How Mindy Kaling saved Christmas

Mindy Kaling saved Christmas. I feel as though I should send her a gift basket. Possibly an Edible Arrangement. Nah, a Ghirardelli gift basket. You can just tell she'd be pissed if she received something as exciting as a delivered gift only to discover it's freaking fruit. But I digress. To begin, let me remind you who Mindy Kaling is. You all know, you just might not actually be able to match her face and name without this hint. She's Kelly Kapoor on The Office. Yeah, lightbulb moment for all of you. Anyway, she wrote this absolutely hilarious book and it changed my life. Ok, I'd say more like changed my month. But still, it affected me. Here's how it all shook out: I went to Kansas City this weekend to meet up with my bff Sam and her mom, Faith to see Kathy Griffin. Due to some lucky circumstances for me, Sam needed me to pick her up in Des Moines on my way down. (Des Moines is roughly 2 hours out of my way, but was totally worth it.) When I have any drive that will last over an hour by myself, I usually download an audiobook so I have something to focus on and follow while I'm super bored driving through cornfields. For this drive, I downloaded Kaling's new book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). Now I have a preexisting condition of wanting to be bffs with any female celebrity I even remotely like. Obviously, my close, personal friendship with Mariska Hargitay is why I should be the new Detective Stabler on SVU. I mean, of course we would be fast friends and just spend all day laughing and gossiping on set and then going out to hip happy hours after work. But again, I digress. My immediate reaction to Mindy's (yes we're on a first-name basis) book is that we are SO besties!! She's obviously super funny and I found myself nodding frequently because I have either said those things myself, or they were just so funny that I immediately agreed. (Please reference the chapter where she lists the qualities of a best friend. It is perfection.) But what really made me fall in love with her is that her book allowed me to open up and appreciate something that didn't necessarily have a purpose, it was just fun and enjoyable. It also had me sitting in the car, outlining about 5 different blog topics (my favorite of which will be entitled "This is Why I'm Fat" Don't worry, I plan on actually going through with writing that one. It won't be super long because let's be honest, how much can one write about eating too much and exercising too little? But it'll be good). She inspired creativity in me that I hadn't realized I'd lost. I've mentioned previously how depressed winter makes me and that it simply puts a cloud over me until it's warm and sunny again. But Mindy's book started to thaw my frozen heart and encourage a playful vibe. But her book isn't the entire point of this blog. The entire weekend inspired such a positive change in me, I don't think I realized how much I had needed it until I was in it. So after enjoying the first half of the book, I stopped in Des Moines to join some of Sam's friends for dinner, then head down to KC with my real life best friend. We had 3 absolutely wonderful uninterrupted hours to talk, catch up, gossip, bitch, and just generally reconnect. Sam is already a friend that I'm actually pretty good about staying in touch with, and she's also the friend that I'm geographically closest to right now. We make a point to visit one another every couple of months. But the drive to KC just seemed needed. We didn't have to worry about annoying our significant others with our pointless chatter and could just be friends, being friends. We finally rolled into KC at 1am and got a few minutes to chat with her wonderful parents, then all headed to bed. Saturday morning was spent sleeping in, then having coffee, breakfast, and great conversation with Sam's dad while her mom taught a quick music lesson. (Her mom is the one who sang the beautiful song during our wedding ceremony. Ok, so now we're all on the same page.) Then the 3 of us girls leisurely got ready to go and went to The Plaza for a yummy lunch and some shopping. We all put ourselves into a food coma during lunch so our shopping was kind of half-hearted so we went home for a nap before going to the Kathy Griffin show. So of course, Sam and I took the opportunity to watch some Teen Mom 2 and wrap Christmas presents. Then we had a yummy snack and went to the show! We were all surprised but not shocked to see the crazies from Westboro Baptist Church protesting the show with their hateful signs about homosexuality. I don't really like the term "anit-gay" because it seems to give validity to the idea that there is a debate surrounding homosexuality. That's like being anti-blonde or pro-short people. It's not worth debating because there's nothing to debate! But seriously, I'm making a career of digressing. Back to the task at hand. Kathy was obviously hilarious and we all really enjoyed the show. Then Faith took us on a quick tour of pretty Christmas lights, which I totally loved.
What I have neglected to mention yet is the fact that I haven't decorated for Christmas. For those of you who know of my usual LOVE of Christmas, this is going to come as a shock. I just haven't really been in the mood this year. I seem to have lost my Christmas spirit. I did go so far as to take my 3 huge Rubbermaid tubs of decorations out of the closet, but they have since sat in the living room, untouched. No wait, I hung our jingle bell wreath on the front door, but this has been the extent of my "decorating". I did send out Christmas cards, but I had ordered those in early November, before I fell into my Christmas funk. And I think more of why I was into Christmas cards this year was that we got to use wedding pictures on them. If we'd had to actually take new pictures, I don't think they would have happened. I've been trying to pinpoint what it is that's keeping me from really getting into Christmas this year, and I think it's a combination of a couple things. First, it's simply because it's winter. But this is kind of a cop out because I loved Christmas last year and that was during winter, too ;) And being busy is crap, too because everyone is busy during the holidays. So I think what is really more the culprit is the fact that I won't be seeing my family this Christmas. I feel like a whiny little kid saying this, but it's been really hard for me to come to terms with it. This will be the first time that I won't see my parents and grandparents on Christmas. My brother and his family will be up in Portland with my parents while Dane and I will be spending Christmas in Phoenix with his family. I should clarify that I'm excited to spend Christmas with them, I've never done Christmas morning with Dane's family and I'm super excited to see how they celebrate. But I'm afraid that I'm going to get emotional or something and offend them or make them feel like I'm unhappy being there. When really I'm just a little brat who misses my parents. I'm a married woman in my mid-twenties and I want to spend every Christmas with my mom and dad for the rest of my life. I'm way crappier at the whole sharing holidays with each others families than I thought I would be. We spent Thanksgiving with my parents in Portland and I loved it. But it never really occurred to me that Dane might be missing his own family. And I'm excited to do Dane's traditions and see his family! I don't want to minimize the positive side of spending Christmas with them. I'm simply having a hard time letting go of my own traditions for this year. But I think it will be good for me. This is part of being married: compromising and sharing holidays are just part of the job. So I'm on board and I plan to fully immerse myself in it and be the kind of new member of the family I would want if the roles were reversed.
Being with Sam's parents really seemed to help me get back on board with Christmas. Their house was decorated so cute (Faith's theme this year was The Grinch. SO ADORABLE) and it was so nice to be able to spend time with and talk to the people who I consider my second set of parents. This weekend was so healing for me it was amazing. Saturday night after the show Sam, Faith, and I sat up, drinking wine and snacking and chatting. Just those 2 hours of what felt like family time was exactly what I needed. Sunday morning was again spent sleeping in, then having our usual coffee and breakfast chat. There are 3 things that come to mind when I think of Sam's house in KC: their breakfast nook, where we spend morning talking with her dad. Their living room, where we spend evenings talking with her mom. And her sister's room, where I sleep when we're there. It's really nice to have a room to myself to kind of relax and unwind, but Sam's right next door for when I want friend time.
Overall, it was a perfect weekend that was finished off by another 3 hour drive with my best friend, then another 2 hours with my new friend, Mindy Kaling.
So to rekindle my Christmas spirit, it took a book, a best friend, Christmas lights, and family time with my Midwestern family. I don't know if I will actually decorate this year, I might give myself a break on that and focus on making myself festive. But I'm definitely not trying to ignore Christmas like I was before. In fact, I think I might actually be looking forward to it. And I'm going to bring any of my own traditions that I can to Dane's family this year. My favorite being new pjs for Christmas morning. I just saw that my favorite flannel pjs at Victoria's Secret were on sale and had free shipping, so I got myself a cute new set of flannel jammies to keep that tradition going. (And a little retail therapy can't hurt either)
So Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope none of you have had to hunt for your Christmas spirit and are enjoying a festive holiday season. Also, I hope Mindy Kaling knows that her book has much more than simply on-the-surface entertainment value. And most of all, I hope that all my families (in Portland and Phoenix and Kansas City) know how much they mean to me and how important they are in my life, all in their own ways.


And P.S. I decided today that Tim Tebow is ruining God for me. That guy is such a freaking douche bag. Please find something else to do on the sideline because your stupid kneeling prayer is making it suck to be a fan of God.

Enviable Inevitably

The following collection is a list of things that are inevitable. As in... there is no chance of them not happening. Enjoy...


It Is What It Is...
If we've had a conversation before and you're an idiot, you've inevitably been subjected to me rolling my eyes and judging the shit out of you after you said something as stupid as "it is what it is." This ridiculous saying has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves. It doesn't mean anything and is a freaking waste of words. Why did you just waste precious seconds of my life by making me listen to that non-statement statement? It has absolutely no point and I hate having to hear it. I would much prefer if you simply said "I'm too dumb to come up with something to say, so let's just stand here in silence for a few seconds." I totally judge less for silence than saying something really stupid. Well, that might be a lie. I judge heavily either way. But I'd rather not have my ears assaulted by your dumbass tag lines.

Pinpointed pin drop awkwardness...
It is completely inevitable that a booming room will because pin drop silent at the most awkward of times. This was beautifully illustrated today when I attempted to make a doctors appointment from my desk at work. No, nothing's wrong with me, I simply need to get my prescriptions refilled and lady bits checked out, like I do every year! I chose a time when there were several other (loud) conversations going on in the branch so that I could make my call in anonymity and peace. But of course, as soon as the lady at the answering service asked "and for what do you need to be seen?" (let's be honest, her grammar wasn't that pretty, I corrected it) the room freaking fell silent so I had to awkward turn in my chair to the empty corner of my office and mumble out "um, i uh need my annual um pap smear..." Here's the worst part: it was only the ANSWERING SERVICE!! So then the real scheduling lady called me back later and I had to go through it all over again!! And of course, the room fell silent again when this new woman asked "what's the purpose of this visit?" So this time I just freaking went for it and responded "it's my yearly lady visit." I guess the bank customers are just going to have to deal with the fact that I have lady bits and they require checking out every year to keep me (and said bits) healthy!

