crazy talk

There is a free piano listed on Craigslist, and I am soooooo tempted to go and get it.

Do I know how to play piano?

... Well, no, but I am confident I could probably figure out how to poke a few tunes out.

If I do bring this piano home, want to guess what will inevitably happen when the movers come in a month and a half?

oh, right

you're still waiting to see which house I selected (or you know already and are just reading along because it's fun and you have just as little on your to-do list as I do....)

well, first - you get to hear the story about how, half an hour before I was supposed to meet with the rental agent, I realized I would be late and that I should call in and let the agent know I would be behind schedule.
Side note for any random passers-by who don't know me yet, late is a relative term (please see blog title for more specific indicators). Most people consider about fifteen minutes' grace time when saying they will be somewhere at a specific time. To me, fifteen minutes late is late. Ten minutes past is late. On time? Yep, still late. In fact, to a person who is as spun up as myself, even if I'm five minutes early, I have arrived late.
So, with all of that in mind, my appointment was at one pm. I knew I would not arrive at 12:45 or before, as I had intended, and would thus be late. So I called. And now we're back on track to where we were last paragraph....

"Hello, yes, agent? I just wanted to let you know I might be a few minutes late for my one o'clock appointment."
"Oh, that's ok, we are flexible! Oh, and I just wanted to let you know, one of the houses, the house that you wanted to see most of all, just got rented."

Oh, crap, I've forgotten an important part of the joke here so that the punch line makes sense: the house that was my favorite, that I wanted to see most of all? I was fully prepared to fill out the application paperwork the instant the listing came up. No joke, last Tuesday morning I refreshed the page, saw this new listing, and hit the "Apply Now!" button. But then I realized the listing didn't mention the pet policy, and our kittens are our children so no pets was not an option, so I decided to call and ask. After a few slightly irritating days of not having my calls returned, on Friday I finally got in touch with someone. I was told that I would be unable to complete an application until I saw the house I wanted in person, in the company of an agent of the leasing company. Ohhhh-kaaaay, completely inconvenient, but whatever, we live close enough and have somewhere to stay in the area, I'll play along. So, how does Thursday sound? Fantastic.

So here it is, Thursday, noon-thirty, haven't eaten so I'm getting hungry (and if I'm hungry, I'm already the emotional equivalent of an eight year old), I'm going to be not-on-time, which is one of my least favorite things EVER, and the house that I was willing to apply for just off the first picture has been rented. Yes, there was a tantrum, but I managed to keep the severe case of pouty lip to the car ride out to the agency.

Anyway. From there on out it was a scramble to stack up all of the viewings I could to try to get a house that I would be happy with. S#it got all Goldilocks - at least, as much as it does when one is a brunette - this house is too big, this one is too small, this one has colors on the walls that are only appropriate to Easter Eggs, this one has the master on the ground floor and is about twelve inches from the next door's back porch (you guys want some sex with your barbecue? yeah, me neither), this one's got too much yard, and a few generally confusing layouts leading me to believe the architects may not have been fully paying attention to the task at hand when designing these residences. Heck, even the house I selected has an... interesting... layout. A lot of zigging and zagging in the upstairs hallways, and I'm going to be super amused and simultaneously terrified when the movers try to get the washer and dryer up the stairs and into the laundry room at the end of the hall.

Houses Two and Three (as seen here) were seen (House number two is the barbecue fiesta, house number three is Too Small for this not-so-goldilocks), plus a few others, and then I got lucky - I called to confirm the time I was meeting up with the agent to see a currently occupied house, and she told me the would-be renters of Favorite House had changed their minds and were going to buy, would we like to see that house while we were in the neighborhood? OF COURSE I DID.

So, barring any issues with the application, our new home sweet home:

The only fly in the ointment being that it is not available until two and a half weeks after we are scheduled to PCS. Now let's just hope Husband and I don't kill each other and the dogs don't eat our kittens while we're staying with Aunt Nancy. Also, if the Moving Gods are listening, can all of the furniture I want show up on Craigslist for super super cheap?

house roulette

Which one shall it be??

I'll tell you the fun little story tomorrow - my brain is fried from the drive!

uncaffeinated thoughts

I slept for twelve hours. Can we go back to the PNW? My sinus migraines were not this bad in Washington.

DON'T WANT: to do laundry. to drive three hours to fayetteville. to drive three hours home. to not see my husband until Sunday.

wait, Husband being out of town this weekend means I get to go to the Farmer's Market by myself and take as muuuuuch tiiiiiime as I want.

wait, do I get paid Friday?  - sadly, no job yet, but a few of my files are still trickling their way through to funding

-insert tears here- why did Husband have to get up so early? the coffee. is so. so. cold.

