrigerators will throw them at you and they will shatter into millions of tiny bits!)!
also, i didn’t realize that if you do decide to use red velvet cake (i just thought it looked prettier), you will end up with red dye… everywhere. especially when you roll the cake mix into balls. my hands, and subsequently my arms and mouth, looked like i had just finished slaughtering a pig. and your cake balls will… bleed. there was a little bit last night after i let them harden in the pan, but when i woke up this morning there was even MORE red dye. but, that might just be my sloppy technique–yours might not even look like lumps, either.
in the end, they were a win in the office, AND a win at home when i realized i had just enough chocolate left to smother the fresh strawberries i bought yesterday. i don’t know how i went almost 24 years without ever trying chocolate covered strawberries, but… they are about to become a new staple in my “diet”. that consists of freschetta pizza and cake balls. strawberries are fruit, so it’s cool.
after the hermit crab story, i started thinking about other fun adventures from when i was little. 1 in particular was not so fun, but it is mildly entertaining (at my expense) so i will share it with you.
if you ever thought YOUR friends were mean, think again. seriously.
so… when i was little (HAR HAR insert short joke, i know), my friends and i, like many other elementary school kids in the early 90s, PLAYED OUTSIDE. of course, we had computers. but they were not nearly as enticing as they are now. we rode bikes! and went roller blading! and played flash light tag! and climbed on jungle gyms! and crawled through drainage pipes! wait, what?
seriously, if our parents knew half the dumb stuff we did, they never would have let us outside again. they probably would have MADE us watch television. forever. i remember one time, we decided to go see our friends who lived in another neighborhood, like a mile away (a mile is a seriously long way for 8/9/10 year olds, by the way). within that 1 mile, we almost flipped a golf cart over (while attempting to take a 90 degree turn at like 35 miles an hour), walked barefoot through a creek under a highway riddled with god knows what kinds of goodies, and crossed a road busy enough to be considered highly dangerous for Stupid Children.
anyway, back to the drainage pipes. yes, we crawled through them–the ones that connected all of the houses in the neighborhood. the ones filled with spiders and rats and snakes and dirt. honestly, the dirt probably scared me the MOST. tangent!
my mother had this thing when i was little where she would dress me in ridiculously detailed matching outfits (i will show pictures when i get the balls to do so), and if i came home with so much of a speck of dirt (or food) on them, she was not pleased. needless to say, i did not like coming home with dirt on my clothes.
becky, sarah, katherine, and i were inseparable. neighborhood best friends. we did everything together. we even tried to roller blade on the same pair of roller blades (i’ll save that story for another time), so of course, we played in drainage pipes together. what could be more fun?
we got our “supplies”. by “supplies”, i mean handkerchiefs filled with the honeysuckle we picked (we might need a tasty snack while in the pipes!), flashlights, and… that’s about it. flashlights and flowers would lead us through the drainage pipes to… the other side of the drainage pipe. looking back, i have no idea why we actually did this, or what we expected to find, but i’m sure our wild imaginations had conjured up something filled with awesome that would be awaiting us. at the other side of the drainage pipe.
i was always the guinea pig (this is what happens when you are the smallest, see newspaper stand), so i went first. did you know that 8 year olds also have TERRIBLE attention spans? evidently, my friends lost interest in crawling through gutters and went on to do more exciting activities.
they left me in the pipe. IN THE PIPE. i was already all the way IN the pipe and the only “easy” way to get out was to be yanked out feet first. it took me what seemed like FOREVER (in reality, it was probably like, 15 minutes) to get out of that damned pipe. it was second most unforgettable (and traumatizing) day of my childhood (second only to the roller blading incident).
other unfortunate childhood incidents include:
the girl scout ceremony where jill tried to light my hair on fire
the time the mailman came (we used to write letters to the mail man… didn’t every child? no?) and my friends let me flip down a driveway in a little red runaway wagon
the time(s) becky and i thought we could ACTUALLY increase flight time by taping construction paper dumbo ears to our heads (i don’t know which is worse–actually believing it, or attempting it multiple times)
tuesday night, brett and i *finally* got everything unpacked and settled into the new apartment. no more giant cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling. no more plastic bags strewn about. no more random crap everywhere.
it’s a good feeling.
we both decided we wanted to make this apartment look more like a home than a dorm room. granted, the other apartment looked nice, too. this one just looks more… sophisticated. like, we actually bought ART.
