By a Hair

I might not have even wanted it, but it doesn't matter, it's gone.

The couple who saw the place before me loved it and scooped up the beloved place right before my very eyes -- as I pulled up to the property. Depressing. But, oh well. It was a bit pricey (@ $1150 per month) and it did have downstairs neighbors. Maybe it's meant to be. And who finds the perfect apartment on their first excursion out? Obviously not me.

But the search must go on. I'm checking out this little beauty today:

As you can see, it has a little backyard (SO cute for widdle Marie) that would be fun for get togethers and whatnot. It is a 2 bedroom teeny house so you have the whole place to yourself. It also has a great location, just off 5th South and is going for the price of $1000 a month. Fingers and toes crossed, please.

Where O Where

Where have I been? Well, I've been busy. As you know, my birthday was Monday the 19th. Here's what's happened since:

• Shopping excursion with Mr. Tom which resulted in some great finds for him and me, most especially, my nude heels. Ultra fab.
• Bad headache which made me miss ballet.
• Discovered a yummy Thai restaurant close to home.
• Learned my new job ... which I love.
• Got a mani-pedi. The pedicure was great, as always; I won't be getting a manicure again. Apparently I hate it when other people work on my hands. Weird.
• Went to Cass's and Michael's wedding, which was beautiful.
• Went to a birthday party.
• Went to lunch @ Thaifoon with my sister-in-law. Yum-O.
• Bought the most wonderful headband.
• Mom made me a yummy birthday dinner and cake.
• The Cowboy Brothers came in 1st on Amazing Race.
• I bought a pink iron.
• The puppy barked at the ironing board. Hilarious.

And now I'm busy with work and finding a new apartment. Where does time go?

The Search

God, looking for an apartment is terrible. No wonder people buy houses and just live there forever. Moving sucks balls. Hard. Today, whilst searching on KSL, I found 2 apartments in great areas with a fantastic price. They are both gone! My lease expires June 1st, barely one measly month away. There are 2 houses on 8th East and 3rd South that look promising ... but they could turn out to be total crap holes. And the dude won't return my calls. He is listed as the seller for both properties -- another sign they could be dumps.

This could be promising. Super great location and only $800 per month.

Oh, but I just talked to Mary Ann and she said that they already have an offer pending.

Blah.

Or what about this? I'm going to see it tomorrow -- but it doesn't have ANY on-site laundry.

I've used a laundromat in my apartment complex and I still hated it.
Once you've been spoiled with your own washer and dryer, you can't go back. 

It would be like using an outhouse.

This, however, is the piece de resistance, the love, the want.

It is $1150 a month and is a tad bit further from downtown than we would like,

but it's a beauty. See:

We'd have a little porch.

And a fabulously new kitchen.

A nice living room with hardwood floors.

A lovely second bedroom.

Double sink bathroom.

Tub and walk-in shower.

Master bedroom with walk-in his and hers closets. Perfect.

We wouldn't have a bike in the bedroom.

I'm having difficulty contacting the tenants so I can actually get IN and see the place. I spoke with the landlord and he seemed like a friendly fellow. Cross your fingers for me. I'm hoping for this one to work out.

True and Future Self

Just want to recommit ...

Commit to an active life.

Commit to non-processed food.

Commit to a beautiful and healthy body.

Commit to love myself enough to reach my goal.

100 -- I am coming for you.

A Charmed Life

Today was possibly the best Monday in the history of Mondays.

It started out early early in the morning. On Sunday night we tried to make a frozen lasagna; we set the oven, we set the timer, we went upstairs to veg out. Ding ding! And then downstairs for some yummy eats ... oh, but we forgot to turn on the oven. So now we wait for another TWO hours. In the meantime we enjoy a glass of wine and watch 'Mallrats' (never before seen in our lifetime) and as Sunday passes into Monday, we enjoy our lasagna in bed together. Before we go to sleep, Tom wishes me a happy birthday.

