stripped and fried.

So all afternoon I had this intense craving for fast food. More specifically, for fast food fries. Come on-- is there really anything better than some fresh, hot, salty, crispy-on-the-outside but melty-on-the-inside fast food fries?? I submit that there is not. Anyway, as it often happens when I find myself craving something, I convinced Matt that it was absolutely imperative we find ourselves some fast food for dinner. It was doubly convenient that I also had absolutely no desire to cook and was exhausted from work. So, Chick-fil-a it was. I love CFA (like any God-fearing person should) and was in the mood for some chicken strips (to accompany my fries). I've only had the "new" chicken strips once, a few months ago, but I had really liked them...and I was just in the mood tonight! Anyway, once we got there and I got my food, the saddest thing happened. I didn't like the chicken. There wasn't anything wrong with it...except that with every bite I wanted to vomit. I would swallow as fast as I could and chase it with 2 fries and half a cup of water. After a few torturous bites, I came to terms with the fact that it is okay to not like and not eat your chicken strips...after all, it's not like they're particularly nutritious or anything. So Matt ate them (and his 2 sandwiches) and I ate our fries. I'm still confused, though. Why the sudden aversion? Does this mean I will no longer like chicken biscuits, too? What will come next, pizza? Please no. I really could not survive without pizza.

I'm blogging as Matt watches Band of Brothers. We've been Netflixing for over a year now and our Netflix queue has always been a matter of much compromise and mutual consent. We choose the movies/shows to rent knowing that we watch everything together, so we only get things that we both want to watch (or that at least one person isn't violently opposed to watching.) Well, a few weeks ago Matt kept whining and complaining about wanting to watch Band of Brothers. I mean, seriously. If you're not 'in the know' (haha) like I am, then let me educate you: Band of Brothers is a reallllllyyyy long, reallllllyyyyy boring "mini" series (although there's nothing mini about it) that came on on HBO a few years ago. It won tons of awards. It's about World War 2 and some soldiers or something. If you're not already sold, let me entice you even more by telling you that there is not even a love story to redeem the 200 hours you will spend watching this nail-biter!!! Anyway...if you're a person of great discernment, you may have picked up on the fact that I am not a huge fan of watching Band of Brothers. Not really my thing. But it's totally a man-thing, so who am I to deny my husband the joys(?) of watching BoB? So I said with all my wife-ly cheerfulness, "why don't you just add it to our queue?! I'll blog while you watch it!" (Side note: it really does have a good soundtrack, so I don't mind listening to it passively while I do something else.) It seemed like a win-win situation...until one day I looked at our Netflix queue and the WHOLE THING WAS FILLED UP WITH BAND OF BROTHERS!!! I mean seriously-- the next 5 discs. Ummm...wow. My movie-watching-future was looking bleak. There was only one thing that could be done. My sanity was on the line. I decided there was one thing still lingering on my own personal "things to watch" list that really should be checked off-- stat. And it wasn't the kinda thing that Matt was going to relish sitting through. And it wasn't just a quick 1.5 hour chick flick, either. It was an entire season (24ish wonderful hours) of witty, quick-talking, beautifully-dressed Rory and Lorelei Gilmore-- yes, the seventh and final season of Gilmore Girls in all its glory. (Can't you hear the herald angels singing?) So I added that to the queue, and in an act of marital-compromise ingenuity, rearranged it so that the queue went BoB Disc 1, GG Disc 1, BoB Disc 2, GG Disc 2, etc...right on down to BoB Disc 5and GG Discs 5 & 6 (haha, I get one more!!). That way no matter how dismal what you're currently watching is...something better is on the way. I should probably start hosting marriage seminars or something, because that move was GENIUS.

Anyway....something magical is happening-- mournful and depressing music is playing as the credits roll across the screen, meaning that BoB is over and it's time for some GG!!! Time to cuddle into some blankets, tear my pup away from her bone, and lose myself in Star's Hollow for some quality drama and wit. Love it.

blah

Blah is how I've felt all week. Blah. I can just say it over and over. Blah.
It's just one of those weeks, you know? Cold outside. Totally disillusioned with work. No energy. Stuck inside (both at home AND at school with a million 4 year olds) constantly. Annoying hacking cough that just lingers...getting neither better nor worse. Blah!
I am so ready for retirement. This working-girl thing is just not working out for me. Oh to be independently wealthy. :)
On the bright side...I did get to hang out with a good friend I don't see much on Monday. I cooked an awesome dinner for her, Matt, and I. I've had some really cool breakthroughs with two of my students...I'm just trying to forget about the other 58 that are crawling all over my last nerve. Yikes, here I am going back to focusing on the negative again.
Umm....right, so. I'm 26...let's see...I'll aim to retire by 65, which means...dang. 39 more years of this? Hopefully I'll get to take a break somewhere in there to be a SAHM. Maybe about a 30 year break. Kids need supervision well into their 30s, I believe. Not me personally, but surely my kids will.
So...Lost is back. Yay! We stayed up entirely too late last night to watch the 2 hours season premiere after home group. Well worth it, except for how nothing was resolved. I should be used to it after 4 seasons, but I guess hope springs eternal in my little heart and somehow I just think they might start giving us some resolution...and I was wrong. Oh well. I'm all in for another season and will watch this show til the bitter end. And then probably start watching it again from the beginning, once I know all the answers. Kind of like the first time you saw The Sixth Sense...as soon as it was over, you think "holy crap, now I need to watch it from the beginning!" Or at least I did.