Earth to DownToEarth...
If someone has ever uttered the words "I'm really down to earth"... they're not. Actually, this usually applies to anything someone says about themselves. This especially includes those AWFUL shirts that skanks were wearing in the early 2000s: "Hot" "Juicy" "Spicy" "Sexy". Um... no you're not. You're most likely a fugly betch. Pretty much if your shirt/email address/bumper sticker contains an adjective, I hate you. But if you make annoying statements about yourself such as "I'm a down to earth/easy going/normal/laid back person" I hear "I'm a high maintenance/stuck up/bitchy/difficult asshole." But thanks for letting me know by saying the exact opposite of reality, that was convenient.

Marital Bust. I mean Ass...
I'm sorry, is anyone surprised that the Kardashian/Humphries marriage didn't work out? This only further proves my point that the bigger the wedding, the weaker the marriage. When couples make a huge deal about their wedding and spend tons of money on it, it's because they don't want to focus on the actual relationship (probably because they both subconsciously know it's going to fail) So it only makes sense that because Kim and Kris had the biggest wedding ever (I mean REALLY? $10,000,000?!) they would have an epic fail of a marriage. I'm just wondering what their pre-marriage relationship was like. Because how severely do you need to be lying to yourself to convince yourself that marrying this person is a good idea only to "discover" 72 days later that it was a mistake? And they're saying that it's because Kim wouldn't move to Minnesota and Kris was a fame-chasing unemployed loser. Um... did NONE of that come up before you dropped $10M on a wedding?! (Yes, I know they didn't actually drop $10M on it, most of it was probably donated by celeb-hungry vendors.) Because I'm pretty sure that before you MARRY someone, you talk about where you want to live and what you want to be when you grow up. And yes, Kim, the NBA lockout was going on before you married that bum. And can we talk about how he's NOT THAT CUTE?! But did anyone expect this one to make it for the long haul? I mean REALLY!

Not Feelin' Fall

A couple of years ago I would have told you that fall was my favorite season. That is, until I lived in a place that actually has autumn. Um... this season sucks. In Arizona, we have 1 season: summer. You know what the best season is? Summer! You know why? Because there's some freaking SUNLIGHT!! Did you know that the other 3 seasons of the year are super dark?! It's insane!! Don't even get me started on the awful thing called snow that happens during winter. So while fall is great with all the pretty leaves and being able to wear boots and sweaters, it freaking sucks because it means that winter is coming. I cannot describe how much I am dreading winter. I definitely suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder so the onset of winter makes me really anxious and worried about how crappy it's going to make me feel. I am so worried about it that I'm already starting to recognize some symptoms and fear that this year may be worse than last. What is seasonal affective disorder, you may ask? Well, let's call is SAD from here on out, because that's a lot of unnecessary letters to type! SAD is a type of depression that usually occurs only during the winter months (some people get it during summer, but that's just crazy!) According to mayoclinic.com (that's right folks, this blog is legit, I reference other websites!!) symptoms include:

• Depression
• Hopelessness
• Anxiety
• Loss of energy
• Heavy, "leaden" feeling in the arms or legs
• Social withdrawal
• Oversleeping
• Loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed
• Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
• Weight gain
• Difficulty concentrating

Guess which symptoms I get? ALL OF THE ABOVE. And I also throw in some extreme irritability. It's really just a miserable time for me and I go nuts the first time the sun comes out in springtime because I'm so excited to see it again. The biggest thing I remember from last winter was a literal craving for sunlight. I never thought I would be begging for sunlight. But I guess I never really knew that there were places that saw so little of it. Being from Phoenix has messed me up! 

So that's my whining pity party about the weather here. Now let's talk about what I'm doing to fight the evil visits from Snow Miser (10 points go to the first person to get the reference): training for a 5k! This will come as a major shock for those of you who know how incredibly lazy I am. I'm better known for sitting in my bed eating ice cream straight out of the carton while watching Bravo than strapping on some Nikes to hit the pavement. But some of the best treatment for SAD is staying active, so I'm working on becoming active so that when my symptoms hit a fever pitch I can stay active. I'm on week 2 of an 8-week program. Apparently by week 8 I'll be able to run a 5k. Not going to lie: this week was really rough. I'm actually planning on repeating week 2 (like a preschooler who didn't learn the alphabet) because I'm not ready for week 3. So now it's a 9-week program :) But I'm lucky to have a fabulous bestie (shout out to Samurai!) who volunteered to do a 5k with me! So we picked one out in Kansas City that is conveniently scheduled for the day after we see Kathy Griffin! Saturday night: Kathy G, Sunday morning: 5k! Don't worry, it doesn't start until like 9am and it's only 3.1 miles, we can be a little tired/hungover, we won't die. Best part? It's an INDOOR 5k!! Hooray for nice running weather! But back to the training: it's going well and I actually really like it. I've been running outside, just kind of exploring new routes around the neighborhood. This can be dangerous for two reasons: 1. I live in the hood, so I have a strict 11 hour running window: 7:30am-6:30pm are the only hours I will run. Because that gives me the safety of daylight (until there isn;t anymore when winter comes) during my entire run. 2. Omaha was built on hills. I don't mind walking up a hill, but running up a hill is something I'd prefer to avoid. So I try to time my training sessions so that I can walk up the hills and then run on flat ground. That's going to get tougher as the walk time gets shorter and run time gets longer! 

Of course the biggest benefit of this training isn't the warm fuzzy feeling it gives me or even the sweet shopping opportunities it presents (we'll get to that!) it's that it will hopefully get rid of these 10 pounds I packed on this summer. Yes folks, I'm a fat newlywed. This has nothing to do with Dane or letting myself go now that the wedding is over, it's because I was alone for most of the summer while Dane was working in AZ so I was lazy and ate whatever I wanted. I rarely cooked and ate tons of junk. So I put on some weight and then once my clothes started feeling snug, I was so mad about having put on weight that I ate even more (I eat because I'm unhappy, I'm unhappy because I eat [another 10 points go to the first person to get that reference]) So now I need to get myself back to a normal size and start feeling better about how I look (and feel)! But back to the shopping opportunities: did you know how many running accessories I don't own? TONS! I just got one of those cute headband things that covers your ears because it's starting to get cold and my ears hurt b/c of it yesterday morning. I went for a simple black number but it has a snazzy ponytail hole in it, so we'll see how it goes. I stocked up on some snazzy socks I really like, too. They're a "no show" style but little higher in the back to protect your heel from rubbing on your shoes. And speaking of shoes: omg I want new ones!! I did some online research about what type of shoes I need based on my running stride (I need cushioned support for my high arches) and type of running I do (low mileage/beginner running) and am also worried about the upcoming crappy weather I'll be training in. So... I found an awesome pair of Nikes that have this cool shield technology that's made for running in poor weather! Here they are: http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/commerce/women?hf=10001^12001&t=Women%27s%20Running%20Shoes#/?ll=en_US&ct=US&pid=417595&cid=102201&pgid=&p=PDP

By the way... how do people make those links that say like "click here" and then they take you to the full website? (Steph Riel I'm looking at you) I obviously only know how to copy and paste from the web address line on the page. That's right, I'm a savvy blogger :) Alright (yes, Michelle Cain, I am aware that "alright" is not actually a word. The correct form is all right) I think that's all for now. More funny blog updates are to come, I just wanted to update everyone on life for now! Have a great week and be sure to get your flu shot! 

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

Well, my new computer has arrived to it's time to update ye olde blog! So here's what life is like here:

Dane is working very hard in school. This year is harder than last year and he is absolutely dreading having to take Step 1 of the Boards next summer. But he is doing super well in school and I'm super proud of him. To be honest, he's not enjoying med school at all right now, but he's working hard to get through to a part that he does like. We keep hearing that next year will be totally different and he will enjoy it a lot more, so we're just working to get him there. It's taking a lot of effort, but he's a great student and super smart, so going to continue to do great!

I am working really hard at work. I did some more training a few weeks ago to learn how to open business accounts, so I'm looking at other options I may have within the company to continue my career there. Now I'm thinking I may want to take the business banking route and lean towards that. The benefit there is that I could do business banking from pretty much anywhere we may happen to end up. I was previously thinking of doing HR, but there aren't HR hubs everywhere, so it really restricts our options. And with Dane needing to be able to take any job that is offered to him, I need to be able to work anywhere. So that's the new career plan!

As for our home life, I'm trying to be creative to make life less redundant for us so we can actually enjoy our time here in Omaha. So I have deemed every Monday "New Recipe Monday" and we try new things to see what works and what doesn't! Most of the recipes I try are steak because I'm really comfortable with chicken and I don't want to become the boring chicken lady. Tomorrow's adventure is steak tacos with a really yummy marinated steak recipe. We'll see how it goes!! In fact, tonight I'm trying a new recipe, too! We're trying out some spicy orange chicken stir fry! Yum! And we've started having Friday nights out! This isn't as exciting as it sounds, it just means that after working at a bank on a Friday, I am way too tired to cook. And it's really the only chance that Dane gets to take a break from studying and take a couple hours to go out. So we go out on Friday nights and make a big deal of going on a date. It's usually pretty short and doesn't include a movie or anything, but we enjoy it :)

Eddie is doing well being back in Omaha, but he misses Heidi. That's right folks, Heidi Eunice is no longer with us :( She lived a very long and nap-filled life, but this summer her health started declining pretty rapidly until I had to take her in to be put down. It was exceptionally hard to do, but it was what was best for her and I'm sure she's happier now, in a tuna-filled kitty heaven. Unfortunately, Eddie is now bored with no feline to follow around and keep in line.  No, we won't be getting a new kitty anytime soon, they don't make for very good movers and we'll be doing lots of that in the next few years! But I'm sure I will eventually convince Dane it's time to add to the family and get another personality-filled kitty!

