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?