we did not plan on buying ART, but after we walked into bed, bath & beyond, we got sucked in. i warned him that this always happens to me. i went in to buy 2 seat cushions for the kitchen table, and we ended up with a $240 bill between the 2 of us. seriously, that store is dangerous. as soon as we saw the paintings and cute framed artwork, we were like kids in a candy store. I WANT THAT ONE! no THAT one! OMG I HAVE TO HAVE THAT ONE!!! SHIIIINNNYYY!
we got a lot of *stuff*, but we were mostly excited about this one. it just makes the living room feel warm and cozy.
we also got carried away at wal-mart. brett and i have separate bathrooms at the new place, so he was able to buy all new things for his bathroom. his looks classy. mine… well, mine looks like a unicorn exploded.
his.
mine.
then we found the aisle with the decorative balls. it seems like every apartment and/or house we go in, some table or shelf contains a set of these balls. and they always look really neat. so, brett was like YEA LET’S GET THE BALLS! obviously, i responded with, THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID! and then we bought the balls.
here are our balls. we are very proud of them.
and, of course, our obligatory appalachian state insignia. and my creepy loki.
i can’t leave out creepy thor.
they’ll never find me here!
crap, she found me!
it’s coming along nicely. next step? curtains. i will save this potential catastrophe for another day. there will be beer and power tools involved–i can hardly wait!
i woke up this morning and it felt like i’d been hit by a truck.
everything that could be sore… is sore. even my hands are sore. my legs look like they’ve been beaten with a stick. i don’t remember being this sore the last time i moved.
i am naturally gifted at getting injured, but my joints specifically are all out of whack. my hips pop out, my shoulders crack *constantly*, i crack my knuckles every 20 minutes, and they are so loud that they seriously sound like firecrackers. my toes crack. my back cracks. my knees pop in and out. and, good lord, my neck will pop about 5 pops at a time on each side. but the part that gives me the most trouble is my right shoulder. it cracks, pops, grinds (you can literally hear it grinding), and gets stuck at least like… half a dozen times a day. and it’s painful.
so what did i go and do? i injured my LEFT shoulder.
my shoulder is done for. i don’t know if it was the kayaking, or the way i’ve been sleeping on it, or just lifting things that i shouldn’t be lifting… but it’s done. i can’t even use it to steer while i’m driving. brett seems to think it’s my rotator cuff (based on my POINT TO WHERE IT HURTS analysis). i guess now i wait and see if it gets better, and if it doesn’t, i go see a doctor. i can’t tell you how excited this makes me.
on the upside, we are officially moved out of the old apartment, and moved into the new one. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, BIG living room, sunroom, BIG kitchen, extra closets (but my clothes still don’t fit in mine, damn t-shirt addiction). it’s much more comfortable for 2 people. but i will never let go of the fact that the bathroom is 1/3 the size of the old one. the bathtub? about half. it’s sad, but at least we each have our own space now. brett and i went to wal-mart last night and his new bathroom is all gussied up and looks awesome. it’s slowly coming together!
tonight… more unpacking. and target. evidently, second bedrooms don’t need ceiling light fixtures (wtf?)… lamps it is.
on may 9 of last year, i was huddling in the bottom of the holmes convocation center at ASU with my fellow CIS nerds, anxiously awaiting the moment we were told to turn our tassels.
my whole family came to boone to celebrate with me. my dad wrote me a card that made me start bawling. which i knew was going to happen (he is very good at that) so i waited until AFTER i graduated to read it. walking in front of that many people with mascara on my face and puffy eyes was just not going to happen.
i hid my lipstick and cell phone in my bra because i didn’t think to wear something with pockets under my graduation gown.
i was sweating my ass off because my dad, my genius dad, gave me a glass of champagne 3.2 seconds before we left for the ceremony, and instead of drinking it for me, he made me chug it. FYI, champagne does not settle your nerves when you’re about to walk across a stage in front of hundreds of people.
so… the reason for all this nostalgia, friday i put in my first ever resgination letter. i put in my 2 weeks, something i never really thought i’d get the cajones to actually do. i’ll be starting my new job on may 24. my second big girl job. the butterflies felt more like boulders.
this freaks me out because, in my mind, spring break in panama city happened like a month ago and graduation could’ve happened yesterday.