Dane's workload has been exceptionally stressful the last couple of weeks so we decided to take advantage of a very rare free weekend and take a little staycation last night! Dane's dad graciously booked a room for us with his Marriott points at the West Omaha Marriott and we got to take a night away! We went to Bonefish Grill for dinner and it was DELICIOUS!! Neither of us had been there before and omg it was so great!! We got calamari as an appetizer, salads (house for him, caesar for me), warm toasty bread, and super great entrees! Daneish got a steak with au gratin potatoes and I got wood-grilled salmon with mango salsa, garlic whipped potatoes, and some fancy ginger carrots or something. Everything was amazing!! AND we got there during happy hour, so go to get our first drinks at happy hour prices-fabulous! And Dane tried their rum punch and deemed it delicious. So all around, a great dinner experience! Then we went back to the hotel and were bummed to discover they didn't have movies for us to buy! We had been hoping to buy a movie we missed when it was in theatres and snuggle up with snacks! But alas, we were stuck with whatever happened to be on tv. So of course, I fell asleep way too early. I know that this drives Daneish crazy, but I can't help it!! I fall asleep on the couch every night, so this Saturday night was no different! But even though I was super lame, it was still nice to have a night away and relax together. And Eddie enjoyed his time at Dogtopia, playing with his dog friends. The people there said that Eddie's best friend there is a yorkie named Bernard. The two of them stayed up late and harassed all the girl dogs. That's our Eddie Monster :) And tonight all 3 of us are at home, watching a movie together and enjoying a night off before having to go back to work/school.

I think that's all for now, kids! I think I've updated on pretty much everything, but let me know if I missed anything you're dying to know!

Irrationality is my nationality

Ok I will have a post coming soon regarding the wedding and honeymoon, etc. but I'm still working on it and it's taking me a while. So in the meantime, I thought I'd take a load off and really let loose about things that I have irrational responses to. So this is me, blowing off some Tuesday night steam! I've got a bottle of Dos Equis to my left, a sleeping Heidi to my right, and Bravo on my tv. And we're ready to blog!

Fireworks
This year was the first time I've spent the 4th of July in a place where residents can legally purchase fireworks. I hated it. I had actually spent the weekend in Minneapolis, but arrived back in Omaha at 11pm on the 4th. What I arrived home to was nothing short of shocking. (side note: yes, I realize there are plenty of people who are used to this whole maniacal celebration and think I'm being dramatic. Nay. I am being IRRATIONAL. Duh. Read on.) Honestly the first thing that came to mind when I pulled into my driveway was "oh my gosh it's the riots in Egypt all over again" Seriously, who thinks that? I was wondering if I had missed something during my 2 days away and if my fellow residents of Omaha were suddenly trying to overthrow our government. And if someone had lit a car of fire to further light up the night, I wouldn't have been surprised. I super freaked the eff out and was miserable. Heidi was with me on the misery train: she made a big deal about her medicine and was literally spitting and panting. She basically went crazy. Happy independence day!

Anni the Irish Brazilian
If you're lucky enough to be a friend with whom I discuss my lady bits situation, you've probably heard about Anni the Irish Waxer. Yes, she is from Ireland and has a super cute accent. She's also just really zen: she has this soft little voice and is just a calming force. Anni the Irish Waxer is one of my favorite people in Omaha and is the most soothing portion of my life here. We spend roughly 25 minutes together every 5 weeks and she listens to me chat about my life while she does her waxing thang. If any of you ladies have had the joyous experience of getting a bikini wax, you know how freakishly personal it is... super quick. Like "Hi, nice to meet you, take off your pants and let me shine a bright light [sometimes with a magnifying glass attached] on your lady bits. Thanks, that'll be [at least] $50." And yes, I directed that last example at the ladies because if there are any men relating to this situation, I have two things to say to you: 1. I'm sorry, did you get lost? What are you doing here at this blog? and 2. You get your junk waxed? You are now REQUIRED to stop reading this blog because you are surely not welcome here. But back to the subject at hand... Anni the Irish Waxer. Tonight was my most recent visit to Anni and she caused me to suffer a heart attack. She casually mentioned that she's planning to leave the salon she works at! I died. I cannot be without Anni. If I could move her and her family out to Phoenix with us when we move back, I would! Luckily, Anni followed up her mention of leaving with the fact that she'll be opening up her own salon across town. I would follow you to the end of the earth, Anni! So have no fear, I will still be able to see Anni the Irish Waxer for another year! (AND she'll be lowering her prices!! SCORE!!)

Pitiful Advice
I'm not always good at accepting advice. I usually feel like my own opinion is going to work just fine and I don't really care what you have to say about it. I occasionally ask for advice, but only from those whose opinions I value [or, more honestly... actually give a shit about] But recently I've been getting a lot of unsolicited advice! But it's been handed out as something even worse than advice: pity! People are discovering that Dane and I are currently spending our first 2 months of marriage apart. Here's the situation: I have a job at a bank and while I get a great amount of paid time off, I don't have enough PTO to take the entire summer off work. So the day after we got back from our honeymoon, I flew back to Omaha to get back to work. Now Dane had to get some more medical world experience this summer. He needs to have his medical resume built up as strongly as possible to when he applies for residencies he actually has something to show for his years of work. The position he got for the summer happened to be in Phoenix because he already knew several doctors there and was able to get the same job he worked last year before we moved. So he's working in Arizona and doing what he needs to do while I am working in Omaha and doing what I need to do. But you know what? We are already aware of how much this situation sucks. We didn't decide to spend our first summer as a married couple like this for funsies. We're doing this because we have to and it would suck a whole hell of a lot more if he didn't get the experience he needs this summer and then can't get a residency after graduation. It would make paying off those student loans KIND of tough. So when random people go on and on about how awful our current situation is and how much it must suck, I want to punch you in the throat. But I've harped on that before. What really makes me want to tell them off is when they try to ascertain relationship details about "how we're doing". I put that last one in quotes because you have to read it in the same "how are you doing" tone that people use when they ask it of cancer patients. The most common is "so do you guys talk on the phone a lot?" I'm sorry, why do you want to know that? Because I have to EXPLAIN my answer and I'm sick of doing so. No, we don't talk on the phone a lot. You know why? Because neither of us really enjoy talking on the phone. We're both pretty business-y when we're making phone calls. Yes, we have still kept in touch while we're apart. But we text. We e-mail. Maybe we'll start BBMing. We'll see. But no, I'm not "worried" about us. We just freaking got married! If two months a few states apart were going to break us, we probably shouldn't have gotten married because this definitely isn't going to be the toughest thing we face as a couple. So kindly eff off and go ask someone else how much she and her husband love each other. Me and mine are good to go.

Disrespected
You all know that I'm a grammar nazi, but I don't think everyone understands how seriously irritated I get. Poor grammar/general English skills get under my skin like few things can. Of course I'm aware that I certainly don't know/follow every rule there is. But I do think I do a pretty good job, save for my "creative license" with sentence structure, etc. when blogging. Anyway, back to the task at hand: my BIGGEST irritation is the made up word "disrespected". WHERE did this awful word come from?! I'll tell you: the hood. Sorry uneducated losers in the middle of a "that bitch slept with my man" cat fight, she's didn't disrespect you. She was either disrespectful or failed to show you respect. Using disrespect in such a made up form would be the same as saying she "ruded" you rather than saying she was rude to you. It is not possible to disrespect someone. It simply does not work that way. And no, I do NOT want to hear if this word has recently been added to the dictionary to "keep up with the times" because as far as I'm concerned it's still SUPER EFFING ANNOYING. And I've decided to stop overlooking such an egregious grammatical error. I am going to start correcting people. I don't care if I look like a psycho. I'm going to better the world, one made up word at a time!

Alright kids, that's all I have for now. I'll get to work on the wedding and honeymoon blogs so I can get those out to the masses! Hope you all had a great 4th and I promise to be a better blog updater in the future!!

30 day warranty

Thought I should update the ol' blog, simply because today is the 1 month mark until The Big Day! I'm feeling totally great! The 3 and 2 month marks kind of freaked me out because I felt like we didn't have everything ready, but now I think we have things under control! Mostly I'm just crazy excited to spend an awesome week at home before the wedding while I get everything finalized, get to enjoy a fabulous day with all of our friends and family, and then go on an AMAZING honeymoon! So hooray, one month! Send in those R.S.V.P.s, people!! We're getting down to the wire!!! YAAAAAAAAAY wedding!!!

Emily's Wedding Handbook

When Dane and I started planning our wedding, my parents and I purchased a couple of books to help us. There are so many rules and etiquette regulations and traditions that must be adhered to, we needed some guides. So we have an Emily Post wedding etiquette book and a Miss Manners wedding book. I absolutely love these books and think they've make our lives so much easier! However, they come with all kinds of rules that tend to bug me. So here are the things we're not allowed to say or do but that I really want to, so I've decided to say them via blog, where anything goes!

*disclaimer: this includes traditional wedding faux pas, some of which you may have used in your own weddings. I don't publish them here to offend you, I publish them here to make my own point. I don't really give a crap if my pointing out your errors hurts your feelings. Clearly you were trashy enough to make these errors without realizing they were errors, so just understand that and move on. If your feelings are hurt, you're in the wrong place to begin with because I simply don't care. Read someone else's blog. Think you're thick-skinned enough to continue? Read on and enjoy!

