Driving in the city makes me a very vindictive driver.
Oh, sir, you want to honk at me because I take a full stop instead of a rolling slow down?? No problem. I will drive the speed limit (25mph) exactly for the rest of the way down this street... Ride my ass all you want buddy!
Honestly. Watching him swerve around behind me trying to find a way he might squeeze past on the bike lane was enough satisfaction.
I'm heading up to Milwaukee this weekend to visit with Lauren and head to the state fair. Be prepared for lots of instagram photos of cream puffs and fried food!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
OMDS - Obsessive Mental Decorating Syndrome
I have a problem.
I am overwhelmed by my desire to decorate my new place and do everything IMMEDIATELY. So much so that I spend an awful amount of time mentally decorating my space. Of course, pinterest is not helping!
I think I need to make myself a project plan. Bringing my work life into my personal life.
If I develop a plan for all my projects and go room by room, I think I will feel a little less overwhelmed by everything. Of course, getting all my still packed stuff out of the dining room and living room would be the first step. As well as getting rid of that box and bag of things I want to donate.
Baby steps, I keep reminding myself. Baby steps.
I am overwhelmed by my desire to decorate my new place and do everything IMMEDIATELY. So much so that I spend an awful amount of time mentally decorating my space. Of course, pinterest is not helping!
I think I need to make myself a project plan. Bringing my work life into my personal life.
If I develop a plan for all my projects and go room by room, I think I will feel a little less overwhelmed by everything. Of course, getting all my still packed stuff out of the dining room and living room would be the first step. As well as getting rid of that box and bag of things I want to donate.
Baby steps, I keep reminding myself. Baby steps.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Good News/Bad News
So I have good news and some bad news.
The good news.... The dresser I have talked about before has finally made it to my apartment, in all it's pink glory!
Then, I posted about the Tiffany's inspired room to go with the pink dresser (which is one of the most searched posts on my blog btw).
So, this is great news. It's here! I have a place to put my clothes that have been on the floor. YEAH!
The bad news.... I don't love the pink. At all. The dresser shape and design are great! But that pink color is kind of terrible and childish in person. And the handles - CHEAP!
I can't really decide if I don't like the pink because it's just bad or if I don't like the pink because my mind has already decided that the dresser would look amazing in cobalt blue. Either way, I want to paint it right. this. second.
I've been pinning cobalt blue dressers and this one is my favorite.... it's practically identical!
I'm thinking I might want to paint it one of my upcoming free weekends so it's finished. I need something to feel like I'm being productive in decorating my place - because nothing else is.
The good news.... The dresser I have talked about before has finally made it to my apartment, in all it's pink glory!
Then, I posted about the Tiffany's inspired room to go with the pink dresser (which is one of the most searched posts on my blog btw).
So, this is great news. It's here! I have a place to put my clothes that have been on the floor. YEAH!
The bad news.... I don't love the pink. At all. The dresser shape and design are great! But that pink color is kind of terrible and childish in person. And the handles - CHEAP!
I can't really decide if I don't like the pink because it's just bad or if I don't like the pink because my mind has already decided that the dresser would look amazing in cobalt blue. Either way, I want to paint it right. this. second.
I've been pinning cobalt blue dressers and this one is my favorite.... it's practically identical!
I'm thinking I might want to paint it one of my upcoming free weekends so it's finished. I need something to feel like I'm being productive in decorating my place - because nothing else is.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Goals Update: July
7 months of this year have passed and it has been an extremely productive 7 months. So let's just get to the recap of the month.
1. WORK ON MY 101 IN 1,001 LIST - I think Brooke and Amanda successfully accomplished this for the month. There was A LOT of 101 things going on this month!!! This one, this one, this one, and this one.
2. SAY "YES" MORE OFTEN - This month, saying YES has stretched my time pretty thin. I don't think I have a weekend with a free day until August 18th or maybe August 25th. It's nice to be busy, but I also enjoy my time to decompress and sleep. Now that I live in the city, I anticipate I will be doing more on weeknights - which is not a bad thing. I just want to make sure that I am not just leaving Samson home alone all the time. Fall is my busy time for work, so I will be traveling pretty often.
3. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE - HA. I laugh at this one for the month. I did not save anything this month. Every free penny I had went to the move or to my birthday. I needed it. I still have a little chunk in my savings and other than forking over the August rent and security deposit from there (which I anticipated), I haven't had to use any of that money yet. I'm going to have to try to plan out when to make my purchases of other things for the house so that I can still try to save a bit.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Weekend Recap
I am apologizing to those of you that actually don't mind the gratuitous pictures of me for the outfit posts. I haven't done them lately because really, I've been so tired and haven't even bothered to make myself look nice for work since I moved. Hopefully soon.