I FEEL SO FREAKING OLD. and i still look like i’m 17. i’m actually not looking forward to my birthday for the first time ever because now when someone asks how old i am, and i say 24, their eyes will just get that much wider, and the looks of disbelief will be that much more obvious.
as for the new job, i’ll still be here in charleston. nothing is really changing except for my job security and my paycheck. and the fact that brett and i will no longer be receiving paychecks from the same company. something about the ‘putting all your eggs in one basket’ saying felt all too true about our situation. i’ll still go to the same lab to work every day, i’ll still be surrounded by server racks and that all too comfortable humming, and i’ll still get to play with expensive fun toys to my heart’s content.
i’m more than happy about my decision. i am just having a hard time taking it all in.
first of all, we slept until like, NOON on saturday. which was awesome. brett woke up craving omelettes. i woke up craving french fries. i told him i’d give him my card if he went to the diner down the street and picked up “breakfast” for us. i say “breakfast” because chicken fingers and fries at 12:30 on a saturday doesn’t exactly make for a traditional breakfast. BUT IT’S DELICIOUS.
on the way back from the diner, he stopped at a yard sale to take a peek. they had an old dart board (almost identical to this one) for sale and he got it for $12. TWELVE DOLLARS. look how nice that is, and the one we got is in pretty good condition. i couldn’t believe it. it also weighs like a million pounds so getting it on the wall will be interesting, but whatever. we got a sweet dart board for $12. i am happy. it didn’t come with darts, though, so for now it’s just kind of sitting in the corner of the apartment.
we went to our friend bryden’s for a cookout with some other college friends (who are now co-workers) that night. he and his girlfriend bought a house a few months ago and finally got a new fence around the backyard, so loki and their dog had a play date while we had burgers and played ladder golf. it is officially summer here, and the mosquitoes are back. i never thought to spray the bug spray up my shorts, but now i know better. i got bit on the ass. and one bit me through my shirt on my back. they’re getting smarter.
ANYWAY, bryden’s girlfriend works for verizon, and in the midst of the grilling she informed brett that he could trade his new droid for the new htc incredible phone so long as it hadn’t been 30 days since he bought it. what’s that? shiny new expensive phone for a small $35 restocking fee? yes plz. so sunday morning we started calling different verizon stores to see if they had any in stock. it figures that the only store to have any left was the one in moncks corner, 40 MINUTES AWAY. well, it should’ve been 40 minutes away. but since people in charleston drive like idiots, it was closer to an hour. that and evidently google maps didn’t know exactly know where the store was.
that could have something to do with the fact that moncks corner doesn’t believe in proper street addresses. there were seriously *two* 100 N Hwy 52′s. there were odd and even numbers on both sides of the street. AND the numbers went up AND down on both sides. basically, we made about 54 U-turns in like… 20 minutes. eventually, we found the verizon. it was right next to “fat boys hog-n-grog”. i freaking love the south. anyway, we went and got the phone.
neither of us had eaten yet, so we stopped at a hole in the wall BBQ joint nearby. it’s one of those places where you walk in, and immediately everyone in the building knows you’re “not from around these here parts!” there were no signs to “seat yourself” or “please wait”. there was a buffet, and the people working were sitting around eating from it, too. needless to say, we were confused. so we asked for help:
B: so… what do we do?
old man: weeell, generally, we just eat ’til we can’t eat no more!
B: well, alright!
so we ate ’til we couldn’t eat no more. fried chicken, pulled pork, mac ‘n’ cheese, green beans, fried okra, sweet tea… again, i love the south.
it was a gorgeous day yesterday, so the whole way there and back, the windows were down and we had the country blaring. sun was shining, it was hot, and as soon as i saw the sign for sonic i got a craving for a watermelon slushie. sonic is conveniently located like… 100 yards from our apartment complex. it’s dangerous. right next to sonic was another yard sale at the veterinary hospital. they had a really nice leather office chair and a dell LCD monitor with a sub woofer and speakers sitting out. oddly enough, brett needed a chair and a monitor for our desk when we move into the new apartment in 2 weeks. he got all of that for $55. chair, monitor, speakers and sub… for $55.
i feel like we were on american pickers or something, minus the whole antique thing. the only problem was we didn’t think about getting our new toys back to the apartment. we were in my saturn. my saturn which already had a trunk full of packing boxes and our fishing poles. thank god we were not far from the apartment, because my face was 3 inches from the steering wheel for the 30 second drive home. should my air bags have deployed, i would no longer have a face.
brett is leaving to go to africa tomorrow for work. and here i am thinking i was done with deployments, done with saying goodbye… not so much. at least it’s less than a month. i can handle less than a month.