+ 1? My wedding is not the place for your math games:
I have a major issue with the idea of "+1". If I specifically invited your date, meaning by name, that means I want you to bring said date. If I didn't, that means I invited you and not some random stranger you decide to scrounge up and bring to my nuptials. And how, you wonder, will I specify if your date is invited? His/her name will BE ON THE ENVELOPE. Oh, your envelope just has YOUR name on it? Weird! Must mean you don't have to deal with the hassle of finding someone to bring! Congratulations! You are welcome! I know this will probably piss many people off, as they think that weddings are meant for bringing a date and enjoying the open bar. This is odd to me because I thought weddings were about two people coming together to join a new unit together in love and start their own little family. But you're probably right, your random stranger idea is probably more what it's about. My issue with the random stranger is a two-part issue: the first being that it simply makes the numbers impossible. I have never wanted to have a massive wedding and adding a +1 for everyone simply makes it bigger than I want it to be, and obviously more expensive for my parents. But the second part of my issue with the +1 is that I don't know your stupid date, so why is he/she there to watch me get married?! I want to have people at the wedding because they're important to Dane or me or our parents, not because someone we know met them a couple weeks ago and thought they'd be fun to dance with. No. If we don't know you, you can't come. Read the envelope and use your brain.

Registry secrets:
According to one of our wedding books, it's a major no-no to put where you're registered on the invitation. This is because it assumes your invited guests are expected to buy you gifts and they are expected to find said gifts at stores you chose. And while you were at it, you chose the specific gifts, too. I get why this is tacky. However, everyone knows you registered, so now they have to hunt down people who might know where you're registered and find out from them. Why can't we just make it easy and list it somewhere? Somewhere convenient. Like the invitation. So... just to save our guests the hassle of hunting for our registries, we are registered at TARGET, CRATE & BARREL, and MACY'S. Go crazy.

No boys (or girls) allowed:
This relates to my previous point regarding added dates, but this is specifically regarding children. If your invitation doesn't specifically list your children or "and family", then I don't want to have your kids at my wedding. It's nothing personal, I'm sure your kids are great. But did you know that the $30+ they charge per person for an open bar is also charged for kids under 21? The resort apparently thinks that kids can drink $30+ worth of soda in a four hour period, so they still change the same price. I'm sure your kids are very sweet, but if they're not chugging their weight in soda, I don't want them. Because if they're going to be there, they'd better be drinking enough to make it worth the cost! But even before we get to the reception, I don't want your sticky-handed, whining child being obnoxious while I'm having a moment with my pop as he walks me down the aisle. Children should be seen and not heard, just not at my wedding. They can be seen elsewhere.

R.S.V.P., A.S.S.H.O.L.E.:
So according to these books that rule my life, including a response card in an invitation is tacky. The proper way to respond to an invitation is to do so in the same medium and formality as the invitation. That would mean that for my formal invitations, everyone who receives them should pull out their formal stationary and hand write a letter back to my parents, either accepting or sharing their regrets about being unable to attend. The second he read this, my dad decided that we, too would go with the formal option and skip response cards. Um... NO. There is NO WAY IN HELL I'm depending on people knowing they should write a freaking letter to RSVP. If we chose that option, we'd expect 20 people and be surprised when 150 actually showed up. No. We're being socially white trash and including response cards. I even took it to another level and included "number attending" on the response cards to REALLY get it nailed down. I am WAY too much of a control freak to depend on other people to get their shit together. I will get your shit together FOR you. So freaking mail back your response card because I even effing addressed and stamped it for you.

Thanks for the tip:
This has nothing to do with our wedding books, but it's pretty much my biggest wedding pet peeve EVER. Please stop giving me advice about weddings and referencing your friend's wedding, or even worse: YOUR wedding. I'm getting way too close to my own wedding date, thus short on patience/a zen attitude to think of nice ways to tell you I think you're trashy. Seriously, it's getting hard for me to be politically correct when inside I'm thinking "Holy crap, you seriously DID that? No thanks, I'm from Paradise Valley, not a trailer park" So let's just keep everyone happy; you can stop giving me real life examples and I can stop giving myself anxiety attacks while I try to think of something nice to say. Well no, you can continue to give me real life examples, but let's say "I read in a magazine somewhere" instead, because then I'll feel like less of a bitch when I burst into hysterical laughter and make a snotty comment. K thanks.

Nothing rhymes with 2011

Happy New Year! Daneish and I had a great weekend so I thought I would share the details with all of you! He got back in town late Thursday night and we got him all settled in and unpacked. He also told me he had made reservations for dinner on New Years Eve! Hooray! We usually spend NYE on the couch with pizza or some other kind of non-homemade food and watch a movie or something. NYE is not usually a holiday we really celebrate. This is because several years ago at the block party in Tempe, a random girl ran up to Dane, punched him in the face, and ran off. This put a bit of a damper on Daneish's enjoyment of this holiday... But, we decided to ditch tradition an actually celebrate this year! Dane spent his Friday getting tons done for us! He took my car in to get my windshield wiper repaired, bought the windshield wiper fluid we needed, and took care of all the annoying little errands that needed to be done. It was really handy to have such a great helper working on things while I was at work! I begged and begged at work for them to let me off early so I could make it home in time to change clothes before our big date. They did and I made it home at 6, just in time to change and head out for our 6:30 reservations at Spezia! I wore a super cute black Ann Taylor dress with a skinny black belt, magenta cardigan, and black pointy toe pumps. Of course, this outfit did not have style room for stockings, so I went bare-legged. It was super cute, but obviously freaking cold when entering/exiting the restaurant in the 10 degree weather. I still feel I made the right choice. Fashion over function ANY day! We raced over to Spezia and had an AMAZING meal!! We had calamari, salads, and steaks! Dane enjoyed a couple glasses of wine while I chose a Bellini :) The food was super yummy and I was stuffed by the time the entrées arrived, so I brought most of mine home and have been able to make 2 more meals out of it! It was so nice to be able to sit down and enjoy a fancy dinner together and not worry about work or school the next day. It totally blew our budget, but it was totally worth it. We'll be eating ramen for the rest of the month, but I'm so glad we had a nice date! Funny side note: when we got into the car to go home, there was a man getting into his car and obviously heading back to the front of the restaurant to pick up his wife. I made a snide comment about how nice he was and Dane responded with "yeah, that IS nice, nice that his wife is such a lazy whore." Obviously, chivalry is alive and well... When we got home, we got into our comfy clothes and settled in to watch some tv. Of course, I feel asleep, just like I always do. But Dane woke me up from time to time to show me the tuxedos he had "built" on a website (they were all hideous. WHERE have all the classic black and white tuxedos gone?!) and he woke me up again just in time for midnight! He had even opened the cheapy bottle of Andre I'd bought and poured us each a glass. The champagne was obviously terrible, but I'm glad we had it. We slept in the next morning and it was super nice to not HAVE to get up. I did a bunch of laundry and started our black eyed peas. BTW, the package of peas I bought called them "Blackeye Peas". Um... that's weird. Anyway, Saturday was great! Got lots accomplished AND we went together to put air in our tires (kind of an ordeal b/c the first 2 gas stations we went to didn't have working air pumps. Super annoying in 17 degree weather!), get gas, and grab the makings for corn bread! These annoying chores are way more fun when we get to do them together. And we can start off our busy month knowing our cars are both good to go! We spent our evening watching TCU win the Rose Bowl while eating black eyed peas and corn bread. We should be set for good luck in 2011! (Not that we'll need it b/c 2010 was freaking amazing and I know 2011 will be even better) Sunday was started with good intentions, but then we got lazy together. Dane set his alarm so he could get up and get ready to go to church with me, but then he hit snooze and I followed suit and got lazy, too. So instead of church together, we spent our morning laying around the house together. I would feel more guilty about it, but I so rarely get lazy time with Daneish, I'm fine with taking it when I can get it! Then I got my butt into gear and finally made myself useful. I put together our chili for dinner so it could simmer for a couple hours and packed away all the Christmas decorations. I had also planned to clean the house and do a bunch of ironing, but the streaming Netflix on our new Blu-ray player was calling my name, so I wasted a couple hours with that. Anyway, Daneish spent his weekend being super helpful and it really meant a lot to me. I do a lot around here when he's in school, so it really meant a lot that he was so helpful when he was available. He did the dishes every chance he got and was great about walking Eddie, too. We spent a bunch of time talking about wedding music, tuxedos, and honeymoon options. So it was a great weekend together. It actually felt like a vacation, which seems silly because we were A) home and B) actually doing lots of chores, etc. But if this weekend was this great, I can't imagine how awesome a real vacation (ie our honeymoon) is going to be!
January is going to be a super tough month for both of us b/c of our work and school requirements, but I think we're going to get through it just fine. We'll be eating hot dogs and ramen, but we'll make it through. AND with how much I'll be working, hot dogs and ramen are the only meals I'll have the time to cook anyway. So happy 2011, everyone! I hope your weekend was as great as mine! And I hope the rest of your January is better than mine will be! Mazel!

I don't get it

As a blonde, there are many things I don't understand. Here are the ones that confuse/bother me the most:

Charmin Extra Strong: HOW HARD ARE YOU PEOPLE WIPING YOUR ASSES? I have never had this thought after doing my business: "Oh no! Pieces left behind! If only they made stronger toilet paper to accommodate my super human butt wiping strength!" It's a sensitive area people, be gentle! And it's not going to run away, it's your own stationary ass, you don't need to trap it. Simply clean up and move on. Calm down before you go there. I don't get it.

McDonald's McRib Sandwich: um... gross. For one thing, I'm never eating "rib meat" from McDonald's. But more importantly, why is it shaped like an actual rack of ribs? Most people are aware that a rack of ribs includes bones between the rib meat. So is McDonald's trying to simulate bones but instead of using actual bones, it's processed "rib meat"? That's horrifying. What would possibly posses someone to eat such a wretched piece of OBVIOUSLY fake food? I mean let's all be honest here, ALL of the food at McDonald's is fake, but at least it's shaped realistically like the real deal. McRib isn't something I'd touch with a ten foot pole. Fake meat shaped like bones. I don't get it.

