Is It Really Spring?!

It's about time for some great weather wouldn't you say?! It's great! Loving it while it lasts! We've all been complaining about the cold for so long that I think we've almost forgotten that being outdoors can feel this good.

My move in date is slowly becoming final. I'm going to sign my lease tomorrow, and am setting my move in date for just about 2 weeks from now. It's almost hard to believe that I'll finally have my own place again after 2 1/2 years of living with people. Roommates can be great, even when you have 7 of them all in the same house. But there comes a time when having your own space is important. Needless to say, I'm overjoyed about getting out of the parental roof again. We just get along better when we live at least 30 miles away from each other. There's that whole concept of "you can't go back home once you've tasted life on your own" at work here - big time! I know they mean well, but we are 3 very different personalities with 2 extremely different views on just about everything. It doesn't exactly make for a very "Leave it to Beaver" household atmosphere ya know.

Work is busy. It probably won't be slow until the end of our season actually, so it's good. I'm getting my feet wet with lots of good experience in a lot of different areas, so it's good. By the time I'm ready to move on in 3 or 4 years I should have lots of great resume boosters from this job. Who said I would never be able to make a living doing something I enjoy?!

Life seems to be slowly falling into place. Who would have thought it would have taken this long?! (HA!) Life is good. I guess that certain someone from my past who I looked to for advice and open arms was right - "Relax, it's only life after all!" Once again, his advice has proven itself worthy and true. If only he was willing to look at what and who I've become. What would he say if he knew that I no longer needed his advice or his open arms? We may never know.

What to do with a Day Off?

I have the day off of work today and it's been a good mix of productivity and slackerdom. I've been torn between the two actually. Should I take advantage of the opportunity to get something done (such as packing for the coming move), or should I just relax and enjoy it while I'm not dealing with the craziness that work was last week and is going to be for the next couple of weeks? Tough questions! I think I've found a happy medium between the two. I took advantage of this AWESOME weather outside and cleaned the inside of my car. De-trashed, dusted, vacuumed & fabric refreshed! If only the outside looked as clean. Too bad there's rain coming this week. I've also packed up some clothes and books. And managed to do a little bit of absolutely nothing in between. I think I'll spend the rest of the afternoon & evening doing as little as possible. My next day off of work may not be until April 10th...and that will very possibly be my move in day to the new place! :0) Anywho, just thought I'd curb a little boredom with a post to my 2 adoring fans out there....somewhere.

Maybe tonight I'll be in the mood to sit down and write some much overdue letters. (Sarah & Rodolfo - you guys have first dibs.)

Sunday Quote Blogging

"And I'm trying to understand myself
and pinpoint where i am
By the time I get things figured out
I've change the whole damn plan...
Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably reget soon
I've changed my mind so much I cant even trust it
My mind changed me so much I cant even trust myself."

Modest Mouse
"Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset"
from This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About LP

A Great Day!!!

Yes, today was awesome! Work was productive. I pumped out about 12 pages or so in the new handbook. That may not sound like a whole lot, but considering what I'm working to improve - 12 pages is a huge step. I'm working my butt off to get it done by next week so it's ready for our seasonals when they start in another week. So it felt good to get a good chunk of it done.

We got part of our clothing order in today at work. Part of my school house outfit came it. Talk about puffy sleeves!!! Damn, this shirt is funny as hell! I love it! I feel like Anne of Green Gables. PUFFY SLEEVES!!! It's great! Can't wait for the rest of it to come in!

And the big news for the day: I was approved for my appartment today! Not that I was worried about passing my credit check, but ya never know for sure what they'll say. And so - I finally have a home!!!! I'll get with my boss this coming week to figure out scheduling and when would be the best day(s) for me to take off for the offical move in. So I don't know when I'll be moving yet, but I'd imagine that I'll be calling someplace home within the next week and a half or so. YEAH!!!! A new home!!! How cool is that?! I'm so excited to have my own space again! However small and modest it may be, it'll be my own space. I'm so ready for that. Woo Hoo!

And yes, it's Easter weekend. Tomorrow I'm planning on hanging out with Randy at his place, and I think he has some friends who are planning on coming over too, so it should be a good time. I promised that I'd make my famous cookies again for them tomorrow too. I've been hassled by Randy & Casey for over a week now about making them cookies...boys - their not happy unless their tummies are happy sometimes.

Then Sunday Randy & I have 2 family dinners to go to, both of which are his family. My family failed to let me in on when and where even though I've been told through the grapevine that I'm imvited...whatever. The grapevine just isn't good enough anymore. Let me know - I'm done coming to them for every family event. The ball's in their court, and they've dropped it at this point. And so, I'm looking forward to a more relaxing holiday than the insane Christmas Randy & I had this year. And to make it even better, our 2 stops are just around the corner from each other! Sweet!