i knew this would happen to one or both of us at some point. that kind of comes with government contracting territory. it will be the longest we’ve gone without seeing each other. i think the longest we’ve ever gone is 12 days, which isn’t much. and, even then, we were both like THIS SUCKS. 25 days? i’m willing to bet there will be a lot of whining.
i have the CISSP to keep me occupied–i will be studying a lot more for that while he’s gone. this might actually help speed up the process, as i’ve been slacking lately at hitting the books. i also have websites in the works, so i will certainly be keeping myself busy.
the internet over there isn’t that great, but it will suffice for talking on gchat, and possibly skype. we’ll have to see how that goes. i foresee a lot of dropped calls and crapped out connections in our future.
all this to say–i will miss you, brett. please be careful, come home in one piece, call me whenever possible, and for the love of god, stay on the military base. also, i love you.
brett and i are heading up to NC this weekend. seven devils, to be specific. we both miss the high country, and would like to get the hell out of charleston (the low country) for another weekend before he goes to africa. yes, i said africa. i wanted to go, too, but evidently they (our project managers) frown upon small females going to marine corps bases in third world countries to test computer systems. HUGE BUMMER. i’d really like to play with the hyenas.
anyway, this cabin is, HANDS DOWN, one of my favorite places on earth. brett’s parents own it and rent it out online. i will provide the link to it (with their permission, of course) AFTER this weekend. when we’re already back in south carolina. for obvious reasons.
i love it because it’s in the mountains. that is where i belong. in the mountains. why? let me show you.
this is why.
THIS is why.
this gives me goosebumps.
i even miss this. somehow, by the grace of god, charleston got snow this winter, but nothing close to this.
when i get sick of doing information security, which will hopefully be a long way off, i want to retreat back to the mountains. i want to live in a cabin. with blankets, hot chocolate, loki, thor, steak, an abundance of sweatpants, my handsome best friend, and a mountain of coors light. and my laptop, assuming web development is even necessary in 40 years. and assuming we even have laptops in 40 years. i really don’t even want to think about what earth will be like in 40 years.
i’m getting way off topic and i’m almost scaring myself, so i just want to say… i’m super excited about this weekend. we’re bringing food and beer with us so we don’t have to spend much money while we’re up there. he drives an escalade, which isn’t exactly wallet-friendly. the only other thing i will be willing to spend money on is macado’s, which is ALWAYS acceptable. always.
all photos (except the cabin pictures) are by my friend, leander. you can find more of his photography here. hi, leander!
my new pet came in the mail yesterday. FINALLY. he does absolutely nothing, and is so not worth the $20 i paid, but i couldn’t resist. i believe i’ve made it quite obvious that i’m addicted to twitter (and every other form of social networking). and now i will tote him all over the globe. wherever i go, he will be there. and i will snap a photo.
except for at work, because if i bring my iPhone in here they might kill my first born. well, probably not. but i would most likely lose my badge. perhaps a limb. definitely my iPhone.
i did actually bring him to work, though. i must stay prepared for a potential adventure.
so i will take pictures of him everywhere except for work. all his adventures can be seen here. i am contemplating naming him something other than ollie, but it says that on the box he came in, so i might be stuck with it.
if you have a request for a specific stupid-plastic-bird adventure, tell me! this is assuming it does not involve boobs. or nudity of any kind.
after months of anticipation, brett is finally with me in charleston. brett, his mountains of clothes, his couch, his TV, and his entertainment center, are all finally in my apartment. let’s just say, if and when we have guests over, they will have 13 different seating options and will be able to watch ESPN HD and play xbox at the same time.
he starts working in 2 weeks, and we’ll be in vegas the rest of this week, so this past weekend was really the only option we had to move his things down without being too rushed.
we drove to boone friday afternoon to get the rest of his belongings. actually, he drove to boone friday morning. i drove to boone friday afternoon, and would have arrived sooner had i not gotten stuck in the ice. quick side story:
if you’ve ever driven up 421 north after a snowstorm, you know how gorgeous the mountains look. i wanted had to take a picture. i am mildly obsessed with the mountains and get goosebumps when i see them on the drive back to boone, and i couldn’t resist pulling off onto the parkway to snap a photo.
unfortunately, they did not have any signs or warnings surrounding the entrance to the blue ridge parkway. my saturn is not the best off-road vehicle, but i was not aware i would be driving through a foot of snow and ice and fallen down trees. i got up to the parkway and got stuck. my car was facing uphill, and i couldn’t even go in reverse.
i panicked for a minute. i looked around to make sure no one was watching. i got out of the car and kicked some snow from around my tires and tried gunning it again–no dice. i sat there for about 10 seconds when a jeep pulled up. somehow, by the grace of god, i knew the person behind the wheel. my friend stephen, fellow AppState alumni, and his girlfriend were trying to take the scenic route, also. they, too, realized how impossible it would be.
they had a jeep, so they had no problems turning around. my little saturn, however, took some pushing and shoving and rocking and finally we got my car rolling, and i made it back down to 421. after all that, i still didn’t get my picture.
