Thanksgiving, Thai Food, and Tackling Home Repairs

Today I'm thankful:
1. that I got to visit with a beautiful black kitten before going to work – I just hope someone takes it in
2. for all the heavy rain last week. Even though other places were flooded, we really needed all that rain here
3. that we're able to finally start looking at homes after 6 years of apartments and dorms (it's weird to think I started college that long ago)
4. for our Realtor who seems friendly, funny, and laidback – and not like a pushy salesperson at all
5. that I get to go to Birmingham this weekend to celebrate my mother's birthday, and visit with my family

Last night I decided to make a dish I saw in my Rachael Ray magazine. The picture looked good, there were no ingredients listed that I don't like, and Z likes Chinese. So I decided to go for it. It was Coconut Curry Chicken. I bought all the ingredients and planned to make it for some day when I had a little extra time. Yesterday we got to the gym about 45 minutes earlier than usual, so I decided, tonight's the night.

I trim chicken (ew) and start cooking the rice. Next I open up my new spices, five spice and curry powder. I don't think I've ever cooked with curry before, and it smells pretty strongly, but I don't think too much about it. Next I cut the chicken in strips and toss with five spice, salt, and pepper. Meanwhile I heat olive oil and cook the curry for a minute, then add the coconut milk and cook until reduced by half. The smell got much more intense. I looked over at Z who seemed to be turning a little green. The same color as the curry and coconut milk. Hmm. I start to sauté the chicken. OK, the chicken looks good. Add the curry and coconut sauce to the chicken, stir, serve over rice.

Uh, it was not very good. It wasn't necessarily bad. But Z had had a very bad experience at a Thai restaurant once, and apparently that's the dish he'd eaten. (How was I supposed to know? Also, what do I know about Chinese vs. Thai? I thought I was making something he'd really like.) While he was having flashbacks, I was wondering how a dish that had taken an hour to prepare and had used such strong spices could taste sort of bland. It was just kind of disappointing. And the smell was overpowering (it's just a small apartment – the smell went everywhere.) Neither of us finished our plates. I didn't even keep the leftovers (and I don't throw away food.) I ripped the recipe out of the notebook I'd written it in and threw it away.

So tonight I guess we're going to get some new shelving and some plaster to fix my closet. Our apartment people can be difficult to deal with sometimes, so I suppose instead of asking they fix it since it wasn't secure in the first place (see pictures on Facebook of holes in sheetrock, not studs), it's easiest for us to just do it. (They still don't care that our office/guest bedroom is an oven. We suspect it didn't get insulated during repairs from significant tornado damage, but they won't admit anything.)

I'm so looking forward to this long holiday weekend. We're going to repair the closet, and putting stuff back into the closet will give me the chance to pare things down a little. Every changing season or so, I like to go through my clothes, shoes, purses, etc, and see what I can do without, what I don't wear, what's been washed too many times, whatever. Then I take a big trip to the Hannah Home or, if the stuff is still good enough to share and I just don't want it, I take it to an exchange with my family.

Every once in a while, my aunts, cousins, sister, mother, etc, bring clothes, shoes, picture frames, books, anything they don't want or need anymore. We all look through the stuff and take whatever we want and donate the rest. It's a good way to clean out the closets and get a "gently used" new blouse or pair of shoes at the same time. (And since we'll be moving again semi-soon, it's one or two fewer boxes we'll have to pack and lug to the new house.)

Crazy Night

Z and I had the scare of our lives last night.

Two nights ago there was a tragedy in Z's hometown where two people he knew were found shot to death inside their house that was on fire. This has caused us both lots of uneasiness, obviously. We learned about it yesterday morning and have been really on edge about break-ins, security, random acts of violence, etc.

Fast forward to last night. We went shopping and got home around 8:30. We watched the Democratic National Convention, I read the paper, etc. We went to bed around 10:15 and everything was normal.

