.

i'm back...

Here we are, back online. It's a little ghetto right now with a lot of broken picture links and stuff. But online with problems I guess is better than not online at all!

I have never felt so white in my whole life

Now for those who don't understand, we moved to South Phoenix. South Phoenix is a mainly Hispanic area of town. Now, I am used to mixed neighborhoods and different cultures, but I am still a (REALLY) white girl no matter where I live. Ghetto or barrio. And after last night, there is no denying that. I went to the Kmart across the street from our house and I literally was the only white person in the store. I am not exaggerating. Believe me, if I saw another white person, I would mention it. I just felt like a freak. I was getting all sorts of strange looks. I wasn't acting differently or anything, but I felt very uncomfortable. It's strange to be on the flip side of that. I am sure that is how minorities (for lack of a better word that would sum it up) feel on a regular basis. I feel very comfortable in our neighborhood, despite the strange looks we get, but last night was the first time I've ever experienced something like that.

augh

We moved.
We slept in our house for the first time on Saturday night. I was not a restful sleep. Dogs barking. It just felt weird too. Last night was much better.
I am sick of looking at boxes. I just want it to all be unpacked. I hate feeling like I am living out of a suitcase, or camping - as Chris called it. I sorta set up the bathroom and the bedroom so that we can function, but other than that, we are roughing it. Plus, the cable and internet did not get turned on Saturday like it was supposed to. There is some filter on the line, blah blah blah. They told me that no one needed to be at the house, but apparently the cable guy came to the house on Saturday and no one was home. Well, duh! Whatever. They are coming back on Friday to set it all up and now we have to pay for installation, depending on what they have to do. Bastards. I hate Cox Cable.
I have bruises all over. I bruise so easily. I hardly carried anything, compared to Chris, but I am still hurting. My back was spasming last night and that was neat.
I am so out of it. I just want all this to be over.

good song

I may have been consumed with the move and the house lately, but don't think that I've forgetten about my other favorite blogging subject.
Go here and check out the new Rob Thomas album and listen to the track called Steetcorner Symphony. Think to yourself, "Gee, that guitar playing is really great. I wonder who is playing on that track?" I have your answer. But you can probably already guess, since I am bringing it up in the first place. Yup, Johnny boy. John Mayer. And my favorite part, no mention of featuring John Mayer or anything like that. He just lends his talent and doesn't care about the credit. That's awesome. Here's what Rob Thomas said about the song: "It was written by myself and Matt Serletic, my producer and friend. John Mayer played guitar on it. I think John is one of the most talented guitar players in popular music today. He's such a great singer and songwriter and when you see his live show he tears it up. We both happen to live in the city and we were at a dinner and I said, "Hey you want to come play on my record?" He was like "Yeah, sounds great." It's nice when there aren't managers and labels and people trying to cram artists together so it can be marketed like "featuring this and this guy and this guy."

it's so close now I can feel it

I can feel it in my head. My headache.
We are moving all the big stuff in a UHAUL on Saturday. Thank God Chris has people helping him, because I've already told him that I am not carrying anything down the stairs. I told him I think we should've hired movers. We said that after we moved in over two years ago. But he thinks he can handle it. I almost don't even want to be there while they are moving the stuff, because I don't think I can handle watching someone walk backwards down the stairs carrying the coach or whatever. Plus, the boxes are heavy. They are gonna kill themselves carrying that junk. It's stressing me out. But I am trying to not let it. I will just not watch. But apparently my parents are gonna help too. We wanted to borrow my dad's truck to do some extra moving after we are done with the UHAUL and when I asked my dad, he said that he wanted to help move. Cool. And then my mom is gonna meet us at the house to help get some stuff set up there. That's cool too. The more help the better.
I am going over to the house today to clean the floors before we bring over the big stuff.
We still have to hang most of the blinds. The HUGE blinds for the front window came the other day. We had to special order them and FedEX attempted to deliver them, but we were obviously not there. So we had to go over to the FedEX place and pick them up. Mind you, these blinds are almost 8 feet long, but with the box it's about 10 feet. We somehow managed to get them into our Kia. Again we got to say, "You'd be surprised how much you can fit in a Kia." So after we move in we gotta get all those blinds hung. Right now there is nothing on the windows, but we don't have anything there really. Once our junk is there, we need to cover those windows.
This house is running my life!

I'm pooped.

