THE list.

You guys. I thought when you cross things off a to-do list, the list is supposed to shrink. Mine is growing. Seriously growing. Anyone know where I can find a team of fairies to come to my house and knock out all the items on my list? I make a mean chocolate cream pie, and I'm willing to trade.

If you don't know any fairies, perhaps you can just write me sweet messages of encouragement on a daily basis. There won't be any chocolate pie, but I'm sure you'll get a warm fuzzy feeling for thinking of me.

kitchen reveal...sort of

Sometimes I think I may be part bear-I can hibernate with the best of them. (My recent months of blogging-or lack thereof-should provide you with evidence of that fact.) But then I think about several other factors-size, teeth, claws, the rather ferocious amount of hair found on bears...and it's pretty clear that I'm not part bear at all.

As for what I've been up to during my recent hibernation period, allow me to lure your back to my little part of the web with a little home update.

If you'll recall, Boyfriend and I had recently taken on a huge project (found here, here, and here). This house. Blah. Blah, blah, blah. My hat's off to all you DIY pros for making it look so easy. It's soooo not. But I didn't start this post to complain to you about the seemingly endless to-do list...I started this post to share some of our progress, however slow it may be. Allow me to take you back...

Our kitchen as we first came to know her. F to the ugly.

Please keep in mind that I did say progress...meaning this project hasn't wrapped. However, it has been improved upon.

Wallpaper is gone, new texture up, fresh white paint on the walls, new color on the cabinets (goodbye ugly polyurethaned wood!), and a general deep cleaning. We still have cabinet doors to install, the ceiling to paint, and the floor to conquer. If I make it through all of that without ripping my hair out or running around like Jason Russell, feel free to congratulate me. With oodels wine. Or gift cards. Love those.

a sad state of affairs

I'm finally getting around to it, but I'm not particularly enjoying it or excited about it. I'm not really sure how I decided today was the day. My typically short drive home from work ended up being just long enough to for the idea to pop into my head and stay there. Drat. Drat, I tell you! I wanted to stay in denial. To ignore the blatantly obvious fact that we have more to do than we have time for. [If anyone so much as hints at an "I told you so" I will unfriend you on facebook and submit your email to receive an endless amount of e-newsletters.] A good percentage of my brain still believes we'll make the deadline, but the photos provide pretty hard evidence that all hope is lost. Period. And now I'm officially stalling. I'll continue to stall for a bit. Anyone want to hear about the strange dream I had last night where me and my friend Sarah (you're gonna love this, carebear) were trying to teach another girl how to use eyebrow powder and accidentally bleached my eyebrows instead? Ok, well that was kinda it. It was super hot guys.


Ok, fine. Here goes.


























Uh...........


































Ok, for real. Please try to hold the gasps to a minimum.

Excuse me while I bury my face in my hands and sob.


One month! That's all we have until we move in. As the title suggests, it's a sad state of affairs. We've been working hard! Really hard, guys...but, man! OknowthatIpostedthatpleasecomehelpme! We're thinking a painting party?! With beer. And pizza. Who's down?


Oh, and if anyone isn't feeling sorry for me yet, this should help. I still have to pack up our. entire. house. Sad face, people. Sad face. This place is pretty much the only thing that keeps me going. That and the cold beer I'm about to abandon you for.








PS: Any paint colors/ideas/words of encouragement happily accepted!


[interesting fact: I've now been staring at this post for 15 minutes trying to convince myself to hit "publish post". Okheregoes.]

Ceeee-le-brate good times, come on!

I hope you sang the title out loud! Ok, maybe not out loud, but did you at least give it a little hum, head bop, or shoulder shimmy? I did a shoulder shimmy. Of course, I knew what I was writing, so I shimmied and wrote. At the same time. Whatever, back to the matter at hand. Celebrations. Today, I am giving a nod to my blog. Or, as it were, a very tiny nod to my very tiny blog.

For any confused readers (probably most of you)...my blogiversary came and went without recognition. Oops! I actually didn't think of it at all until today, over three weeks late. But realistically, I don't have too much to celebrate, right?

WRONG!

Though my first thought was to let the seemingly insignificant date pass by without acknowledgment, I reconsidered. What would my attempt at blogging amount to if it weren't acknowledged? Small successes are still successes, right? Maybe I didn't write as much as I'd hoped in the beginning of the year, but I wrote. Maybe I didn't find a central topic around which to focus my writing, but I wrote. And, maybe I didn't make much sense to anyone who was forced to read my blog while I stood over their shoulder stumbled upon my site, but I wrote. Are you getting my point? I wrote, dammit. And even if it wasn't to the degree I imagined, it's definitely something to build on. In that spirit, I've created a list (imagine that) to keep me pumped about my teeny tiny progress. Enjoy.

1. I am still blogging (however infrequently).
2. I posted 16 times last year. (Don't laugh! It's better than one. Or none.)
3. I am happy about the variety of moods/themes in posts. That is to say I feel like there's a good mix of "this-is-what's-going-on-in-my-life" posts sprinkled with "I'm-a-goofball-and-this-is-totally random" and "I-am-very-serious-about-this-so-take-this-seriously" posts.
4. I actually have followers. Granted, not very many. But they're there! So thank you Mary, Adagui, and Mandi! Muah!!

