Weekend Update

I am sadly stranded here in the apartment (the car that was getting worked on last week? yeah, it's making scary noises now and chugging along in an alarming way, so I'm going to take it in tomorrow), so I figured I might as well write up an update, typically done in my favorite format: that of the list.

HOUSE

Last Friday we met with the contractor who is doing renovations on the house. I might as well say *our* house, though we haven't put any money down yet, but we're all pretty much acting like this will be our house. When we arrived at the house last week, the contractor, J., said he wanted to walk through the house with us to get a feel for our "style." I shot Cody a look of panic, since I have a vague notion that I like "modern" things, and this one time, my mom said my style could (maybe? possibly?) be described as "metropolitan." But, I mean, that's a tough statement to make, since up until this point, our method of choosing an apartment has been whatever we could afford (not much) that was near a BART station, and the furniture we would choose for said crappy apartment always involved choosing the cheapest model at IKEA. Anyways, we started walking through the house, and J. would ask questions, and Cody would look at me hopefully while I cast about wildly for an answer.

Example #1:

J: So, what do you think about opening up the kitchen to the living room?
C: [blank look]
K: Oh, wow, yes -- that sounds great!

Example #2:

J: What do you think about painting this wood-paneled wall white?
C: ...
K: ... Well, I don't know...
J: I think it would look cool. It would give it some nice texture.
C: [obviously relieved] Yes, I think so too -- could we see a sample?
K: Yes, yes, let's see an example.
J: [unfortunately not letting this go] Why did you say you weren't sure? What is it about it that you're wary of?
C: ...
K: ... [lamely] Maybe I just need to visualize it...

So anyways, that was how the majority of the conversations went. Really, I fully grasp that this opportunity is just being wasted on us, and those of you who would love to design a house but are currently living in an apartment in San Francisco (Kate) are probably dying as you read this right now, but the prospect of getting this house exactly the way we want it (once we figure out what that is) is super exciting and I'm SO anxious for the house to get done! Unfortunately, it probably won't be until April at the very earliest, so we'll just have to settle in and wait, which is something we unfortunately do very, very well.

ALSO, we found out that the schizophrenic's house has officially been bought, so by the time we move in, he should be gone!

Sidenote: If you like this kind of stuff, please PLEASE feel free to send me kitchen/bathroom pictures that fit my vague "modern" and "metropolitan" descriptors.

SCHOOL

So I finished writing my email appeals for Letters of Recommendation last week, and then I was unable to send them until I made Cody look over my shoulder and force me to hit "Send." But I did, and I've heard back from two of them already! I'm fearful that the third has NO idea who I am anymore, as he is, like, super old (he was old when I graduated a gazillion years ago), but I don't have a replacement for him, so I'm hoping that duty will prevail, and that eventually he'll agree to write an ambiguous recommendation. The other big news is that I signed up to take the GRE December 10, which gives me as much time as possible to study, and zero room for error.

This weekend also yielded the first GRE-induced breakdown, brought about by the fact that I apparently don't remember how to do algebra anymore. FML.

GEORGIA

We went for a hike in Tallulah Gorge State Park this weekend (beautiful! will post pics to Facebook eventually!), and the hike required climbing 1099 stairs. I felt really badass about it until we saw that a bunch of little kids were doing it too.

RUNNING

Running is over, you guys. I ran again last week and my hip continued to feel like it was going to fall off. I told my mom this weekend that running "just isn't fun" and she laughed at me, as though, DUH, EXERCISE IS NOT FUN, but I mean, I'm a very anxious type of person, and I feel that the running was just adding MORE anxiety, and that can't be good, right? Isn't that the OPPOSITE point of exercising? So, I'm going to run one last time this week and see how things go, but I'm pretty sure I'm going back to the elliptical and that I'm going to start up yoga. I am apparently a very delicate flower, and I need gentle, soothing exercises. Also, I haven't lost ANY weight running (I have in fact gained weight! How is this possible?), and my legs are now huge and my jeans barely fit over my thighs (ugh). Other evidence that I need to switch from running to the elliptical is that I had Jersey Shore on in the background (yeah yeah...don't judge), and The Situation rudely told Angelina that she should use the elliptical instead of the treadmill because it's a better workout, and any man who has coined the term "Gym, Tan, Laundry" clearly knows what he's talking about.