I like finding things on other people's blogs and then using them on mine. Like the new mood indicator. I like that.
So, I am at work today and it does seem like a relief to be here. We worked so hard on the house all weekend and it's nice to have a break. I am only here until noon today (I am working a half day.), but it is a nice little break. I am really worn out, but I feel sort of refreshed right now. I hope that I can keep up this mood and get out of the sleepiness. I am planning on getting caught up on life today. I have dishwasher and a sink full of dishes that have been there for I cannot remember how long. That's not a good thing when you can't remember when the last time you did dishes. We have been eating fast food all week. It's not that we don't have food in the frig, it's just that fast food is well, fast. Plus, when we are at the house, we have no food there. Anyway, lets get caught up day! Gotta do laundry - haven't done that in two weeks. Gotta do the checkbook and make sure I am not late on any bills. And I gotta pack. We are officially moving next Saturday. I don't have to have everything packed, because we don't have to be out of the apartment until May 1. But I would like to have as much stuff packed as possible so that it can be taken over in the truck. I am trying not to feel pressured with the packing, but that's not really working. Chris went and got more boxes so at least now we can really pack. I have a lot done already, but not enough. AUGH! This is ruining my mood.
I will talk about happier things! Chris (almost) finished the painting. We still have to paint the computer room, but we think we can do that after we move in. All the painting that we wanted to have done before we moved in is done. Hooray. I did finish cleaning all the kitchen cabinets and at least the are better than they were. They did not get really clean, but something is better than nothing. We also bought some of our appliances on Thursday. We got our refrigerator and our dishwasher from Sears. We got smokin deals. The frig was on sale and we got the dishwasher, which was already on sale, price matched from Home Depot. Home Depot had the regular price lower than the Sears sale price. Sweet! We got really nice appliances. I am really glad that we were given the money to be able to do that. Otherwise, we would have had to keep the crappy ones that are there or gotten really cheap ones. So, that's really cool. They are going to be delivered on the 22nd. That means we have to live with the frig we have now for about a week. That'll be ok. The dishwasher that's there does not work - or it works, but I would not want to put anything in it. It's so old and gross. I will be so happy when we have new appliances! YEAH!
Also, my mom and pa came over to the house and helped us tremendously yesterday. They came (and brought me flowers for the yard!) and helped carry out a huge pile of trash that had been growing since we got the house. Old curtains, carpet, blinds. A bunch of crap that we had just been throwing into the middle of the room to not deal with. They helped haul it all to the trash. Then my mom used her carpet shampooer and cleaned the two rooms that have carpet. That helped me, I can't even tell you how much. It would have taken me just as long as it took her to clean, to figure out how to work it and do it right. But since it was hers to begin with, she just swooped in and did it. It saves me almost half a day. I was gonna do that next Thursday and now I don't have to. They also hauled away some other trash in their truck and bought me some more cleaning supplies that I was running out of. All of this was so nice of them and we appreciate it so much.
And on a completely different note - yes, maybe we all should think before we post and/or comment on things that we know that people are sensitive about. That might be a good practice.

I blame everyone else, not my own partaking
My passive aggressive-ness can be devastating
I'm terrified and mistrusting and you've never met anyone
Who is as closed down as I am sometimes

- Everything by Alanis Morissette

So, I am passive aggressive, huh? Interesting. I know that is true, but really isn't being passive aggressive better than being aggressive? Whatever. I was upset and chose to deal with it in that way. (here I go again...) We all can't be perfect. I'll stop now because this is definately not the forum for this.

this is what I'm talking about!

.

Family having fun without me!
I've covered the face to protect the innocent. hehe.

and as if that wasn't enough...

As I was leaving work today, I got a message from the apartment complex manager. It said something like this: Your water heater was leaking and flooded the apartment below yours. We had to go into your apartment and shut off the electricity so that we could go into your laundry room and replace your water heater. Some of the things in your laundry room had to be moved so they could get to the water heater and they didn't put everything back, so those things are just stacked around. Call us. Ah, WHAT!?!?!?! Yup. That's really what happened. All the things they moved were piled on top of the washer and dryer. Now, other than having to move the crap to do laundry, this was a blessing in disguise. We had stuff piled all around the water heater for storage and I looked at it all the other day and was dreading having to get down there and clean that all out. Now, I don't have to at least do that. But still, it was the last thing I needed today...

