Ramblings

Today I'm thankful because:
1. Today is Z's birthday!

2. I had a lovely conversation with my friend from my old job. It makes the morning go by so much faster when you take a personal call at work. I miss her.

3. It has been a beautiful day!

4. Yesterday when I left work, I drove to the lake house instead of straight home, to see just how long it would take me. Ten minutes flat. It usually takes me 20-25 minutes to get to the apartment, partly because I have to drive 6 miles more on the interstate, but also because after I exit the interstate, I sit in traffic and battle throngs of cars and multitudes of red lights. But going to the lake house, there's an exit created only for that highway, so you exit and have NO stops or turns or lights for about 5 miles. There is one large intersection, but that is the only red light. Other than that, it's a four-lane highway, and you can just GO HOME.

5. After almost 8 weeks, my hair is finally at the length it was before I got the haircut I didn't like. Now I'm officially growing it long again. Of course, it's barely chin-length now, so maybe in three years. I wish, wish, wish it could be as long and beautiful as my friend's that I spoke to this morning. Her hair is gorgeous.


It is 3:08 and I am just now beginning to write. That means I've been slightly busier than normal today, but not a great deal, and not busy doing work – I've been making lists about the lake house. I think I've mentioned before how I can't live without my lists. OK, so I admit I'm a little obsessive about them, but they honestly help me. If I have a good idea for something in the future, I might forget it unless I write it down. So far, I've made lists about all the things we'll have to buy that we never had to consider before (like a refrigerator), all the things I've never retrieved from home (including the antiques I got from my father's estate, and my wedding china which has been safe and sound instead of moving around with us), plants we've discussed putting in the yard, and decorating ideas we've had about the house (like which colors we like for each room and where I'd like to put which pictures). I'm a list freak.

As I mentioned above, it is Z's birthday. He doesn't really seem to care about his birthday, but especially this year. He told me the other day that he forgot his birthday was coming up because all he can do is think and worry and stew about the bar exam results, which we get in 3 days. I happen to love my birthday. Of course, getting too excited about things like that just lead to disappointment, like my birthday this year. It was the day we were driving home from the beach, a couple of days after Z's law school graduation and the day before I threw my friend a baby shower and resigned from work. It was two days before we moved. It was a stressful time, and then we wound up going to Z's parents' house to borrow their truck to help with the move. So there we sit, after a long drive, on my birthday, in his parents' living room listening to his dad yell (literally) about how we wants to sue the mayor of his city over lumber on his own property. It's a long story. But, anyway, I felt like my birthday was ruined. It was absolutely the very last way I wanted to celebrate my birthday. (Although later that night Z gave me my gifts. He'd gotten me some of our wedding china and a beautiful magazine rack/table I'd registered for.) Anyway, I guess Z's better off not expecting anything out of his day. That way it's just a regular day. We got up this morning, I gave him his gifts (a picture he wanted for his office and new sunglasses to replace the ones that got ruined at Six Flags), he went to work early to finish a project, we will go to the gym tonight, then we'll have beef tips and rice for dinner. Exciting, I know.

Sometimes I complain about the kids around here, but the cutest little boy (OK, not really. "My boys" I babysat for are totally cuter. See my wedding pictures on Facebook for proof.) just came up to ask me to buy cookie dough for his school. I'm a big believer in buying that stuff even if I don't necessarily want/need it. It's for a good cause, right? And sometimes it's free, because at my old office, some woman sold me popcorn from her son's boy scouts troop, and she must have lost my check, because it never cleared the bank. But the popcorn sure was good…

OK, I totally forgot to mention this yesterday, but how gross is this? I walked into the bathroom yesterday and sitting on top of the toilet paper dispenser was a small tube of something. I thought to myself: someone has accidentally left something sitting here. What is it? I looked closer (although thank God I didn't touch it). It was a tube of anti-fungal cream. Seriously. I turned around and practically ran to the desk of my friend where we proceeded to try to use deductive reasoning to find out who it belonged to. I'm pretty sure we guessed the culprit.

I have to vent for a second. Even though keeping this blog does help me to get some stress out and express some creativity, the purpose of me starting it was because I was moving away from some very good friends, and they all wanted me to "keep in touch." Everyone kept telling me that they wanted to hear from me, talk to me, see me, visit with me, etc. I knew that if we didn't try hard to keep in touch, we wouldn't be friends anymore. Everyone has had friendships that were great, but eventually life causes them to just fizzle. (How many of your "best friends" from college do you really talk to, not just keep up with through Facebook?) So I told them I was going to keep this blog and they could read it to know what's going on in my life. This way I wouldn't have to tell the same stories a hundred times, forget who I told them to, inadvertently leave people out of the loop, etc. I for one would love it if more of my friends kept blogs so I could know what was going on in their lives. So imagine my disappointment when, from some of my friends, I hear those vague questions like, "So what's new with you?" Uh, really? Or, "So, what ever happened with that house you liked a few weeks ago?" Or, my personal favorite, "Has Z taken the bar yet?" Seriously? I thought you wanted to keep in touch. (Sidebar: if you're reading this, I'm clearly not talking about you.) Anyway, it isn't that I didn't want my friends to call me and actually talk to me – I'm not being anti-social or trying to prevent conversations. I was trying to make it easier for you to not just forget about me once I moved away. I want all of my friends, old and new, to be in my life and know what is going on in my life. So, if you do read this entry, although you obviously haven't read any others in at least 2 months, don't stop calling me or emailing me. Just know that I am not keeping you out of the loop – it's all right here!