Now comes the fun part. The extra encouraging part. GOALS. I don't have any new year's resolutions to speak of, but I do have goals. And what better way to share my goals for blog than like this:

Number One: WRITE MORE! That's the most obvious and most important goal. I'm tempted not to tell you my ideal number of blogs per week, but it might help me get off my ass and contribute to my own project. So here goes. Three. Three times per week. That would be ideal. Here's the thing though, for someone who didn't even write much more than once per month on average, I feel like three times per week is lofty. Very, very lofty. However, two posts per week doesn't sound crazy. So that's what I'm settling on. That's my goal. Let's see how I do. ;)

Number Two: By the end of the year, find a focus (not the car, just got rid of that) for the content of my blog. That's the one I'll need the most luck on. Even more than frequency, I'd bet.

and Number Three (because I think 3 sounds like a good number for this sort of list): Improve my writing skills. I have an idea that writing with more frequency will inevitably enhance my writing. So here's hoping #1 helps with #3!

And because I've included no pictures in the post thus far...

because, well, it's a celebration!

and this is just because I like these boots. =)

Cheers!

I am runner.

So here's the deal. I really, really wanted to get up for the last several months weeks days and run. I encouraged myself every evening chanting, "I want to get up and run. I want to get up and run." Each night I climbed into bed certain that by the time 6:45 reared it's ugly head came about I would hop out of bed and enjoy my morning run with Lucy. This has not happened. What's really the problem with this (besides the obvious that I can't seem to motivate myself to get in better shape)? I will tell you.

October 2 is The Great Urban Race. It's a six-mile scavenger hunt that Tecia and I are signed up for. Two things in that description are very key: #1. Six-mile. This distance when mentioned alone does not frighten me. It is a distance that would take a few minutes by car. Probably a couple hours walking. And if I were trying to complete a six-mile hike/trail, could I do it? Sure! Enter #2. Scavenger Hunt. This means competition. This means we are attempting to finish BEFORE other people. This means I have no hope. At the rate I'm going, which is 0 in case you weren't paying attention to the aforementioned lack of progress, I will be staring at people's backs in no time. Tecia will have to constantly wait on me, and we will lose. Bad. I will probably look something like this:


You may be wondering, "Is this a classic case of an individual struggling with internal conflict?" While I have often pondered the same question, I am pouring my heart out now to tell you it is not. Is it, in fact, the case of an individual struggling with society, with media, with pretty pretty pictures. I present to you Exhibit A:

Okay, okay, I know it's just a woman running, but look at her! She is fit. She is in shape. (look at that bum!) She is enjoying her lovely afternoon jog along an open road in the pretty countryside. Most importantly, she is not losing The Great Urban Race.



And now, the pièce de résistance:


At this point you may be thinking, "Those are just photos. So What?" Well, my friend, photos are very important. They serve as inspiration. In this case, they have inspired me to think I would love the be a runner. However, an inspiring photo is only half the battle. The other half had me at tank top. In addition to suffering the never ending photostream of gorgeous runners, I am also at the mercy of athletic gear. I just love it. Seriously, take a look.

This little top from lululemon is too too cute!

And of course I need knee support running tights.

Vibram Five Fingers...I will make you mine!

Somewhere between registering for The Great Urban Race, coveting runner's bodies, and being in love with running gear I convinced myself not only can I do this, I want to do this. However, it's becoming more and more apparent that I prefer the idea of being a runner.

And has this very recent revelation changed anything? Should I give up on my dream goal delusion of becoming a runner?








Absolutely not.










I am runner.

wa-shing-ton!

Washington here we come! Ok, not right this minute, I mean we did just get back from Colorado...which, by the way, was WONDERFUL!...but soon enough we are definitely making our way up to The Evergreen State for a visit. I have never been, but I have pretty much decided we are moving there. I imagine it's not the brightest idea to move to a place we have never visited, so...Washington here we come! =)

Seriously, look at this:













We'll find a little fishing town, buy a house, be all outdoorsy...it'll be great!

hello 2010!

My cat stinks. My cat is lying next to me on the bed and he stinks. But he's very sweet, so I may overlook this tiny detail. The stench isn't really that bad...

MTV garbage is playing on TV right now, and I'm completely addicted to it. Jersey Shore is unbelievably moronic. And brilliant. It's akin to watching a train wreck. Or It's Always Sunny, which occasionally hurts to watch but you just can't peel your eyes away—except the people in Jersey Shore are real people. Crazy. Just a few seconds ago this girl Nikki, nicknamed Snooki, said “That's why I don't like eating lobsters-they're like alive when they die.” Umm....yeah.

I have a list on 43things.com. 43things.com is a social networking site where people share goals and hopes. (I ripped that blurb from their website.) My most current list in only comprised of 40 things. They all seem doable...maybe even within this year. Which would be cool...well, ok upon reflection I don't think all the things are quite possible this year. But a lot of them are. I think my goal will not be to push myself to complete all forty but to see how many I can accomplish this year. Here is the list:

1. get a tattoo
2. visit machu pichu
3. raft the grand canyon
4. go backpacking
5. go whale-watching
6. learn web design
7. trace my family tree
8. paint
9. take voice lessons
10. learn to knit
11. learn ballroom dancing
12. complete a sudoku puzzle in under 5 minutes
13. learn to play guitar
14. learn to read palms
15. go to graduate school
16. play soccer again
17. run a marathon
18. be in a movie
19. make a difference
20. take an improv class
21. take a cooking class
22. live in another country
23. pay off debt
24. learn russian
25. learn to fly
26. eat healthier
27. exercise regularly
28. write a book
29. speak spanish fluently
30. live in another country
31. visit the sydney opera house
32. travel to asia
33. visit all 50 states
34. take a road trip across the united states
35. learn pointe
36. take ballet again
37. design a t-shirt
38. travel to europe
39. take a photography class
40. learn to box

Only one item on my list is incredibly vague. And there are things missing. But I will add more to-dos when I cross others off. So...looks pretty good!