I WANT MY WASHER AND DRYER BACK. (1. the capacity of this stacked unit is laughable. my personal machine can take on my entire laundry basket in one go, and i do laundry, like, once a month 2. front loading washer = nasty nasty moldy gasket 3. good Lord in heaven i miss the temperature controls on my dryer 4. the stacked set is ridiculously loud. we had an earthquake in January and both my husband and I couldn't tell if it was an actual earthquake or just the washing machine's spin cycle. 5. the dryer beeps five times when it is finished, and if you do not turn the machine off right away it 'reminds' you with five beeps every thirty seconds until you are about to go stir crazy 6. the doors to both machines... you know what, i could rant on this all day, but you get the idea. this set sucks and i can't wait to be back in a real house with my Whirlpools.)

at this point i do not really care which house we end up in. i just want enough square footage to sort out the storage unit, and hopefully sort out my life shortly thereafter.

back to watching Supernatural with my favorite cuddle bug

this time last year

on this day, around this time last year, I was freaking out.
I couldn't decide if that "about to get sick" feeling was a result of the horror on my computer screen, or the fear that it could happen to me in six months. Even split, let's say.

We may never know why people do some of the things they do, but we always hope they never happen to us. Thankfully the 2013 Chicago Marathon went off with no hiccups (except for the tears at mile 25 - ohmyLord, is this never going to end? my body hurts. so much. i just want to lay down. i just want to break down. - but then a stranger caught my eye and said, specifically to me, "You can do this. You're almost there. Don't give up now, don't give up!"). left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. The Runner's Prayer.

I have been watching the runners cross the finish line all day. I wish I could be there, at the end, to hand out medals and bananas and say "You did this. You did this incredible thing, with your body, and you may never match the magnitude of this physical feat again. Congratulations."

house hunting

Headed up to Ft Bragg this week to look at houses... Initially, we were interested in purchasing a house in the area, but there are too many uncertainties about how long we will be stationed at Bragg to make us comfortable with such a permanent decision. Plus, with me not currently working, we would rather not end up having to rent a house at our next duty station AND keep current on a mortgage if we are not able to find a tenant immediately. (Some days I am frustrated with how risk averse my husband is, but he's not wrong to be conservative in a financial market that is as temperamental as ours is right now.)

Anyway - the houses! The top contenders are:

House 1

our favorite exterior, even though the garages in front isn't my favorite aesthetic.

 she's already got my colors on the walls!

and a lovely open kitchen!

It does have some negatives, though - the porch is very small, about 3x6, and it won't be available until July 1. We were hoping to move mid-June, but Husband's Aunt has graciously offered to let us camp out at her home if we need to.

House 2

The choice of siding and garage door colors is the only major difference between this house and the first one, and they are directly across from each other in the neighborhood.

The kitchen isn't open to the rest of the house, as you can see by the arch in the wall on the right, but it has an island and what looks like substantially more cabinet space. I may feel differently about it in person, but via photos I prefer the first kitchen.

Again, I may feel different after seeing the houses in person this week, but this is the porch. Seriously?

House 3

 A similar exterior to the first two, but without the separate garage doors.

A nice, big, open kitchen - and a gas stove!!

Houses 1 and 2 are both being leased by the same realtor, and the pictures give you a decent idea of the layout of the house and what all of the rooms look like. Aside from the main floor, the bedrooms are all pretty bland and the masters were the only rooms not in the generic builder beige. I've asked the agent for house 3 if he could accommodate a showing while I am in the area, since the pictures of that house focus on the main floor and not the bedrooms.

to-do lists

today:
- buy bucket
- buy rag
- mop

I used to have to-do lists that took up a complete page in a steno notebook, full of things that needed to be done before a ten o'clock meeting. Clients to email, files to review, documentation to process, updates to the pipeline to be made... Now the only task in my day is mopping the floor, which has to be done on hand and knee due to the bowing of the reclaimed boards used on our floors. On the bright side, I have alllllll daaaaaaaay to do it. So I can avoid it for another five hours, at the very least. And I'm suddenly agreeing with Husband on the merits of carpet versus hardwood floors.



(Other items on the long range to-do list: find new house to rent. get job. register for a half marathon to get my butt back into running. Short, but the first 2/3rds of that list is rather imposing.)

emotions

Part of being high strung is having Emotions.

I'm an Emotional Baker.

Tonight's Emotions: frustration, depression, sadness

brought on by an argument re: unloading the dishwasher

his argument: I go to work all day, you're here all day. Housework is now part of your work.

my argument: ... You use dishes, too. I'm not Cinderella all-of-a-sudden.

enter ricotta cookies, complements of the 2013 Cookie A Sock Club

still talking to myself, i assume.

