A vampire weekend.

In the past two days, I have watched all of the available Twilight movies...and so has Aron. He must really love me, to sit through all that angst.

Today was the first snowfall. Just like last year, instead of being a slow introduction to winter, it was a dumping of a few inches, plus some icy slush, for good measure. I'm so thrilled that I park in a garage now, and at least don't have to scrape my car off in the mornings. I'd be so much later to work than I already am if I had to warm up and scrape off my car.

The parking lot at work is across the street and down a ways from the building. It doesn't look that far, and on a nice day, it's not a bad walk at all. But on a hot day in summer, I'm sweating by the time I get to my car for sure. And on cold days, as it turns out, my ears are frozen and my hair is a mess by the time I make it the shelter of my Prius. So yesterday, I bought a hat. After years of resisting, I finally decided that maybe my mom was on to something, all those years ago, when she tried fruitlessly to convince me to wear one. And you know what? Not only is it really cute (I knew I'd never wear one unless I thought it was adorable), it's also really warm.

I ordered three random woot shirts the other day. I like the thrill of the unknown; I almost never buy woot shirts, but I almost always buy random woot shirts. (Partly because of Eric, I think. Random woot shirts were his favorite.) I got a good mix this time...




and my favorite....

Seriously, how the hell did I get a random woot shirt of Shakespeare characters from A-Z that was originally on woot on July 2, 2010? Ahhhmazing.

If only it were a different color, though. I'll look as pale as a vampire in this one...

Gotta get down on Friiiy-day

I went to a pizza buffet for lunch today. Buffalo chicken pizza, macaroni and cheese pizza, BLT pizza with Italian dressing, the sweetest dessert pizza, saur kraut and sausage pizza (if you're into that...I'm not). It was so, so good. And so cheap! And then I was uncomfortably full.

Tonight Aron and I had a delightful date night. We went to Target, where I got a really cute knitted hat with a flower on it; Pet Smart, where I got excited about some litter box liners and sensitive stomach food; and Byerly's, where we got four bottles of wine. Then we came home, put in a frozen pizza, and watched Twilight. Best date night ever? Totally.

I was crabby, and we were off for awhile there. But we're back now, and I'm so happy. We hung out Wednesday night, as our normal, cheerful selves, and Thursday was a much, much better day for both of us than pretty much the last two weeks had been. I'm so very glad we're back. :)

Now I must away, for my glass of wine and New Moon are beckoning.

Let's pretend it's Thursday.

Even writers take a day off once in awhile, right?

I got home from work yesterday, threw in some laundry, and then went to meet Aron for dinner to celebrate our four month dativersary. Only as dinner progressed, I felt progressively worse, and as soon as I came home, I passed out, blogless.

On the plus side, I got about 9 solid hours of sleep, and I felt awesome this morning.

On the other hand, it means that, technically, I have already failed at my blog-a-day challenge. But don't worry, dear readers. I will persevere.

Aron and I are both light eaters, so we decided to split the fish and chips and also get an order of bleu cheese bread. The waitress brought both of us salads instead of making us split one, and when she saw at the end of the meal that we didn't really like the bread, she took it off of our check AND gave us a coupon for a free appetizer so we could come back and try something else that we'd like better! Yeah, she got a pretty large tip.

Besides being sick, it was a good day. A very good day.

blog blog blog

I actually have a lot to say and tell today. I went on a field trip for work, which included cinnamon rolls and learning and Osaka hibachi, there was pumpkin pie, my kitten ignored me and then rued the day she ever tried such a thing, I have seven bells to play, and I'm so happily and deeply in love.

But I went to trivia tonight, and it's late, and if there's ANY chance of me getting to work on time (ha!), then I need to go to bed about three hours ago.

Just know, dear readers, that I feel like a new woman today.

About damn time.

Roses are red.

Amidst all my slightly angsty introspectoring yesterday, I had a lovely phone date with my dear friend Erin. Turns out, we hadn't sat down and chatted for far, far too long. We talked for awhile, exchanged the latest, and then, to my surprise and delight, she asked me to be a personal attendant at her wedding this summer!

This will be the first wedding I have an actual role in, and I'm so excited and honored.