I took this picture a few weekends ago. We went to this really neat state park about half an hour from our house and had a lot of fun walking around. Hopefully we'll get to do some camping there once it gets warmer outside. There's a river/creek/stream thing that is really wide with lots of huge rocks that you can walk on. We tried to get Lola to play in the water. It was semi-successful. Hopefully she'll be more of a water-lover come summer. I've never had a dog that liked the water!

Well, off to figure out what happened to the bone Lola has been chewing on. I have a sneaking suspicion it is in her stomach now...she made this loud burping/air swallowing sound...and now no sign of the bone. As long as it doesn't choke her, I guess it's okay, right? Oh the adventures of parenthood. :)

shelved

Yay and amen, I got a new bookshelf!! This has been on my list of things to buy (*ahem* budget for, then buy) for MONTHS! Matt and I are collectors of books, you could say. I adore books. I adore reading. I think books are aesthetically beautiful and love to surround myself with as much beauty as possible at all times. I rarely borrow books or get them from the library (unless I'm really uncertain about whether I'll like it)...I like to make books my own, underlining and folding corners. You never know when you'll want to go back and find that one really cool quote in Les Miserables or that entire passage of greatness in East of Eden. If you don't own the book, you can't find it! Therefore I have amassed quite a collection in my 26 years. Add to it Matt's own formidable collection (he scours used book stores and buys anything that looks remotely interesting)...and you have a couple who outgrow bookshelves regularly. Anyway, the stacks of books on every flat surface in the house have been getting on my nerves so we finally selected our Next Big Purchase: a really nice, large bookshelf! I hemmed and hawed about the choice for a few weeks but yesterday we decided on the one and got it! It took awhile to get the whole thing together and ready, and even longer still for me to rearrange and distribute the books/decorations, but we are done! Yay! Here's the new beauty, taking a place of honor beside the fireplace.

Isn't it beautiful?! I love mixing up my books with pictures, candles, and other decorative pieces. My other 2 big shelves look a lot better now, too, since those books got a little more room to breathe. While we were out (and the in-laws were babysitting Lola) we found a few more things to decorate with. I absolutely love decorating. We're renting the house we're in now, and we've lived here for 1.5 years (plus I lived here a year before that with a roommate) and I never seem to stop "nesting". There's always a wall that needs a little something or a corner that looks a bit empty. I'm not much of a knicknack girl, but I do like a space that feels lived-in! Here's a bamboo pot and some palm leaves and curly sticks (for lack of a more scientific word) I got for our bedroom.

Just FYI, that is Matt's nightstand you're looking at. He likes to be reading no less than 12,000 books at a time, and they all must be at hand when he's in bed! I love our room; when we move, I plan on changing nothing about it. It is so peaceful...I've actually had a friend comment that she'd give us a few bucks to take a nap there; she thinks it feels like a room in a B&B! Here's the view from the doorway.
Anyway. I've just a fun weekend doing some minor decorating. I love finding a good sale, especially when I have Christmas money to spend! The best part of this weekend? That it's not over yet!! Yaaay for having tomorrow off as well!

a new leaf

At least once a day Matt finds me curled up on the couch with the laptop, oblivious to the world. "Whatcha doing?" he'll ask. "Blogging," I reply, completely aware that I'm actually only pseudo-blogging. I think most people would agree that it only counts as blogging if you actually...you know...blog. At least once in a while. What I am doing is really just stalking. But I don't like to be that honest with myself. I keep making new deals with myself. When I start my new job I'll start blogging again. Nope. When I get used to the new job I'll start blogging again. That may never happen. When I turn 26 I'll start blogging. I went to the aquarium that day. No time for blogs. Ahhh...a new year. When it's 2009, THEN I will blog. 16 days in...may as well get started. Because my next goal was when I get pregnant (because I absolutely adore stalking the blogs of people (strangers) who are pregnant)... and who knows when that will be. So why not today? Why not indeed.

It's been an eventful6.5 months! I did indeed get a new job in August which has only served to solidify my theory: A job will never be my life. I may always have a job, but I don't think it will ever serve to define me. And I am happy about that. No matter how much I like or don't like my jobs...no matter whether it was a good, fulfilling day or a crappy, overwhelming day (or a blah, who cares? day)...I always always always look forward to going home and forgetting about it. Being with Matt and Lola (and someday our kids) and just hanging out with ourselves or with friends, doing anything or nothing...well, that's what my life is about. Not work. When I meet people or am catching up with old friends and it comes to the "so what do you do?" question...I always rush through it...it just does nothing to describe who I really am.

With that being said, I do mostly like my job. The newness has worn off and the stressfulness has set in, but I do usually enjoy it. And I'm a huge fan of a paycheck, so there's always that. :) And in times such as this, I try very hard not to take a job for granted.

The most exciting new addition to our lives has been our beloved puppy, Lola.

Lola the day we adopted her (Sept. 2008)

Lola last weekend.

She is the best dog ever!! She's about 6 months old and is a lab-?? mix. Must be mixed with something small, cause she's rather small for a lab her age (about 30 pounds). She is incredibly smart and very cuddly and SO much fun. She has yet to destroy anything (important) and is just...perfect. We are pretty much obsessed with playing with her/talking about her/thinking about her...in fact, much of Matt & I's back-and-forth emails during the workday deal with our "Loler" and how she is doing and how much she misses us and what we will do when we get home.

Speaking of coming home, I hear Matt pulling up. I'll have to cut this little life-update short...but I promise I'll be back soon. I have a nice long weekend (thank you, MLK Jr...and not just for the day off) ahead of me, so I will try to come back soon.

*E*