It's 1:30 pm EST. I'm in my pajamas, covered in strings and bits of fabric (curse you, flannel pajama pants, you quilt fabric magnets); I've brushed my hair but not my teeth, and my head. is. killing me. I wish I experienced allergies like everyone else, but my symptoms are limited to skull-crushing sinus migraines and minor nausea, following me around like a shadow. No, I'm not pregnant, I promise. Still leaving that up to everyone else I know.
Personal care aside, I'm still managing to get stuff done. To wit:

• catching up on cutting fabric for the last seven months of BOM blocks
• cookies. with whipped cream filling. 
• house hunting
• sewing those last seven months of BOM blocks
• post-stalking bloggers (I'd say other bloggers but I'm not sure I count as one yet)
• winding yarn for Daenerys socks
• winding yarn for Drogon socks

Back to the fun! 

Negatives and Positives

Life is a series of negatives and positives. For example, negative: today the fire alarm went off in our apartment building. Positive: it took us less than five minutes to stuff the cats in their carriers, grab our respective wallets, and get downstairs. Bonus, there wasn't actually a fire, just an error in the system.
With that in mind....
Negative - I am unemployed (I'll get over it, eventually. I promise.)
Positive - I now have all the time in the world to do what I want.


Negative - my jeans don't fit : (
Positive - my yoga pants do. And now I don't have to squeeze runs in! I can head out whenever I want!

Negative - I don't have a lot of free income to buy yarn or fabric.
Positive - I have a STASH! and a long to-do list.

And here we are, the reason I wanted to write this post in the first place: I wanted to get my to-do list written out. I am a list person for many reasons, the primary of which is that my thoughts are like butterflies and if I do not pin them down they may flutter off. Here we go....

• Finish sewing on binding of Round & Round quilt (which will take about five minutes) and sew binding down
• Cookie A's April Sock Club patterns were just released! 
• Daenerys - knit in Wollmeise Lavendel
• Drogon - knit in club yarn, Cephalopod's Skinny Bugga! in Tyrian Mollusk
• Lone Star quilt (or Diamond Zig-Zag quilt?) from Zen Chic Comma jelly roll
• Carousel Ride from Fig Tree Mirabelle fat quarter bundle
• finish Larch Pullover
• finish Pointelle socks

I'm sure I'll come up with more soon enough - I have plenty of stash to burn.
I did catch a lead on a position at a fabric shop at our next duty station - perhaps next time I'll post pictures of the quilts I've made. I've only been sewing seriously for about a year now, so I think sending pictures of what I am capable of might work in my favor.
Here's to also hoping I find my 'voice' soon, I don't think I sound very interesting (in the event someone other than myself is reading this).

eta - whoops, forgot to add completing blocks 4-10 of my 2013 Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery Block of the Month club! Wait, make that through block 11, I just saw an invoice for the next shipment in my email.

Hi there, I'm slightly high strung

I have recently become unemployed, and I am displeased. I didn't quit, and I wasn't fired, it's just.... Let me see if I can explain:

There are many positive aspects of being an Army wife. I have gotten to live in parts of the country I never dreamed I would so much as get to visit; I've climbed mountains, gone crabbing in the Puget Sound, been in the Atlantic ocean within a month of being in the Pacific ocean, shooed black bears from hiking trails more times than I can remember. I can host a party for twenty with an hour's notice or redecorate any house I step foot in without having to go to the store for supplies. I can make new best friends in under fifteen minutes.
But one thing they don't mention? It's extremely difficult to find and keep a full time position when you're moving across the country every few years. This is only my second major PCS (primary change of station, aka move from one post to another), and I've had a different job every year since I graduated college.
As annoying as that is - and I'm sure I'll have more to say about this as my job hunt continues - there is something that can compound that frustration significantly: not having had the opportunity to take those fifteen minutes to make a new friend to spend some of that spare time with. So here I am: frustrated because I have no job and no friends here. To make matters worse, I can't get a job where we live now because we are moving again in two months. Don't mind my freak out, having daily life derailed twice in six months is enough to drive anyone crazy.
Another thing they don't mention is how difficult it is for a control freak like myself to make plans. We are moving in two months, but none of the houses that are currently on the rental market for our new location have June occupancy. Everything is immediate occupancy.

On the bright side, I do have some hobbies to keep me from going completely insane while I apply for jobs (so far I've applied for an average of fifteen jobs a week for the last three weeks... to the response of crickets). I mostly knit and sew, I run on occasion, and I'm sure I'll have some Pinterest-worthy DIY projects that will be attempted as we move into our new location and I need to decorate. I may be talking to myself, but as a servant to two demanding house cats, I'm pretty much used to that.
Some time tomorrow or Tuesday I'll be back to get my to-do list written out. I have at least three quilts planned for... soon... and a fair amount of knitting works in progress.
See you soon!