brief fupdates and evidence we still exist

bachelorette selfie with my sister, only semi relevant, but you need a picture right?  there will be more eventually.

let's be honest here folks, things are currently rather surreal.

my name is going to be different in less than 18 days and between trying to finagle a new job and tie off all the pre-nuptial loose ends it just doesn't feel like i have much to blog.  things are simply too vague or surprise-inducing to announce to the internet right now, so i've obviously found solace about my bloggers-block in the form of a 1028 page novel and 6 seasons of jersey shore.  rest assured there will be much more to be said, some hopefully sooner than later, but should you be knee deep in concern for my absence from this blog, you can expect to see more around maybe halloween-time, when hopefully things reach some semblance of normal.

in the meantime, here are some fleeting thoughts about our new home and current conditions:

1.  cost of living differences between houston and ann arbor are blowing my mind.  gas is so cheap (not really a shocker), groceries are basically free compared to michigan, also there are forms of gainful employment here that render people more upbeat than the metro-detroit attitude of "you have a job, you thus have no right to complain about anything ever.  genocide?  deal with it.  you have a job.  be thankful."

2.  on the topic of the upbeat people of houston the friendly-factor is probably the biggest culture shock here.  people are just so darn nice.  i feel like an ice queen for not striking up a conversation with the cockroach i found in my dishwasher.  midwesterners have a much more "you do you" (thnx jwoww) attitude about what constitutes politeness.  probably because it's so cold you can't really be expected to leave your house to talk to anyone 8 months out of the year.

3.  also yes i found a cockroach in my dishwasher.  just a small one.  he was not the first.  there also aren't 8 months out of the year here where everything freezes and dies.  thus bugs.  they happen.  i'm learning to deal with this.

4.  on the topic of cold: it is not.  unless you're indoors because, wisely, everything is air conditioned to the max.  i am essentially in heaven.  i hate the cold.  cold ranks somewhere below human trafficking and somewhere above the big bang theory in terms of things i do not appreciate.  if you read this blog often, i would guess about 80% of its contents refer to my hatred of the cold.  i'm so pleased and warm and tan in houston.

5.  on that note, the locals here tend to think it's way too hot and they can't believe i think the weather here is a plus.  this, to me, is like whining about your broken laptop to a starving child.  you do not understand the suicide-inducing misery of months below 0 degrees fahrenheit.  seriously.  i don't like cold.

also there are little lizards all over the place in our apartment complex and i love them.  hopefully i will get to posting the rest of the pictures from our bachelor/bachelorette weekend very soon (thank you to my 10/10 maid of honor sister for taking pictures and also crafting hard).

there: we still exist. ta for now.

a peak at my christmas list

thankgiving came late this year so it's a bit of a scramble getting everything ready to go in time for christmas.  in case anybody is itching to get me crossed off their shopping list in time for the black friday/cyber monday holiday shopping madness, here's a look at what i'm drooling over right now.

crown vintage tabitha bootie (black size 11)

urban outfitters black panama hat

american rag tribal print sweater (medium or large)

artemis stud duo earrings

crystal lana drop earrings

warmen nappa leather plush lined button gloves (camel size large)

sandra dieckmann graphite stag throw pillow

sandra dieckman graphite bear throw pillow

buddha and yin yang iphone 4s case

talisker 10 year old single malt scotch

tibetan turquoise mantra earrings (charitable purchase from the campaign for a free tibet)

chateau cap de mourlin grand cru 2005 (bordeaux st. emilion blend)

deadwood: the complete series (on DVD)

happy holidays y'all!

word count: 35,770

a look at my to-do list

saugatuck selfies

in case you haven't noticed, i haven't been great about posting all the time lately.  since it's been a bit tough to stop by frequently to talk about what's going on, i figured i'd just present y'all with a little list of what you can expect to find me doing while i'm away from the blog these days.

1.  wedding planning.  specifically, we're starting to get down to the point where actual commitments have been made, which means the NEW commitments need to work with the OLD commitments.  i'm starting to feel like john nash in a beautiful mind, plotting the bizarre insane connections with string between flowers and bow ties and stemless martini glasses on a conspiracy theorist's basement wall collage.

2.  money planning.  seriously people,  no wonder we have worldwide financial crises.  cash feels like the least authentic form of currency in our world today.  i feel like i need a pirate map to figure out WHERE most of my money is between virtual wallet, checking accounts, growth saving, reserve savings, 401K, IRA, and each of the bloody credit cards.  actually we don't need a pirate map, we just need a home computer (which is supposed to arrive today, OMGOMGOMGOMG sweet panchen lama, i do believe i am mere hours away from a functioning macbook, be still my heart) and a serious sit-down with some file jackets and manilla envelopes.

3.  honeymoon planning.  ok, so we might have officially decided on our honeymoon destination and i might be pooping my pants about it a little bit.  i refuse to blog about it until the plane tickets are officially purchased, but the mind-blowing level of excellence is actually unreasonable.

