Mulligan May

You guys....I am TIRED.  Since my last post there has been one four-day trip home, one three-day trip home, three house viewings, one company dinner cruise on Lake Michigan (I felt so fancy! :P ), home-buying pre-approval process adventures and meetings with realtors.  There has also been, however, a distinct lack of a regular exercise schedule and my diet can best be described as an unchaperoned child at a birthday party. (Thank you ecards....those are seriously addicting!)  So I am declaring this month Mulligan May.  The way I see it, I've managed to keep a normal schedule for roughly a year in a half taking a "rest week" here and there over holidays and such.  Losing track for a bit is something I shouldn't beat myself up for.  Right?.....RIGHT?!

Now, how come I can't convince my brain of that?

So yeah, yay guilt, but I've managed to get back on it (mostly) since getting back from the Memorial Day trip home. And the trips were a blast! (Although, kind of a blur at this point) I was able to visit with a ton of people that I hadn't seen in ages.  AND I ran my second "official" 5k race!  The Races for all Paces event is held by Sarah Bush, and my dad has been a volunteer for a couple years now.  When he found out I'd be home that weekend he offered to sign me up and I said sure!  Now...I don't know if it was the lack of working out giving my legs a rest or the extra carbs I had been consuming, or the race day adrenaline, but something very strange happened.  This was my first time running on pavement and not the treadmill since last fall, (Yes...I am a wuss) you would THINK that my time on the road would be slower than my normal treadmill time.  My personal best on the treadmill was 36:15...my timing chip for the race said 34:57.

You can see why I'm skeptical.

So, for all the reasons mentioned previously, I think the timing chip was being generous.  My muscles the next day however, said maaaaybe the chip was accurate.  I'll take it.  :)

So that was my main health-related accomplishment since my last post.  There are plenty of life-related accomplishments in the form of staying with mom for four days, celebrating our work accomplishments at a fancy dinner and getting to visit family and friends!  I won't call the house buying stuff an accomplishment YET.  I'll save that for when we find something.  That whole process is just fraught with anxiety for me, by the way.  I'm glad I have Nathan there to keep me calm through the whole thing.  I would include a photo barrage of recent events, but as I said before, I am LE TIRED....so I shall go to take a nap....

Or you know...just go to sleep...and I'm not firing any missiles. (Kudos to those who got the reference)  :)

Races Races Races

I vaguely realize it's been almost three weeks since my last post, but honestly, things have been so chaotic that it hasn't felt that long.  The past couple weeks have kind of blended together in a mesh of chaos and the responsibilities of being an adult.  Among the mix of crazy other than the standard job crazy has been figuring out how soon we want to possibly be homeowners (a terrifyingly adult dilemma) and dealing with multiple vet visits for one of our cats.  It just so happened to be the cat that is the most "I'm a delicate princess" diva-cat, Jezebel.  She had to have surgery to remove a lump from her jaw, which meant she had to wear the cone-of-shame.  For 10 days.  Which, I can assure you was something she continued to let us know was unacceptable.  Her favorite method of notifying us of this fact was scratching incessantly at the cone for hours on end in the middle of the night.  I do not understand how some people say that cats have no personality.  Ours have very different and distinct personalities.  Now, people saying cats are assholes, I totally get.  But no personality?  Stay with us for a while and you will feel differently.  The whole thing was actually pretty comical once my feelings of extreme guilt during the first few days were over.

Day 1 right after getting home.  She got so tired trying to get out of the cone, she flopped over and fell asleep.

Also day 1.  Sleeping off the drugs

A couple days later.  She would not accept us not petting her at this point.  Like I said...Diva-cat.

One bonus to the crazy schedule has been that I've inadvertently re-established a running routine.  I had been doing a fairly good job fitting in my runs but they were kind of here and there and I hadn't been making a lot of progress on my PR time.  So busy weeks have given me a running schedule of one easy day and one day of sprints during the week and then a long run on Saturday where I run a 5k for time and then continue with my running intervals up through at least 50 minutes.  I've come to love sprint day.  I get a good workout that's really time-efficient and also does wonders for my endurance.  Case in point:  yesterday.  After doing sprints once a week for a few weeks (and also having some really REALLY good strong coffee) I managed a 5k time of 36:15.  That was almost a full minute off of my previous PR.  I felt like a total badass.  I desperately needed a win like that since my motivation to get the runs done had been taking many many hits lately.  It was pretty nice.  I also have been trying to include some extra strength training, which could have helped, but my lungs always seem to give out during my runs before my legs, so I'm giving the credit to the coffee and the sprints.  Also, a disclaimer:  my runs are 90% of the time done on the treadmill.  I know many runners who would scoff at me for doing as many of the workouts as I do on the treadmill, but the way I see it, improvement is improvement and it's better than not running at all.

That's right.  I'm a badass.  Also, seriously, if you can find that coffee, GET IT.

Races are coming up soon!  A 5k sponsored by Sarah Bush at home May 17th and then the Color Run in Racine May 24th.  I think it's safe to say I'm feeling a lot better about both of them after this weekend. :)

I dub thee, the winter that will never end.