Anyways, on to the weekend recap!
On Friday, I left work to head home, pick up Samson and get up to my parents place. When I got home, the maintenance guy was there working on replacing the light fixture in the kitchen. I was back in my room changing out of my work clothes, when I heard him shout. I went running out and he was cursing up a storm and the entire place was starting to reek of gas. Turns out, the gas hookup to where that light fixture was (common in my building because it is so old) was never turned off. When he opened the cap to check it, he said he could feel gas pouring out of it. He shut up back up and said that he was calling the owners to have them come take care of this and he was use the light fixture in my bedroom. After that excitement, Samson and I were out the door to head up to Evanston.
I had a few last minute things to work on for Lauren's baby shower on Sunday, including sewing some baby onsies. As I was grabbing the sewing machine out of the closet, a 5lb hand weight fell off the shelf and hit me square on the middle toe of my left foot. It hurt SO bad! And started to bruise instantly. The jury is still out on if it could be broken, but there's not much you can do for a broken toe.
On Saturday, I had to get up really early and head out to NIU to play in a grass tournament that was a fundraiser for the team. I was worried about how it was going to go when my toe was painful when walking. By this time, it was mostly purply-black and was harder to bend because of the swelling. The weather was beautiful on Saturday so it turned out to be a great day to play. My team had a good time. We even made it out of our pool to the gold playoffs bracket. Of course, a few injuries (my toe and a recent shoulder surgery for one of my teammates) combined with a long wait after our last match in pool play, resulting in a slow and uninterested playoff team. :) We lost in the first round and I decided to head back to Evanston to help get things done for the shower instead of sitting around watching the rest of the tournament. I had a really nice time and it was great to visit with some old people I knew. It was sort of surreal to be back playing at NIU - even if it was grass.
When I made it back, I did a little bit of prepping for the shower in the morning and watched the Olympics with my parents.
Sunday was Lauren's baby shower day. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures (I am not usually the photographer at these things). The party went really well. There were about 20 people there and it was my family's first time to meet Kevin's relatives. I think everyone had a good time and Lauren and Kevin received a lot of things they will need! By the time everyone left and it was just my immediate family, it was 4pm and I think we were all exhausted. Samson and I got home by 6pm (luckily finding a parking spot) and relaxed watching TV until bed. Around 7, the maintenance guy stopped by to let me know that an electrician was coming to take care of the light in my kitchen and that he would be back to finish replacing the things that needed to get done.
Now, if I can just work on that storage area this week, that would really help. I have a low-key week at work and then next weekend, my mom and I are heading up to WI to go to the state fair!
Anyways, on to the weekend recap!
On Friday, I left work to head home, pick up Samson and get up to my parents place. When I got home, the maintenance guy was there working on replacing the light fixture in the kitchen. I was back in my room changing out of my work clothes, when I heard him shout. I went running out and he was cursing up a storm and the entire place was starting to reek of gas. Turns out, the gas hookup to where that light fixture was (common in my building because it is so old) was never turned off. When he opened the cap to check it, he said he could feel gas pouring out of it. He shut up back up and said that he was calling the owners to have them come take care of this and he was use the light fixture in my bedroom. After that excitement, Samson and I were out the door to head up to Evanston.
I had a few last minute things to work on for Lauren's baby shower on Sunday, including sewing some baby onsies. As I was grabbing the sewing machine out of the closet, a 5lb hand weight fell off the shelf and hit me square on the middle toe of my left foot. It hurt SO bad! And started to bruise instantly. The jury is still out on if it could be broken, but there's not much you can do for a broken toe.
Here is a picture of the toe from this morning - 3 days later. Please excuse the gross nails and disregard the bruise on the big toe - that is unrelated :)
On Saturday, I had to get up really early and head out to NIU to play in a grass tournament that was a fundraiser for the team. I was worried about how it was going to go when my toe was painful when walking. By this time, it was mostly purply-black and was harder to bend because of the swelling. The weather was beautiful on Saturday so it turned out to be a great day to play. My team had a good time. We even made it out of our pool to the gold playoffs bracket. Of course, a few injuries (my toe and a recent shoulder surgery for one of my teammates) combined with a long wait after our last match in pool play, resulting in a slow and uninterested playoff team. :) We lost in the first round and I decided to head back to Evanston to help get things done for the shower instead of sitting around watching the rest of the tournament. I had a really nice time and it was great to visit with some old people I knew. It was sort of surreal to be back playing at NIU - even if it was grass.
When I made it back, I did a little bit of prepping for the shower in the morning and watched the Olympics with my parents.
