Thursday, December 31, 2009

Miserable but Rich

It's official, I should be in bed.  I have been pretty miserable since Tuesday night with a runny nose, intense headache, and congestion.  Despite it all, I wasn't tired, so Ryan and I got all of the textbooks out from under the bed and put in each ISBN number into both AbeBooks.com and Half.com.  We used AbeBooks to figure out which ones would most likely sell (because they won't buy a book from you if they won't be able to sell it), and we decided to risk it and post them on Half.com, which isn't an instant return and may require me to be ready to go to the Post Office for the next couple of weeks, but of course if they do sell then you can get 2 or 3 or more times as much as Abe would pay.  Well, I was excited to see this morning that we have already sold 3 out of 10 books, and they are some of the more expensive ones.  I was reading today that Half.com will even reimburse us for the shipping costs. They take out 12-15ish% which isn't terrible.  Anyway, other than being miserable, I'm feeling pretty good to have turned some of the stuff under our bed into cash.
 
Tonight we'd originally planned on going over to the Oglesbee's for a New Year's Eve bash, but if I'm running a fever like I was this morning, I don't know what we'll do.  I am at work, but I don't know if I'll stay the whole day.  There were some things that really should get done today so I came in.  Also, I don't know if my sick days and vacation days dip from the same pot.  If I had called in sick, I may be left with only one vacation day for the whole of next year.  If I went home, I'd crawl in bed and sleep or I'd get a box of tissues and play Wave Race on Nintendo 64 with Ryan between nose-blowings.  He gets of early today, though we don't know what time.  They like to surprise him I guess.
 
It's such a bummer to be sick on the biggest party night of the year!!  Oh, not to mention, we've been married 200 days today (c:  Also, it's our 3-year dating anniversary.  We hooked up on New Year's Eve of 2006.  Doesn't seem that long ago now.  New Years will always have special meaning for us.  Maybe this is the year that we'll look back and be like, remember when we stayed home by ourselves and went through a whole box of tissues and went to bed early?  Sounds GREAT to me right now... I don't think it's Ryan's ideal though. :P

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Abnormal Activity

Well, I have violated one of my own personal rules today.  Today I went to have lunch with Ryan at his work.  His coworkers were going to order pizza and have a little party, so he invited me to join them. They normally watch movies on their break, and today was no different.  I got there a little late and grabbed a slice of pizza and a Coke.  Now, I normally avoid watching horror/scary movies if I can help it, but this one didn't seem too bad.  This couple would get woken up in the middle of the night by loud noises.  I am guessing the part I missed was that they were weirded out enough to get a camera and film themselves every moment that they were home, including in their sleep.  They narrowed their suspicions down to a demonic presence that was after the girl.  It progressed slowly, but sure enough, we were all terrified and hiding our eyes towards the end.  Of course, it's like a trainwreck and although I knew I'd spend the rest of the day and probablly the next couple of nights with the scenes haunting me, I couldn't stop watching.  It ends very tragically and it is indeed on my mind.  I hope I can forget it before going to sleep tonight... I get the most terrible nightmares! )c:
 
We went to the Brewer's last night for our weekly Tuesday suppers with them.  Lauren has been really into Desperate Housewives lately and so we watched the first 3 episodes of season 1 with them.  I think we will have to finish the show now... lol.  On the way home we discussed the risk of me turning into a wife like Bree <insert laughter from Laura and Lauren [given they watch the show]> since I have been so into this homemaking thing lately.  Rachel probably thinks I am  at risk, lol. 
 
So, New Year's resolutions.  Ryan brought it up.  I have stopped making them in order to avoid failure to execute :P  His is that he wants to start getting up earlier and actually getting to work on time.  Imagine that!  Yes, yes, more often than not, we carpool.  It takes him 20 minutes to get to work, but it only takes me 5. So on the days when he's on time, I'm 15 minutes early, and when I'm on time, he's 15 minutes late. I usually don't dog him about getting up earlier, because I usually make it on time and since it takes him 15 minutes to get to me to pick me up, I work late 90% of the time anyway, so I'm getting my time in and then some.  However, I begrudgingly admit that I need to suck it up and help him get up early enough for us to both be shining stars. 
 
I wonder what a leisurely morning before work would be like.  We make some coffee, lounge around in bathrobes that we don't have yet, have some cereal and fruit, put the plants out in the sun for the day, maybe I actually take the time to do my hair and makeup in front of a mirror (!!!)...  Alas, as long as we keep our bedtime around midnight I don't see it being such a pleasant experience! 
 
Anyway, perhaps 2010 will turn us into adults. 

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Click Install to Begin

One of the best things about being married and having our own place is finding small ways to improve the way we live.  I recently bought a magazine about small space storage solutions and it has given me a lot of ideas towards making our lifestyle more ergonomic.  Part of the reason I have to put off painting another day is because I've got to pick up the mess we left before leaving for Christmas.  If we had better places for everything, I see myself having more time. 
 