a life less ordinary

Watching the Cameron Diaz's show, Trippin, the other night reminded me of the movie, A Life Less Ordinary. I love that movie. Although the movie has nothing to do with what is happening in my life right now, I think the phrase itself certainly applies. Life seems to be so chaotic, but I am getting used it. I am not a fan of the craziness, but I am slowly trying to catch up with my own life. I am way outside of my "norm" but when I look around, I am really not lacking what I normally have. This might not make sense. I don't think I'm explaining it right, but whatever. Anyway. Blah Blah Blah.
I am bummed that we have so much to do at the house this weekend, because the Phoenix Film Festival is this weekend I would really like to go. This year looks interesting. They are doing a tribute to Kevin Bacon. Who wouldn't want to see that? Plus, they are showing a movie called, Happy Endings with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Lisa Kudrow, that looks decent. I would just want to go mainly because I've never been. And also because it is close to our apartment. Next year it will seem really far from home and out of the way to go. Whatever.
house junk...
Chris spent all weekend prepping the house for paint and painting our bedroom. I had picked this Ralph Lauren paint in a suede texture that looked neat. He bought the paint and when he read the directions and realized he needed twice as much paint that you would normally need. It takes one coat primer and one coat of the paint rolled on and then a second coat of paint brushed on by hand in an X pattern. That gives it the suede look. It took him a long time. He's quite a trooper. He finished the bedroom last night around 9pm and it looks AWESOME! He did such a good job on it. I feel bad that I picked it out without realizing how difficult it would be. But being the former pro-painter that he is, he managed. We (who am I kidding, he's the one painting!) have the rest of the house to still paint, but he is glad that it's just "regular" painting. We are going to do a Mondrian design wall on one of the walls in the computer room. At first we were going to do the whole room that way, but then decided it would be too much. So, we are going to do the wall with the window that you first see when you walk in the room. It will look neat. We went back and forth with ideas of what to do in that room. We wanted to do something different and cool and that's what we finally agreed upon. We (again, lying!) are painting all the other rooms too. (so no, we are not just focusing on the computer room! *wink*wink*) While Chris was painting, I started working on the kitchen cabinets. Those things are so nasty. I can't believe that someone would wash dishes and put them into those drawers and cabinets. I guess you just get used to the filth and don't notice it. I just can't imagine that, though. There was contact paper in the drawers and cabinets with orange and yellow mushrooms on it that probably hasn't even been produced in the last 30 years. It was so old and nasty. I still feel gross after pulling it all off. Plus, some of it was so attached that it pulled off pieces of the wood. The cabinets look like a home made job. The dude that owned our house was a real "do it yourselfer" and installed all sorts of junk by himself. And these cabinets look like that. They are not really even finished. I started to wipe them down and remove 40 years worth of junk and they are basically raw wood. Lovely. We are planning on painting them and it looks like that needs to happen sooner rather than later. I am going to put down some self adhesive tile on the shelves and drawers just so that we can use them. It will be better than contact paper. Contact paper, as far as I'm concerned is useless. I hate it. As much as I love this house, the more I am in it, I wonder why we didn't just get a new house. I think it needs so much cleaning that I don't know what to do. Maybe I am nuts about cleanliness, by I am (hoping, praying) planning on bringing a child into this house and I would like for it to be as safe and sanitary as possible. There is no way that I would bring a child in the way that it is now. I know that once I am finished giving it the cleaning that I want (and plan) to, it will be ok. But until then, I am grossed out by my own home. Actually, I am grossed out by both places I live. My apartment is driving me nuts because it is in a strange place of packed and not packed. Too many packed boxes to function and not enough packed to make me feel ready to move. I have issues. I am also really not wanting to be at work. I just feel like I have so much to do and work gets in the way. I have to keep telling myself that work makes me able to do these things. But that doesn't seem to help. And then talking to half of my family while they are in Disneyland and I am up to my elbows in nasty contact paper doesn't help. Yes, I am glad they had fun. But damn. I am working my ass off and they are at the happiest place on earth. So yes, I am jealous dammit. Can you blame me? Then I get told things like, "If I wasn't going on this trip, I would help you..." And what am I supposed to do with that information? I know it's supposed to be the thought that counts, but when I am so overwhelmed by all this, I do need the help. I'll stop now. I will try not the hold a grudge, but if you know me at all, you will not believe me when I say that. But I love you still...

