Today is it. Moving Day! ... I think. I got an email from the leasing office a few days ago telling me that I'd be able to move by Saturday (today) so I have two friends coming to help me transport everything from this apartment to the next. The problem is that I do not have my keys, I haven't signed a lease or put down a deposit and I should have gone last night instead of driving to Columbus for dinner with a friend.
But dinner was great, so no regrets here!
Anywho, the leasing office is open today, but not until noon. Noon happens to be exactly when my friends arrive!! So i guess they'll be shifting stuff out of my apartment while I head over to the leasing office for a chat and some signing and some check writing.
I might be just a leetle stressed. However, I will be a very happy girl when I'm in MY apartment and can actually decorate, set up furniture, put out all my books, have my TV instead of using my laptop for movies... I have so many ideas for decorating and things to do to make it a homey place that I enjoy coming back to every day. But all I'll have till Wednesday is the same stuff as now because Dad and Johnny are bringing everything else down that day.
Really I'm just putting off getting up and packing up the bathroom and kitchen. Dishes. Cleaning. Yes, cleaning. My mom, the woman who makes her hotel bed before checking out, instilled in me the habit of leaving a borrowed place nicer than when you got there. So I will be cleaning the kitchen and bathroom very well today before the boys get here and before signing my lease.
Think I'm crazy?
Good!
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
It's Times Like These...
Last night was a bad night, so I took myself on a date with my book to Panera Bread for some soup, bread, lemonade and a nice fire.
As I was leaving my apartment I heard the strains of guitar coming from a nearby apartment. I have no idea who was playing or what was being played, all I knew was that I loved it and that it was my mood exactly. Which, by the way, never happens.
Of course I didn't, but it made me long, once again, for the millionth time, for an acoustic guitar. I have vague knowledge of how to play the guitar, and I pick things up fairly easily so I'm sure if I had one and sat down with some patient person, like my bro in-law Derrick, I would learn it pretty quickly.
I just love the sound of acoustic guitar, all by itself... that's my favorite kind of music. For example, I love love the soundtrack to Dan in Real Life because the whole thing is unpresumptuous guitar. Give me a guy on a stage with a voice and guitar and I'm in heaven. Or in love. Take your pick.
Really it would just be lovely to be able to MAKE the music that I FEEL. Because I can never find a song that quite fits my mood and honestly, sometimes, you really just need a song.
As I was leaving my apartment I heard the strains of guitar coming from a nearby apartment. I have no idea who was playing or what was being played, all I knew was that I loved it and that it was my mood exactly. Which, by the way, never happens.
www.christchurchmusic.org
And even though I really needed to get going all I wanted to do was find the door behind which the guitar was being played and just sit there and listen.
I just love the sound of acoustic guitar, all by itself... that's my favorite kind of music. For example, I love love the soundtrack to Dan in Real Life because the whole thing is unpresumptuous guitar. Give me a guy on a stage with a voice and guitar and I'm in heaven. Or in love. Take your pick.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Day One....
Yesterday after church and my mom's birthday dinner my sister, dad, Johnny and I packed up my car with the stuff I decided was essential and then I drove 2.5 hours through horrible Thanksgiving aftermath traffic to Cincinnati. Once there I found the keys to a two-bedroom apartment under the doormat of the leasing office of a complex in Sharonville.
What took the four of us about a half hour to pack into my car took me an hour or more to move into the second floor apartment all by my lonesome. Once inside I kept realizing stuff I forgot, like the bag of frozen food my mom gave me (bagels, veggie burgers, an organic tv dinner, etc) and claw clips to hold my hair so I can straighten it - very thankful that those bracelets held out last night...
So after a dinner of tortilla chips and salsa I watched the extra stuff on the Charlie St. Cloud DVD Johnny and I bought the other day while sitting on my bed. aka, my sister's air mattress.
About this air mattress... It looks great when it's first blown up. But, after only an hour of lying on it you're suddenly on the floor. Apparently she (my sister) has never had a problem with it. But I got to refill it at 11pm, 2:30am, and then got up at 5am, once again lying on the floor. Definitely no sleep for Emily. This is how the bed looked when I got up.
You can't tell from this picture, but there's definitely almost no air left in this thing.