ANYWAY, that sucked. i got to boone safe and sound. i helped brett and his parents clean up his apartment and pack up the rest of his things, we ate dinner at macado’s, made a quick trip to ink link to buy a new eyebrow ring (my bathroom sink keeps swallowing mine), and drove down to mooresville to spend the night.
the next morning, we loaded up the trailer and headed to charleston. i packed up my christmas tree (so sad, i did not want to take it down yet) and did some SERIOUS cleaning and rearranging. mostly in my closet. i gave a trash bag overflowing with clothes to goodwill and an entire box full. my closet is still at full capacity. i don’t know how we fit all his things in there. he has more clothes than i’ve ever seen in my life.
there is now a very real fear that one day i will come home and my closet shelves and clothes racks will have collapsed into a giant, mangled mess on my floor. we are nearing that point with the shelves in the laundry room, as well. needless to say, we need to move into a 2 bedroom when my lease is up. we’ve realized how insane it would be to even make an attempt at house-buying after only 5 months.
we got everything unpacked yesterday by 5, and were done setting it all up by 7:30. his surround sound system pretty much owned us, but we finally got it figured out. about an hour of that was spent just trying to fix the giant cable management FAIL behind my entertainment center. once i got that worked out, we spent an hour getting the surround sound hooked up.
little did we know, the manual was packed in one of the boxes. prior to finding the manual, we finally looked up the manual online. prior to looking the manual up online, i got shocked half a dozen times scooting around on carpet plugging things in and yanking cables out. my left arm was tingling for 20 minutes–seriously.
after all that was said and done, i reheated leftovers and we watched surviving the game. ice T is such a badass.
in addition to yesterday’s events, i also made my first attempt at making coffee. evidently, i made it extra strong. because of this, i was wired all night. so we also watched revolutionary road and fracture until 3 in the morning. i finally passed out, but only after stuffing my face full of pizza rolls and spilling the remaining coffee all over my kitchen floor, and, of course, myself.
yesterday was full of FAIL, but it was also so very full of WIN! because now we are all settled in. and las vegas is tomorrow. and when we come home on saturday, i’m almost certain the entire contents of my closet will be in a mangled mess on the floor, but at least it will be our mess. awww.
i woke up this morning and actually forgot it was new years eve. almost no one is at work. i can’t believe i’m even at work on new years eve.
i have no idea where this year went. it flew by in the blink of an eye, and so many big things happened, and i just don’t know where it went.
in 2009 i…
went to las vegas. twice. first CES, first defcon.
did it big for spring break in panama city.
went to oklahoma city and presented my research.
ended a 3 and a half year relationship.
graduated from appalachian state.
moved to south carolina.
purchased my first washer, dryer, TV, and bedroom set.
learned how to pay bills. all of them. they suck.
fell in love with my best friend.
started my career.
and i think the most beneficial thing to come from it all was that i found myself. i realized what i can do being on my own. i learned more in the past year than in any other year of my life. bottom line, i am happy.
2010 will be even better, and i’m starting it off the right way with my first trip of the year next week… to las vegas.
i'm whitney :) i live in charleston, SC, with my boyfriend, brett; my dog, loki; and my cat, thor. i'm a security engineer by day, and freelance web developer by night. i'm also an avid twitter-er. click for more.
ingredients:
brett and i are heading up to NC this weekend. seven devils, to be specific. we both miss the high country, and would like to get the hell out of charleston (the low country) for another weekend before he goes to africa. yes, i said africa. i wanted to go, too, but evidently they (our project managers) frown upon small females going to marine corps bases in third world countries to test computer systems. HUGE BUMMER. i’d really like to play with the hyenas.
this is assuming it does not involve boobs. or nudity of any kind.
i'm whitney :) i live in charleston, SC, with my boyfriend, brett; my dog, loki; and my cat, thor. i'm a security engineer by day, and freelance web developer by night. i'm also an avid twitter-er. 