Not 5 minutes after we laid down, the biggest, loudest crash I'd ever heard jarred us both. My body tensed up and I grabbed Z's arm, terrified. I felt like ice water was running through my veins- the noise had clearly happened in our apartment. Quick side note: our next door neighbors have domestic issues. There have been lots of late night fights, shouting and banging, and once they took it outside in front of our door and ripped the cover off the fire extinguisher box during a scuffle. So, honestly, my first thought was that they had somehow come crashing through our dining room wall (Yes, that's how loud it was). I thought he had shoved her, he was drunk, she was bleeding, all kinds of horrible thoughts ran through my mind. The second thought I had was that the man had perhaps shoved the woman down the stairs outside, because the horrible crashing sounds lasted that long too. It's like the noise just would not stop. Z thought it sounded like 2 or 3 people had just knocked the front door in and were tripping and falling over it, while they rushed into the apartment, SWAT-style.

Of course, all of this took place within 10 seconds, and then Z raced over to the bedroom door, slammed it and locked it. In a panic (really, we were both completely panicked) he looked around for something heavy. There wasn't anything. I suggested he just grab the lamp, which is fairly large. But finally I handed him one of the candlesticks which are sort of heavy. Then he tossed me his cell phone with 911 dialed into it and went out to see who was in our apartment.

It turns out that the 10-foot long upper shelf in my closet (the guest room closet) had collapsed with all my clothes (10 feet is a lot of clothes), boxes of Christmas ornaments, extra books, office supplies, magazines, bills, paystubs, thank you notes, extra buttons, socks, extra toilet paper, extra bathroom supplies (lotion, shampoo), etc., etc., etc. (Remember that this apartment is smaller than our last one, and there's practically no storage. So when we moved in and unpacked, we immediately re-packed non-essential items and stacked them in both closets. "My" closet is actually the closet for the guest bedroom, so it is at the other end of the apartment.) Stuff had flown into the hallway, the guest bathroom, the office, everywhere. I guess it probably gave the people living below us a heart attack.

It took us 30 minutes just to pick things up. The shelf had been completely ripped out of the wall (it was not in any studs). There was sheetrock inside all my shoes and all over my clothes. We could not go back to sleep after that for a very long time. It was very frightening.

It made me start thinking about how random crimes do occur, and it is not a silly thing to worry about. It reminded me of a sermon we heard a few weeks ago about making plans without God. You can plan your life out however you wish, but if you're not seeking God's will it's in vain and doing you no good. You have to talk with God when you're making plans, and with my job and our house situation, we have been doing lots of planning and dreaming and wishing. I have not been seeking God's will as often as I was seeking my own desires, and although last night turned out to be nothing, we both honestly believed an intruder was in our home for a few moments, and no matter what, that will seriously scare you.

Once upon a time, I decided to keep a thanksgiving journal where I listed at least 5 things each day that I was thankful for. Somewhere along the way I stopped, but I'm going to pick it up again because I feel like I have been in a very negative place lately and really need to focus on all the good in my life. Z and I are very blessed and fortunate, and we should really be expressing more gratitude. So I'm starting right now.

Today I am thankful:

1. that no burglar was breaking into my apartment last night

2. for the roof over our heads, 2 perfectly capable cars, 2 jobs with benefits and security

3. for our wonderful, loving, generous families who have given us so much support our whole lives, but especially over the past couple of years when we've gone through so many life changes

4. for kind friends who want to keep in touch with us even though we've moved far away from them

5. that, thanks to Z's new job and kick-butt benefits, my monthly prescription is now only $10 (really, coming from my last job which had crappy benefits, that made my day)

Now, a lot of those were generalities, but my self-imposed rules state that I can't list the same things twice, so from now on I will be getting much more specific, like numero uno. I may not blog about it everyday, but at least in my head, I am going to count my blessings and try to stop dwelling on the things that are less than stellar. I encourage you to do the same today and notice how many great things you've been overlooking.

So far today

It is 7:45. We just got home from the gym. I already have laundry going, the dishwasher is washing, I went to the grocery store immediately after work and got home in time to throw on my workout clothes. My shins hurt, my back hurts, my sports bra is too tight. I am hungry. I don't feel like going into the kitchen to make tacos. Also, I want to take a shower but don't want to stand. Don't want a bath. Ugh. I am hungry.