dry skin

I am so far behind in blogging. Life finally seems to have some meaning now. I have things that need to be done.
We got the house on Good Friday, March 25th. We signed all the papers on Thursday and it took until Friday night to get the keys. The sellers were dragging their feet getting to signing and the title company too their time getting it recorded with the city. And thank god that the closing costs were not out of control. We could actually pay for it all by ourselves. We have not had to borrow money for any of this house stuff and we are really proud of ourselves.
Anyway, we finally got them and then went crazy. We went to Home Depot on Saturday and spent loads of cash. New locks, handles, blinds, etc, etc. Lots of fun. Then we spent the rest of the day starting to clean and replace the locks. Then on Sunday, I went to work, but came home early cause I could. We went to Home Depot again to rent a floor sander. Chris decided he was gonna rip the carpet out of the computer room and leave the floor concrete. So, we rented the sander and went back to the house to rip up the carpet. Then my parents came over to bring cleaning things, like the power washer and they help a lot. They helped rip up the carpet and helped us clean. That was really nice and made life a lot easier. I had been getting so overwhelmed with all that needs to be done, but having them there calmed me down a lot. We stayed at the house until I dropped. Chris took me home and then went back and stayed until like 2am - the crazy fool. We then both had yesterday off and we slept in a little then went to the house and worked some more. Chris put the sealer on the floor, since he had finished sanding it the night before. I power washed the hell out of the house. This is funny. I was cleaning the back patio walls and Chris came out to see how it was going. He was in shock at the lack of power it had. He then looked at the washer and realized that I, being the brilliant one I am, did not have the motor turned on. When he turned it on, it was awesome. That's a lot of power washing power. It took me a lot less time to do the rest of the walls. I did the walls on the back of the house, the car port and most of the front. I couldn't finish washing the front because the window in the computer room was open and the paint was drying on the floor. I then started to clean more windows. The fool that lived in our house was a terrible painter. When he painted the house he made a mess. There is paint all over all of the windows. I have been going at them with a razor blade and scraping the paint away. The difficulty with this is that there are security wrought iron bars on all the windows and they do not open. I know, I know. Fire hazard. Blah blah blah. Anyway. I have to squeeze my hands between the bars and that's a pain in the butt. So yesterday, after Chris painted himself out of the room, we went back to the apartment and vegged. We are both so worn out. I decided I needed to take a break from heavy duty cleaning tonight and just do some minor packing and stuff at the apartment. I know that if I keep up the pace that we have been doing for the last few days, I will not make it to moving day. That's 3 weeks away. I am thankful that we have all this time to get ready to move. I can take these breaks and not really fall behind on getting things done. As far as I'm concerned, there is a lot left that needs to be done so that we can move in (as far as cleaning). But if think we should be able to pull it off. It's still really overwhelming, but I am trying to relax and enjoy it. It did feel good that all the cleaning I was doing was for our benefit. Cleaning the apartment just feels like we are keeping it nice so that we can get our security deposit back. But cleaning the house is totally different. Plus, I loved watering the trees in the front yard yesterday. I was dragging around the hose to each tree - there are 6 or 7 - when I noticed something neat. There were sprinkler heads. I went back to where I had attached the hose and found the things to turn them on and THEY WORK! We have functioning sprinklers. That made my day. Why is that so cool to me? Maybe because they are MY sprinklers? But I think because it will make life a lot easier when we finally put in a yard. I know all the trouble that my father has had with sprinklers in the past, so having functioning ones is neat to me.
ok, shut up.
Damn, I can't. I just realized I never explained the title to this post.
The skin on my hands is so dry from all the cleaning supplies.
Damn, that was anticlimactic.

my crazy life

I just want life to calm down and be normal. Is that too much to ask?

Today is the first day in two days that I can touch my legs without cringing. They are so pink and they still hurt, just not as bad.

Last night was our final walk thru. Final my ass. Aren't the sellers supposed to be there? Were they? No. Nobody home. Just a pile of keys on the kitchen counter. It was a fun game to figure out what key was for what door. We gotta get that place re-keyed. Each door has a different key and we never found the key for the front door. At least they repaired all the things they were supposed to from the inspection. The only thing that is still an issue is that the seller says that the evap cooler DOES work, but we have not been able to get it to work. The seller was supposed to show us how to work it, but that has not yet happened. Our agent said that he was gonna talk to the listing agent to make arrangements for the seller to show us how it works or fix it. That's really frustrating. The air conditioner works too, but the thermostat needs to be replaced. It's tricky to get it to come on. But the air works. That's what matters. We checked everything to make sure it all still works and is in good condition. They are mostly moved out. There are a few things here and there. The car and RV were still in the backyard, but as we were leaving some people came saying they were there to pick up the car. What that told me is that we FO SHOW need to change the locks on the back gate. Cuz we had locked the gate and were in the house. NEAT. We'll get on that. And they (meaning title company and agent) are saying that we should be able to close either today or tomorrow. I don't know why they want to rush it, but they are and I guess that's cool. As long as it's all done correctly, it makes no difference to me when we close. But I still do not know the final amount for our closing costs. I am praying to God that we have the funds. Especially since they are rushing this thru and we won't have a lot of notice to get the money together. That is what is driving my THE MOST crazy. I can't deal with not knowing this. I just wanna scream about it. About the whole thing.