Thankfully I mentioned my predicament to my co-worker and she's bringing her air mattress to work tomorrow for me to use till I have my bed here. Apparently you plug it into the wall and it's as high as a normal bed and it doesn't deflate. :DDD
So I get up and get ready and iron my dress clothes and then I realize I have no breakfast food except for dry cereal. And no milk. Or orange juice. *sigh*
Walked out the door at 6am hungry and still wearing my slippers (which I realized before I made it to the stairs). Dunkin Donuts directions in my head, I got breakfast and drove to work and arrived a full half hour early. Realized I forgot my headphones and my USB cord so I could charge my phone while I listened to music.
Started to work at 7am and omg after working from home for so long being on the actual system and my actual work computer is a HUGE improvement. I finished 295 claims in less than four hours (less because I took some time to go down to the security desk and get my permanent badge, pictured below). Normally I finish around 300 or a little more in 7.5 hours.
Bought lunch from the caf. Forgot/didn't have any food to pack.
Finally in the afternoon I got to meet up with another Plan B-er and our trainer for the new position in production and we learned to input claims. I'm super stoked to finally be leaving Plan B and doing something new! And apparently I'll be getting a new desk, thank goodness. I'm off in the wild blue yonder all by my lonesome kind of really far away from where production sits right now.
Got off work at 3:30 (score!!) and went straight to Walmart to buy all the stuff I forgot and FOOD! Now I sit alone in this big apartment eating ramen and writing to all of you!
My favorite room is the bathroom.
Followed closely by the kitchen.
In my opinion they're the homiest parts of this place, probably due to the colors in the bathroom and the personal touches in the kitchen (like the teapot and the pic of Clyde and myself). Otherwise the "bed" is lying in the middle of the living area and one of the bedrooms houses all of my clothes, shoes, and other random stuff.
Anywho, this is where I live but only for now! Hopefully this weekend will be the big move to the more permanent location. And I found a couch I like! I told Johnny to look at it, and if he likes it too we're going to pool money and buy it. It's a sofa lounge, so it converts into a bed, which is super convenient for when I have friends/family over!
Now I will pay on my credit card, which I had to use to buy my groceries due to leaving my debit card at home (notice the forgetfulness pattern???) and then play Angry Birds on my phone.
Here's hoping tomorrow is better!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
You Kinda Had to Be There.
It was like that time when we were moving old tables out of Red Lobster and it was pouring rain and we all got really wet, it was hilarious.
Remember that time during the Gilmore Girls party where we had quotes hanging everywhere and candy and stuff? Ugh, it was awesome.
This one time, at band camp... (just kidding.)
It's funny, just laugh.
Happy Turkey Everyone!
Remember that time during the Gilmore Girls party where we had quotes hanging everywhere and candy and stuff? Ugh, it was awesome.
This one time, at band camp... (just kidding.)
It's funny, just laugh.
Happy Turkey Everyone!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
PLEASE don't hate me for this...
Ever since my freshman year of college I have kept a journal. Lately I've kind of let it go (probably because of this here blog) but I have, like, ten or more journals full of my scrawl and pictures and cards and song lyrics and lists. There was once a time when I enjoyed rereading my old journals. Now, when I read them, I stop after a couple pages to scream
SOMEONE SHOOT ME!!!
My old journals are so full of me, me, me, boys, boys, boys, and lists of what I'm going to eat/what I'll do for a workout because I'm "fat".
The sad part is that the "fat" part is still hanging around.
And what's even sadder is I'm NOT fat.
I am barely 5'3", and according to those ridiculous weight charts hanging out online and in high school health rooms across the country I'm supposed to weigh something like 110lbs.
I weigh 121, as of 9am-ish this morning.
All the way through college I struggled against anorexia, often losing the battle, and it still likes to come around to bug me. And those darn charts don't help because they don't take muscle mass, bone density or genetics into account. I managed to get down to 111lbs once in college, and everyone was worried about me because I did it by starving myself and I looked really ill.
Over the years I've learned to keep this issue to myself, as most girls I know would punch me for saying "I'm fat" outloud.
But today was a hard day for me.
I try to stay away from scales, but after my surgery was over and I was able to walk again and most of the muscle I had gained over the summer disappeared I weighed myself one morning and was shocked to find I had lost a good five pounds and weighed 118. At the beginning of the summer, sometime around April, I was in the 126 range and distinctly remember stepping on the scale one morning and being shocked and rather thrilled about 121 flashing in front of my eyes. Now, because I had been 118 a mere couple of weeks ago, 121 is fat.