When Nikki got married this fall, I started almost crying as soon as her bridesmaids started walking out, because I've known all of them for so long - since middle school! It was the first wedding I'd been to where I really knew most of the people in it, and the first time I've watched someone that close get married. I did not previously know how awesome weddings could be. I did not realize how exponentially better they are when you know the people. And I say this as someone who loves all weddings all the time! (You might think I wouldn't... but I so do.)

And now I get to not only witness the wedding of a wonderful friend, but also hang out and be the bride's bitch and be a part of the day! I'm thrilled. :)

I feel like I had more to say here, but I've just realized how tired I am and how on time I need to be to work tomorrow, and so it is very suddenly and urgently bedtime.

Except for the sharing of this gem, from Jess: "From here, she looks like a mud puddle turning into a cat. Starting with the ears."

An introvert's introspection.

Sometimes I forget things. Sometimes I meet such great, exciting people that I forget I'm kind of a hermit. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the new fun things that are happening to/around me that I forget basic things about myself. Things like...I am an introvert. I don't just want or like alone time; I need it. I like to spend copious amounts of time on the internet. On the couch. Watching chick flicks. Sometimes with no pants. But mostly the alone time part, and the needing thereof.

And, apparently, if I don't get it, I turn into a crazy person.

As a flight attendant, I had long overnights entirely on my own. I had random, mid-week days off work, during which all my friends were busy and I got to just hang out at home and do whatever needed doing. As a bank teller, my schedule was fluid, and I still had random days and times off. Even living with my (sometimes overbearing) parents, I knew I had certain hours every week when the house would be mine.

And then there's now. I have this amazing new boyfriend, a roommate who happens to also be my bestie, commitments on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, 40 hour work weeks, other friends, game nights, family.... And suddenly, weeks have gone by, and I realize I can't remember the last time I had an evening alone, the last time I got to hang out in an empty apartment.

And then I turn into a crazy person.

Today, I asked Jess to vacate the apartment for me for an evening or so. She was happy to oblige, and just the thought of it, just knowing I'd have an empty apartment tonight, improved my mood a thousandfold.

Lesson learned. Lesson. learned.

I pinch.

Today I watched a cup move an inch or two across a table under the power of the spider trapped underneath it.

I thought that only happened in movies.


I'm too crabby to blog today. I wonder if that has more to do with not getting enough sleep, my stupid cat puking up everything she ate approximately twenty seconds after she ate it, or my stupid cat clawing holes in the litter box liner and then peeing through them and making a mess for me when I emptied it today. Or perhaps (probably) how fucked up my pill-taking schedule got this month, and thus how effed my hormones probably are at the moment. Yikes. Whoops.


Coming soon to (Mis)Adventures: a tale of CRM as learned in flight attendant training; an update on my New Year's resolution; less crabbiness (hopefully).

Set your phasers to Deluminate.

HP7.2 came out on dvd yesterday. Naturally, we had a viewing party tonight. We started 7.1 just after 4 with some pizza in hand, velvet posters abounding, and drinks at the ready. We paused for some dessert pizza and then put in the second one, which we actually paid attention to. After some shots, of course. (That liquor set I wanted to buy with my magic $20? It is DELICIOUS. Passion fruit. And we put Sprite in the other half of the shot glass. It tasted like... like DELICIOUS.)

Harry Potter is SO. GOOD. I'm so glad I'm already in the process of rereading the books. SO. GOOD.

I also got this today.


I never know how to properly go about explaining this, so bear with me here. Shakespeare left money in his will to some friends to buy remembrance rings. A ring was found in the ashes of the Rose Theatre that has the saying "Pences pour moye du," which means "Think of me, god willing," and a heart with two arrows through it. It's the type of ring Shakespeare meant his friends to get. They sell replicas of this ring at the Shakespeare birthplace museum; in this picture, I'm wearing the one I bought in 2005 during my visit to Stratford-upon-Avon with my sister. So, Shakespeare, England, remembrance, etc. It means a lot of things. And I love it.

The guys at the tattoo place tried to talk me out of doing it in white, but luckily Jess has my back and didn't let that happen. I've been thinking about getting this design, in white, since sometime last December. Yesterday, I very suddenly decided that I wanted it immediately. So today, we went, and I got it. Aron held my hand, but I didn't even need to squeeze it. It hurt, but not as badly as I expected. It looked strange, but I watched the whole time.