4.  steve's birthday is friday, our four year anniversary is four weeks later and thanksgiving/christmas family festivities are filling in pretty much all of the blanks.  i'm pretty sure when 2014 hits we're both going to have full on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.

on the plus side, planning extravagant events and travels is literally one of my very favorite things to do.  is it possible to have too much of a good thing?  eh, probably, but you can bet we're definitely having a lot of fun along the way.  hope everybody has as much to look forward to as we do (though i wouldn't wish the stress on anyone)!  happy tuesday!!

word count: 33,709

fantastical possibilities

first off, allow me to apologize to all the lovely bloggers whose posts i've been missing lately.  things have simply been too crazy for me to spend a lot of time frolicking through the blogosphere.  what "things" none of you ask?  allow me to present them in list form:

1.  three. digit. page count.  ok, i know i talked about this one already, but next time you write 106 possibly coherently connected pages i'll let you tell me to shut up about it.  i'm damn proud of myself (proud enough to swear on this blog, which i try not to do).  i'm not sure if i'm proud just for the quantity of content alone, or the fact that a tiny quiet little part of me thinks some of it is actually sorta good.

2.  i'm planning a wedding.  it's rough.

3.  we're going through the necessary steps to get steve's car replaced (we're very lucky that my parents have been nice enough to hold onto my dad's old SUV for us to buy on the cheap).  the '95 monte carlo named herman simply doesn't get our vote of confidence to make it through another winter.

4.  wait, where are we going to be living in 8-12 months?  seattle?  charleston?  houston?  wait... MAUI might be an option?  what?!  could we really stand to live on an island 1/80th the size of michigan with roughly 2500 miles between us and the mainland?  could we stand to live with ourselves if we passed up the opportunity to move to freaking maui?  hold up self, this opportunity doesn't really even exist yet, but still.  all this madness makes it pretty hard to try and plan a honeymoon.  i don't even know what airport we'd leave from.  ugh.  first world problems times twelve.

5.  work is difficult.  sometimes i am given tasks that require taking information at face value and completing them without understanding why.  i am a stressed out, nervous wreck when this happens because i have no confidence that i am completing a task correctly unless i have a concept of how it fits into the larger goal at hand.  it's actually a fairly serious liability sometimes.

hope everyone is still rocking away.  doing my best to keep checking in.  we're hanging in there dreading looking forward to the upcoming holiday season, winter weather, and a whole lot of changes heading our way.  if we could just fast forward to thanksgiving 2014, i think we might actually get another couple days to relax.  any advice for trying to get through it?

word count:  32,035

more of last weekend to kick off this weekend

pssst this horse is 24 feet tall.

happy friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tons of exclamation points for this friday.  (just because.  don't exclamation points make you feel happier?  they make me feel very enthusiastic, personally). today feels like an extra good friday to me, for no reason in particular.  maybe this regular exercise thing actually IS what it's cracked up to be.  or maybe it is for one of the reasons at the bottom of this post.

hops!  i suppose grand rapids IS beer city USA after all.

you can't tell because i managed to snap this picture fast enough but i almost didn't get a shot of the real life goats because the little one in the green collar kept mounting his sister for a hump session.  shame on you goats... think of the children.

if i keep dawdling posting the rest of our meijer gardens photos you'll be looking at them every day next week so here's a huge camera dump with the rest of our excursion.  these were taken at the farm garden, but my real favorite part of meijer gardens is their sculpture park.  check out how amazing some of this art is.  they obviously have one hell of a curator.  like i said, i got pretty camera happy.

steve is rocking out with keith haring.

 

the two above were done by one of my favorite artists, jim dine.  i had to get a picture with one.

donnie darko?

love this shot of steve!!

my favorite sculpture in the park!  it's called "the neuron" by artist roxy paine.

isn't it cool???

another one of my favorites.

ok so now that i've finally gotten all the pictures of meijer gardens out i can start showing you guys all exciting stuff we have coming up!!  highlights of what we are looking forward to include:

1.  my mom's birthday is monday!  can't wait for yummy dinners and celebrating!

2.  our buddy erick is coming to town all they way from seattle next weekend!  hope you're ready, ann arbor!

3.  we are spending the following weekend on a private beach on lake michigan at the cottage my parents rent each year.  one of my favorite places in the world!!

4.  secret stuff i can't tell you, but i promise you'll hear soon(ish)!  shhh!

5.  we are moving in together in august!  did you forget?  we sure haven't!  we're so excited!

hope your weekend is full of as many exclamation points as this post!!!!

dear summer 2013, we like you a lot!!!

happy things

i mentioned yesterday that my car is in a rough situation.  the other day my boss, and my boss's boss were both out sick (which makes 2/3 people in our 3 person marketing department).  i kind of felt like a doggy paddle swimmer being pushed in to the deep end of the pool.  steve's stress level is through the roof due to the process of coordinating job interviews with four different companies at the moment (between, you know, 17 credits, and his 20 hour work week). on whole it's been a less than awesome week.

so to try and shake off the "it's-been-snowing-straight-through-the-first-two-days-of-spring" blues i'm going to share some happy things!

1.  steve's interview today went excellently and he has a tentative follow up in a couple weeks!  hooray!

2.  i finally relinquished self-control and made myself a huge bucket of buttery air popped popcorn and it was awesome.

3.  hopeful fortune cookies. 

4.  danny devito and rhea perlman are back together!  (can amy poehler and will arnett make this a double case of  celebrtiy awesome sauce please?)

5.  funny postcards from my sister.

6.  after many years i have finally mastered the "messy bun" hairdo. (the secret: you need really long hair).

7.  i have 4 awsesome new items to list in the vintage shop.

8.  i finally got my w2 from my old employer so i can actually finish my taxes.

9.  steve's car still works so i haven't had to use public transportation yet.

10.  i successfully didn't break or lose anything on st. patrick's day.

so really there's a lot to be happy about here.  and it's only a day and a half to the weekend so i think we're going to make it!  and of course, you know, these two guys make me super duper happy every single day, no matter how poopy it is.