Time to get in gear

Hello blog, sorry to have neglected you for so long.  Haha, my last post is kinda humorous because I remember how sick I was, and every time I'd start to sit up and think about moving, a wave of sick would wash over me and I'd collapse back into the bed.  Looks like I didn't get very far in that update.

I haven't written much since we moved into our new place, which is weird since I feel like we've been here for quite some time.  Why don't I give you a tour?  Close your eyes - no wait, don't.  If you close your eyes you can't read anymore... but go ahead and try to envision my home tour.  Pull up into my driveway and exit the driver's side door.  Stop briefly as you walk by my garden of random herbs, flowers and texas sage bushes to notice my pride and joy - my cherry tomato plant.  I currently have two very green cherry tomatoes that seem to get larger by the day but somehow, to date they have not begun to change color.  I thought cherry tomatoes were supposed to get ripe while they are still small, so with an optimist's attitude I'm looking forward to a feast of two cherry tomatoes any day now.  

Try to avert your eyes from the beat-up screen door, and open the faded blue front door.  Say hi to Miss Sandy, our 48 year-old neighbor, if she's out on the front porch having a ciggy.  As you enter our living room, try not to be distracted by the racetrack hallway that extends all the way to the back of the house, through the bathroom door and to the shower window.  Instead, take in the whopping 3 by 4 foot space (okay, I'm exaggerating, it's about 7' x 9') where we have our blue IKEA couch, white bookshelf, and tv stand.  To complete the look, we've added a dark brown storage/sitting bench in front of the window.  This is my favorite room.

Begin your journey down the racetrak hallway and your first stop is the guest room, which we've affectionately begun to call "Sarah's room" since my sister was visiting for Memorial Day.  A tiny room, this could easily be someone's closet and with the futon pulled out for sleeping, there's little room for anything else.  But when the futon is in it's loveseat form, it's a very cute sitting room or quiet study area.  If it were bigger and uncarpeted, it would most definitely have become my art studio.  But I suppose that will have to wait until we move into a larger place.  

A few more steps down the hallway will bring you to the bedroom door.  If you're visiting, this door is most likely shut - somehow we can't control our clothes.  Our King-sized bed (an overheating 6'4" husband necessitates this monstrosity) has made this into the Bed-Room, as opposed to a simple Bedroom.  Let me explain.  This is the room-of-bed.  If you're a good jumper, you could probably hop from the doorway directly onto the bed, which is pushed into the back corner of the room already.  Good thing we don't need room for a crib in here! *knock on wood*

The second to last stop in the house is our bathroom, previously referenced as the end of the hallway - painted a sage green with brightly colored candles, I tried to achieve a sort of Garden spa feeling - if you can imagine the green walls as an outdoor scene and the yellow and fuschia candles as flowers... I guess the white patterned shower curtain is a cloud...  Pretty nice place to take a bath.

Finally, if you take a right at the end of the hallway, you enter our square little kitchen.  We've got a tiny table on the right side for dining, an L-shaped kitchen to the left side, bookended by our stove and refidgerator, and a Door to the backyard.  There you go, there's more than you ever needed to know about our house.  I really like it here - I only wish I had more people to invite over.

I'm sad today because today is the official marker of 1 year away from Virginia.  We packed up our belongings and headed down the road sometime in the afternoon on May 31st of last year.  With two dogs, 1 U-Haul, and tearful goodbyes, I left the place I love most in order to be with the person I love most.  Kelly had gotten a job teaching here in Irving, and I believed I had prepared myself for the move, but still a year later I feel like I've served my time abroad and any day now I'll be released from my sentence so I can go home.

My opinion of Texas so far is that it really forces itself upon you.  People here are so proud of their state and so protective of that pride that they will go to great lengths to prove their superiority.  It doesn't help that most Texans have never been to Virginia and honestly believe it to be somewhere around the same location as New York and Canada.. You know, somewhere in there.  Here are the most common ignorant comments that seem to never die - "How can you be cold here?  This is Texas, aren't you from Virginia?" - yet another reference to Virginia's location in or around the Arctic Circle.