Well that's all for this edition folks. Time for dinner and a beer to celebrate my new coming home! Guess I should get finshed packing ey? :0)

2 Weeks of Craziness!

Well, I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be up for in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll find the time, but things at work will be insane these next couple of weeks. I have meetings out the wazoo, the handbook has to be finished by next Friday, we have interviews coming up next week, and oh yeah, more meetings. Should be a fun filled couple of weeks to test my time management and multi-tasking skills. I hope they haven't left me since college...or since my job in California for that matter. I'm sure things will go smoothly and get done in time, but it'll be hectic.

In other news, got into it with my mother again this evening. Why is it that the people who should have faith in me and my abilities - my family - have nothing but negativity and lack of faith in me? I would be nice, just for once in my career to feel like I'm being supported by them. I feel supported by so many other people. Why can't my own fucking parents support me in my choices? Instead they attempt to make me feel as though they don't think I can pull anything off, like I'm incompetent and will never be successful in their eyes. Well fuck that! As far as I'm concerned, I am successful in my career and in my life. I've worked my butt off to make my life what I want it to be, and it's getting there. Since college, I haven't had a single job that I haven't enjoyed and loved. How many Americans can say that for themselves? I finally have a permanent job that I enjoy! I've paid my dues in my field and they have finally paid off for me. And I have wonderful people in my life who love and support me...it's just a shame that those people don't include my own family. My version of success is obviously far from my parents version. And that's fine I guess, but it would be nice for to at least be happy for me and show me a little support from time to time. I mean, I am their only child and all. It shouldn't be that difficult for them. Sometimes I feel more at home with Randy's family than I do with my own. At least they support me and have faith in my abilities - and they've only known me for 6 months or so! And Shannon's family has supported me from day 1! Why can't my own family step up and run with it too? It's just frustrating is all. I'm thankful for all of the friends and family (non-blood) that have stood behind me thus far and I have some amazing people in my life. It's time I embrace them more and take a step back from those who don't. At this point my life, the last thing I need is negativity holding me back.

Sunday Qoute Blogging

"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy."
Milan Kunder
Novelist from the Czech Republic

A Busy Weekend Indeed!

It has indeed been a busy weekend. My boss & I left for the conference on Thursday, got really lost thanks to horrible directions on the brochure, but eventually made it to our hotel in time for a St. Patty's day dinner & some green beer. The conference started Friday morning. It was good. Lots of good seminars that will be useful to me in this job. And it was a great place to start making some great contacts in this field as well. There were lots of good people there. Some weird ones, sure, but good people overall. (Lets face it, a lot of history people are really weird...so I should fit in pretty well I think.)

I got to learn about 19th Century Courtship, Ways of dealing with Interpreting Religion at a Historic Site, 19th Century PJs, & lots of other cool stuff. It was cool to hear about other sites & what their doing & how their going about it. But it also made me realize how good our programs are at the Metroparks. We are fortunate enough to have a strong base of public support in both funding & attendance of our programs. This conference helped me realize that not all history sites are that lucky.

Yesterday my boss & I got lost again on the drive home, but it was a definite cool thing. We ended up driving a ton of back country roads through some major Amish Country. It was awesome! It sparked so many weird & random thoughts that probably never cross the minds of any normal person. We ate lunch surrounded by Amish & people of some other religious sect that wasn't quite Amish, but we didn't know what exactly they were. German Baptist maybe. It sparked lots of questions & I'm a dork, so I'm ready to do some research on my own to satisfy my own curiosity's. It bought a book about Amish Culture to dig into as soon as I'm done with Bob Dylan's Chronicles. I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into it!

But I must say, it's good to be home again. Looking forward to a day of doing nothing and enjoying it.

A Long Weekend Ahead

It's been a few days since I've blogged. I leave tomorrow with my boss for a conference. Won't be back until sometime Saturday night. Lots of dorky fun seminars to go to. It's gonna be great! I love being a dork when it pays off in the form of getting to go to fun stuff like this with other dorks. So I'll be away from the computer until Sunday so my 1 loyal fan will have to survive without a blog until then...Sorry.

