Moving up??

So buying a house has prompted me to explore life transitions...

Starting when you're born, everyone is always talking about moving on... learning something new etc. etc. etc. (working with preschoolers, I may be skewed to pay attention to many of the early ones... anyway...) I have a distinct memory from when I was entering first grade... someone said, "Wow! Now you're really going to school, are you nervous?" (I say) "I hear there is homework ugh... no fun" (opinion influenced by elder sisters)

Just over 10 years later...I graduated from high school and everyone said (or at least said to me), "Wow.. you're entering the real world... are you nervous... you're headed for the 'big city' Good luck!" (or something along those lines). I am grateful for the well-wishes and, at the time, I was very excited to move on... but even then I was thinking... Madison... "big city"... ??? (not really.. I HAVE ventured outside of the great state of Wisconsin and we really don't have much to qualify as 'big city'...well, I suppose when you compare it to where I come from...) So I think to myself, 'Yep... I'm ready... and I've been ready for a while...'

So anyway, 2 major life transitions (though many more from a parent-perspective, I am sure) out of the way by 18. I go to college, I love it... I love Madison (for the not-so-big-city that it is). 6 short (loooooooong!) years later I graduate with a Master's degree. Everyone celebrates (though no one quite as much as me) and says, "Wow.. you're entering the real world... are you nervous... you're headed for 'real world of work' Good luck!" (all the while I'm thinking... uhh yeah, I've been ready for this for at LEAST the past 2 years!)

Again, I love the well-wishes and hope for the best. I have had most of my first full year of 'real world' work (and luckily I love the people I work with and more importantly the job I do). During this year I also got engaged to be married! I received even more congratulations (Yay... I'm even more excited for this transition than for the graduation one!) Another life transition in less than a year.

On top of the last one (granted one of the 'Big Three' as I have come to refer to them... Marriage, House, Kids), I am looking for the 2nd of the above... a HOUSE! As listed in a previous blog Animals of Many Kinds, I'm not entirely happy with my current living situation. We're looking to move up to no shared walls... of any kind.

Yet another life transition. Am I moving too fast? This is a big one... lots of $$ on the line... lots of stress for me and my fiance to handle. Should we think about having kids right away... get the third 'Big Three' out of the way???


NO!


We will be waiting... at least for a couple years! Get married (almost all plans are done really), find a house (where we will throw a big party to celebrate the former), then take a BREAK! And have kids somewhere in there... when we're comfortable...

I am still left to ponder (as I set up 'retirement accounts' etc.). Every time you enter one of my so named 'transitions' it seems like it's the end of something and the beginning of another. I have always looked to marriage, house, and kids (the 'Big Three') as the 'END' of the story...stability sets in...period.

But really... as I think... every 'transition' (including those 'Big Three') is just that... transitioning to the next level. There is no end. There is ALWAYS another step to look forward to, work for (a few I think of at this point of my life... having a baby... having another?... multiple child milestones... they start school... we sell/buy a new house... (beyond that let's not think about at the moment). The point is... I don't ever need to feel bored with my life... ever. There's always more to plan for... prepare for... help my family prepare for...

I can't wait!

The Bender Ball...

Oh yes, the one time I give in to a TV infomercial... I choose to buy the Bender Ball. $10 is a very inviting number to make yourself look good... so I go to order online assuming the S&H will be significant... it is... $20 is still an inviting number to make yourself look good. After viewing the website a few times over a period of months, I give in. I have a wedding coming up... a wedding on a beach... yes, I need it.

The ball comes. I didn't realize just how small the ball was on TV.


Gripe #1 - Ball could have been purchased at Wal-Mart for $2 as it is the same size as those cheap ones in the wire cages...

So, I get the ball and the training DVD. ... ... ... a month passes ... ... (please refer to my Laziness) ... the next time I really even think about the Bender Ball, I am looking at my credit card statement thinking, "Didn't I pay for that stupid thing last month??" I check... I did...

Gripe #2 - They automatically sign you up to receive the DVD video that you declined to buy when you checked out... it's a 'subscription' that I missed in the fine print.