Sunday was Lauren's baby shower day. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures (I am not usually the photographer at these things). The party went really well. There were about 20 people there and it was my family's first time to meet Kevin's relatives. I think everyone had a good time and Lauren and Kevin received a lot of things they will need! By the time everyone left and it was just my immediate family, it was 4pm and I think we were all exhausted. Samson and I got home by 6pm (luckily finding a parking spot) and relaxed watching TV until bed. Around 7, the maintenance guy stopped by to let me know that an electrician was coming to take care of the light in my kitchen and that he would be back to finish replacing the things that needed to get done.
Now, if I can just work on that storage area this week, that would really help. I have a low-key week at work and then next weekend, my mom and I are heading up to WI to go to the state fair!
Friday, July 27, 2012
New Owners
Yesterday when I arrived home, there was a notice on my front door informing me that my building was now under new ownership.
It provided instructions for where/how to send if your rent payments and also how to contact them for questions or maintenance issues.
Right away, I emailed them to ask them if the maintenance stuff that I was currently working with the maintenance guy on was still going to be done (replacing light fixtures, the faucet and the second lock on the front door). Right away the new manager emailed me back and said they would come today to finish it.
I took the opportunity to also tell them about the light in the pantry that doesn't work and a handful of windows that are completely stuck (either open or closed).
Hopefully I don't come across as a needy tenant, but it would be nice to get these things done. Then I can leave them be for a while.
Hopefully this new ownership is for the better and thank GOD I got my lease done before this happened.
It provided instructions for where/how to send if your rent payments and also how to contact them for questions or maintenance issues.
Right away, I emailed them to ask them if the maintenance stuff that I was currently working with the maintenance guy on was still going to be done (replacing light fixtures, the faucet and the second lock on the front door). Right away the new manager emailed me back and said they would come today to finish it.
I took the opportunity to also tell them about the light in the pantry that doesn't work and a handful of windows that are completely stuck (either open or closed).
Hopefully I don't come across as a needy tenant, but it would be nice to get these things done. Then I can leave them be for a while.
Hopefully this new ownership is for the better and thank GOD I got my lease done before this happened.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
A little more settled
Yesterday I had to take the day off work to be home for some appointments. It ended up being a really productive day.
Samson and I finally got a decent night of sleep (mostly because the temperature outside was much cooler, so it was tolerable in my place) and we got up at 6:30 to take our morning walk before my "scheduled appointment time".
I spent the next 4-5 hours trying to organize and unpack some more things. I was able to find homes for more things in my bedroom, so now there is much less sitting around on the floor. Getting my dresser from my aunt's house will help. I also organized some things in my living room and in the sun room.
By the time the Comcast guy showed up, I have lined up all the stuff that I needed to store against the wall in the dining room. Comcast took a while because he had to wire the apartment for cable, but by the time he left (around 1pm), I had working cable and Internet!
While the Comcast guy was working, the gas guy arrived to check my connection for my stove, and the Home Depot guys delivered my new window AC unit.
Once the Comcast guy left, I set about it hooking up the new AC unit. Man, the sweet relief of AC in my bedroom was AMAZING!!
Then around 4, the maintenance guy showed up and put in a new lock on my front door, so now I can use the front AND the back doors! Yeah. (It's the little things here).
So, it was a really productive day. Hopefully soon I can get access to a storage area and that will clean up more of my place.
I also still have a laundry list of things to buy for the place - storage help - and then some accessories to make the place nicer (hello curtains!).
I may have this place shaped up by Christmas! (I'm only half-joking.)
Samson and I finally got a decent night of sleep (mostly because the temperature outside was much cooler, so it was tolerable in my place) and we got up at 6:30 to take our morning walk before my "scheduled appointment time".
I spent the next 4-5 hours trying to organize and unpack some more things. I was able to find homes for more things in my bedroom, so now there is much less sitting around on the floor. Getting my dresser from my aunt's house will help. I also organized some things in my living room and in the sun room.
By the time the Comcast guy showed up, I have lined up all the stuff that I needed to store against the wall in the dining room. Comcast took a while because he had to wire the apartment for cable, but by the time he left (around 1pm), I had working cable and Internet!
While the Comcast guy was working, the gas guy arrived to check my connection for my stove, and the Home Depot guys delivered my new window AC unit.
Once the Comcast guy left, I set about it hooking up the new AC unit. Man, the sweet relief of AC in my bedroom was AMAZING!!
Then around 4, the maintenance guy showed up and put in a new lock on my front door, so now I can use the front AND the back doors! Yeah. (It's the little things here).
So, it was a really productive day. Hopefully soon I can get access to a storage area and that will clean up more of my place.
I also still have a laundry list of things to buy for the place - storage help - and then some accessories to make the place nicer (hello curtains!).
I may have this place shaped up by Christmas! (I'm only half-joking.)
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