In other news, I think I've found an apartment. It's small...okay, really small. But the rent is cheap, it has nice features, it's a nice area, and it's not a terribly long drive in to work. Right now, I think I need to concentrate on getting back on my feet financially. So I'd rather save some money with a small apartment than pay another $50 bucks a month for a little more space. There's nothing that says I can't move into a larger place at the end of my lease (although I'd rather stay put in 1 place, it'd be better to save the money now & move later if I want to). It has the bathtub requirement covered...& it's a newer one so it's not all gross from 30 years of use. Newer appliances too. I haven't signed a lease yet, but I think I'll take it if I when I pass the credit check & all that fun stuff. It's a cool place. Grocery store basically across the street, public library a block or so away. Easy access to the highway. And their working on updating one right now, so I couldn't move in for a month or so, which is fine - gives me something to look forward to without feeling too rushed. And it gives me some more time to get some savings built up for those first few months of rent payments. So we'll see. If I get it I'll be really excited!!! I can't wait to have my own space again. I've been lucky in the sense that I've had some great roommate experiences (& even luckier in the sense that I still get along with all but 1 of my old roommies...sometimes there's nothing like living together to ruin a perfectly good friendship). So I'm glad for my roommate experiences. But it's just time to have my own place for a while. I loved it last time! Can't wait to love it again!

So I guess that's it for now. I need to get packing for my trip this weekend. I'll blog some more on Sunday if I'm too tired. Sunday Quote Blogging may be all you get this weekend. Have a great & responsible St. Patty's Day everyone!!!!

Sunday Quote Blogging

"It seemed peculiar. Living under a cloud of fear like this robs a child of his spirit. It's one thing to be afraid when someone's holding a shotgun on you, but it's another thing to be afraid of something that's just not quite real. There were a lot of folks around who took this threat seriously, though, and it rubbed off on you. It was easy to become a victim of their strange fantasy."
~ Bob Dylan
"Chronicles" (autobiography)

Dylan is referring to the McCarthyism era of American history following WW2. Describing the fear of Communism, the fear of Russians that was pumped into him as an elementary school student. We'd like to think that things have changed since then. But have they really? Not so much in my opinion. The name has changed - now it's "Terrorism" in place of "Communism" - but the pumping of fear is still running rampid. It seems as though you can't turn on the TV, radio, open a newspaper, or even just drive down the road without being bombarded with a culture of fear that America has embraced.

Oh Give Me A Home...

I did some calling about apartments yesterday and was quickly discouraged. Many of my calls resulted in apartments well above my price range. I looked at an efficiency before lunch and extremely disappointed. It was less than half the size of my previous efficiency & about $40 more a month than that place. And it was furnished. I already have furnishings & I'd like to actually use them rather than keep them in storage forever. What's the point of having them if I can't use them right? Not the place for me. I'd rather have a 1 bedroom. I don't need a ton of space, but I'd like to be comfortable with enough room for the next 3 or 4 years.

I looked at a 1 bedroom yesterday too. This 1 I really liked! It was away from all of the college housing in town. In a nice residential, quiet area. An old house that has been turned into 4 rental units. It was 2nd floor unit, which means it'd be warmer than most of my other apartments I've had - gotta love heat!!! Lots of windows to let in lots of natural light - another big bonus! Wood floors with a big piece of area carpet in the living room to keep my bare feet happy. The kitchen had lots of cabinet & counter space! Good closet space & nice sized bedroom. And it's close to downtown BG - about a 5 minute walk. Close to the Library & my favorite coffee house. But far enough away from downtown to not have to deal with the weekend bar frenzy of a college town - unless of course I choose to. (But I wouldn't have to worry about driving home if I go out to the bars). And it's on the west side of town which means it would 5 minutes off of my drive to work - 15 minutes to get to work. Lots of cool things about this place. And the landlord seemed very nice & easy to get along with. An older Grandmother type of women, but very nice.

Sounds great eh? My only concern is this - the bathroom. The bathroom is kind of smaller than I'd like, but I can deal with that, no big Deal. What is a big deal for me is the shower. It's a stand up shower - no bathtub. It seemed larger than most stand up showers which is nice. But I don't know if I can live for 3 or 4 years without a bathtub. I like having the option of taking a nice hot, relaxing bath at the end of a day. I liked everything else about the place so the question is - can I live with a stand up shower for the next few years?

I'll keep looking for now. But I'll keep this place in mind as a back up. Why does looking for an apartment have to be such a pain in the butt? Am I being too picky? Should I be picky if I want to spend 3 or 4 years in the same apartment? I think so.

Apartment Hunting Away!

Well I have a 4 day weekend starting today. Which means that I'm going to start the apartment hunting today. I bought a BG newspaper last night with some good apartment listing to check into. Hopefully they can fit me in for a look at some apts today. I'm excited to get into a new place - which means that I'm excited to start looking at apts! I've been looking on the internet & newspapers at ads for long enough. It's time to get in there & see what I can get for my budget (which isn't that big, but it should be enough to live on).