Inappropriate suggestions for wedding registries: We have a few registries at different stores and one of them comes with suggestions about what to put on your registry. Great, right? Except some of them are completely inappropriate! A few of them are for lady shavers. Like I'm going to put that on my registry and say to every guest who looks at it "Hi wedding guest! Want to buy us this trimmer so I can keep up my lady bits?" Um... no thanks. WHO would add that to their registry? I feel uncomfortable enough adding an electric toothbrush to our registry! I need a new electric toothbrush and it's a totally normal thing, but it just feels too personal for a registry! Same goes for sheets! (We are, in fact, registering for sheets and an electric toothbrush, but it still feels weird). What employee thought that was a good suggestion? It's awkward! I don't get it.

Panda Express and their fork stinginess: Every couple of weeks Dane and I have Panda Express as our Friday night dinner "out". I pick it up on my way home from work. I get 2 3-item meals (don't judge how much I eat, I eat the leftovers the next day, jerks). Sometimes I go through the drive-thru, sometimes I go in an order at the counter. But it's always 2 meals. And every time they give me 1 or NO fork(s)! Do I look like I'm going to eat both meals? Come on! And when they don't give me any forks: am I supposed to eat both meals with my hands? The Pandas in AZ are pros at the fork distribution. They give you two napkins and a fork for every meal. Perfection. They're good at the fortune cookie hand out too. Not here. These rookies are new in town and it shows. Just hand out the number of forks equal to the number of meals I got. Why is this so difficult for them? I don't get it.

Dorothy Lynch salad dressing: For everyone who doesn't live in Nebraska or Iowa, Dorothy Lynch dressing is this hugely popular dressing that you can only find in the Midwest. Everyone here is obsessed with it. They talk about it like you're stupid for not knowing what is it and they're all shocked that it's not a national product. Um... here's the thing: it IS a national product. Except everywhere else, we just call it French dressing. So get off your Midwestern high horse and relax. We've all had it before but aren't obsessed with it because French dressing sucks. Stop acting like it's such a big deal, no one cares. I don't get it.

Husker football: The is by far the most annoying part of living in Nebraska. I don't mind the cold and I don't mind the snow, but the obsession with the local college football team makes me want to punch babies. It's a college football team. They're in the Holiday Bowl against Washington. I don't want to ruin the ending for you, but Nebraska's going to win. Get a hobby. Might I suggest building a Macy's or Nordstrom? Because I would much rather hear about those things than your silly football team. Maybe if they were a professional team, I'd care. But they're not, so I don't. Stop acting like Husker football is a religion. I'm Presbyterian, not Huskerian. I don't get it.

How Bravo thinks this new sham of a show The Fashion Show is somehow going to make up for their lack of Project Runway: Um... no. I don't know these people, I don't care about their designs, and I'd like to know why Iman is so angry all the time. You had the perfect fashion design show and you blew it. Don't try to make up for it now with Isaac Mizrahi. But you're lucky, this week's episode with the Housewives may have just saved you. But only because you got Dina from NJ. Don't think this success of me watching is going to continue for much longer. Why would you ever get rid of Project Runway?! I don't get it.

Those commercials for medical assistant schools: They always go something like this: "I used to hate my job, but then after a few short months at this craptacular school, I have a great job where I work alongside doctors!" Ok let's start off at the beginning on this one: I feel there are very few careers worth doing that take "only a few short months" of school to be prepare for. But that's not even the big picture here. The big picture is how we're supposed to believe that working alongside doctors is some kind of dream come true. Now if you happen to have a career that coincidentally is near where doctors work, (ie R.N.) then good for you. Your job is legit. But whatever it is that these "few short months" careers entail, I can assure you that the treat of working alongside a doctor is not going to make up for it. Because where is the prize in working alongside a doctor? You know who's going to be a doctor? Dane. You know who I would never want to work alongside? Dane. Clearly, I'm a pretty big fan of Daneish. In our at-home, non-work related lives. Dane wouldn't want to work alongside me and vice versa. I'm annoying and fake at work. Dane will be a stubborn, egotistical asshole at work. I pity the people who will have to work with him. At least in our relationship, I can tell him to shut the hell up and we can bicker and go back to having fun together. You can't do that at work. Especially if your coworker is a doctor and you went to school "for a few short months". Just sayin', that confrontation is not going to go your way or end in your favor. I don't care if this one makes me sound like an bitch with a bachelors degree. This bitch worked hard for that degree. Let's talk about people who are too lazy to go to real college. I don't get it.

People who "don't really watch tv": um... why the hell not? People who say crap like that are usually the most annoying people ever. And watching the Real Housewives or The Sing-Off never hurt anyone! So stop being pretentious and watch some freaking tv. Maybe it'll help remove that stick from your ass. And while you're at it, stop trying to talk to me about music like it matters. My favorite kind on music? Christmas music. So stop acting all hipster on me and leave me alone. Watch some Bravo and then we'll talk.  But not watching tv? I don't get it.

Why wine is so expensive: it's old grapes, right? They take grapes and smash them and then let them go bad while they sit in old barrels. Why does this gross process allow them to charge so much for a bottle of the fermented smashed grapes? I will admit, it's clearly delicious, so that adds some cost to the yummy, but where does the rest of the price come into play? Stop making me poor just so I can enjoy a glass of wine after a long day of dealing with the general public! Why must wine be so out of my budget? I don't get it.

Why iPhone users are such assholes. There's no story behind this one because everyone is fully aware of it. If you have an iPhone, you're probably an asshole. Congrats on being the friend that nobody likes. I don't care about all of the things your phone can do that my blackberry can't. I don't use my blackberry to its full capacity as it is, I don't need to add an annoying touch screen and an elitist attitude to become an iPhone user.  So suck it. If it's so simple and user-friendly, why are you such an asshole? I don't get it.

Alright folks, that's all I have for now. We all know there are millions of other things I don't get. These are simply the ones that stand out to me right now. Peace out from Omaha! And just in case I don't get the chance to blog before the holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (btw, eff you in advance to everyone who wishes me a "Happy New Year's". You're a grammatical idiot and I hate you)

Our Christmas Letter

If we were one of those couples that sent out a Christmas letter to everyone we know, this is what this years would say. I will preface this with a reminder that we are NOT, I repeat: NOT one of those couples who send out a Christmas letter. For one thing, I'm not paying for stamps to update people on our lives. If you deserve/want to know, you'll call me and we'll talk because we're close personal friends. But the most important reason why we don't send out a Christmas letter is because we're not fucking annoying. I'm sorry, I know I don't usually blog that kind of language, but I felt it was necessary in this instance to properly convey my intense distaste for Christmas letters. Now don't get me wrong: I LOVE reading other people's Christmas letters. They're usually either super boring or super hilarious. The best of these is when they're not intentionally hilarious. A few years ago, a distant relative of ours sent out the most depressing Christmas letter I've ever seen. It included events in the year such as multiple family member deaths, the onset of blindness due to an illness, and the loss of a job. Um... maybe this was a good year to skip the Christmas letter. Because I just read it and was forced to kill myself because of the deep depression that came over me. Also, you're blind and unemployed, maybe save the money you spent on stamps to pay for dinner. Just sayin'... Ok, so here's our hypothetical Christmas letter. And I'm only doing this because 2010 has been such a cool year:

Well folks, 2010 has been a big year full of major changes for us!
The beginning of the year had us in Arizona, both working full time and savings our pennies for what we knew would be a lot of changes in the coming year. Dane was living in Tempe and working as an emergency room scribe at a couple different Valley hospitals. I was living with my parents in Paradise Valley and working as an assistant manager at Massage Envy while also nannying for a fantastic family who I now miss immensely!
April brought my birthday and not a whole lot else. Go 23!
May brought the first big change for us: Dane proposed! He put a lot of time and effort into planning a romantic evening for us and both impressed and surprised me. I have yet to come up with an abridged version of the proposal story but the general overview includes Trader Vic's for dinner, a gorgeous room at the Hotel Valley Ho, and a big box of every single tangible piece of our four year relationship. The ring is absolutely gorgeous and I revel in getting compliments on it quite regularly. (Many of these may be due to the fact that I unnecessarily flash it as much as possible. Any movement that CAN be done with my hand palm-down, IS done with my hand palm-down. I can't help it, my ring is gorgeous and I'm a slut for showing it off).
July brought our 4th date-i-versary (what I call our anniversary b/c we're not married so it's not really an anniversary) and our biggest change yet: we moved to Omaha, NE! (And Dane turned 23!)
August brought the start of medical school for Dane and he's been doing sensationally! His grades are very impressive and he's doing very well with the heavy work load. I am honestly so impressed with his work ethic. I always knew he was a good student, but his dedication to this is like he was born to be a med student.
We don't get to spend a whole lot of time together because his evenings and weekends are usually filled with studying, but we have dinner together most nights and sometimes get the chance to watch a football game together on the weekends.
September brought the start of my job! I hadn't looked much before we moved, so I feel especially blessed that I was only unemployed for a month! I spend my days at work and am enjoying learning more about the banking industry, but mostly I love having a place to get up and go to every day. (And yes, I'm specifically NOT mentioning where I work, because I would like to remain employed. Methinks some of the big wigs might not love my pointless blog mentioning their Fortune 500 company.) I spend my nights making dinners, watching tv, and drinking pinot noir. My partners in crime are Eddie, our dog and Heidi, our cat (but they don't get any wine, they're underage). My weekends are filled with either more work or laundry, cleaning, and errand running. Luckily work is right by a Target and a grocery store, so I can run mandatory errands on my lunch break or on my way home. My mom came to visit at the end of September and it was very much needed for me. It was nice to have a familiar face around Omaha and a buddy to go shopping with :)
October was full of training for me and lots of school work for Dane. I went to Oregon the first weekend of the month for my gram's birthday. It was great to see my extended family and get a weekend away from the stresses of work here in Omaha. The trip was super fun but too short! Dane and I didn't do anything for Halloween because he had a test the following day, so we celebrated by having an awkward dinner of latkes.
November brought Dane's first trip home since the move and he was very excited! He had a great few days home and I had a great few days with the house to myself. Don't get me wrong, I love Daneish, but I also love my alone time. Eddie and I went down to Kansas City for Thanksgiving to spend it with my MOH (for those of you not up on wedding abbreviations, that's Maid of Honor) Sam and her parents. It was a quick 24 hour trip so I could get back for work on Friday, but we both had a blast. Eddie loved getting attention from new people and I loved getting to be around my Midwestern family again. The downer to this trip was the speeding ticket I got in Iowa on the drive home. Yes, I got a speeding ticket ON Thanksgiving. Thanks to this, I will now NEVER spend money in Iowa. Congratulations Iowa! I have a shopping problem and you just screwed yourself out of it. Enjoy the speeding fine.
December has been good to us thus far. The Christmas spirit has hit me hard this year so I'm doing everything I can to spread Christmas cheer. I've roped some coworkers into adopting a senior citizen in need and am looking forward to delivering gifts to her! Another awesome perk of Christmastime is that my salon supports the Omaha Food Bank, so my canned food donation got me a free paraffin dip for my hands today! Sweet! I got rid of some food that we were probably never going to eat AND got to feel extra pampered! Christmas is absolutely my favorite time of year, so I've decorated our apartment with lots of twinkle lights and am probably annoying Daneish with my holiday mugs and tree-scented candles. I'm actually hoping for a big snow so I can have a white Christmas. (Well, Christmas week b/c I'll be in AZ on Christmas day). Dane is excitedly getting through the next couple of weeks of school before he gets to go home to AZ. I don't get to go home for very long, but my few days there will be great! We'll be taking our engagement pictures, having our food and cake tastings for the reception, and best of all: MY FIRST WEDDING DRESS FITTING!! I am beyond excited to see my dress and get to play with my shoes, etc. We're also going to make this the first Christmas we actually spend together. We usually don't cross paths on Christmas until nighttime, but we're going to try to combine things a little more this year, mostly because we're engaged and it's weird if we don't. It's just tough because we both love our own family celebrations and are not great at being flexible to fit in other events. Also, our families both live in the Valley, so we have a lot of stops to make for the holidays. But we're going to work on it because next year we'll be married and then it'll be REALLY weird if we don't spend Christmas together. We'll be back in Omaha for the New Year but haven't yet figured out how we'll celebrate. Probably our usual: sweats on the couch with pizza, watch the ball drop on tv, then bedtime. New Years Eve isn't really our holiday, but maybe we'll be more exciting this year. We'll see!
2010 has been a great year for us and I'm sure 2011 will be even better. We with you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Feel free to come visit us any time you'd like! If you can handle the cold and snow, we'd love to have you!

Don't worry, we're alive

Well, the last few weeks have been super busy, hence no blog post. But I have a few minutes before bed, so here's a mini-update! I've finished training at work, so am a full-fledged employee now, with sales goals and everything! It's tough because I don't have an office of my own, but I'm determined to make the best of it and succeed anyway! I really like how work is going, everyone is super helpful and I'm just really excited to work for such a great company where I can really start a legit career. So that's work.
And now life: I've been spending my weekends as usual: laundry, cleaning, running errands, and car shenanigans! I have become a pro at checking the air in tires, taking a car in to get a flat fixed, adding antifreeze, adding wiper fluid, and replacing wiper blades! I'm feeling pretty proud of how much I've embraced the "manly" jobs that have now fallen to me. I don't love it, but I can do it. And I like being able to handle things like that without having to ask for help. I mean, I still sometimes play the helpless blonde card, but only when absolutely necessary :)
As for today (Veterans Day/Founders Day), I've been super productive and I'm really proud of myself. Here was my day:
Got up at 7, took Eddie for a walk and made Dane's lunch. Worked out, added fluids to my car and replaced the wiper blades (this took a while and I did it wrong a couple times, but I got it figured out! I'm uber proud!) Had breakfast, cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed the whole apartment, cleaned the litter box, and dealt with the dishes sitting in the sink. Showered and got ready for the day, had lunch, organized my closet, and left for my errands! Dealt with a return at the hardware store (NOT an easy task, the employee who was "helping" me was barely competent), used the vacuum at the car wash to vacuum my car, bought the spring form pan I needed from Target, and went to Hallmark to look at wedding invitations! Here's how Momza and I did it: we both went to our local Hallmarks and looked at the same invitation books together, over the phone! We found one we really like, so now I just have to talk Dane into agreeing with us :) Then I went to the grocery store, came back home and got ready for my lovely evening. I recorded one of those creepy recordable books from Hallmark for my nephew (sorry for ruining the surprise, Miche), made a yummy mahi mahi dinner (less yummy for Daneish, his piece had lots of bones. Not my fault: I bought boneless fish!!), hemmed some pants for a coworker who was being ghetto fab with staples in her pants, did my nails in an awesome red for fall: Essie's "A-list", and (now) blogged! (AND b/c today was a holiday, I got paid for all of this!!) All of these fabulous evening activities have been accompanied by a (larger than usual) glass of freaking amazing pinot noir. Mirassou, will you marry me? Because I can't quit you. Today at the store I bought a new bottle I've never tried before: Lindemans (also pinot noir, I'm not fixing it because it's not broke). We'll bust open the new bottle this weekend and I'll review it later. It's from Autralia, so it's probs awesome. And I hope it comes with a sexy accent. Or gives me a sexy accent when I drink it. However, I guess any wine could give you a sexy accent if you drink enough of it. Well, you'd think it was sexy, all the sober people around would probably just want you to shut the hell up.
Ok kids, that's all for now. Time for bed because I've gots to get up early to go work my booty off and bring home the bacon! P.S. It's supposed to snow on Saturday. I hate everything. Until then, cold/rainy. But never fear, I have my houndstooth rain boots and umbrella (yes, they're BOTH houndstooth) ready to go! AND tomorrow is a jeans day at work, aka BEST DAY EVER. AND we get a free lunch b/c out sales were awesome a couple weeks ago. YESSSSSSSSSS

EAT THIS

I made the most awesome chili in the history of chili. And it's super easy so you should make it, too! Here is my recipe!
Ingredients:

• Carroll Shelby's Chili Kit (It's in a little brown box in the grocery store and it makes chili super easy, so you should get it because it'll save you tons of time and money instead of measuring out your own spices)
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 onions (1 for the chili, one for you to chop up to put on top of each bowl!)
• 2 10oz. cans RO*TEL diced tomatoes and green chilies (it all comes together in 1 can, kids)
• 1 4oz. can green chilies (mild)
• 3 15oz. cans of beans (this is where you get to have fun: pick your faves! My fam varies on our beans of choice for chili, but my favorites are dark red kidney beans, white kidney beans [aka Cannellini], and either pinto or chili beans. I get 1 can of each)
• a smidge of shredded cheddar cheese to put on top of each bowl of chili!
• 1 glass of wine, to be enjoyed while cooking
• 1 beer, to be enjoyed while eating your final product :)

Directions:

• In a skillet, brown the ground beef until just done. (If you're going to be doing this in a crock pot for an extended period of time (more than a couple hours) brown it until still pretty rare, it'll cook more when it's chili!)
• While the hamburger is cooking, chop the bell pepper and onion. How small you chop it will depend on your preferences and how long you plan on cooking it. If it's going to cook in a crock pot all day, they cook down to smaller pieces, so cut bigger chunks so they have room to shrink.
• Drain the grease from the ground beef into your handy dandy grease jar (mine lives in the freezer b/c grease is gross and I am less grossed out by it if it's frozen into a solid form)
• Toss the ground beef, bell pepper, and onion into your big pot. Add the beans (don't drain them! add the liquid too!), tomatoes and green chilies (again, don't drain!), green chilies (don't even think about draining this can), and large spice bag.
• If you're Daneish or cooking for Daneish, add the entire cayene packet. If you're a wimp, don't add this packet. 
• If you're going to be letting this cook for a while, I recommend adding the masa packet because it gets thin when it cooks for hours. It's super easy, just mix with masa packet with 1/3 cup water and toss it in the pot!
• Now just stir it all together (make sure you stir well, the spices have a tendency to clump) and let it cook on a low heat for as long as you can wait until you simply must devour it!!

Clearly, I make my chili in my crock pot (shout out to Dane's stepmom, Tracy for the crock pot house warming gift!! Thanks for making my life easier!!) and let it cook all day. I love it because I can throw it all together in the morning before work and when I get home at night, dinner is ready! This is how I would recommend making your chili, simply because it's so easy, but you can do it on the stove in a couple hours, too! Of course, you don't actually NEED a couple hours to make it on the stove, it just tastes better when it has time to soak up the yummy spices. And you'll definitely need to let it simmer for a while if you add the masa to thicken it, it'll taste grainy if the masa doesn't cook enough. And that's it! I add chopped onions and shredded cheese to mine when I eat it and it's SO GOOD!! I'm very happy with how my latest batch turned out today! It was plenty hot for Daneish's tastes and just generally yummy! However, I apparently need to teach Daneish the crock pot rule. If he'd been raised in my family (let's all be glad he wasn't though, because that'd be weird when we go to apply for a marriage license) he would know that if there is something cooking in a crock pot, every time you go into the kitchen, you stir it, scraping all the sides so it doesn't stick. I definitely had chili stuck to the sides of my crock pot tonight because SOMEBODY didn't stir the chili while he was home today. But he's had a long day today, so I'm willing to give him a break and teach him the crock pot rule. But if this happens again, he'd better watch his back!