So I call the Bender hotline (after doing 2 seconds on online searching, I see multiple postings of other people who are just as upset as I am... alas if I had only done that BEFORE!) I am unhappy to the lady, but I do realize... she just needs to make money and the only people she gets to talk to all day are people like me calling in to complain (most of whom aren't as nice as I am and take their frustrations out on her). I try to cancel the shipment... no go, it's already 'in shipping process'. I ask about canceling the 'subscription'... she says, "Don't worry the NEXT payment of $20 WILL BE your last payment, I am unsubscribing you from the program." I get a little testy with the lady...there's ANOTHER payment I have to make!?!? She explains that there is. I go on to ask about getting my money back (now up to $60 for this thing I haven't even used and looks like a piece of junk) She gives me a code to put on the package so that they will be able to process my return.

A week passes, the shipment comes... I don't open it and say 'return to sender' on the package (the h if I'm going to pay MORE on top of all this craziness) with the return ID she gave me. It's been a month... I have yet to see the $40 I am owed appear on my credit card statement.

After my post earlier this week, I get out the ball and try the DVD.

Gripe #3 - The lady who is supposed to be teaching me how to get toned abs... HAS FLABBY ABS!!! Yes, the lady looks more fit than I do.... BUT SHE'S THE ONE WHO'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE THE AWESOME ABS FROM USING HER OH-SO-WONDERFUL PRODUCT!!!!

(that's her in the middle, as I said... looks better than me, but she mushrooms over those pants from the side... grrrrr...)

It does seem like it's an ok work out, but I am probably deluding myself and trying to get some good out of my $60 at this point.... wish me luck on getting toned before my wedding!

se la vie

I AM LAZY

Not when it comes to getting my job done. I love my job. I also get done things that need to get done like grocery shopping (though my fiance and I hate it so much we go once a month). But, typically, once I get home from work. All productiveness falls way underneath the couch, where I can never get the motivation to find it. So.. I plop down and watch TV (usually House...even watching the news is too much work for me.) You might think, "Well, you must have a really stressful job, you need a break, I get it..." No, no, not so much. There are some stressors, but minor really. I feel like I have a good handle on things during my first year of full-time work.

So back to my laziness. My idea of a 'productive' day off would be one small project (such as organizing my closet (a 15 minute task). Get all the things that I've piled up on my shelves or on the floor when there's no more shelf space and organize them (I'm NOT a messy person, so don't imagine a disaster in my closet, just a few things that I don't fold because I know I'm going to wear them soon... why waste the energy?) Chores like laundry are a hassle, but I do them... typically my only productive thing of the day.

Now on to exercising, seeing my thoughts on getting things done you must realize that motivating myself to exercise is like, well, this:


So you would be surprised to learn that I DID run for a whole summer almost every day! But that summer has passed and the motivation for it gone. My new overall motivation is getting in shape for my destination wedding in June. Yeah, that's coming up, yeah, I'm STILL not in shape...

So here's to coming home from work tonight, changing into running clothes and GETTING IT DONE!

Animals of many kinds...

We live in 'luxury' apartments...I suppose they are luxury. We have a pool during the summer, a nice clubhouse with a big screen tv, pool table, poker table, kitchen, weight room, and fitness center. Our apartment itself is nice too. I love the kitchen/living room set up (though we lack cupboard space). HOWEVER we can hear our upstairs neighbors walk, run, do laundry, and up until a few months ago their dog which we assumed looked like this from all the racket he made:



But actually looked more like this:

(ok imagine something like a german shepard in color but really only about 20 pounds) NOT what we thought before seeing it.

Speaking of dogs. I am not a dog person. They are usually too big and scare me or are unpredictable and stinky (yes, without an owner that bathes them A LOT... they usually stink). Not that I have anything against dogs or dog-owners...I have met many dogs I like. I just like cats more. One of the arguments I hear a lot in favor of dogs is that they greet you at the door. Maybe my cat is unusual in this, but she greets me and Jif every time we come home. She runs in and mews, falls on her back and rolls around waiting for us to notice her and pet her. She has so many fun little things...