This is me on Sunday afternoon enjoying a bridal shower.
I'm pathetic. Wouldn't you agree?
When you think about it, weight is a really stupid thing to be obsessed over. I mean, back in Renaissance times being heavy was the fashion because it meant you were rich enough to be overfed. Why can't we still be cool like that? But instead the world has helped to create girls like me, who are obsessed over weight and looks and feel as though we won't be liked unless we look like THAT.
Whatever THAT is.
I could rant about the liberal media and its effect on today's women, or about how men are the reason for this weight obsession, but honestly it's been ranted to death.
One of these days, I will post something more lighthearted. I promise!
Oh, and I made the rehearsal bouquet for my friend's wedding. :) Fun times!
Aaaaannndd finally a pic of me and my future husband (btw, I HATE the word "hubby", drives me nuts I REFUSE to use it EVER).
Yeah, we were kinda made for each other. :D Have a grrreeeat day!
SOMEONE SHOOT ME!!!
My old journals are so full of me, me, me, boys, boys, boys, and lists of what I'm going to eat/what I'll do for a workout because I'm "fat".
The sad part is that the "fat" part is still hanging around.
And what's even sadder is I'm NOT fat.
I am barely 5'3", and according to those ridiculous weight charts hanging out online and in high school health rooms across the country I'm supposed to weigh something like 110lbs.
I weigh 121, as of 9am-ish this morning.
All the way through college I struggled against anorexia, often losing the battle, and it still likes to come around to bug me. And those darn charts don't help because they don't take muscle mass, bone density or genetics into account. I managed to get down to 111lbs once in college, and everyone was worried about me because I did it by starving myself and I looked really ill.
Over the years I've learned to keep this issue to myself, as most girls I know would punch me for saying "I'm fat" outloud.
But today was a hard day for me.
I try to stay away from scales, but after my surgery was over and I was able to walk again and most of the muscle I had gained over the summer disappeared I weighed myself one morning and was shocked to find I had lost a good five pounds and weighed 118. At the beginning of the summer, sometime around April, I was in the 126 range and distinctly remember stepping on the scale one morning and being shocked and rather thrilled about 121 flashing in front of my eyes. Now, because I had been 118 a mere couple of weeks ago, 121 is fat.
I'm pathetic. Wouldn't you agree?
When you think about it, weight is a really stupid thing to be obsessed over. I mean, back in Renaissance times being heavy was the fashion because it meant you were rich enough to be overfed. Why can't we still be cool like that? But instead the world has helped to create girls like me, who are obsessed over weight and looks and feel as though we won't be liked unless we look like THAT.
Whatever THAT is.
I could rant about the liberal media and its effect on today's women, or about how men are the reason for this weight obsession, but honestly it's been ranted to death.
One of these days, I will post something more lighthearted. I promise!
Oh, and I made the rehearsal bouquet for my friend's wedding. :) Fun times!
Yeah, we were kinda made for each other. :D Have a grrreeeat day!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Oh Great Deep Thought
Earlier this week my family doctor of 20+ years died of a heart attack, and today I attended his funeral. My dad, as a friend of Dr. Marsh and a pastor, was asked to officiate and during his eulogy he talked about my grandmother and her obsession with photos and home videos of her four granddaughters as small children and how, though she was usually behind the camera instead of infront of it, you can hear her voice.
Tangent: I just realized that I tend to write extremely long sentences.
Once I got home with two pints of the best ice cream ever in my hands (Tom's Ice Cream Bowl, a sleazy little diner in Zanesville with the best homemade ice cream you've ever had) I chose one of the many videos taken by my grandmother back in the late 80s and early 90s and proceeded to watch my three year old self during a 1989 summer trip to Connecticut.
There's one part of the video where we're in the car and I'm the only grandchild in the back of my grandparent's enormous blue suburban craning my neck to see out the windows because up ahead of us is my uncle leading us to the beach with his boat hitched to the back of his car. Nanny asked if I could see the boat, the lens of the camcorder zoomed in on that little girl in the backseat, and I cried out "I see the boat!!! I saw the boat again!!!!" jubilantly and with the biggest open-mouthed grin ever seen. Pure joy shining out of my three-year-old face at the prospect of riding in a boat, something I had never before done having grown up in the landlocked Ohio Valley.