It's April 14th and snowing.  I'm starting to resent Wisconsin for taking away my love of snow.  I used to ADORE snow, and just fall/winter in general.  Cozy sweaters, pretty snowfalls and hot chocolate.  Then came -45 below zero, months worth of it snowing at least once a week causing my 40 minutes one way commute to turn into closer to an hour FREAKING SNOW IN MID APRIL.  So really, maybe it's not Wisconsin so much as it is having to deal with winter weather as an adult.

In any case, we have had breaks from the weather here and there which has made the fact that the major project I've been on at work that has had me pulling all kinds of hours is essentially finished!  Well not finished so much as passed our major milestone.  It's a deadline we've been working towards for essentially two years so it feels good.  Last weekend was, in fact, the first weekend in six weeks where I did not have to work in any capacity.  It was pretty nice.  The previous weekend though was even better.

Nathan had a very rare weekend off, so while I did have to work from home for a few hours on Saturday, Sunday we made one of our trips to Milwaukee.  Our normal m.o. while up there is to head straight for a very awesome comic shop Lost World of Wonders.  However, we accidentally got there an hour before they opened which gave us a chance to explore the shop next door which is fast becoming one of my favorite stores to visit up there:  American Science and Surplus.  A very large store full of fun little science stuff.  Lab glass, chemistry kits, grow-your-own venus fly traps, telescopes, even random instrument parts.  They have old VCR and 8 track players.  Basically, it doesn't matter how many times I've been in there, I still have fun going.

Yes, that is a Tesla coil on the shelf.  This place is that cool.

I have purchased from there a 50 mL beaker to use as a shot glass.  I like to think I take my mixology seriously.

All in all, that day was GREAT for helping me hit the reset button from all the work stress.  After wandering through the store we made it back over to the comic shop then eventually made our way back home.  Next time, I hope to get to downtown Milwaukee more....you know...when it's finally warm enough to walk around outside without freezing...

Just call me chef.

After working late Friday evening and into Saturday, I awoke to find a Sunday that was blissfully work-free for the first time in roughly a month.  Nathan had to work all day, which left me to my own devices with nothing planned.  So what's a girl to do?  I cooked.  All freakin afternoon long.  Now, I know what you're thinking:  "All Sunday free and you choose COOKING?!  Where you snowed in?!"  And, that would be a logical question given it's Wisconsin and even though it's the beginning of April, we're still wearing winter coats.  But, no, I was not snowed in, and yes, I spent all day cooking.  And you know what?

I had a blast!

I never thought I would find cooking and baking a good form of stress relief, but recently I absolutely have.  I think it has something to do with feeling like I'm in a chemistry lab, except I have free reign to do whatever the hell I want without risk of blowing something up.  Well...without AS MUCH risk, anyway.  On Sunday's menu was a blueberry oatmeal bake, oatmeal raisin cookies, an avocado egg salad, and for dinner that night I made greek yogurt marinated chicken with balsamic sauteed mushrooms.  Everything turned out incredibly tasty!  All of it was a big hit with Nathan as well with the exception of the avocado egg salad, which he has not tried.  That's just because I've been hogging it all for my lunches to take to work and he's not big on avocado anyway.  Here's a rundown of the results! :)

The oatmeal raisin cookies!! Nathan was pouting like a five year old when I was loading up the tupperware to take some to work.  I still say I was doing us both a favor, considering the batch made 3 dozen.

Blueberry oatmeal bake.  FANTASTIC breakfast if you like blueberries.

Oatmeal raisin batter.  I may or may not have sampled some before baking.....(I did.)

Avocado egg salad.  It may not look appetizing, but it's very yummy.

Ok, I know this picture comes off as "look.....mushrooms...." but trust me, the picture does not do them justice.

The greek yogurt marinated chicken.  May not look like much either, but was also very very yummy.

The bonus to all of this is my lunches and breakfasts that I've been taking to work have kicked some serious tail all week!  It's also keeping me on track as the only unhealthy recipe was the oatmeal raisin cookies and I still say that they have oatmeal AND raisins which are both healthy foods soooooooo......that counts right?  If anyone would like links to any of the recipes feel free to ask!  And with that I'm off to look at cooking classes because I've obviously missed my calling.

Burgers, Beer and Backbends

A life without burger and beer nights would be a life not worth living.  I mean, why else would you live in Wisconsin if not for the awesome beer?  In my case, I prefer Spotted Cow from New Glarus.  I'm going to have to get that stuff shipped regularly if we ever move out of state.  Another completely fantastic option: pasta and wine.....or dessert and wine....or really just the wine.

I like wine.

Tonight was burger and beer night, however.  Me and Nathan are both particularly stressed out at work right now and it was exactly what we needed.  I'm a big fan of the 80/20 rule of being healthy 80% of the time and splurging 20%.  Hey, anything that equates it back to math is going to work for me because I'm just....that...nerdy.  :)  The splurging helps me stay sane during high stress points at work and also helps me not break and go on a "oh my god what is that, I must stuff it in my face!" food-n-drink-a-thon.  The good news is the work stress should subside soon....should....