3 hours later, I wake up to go to work. Time to start my new and improved job. Can I just say: I am going to love it. Best job ever. My friends helped me celebrate my birthday with some treats and a 24 pack of Diet Coke. Friends at work make work survivable.

Then it's time to hop in my sunny but old car. I love the smell of the old car on hot days. It reminds me of the first time Tom and I took it out for a ride. We rolled down the windows and drove fast on deserted roads. Plus, the car's evil spirits disappear when the sun comes out; no squeaking, no squealing, no scraping of windshields. I stopped by the PO Box to pick up my newly arrived leotards (hooray!) and chuckled to myself at the jam packed PO Box ... they know I work for the Postal Service and must hate me. My new InStyle is here and 3 Pottery Barn catalogues.

And then I arrive at my mom and dad's house. My mom is sitting outside on a lawn chair and she waves to me as I drive up. The dogs are running around with my puppy. Dad joins us, sitting right on the grass and playing with the dogs. I'm worried my dog will overheat and DIE from chasing the dogs, so I get her a few ice cubes and we all laugh at how she collapses into the cool grass. My family wishes me a happy birthday, hugs all around, before I leave for home.

Ballet later tonight.

Life is good.
Life is happy.
Life is simply wonderful.

Accidents Happen

Well, accidents are what happen to me when I fuck around with perfection. My blog was looking good and then I decided that I was bored with it and wanted to change the layout. Wrong. I have gone from template to template trying to find something that had 3 columns and represented "my style" (whatever that is) and have, in the process, pulled my hair out AND lost vital information from my sidebar.

Case in point: ALL my family/friend blog links are gone. Do you think I know the addresses to any of those places? Fuck no. I just click on my handy link and blog stalk all of you. Now I have no idea what any of you are doing. It's like the world ended.

Or how about this? I lost the list of EVERY SINGLE FUCKING BOOK I read last year. I don't remember all the books I read; that's why I started a list -- I even wrote a post about the list that I would start. And now it is all gone and what's left is the pathetic one-liner of books completed in 2010. (Yes, I've only completed one book this year; started many, finished uno. Pathetic.)

And don't think that I wasn't smart, well, I started out smart and then became dumber and dumber (love that movie) as the process became more and more degraded. I saved a version of my old template for just this sort of problem. I thought, if anything happens, I have this saved, right here, safe on my desktop. But after all the weird templates and the strange crap they had, several widgets were lost and even though I don't know what a widget is, they're apparently important and NOT saved in your template. Sure, when I uploaded my old template the gadgets were listed as an element on my page -- but were EMPTY.

Fuck. I hate my blog life right now.

So, I hope my layout doesn't piss you off (like it does me) and I hope you still come to read my random thoughts. I will say this about my experience: there is nothing like change to make you re-evaluate what you really want.

Send me your blog links.
And that's Gelsey Kirkland at the top. The best female American ballerina of our time, imho.

One Done

Oh yeah, just wanted to say that my list of Not New Year's Goals is one shorter.

Please cross off "get promoted."

"Become a ballerina again" is in the works, but I don't consider it official until I'm on pointe again.

Now I only have 8 left.

I love progress!

Puppy Love

Warning: this post may make you vomit.

Our puppy is 9 months old and she is the best puppy in the world.

Marie Antoinette (big name, little dog) is our Frenchie.

She loves racing Tom up the stairs,

rolling around on the floor,

licking Tom's feet,

sleeping in the middle of the bed,

and she loves pants for some weird reason

-- I think she likes it when our feet pop out the legs.

When we are home together we sometimes lay on the floor with her and let her crawl all over us,

snorting and sniffing and kissing our faces.

When we wake up in the morning,

she stretches on the floor and rolls over so we can pet her belly.

When we drive in the car,

she sits facing the back of the seat so she can rest her head.

All of these things make her nothing but lovable.

And make her nothing but ours.

Down to Business

I have a confession -- and I am telling it to the world because that makes it more REAL.

