but i still love her

tuesday morning bummer

As you may know, given our studio's lack of doors and our cat's penchant for late night festivities, Creature sleeps in the bathroom. Normally this is fine. Not so much this morning. Something happened to poor Creature Cat in the night, and when I stumbled into the bathroom there was poop EVERYWHERE. No, really. All over the floor, all over her, in the sink, on the toilet lid... everywhere. It was a poop explosion. And it gets better. Because while Ross was cleaning it all up, Creature was too scared to go back in to the bathroom, and so she pooped (again) on the carpet under my desk. Poor Kitty. Poor Spouse. Poor floor.   

cinderella story (well, kind of)

This morning as I was running to catch a Metro train a man accidentally stepped on my heel so that I lost my shoe outside the Metro just as the doors were about to close. I swore (not meanly, just impulsively) and bent over. "No, no, no," he insisted as he grabbed my shoe and placed it so I could step into it. The doors closed. "That was almost an unfortunate situation," he said (in a British accent no less!).

This event was exactly as charming as it sounds.

Note: My apologies for not blogging lately. It's the first week of school and I've been busy applying for, interviewing for, and receiving a new job (plus a bonus interview at the Maryland Zoo tomorrow). More updates this weekend... maybe even New York pictures.

it is *fill-in-the-blank* in our house

It is sleepy in our house right now. Ross is currently sleeping on the couch (he's sick). Creature is sleeping on the bed (I know... high-larious). I'm doing nothing of great import on the computer in preparation for school. It is scholarly in our house. Later tonight we're hopefully going to happy hour at P.F. Chang's (they have a GREAT happy hour) and then to see The King's Speech, which is about English history, is getting excellent reviews, and stars Colin Firth. Oh, my. Later later tonight we'll probably come home and watch Buffy while I finish knitting my first ever scarf. It is nerdy in our house.

Most of all, it is Saturday in our house. Happy weekend.

UPDATE: So. Good. Soooo good.

addendum

Festive photo from our New York trip. More photos to come, promise.

I've thought of two other resolutions to add to my list (bringing the total to a pleasing 10):

9. Carry less heavy s*** every day. Actually, I feel like this one simple (and yet oh so difficult!) change could improve my overall well-being more than almost anything else. Remember my backpack? The trouble is, I have to be on campus all day. Ergo, to make sure I'm using time well, I end up carting a veritable library (plus water, lunch, clothes for the gym, and whatever else I need) back and forth every day. Hopefully, however, all this will soon change... hopefully I'll get that most coveted of possessions for the non-officed: a locker. That would be a New Year's miracle.

10. Record our life. I love this blog, and I especially love it when I write a lot. So my goal is 20 posts a month. That's a sufficiently arbitrary number, don't you think? This is obviously for me more than it is for you (although I LOVE that people actually read this thing). I appreciate the way the blog represents our lives... it's not like a journal, where it's all about what we did and when we did it. It's more like a time capsule, and sometimes when I'm reading old posts it takes a second to remember why the hell I wrote such-and-such. Then I remember everything I was thinking that day, and what was going on, and I love that. But the "what we did" factor is nice, too, so along with blogging I want to start keeping an index card journal, like this one here. As an extremely delinquent journaler, I'm totally on board with the idea of keeping a journal every day, but only having to write enough to fit on one line of an index card.

Anyway, I think that's really it. I drank my full 64 oz of water today, which made me feel like a rockstar. Or maybe a superhero (I doubt rockstars are all that hydrated, at least with water). I am AquaGirl.

resolved

Photo by Anne Marie Musselman, a Portland photographer. Love.

First of all, thanks so much for your wonderful response to yesterday's maudlin midnight post. I was feeling pre-tty glum, but your encouragement cheered me up considerably, as it always does. So today I thought I'd return with a slightly more positive spin on the New Year. Like I said, I love making resolutions. Remember the week of living resolutely last spring (it was sadly truncated by bike accident #1)? Well, then some of these goals will look mighty familiar. We're all works in progress.

RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR (or "New Year's Resolutions"):

1. Drink enough water (64 oz. daily) This has always been and probably will always be on my to-do list, but I continue to get better. Incrementally. Sometimes.

2. Exercise three times a week. My newfound (and totally unexpected) fondness for the gym will hopefully make this doable.

3. Be on time for the important stuff. I tend to be staggeringly early to class and late for just about everything else.

4. Make time for adventures. Part of the reason why Ross and I were excited about moving here was because of the chance to explore new places. Lately, the cold weather has put the kibosh on that plan (warm weather = cheap entertainment; cold weather = expensive). Once it gets warmer I want to resume our hiking/exploring/camping/getting to know DC adventures.

5. Take better notes in my school books. Yes it makes my books messy, and yes, I often blush when I stumble across some forgotten and inane marginalia. But when it's paper time, those scribbled notes (of which I did not make nearly enough last term) are a godsend.

6. Find a summer job that I won't hate. This may be nearly impossible, as nothing could ever, ever compare to the bliss that is the Oregon Zoo, and I'm worried that, in spite of my best intentions, I'll spend the summer thinking of what might have been. But that's why we make resolutions, right? To try to overcome our worst impulses.

7. Make time for hobbies. Ross gave me a knitting book for Christmas, and I've been reteaching myself how to knit (I quasi-learned in college). I'm even halfway through a scarf! This fall I really missed my hobbies. Without NW 23rd, many of our friends, and Portland, Ross and I both kind of forgot to keep up with the things we liked to do. In 2011 I want to make those things a priority (especially for the spouse, who really neglects his interests without prodding)... yoga, cooking, knitting, and maybe even some gardening for me, frisbee and other running-around activities for Ross.

And finally:

8. Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other... well, you know how I feel about you. Happy New Year.

midnight missive

Hi, friends. I hope you're well, wherever you are... I can't sleep. I apologize for the lack of posts since Christmas. The truth is, I've been feeling somewhat less festive than usual. Most years, the New Year's Eve/Day duo is my favorite holiday. I'm a sucker for the promise of new beginnings that the new years holds, and I'm a passionate resolution writer. This year has been different, though. Christmas was fine... we missed our families quite a lot, but since Ross and I are also our own small family it was all right. But New Year's--the holiday that is perhaps most dedicated to friends--was extremely lonely.

In the beginning of 2010, Ross and I were surrounded by an embarrassment of truly wonderful friends and family. Never in my life have I felt so blessed by the people around me. What's more, we had the world at our feet: we were waiting to hear back from grad school, Ross was satisfied with his job (and I, of course, can't ever fully describe how much I loved mine), and we lived in Shangrila (if Shangrila has no parking, which I suspect it doesn't). 2010 stretched out before us, full of mystery and opportunity and the promise of a good time had by all. 2011 seems a little less sparkly in comparison. A little predetermined. A little lonely. It's not that I'm not looking forward to my classes, to Ross' continued increase in job satisfaction, or to the as-yet-unforeseen surprises of the New Year. I am. It's just... it's just (this was all much more eloquent in my head, before I sat down to write)... it's just that I miss you, I guess. We miss you. Zeta Chi and Annette and Christian and Donilee and Jessi and the aunts and the vast Dewey clan and Tanna and Ben and everyone else in Portland whom we love. My Dad and family in Northern California, Mom and Mark in Silverton, the Southern California contingent, and everyone in Utah. Washougal. Chicago.

I'm not good at saying good-byes. So many people have come and gone (and often painfully) in my life that I tend to steel myself against farewells, not truly feeling them sometimes for days or weeks or months. But eventually, inevitably, the brutal realization of how much I miss you (all of you) penetrates my defenses. And it hurts like hell. So (to try to put a positive spin on this Debbie Downer of a post), my New Year's message to you is this: know that you are missed, know that you are loved, and that my wish for the New Year is that is has you in it.