Most recent workout:  yoga!  I blew off working out tonight (see above).  But yesterday's was yoga.  I may have started yoga as just a way to supplement my running, but it has since become much more than that to me.  It has become a very effective way to de-stress and challenge my body to do things it has either never been able to do before or hasn't been able to for a very long time.  Case in point:  Upward Bow pose (yogi sanskrit name Urdhva Dhanurasana.....I think....I'm still learning those)  I still can't believe I can actually do that now!

Yes! OK? Yes, I was so excited that I got up into that pose that I made Nathan come in and take a picture.  Yes.  I'll admit it.

Ok, so basically it's a back bend.  But you wanna know when the last time I was able to do that was?  Gymnastics.  I WAS SIX.  For those keeping track, that's 23 years ago.  I'm probably not executing it perfectly but I'm still completely jazzed about the fact that I did it after practicing for over a year.

My next hurdle is Crow pose.  Look it up, if you wish.  It is the current bane of my yoga existence.  Basically anything arm balance related has been very difficult for me to get.  I would probably be able to progress faster if I attended classes in person, but my work schedule makes it difficult, so finding teachers online has been my way of doing things so far.  One thing I can say is that yoga absolutely teaches patience and not trying to push your body into poses it's not ready for.  A knee injury early on helped me learn that REAL quick.

If anyone is interested in teachers/dvds/yoga books that have helped me, just let me know and I'd be happy to give recommendations!

Back in the saddle.

What? It's only two years later.

Also, I heard that AWESOME Aerosmith song on my way to work this morning and it's stuck in my head as I'm writing this.

I've decided to pick this blog back up for two main reasons:  1.  Other blogs I read routinely have picked back up and it made me think about doing it again (yes, I am, occasionally, a follower).  2.  I've decided to use it as a way to keep up with my health maintenance.  If you know me at all, you are already aware that one of the major changes in my life over the past two years (in addition to new jobs and relocation) has been my health.  I started running, doing yoga (neither of which I am particularly great at but vastly enjoy) and trying my best to eat better.  When I started I came up with a plan, stuck to it and managed to lose a significant amount of weight.  The hardest part of all that was the initial effort of coming up with the plan and forcing myself to stick to the schedule.  I don't mean to trivialize that to anyone who might read this that is currently in the process of where I was then.  It took me over a decade to have a successful attempt.  Keep going!  However, now that I'm at my goal weight, there's one aspect that I wasn't expecting:

It turns out maintaining is HARD.

The difficulty has caused me to start overly obsessing about numbers (calories, etc.) and taking the fun out of the whole thing.  I know, I know what you're thinking, and YES, running can be fun.  In a way.  I never actually thought I would agree with that sentence, but it's true.  So, I mostly intend on using this blog as a catch-all for updates about our life, running progress, yoga progress, any fun new workout I discover, and new recipes I find and really just a way to get it all out of my head.  The recipes will NOT all be uber-healthy-insertlatesthealthcrazehere recipes.  One of the main reasons I've focused so much on the working out is I love food.  A lot.  And I didn't want to give any of it up.  Cut back? Sure.  Give up? No.

Oh, also you can probably expect random geek references.  Sorrynotsorry.

I will probably not be posting when I update this blog to my facebook page mostly because I'm doing this for me as a way to get my thoughts out.  I may decide to later, but right now I don't feel like it's necessary.  I do, of course, still welcome any and all who might be interested in reading!

Also, despite the fact that I've been showing it off like a new parent shows off pictures of their kid, I'm closing with my before/after picture.  (I feel slightly guilty about how much I've been showing it off....but...meh) See it as a "here's part of what I've been up to!" thing.

Ta-daaaa! :)

  

Winter-een-mas and Things

There's a reason for my distraction lately:

Ahhhh obsession. 

Game of Thrones Season 1 came out on DVD.  We may or may not have coincidentally been out at Wal-Mart at midnight the night it came out.  This also may have coincided with the Mass Effect 3 video game midnight release which we weren't there for, but many others were.  And I may or may not have been 2 seconds away from threatening the nearest stock boy that if he didn't find a copy for me ASAP I would make his job very difficult.  (I didn't actually threaten anyone.  I was just getting very antsy when waiting for the Mass Effect 3 line to go down so I could get some help.  I'm not very patient.)

I bet you thought I forgot about the Winter-een--mas trip post didn't you.  Well, HA.  I did NOT!  Although, I should warn you.  This post may ramble more than others.  This is likely due to A.) The lack of oxygen to my brain due to not being able to breathe, and B.) Being hopped up on cold meds.  Stupid Mother Nature and her P.M.S.-like mood-swings.  Let it be known that I REFUSE to turn the air-conditioning on in March! I don't care if it's 85 in our apartment.  Here that Mother Nature?!  You will not be breaking my stubbornness determination!