Randy & Casey had kind of a boys night last night. Because I'm going apt searching today, starting in BG rather than MI is easier, so I got to crash it. But I made up for it by keeping my femaleness out of their way for the most part. And I made them cookies! My Peanut Butter Choc. Chip cookies seem to have become pretty famous. This is 2 batches in a week now! They may have to become my signiture dessert if they get any more popular.

Anywho - I should get a start on the day. Time to et some food & get searching for that perfect (& affordable)apartment. Wish me luck!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Man oh man...the life of a employeed person is busier than I remember. Starting right about now, work is going to be various forms of craziness until the end of the season in October. That's good I guess. I'm finally getting to some more interesting parts of my rewriting the seasonal employee handbook. It's more interesting simply because I'm actually getting do the initial writing on some of the things that should be included and aren't yet. What can I say - I like having artistic liberty. It's a good ego booster. And in other news, my boss told me today that he's putting me & the other newby in charge of handing the history department's end of a joint event we're having this summer with some other local non-profits. We have a meeting tomorrow for it. Nothing like trial by fire. Should be a good time...and a good challenge.

In other news, I bought a new thing of yarn & size bigger crochet neddle tonight. I'm kind of getting the urge to give it another go. I checked out a couple of how to web sites this evening. But they were all confusing as all hell, so I don't know how well I'll actually do. Consider this pot holder attempt #7...or so. I may actually see it through & move on to something more difficult or I may end up cursing myself for giving it another go. Only time will tell.

I'm starting the serious apartment search at last. I think I'm going to look for something in the BG area, but there are a couple of management companies here I'd like to avoid (and they own half the town, so it makes it difficult). We'll see what I can find in my price range. If I can't find anything, I may end up closer to Toledo. Let the madness begin!

What can I say - not too much excitement going on here at the moment. Just work, Randy, & whatever else comes my way.

Sunday Quote Blogging

"i see a nihilist phrase "if it begins...it will grow weary." and want to congradulate the author for predetermining their own destination. they are free to choose, and yet i am saddened to see that they still blindly follow the path towards annilation. No, not blindly! they take this path, as if with a ferver, as is the path to their civilized mass destruction is the only choice available to them. preticting their decline and then working so heartily to achieve their goal. i want to grab them, to shake some reality into them. reveal that they have chosen their own fate - it has not been chosen for them! you predict your conclusion, and you have chosen death. well then, i must leave you to follow your route to your chosen isolation and eventual destruction. for you have defined your own void of desolation. and while I say "if it begins...let it grow" you rejoice in your love of isolation and your love of misery. i say strive for the paths to your own truth. escape your darkened veil of self-determined desolation."
~Sam Rosenthal
"the first pain to linger"

From MySpace to Blogger

I finally did it! At last! MySpace finally has irritated me for the last time! Too many kinks still need to be worked out of that blog host for me to be a happy blogger. And so it was time to take matters into my own hands and switch to Blogger. Here's hoping I'll enjoy blogging here more than at MySpace! (And I think I will, considering I know a few people who use this site and haven't heard them talk poorly of it.)

So, where to start? Well, this is week 3 of work on the new job. And it's been a good week thus far. My boss and I took a road trip yesterday. This summer the department is doing a program that involves taking a charter bus load of people down the route of the old Miami & Erie Canal. It's an overnight trip, and it'll be a blast for all involved we hope. But it involves mass amounts of planning before hand, as you can imagine. So yesterday, my boss & I did a dry run of the trip, or at least as much of the route as we could fit in to a work day. He drove and I took anally retentive notes on timing to get from point A to B, cool canal sites to stop at & talk about, things that came up that we should research & look into further. It was a long day in the car, but it was cool to see first hand some of the things I've been talking to park visitors about for the past 3 summers. Put things into perspective a bit.

I think I'm finally almost completely recovered from my head cold I was dealing with this past weekend. It was really only bad for a day & 1/2 or so, but I'd much rather be healthy than even kinda sick. Randy is battling a pretty bad case of sickness right now. I tried to be a good girlfriend & take care of him last night. Cooked him dinner and tried to make him comfy. It sucks to feel horrible, and it sucks when there's not really a whole lot you can do to make someone feel less horrible. Hopefully his antibiotics will be kicking in by tomorrow for him.

Not really a whole lot going on really...just figured I should post a blog to see how I like my new blog host. More exciting news to come shortly I hope.