26 October 2006

shiny shiny shiny

okay, i know it has been said by me numerous times already, but i have to repeat it again here - this place is like living in a fucking postcard! the shine is definitely still on, and i am lurrrrving it in seattle. EEE!

having always been the type of person to hang around the downtown area of a city, it's completely refreshing to see so many people walking around downtown at all sorts of hours. even on the weekends! just to see so many people walking all the time makes for a great atmosphere, and it encourages us to walk more ourselves. the area of town where we're living has so many things accessible by foot that we've been able to hoof it for most all of our everyday items and activities. derek feels somewhat urban or cosmopolitan being in the thick of things. there is the big hill issue, and my ability to find the most punishing of routes from time to time; every way to the house is uphill from just about anywhere else. but you know what? i can always catch the bus if i'm wimpy or tired or maybe just cold. (we'll get to that one in a second) that's right! there's a real bus system here! riding the transit is on my list of things to conquer this month as i'm exploring our new home.

the cooking is even continuing! i made an awesome fresh tomato sauce, and derek put together this meal of cherryand pepper pork loins with cayenne caulifower topped in this sauce that was all creamy cheesy cheesy creamy. nummy nums. the food situation has improved a thousand percent since the move.

on the weather - can we all say "jacket weather" together now? autumn is my favorite season and i thought i'd be stuck in los crapeles, thus having to miss out on the wonders of color and beauty. not so, peeps. it's that postcard thing again. beautiful, scenic, coniferous: wish you were here! there's a flurry of jaunty scarves and caps on people everywhere you look, and the colors from those move past the falling leaves and changing skies to make this one truly awesome mosaic. most days during my lunch break i sit on a bench outside and just watch all the people go by while i marvel at the newness of this place. that is, i marvel while i try to stay away from the nearby fancy cupcake store.

today it occurred to me that i can walk to the market from work, so i got fresh fruit when i was at lunch. then i took a stroll past a few bakery stall and sniffed like a cocaine addict on my way around the corner. while managing to find the uphill route back to work (of course) i could hear the bzzz, bzzz, business of everything going on. it made me feel... damnit, i haven't quite got the word for it just yet. could the word be giddy? am i serene?

what the fuck is happening to me?!? i guess one could say that it feels like coming back to life.

i believe that last week i described it as being allowed to breathe again after your brother holds your down on the ground and farts directly in your face. not that they would ever traumatize me like that when i was little. like just a little bitty kid. nahhhhh. if they did, i'm pleased to have such a vivid experience to look back upon so that i can accurately describe my time in suckifornia to an extent where other people can understand it with such clarity. pffft.

in honor of my epiphanetic (that's not a new word - i made it up a long time ago) state of mind, i've decided that i'm not going to hold my breath and wait for the bad things to come. fuck that "other shoe" syndrome i usually get when something is going well. i'm hoping to keep the shine on for as long as i can.

p.s. it seems like the cats love it here too! no more hiding under the bed and pouting for this nutty trio. they're in full on cuddle mode again. meow.

25 October 2006

super happy mail friends

my mailbox is happy this week. i got new stamps and i'm using them. tankoos to jenny for the sock monkey target card. you make me smile and i'll be thinking of you when i buy more toilet paper.

i'm going to bed late again, but i was really doing stuff this time. we went to dinner out at kelly and bonnie's house. (the stew was terrific and auburn reminds me of owasso in a weird way) we went on the neverending hunt for a new sofa. we cleaned up a few things. we took out the trash. i almost have a life. we're even making plans to hang out with milana and her person. wheeee!

for those of you wondering, the weather is beee-yoo-tee-full. just being in this climate is making me better. it's a lot easier to get through the day during this move. the rest will sort itself out in a new place when you don't physically feel like shit all the time. it's so much easier to see things as transition instead of sentencing and/or penance. i've even stopped with the whole "it's a SIIIIIGNNNN" catholic creepy soothsayer thing. well, not stopped entirely, but it's back in check.

holly says me not seeing signs all the time could be a sign.
it's a good sign.

23 October 2006

did she really cook that?

i should totally be in bed. i'm going i'm going. really, i promise. i'm not going to stay up all night again tonight. maybe tomorrow night. holly and i were discussing our internal time clocks recently and pretty much figured out that, if left to our own devices, we would stay up most of the night and then sleep until noon. (a point proven yet again this weekend when i had some time off) good thing i have a job to keep me on track here and there.

derek says i'm supposed to tell you about our trip to the theatre:
no, it was absolutely fucking nothing like theatre club's production of the underpants in tulsa. it was in the round, done as a period piece, extremely sitcomesque on the humor, and funded out the wazoo. oranges and apples, as they say. we did have a good time and laugh a lot, most likely catching many lines that others missed and at times being the only two in the audience giggling like maniacs. a few tears were shed. some from missing the theatre and richard, some from laughing really hard. the evening in general would rate well on the EEE! scale as a good date night, including all the preshow downtown time-killing trudging and snacking.