Anyway, so Winter-een-mas.  For those that are unaware, it's a gamer holiday.  It started as a part of the online comic Ctrl+Alt+Del and gained in popularity with gamers everywhere.  Since my dear husband is an avid gamer, he has celebrated this holiday since he found out about it.  And since he didn't get to go home during Christmas, we could think of no better 2nd Christmas and no better time to make a trip home then during Winter-een-mas.  (Last week of January)  

We went home for a record five day long trip.  It was pretty great.  Usually we only have a 3 or 4 day weekend when we go home.  One of the disadvantages of living as far away from home as we do and having our friends and family mostly in one place (*cough*mom*cough*), is that trips home always seem rushed and we never get to see as many people as we would like.  To help this, we decided that instead of rushing around like chickens with our heads cut off, we made family a priority and spent time with them separately and then we would have one big party and anyone that wanted to celebrate the holiday/party with us could come!  

In general, it was a huge success.  We even had our friends Andrew and Amanda drive up from Alabama, and our friend Frank drove up from Kentucky for the party! (Did I mention they were awesome?  Cause they are.)  There was booze, friends, much visiting, and a good time was had by all (at least, I hope it was for everyone).  The only catch:  Ironically, there wasn't much gaming.  We didn't think about the fact that everybody hadn't been gathered together like that in a very long time.  So, mostly people forgot about the games once booze and visiting was involved.  Next time we do this, we're gonna try to set up pre-set tables for people that wish to do more gaming.  We DID play an awesome board game called Zombies!  And there was tons of food, since we made it a potluck.

And here comes the bombardment of pictures.

I blame the wine.

This is a great picture of these three.  They all look so happy!

Everything about this picture makes me laugh.

Me with Andrew and Amanda

Wade with a baby rattle...I don't know why

There was bacon and beer!

AAAAhhhhh! Zombies!

Apparently, Zombies required much concentration

Definitely, one of the best trips home ever.  You can't go wrong with bacon and booze :)

Our Neighbors are Jerks

I'd like to interrupt the previously scheduled Winter-een-mas '12 post for a segment I'd like to call Holy Crap Our Neighbors are annoying.

.....

Holy crap our neighbors are annoying! We apparently live above a nightclub and under a racetrack.  The amount of pounding noises that surrounds us during the day is insane.  I still have yet to decide if the people above us have a small child, or a large dog.  I'm pretty sure the running sounds like a small kids stompy run, but OH MY GOSH, do they really run around for that long without stopping?  Like, is that normal?  We don't have kids so I'd have no clue but I'm pretty sure the only living thing I've seen with that much energy usually has four legs.  Not to mention the kids on our floor running around screaming in the halls day and night.  One of these days, I'm gonna stick my foot out our front door and trip them.  Because, obviously, their parents never taught them not to run in the halls! and also screaming is bad!

....Ok, that was mean.  I wouldn't trip them.  Just glare maybe.  Or....you know...just complain to other people some more in the most passive aggressive way possible.

.....

So, the real story here, is that I'm pretty sure my frustrations with the job search are manifesting itself as an irrational, (or, maybe, not so irrational) annoyance with our apartment, and apartment living in general.  I've grown to pretty much loathe everything about this apartment.  Everything from it's small size, to it's crappy plumbing, to it's overactive heating vents.  We have to keep the windows cracked in the winter if we want the apartment to be below 85.  (we don't control the heating)  The good thing is, we've learned to laugh about it anytime something else goes wrong.  Well, ok, I've learned to laugh about it.  Nathan's so laid back that he naturally just laughs about things like this.

My solution to this frustration is to plan our future home in my head.  We're definitely nowhere near being able to buy, but this is not stopping me from the planning.  It helps me escape the apartment-life doldrums.  Pinterest.com has only served to worsen this new habit.  Only problem, is with all the plans I've made, I'm pretty sure we're gonna have to live in a castle.  A castle that we're gonna have to build, because I'm pretty sure there aren't any preconstructed castles with the specifications that I'm gonna need.

Included will be:  at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a game room including pool tables and gaming consoles, his office, an art studio for me, a reading nook and a badass kitchen.  OH, and a closed-in porch.  And maybe a pool.  And this is where Nathan would want me to include a room for pet ferrets.  Jury's still out on that one.

Speaking of art studio:  I got a professional-ish camera for my birthday!  I say ish because it doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of a high-end professional camera that is way way way out of our price range.  It's an entry level one which is perfect for hobby type photography.  Expect many pictures of the cats on here because they're the only subjects I have available right now.  Apparently spring is starting in other parts of the world, but here in Wisconsin, March still counts as winter so it's been too cold to take the camera out.  I promise this blog won't turn into a cat-picture blog.

Maybe.

Playing Catch-up

I promise, we're still alive.

The holidays are over and we're getting back into the swing of things so I wanted to get back into the routine of this whole blogging thing.  Over the holidays, I surprisingly heard a lot of "I've been reading your blog!" type comments from friends and family.  I want you all to know, I thought that was awesome.  I've been doing this largely as a way to try and document all of the events have been coming and going with great speed for me and Nathan.  New jobs, new places, etc.  But, I did also hope that I could use it to let friends and family know what we're up to since I am absolutely awful with calling all of you as much as I should.  Just so you know, I am aware that I suck at that.  Unfortunately, I don't get to know what YOU all are up to this way, but that just hammers home that I need to get better with that whole phone call thing.  Anyway, I'm gonna use this post to catch up on the past couple months before continuing forward.  A couple of months, where I was fortunate enough to be able to spend time with many of you.  But, unfortunately, not all.