The week before December I weighed 114 pounds. I now weigh 127. That's right; 1-2-7. Eee gads. 13 pounds in 4.5 months.

Friends, it's time. I am 5' tall, which means I should weigh, ideally, 100 pounds.

Ahh, 100. This is a goal that I have been striving towards for many many years. During my first year of marriage I gained about 25 pounds, making me tip the scales at nearly (gasp!) 150. I don't think I actually ever hit 150, but I was teetering right on the edge. Now is the NOW. No more procrastination. No more excuses. I was getting so close last year and now I have thrown it down the dumper. But, that's okay. I just have to get back on track. Since I hit the point of no return (size 10 pants), I have been steadily losing weight every year, with an occasional small bump of 5 pounds during the winter holidays. Every year I would say goodbye to the 140s or the 130s and I THOUGHT that last year was the last time I would ever see myself in the 120s. Apparently not. But like I said, I'm not going to become disheartened or hate or pity myself. I have a new job with a fixed schedule and am out of excuses completely. Here is my plan:

Weigh 100 pounds and then cut my hair.

Workout at least 1 hour a day.

Wear the size 00 dress I bought at White House Black Market to a summer party.

Wear a bikini to the beach ... with other people present.

Wear a romper and look fabulous.

My hair is currently down to my butt crack. I am going to cut it to my chin ... when I weigh 100 pounds. Why am I teling you all this? Well, I want your help. I mean, don't we work harder when we have to report our progress to someone? Isn't that why we have a boss? Be my boss, okay? Everyday I will post the previous days' eats, weight, and activities -- look for it under "Going Down" (a separate page I made for my weightloss falala). That's where I think I'll also post some pics of me in my leotard (promise not to laugh at my Asian legs) for before and after reasons. And maybe I'll post my measurements. But for sure, every day, like clockwork, I will post what I ate, what I weighed, and what exercise I did. You don't really need to do anything other than be my confessional. It pays zero dollars per hour.

I'll still be posting my normal blah blah about whatever, so if that's what you come for, you'll still get a dose of that -- perhaps you can just skip over the weight stuff if that's not your thing. To be honest, it's not really my thing either; (I sometimes hate reading/hearing about other peoples' weightloss journeys) I'm much more into parties with food or dinner dates or co-worker potlucks -- but looking fabulous IS my thing and that's my goal.

Break Over

I am one of those people that lets silly things get in the way of their daily routine.

Take writing for example. I am supposed to write everyday -- or at LEAST once a week. But no go. I have been MIA for a little over a month (see March's sole post). But in my defense, let me explain the last few weeks. (Hint: it's dull reading. Hence why I haven't written.)

So, when we went to China I had to resign. I was working as a REAL Supervisor before I left. When I came back, that wasn't possible, and I was re-hired as a temporary employee -- but that was okay because I was "higher leveled" into a supervisor position all the time in a temporary capacity. Then, I was promoted to career employee, but still not a real supervisor. While all this was going on I was working the swing shift -- and that was okay because I'd been doing it FOREVER and at least I had weekends off. Then, the best. I was asked to fill in (again, temporarily) in the vacant management position. Weekends off, working during the day. It was stressful but lovely. And then all the REAL Supervisor positions began to open up, including the one I desperately wanted which had weekends off and worked 6AM to 2:30. Fabulous. I put in my application along with 18 other folks. I was a wreck. Really nervous and stressed out. My life officially went on hold.

Break over.

I am now the proud owner of a fantastic job. I make much more money. I work THE BEST hours (6AM to 2:30, M-F). The work I will do is interesting and rewarding; just enough tedium to be satisfying and enough challenges not to be boring. I am SO excited. It was worth it to go to China if it got me this position. And now I have my evenings free for ballet or grad school or community theatre or cello lessons or dinner with friends or hanging out with family. Life is better when your job isn't your life. Now my job is something I do during the day and my life is the rest of the time instead of the other way around.

So, congratulate me ... and stay tuned.