Moments later the scene changes and you watch my two older sisters and my 28 year old parents climbing into the boat with my aunt and uncle. In the background you hear the sobs of a broken three year old heart because she was not joining her sisters in the boat ride she had dreamed of just minutes before.
I remembered back to this video as I sat here in my freezing room processing claims and planning a wedding in my head and via text with my fiance as NCIS dvds play in the background. As I pressed the a button to skip over the opening credits it dawned on me just how much my life has changed since I was that little three year old girl. Back then, nothing made me happier than tripping after my sisters, trying my darndest to keep up, and seeing a boat up close and personal just made my world. We didn't have computers or cell phones or DVD players or HD television or even real cable. Instead I sprawled on the floor with my grandfather and taught him to play Candyland while my baby sister strained to see over the edges of her playpen. My seven-year-old sister had learned to crochet. The three eldest of us and my two cousins were entertained for hours by a monkey that would convulse when it heard applause. We played tiddly-winks. Life was so much simpler back in 1989.
And now here I am, typing on a computer with my Blackberry dinging with emails and texts on the desk in front of me, my tv on my dresser across the room playing DVDs, my playstation on the floor waiting for me to finally finish my game. I am almost the age my parents were in that video from 1989. They already had four children, drove a beat up olive green oldsmobile, were dirt poor due to Dad's school loans... and soon I'll be in the same boat (minus the children).
I remember being a kid and dreaming of what I'd be like when I was older, and now that I'm older I don't FEEL older until I watch those videos and remember the pure simple joy of being a kid and being alive. I often say I wish I knew then what I know now, but that's a complete and total lie. If I knew then what I know now, the weight of the world would be on my shoulders and I wouldn't be a kid at all, and I would never have known joy. That three year old knew who she was. She knew what made her happy. She had parents who loved her, who had full lives ahead of them. She had three sisters she loved being around. She was free.
Sometimes I really think it's a shame we have to grow up. To deal with life. To watch your mom fight a losing battle with cancer. To move away and stress about bills and finding a home and creating a life away from the comfort of the place you grew up. To feel like your life isn't being lived as much as it is endured. We so often just try to make it from one day to the next without realizing what we're missing until reality smacks us in the face. I, for one, don't want to wake up one day and realize I'm eighty-nine years old and my life has meant nothing.
So I won't.
Tangent: I just realized that I tend to write extremely long sentences.
Once I got home with two pints of the best ice cream ever in my hands (Tom's Ice Cream Bowl, a sleazy little diner in Zanesville with the best homemade ice cream you've ever had) I chose one of the many videos taken by my grandmother back in the late 80s and early 90s and proceeded to watch my three year old self during a 1989 summer trip to Connecticut.
There's one part of the video where we're in the car and I'm the only grandchild in the back of my grandparent's enormous blue suburban craning my neck to see out the windows because up ahead of us is my uncle leading us to the beach with his boat hitched to the back of his car. Nanny asked if I could see the boat, the lens of the camcorder zoomed in on that little girl in the backseat, and I cried out "I see the boat!!! I saw the boat again!!!!" jubilantly and with the biggest open-mouthed grin ever seen. Pure joy shining out of my three-year-old face at the prospect of riding in a boat, something I had never before done having grown up in the landlocked Ohio Valley.
I remembered back to this video as I sat here in my freezing room processing claims and planning a wedding in my head and via text with my fiance as NCIS dvds play in the background. As I pressed the a button to skip over the opening credits it dawned on me just how much my life has changed since I was that little three year old girl. Back then, nothing made me happier than tripping after my sisters, trying my darndest to keep up, and seeing a boat up close and personal just made my world. We didn't have computers or cell phones or DVD players or HD television or even real cable. Instead I sprawled on the floor with my grandfather and taught him to play Candyland while my baby sister strained to see over the edges of her playpen. My seven-year-old sister had learned to crochet. The three eldest of us and my two cousins were entertained for hours by a monkey that would convulse when it heard applause. We played tiddly-winks. Life was so much simpler back in 1989.