Oh, and as always, it'll include lots of pictures.  This is gonna be a long one.

Christmas
This past Christmas was both very happy and very sad all at the same time.  For instance, I got to see both of my awesome aunts! (yay alliteration!) BOTH!  That's almost unheard of.  Most of the time I will see one, or the other, but very rarely do I see both in one holiday.  Major downside:  Mom wasn't able to make it home.  I officially have not seen my mother since Christmas of 2010.  That sucks, and I miss her terribly.  Good side: I got to sleep in my old room at Dad's and see them, all of my wonderful cousins and their children on his side and got to see my always stylin' cousin Salena and her husband Brian from mom's side who live far far away and I also rarely get to see.  And even made time to go see my absolutely wonderful mother and father-in-law Jenny and John.  (also, all the puppies!)  Family was definitely the theme for this Christmas.  Downside:  Nathan had to work Christmas.  All of it, the day after and New Year's.  So while, I was able to see all of the family, he had to sit at home by himself.  I hated that.

Other bonus fun time:  I got to meet Jude finally!  The most awesome one-year-old ever and spend some time with his wonderful parent, Ashleigh and John.

It turned out I was too busy to take tons of pictures of Christmas, but here are a couple.

We couldn't all be together in person, but Skype is a wonderful invention. :)

Even though he wasn't there to see it, Nathan officially has his own stocking at Dad's

Santa Deer.

Christmas pt. 2 A.K.A. Kirby's Wedding

I had the week between Christmas and New Year's off.  Relaxing right?  Not really.  But definitely tons of fun!  After driving down to Mattoon for Christmas, I then drove down to Huntsville and Guntersville, Alabama, for my good friend Kirby's Wedding.  She was a bridesmaid for me, and I was more than happy to return the favor.  Now THIS one had tons of pictures.  It was a blast.  I hadn't seen Kirby since my wedding, so seeing her again was great.  Also, I got to stay with my good friends Amanda and Andrew.  I had not seen them in, I think, close to seven years.  I missed those two so freakin much, and it was so great to get to spend time with them again.  We picked up right where we left off.  Complete with Rotel and Milo's sweet tea.  I also, got to see Samantha!  I hadn't seen her in probably about seven years or more either!  It turns out I had really missed being in the south.  There's not many places you can be outside in short sleeves in December.  :) The downside to all of this again, was that Nathan was stuck working, but we made up for that with his own visit in January.

Bachelorette!

She was gorgeous

Sam!

She was incredibly busy, as brides often are, so we just took a picture with her back :)

Bachelorette Party!

Lake Guntersville, from my hotel room

They. Are. Awesome.

Did I mention Milo's?  Cause I should have.

I was gonna include our Winter-een-mas visit home in this post too, but I believe I'll put that separately.  I just now previewed this post and saw how freakishly long it was becoming and figured the Holiday Extravaganza deserved it's own post anyway.  I got back into Madison New Year's Day. around 1 o'clock pm.  It was snowing, of course.  In total, I had spent over 24 hours on the road by myself.  While there were both upsides and downsides, it was definitely time well spent.  

Our Thanksgiving in Pictures

I'm blogging at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night.  I know how to party.  :)  Truthfully, last night was spent at our new favorite local bar, Antlers, drinking my new favorite local micro-brew, Spotted Cow, listening to Dropkick Murphys (one of Nathan's favs, they're growing on me also, the more we hear it).  So, tonight is promising to be rather chill.  I've been meaning to blog about the Thanksgiving we had.  We weren't able to make it home as we had hoped but I did have my own personal accomplishment of making an entire thanksgiving dinner all by myself, while Nathan was at work.  Rather than go into long-winded explanations of it, and since I take way too many pictures anyway, I decided I'd just post pictures that I took throughout the process.  I should really look into getting a good beginner SLR or something with all the pictures I take.

I swear this is going to end up being a food blog.

The beginning of the process:  Turkey breast in the crockpot and apple pie filling cooling on the counter.  Making dessert first seemed logical since it had to cool.  Unfortunately, I did not EAT dessert first.

Random ingredients.  Also, this is basically all the counter space I had to work with.

MMM.  Coffee.  This became necessary midway through the day.

My "assistant."  And by assistant, I mean sneaky, scrap-stealing, ninja-cat.

Crockpot full of chicken and noodles.  My first try.  Turned out good but not great.

PO-TA-TOS!  I actually considered making mom's twice-baked recipe, but didn't have a large enough baking dish, and at this point I was running low on time.

The finished product:  Turkey, chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, gravy, greenbean casserole, tea and apple pie.  I'm still pretty impressed with myself.

So there you have it.  It occurs to me now a picture of us eating the food would have completed this nicely, but I was way too concerned with actually eating.  Tip:  If you ever have a thanksgiving where you know you'll never eat a whole bird, the turkey breast in the crockpot idea worked out really well.  We had leftovers, but not too many and it turned out really juicy.  While, not exactly the way we would have liked to spend Thanksgiving, a holiday feast for two actually made the whole thing kind of special.  And besides, this way I didn't have to feel guilty for having a four day weekend while he worked 10 hour days for all four. :)

I couldn't very well end on a sappy note, now could I?