Plus, I am still feeling freakin sick. I woke up coughing like no other last night.

I just want to go home and lay down. But I know that will not happen because we are at the beckon call of the title company. If they call and say it's a go, I have to pick Chris up and go.
WWWWWWWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

thank god for aloe vera

I went to work today, even though I came home sick from work yesterday. I went because I was only scheduled to be there for 4 hours. Today was the day of the spring training baseball game that my team was going to. I really wanted to go and so I decided to tough it out and go. I told myself that I would only go to the game for a little bit. I ended up staying for about 2.5 hours. We were so far away on the lawn seats that you couldn't see a damn thing. The best thing that was going on was this sluty chic in front of us who was hanging all over a group of like 8 guys. She would let them take pictures up her shirt and down her shirt. She clearly had no bra on. She was laying on top of one guy and then hugging on another. She even gave the beer selling guy her phone number. That was much more exciting to watch than the game. After a while though, I just started to feel worse and worse. Being in the heat and the sun blazing down. I totally spaced on the fact that it would be sunny. I had worn capris because I knew it would be warm, but did I think at all about sunburn? Nope. I'm an idiot. I borrowed a hat from someone to protect my poor scalp, but my legs are nice and crispy. My arms got some burn too, but nothing compared to my legs. It hurts really bad, even after putting the aloe vera on. And the support that I get from my family? Things like, "...another thing to complain about" and "...another thing to bother you." I can feel the love.

my doll. Only one question: Why only one choice for body type? lots of noses, eyes, even face shapes, but only one body. Needless to say, my body looks nothing like this.

yes, I'm a freak

So I was almost late for work today.
And why would that be, you ask?
Did you sleep late?
Did you have car problems?
Nope.
I hate to admit this, but I've gone this far...
I was watching New York Minute on HBO. Shoot me now.
Why is that crap entertaining to me? It really was bad. But it's like a wreck. I just couldn't look away. I eventually just had to leave and so I did not get to see the end. Dr. Drew from Loveline is their father. That's odd. Ah, whatever.
I'm a freak.

House Update

Our final walkthru is scheduled for Wednesday, the 23rd at 6pm! Holy crap! That means this is really happening. It really hasn't seemed real until the last few days. I just can't stop thinking of things that I want to do to the house and things that we will finally be free of. The other night I dropped something heavy on the floor and had to deal with the guilt of knowing the freak show who lives in the apartment below us was disrupted. No more of that. No more carrying groceries up stairs. No more stairs period. I could go on for days. But I won't.

This week is gonna be hectic. On Monday, Chris is going to the OC for work. His office is based there and he is going to work on some computer networking issues that they are having. He is just the bomb and they need to start paying him what he's worth. But I think they have realized that. He has been giving so many opportunities lately, with this trip on Monday and all the trips to Vegas. I really think they are started to appreciate him and isn't that what we are all looking for in our jobs?
And on Tuesday, I am going to a spring training baseball game. The field where the Angels have spring training, Tempe Diablo Stadium is really close to where I work, so my boss bought us all tickets and we are all going as a team building thingy. The Angels are playing the Diamondbacks and the game is at 1:05pm. So we all get to leave work early and we are walking over to the stadium together. It should be really fun. I am looking forward to it. Then we have the walk thru on Wednesday and I have a feeling that we are going to be meeting sometime this week with the title company. We are still waiting on the final numbers from them for closing. We are down to the wire on this. And if all goes well, we will have keys to our house next Monday!

brackets update

As predicted, I did not do as well with the second day of the first round. After all 32 games were played, I ended up getting 21 correct and 11 wrong. With those, I am now out 3 of my picks for the sweet 16. Damn. But all the teams I really wanted to win did, so that's what is most important. The U of A game is in an hour and the Cincy vs Kentucky game is tonight. LOVE MARCH MADNESS!!!!

How do your brackets look?

So far there are 8 games played in the Men's NCAA Tournament. And of those 8 games, I am 8 of 8 on my picks! WOO HOO. I even managed to pick Wisconsin Milwaukee to beat Alabama. I'm good. After tonights games, I might not be so happy. But for now, I'm good! Not that I will win anything from this, but I like knowing that I can pick 'em!
GO BEARCATS!
and go wildcats & spartans too!