this week we went out to archie mcphee fluevog and even finally had to get a tank of gas. (this hasn't happened out here yet - woohoo!) we also took some time to stroll through the pike place market. oh, and we figured out that they do farmers' markets all the way into the winter here! it inspired me to get four thousand tons of produce and spices and things in an attempt to tackle the kitchen.

most days the cooking is left to derek if it's anything more than simple pastas and such. i am a menace to culinary society. most people will eat their own cooking even it if tastes bad, just because they cooked it themselves. in contrast, i can make food so repellant that i won't or can't even finish it... sometimes because i'm in the bathroom throwing up. wait wait wait - things have only gotten that bad a few times. very bad and icky times. on occasion, i decide that i know how to cook and thus suddenly wander into the kitchen to create in the style of an artiste. when miracles occur and the moon is in the whatever house i can pull it off with panache. when things go badly, well... remember how i mentioned the throwing up thing?

this weekend was a success, though. never mind the cream of rice. never mind the beans and sweet cornbread. never mind the sauteed cabbage and bacon stuff. people, we have achieved an edible dinner of roasted lamb chops! that's right, it was lamb in a creamy apricot sauce with a side of garlicky dill new potatoes. i fucking rock in the kitchen today. no one got sick, the meat was very tender, and derek ate the whole thing with no prodding whatsoever. no. seriously. i mean it.

could fried rice be next? i think so. with any hope, there just might be more to my mad skills than turkey sammiches or mac and cheeeeeeze.

this place could be a good influence on me.

19 October 2006

the brief update

ugh, me tired.

check weather forecast.
walk.
work work work.
shop for produce.
walk.
empty some more boxes.
walk.
look for monitor for derek.
check weather forecast.
feed cats and fish.
walk.
clean house.
shower.
walk.
go to post office.
register to vote.
check weather forecast.
eat food.
stare at street map.
walk.

more later...

12 October 2006

all alone in the new hood

well, as soon as we got here and got "settled in" to the new place, derek had to go to a conference in boston. hmph. imagine that, moving to a new city and leaving your girlfriend all by her lonesome. hmph. woe to me.

most of my time has been spent staring. (hey zhen, i'm turning into you!) there was a lot of staring at road signs on the drive home from the airport, a lot of staring at the mess while i contemplated shoving boxes around, more staring on my walk downtown and back, and a teensy bit of staring at the television. after a cool runnings moment this afternoon - in which i cry during a movie that you can and would make fun of me for crying at - i got up and actually opened the boxes i was shoving yesterday.

though it has been said by me quite a few times this year, i must tell you this once again: moving sucks. my back hurts. at least it was a good move this time.

the big news? i start my new job on monday! celebrations are in order! even took myself out to a movie and poured enough butter on the popcorn to make even holly the butter queen barf. as a piece of warning, i'll tell you that "the last king of scotland" is pretty fucking scary. the gruesome moments are vividly gruesome, and forest whitaker is psychotic as shit. the movie overall wasn't fantabulous, but he scared the crap outta me as idi amin. go see it just for that and then wonder how the hell he directed hilary duff in another movie... or if that was what drove him to this awesome level of insanity.

random side note: i can walk uphill BOTH WAYS around here.

derek has promised to take me to a play called "thom pain" this weekend. we're going to the theatre without even knowing anyone in the show. does this make us real live theatregoers now? how mature. dear scott and julie and craig, there is hope for the world! real live people who get off the couch and go to see art and shit like that. who'd have guessed it could happen? woohoo, three EEE cheers for culture!

not that this will take me away from battlestar galactica and PR. i'm rooting for jeffrey to kick some ass now.

09 October 2006

how to make a home

the first thing you need to make a home is a place to rest you weary head. if you're like me, other people tend to underestimate your ability to sleep. personally, i can fall asleep just about anywhere; the list includes hardwood floors, afterhours clubs, sidewalks, butterfly chairs, and even swings in a park. rest is good for you. take it seriously. maybe you could even spring for a new fluffy pillow to cushion your inevitable collapse. in any case, just fall down and catch some zzz's here and there. insert rejuvenation here.

the next thing you'll need is a new shower curtain. if you have the unfortunate status of being stuck with stall doors, then you can improvise by decorating the bathroom mirror with clings or getting yourself some new scrubbies or extra washcloths. oh, and don't forget to bring some good toilet paper. your digestive system is always completely out of whack after a move. need i elaborate? i think not.