The Arkansas Trip, part 2

So, we made it to the airport just fine.  Nathan walked with me through check-in and said good-bye to me at security (again, cause he's awesome). I made it through security with only a few hassles and found my gate pretty easily.  Milwaukee airport is fairly small and pretty easy to navigate.  I had a couple of hours to kill before take-off so I got a snack and sat down.  That's when it hit me.  I had to fly on four different flights in a two day time period.  Did I mention I hate flying?  I, then, mentally curled into the fetal position.  I'm one of the fliers that white-knuckles whatever she's holding at the smallest turbulence.  And then there's landing.  I envy those people who can sit and read calmly during landing.  I can't read during car trips or flights anyways because I'll start feeling sick, but landing is the worst for me, even the slightest descent will cause me to get incredibly dizzy and light-headed.  So basically, from the time we start landing till the time we hit the ground I'm concentrating on not getting sick and holding onto the armrests for dear life anytime we drop suddenly.  I, of course, do all of this as discretely as possible if someone is sitting next to me.  Hate flying.

But, I passed the time before the first flight watching netflix on my phone.  (I love modern technology) And, by the time we were boarding I had accepted my fate.  Then, there was the size of the plane:  tiny.  It was on of those with only one main isle and only four columns of seats.  Three out of the four flights I had were on planes that size, so that was new.  Overall, the flights were very smooth, which put me at ease.  This was good, so that when I got to Little Rock, the person from the lab that was picking me up would not be met with a frazzled looking person with crazy hair and a crazy look in her eye, but a calm, well-put together possible future employee! (after ducking into a bathroom to make sure this was the case, of course)  Everybody that I met over those two days were very nice.  The same person that picked me up, drove me around Little Rock to show me the area before dropping me off at my hotel.  It, honestly, made me miss living in the south.  Scenery-wise it looked similar to northern Mississippi.  This, naturally, only served to make me more excited, and fuel my internet apartment searches in the hopes that we would be moving to the area.

I was dropped off at my hotel around 5:30 pm that evening.  The interview would be around 10:30 the next morning so I had all evening to chill in the room.  There were two huge bonuses to this:

Backyard Burger!! How I missed you!!!

ZOMG Cable!!

Backyard Burger is a wonderful place that I have only ever been able to find in the south, and it was within walking distance of my hotel.  My night involved getting a burger from there, bringing it back to my hotel and watching HGTV until I was tired enough to go to sleep...and it was AWESOME.

Then came the morning of the interview.  I woke up super early so I could get ready, and soon enough it was time to go.  I'm not gonna go too much into detail about the interview other than to say it was an all-day thing and I left feeling fairly confident.  Which is the best it gets for me when it comes to interviews.  I constantly second-guess myself about those things, so feeling confident at all is a good thing.  After a very productive day, they dropped me back off at the airport for flying fiascos: round two.

Me, all dressed up and ready to go for the interview.  Not pictured:  the suit jacket because it was too warm inside the room.  Yes, I DO know how to look professional, thankyouverymuch.

Sidenote to the above picture:  Never say you'll never wear something again, just because it's part of a bridesmaid outfit.  The pearls I'm wearing in the picture, I got from my fabulous friend Ashleigh when I was one of her bridesmaids.  And I'm pretty sure I've worn them to almost every interview I've had.  What can I say?  She has style.

The flights home went largely like the first with one exception:  the Detroit airport can shove it!  I arrived thinking I had an hour and twenty minutes between flights.... except I forgot about the little thing called TIME ZONES.  I had twenty minutes.  To get from one end of the airport all the way to the opposite end.  That airport is HUUUUUGE!! Ridiculously so.  I made it, but barely.  This was also the point where exhaustion began to set in.  Four airplanes and an all day interview in two days can take it out of you.  That last flight was the longest hour of my life.  Nathan picked me up at Milwaukee and drove me back home, where I then passed out, satisfied that, at the very least, I had just had an epic adventure.  (my definition of epic may be a little lame.)  

So, what happened you may ask?  After waiting almost two very very long weeks, I did finally hear back.  Unfortunately, I did not get the job.  I was disappointed, but I can honestly say this is the quickest I've bounced back from a job rejection.  I had a great experience, got to be in a forensics environment again, and got some valuable interview practice.

The Arkansas Trip, part 1

So, I know what you're saying.  "Wierd.  She posted some random letter in which she addresses her own immune system as though it can answer and then says nothing for over a month.  Obviously, she's lost her mind."  And while, that may be the case, it's not the reason for the extended silence.  The reason for that would be the Arkansas trip and my attempt at getting the job of my dreams.  It was a situation that ended up dragging on and on for a while and will likely end up in a two part post.