"Virginia?  Ooh, you're a Yankee." - One can only assume that the speaker has never opened a history book or for that matter, an atlas.

"You don't know what fill-in-the-blank-random-Texas-or-Dallas-Area-thing is???"  Everything from local golf tournaments and festivals to state parks, lakes, highways, vegetation, etc. - people in Texas think that everyone in the country knows what it is.  This is because they have never lived anywhere else.

Griffin:  Are you from here?

Texan: "Oh no, I'm from DFW-area locale that is between 30 and 50 minutes away from here."  Persons who are from Denton, went to school in Arlington, and now live in Dallas often fancy themselves world travelers.  If you're from the Metroplex, I'm sorry, you're from HERE.

And finally, my personal Favorite Texas oddity - Texans LOVE to brag about their state - sometimes with good reason... For example, Texas has the best barbeque/chili/chicken-fried steak/mexican food..."  these are debatable but definitely feasible.  But my favorites are when people fight so brutally for their state, they don't realize that they're actually describing a hellish place.  "Texas is so hot"  "Texas Weather is so severe" "Texas humidity is the worst (ha!)" "The bugs/cockroaches/mosquitoes/ticks/fleas are the worst in the country." "Everyone develops allergies when they move to Texas." ... Any time that Texans can use a superlative to describe their state, they don't care if it's the worst or the best, so long as it stands apart from everyone else.

Whew! that was a great rant.  Finally good to get some of those pet peeves down on paper.

 Maybe I've entered the stage of life where your birthday actually makes you more upset than excited... I didn't think I'd get there at 23, but so far, this birthday season is leaving me feeling unpopular, uncomfortable in my surroundings, and in all honesty, un-special in general.  And I wish I could still say I was 22, because 23 sounds so much older.  I guess I still can say that I'm 22 for about 11 more hours...

More updates to come, I promise they'll be more positive later on.  Birthday ranting might just be something I needed to get out of my system.  Thanks!

Sick Sicky Sick

OK so Sarah tells me it's time to update... she's the only one reading this, so I will oblige just for her, especially since she has "nothing to do" at work today.  If I were at work I'd have plenty to do, but I'm sick at home and can't really move more than my fingertips, so updating the blog seems like a good use of my time.  I'm working on surviving the bronchitis/flu yuckk.  actually I think right now i have to go back to bed... i'll be back to finish later.

A Web Site like mine, only better

This is a link I just found to a web site called "One Warm Coat" (www.onewarmcoat.org/gmaagency.html)

It tells you where you can take an extra coat to someone who doesn't have one (shelters and other receiving locations).  On a related note, my brother has taken this idea to the extreme and has actually considered giving one of his kidneys away.  I could go on and on about this, but I'll just say - I love that kid so much.  What a sweet heart. 

So, we're moving next weekend - one week from today.  It's pretty crazy and fun and stressful and great all at once.  So say a prayer for us because it will probably be irritating and hard but also fun and exciting - a fresh start, as my sister has said.  In some ways, it's a metaphorical fresh start, but as I was wiping the dust off of the books I was boxing up the other day, I thought, weird - we're going to get rid of the dust, too.  We get to try once again to find a place for everything and put everything in its place.  That would be a first!  

I'm watching Michael Moore's "Sicko."  I know to take his movies with a grain of salt but I wanted to see this because even though I work for a non-profit association, I really do work in the health care industry to an extent.  It's amazing how many of these health systems and insurance companies I've heard of and worked with through my job.  They're the employers who put classifieds in our magazines boasting light work loads and 300K+ a year.  (Save fewer people and make more money! yay?  Is this what doctors want to do?)  No, not all of them, but they don't mind the nice houses in upscale neighborhoods and the extra time off once they get through their residencies.  After all, they've earned it, right?  They do know a lot more than us common people, which makes them superior beings.  Ooh, I better stop because a little bit of resentment is starting to show.  I guess now I know how I feel about the state of healthcare in the US.  I just asked myself today - are we really living up to the often quoted American motto:  Give us your poor, your sick, etc etc etc...  But now that we're done with that whole European immigration thing, we don't want the hispanic people to come in.  We don't want the sick people in our hospitals, just the ones who don't really need much and can pay fully for it.  I need to register to vote, I guess.  You know, since my vote counts for something.  Mwa!  