Well, you already know tonight's menu, so I'll fill you in on last night's menu (salmon, wild rice, and green beans) and tomorrow's menu (either leftover chili or chipotle, it's up to Daneish)

Best part of the week so far: meeting a big wig of my region at work. However, he put quite a conundrum in my noggin. I had always planned on stopping working as soon as we can afford for me to so that I can be at home to raise our future children. But after hearing him speak today, I'm really inspired and kind of excited by the idea of being able to have a big career of my own. But this really adds a lot more things for me to think about, like if the guilt of being a working mom would be too much for me to handle, if we'll even be able to find a daycare that we trust enough to watch our genetically superior children (obviously our kids will be genetically superior, have you SEEN the two of us?), and if Dane and I could keep any semblance of a real relationship if we're both working our butts off at the same time to get to where we want to be in our respective careers. So this is definitely weighing on my mind right now and I'm trying to figure out how I really feel about it. I know Dane will support me either way, but he'd probably actually prefer that I keep working as long as possible because it'll put us in a better financial position as well as keep me occupied :) The good part is that we don't need to make any kind of a decision for many years! There won't be any little kiddies for at least 5 years and even though we won't be able to afford to live on Dane's residency income, so I'll still be working for a while after kiddies anyway! So that's where my mind is right now, but I probably won't come to any resolution until we have the time to sit down and really look at all our options. And I'm sure our decision will change every time a new opportunity at work comes along, so we'll just have to wait and see! It would be pretty cool to be a big wig at work though... :)

What I'm most looking forward to: getting our apartment cleaned up this weekend! I've been busy with training all week, so things have kind of piled up. I can't wait to get it all cleaned and organized again!

Best blessing in disguise this week: my car battery dying yesterday! Not only did 2 ridiculously good looking firemen jump my car, but I got some down time by myself (very rare!!) while Sears was replacing it to wander around Target and finish our registry. The scanny gun thing was super fun and I got our registry all rounded out! We still need to add bedding and towels, etc. but we'll have to do that together! And everything else is done, so feel free to buy us stuff!! Everyone knows I'm really only marrying Dane so I can get new knives and pots and pans!

Ok that's all for tonight, it's time to paint my nails in preparation for my first day at my real job tomorrow! Feel free to make requests for any blog post topics you'd like to hear my opinion on! As you all know, I have many opinions! Happy upcoming weekend, everyone!

There! I fixed football. DONE.

Ok so I usually don't give much of a crap about sports, but my intake has greatly increased since moving in with Daneish. I now watch quite a bit of SportsCenter and many a professional game. Lately this has meant football and baseball. And from watching football this weekend, I have come to realize that something must be done. If you've heard anything about football recently, you know about the helmet to helmet hits that have occurred as of late. Now I'm not going to bother to do any further research about this topic because I'm done with school and it's my blog so I don't have to. But I think we can all agree that these intentional hits are increasing in both number and severity as of late. We'll get to my simple solution later, first let's look at the ridiculous arguments coming from both the players and the commentators on ESPN.
The most irritating to me is the "better to be hit too high than too low" comment. This suggests that your knees are so fragile that a single hit there can be completely crippling, so it's better to be hit higher. Um... I'm not sure if you've heard of Mike Utley*. Utley is the former Detroit Lions player who was forced to retire in his 3rd year in the NFL (1991) after he suffered an extreme hit that resulted in paralysis from the chest down. That's right, paralyzed. As in can't walk. As in is lucky to have use of his arms. [Please also take the time to do some internet searches on Eric LeGrand**. He's a Rutgers junior who suffered a spinal cord injury on Saturday that looks like it's going to end in paralysis from the neck down. He currently has no movement below his neck, but it's too early to have a more final diagnosis. This injury didn't result from a helmet to helmet hit, but it came from tackle he was making when he lead with his head. Clearly this was an accidental injury, there was a big crowd of players around so his hit was difficult to make. But it'a prime example of how a single hit to the head can have major repercussions for a long time to come.] But you're right ESPN commentators, getting hit in the knees is much better. Because knee replacements are pretty popular now, but vertebrae replacements are going to be AWESOME! Yes, a single hit in the knees can be career-ending and you will probably only suffer a concussion from a hit in the head. But there's also such a thing as too many concussions and there's also a hell of a chance that a single hit in the head will not only be career-ending, but also walk-ending, and quite possibly life-ending. So your knee argument is garbage and you should be embarrassed for sharing it on tv.
Another popular idea on ESPN today was that the National Football League facilitated the popularity of helmet to helmet hits because all of their promotional video and highlights feature the hardest of hits. I agree, they do sensationalize the hard hits. But there is a big difference between big tackles and getting another guys helmet thrown into your own. I think that all football players go into that job knowing that they're most definitely going to get hurt and may get hurt so badly that they are forced to stop playing football before they want to. Everyone knows that there are no old men in football (except Brett Favre, but we're all dying for him to retire for real. Move along Brett, your Wranglers await you. Real. Comfortable. Jeans.) because you simply can't play such a physical sport for a long time. Your body can't do it. But no football players enters the league with the idea that they have to be prepared for an illegal hit because the league facilitated it. Hard hits are to be expected, illegal hits are not. So the NFL can have all the highlights of big tackles they want, as long as they're all legal hits that encourage good sportsmanship.
The least convincing argument I heard today was that linemen can't stop their momentum or can't help making a head to head hit because they're moving so fast with so much momentum. Wait... these are professional athletes, right? It's their entire job to make tackles, right? And they practice this job from childhood with the same rules they are expected to follow in the NFL, right? So they've had years of practice doing this one job and we're supposed to believe that they aren't good enough at it to have a target area? Baseball pitchers have a strike zone, why don't football tackles have to adhere to a similar standard? Oh that's right, they should have to. So take your can't help it excuse elsewhere because it's not helping these injured players walk again.
AND here's my idea for punishment for offending players: yes they should be fined. But fines aren't enough for these guys who make millions. They need to be suspended. And these need to be suspensions that make an example of the offenders. Here's my creative idea of how these suspensions should work: minimum of 1 game suspension. Period. And if the guy they hit is injured? The offending player is suspended for the equal amount of games that his victim is out while recovering. And if the injury is career-ending? The regular football season is 16 games, so the offending player should be suspended for 8 games. The other guy will never play again, you can sit out half a season to have some time to think about what an asshole you are.
There! I fixed football. DONE.

*Ok, I did google that to figure out his actual name. So I guess I did some research...
My google? "Detroit Lions paralysis"
**I would not recommend ESPN's video of the hit. It's tough to watch and won't improve your mood. Stick to the print articles, no videos.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood OR Boyz n the Hood