So, the 2nd week of October (wow, that seems like an eternity ago), I got a phone call from a crime lab down in Arkansas for a phone interview.  At this point, I was intrigued but not too hyped considering, I've had plenty of phone interviews that came to nothing.  I scheduled it for the next morning, and let me say, that I have never had a phone interview go that well before.  It was one of those things were it seems like everything just clicked.  At the end of the phone interview, I was asked if it would be possible for me to fly down for a face-to-face interview.  I have not been that excited in a long time!  I was so excited that despite the fact that it was then, still only 10:30 in the morning (early for those of us who work 2nds :P ), I woke Nathan up to tell him the news, then made him get up out of bed and stay awake with me because I was obviously too hyper at this point be awake by myself and would end up talking to myself or the cats until he woke up again.  He's a trooper.

After being advised to keep the momentum going (thanks Mom), I scheduled things fairly quickly, and ended up only having to wait roughly two weeks to go down there.  Also, there's no way I could have scheduled things that quickly without all the help I got from family.  You guys are amazing.  During the two weeks I had to wait, I told myself I wasn't going to think about it and was only going to tell the people that needed to know.  No point in reading too much into it, or getting too excited......

That lasted all of a couple days.

To be fair, the not telling too many people thing lasted longer than that.  But within a couple of days I had already thoroughly explored craigslist for possible future apartments/houses and was thinking about how we would pull off a move at the last minute if we had to.  I COULDN'T HELP IT!!!!  I was too excited at the idea of finally getting a forensics job and being settled!  I tried to resist but couldn't.  And since I felt guilty about it, I decided I'd just yell at Nathan for "jinxing it" any time he talked about getting the job.

Honestly, sometimes I don't know how he puts up with me...

The not telling anybody except my family thing lasted until the weekend before I left.  Then, I kinda told Marci and Phil...then Dani....then Jess....then anybody else who asked.  Whoops.  I'm pretty impressed I lasted that long.  I am horrible at keeping my own secrets.  Keeping a secret for someone else is no problem.  Myself?  Totally not possible.

Then, finally, after two weeks of waiting, and fighting with my body about whether or not it was going to get sick (refer to previous post), it was time to go!  Sunday morning, we woke up at 6:30 in the morning and Nathan drove me to the Milwaukee airport and dropped me off, despite having to work 3-12 that day.  In case you're wondering, yes, he did rack up tons of bonus points for being amazing during this whole thing.  I had forgotten what it was like to be up that early.  And despite being a nervous wreck (I haaaaate flying, and this was the first time I was flying by myself....wow that makes me sound like I'm 10), I was very eager to experience the whole thing.  I was determined to enjoy myself and take in the whole experience, no matter the outcome.  And since this is beginning to turn into a novel, I'll stop the first part here.  It seems an appropriate spot.  Also, it's 2 am, and sleep will be necessary soon. :)

A Letter to my Immune System

Dear Immune System:

We need to have a chat.  I appreciate your hard work.  You are normally very good at your job, keeping me fairly illness free, aside from the usual cold here and there.  I understand that you may need to take a break now and then and let your guard down.  Let me assure you that NOW IS NOT THE TIME!!!  I'm sorry.  I know I don't take care of you as well as I could.  You don't get the tools you need very often.  But I'm worried, because lately you seem to be on the fritz.  You can't do that.  You see, I have very important things coming up this weekend and I need you at your best.  If you perform well this weekend, you'll even have a chance at a better quality of life afterwards.  I've loaded up on your favorite vitamin C and will continue to do so until the important stuff is over.  Afterwards, I promise to try as hard as I can to better attend to your needs.  As for the tomfoolery with the sniffles and scratchy throat this week:  Knock it off!!!  I understand you may need a break.  After all, you do work hard.  If that's the case, I can also assure you that I will not whine/complain/otherwise throw a tantrum if you take a break after Tuesday.  But only after Tuesday!!!  Such nonsense beforehand will not be tolerated.  That is all.

Love,
Me

Edit:  The cold indeed waited until after the important stuff was done....so...yay?

A Tale of Two Pies

It turns out I can bake.

I know! It was a surprise to me too!  I think the last time I baked was chocolate chip cookies from pre-made cookie dough.  Or heck, even the "awesome" blueberry muffins I made in high school for band trips...that were made from mix out of a box.  Domestic, I am not.  My definition of domestic has been largely in the cleaning area (which, I have gotten much better at then when I was in college, truth be told).  I know how to cook a maximum of 4-5 dishes that aren't microwaved or made out of a box.  And, not all of those are main courses.  Granted the dishes I do know taste amazing, but I've mostly relied on friends and my husband for good home-cooked meals.  

Then Nathan's birthday came around, and since we're poor I wanted to do something nice for him that wouldn't break the bank.  I decided, initially, to make him a Key Lime Pie, since a pie that didn't have chocolate in it would obviously be a pie for him.  I ended up telling him, because I can't keep a secret from him for anything.  When I informed him of this, he says "Hun, I'm pretty sure Key Lime Pie is supposed to be pretty tough to make.  You can pick something else if you want."  (doubting my baking abilities, I'm sure) He then informs me that apple would be a perfectly fine substitute. "Crap, I can't bake an apple pie, I don't know how to make pie crust and you have to with apple cause you need one for the top (naive, I know)."  "Buying me an apple pie is a perfectly fine birthday present.(again with the doubting)"  "Done."