  

I don't know why I'm posting

Okay so I don't have any art to post, wisdom to share, or really anything at all interesting to talk about.  But don't let that get you down... I'm sure things will start coming to me...  especially if I put enough ellipses in here...    ...   I think I'll start out with the highlights of the week/weekend, since I'm having a hard time appreciating this week for what it is - the present!  I need to learn how to love the present and not just sit around thinking about stuff I've done and where I'm headed.  So on Saturday, we experienced Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, a jewel of a place in Fort Worth.  Really a quality time all around with the music, comedy, and friends.  I did NOT, however, enjoy it when the guy with the drink kart rammed it into my shin, which now has a bruise.  It was kinda my fault.  I was dancing in the middle of an area intended for walking.  I do really wish there had been a place to sit.  Note to self:  if you're going to go out in Fort Worth on a Saturday after 8pm, expect to get whacked on the shin.  But as I said before, it was an all-around fabulous time, and I recommend it.  Sunday was lovely because we slept in and then in the afternoon we went for a (rental) house-hunting drive.  Of the 5 places on our list, 2 were rented, 2 had 5 foot patios (NOT fenced yards as the ads boasted), and 1 was a shining success.  It was like the clouds parted and God said "here, I found a house for you!"  Kelly and I got out of the car and peered over the fence to find the backyard of my dreams.  Interesting landscaping, you ask?  Lovely shrubs and flowers?  No, those features are nice when you have little kiddos and back patio dinner parties.  It was a sparsely-grassed expanse of land with tall (aka indestructible, non-diggable) mature trees.  I was unphased by the aged aluminum siding and the lack of beauty to the house... even the presence of A/C units hanging out of windows didn't bother me (that is, this house has no central air).  I called the number from the listing immediately and someone to promptly pick up and come show me the inside of my new home.  Instead, I got a friendly voicemail.  Okay, no problem.  We'll come back later after she calls me.  Monday and Tuesday are gone with no call back.  I called again yesterday over my lunchbreak only to leave another (identical) voicemail.  I sounded friendly and responsible and this lady is crazy for not calling me immediately.  Okay, I won't dwell.  But I will update later so you know the outcome of the housing situation.   