I guess the tacos won't make themselves.

This Morning

Well, today didn't quite get started the way we'd planned. The church we've been going to has pretty early traditional services, so we go at 8:15. We arrive this morning though to see that all services had been cancelled due to a power outage (thanks, Fay). So, we decide to go try out the new IHOP in Prattvegas. Well, it's not open yet. There are 3 Waffle Houses here, and we drove to each one but found each one to be entirely too crowded. We were up for a quick bite to eat, but not a 30 minute wait for one. We also tried Cracked Barrell, but their power was out too. So, we came back home, and I started lunch sort of early. I'm making parmesan oven fried chicken, wild rice, and garlic cheese biscuits. Nice comfort food for a cool, wet Sunday.

We're still planning on meeting with the realtor though.

Seeking Permanence in Prattvegas

Well, semi-permanence anyway. Today is a big day - we are meeting with a (not-yet-our) real estate agent for a trial run and to view some houses. We gave him a list of our musts and our sure-would-be-nices, and he sent us several very reasonable houses to visit. We'll be meeting up with him today after church, if Tropical Storm Fay approves, to see the houses. Even though it's a little soon for us to be seriously talking about buying a house, we do plan on letting our soon-to-be agent see what exactly we want, what we can live without, and what we won't accept. Our goal date to own a house is Nov. 1 because our lease here is up Nov. 15. We'll see how it goes.

TGIF

Seriously.

Playing Catch Up

It's been too many days since I've posted anything, but I have just not had the time for anything extra lately. Quick catch-up: last Friday the lawn service at work broke my windshield. That night Z and I had a great dinner at Carraba's and shopping at Kohl's. Unfortunately, they really only had fall/winter clothing, so it's all sweaters, etc. Saturday Z's parents came over to visit. We went to Ryan's for lunch (it was yucky) went to a flea market (even yuckier) then to the giant mall in the big city. Good times. That night Z and I spontaneously decided to go to Six Flags the next day. You have to understand that there was no room for spontanaiety before - law school, constant studying, prior commitments, bar exam, more studying, etc. Anyway, the decision itself was exciting. The trip was even better. Somehow, we had never been to Six Flags together, so it was lots of fun to be there. Also, whenever we do something fun, like a trip or vacation, we're usually with family or friends, so it was great to just spend the day together, alone. We "swung by" my house on the way home from Atlanta to see all the upgrades their making to the house. New granite countertops installed last week - they look great. We didn't get home that night until about midnight, which made for a very sleepy start to the work week. This week has been about the same in level of boredom, underappreciation, and frustration. But I'm trying to stay a little more positive about it (or at least not voice my negative feelings) because it only makes me feel worse. I'm still looking for other things, and even holding out for things I'd applied to before. Time-wise this week I've been going crazy. Each night has been so busy. Since we commute, and don't work in Prattvegas, it's sort of late when we both get home from work. Then we change clothes and go to the gym. By the time we get home and I start cooking dinner, it's usually about 7:00 or 7:30. That means the kitchen is not cleaned up before 8:30, and if there's anything else we needed to do, we better hurry. Last night we didn't start eating until about 8:30, and I had to make a banana pudding for a party tonight. So, besides when I sat down to eat dinner, I didn't get off my feet until 10:15 when I fell in bed. Maybe that doesn't sound so bad to some of you, but I need my 8 hours, or at least close to it. I get up really early in the morning (always have) because I like to have plenty of time and not feel rushed, so I'm really tired by the end of a work week.

This weekend will be a busy one too: tonight we have a work party with Z's people. Saturday we are going to Tuscaloosa to visit with (in this order) Z's aunt and uncle who will be in town from N.C., my friends from my old job (yay!), and then my other great friend who we left behind. She has a new boyfriend that we haven't met, so that should be fun. That will be alllllllllll day long, but it will be worth it. I haven't seen any of them in a long time.

I guess I should go finish getting ready for work now, but I have to give that update before I forgot again. Now I just need to find the time to catch up on reading everyone else's blogs!