I remember being a kid and dreaming of what I'd be like when I was older, and now that I'm older I don't FEEL older until I watch those videos and remember the pure simple joy of being a kid and being alive. I often say I wish I knew then what I know now, but that's a complete and total lie. If I knew then what I know now, the weight of the world would be on my shoulders and I wouldn't be a kid at all, and I would never have known joy. That three year old knew who she was. She knew what made her happy. She had parents who loved her, who had full lives ahead of them. She had three sisters she loved being around. She was free.
So I won't.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Strike That... reverse it...
My to-do list feels like it's just getting longer... and longer.... and looonnnngggeerrrr........
Today I checked one thing off my list: find an apartment in Cincinnati so I can move and start my new job. Check. Well, half check. I found a place that I like and I can afford, but they may not have any 1 bedrooms free until AFTER my first day at the new post. So they're going to let me camp out in a different apartment temporarily until mine is free and clean. This means lots of driving and transporting. (But the apartment is walking distance from the church I love down there. SCORE!)
So that's done. But now I have to get crackin' on the wedding plans. As much as I'd love to just go to the courthouse with close fam and get it over with, I really can't do that. People would be offended. And it wouldn't be any fun! So I have to call the church and find a reception hall, preferably before I move. Otherwise I have no idea how to begin planning a wedding. Any pointers??
Next, I have to pack all of my stuff. Easy enough, most of it is packed STILL and has been for the past year. But I've accumulated.
Christmas shop. I'm halfway done, gots lots more to buy still, and I'm then going to not buy anything for a very long time.
Figure how I'm going to go to Cleveland to meet with my aunt so she can meet my Clyde after I go to my best friend's bachelorette party in Columbus and make it back to Cincinnati in enough time to get some sleep before work Monday.
Find furniture. At this moment, I have a bed and a mattress, but no box spring (kinda important....), two bookshelves, a desk, and a TV stand. Oh, and a fake tree. I need a couch, a chair, a coffee table, another lamp, and a dining set, even if it's just a card table and folding chairs. Goodwill, here I come!
Finally got the bill for my surgery nearly two months ago, and I have to call them. I hate making phone calls.
Funeral tomorrow for my family doctor, who died suddenly on Monday. Canton on Saturday, Norton on Sunday to meet with possible minister for the wedding before driving to Cambridge for a bridal shower at 3pm. Work till Wednesday and help my mom scour the house so it's perfect for hosting Thanksgiving dinner on - duh - Thanksgiving.
And there's more but you're already bored and I'm getting stressed so I'm shutting it now.
Today I checked one thing off my list: find an apartment in Cincinnati so I can move and start my new job. Check. Well, half check. I found a place that I like and I can afford, but they may not have any 1 bedrooms free until AFTER my first day at the new post. So they're going to let me camp out in a different apartment temporarily until mine is free and clean. This means lots of driving and transporting. (But the apartment is walking distance from the church I love down there. SCORE!)
So that's done. But now I have to get crackin' on the wedding plans. As much as I'd love to just go to the courthouse with close fam and get it over with, I really can't do that. People would be offended. And it wouldn't be any fun! So I have to call the church and find a reception hall, preferably before I move. Otherwise I have no idea how to begin planning a wedding. Any pointers??
Next, I have to pack all of my stuff. Easy enough, most of it is packed STILL and has been for the past year. But I've accumulated.
Christmas shop. I'm halfway done, gots lots more to buy still, and I'm then going to not buy anything for a very long time.
Figure how I'm going to go to Cleveland to meet with my aunt so she can meet my Clyde after I go to my best friend's bachelorette party in Columbus and make it back to Cincinnati in enough time to get some sleep before work Monday.
Find furniture. At this moment, I have a bed and a mattress, but no box spring (kinda important....), two bookshelves, a desk, and a TV stand. Oh, and a fake tree. I need a couch, a chair, a coffee table, another lamp, and a dining set, even if it's just a card table and folding chairs. Goodwill, here I come!
Finally got the bill for my surgery nearly two months ago, and I have to call them. I hate making phone calls.
Funeral tomorrow for my family doctor, who died suddenly on Monday. Canton on Saturday, Norton on Sunday to meet with possible minister for the wedding before driving to Cambridge for a bridal shower at 3pm. Work till Wednesday and help my mom scour the house so it's perfect for hosting Thanksgiving dinner on - duh - Thanksgiving.
And there's more but you're already bored and I'm getting stressed so I'm shutting it now.
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