In sum...Harry Potter parties are always awesome.

Oatmeal.

The woman at work who is an editor, but above me, but not my boss, has come to trust me. Against all my expectations, I've gotten really interested and attuned to the production side of things - making sure pages are getting out the door on time, making sure we're working on the hottest (closest to press) spreads first, things like that. Coworker-not-boss is more focused on production also, so I've started to become her little production buddy. She was out of office today, so yesterday she emailed me to be in charge of a process we have of routing things through the merchandising department to make sure all our info is correct. She didn't email either of the two editors who have been here longer than I have who know the process, nor did she email our boss, who could also take charge of the process; she emailed me. I was in charge. Bossman came back to our Editors' Lounge today and asked me if I was taking care of it; asked me, because he knew I was the most likely candidate to have been in charge of it today. (I was already almost done by the time he asked.)

My point is... they like me. They really, really like me. And let me tell you, the feeling is mutual. I may be emotionally drained at the moment, exhausted some days, or restless others, but truly, I could not be happier about my current job situation. I feel so lucky to have gotten this position when I did. It's exactly what I'd forgotten I always wanted.


In other news, tampons are weird. And if you ask your drunk girlfriend what the difference between pads and tampons is, she'll tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know.


My cat has a habit of hiding from Jess all day long, but coming out of my room as soon as she knows I'm home. Today she came out to cuddle and I held her in the most awkward position ever, upside down in the crook of my arm. She reluctantly stayed and used my boob as a pillow, because at least I was petting her. She's a funny girl, that one.

Aron took me to El Loro for dinner, where we ate until we were uncomfortably full and where I spilled rice EVERYWHERE. Afterwards we decided to walk over to the liquor store to pick up some supplies for the evening. I love when it's getting to be holiday season and they have alcoholic gift boxes. We looked at those for awhile, then wandered around trying to decide what we wanted. We settled on margaritas, then headed back home.

And then I found $20.

No, seriously, I found a $20 bill on the sidewalk on the short walk from the liquor store to the car. I was SO. DELIGHTED. And I've just decided that I'm going to use my magical $20 to buy one of those drunken gift boxes. It comes with six shot glasses that have walls in them to divide them in half! I clearly need those.

Aron's mad at me now, because I gave him questionable, self-serving "advice" during our Carcassonne game earlier. Jess is mad, too, because the move kind of fucked her over as well. I giggled maniacally (/drunkenly) for most of the rest of the game, and won by a margin of almost 50. Whoops! Heh.

These are the vase-less roses he brought me yesterday.

In a pilsner glass from BWW.


In my Guide water bottle.


I wish this would capture the smell. I love the smell of roses.

I think it might be rematch time. If we don't all fall asleep first.

Oh, also, I think I'm going to get a tattoo tomorrow. We'll see.

A girl needs her cheese.

Today I left work at 1.30 to go to a photo shoot in Hudson, WI. We were shooting some backyard BBQ scenes. It was snowing on my drive in to work. You can imagine how well that went. Do you know how hard it is to sit and chat in a screen gazebo and pretend not to be cold? I'll tell you: it's hard. But then on the way back to the office, we stopped at Dairy Queen. Because I love ice cream no matter WHAT the weather is like.

Aron arrived at my apartment this evening bearing a dozen roses. :) I don't have a vase at the apartment, so they are split into an aluminum water bottle from work and a Vikings-branded pilsner glass from Buffalo Wild Wings. I think I like them better this way.

Actual conversation we had at dinner tonight:
"I don't want your cooties."
"Best. Date night. Ever."

It was good, though. Most couples wouldn't consider apps and long islands at Applebees, a trip to Big Lots, then going home to color velvet posters and watch Big Bang Theory a date night. At least one person from most couples is going to be unhappy with some part of that progression. But I thought it was excellent.

Jess was home most of the day today, and she tried fruitlessly to coax Mabel out of hiding. Within five minutes of me sitting on the couch after I got home, Mabes was in my lap. She didn't stay long, though; I don't think she likes the Magnificat. Which is funny, because it ends in cat, and I think she's magnificent. I think I shall start to call her my magnifiCat.

On that note, I do believe it's way past my bedtime.