So anyway, our 'luxury' apartment has no soundproofing in the ceiling... at all. We learned to live with this for over a year. We tried to contact management for a noise complaint to add some sort of padding or something... but they needed to hear it before they would do anything. Seriously, how can 2 working adults predict when exactly this dog is going to go crazy while the office is open. Thus we were left with over a year of 'earthquakes' when they decided to play ball... 'thunderstorms' when the dog and humans would play chase... and 'trainwrecks' when they would simply walk around. Of course, this would happen in the bedroom, at 12am, during evening movie-watching. It was so much fun!!!! >:-(

Jif was a little more perturbed than myself... knocking/beating on the ceiling when they pulled late-night stunts or were just SO LOUD. I, on the other hand, worked up the courage (had enough to drink, perhaps...) to go up to their apartment one night to confront them (I heard them above me so I knew they were home). Heart pounding... I walk up the stairs and knock on the door. No one answers... they left to go on a walk before I got up there... what luck... I never worked up the courage again.

These neighbors have also left evidence of being lazy and disgusting dog owners... as evidenced by the yellow snow on our patio a handful of times.... seriously inconsiderate.

If you haven't noticed, I was talking in the past tense... as of Christmas, the dog is gone! (Jif and I hope to a better place... like something with a yard.) The two humans don't do half as much running around. They do laundry every single day, but you know, in comparison, Jif and I were jumping for joy for 3 whole months!

Guess what the human-animals upstairs have purchased now??? You'll never guess...

A rocking chair.

OH.

MY.

GOD.

I can't tell you how annoying it is to try to do ANYTHING with that rocking chair upstairs. Jif is also going CRAZY (his threshold is lower than my own) but I am going CRAZY too!

Guess what the human-like-animals upstairs did last night in the chair... 'breaking it in' so to speak... take a guess... yes... THAT! I was luckily not home for this atrocity... Jif was... and had to leave the room it was so bad...

WOW. I can't wait to buy a house (which is hopefully within the next few months). Jif and I haven't even considered a condo or townhome or duplex... we can deal with NO MORE ANIMAL/HUMAN NEIGHBORS sharing our walls of any kind.

Crazy dream...

Here is a good example of the strange way my mind works. I have crazy dreams (usually because I like to push the snooze timer... a lot...)

The Dream:

This morning my cute little kitty Gweny (short for Guinivere, though she has many names really...) had kittens. My mind suddenly says, "But she's been spayed, I really need to call and complain to those humane society people!" (my kitty also has an illness, FIV, which is much like HIV but for cats... there is no way the humane society could have known before I adopted her... and she's likely to live a very long healthy life). Anyway... she, who has no contact with other cats... had kittens.

My fiance, Jif, woke up before me and didn't feel the need to tell me about the surprise occurrence. (this is where the dream gets kinda scary) Some kittens didn't survive and are in the apartment (thinking 'lucky' from 101 Dalmations... but not so lucky) but Jif shows me the one that did make it. There's also a huge mess that he didn't feel the need to clean up (leaving it for me!?! my mind is very upset with this!)

The mess is made worse by the fact that my cell phone is sitting in... it. I pick up the cell phone and start to clean it off. It suddenly opens up and I find a whole host of things stored inside my cell phone... two extra face plates, and more that I can't remember. (this is while I'm still in the kitty dream... anyway...) It opened much like the cell phone in the transformers movie that became a transformer... and all of its special insides fit neatly back inside or could be opened again. I abandon the cleaning mission...

I find that, unlike what Jif initially thought, there are 3 living kittens from my Gweny's litter. (the cutest little fluff-balls you can imagine) I also find the kitty-daddy roaming the apartment (I just notice him roaming around, he had no other role...)

In my dream I am suddenly sad. When there was one new kitten, my mind felt we could keep it. (Yay!) It wouldn't be in danger of getting FIV since it would have inherited it (which is why we won't be able to add to our real-life kitty family). But since THREE kittens are there, there's no way to keep them all!

And with that, my dream ended and I decided to wake up and not hit snooze (for at least the 7th time... yes I hit snooze for over an hour this morning...). Happily when I woke up, my real-life Gweny was sleeping under the covers right next to me in her oh-so-cute way.

Blogging...

I've never done this before but have recently been introduced to the witty and fun directions that blogs can take. I used to keep a journal but now I think this will be so much more fun! So stay tuned to see what 'meanderings' my mind will take!