OTHER

I want a dog. I think I will DESERVE a dog after I take the GRE and successfully get my grad school application in. I have been hinting not very subtly to Cody that a puppy would be an awesome Christmas present, but I am a little scared about what our violent, mean cat, KittyMan, will do to a cute unsuspecting puppy.

I think that's it. Send me pics of bathrooms/kitchens and cute dogs!

HOLY SHIT

Just found: This ginormous-ass bug in my bathtub. I don't think the iPhone picture quite does it justice. THIS BUG IS HUGE. This bug scores negative points for living in the south.

In other non-bug-related news, today has been slow. I've been working on drafting emails to the professors/former boss I'm going to ask to write me letters of recommendation. I'm trying to write super awesome, personal emails so that they'll feel really bad for saying no. :) "Run 30 minutes" has been a big Fail, but once again, I justify this with letters of recommendation being WAY more important, and also, still no Us Weekly.

Take Three

Okay, so this is the third blog I have started. The first, aimed at being a skewering/round-up of recent TV shows, faltered before the first post even made it to "Publish." I fared a little better with the second, actually publishing several posts before losing interest and just sort of...unceremoniously stopping. It's possible that this last blog will suffer a similar sad fate, though I'll try hard to keep up with it, because I'm pretty sure that writing is a good way to relieve my anxiety (something I need to do these days).

The point of this blog is to share amusing anecdotes about living in the south, and I will write more about Georgia and the south in future posts, but that feels like a broad, almost overwhelming, task at the moment, so let's just start with a few things that are true right at this moment:

- Every day I write myself a list of things to do, because I have a passionate love for lists. Today's list says, "Run for 30 minutes," "Dust," "Study for GRE." I am already revising this list in my head, mentally crossing off the hateful "Run for 30 minutes" and deciding instead to go to a cafe and do work (which, you must admit, isn't the funnest thing either -- it's not like I'm deciding to lay on the couch and watch Real Housewives). I feel good about this decision since I went for a 30-minute run on Monday and was pretty sure that my hip was going to fall off. Also, I like to read Us Weekly while running on the treadmill, and they didn't deliver it this week, so therefore I cannot go.
- As of this morning, I'm driving an ugly black PT Cruiser around for a week, due to one of the stupider accidents that I have been in, involving a sorority girl and a central turn lane (but insurance is paying for the majority of the repairs, hooray! I knew the accident wasn't TOTALLY my fault!). The PT Cruiser is large (and did I mention ugly?) and kind of scares me.
- I received disappointing news today. The news drove me to lay down dramatically in bed and feel sick for a while (wishing fervently that I was alive during the 19th century so that I could make use of some smelling salts), and then it propelled me to finally goddamn decide to apply for a master's in Child and Family Development at UGA, and to email the person in charge and actually find out some answers and stop putting it off. Questions I asked are: how late can I possibly take the GRE, and what sort of scores do I need to try to achieve? My studying for the GRE has been lackadaisical at best, and I'm concerned that I will do a horrible job if I have to take the test next month. Another concern is the three letters of recommendation; after being out of school for six years, finding enough professors to remember me may be a challenge. But I feel strangely motivated right now, and am aggressively flipping off my disappointing news metaphorically.
- We're in the process of buying a house right now. The house is falling apart and sad, but it's being renovated, and I'm hoping it will be all we're imagining in the end. It's in a historic district where Michael Stipe lives (I walked by his house casually a couple times, hoping to catch a glimpse of him...no such luck), and I think the neighborhood is a good fit because it's sort of funky and cool (not that we ARE funky and cool, but because, well, we're not old and in the family way either). Because we apparently will never be able to escape crazy people, the next door neighbor is a schizophrenic, who, we're told, is "harmless" and will be on his way to a home for crazy people soon.

That's it for now...More later from Athens, GA.