So, I've been searching for some big wall hooks. I want to put two in the stairwell by the front door for coats, umbrellas, and bags, and 3 or 4 on the wall near the closet where we can toss clothing that we don't have time to hang up right away (it's better than it being on the floor, right??)  Ryan and I went to Ikea on our way home from New Braunfels on Sunday and we got some great stuff.  Among them, a magazine rack that hangs on the wall in the bathroom (will replace the magazine basket on the floor that was never really meant to hold magazines and will free up valuable floor space), a wine rack that also mounts on the wall (which will clear up a little cabinet space... we only have one bottle at the moment, heh), an orange wire mesh basket to store our salad shooter and all of its various parts in (no more parts sitting loose on the shelf taking up more space than they deserve), and a french press (which allows Ryan to take his coffee maker-that we hardly use-back to work and clear up that much more counter space).  We got some other fun stuff like 2 colorful pots that will be new homes for the baby aloe veras that are springing up from our big one (even cheaper than the ugly plastic ones at Home Depot), some more bath washcloths, wisks, and a flatware caddy (which I actually needed).  I think that's it.
 
The magazine had some good ideas.  It suggested keeping a canvas bin in the closet for clothes that need to be mended, so when I get out my sewing machine I can take care of business.  I also really like their idea of putting small appliances with many parts in their own bins or baskets.  It makes it easier to keep everything together and put away nicely.
 
We're going to spend New Year's Day rearranging our bedroom, and I'm excited because I'll be able to look through the stuff under the bed and maybe get rid of something.  There's at least 2 big boxes of books I need to try and sell on Half.com or AbeBooks.com.  Maybe I can get something for my old N'Sync memorabilia... haha!
 
Ryan got on eBay last night and found the parts that he needs to fix my iMac. The guy was asking $95 but we made him an offer of $75 and he liked that well enough.  I can't wait to get that thing fired up again.  It has so many old pictures.  Not to mention Photoshop and Illustrator.  Fixing it will also mean I will start using my video camera again, because for some reason my laptop doesn't have a fire wire port (even though it is supposedly the "media center/entertainment" machine... pshhh...) and I'm pretty sure Ryan's computer doesn't. 
 
So, the progress continues.  I am driven to look for ways to continually improve our day to day, whether it be with a coat of paint or a cleaner floor or more income (I'll get to that one later).  I wanted to have an inspiring blog like Rachel (http://firelogsandalmonds.blogspot.com) where her every post points us to do something to help stop genocide in other parts of the world.  However, I can't deny what's on my mind... I think I am programmed to be a homemaker and an entrepreneur.  Although I do enjoy helping to end world hunger on www.FreeRice.com when I'm bored.  You can play various trivia games and the UN sends rice to starving nations per your correct answers.  Some people think about the whole world, some people think about the immediate people around them and all of their future offspring that don't exist yet...    
 
 

Monday, December 28, 2009

Primavera

I'm not a writer, and even lately I've discovered that I'm actually kind of bad at writing. I've become painfully aware of this in college when I'd proudly ask my friends to critique my paper and be surprised to get it back with several suggestions for grammatical changes.

Do you ever have moments where someone shows you that you're not as good at something as you thought you were? For many years, I have held confidence in myself regarding my ability to write papers free of common [and even uncommon] grammatical and spelling errors. However, I should have taken my confidence with a grain of salt because I never had formal English teaching in grade school. I wrote papers well enough because I read a lot and I knew how sentences should sound and look for the most part. So, my Mom decided to focus her efforts on subjects that I was not so good at. I could compose a correctly structured sentence, but I could not tell you the rules governing it.

One thing that I have always had confidence in is my ability to sit down with a pencil and paper and draw something that recognizably resembles my subject matter. I feel like art has been a big part of who I am my whole life, but I've never truly given it time. This blog is about my process of getting back to who I am. When I'm painting or drawing it takes me to new levels physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. I become a better artist with more and more practice, my mind is renewed and I find so much joy in the process and the finished product, and my husband seems to do backflips in his heart when he sees me paint. [It's like a magic happy button for him.] I also can't help but feel that I have entered a "room" that God made just for me. I see it as his way of being consistent with me. I know that no matter how many years it's been since I've painted, I can still go back and be happy doing it. I get into a zone and connect with who [I think] he's created me to be. Not that I think God wants me to be an artist, but that he wants me to always have that happy place I can go to and remember what I love.

I think that all artists feel happy and rejuvenated when they do their thing. However, I am convinced that God gave it to me because I get discouraged when I realize how I lack and have failed even when I thought I was fine. He gave me one place where I can go pull out the gift he gave me, dust it off, and perpetually find happiness and worth no matter what bricks of my self-esteem have crumbled. Thanks, God.