somewhere in between pushing all those boxes of stuff around (whose shit IS all this, anyway?!?) it'll be time to take a break. whatever you choose as your poison, a must have in this instance is your own special cup. it might be a holdover from your time as a little kid that instills the need for MINE MINE MINE in a dish. it could be that you need something you can actually locate when it's time to sit on the floor and wonder how long it'll be before you'll allow anyone to see the new place. perhaps it's just that whole thing where you just want to know that you have a personal space amidst the bedlam. whichever option you believe, get a cup and fucking stick with it for a few days. but don't forget to rinse it out.

by this point, your new house is starting to take some sort of shape. you've probably found your underpants and gotten your internet access on legs. there's a donation box started somewhere, if only you could tell the difference between that box and the one with all the old tape and other garbage in it. you're starting to figure out which key goes to what and you're at least thinking about the groceries that need to go in the fridge. soon. when you get to the store. maybe tomorrow if you remember and have time. that can of beans from the last place is still in the running for dinner if you don't get a better offer, ya know. you must have packed all those condiments for a reason, right? surely no one in this house spent good money on cream of chicken soup. i wonder if HP sauce is good on a tortilla or if it's better to dip a triscuit in peanut butter and then... hold on a second. did i digress?

so before you explore the spice cabinet any longer, step back and walk around. look at all that blank space you've got. no no no, not on the floor. the floor is a fucking mess and you're thinking about bubble wrap as your new pillow because you haven't made it out to buy another one yet. i'm talking about that blank space on the walls. yessssss! THAT space! now get out your hammer and start making some holes. not the big kind. the kind with nails and screws and picture hanger thingies. then stick some photos and posters and maps and hooks and goodness knows what else to all your brand new sticky-outies! oh, and you can even use the all the stuff left behind by the last person's whatnots. take that as i mean it - not how it sounds. just stick it.

put up all your favorite shit and give your new home some good lovin' so that when you do collapse on your bubble wrap with your cup stuck to the side of your face (you forgot to rinse it out, didn't you?) and then wake up ready for a shower and some, uhhh, toilet paper, you can pass by everything and think to yourself, "hey, i really fucking live here now. wooohooooo!" because you do, and now you know it.

just remember where you put your tools.

07 October 2006

near death experiences

so yes, the move was a little bit eventful. is there some reason they kept playing "american pie" on every radio station the whole way up here? quite frankly, it was starting to make me kind of paranoid. i did not want it to be the day my music fucking died. after what one could call the tribulations of our trip, we arrived safely. about as broken and wilty as a bowl full of soggy cereal, but safe.

it's actually been a few days, but i just got hooked up again on wednesday (yes, i did see the project runway reunion special - oh my gawwwwd) and we've been out walking around and finding stuff for most of the week. the moving in was painful, and now the new place is (still) a complete stinking mess. i couldn't be happier right now. all of the animals are alive and well and eating lots of food, and i'm still speaking to derek in spite of wanting to beat the crap out of him. tempers run hysterically short during thousand mile moves. dunno why.

here is the shorter version of the infamous northerly drive: got no sleep, hot and humid weather for the loading up, walk through on old place went late, FOUR back tires got replaced on the truck before we even left los crapeles, cats whining and twitchy, hot and boring drive all the fucking way through suckifornia, ten billion more miles just to get out of california, headlights screwed up on mountain passes in southern oregon, running several hours late and stopped early for the night at the one place rhiannon told me to avoid, crazy ear-popping traffic to eugene, wreck on the interstate involving a semi and an overturned vehicle, another hour of waiting by the side of the road to get going again, couple of wrong turns to gas stations, arrival about twelve hours later than planned, scant parking, stairs and a pushcart, setting up fishtank and litterbox, collapse into heap of hunger/exhaustion/irritation while squinting snottily at each other. BUT WE MADE IT!

to be sure, i wouldn't let my peeps down by being a rock - i lost my fucking mind at least twice this week and broke down in a crying mess. blubber blubber blubber. the first time was about ten minutes after we arrived to our new home and the second time was when i realized how much happier i am now that we're out of suckifornia. i am nothing if not both sides of the coin.

we've already been to ikea (twice) and almost got run off the road on the way back home. did i mention that i'm getting paranoid on the road? hey, you try driving, or even trying to follow, a moving truck around downtown seattle and see if you come away without any added mental scars!

after a week filled with near hits, i'm exceedingly glad for all of those misses. without them, i never would have been able to go out to the movies last night. by the way, i would highly recommend "little miss sunshine" to all of you with dark humor and unresolved issues. this movie rocks. the last time i actually went out to a movie theatre was with nick, if that tells you anything. it's just not the same going to the movies without him. i even ate popcorn by sticking my face into the bag and grabbing the buttery pieces snowflake style. it was a good day.

what's next? i have no idea.