Yesterday began as a grumpy Monday.  Not that I was particularly grumpy toward anyone (except at Kelly when he was waking me up, as I always am - sorry sweetie!), but that I was just irritated by being at work at all.  I can always tell when a day is going to be a long one by the first time I look at the clock.  For whatever reason, I don't ever really care what time it is until I start to feel like it's time to leave.  Time for lunch, time for a break, do I have to pee?  If the first time I look at the clock is before 11, I'm in trouble.  Because that means I have less than 2.5 hours under my belt and more than 6 left to go.   When I think about six hours being a long time, it makes me feel like I'm a little kid again.  When you've only been alive for a little while, an hour is an eternity.  Six hours is unfathomable!  How could I possibly get through the next SIX HOURS?!  This is how I feel at work sometimes.  It's weird, because there is nothing whatsoever about my job that is torturous... the boredom of the occasional data entry project, perhaps is mundane, but honestly, everything I do is pretty pleasant.  In a way I imagine it's like being in jail.  When you're in jail, it's not like there's anything particularly bad going on- you might play cards, you might get in an argument, you go to the cafeteria and get fed some mediocre food, and you play basketball outside in the afternoon.  Sounds like a step wayy up from the way some people live daily outside of the prison walls.  But when you're trapped and isolated like that, stuck in a place that you don't feel like is your real life, it becomes prison, a terrible place that no one wants to be.  I guess that's why i get restless at work.  It's all around a pretty pleasant place, but in all honesty I don't feel like most of it has any real value.  I say "most of it" because of the relationships, or I should say relationship, that I have there with a coworker.  And that's pretty much the only thing that makes it worth it for me.  I can make money anywhere, but I don't want to leave this job just yet because of the friendship I've found and the honest conversations that we have (especially when the boss isn't around to hear us chatting instead of working).  Whew!  That was a lot to say about a Monday that I generally felt was going to suck. Bible Study in the evening was alright, though still awkward because of the newness of the group. I told Sarah Kibs that I was going to make a new friend and I told her she had to hold me to it.  I was going to be a good listener and pay attention to my bible study ladies and then at the end I was going to approach someone and say "Hey we should really get coffee soon and discuss ___fill-in-the-blank-thing-we-have-in-common___!"   But I couldn't do it!  I still felt a little too alienated at the end and after some nice goodbyes at the end I chickened out and went to slip out the door confidently like I had a reason to get home at that precise moment.  But I was followed!  A friendly mother of twins in my group said she really would love it if I wanted to come to the ladies' get togethers that she and a few others (all moms) have on tuesdays every other week...I was really touched and thought it was sweet - wasn't really sure if that's what I was going for, but sure, okay!  Somebody wants to be my friend... So I was like aw, that was nice of her to think of me... and continued on my way out the door.  But a girl named Kim, who I couldn't forget since the first lesson 3 weeks ago, caught me and told me she really thought we should hang out.  It was weird, because I really felt like I should have been the one approaching her.  I identify with her battles, and understand her guarded responses when she doesn't want to open up to the group.  She's like me in that we both felt misunderstood and different in a group of church women.  So there we go.  I made friends.  Problems solved, hah!  Just kidding, but it's a really good step.  I love to be in a group where people see a need in another and really want to fill that need.  I wish I would stop looking at how to fill my own needs so often and really get involved enough to help other people in a real need that they have.  Because if you're looking for them, you can see them all the time.  People have tons of needs that can't be fixed by writing them a check or donating your old clothes.  A lot of the time, I convince myself that there's nothing I can do.  There's probably no way I can comfort Julie, who just lost her mom.  There's probably no way I can improve Charlie's family situation, after her divorce.  But it would be better if I didn't think about what I probably can't do and actually say something instead of heading for the door and thinking about what I might've said to the girl whose husband yells at her.  Deep, Griffin.  Okay enough with the deep.  I wish I had some image to post, but as previously stated, I work all day and now I'm going to watch a mooovie!  Kisses!

Tired thoughts in hopes of snow

So it's finally going to happen.  We're expected to get some kind of wintry precipitation here in Dallas, TX.  After hearing about the snow in VA and looking at all the lovely snowy pictures in winter commercials and of course while browsing on my favorite, the Flickr.  I played with some photo effects on my computer today and came up with one that is a little cool and might just inspire a new painting.  I would have more interesting things to say but we're all hanging out and I'm being antisocial.

I cheated on my blog

Sorry blogger, I wasn't sure if you were the one for me, so I experimented elsewhere.  Upon getting my new mac at Christmastime, I looked at the dotmac webpages that mac users can subscribe to - but then I decided against that since it costs a lot of money after the free trial.  Then, I created a page at squarespace.com and was actually pretty happy with it, until I started uploading pictures.  Apparently in my free (temporary) account, I got approximately zero space to add photos and image files.  So it's back to the blogger I came!  I'm in full creation-mode lately, so I really hope I'll be uploading my scanned art, digital art, and photos pretty frequently.  I am coming to terms with my mostly boring day job, as long as my time away from work is spent well.  I need to feel like I'm headed somewhere and making a difference in my life and the lives of others.  And maybe writing it down will hold me accountable...  So thanks for waiting for me to come back to you, bloggy blog.  I think this could become something really special.  Now if we could just get some people to read it.....

Book I'm currently reading:  Prayer by Philip Yancey

Most recent creative venture:  digitally scrapbooked recipe cards    (...which I was going to post here, but apparently blogger doesn't like to post my images right now.  So now I'm mad at you again, blogspot.)