Here's a little more about our neighborhood and living situation here in Omaha. It's mildly ridiculous. First off: we live in the hood. There's pretty much an invisible line half way down our street separating the nice houses up the street from the sketchy houses down the street. And there's a scattering of a few sketchy houses on the nice house side and a few nice houses on the sketchy house side. Our building is one of the nice houses on the sketchy house side. Our neighbor on the right is a dumpy house and our neighbor on the left is a dumpy apartment complex with a parking lot filled with dumpy pimpmobiles. It's a lovely experience. The parking lot is behind our building and comfortably holds 4 cars. So we squeeze 10 in. This caused Dane a ton of stress but we've all kind of come up with our assigned spots, so it's all worked out now. Except when the douche bags who park on the right start shifting to the left and squishing us left side parkers towards the wall. Screw those right side parkers. Also, Daneish and I have to double park each other so we can actually park in the lot and off the street. Whatevs.
Now let's get to the good stuff, aka who lives in our building! We live in a small building, only 6 units total (3 stories, 2 apartments on each floor). We like it because almost everyone is a grad student like Daneish, so they're quiet and keep similar hours. Perfect. Except that many of our neighbors are assholes! Let's do the rundown of the building: We live in the basement with Heidi and Eddie. Across from us is Doug. I have yet to meet Doug b/c he's the newest neighbor. He gets lots of packages delivered but is rarely home (hence why I haven't met him despite our front doors being 4 feet apart). He also had Cox Business come by and do some work, so in my own melodrama that I created for him, he has a wife and family elsewhere with a fake job that they know about, but his real job is housed in his apartment here and when he comes here, they think he's on business trips. Clearly, Doug is an illegal arms dealer or in the mob. But Doug is quiet and voluntarily parks on the street, thus leaving an open spot in the lot for the other tenants, so he's ok in my book. Above us are 2 med students, Erik and Tim. They're super great. They keep the same hours as Dane, Tim plays on his intramural ultimate frisbee team, and they gave us cookies a couple weeks ago. They are the winners for my favorite neighbors. They're also fairly quiet, very nice, and Tim tolerated me drunkenly talking his ear off at a med school party before the semester started. Anyone who can put up with that automatically wins my respect. Now the next 2 groups of tenants run together in my head, I can't tell them apart. It's the apartment across from Erik/Tim's and the one above that one. They both have fairly unattractive female tenants and they all drive 4 door sedans, so they're all the same in my head. They are also the worst offenders at shifting over in the parking lot so we get squished. I generally dislike them, based only on their parking issues and unattractiveness. Which brings us to the last apartment in the building, the one two floors above us. It is inhabited by a couple, the wife in is law school and the husband is a loser. Dane refers to him as a "Gomer" (as in Gomer Pyle) and is incredibly distracted by the large gap in his front teeth. I hate them for many reasons. These reasons are: 1. They ALWAYS leave their clothes in the communal washing machines/dryers for DAYS. It is super irritating and really drives me up a wall. 2. They park next to us and take up more space than they should. 3. They're weird runners. I'm all for people who work out and I know running is a popular sport that involves all kinds of mental highs, etc. that I know nothing about. But these people are weird, even for runners. 4. They are GROSS. I saw a Subway bag (full of big food wrappers, meaning to me that there was still leftover food in it) sitting in their car for over a month. DISGUSTING. 5. He's a LIAR. During our first week here, we suddenly started having water leak down from the ceiling in our bathroom. We also heard water running somewhere else in the building. I ran up to the second floor to see if they were running water, etc. There was no answer but I heard the running water sound stop. Dane went up to the third floor to see if they knew anything about the apartment between us (we didn't know at the time, but the 2nd floor apt was empty at the time). When Dane explained to Gomer why we were asking, he was like "oh, water's leaking? In the bathroom? I don't know anything about it." Hey Gomer, Dane hadn't mentioned the bathroom, just water leaking. We found out later from the maintenance people that Gomer had overflowed his bathtub and it wasn't the first time he'd done it. Now I understand overflowing a bathtub, I've done it before. BUT ONLY ONCE. Apparently this is a regular thing for Gomer. Ugh. And idiot AND a liar. So that's our awesome pack of neighbors. No BFFs, but generally tolerable.
Our apartment came with a lot of issues. When we moved in, we noticed a damp spot on the carpet in our bedroom and assumed they had just cleaned the carpet there because there were some stains there too. We found out the next morning when the spot was bigger and wetter that it was actually the A/C unit leaking water. It was a several week process to actually get the leaking stopped and then followed many visits to repair the closet the A/C thing is in as well as remove the subsequent mold. There were also another couple dozen other things that needed fixing/replacing when we moved in. While I've lived in other apartments before so am used to places that need work upon arrival, this place and it's long list of needs really upset me. For a few days, I'd always seem to find something new that needed fixing at night time and it was just enough to set me off to crying and bitching about the hell-hole we lived in. So I think Dane was pretty worried about me being able to hack it here for a while, but I've recovered pretty nicely! It took a few nasty e-mails to the management company and some google-ing about renters rights, but it's livable now! Now that it's functional, I like our apartment. The walls are made of paper so we hear our neighbors, but they're generally quiet so it's not bad. And now we can laugh about living in a real-life version of the movie Duplex.
Dane and I have a good routine going so our little apartment works for us! Dane is in charge on garbage, so he takes it out when it gets full. I do... everything else. This is laundry, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, errand running, big errand stuff like car repairs, and small handyman work around here. I have a pretty good schedule going to keep everything running, my favorite of which being laundry weekends. I try to always do it on a weekend morning, before the other neighbors get up. Doing our laundry has drawn to my attention the extreme collection of boxers and undershirts that Dane has acquired. This kid has 2 (count them, TWO) pairs of jeans TOTAL and like 40 pairs of boxers. I don't know if he was stocking up in case he was in charge of his own laundry or what, but it's ridiculous. There is no space for me to put his clean ones away and it drives me nuts. BUT our apartment is furnished and usually in pretty good shape, so we're happy here!

Our big plans for tonight: dinner at home while we register at Target for the wedding. We plan to hook Dane's computer up to the tv so we can register on the bigger screen. That's a pretty hot Sunday night date!

My biggest happy moment of the week: randomly discovering while out shopping that something I was planning on getting for my bridesmaids was on SALE!! Then a SUPER helpful salesgirl (shout out to Becky!) called a couple different locations for me to secure the SEVEN items that I needed. Super exciting!! Hooray sale and helpful people!

Thing I'm most looking forward to in the upcoming week: More training at work (I love learning how to do the job I was actually hired for!) and another babysitting job on Saturday. The family I babysit for here is cute and the kids are pretty well-behaved, so I enjoy it. AND I like getting the extra cash (it goes right into the wedding savings jar)!!

There's this week's update, kids! If I get some free time this week, I'll post some more!

True Life: I live in Omaha, NE

DISCLAIMER: This post is not funny. It's just my life. If you're here looking for the usual Emily hilarity, wait for another post, this one is not for you. If you're here looking for updates on our lives, read on!

People have been wanting to know what life is like for Dane and me, so here it is! Here's a smidge of a day in the life of us:
6/6:30am (depending on how much I have to do before work): Eddie wakes me up for his morning walk. This involves him coming into our bedroom, shaking so his collar makes jingly noises, then sitting on the floor by my side of the bed and whining. This is the "wake up, I have to pee" signal. I get up, take Eddie for his morning walk, feed him, say hi to Heidi, and take a shower.
7am: Dane's alarm goes off and I get out of the shower so he can get ready for school. He makes himself a quick breakfast and then eats it... IN THE SHOWER. I've always known that Dane likes to shower and would spend a lot of time there if he could, but his level of multi-tasking is a little extreme. However, it works for him, so who am I to complain? While he gets ready for school, I prep that night's dinner, make us lunches, or do some quick cleaning, etc. around the apartment.
7:45am: Dane leaves to get to school by 8 and I snag the bathroom again to finish getting ready for work. I get dressed, do my hair and makeup, and make sure the bedroom doors are closed to Eddie doesn't have a urine heyday in them.
8:30am: I leave for work and enjoy my 20 minute commute down to Bellevue, NE. It's all highway and I'm leaving Omaha, so am never stuck in heavy traffic. This is also where I have seen several road-killed raccoons lately. It's the little things people, the little things... Once I get to work, I make deposits and withdrawals, cash checks, sell cashiers checks, and make my daily to do list. This list includes what I'm going to make for dinner, what errands I need to run on the way home, and what light cleaning, etc. I'm going to do that night. I love these lists, but rarely actually look at them after I leave work.
12pm: Dane's lunch hour! He usually comes home to eat and also lets Eddie out for his afternoon walk, but sometimes he has extra classes during lunch. On these days, I race home from work, toss Eddie out the front door, grab some food and eat it in the car on my way back to work. This only happens a couple days a week, MAX so it's not much of an inconvenience for me. AND it makes sure that I'm not stuck with the super late lunch hour at work :)
3pm: The time Dane is usually done with school on Tuesday and Thursdays. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are later because he has anatomy lab, so it's usually 5ish. He comes straight home and starts studying.
6pm: I get off work and head home to make dinner!
6:30pm: I make dinner, tidy up, load the dishwasher, and settle into my nightly sweatpants. (Dane is still studying while all of this ensues).
7ish pm: We eat dinner. Lately we've been eating on the couch while we watch whatever is on ESPN at the time, but I'm going to try to make our dining room table more inviting so we can actually sit down together and have a real conversation. One of us takes Eddie out after dinner for his evening walk and Dane goes back to studying.
Primetime: I watch whatever gems Bravo has to offer that evening with Eddie on my left, Heidi on my right, and my computer on my lap. The "kids" (aka Eddie and Heidi) are getting along very well now. They've learned to co-exist by simply staying on their own sides of the couch and generally leaving each other alone. (Dane continues to study while I veg out and turn my brain off entirely).
11pm: Dane calls it a night on studying and goes to bed. I wrap up my uber important facebook stalking/online shopping and do the same. However, my time-management skills aren't fully developed and I sometimes make this a 12-1am bedtime or have to get up at 5:30 to get everything on my list completed.

We live in a super cute two bedroom apartment about 3 blocks from Creighton. It needed about a million repairs when we first moved in and it took many a week to get it all back to where it needed to be, but I love it now. However, apparently no one in Nebraska has belongings because there is NO storage space here! Our kitchen has literally HALF of a lower cabinet for storage. So our cutting boards have a home! As for the rest of the food/kitchen supplies, I had to use my ghetto college storage cube thing as a pantry. And all of the closets are packed to the brim, but we got all of our stuff in!
Clearly, Dane studies all the time, but we're both doing well. I usually see him at dinner (except for the nights that he eats in his office while he studies) and on the weekends he is sometimes able to make room for football study breaks. I know people have been worried about us fighting and not getting along now that we share the same abode, but we see each other so little, we don't have anything to fight about! And I honestly am really happy to get to be here to take care of Dane and make sure that his life runs as smoothly as possible while he's so busy. It's taken a while to get used to him looking like a zombie all the time, but with all of the work he's doing, it's to be expected.
We've changed as a couple, but it's been a good change. It's less about us each as individuals and more about working together towards a common goal. We really enjoy the time we do get to spend together and even if we do something as simple as watching a football game, it's nice to be able to take that smidgen of time to do it together.
I found a church here that I really like, so I'm becoming a member this Sunday! It reminds me a lot of our church in AZ and I found myself looking forward to Sunday mornings, so decided it's probably worth joining. I'm hoping to do a dual-membership so that I don't have to re-join our AZ church when we move back. But I'm very happy to have found a good church home here in Omaha. And eventually, when Dane gets a more regular schedule with school, I'll drag him along with me as well. For now, I kind of enjoy my hour of sitting in church by myself :)
I'm working on my cooking skills and trying out new recipes when I have the energy. Tonight's menu was salmon with wild rice and green beans. Pretty darn yummy for my first shot at fish! I'm going to tweak a few things next time around, but I was pretty proud of it! (My meter for success is how much Dane consumes. Tonight he asked for seconds!)
As of last week I've decided to turn over a new leaf and really embrace Omaha and my life here (don't get me wrong, I'm not genuinely unhappy, I've just been whining and bitching and it's kind of made me grumpy). So I'm planning on adding a work out into my morning to start my day off on the right foot and stay on top of my housework and our finances so I have the time and $ to go out with friends whenever possible. I need to make more of an effort to build my own life here because Dane doesn't have the time or energy to do it with me. I'm going to reach out to the Omaha alumni chapter of Gamma Phi and also try to get more involved in the church here. So here's to my new life plan and hopefully some more menu successes!