Done, until the actual day of his birthday when he's at work and my mother guilts me into baking him the pie by informing me that I can buy pie crusts that come in packs of two for one on top and claims it's not hard, and I should really just bake the pie.  I hurriedly search for a recipe, find one online and dash to the store.  At this point I'm completely panicked because I was starting this adventure with no plan and limited time to pull it all together since I was getting a late start due to the whole, just gonna buy it thing.  I'm a huge perfectionist.  The idea of doing something new like this without a set game plan panics the hell out of me.  

Oh, and by the way mom, that whole "not hard" thing, yeah, you are full of it.  That freakin thing took me 4 hours, about gave me carpal tunnel from all the peeling, and involved a frantic phone call to mom where the first thing I said to her when she picked up is "I can't believe I let you talk me into this!!!!"  It turns out eight apples is too many, and that sent me into a panic about whether or not my portions for the other ingredients were off (I'm an OCD scientist, I freak if equations get messed up.  Sue me.)  There was another panicking moment when I went to put the top crust on, and it proceeded to completely fall apart on me.  BUT it was all worth it to make my baby something special for his birthday. (I'm aware you're all gagging, shush it)  Despite the panicking here are the results, which in my and my husbands opinion, tasted DELICIOUS:

The ingredients before going in the pie.  The pan is sitting on top of books because I don't own a wire rack to let things cool.

Before putting the top part on.  The recipe actually makes too much filling, so there was a moment with the smoke detector when some started bubbling out when baking.

The final product.  You can't tell, but the edges were burnt, and all I could manage of the top was trying to cut steam vents in with a fork instead of latticing the top, but I was INORDINATELY pleased with myself

Skip to a couple weeks later, I'm sitting at home again last weekend while Nathan was at work, looking for something to do.  His new job means he works most weekends, so I'm finding myself with a lot more free time on my hands.  I decided to see if the fact that the apple pie tasted so good was beginners luck.  I went with blueberry this time because it was something I knew we both liked and there wouldn't be peeling involved.

Holy crap was this one easier.  The prep took me literally, 20 minutes.  Again, because of the lack of peeling and slicing, and also because you don't really make the filling before hand.  Just throw the ingredients in and the filling cooks as the pie bakes.  It was going so quickly, no ingredient photo was taken (a disappointment to all, obviously.)

Before baking:  I decided to try the whole lattice top thing since it was so easy to make.  I was quite pleased for the fact that it was my first attempt.

Final product.  Fun fact:  I zoomed in on the pie to disguise the fact that one of the books used for my makeshift cooling rack was a cheesy romance novel.  I'm A GIRL! Stop judging.  Also, no burnt crust!

 The moral of this story:  Obviously, I'm a domestic goddess that's just now realizing her abilities.  Martha Stewart should watch her ass.

Impatience

It feels like I haven't posted in months.  Turns out it's only been a couple of weeks.  I've been trying to figure out why time has been seemingly dragging and I've narrowed it down to a few reasons.  Among them:  work schedules and lack of trips home.

Work schedules has been the primary cause, I believe.  Working 2nd shift has it's pros and cons.  Pros:  Don't have to wake up to an alarm if I don't want to.  It turns out my body naturally starts waking me up around 11 am.  Also, I don't have to take any time off work for things like doctors appointments, etc.  I can wake up and run all of my errands before work.  My body naturally prefers 2nd shift so I've been feeling as rested as I ever have.  Cons:  Having work land in the middle of your day can kinda suck.  Luckily me and Nathan both ended up on a 2nd shift schedule rather than one of us 1st and one 2nd but there are definitely days when it feels like we get no time together.  Getting to wake up slowly rather than rushing to get out the door in the morning like I did on 1st is nice but having a few hours before work and a few after can often make it feel like my entire day is taken up by work.  I've tried the idea of waking up right before work and staying up later but it seems my body now refuses to sleep past 11.  Also, 2nd shift is apparently the one with the most changeable hours.  There are days I need to go in at 11:30 - noon and others when I don't go in until 3, depending on the work that day.  And then of course there are days when I have to switch to first for only a couple of days at a time.  So yeah, I'm figuring this is a large portion of why time has been dragging.

Then there's the lack of trips.  Me and Nathan both have depended on frequent trips home to see everyone when we can to keep our sanity.  Unfortunately, due to various reasons the frequency has shrunk to basically, once or twice a year.  So, needless to say, we miss all our friends and family.  We were lucky enough to have Nathan's parents visit this weekend.  It was great seeing them again and we had a lot of fun.

The final (and probably most important) reason:  I am nothing if not impatient.  A little while after writing previous post mentioning my dream job, I decided it was time to stop waiting around and get on with it, so then Nathan can get on with finishing what he wants to and we'll both be much more satisfied in the career department.  (All the other departments of our marriage are going swimmingly already <3 )  So I've been working on getting to a point where we are settled for a while in a career I love, be it forensics, tox, research or pharma, something that I can get behind and really enjoy my job.  Problem is, it turns out serious job hunting takes time and requires a lot of waiting.  I don't wait well.  My patience factor is basically something along these lines:

Because I don't feel right if I don't put something funny in my blog.

So here's hoping for something soon, because here soon, I'm afraid days are going to start feeling like weeks.